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IBM's Teri-is-a-Girl-and-Terry-is-a-Boy Patent
theodp writes "The USPTO has granted IBM a patent for utilizing naming conventions to assign gender-based avatars for instant messaging. A user named Teri, IBM explains, would be given a girl avatar, while a user named Terry would be provided with a boy avatar. The three IBM 'inventors' were stymied by users named Pat, who as a result will be assigned a 'generic, genderless human figure image as his or her avatar.' Way to honor that significant-technical-content patent pledge, Big Blue!"
Oh deer ... we never thought of that.
D'oe
Either way, Hua sounds feminine to me.
You haven't seen many films about US marines, have you?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Your mother is so Terry, IBM thought she was a man!
Apparently IBM is in a big hurry to start offending people by misrepresenting their genders.
A gay furry.
The application says "anthroponomastic", not "anthropomorphic"! Get it right!
Doesn't matter. Anyone who calls himself "Legolas", l33t-crypted or not, deserves a gay furry avatar[0], and I'll stand by that assertion until the day I die.
[0] Unless his parents gave him that name. Then he can be forgiven if he goes Menendez.
Even then, assigning a male avatar is probably still a safe bet.
...or so I hear.
I always thought the marines were a bit dyslexic.
Doesn't matter. Anyone who can recognise "Legolas", l33t-crypted like that, deserves a gay furry avatar[0], and I'll stand by that assertion until the day I die.
[0] Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Why didn't they patent gender assignment by semicolon detection?
How about Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine The Hulk And The Flash Combined?
Wouldn't it just be easier to look at the browser cache to see if the user is male...?
Both my wife and I are named Terry, and yes, she took my last name. The running joke is that I get all the bills, and she gets all the cheques.