4 ms·

Serious question. Am I completely old-fashioned for not expecting the word ass to appear in a professional article? Am I, a mature professional, not the target

Serious question. Am I completely old-fashioned for not expecting the word ass to appear in a professional article? Am I, a mature professional, not the target audience for this laptop or for this article? Who else would such a laptop be targeted at?

diggan 1y ago
For context: > The other audible quirk is the ThinkBook’s “you’re doing it wrong” alarm: If you start closing the lid with the screen extended, or you move the screen while it’s rolling, the laptop emits a high-pitched tone. It’s the most 90s-motherboard-ass thing I’ve heard in a long time, but I find its needling sound oddly charming. Would I expect to read this in a corporate press release? Not really. Would I expect to find some author trying to be a bit funny in a Verge article? Probably. Is it borderline offensive? I don't think so, wouldn't even think about it unless I read this comment first.
- dotancohen 1y ago
  As someone who actually was putting components on motherboards in the '90s, and even had replaced some capacitors on motherboards in the '90s, I see I'm not the target audience for the article at least. He probably should have saved the profanity for an analogy that his target audience could relate to.
- aidenn0 1y ago
  > It’s the most 90s-motherboard-ass thing I’ve heard in a long time I'm not really bothered by the profanity, but WTF does "90s-motherboard-ass" even mean as a modifier for a noun?
Mountain_Skies 1y ago
The Fuddruckers sequence in Idiocracy comes to mind. Beyond the mainstreaming of what was previously perceived as profanity, it also seems that punctuation and capitalization are slowly on their way out.
volemo 1y ago
I mean, Verge is entertainment, not some academically inclined publishing house. And IMHO the word "ass" has long lost its weight as an offensive or even a "strong" one. It's just ass — we all have 'em. :-)
rs186 1y ago
You can be sure you won't ever see this word in nytimes, WSJ or even CNET, but the Verge is not one of them (and to my understanding, founded partly because the founders didn't want to be part of legacy media).

diggan 1y ago

For context: > The other audible quirk is the ThinkBook’s “you’re doing it wrong” alarm: If you start closing the lid with the screen extended, or you move the screen while it’s rolling, the laptop emits a high-pitched tone. It’s the most 90s-motherboard-ass thing I’ve heard in a long time, but I find its needling sound oddly charming. Would I expect to read this in a corporate press release? Not really. Would I expect to find some author trying to be a bit funny in a Verge article? Probably. Is it borderline offensive? I don't think so, wouldn't even think about it unless I read this comment first.

dotancohen 1y ago
As someone who actually was putting components on motherboards in the '90s, and even had replaced some capacitors on motherboards in the '90s, I see I'm not the target audience for the article at least. He probably should have saved the profanity for an analogy that his target audience could relate to.
aidenn0 1y ago
> It’s the most 90s-motherboard-ass thing I’ve heard in a long time I'm not really bothered by the profanity, but WTF does "90s-motherboard-ass" even mean as a modifier for a noun?

Mountain_Skies 1y ago

The Fuddruckers sequence in Idiocracy comes to mind. Beyond the mainstreaming of what was previously perceived as profanity, it also seems that punctuation and capitalization are slowly on their way out.

volemo 1y ago

I mean, Verge is entertainment, not some academically inclined publishing house. And IMHO the word "ass" has long lost its weight as an offensive or even a "strong" one. It's just ass — we all have 'em. :-)

rs186 1y ago

You can be sure you won't ever see this word in nytimes, WSJ or even CNET, but the Verge is not one of them (and to my understanding, founded partly because the founders didn't want to be part of legacy media).