The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 / Various
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Title: The New Hacker's Dictionary version 4.2.2
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Node:Top, Next:[2]Introduction, Previous:[3](dir), Up:[4](dir)
#======= THIS IS THE JARGON FILE, VERSION 4.2.2, 20 AUG 2000 =======#
This is the Jargon File, a comprehensive compendium of hacker slang
illuminating many aspects of hackish tradition, folklore, and humor.
This document (the Jargon File) is in the public domain, to be freely
used, shared, and modified. There are (by intention) no legal
restraints on what you can do with it, but there are traditions about
its proper use to which many hackers are quite strongly attached.
Please extend the courtesy of proper citation when you quote the File,
ideally with a version number, as it will change and grow over time.
(Examples of appropriate citation form: "Jargon File 4.2.2" or "The
on-line hacker Jargon File, version 4.2.2, 20 AUG 2000".)
The Jargon File is a common heritage of the hacker culture. Over the
years a number of individuals have volunteered considerable time to
maintaining the File and been recognized by the net at large as
editors of it. Editorial responsibilities include: to collate
contributions and suggestions from others; to seek out corroborating
information; to cross-reference related entries; to keep the file in a
consistent format; and to announce and distribute updated versions
periodically. Current volunteer editors include:
Eric Raymond [5]esr@snark.thyrsus.com
Although there is no requirement that you do so, it is considered good
form to check with an editor before quoting the File in a published
work or commercial product. We may have additional information that
would be helpful to you and can assist you in framing your quote to
reflect not only the letter of the File but its spirit as well.
All contributions and suggestions about this file sent to a volunteer
editor are gratefully received and will be regarded, unless otherwise
labelled, as freely given donations for possible use as part of this
public-domain file.
From time to time a snapshot of this file has been polished, edited,
and formatted for commercial publication with the cooperation of the
volunteer editors and the hacker community at large. If you wish to
have a bound paper copy of this file, you may find it convenient to
purchase one of these. They often contain additional material not
found in on-line versions. The two `authorized' editions so far are
described in the Revision History section; there may be more in the
future.
* [6]Introduction: The purpose and scope of this File
* [7]A Few Terms: Of Slang, Jargon and Techspeak
* [8]Revision History: How the File came to be
* [9]Jargon Construction: How hackers invent jargon
* [10]Hacker Writing Style: How they write
* [11]Email Quotes: And the Inclusion Problem
* [12]Hacker Speech Style: How hackers talk
* [13]International Style: Some notes on usage outside the U.S.
* [14]Lamer-speak: Crackers, Phreaks, and Lamers
* [15]Pronunciation Guide: How to read the pronunciation keys
* [16]Other Lexicon Conventions: How to read lexicon entries
* [17]Format for New Entries: How to submit new entries for the File
* [18]The Jargon Lexicon: The lexicon itself
* [19]Appendix A: Hacker Folklore
* [20]Appendix B: A Portrait of J. Random Hacker
* [21]Appendix C: Helping Hacker Culture Grow
* [22]Bibliography: For your further enjoyment
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Introduction, Next:[23]A Few Terms, Previous:[24]Top, Up:[25]Top
Introduction
This document is a collection of slang terms used by various
subcultures of computer hackers. Though some technical material is
included for background and flavor, it is not a technical dictionary;
what we describe here is the language hackers use among themselves for
fun, social communication, and technical debate.
The `hacker culture' is actually a loosely networked collection of
subcultures that is nevertheless conscious of some important shared
experiences, shared roots, and shared values. It has its own myths,
heroes, villains, folk epics, in-jokes, taboos, and dreams. Because
hackers as a group are particularly creative people who define
themselves partly by rejection of `normal' values and working habits,
it has unusually rich and conscious traditions for an intentional
culture less than 40 years old.
As usual with slang, the special vocabulary of hackers helps hold
their culture together -- it helps hackers recognize each other's
places in the community and expresses shared values and experiences.
Also as usual, not knowing the slang (or using it inappropriately)
defines one as an outsider, a mundane, or (worst of all in hackish
vocabulary) possibly even a [26]suit. All human cultures use slang in
this threefold way -- as a tool of communication, and of inclusion,
and of exclusion.
Among hackers, though, slang has a subtler aspect, paralleled perhaps
in the slang of jazz musicians and some kinds of fine artists but hard
to detect in most technical or scientific cultures; parts of it are
code for shared states of consciousness. There is a whole range of
altered states and problem-solving mental stances basic to high-level
hacking which don't fit into conventional linguistic reality any
better than a Coltrane solo or one of Maurits Escher's `trompe l'oeil'
compositions (Escher is a favorite of hackers), and hacker slang
encodes these subtleties in many unobvious ways. As a simple example,
take the distinction between a [27]kluge and an [28]elegant solution,
and the differing connotations attached to each. The distinction is
not only of engineering significance; it reaches right back into the
nature of the generative processes in program design and asserts
something important about two different kinds of relationship between
the hacker and the hack. Hacker slang is unusually rich in
implications of this kind, of overtones and undertones that illuminate
the hackish psyche.
But there is more. Hackers, as a rule, love wordplay and are very
conscious and inventive in their use of language. These traits seem to
be common in young children, but the conformity-enforcing machine we
are pleased to call an educational system bludgeons them out of most
of us before adolescence. Thus, linguistic invention in most
subcultures of the modern West is a halting and largely unconscious
process. Hackers, by contrast, regard slang formation and use as a
game to be played for conscious pleasure. Their inventions thus
display an almost unique combination of the neotenous enjoyment of
language-play with the discrimination of educated and powerful
intelligence. Further, the electronic media which knit them together
are fluid, `hot' connections, well adapted to both the dissemination
of new slang and the ruthless culling of weak and superannuated
specimens. The results of this process give us perhaps a uniquely
intense and accelerated view of linguistic evolution in action.
Hacker slang also challenges some common linguistic and
anthropological assumptions. For example, it has recently become
fashionable to speak of `low-context' versus `high-context'
communication, and to classify cultures by the preferred context level
of their languages and art forms. It is usually claimed that
low-context communication (characterized by precision, clarity, and
completeness of self-contained utterances) is typical in cultures
which value logic, objectivity, individualism, and competition; by
contrast, high-context communication (elliptical, emotive,
nuance-filled, multi-modal, heavily coded) is associated with cultures
which value subjectivity, consensus, cooperation, and tradition. What
then are we to make of hackerdom, which is themed around extremely
low-context interaction with computers and exhibits primarily
"low-context" values, but cultivates an almost absurdly high-context
slang style?
The intensity and consciousness of hackish invention make a
compilation of hacker slang a particularly effective window into the
surrounding culture -- and, in fact, this one is the latest version of
an evolving compilation called the `Jargon File', maintained by
hackers themselves for over 15 years. This one (like its ancestors) is
primarily a lexicon, but also includes topic entries which collect
background or sidelight information on hacker culture that would be
awkward to try to subsume under individual slang definitions.
Though the format is that of a reference volume, it is intended that
the material be enjoyable to browse. Even a complete outsider should
find at least a chuckle on nearly every page, and much that is
amusingly thought-provoking. But it is also true that hackers use
humorous wordplay to make strong, sometimes combative statements about
what they feel. Some of these entries reflect the views of opposing
sides in disputes that have been genuinely passionate; this is
deliberate. We have not tried to moderate or pretty up these disputes;
rather we have attempted to ensure that everyone's sacred cows get
gored, impartially. Compromise is not particularly a hackish virtue,
but the honest presentation of divergent viewpoints is.
The reader with minimal computer background who finds some references
incomprehensibly technical can safely ignore them. We have not felt it
either necessary or desirable to eliminate all such; they, too,
contribute flavor, and one of this document's major intended audiences
-- fledgling hackers already partway inside the culture -- will
benefit from them.
A selection of longer items of hacker folklore and humor is included
in [29]Appendix A. The `outside' reader's attention is particularly
directed to the Portrait of J. Random Hacker in [30]Appendix B.
Appendix C, the [31]Bibliography, lists some non-technical works which
have either influenced or described the hacker culture.
Because hackerdom is an intentional culture (one each individual must
choose by action to join), one should not be surprised that the line
between description and influence can become more than a little
blurred. Earlier versions of the Jargon File have played a central
role in spreading hacker language and the culture that goes with it to
successively larger populations, and we hope and expect that this one
will do likewise.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:A Few Terms, Next:[32]Revision History,
Previous:[33]Introduction, Up:[34]Top
Of Slang, Jargon, and Techspeak
Linguists usually refer to informal language as `slang' and reserve
the term `jargon' for the technical vocabularies of various
occupations. However, the ancestor of this collection was called the
`Jargon File', and hacker slang is traditionally `the jargon'. When
talking about the jargon there is therefore no convenient way to
distinguish it from what a linguist would call hackers' jargon -- the
formal vocabulary they learn from textbooks, technical papers, and
manuals.
To make a confused situation worse, the line between hacker slang and
the vocabulary of technical programming and computer science is fuzzy,
and shifts over time. Further, this vocabulary is shared with a wider
technical culture of programmers, many of whom are not hackers and do
not speak or recognize hackish slang.
Accordingly, this lexicon will try to be as precise as the facts of
usage permit about the distinctions among three categories:
* `slang': informal language from mainstream English or
non-technical subcultures (bikers, rock fans, surfers, etc).
* `jargon': without qualifier, denotes informal `slangy' language
peculiar to or predominantly found among hackers -- the subject of
this lexicon.
* `techspeak': the formal technical vocabulary of programming,
computer science, electronics, and other fields connected to
hacking.
This terminology will be consistently used throughout the remainder of
this lexicon.
The jargon/techspeak distinction is the delicate one. A lot of
techspeak originated as jargon, and there is a steady continuing
uptake of jargon into techspeak. On the other hand, a lot of jargon
arises from overgeneralization of techspeak terms (there is more about
this in the [35]Jargon Construction section below).
In general, we have considered techspeak any term that communicates
primarily by a denotation well established in textbooks, technical
dictionaries, or standards documents.
A few obviously techspeak terms (names of operating systems,
languages, or documents) are listed when they are tied to hacker
folklore that isn't covered in formal sources, or sometimes to convey
critical historical background necessary to understand other entries
to which they are cross-referenced. Some other techspeak senses of
jargon words are listed in order to make the jargon senses clear;
where the text does not specify that a straight technical sense is
under discussion, these are marked with `[techspeak]' as an etymology.
Some entries have a primary sense marked this way, with subsequent
jargon meanings explained in terms of it.
We have also tried to indicate (where known) the apparent origins of
terms. The results are probably the least reliable information in the
lexicon, for several reasons. For one thing, it is well known that
many hackish usages have been independently reinvented multiple times,
even among the more obscure and intricate neologisms. It often seems
that the generative processes underlying hackish jargon formation have
an internal logic so powerful as to create substantial parallelism
across separate cultures and even in different languages! For another,
the networks tend to propagate innovations so quickly that `first use'
is often impossible to pin down. And, finally, compendia like this one
alter what they observe by implicitly stamping cultural approval on
terms and widening their use.
Despite these problems, the organized collection of jargon-related
oral history for the new compilations has enabled us to put to rest
quite a number of folk etymologies, place credit where credit is due,
and illuminate the early history of many important hackerisms such as
[36]kluge, [37]cruft, and [38]foo. We believe specialist
lexicographers will find many of the historical notes more than
casually instructive.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Revision History, Next:[39]Jargon Construction, Previous:[40]A
Few Terms, Up:[41]Top
Revision History
The original Jargon File was a collection of hacker jargon from
technical cultures including the MIT AI Lab, the Stanford AI lab
(SAIL), and others of the old ARPANET AI/LISP/PDP-10 communities
including Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN), Carnegie-Mellon University
(CMU), and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).
The Jargon File (hereafter referred to as `jargon-1' or `the File')
was begun by Raphael Finkel at Stanford in 1975. From this time until
the plug was finally pulled on the SAIL computer in 1991, the File was
named AIWORD.RF[UP,DOC] there. Some terms in it date back considerably
earlier ([42]frob and some senses of [43]moby, for instance, go back
to the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT and are believed to date at
least back to the early 1960s). The revisions of jargon-1 were all
unnumbered and may be collectively considered `Version 1'.
In 1976, Mark Crispin, having seen an announcement about the File on
the SAIL computer, [44]FTPed a copy of the File to MIT. He noticed
that it was hardly restricted to `AI words' and so stored the file on
his directory as AI:MRC;SAIL JARGON.
The file was quickly renamed JARGON > (the `>' caused versioning under
ITS) as a flurry of enhancements were made by Mark Crispin and Guy L.
Steele Jr. Unfortunately, amidst all this activity, nobody thought of
correcting the term `jargon' to `slang' until the compendium had
already become widely known as the Jargon File.
Raphael Finkel dropped out of active participation shortly thereafter
and Don Woods became the SAIL contact for the File (which was
subsequently kept in duplicate at SAIL and MIT, with periodic
resynchronizations).
The File expanded by fits and starts until about 1983; Richard
Stallman was prominent among the contributors, adding many MIT and
ITS-related coinages.
In Spring 1981, a hacker named Charles Spurgeon got a large chunk of
the File published in Stewart Brand's "CoEvolution Quarterly" (issue
29, pages 26-35) with illustrations by Phil Wadler and Guy Steele
(including a couple of the Crunchly cartoons). This appears to have
been the File's first paper publication.
A late version of jargon-1, expanded with commentary for the mass
market, was edited by Guy Steele into a book published in 1983 as "The
Hacker's Dictionary" (Harper & Row CN 1082, ISBN 0-06-091082-8). The
other jargon-1 editors (Raphael Finkel, Don Woods, and Mark Crispin)
contributed to this revision, as did Richard M. Stallman and Geoff
Goodfellow. This book (now out of print) is hereafter referred to as
`Steele-1983' and those six as the Steele-1983 coauthors.
Shortly after the publication of Steele-1983, the File effectively
stopped growing and changing. Originally, this was due to a desire to
freeze the file temporarily to facilitate the production of
Steele-1983, but external conditions caused the `temporary' freeze to
become permanent.
The AI Lab culture had been hit hard in the late 1970s by funding cuts
and the resulting administrative decision to use vendor-supported
hardware and software instead of homebrew whenever possible. At MIT,
most AI work had turned to dedicated LISP Machines. At the same time,
the commercialization of AI technology lured some of the AI Lab's best
and brightest away to startups along the Route 128 strip in
Massachusetts and out West in Silicon Valley. The startups built LISP
machines for MIT; the central MIT-AI computer became a [45]TWENEX
system rather than a host for the AI hackers' beloved [46]ITS.
The Stanford AI Lab had effectively ceased to exist by 1980, although
the SAIL computer continued as a Computer Science Department resource
until 1991. Stanford became a major [47]TWENEX site, at one point
operating more than a dozen TOPS-20 systems; but by the mid-1980s most
of the interesting software work was being done on the emerging BSD
Unix standard.
In April 1983, the PDP-10-centered cultures that had nourished the
File were dealt a death-blow by the cancellation of the Jupiter
project at Digital Equipment Corporation. The File's compilers,
already dispersed, moved on to other things. Steele-1983 was partly a
monument to what its authors thought was a dying tradition; no one
involved realized at the time just how wide its influence was to be.
By the mid-1980s the File's content was dated, but the legend that had
grown up around it never quite died out. The book, and softcopies
obtained off the ARPANET, circulated even in cultures far removed from
MIT and Stanford; the content exerted a strong and continuing
influence on hacker language and humor. Even as the advent of the
microcomputer and other trends fueled a tremendous expansion of
hackerdom, the File (and related materials such as the [48]Some AI
Koans in Appendix A) came to be seen as a sort of sacred epic, a
hacker-culture Matter of Britain chronicling the heroic exploits of
the Knights of the Lab. The pace of change in hackerdom at large
accelerated tremendously -- but the Jargon File, having passed from
living document to icon, remained essentially untouched for seven
years.
This revision contains nearly the entire text of a late version of
jargon-1 (a few obsolete PDP-10-related entries were dropped after
careful consultation with the editors of Steele-1983). It merges in
about 80% of the Steele-1983 text, omitting some framing material and
a very few entries introduced in Steele-1983 that are now also
obsolete.
This new version casts a wider net than the old Jargon File; its aim
is to cover not just AI or PDP-10 hacker culture but all the technical
computing cultures wherein the true hacker-nature is manifested. More
than half of the entries now derive from [49]Usenet and represent
jargon now current in the C and Unix communities, but special efforts
have been made to collect jargon from other cultures including IBM PC
programmers, Amiga fans, Mac enthusiasts, and even the IBM mainframe
world.
Eric S. Raymond [50]<esr@snark.thyrsus.com> maintains the new File
with assistance from Guy L. Steele Jr. [51]<gls@think.com>; these are
the persons primarily reflected in the File's editorial `we', though
we take pleasure in acknowledging the special contribution of the
other coauthors of Steele-1983. Please email all additions,
corrections, and correspondence relating to the Jargon File to
[52]jargon@thyrsus.com.
(Warning: other email addresses appear in this file but are not
guaranteed to be correct later than the revision date on the first
line. Don't email us if an attempt to reach your idol bounces -- we
have no magic way of checking addresses or looking up people.)
The 2.9.6 version became the main text of "The New Hacker's
Dictionary", by Eric Raymond (ed.), MIT Press 1991, ISBN
0-262-68069-6.
The 3.0.0 version was published in September 1993 as the second
edition of "The New Hacker's Dictionary", again from MIT Press (ISBN
0-262-18154-1).
If you want the book, you should be able to find it at any of the
major bookstore chains. Failing that, you can order by mail from
The MIT Press 55 Hayward Street Cambridge, MA 02142
or order by phone at (800)-356-0343 or (617)-625-8481.
The maintainers are committed to updating the on-line version of the
Jargon File through and beyond paper publication, and will continue to
make it available to archives and public-access sites as a trust of
the hacker community.
Here is a chronology of the high points in the recent on-line
revisions:
Version 2.1.1, Jun 12 1990: the Jargon File comes alive again after a
seven-year hiatus. Reorganization and massive additions were by Eric
S. Raymond, approved by Guy Steele. Many items of UNIX, C, USENET, and
microcomputer-based jargon were added at that time.
Version 2.9.6, Aug 16 1991: corresponds to reproduction copy for book.
This version had 18952 lines, 148629 words, 975551 characters, and
1702 entries.
Version 2.9.7, Oct 28 1991: first markup for hypertext browser. This
version had 19432 lines, 152132 words, 999595 characters, and 1750
entries.
Version 2.9.8, Jan 01 1992: first public release since the book,
including over fifty new entries and numerous corrections/additions to
old ones. Packaged with version 1.1 of vh(1) hypertext reader. This
version had 19509 lines, 153108 words, 1006023 characters, and 1760
entries.
Version 2.9.9, Apr 01 1992: folded in XEROX PARC lexicon. This version
had 20298 lines, 159651 words, 1048909 characters, and 1821 entries.
Version 2.9.10, Jul 01 1992: lots of new historical material. This
version had 21349 lines, 168330 words, 1106991 characters, and 1891
entries.
Version 2.9.11, Jan 01 1993: lots of new historical material. This
version had 21725 lines, 171169 words, 1125880 characters, and 1922
entries.
Version 2.9.12, May 10 1993: a few new entries & changes, marginal
MUD/IRC slang and some borderline techspeak removed, all in
preparation for 2nd Edition of TNHD. This version had 22238 lines,
175114 words, 1152467 characters, and 1946 entries.
Version 3.0.0, Jul 27 1993: manuscript freeze for 2nd edition of TNHD.
This version had 22548 lines, 177520 words, 1169372 characters, and
1961 entries.
Version 3.1.0, Oct 15 1994: interim release to test WWW conversion.
This version had 23197 lines, 181001 words, 1193818 characters, and
1990 entries.
Version 3.2.0, Mar 15 1995: Spring 1995 update. This version had 23822
lines, 185961 words, 1226358 characters, and 2031 entries.
Version 3.3.0, Jan 20 1996: Winter 1996 update. This version had 24055
lines, 187957 words, 1239604 characters, and 2045 entries.
Version 3.3.1, Jan 25 1996: Copy-corrected improvement on 3.3.0
shipped to MIT Press as a step towards TNHD III. This version had
24147 lines, 188728 words, 1244554 characters, and 2050 entries.
Version 3.3.2, Mar 20 1996: A number of new entries pursuant on 3.3.2.
This version had 24442 lines, 190867 words, 1262468 characters, and
2061 entries.
Version 3.3.3, Mar 25 1996: Cleanup before TNHD III manuscript freeze.
This version had 24584 lines, 191932 words, 1269996 characters, and
2064 entries.
Version 4.0.0, Jul 25 1996: The actual TNHD III version after
copy-edit. This version had 24801 lines, 193697 words, 1281402
characters, and 2067 entries.
Version 4.1.0, 8 Apr 1999: The Jargon File rides again after three
years. This version had 25777 lines, 206825 words, 1359992 characters,
and 2217 entries.
Version 4.1.1, 18 Apr 1999: Corrections for minor errors in 4.1.0, and
some new entries. This version had 25921 lines, 208483 words, 1371279
characters, and 2225 entries.
Version 4.1.2, 28 Apr 1999: Moving texi2html out of the production
path. This version had 26006 lines, 209479 words, 1377687 characters,
and 2225 entries.
Version 4.1.3, 14 Jun 1999: Minor updates and markup fixes. This
version had 26108 lines, 210480 words, 1384546 characters, and 2234
entries.
Version 4.1.4, 17 Jun 1999: Markup fixes for framed HTML. This version
had 26117 lines, 210527 words, 1384902 characters, and 2234 entries.
Version 4.2.0, 31 Jan 2000: Fix processing of URLs. This version had
26598 lines, 214639 words, 1412243 characters, and 2267 entries.
Version 4.2.1, 5 Mar 2000: Point release to test new production
machinery. This version had 26647 lines, 215040 words, 1414942
characters, and 2269 entries.
Version 4.2.2, 12 Aug 2000: This version had 27171 lines, 219630
words, 1444887 characters, and 2302 entries.
Version numbering: Version numbers should be read as
major.minor.revision. Major version 1 is reserved for the `old' (ITS)
Jargon File, jargon-1. Major version 2 encompasses revisions by ESR
(Eric S. Raymond) with assistance from GLS (Guy L. Steele, Jr.)
leading up to and including the second paper edition. From now on,
major version number N.00 will probably correspond to the Nth paper
edition. Usually later versions will either completely supersede or
incorporate earlier versions, so there is generally no point in
keeping old versions around.
Our thanks to the coauthors of Steele-1983 for oversight and
assistance, and to the hundreds of Usenetters (too many to name here)
who contributed entries and encouragement. More thanks go to several
of the old-timers on the Usenet group alt.folklore.computers, who
contributed much useful commentary and many corrections and valuable
historical perspective: Joseph M. Newcomer [53]<jn11+@andrew.cmu.edu>,
Bernie Cosell [54]<cosell@bbn.com>, Earl Boebert
[55]<boebert@SCTC.com>, and Joe Morris
[56]<jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org>.
We were fortunate enough to have the aid of some accomplished
linguists. David Stampe [57]<stampe@hawaii.edu> and Charles Hoequist
[58]<hoequist@bnr.ca> contributed valuable criticism; Joe Keane
[59]<jgk@osc.osc.com> helped us improve the pronunciation guides.
A few bits of this text quote previous works. We are indebted to Brian
A. LaMacchia [60]<bal@zurich.ai.mit.edu> for obtaining permission for
us to use material from the "TMRC Dictionary"; also, Don Libes
[61]<libes@cme.nist.gov> contributed some appropriate material from
his excellent book "Life With UNIX". We thank Per Lindberg
[62]<per@front.se>, author of the remarkable Swedish-language 'zine
"Hackerbladet", for bringing "FOO!" comics to our attention and
smuggling one of the IBM hacker underground's own baby jargon files
out to us. Thanks also to Maarten Litmaath for generously allowing the
inclusion of the ASCII pronunciation guide he formerly maintained. And
our gratitude to Marc Weiser of XEROX PARC
[63]<Marc_Weiser.PARC@xerox.com> for securing us permission to quote
from PARC's own jargon lexicon and shipping us a copy.
It is a particular pleasure to acknowledge the major contributions of
Mark Brader [64]<msb@sq.com> and Steve Summit [65]<scs@eskimo.com> to
the File and Dictionary; they have read and reread many drafts,
checked facts, caught typos, submitted an amazing number of thoughtful
comments, and done yeoman service in catching typos and minor usage
bobbles. Their rare combination of enthusiasm, persistence,
wide-ranging technical knowledge, and precisionism in matters of
language has been of invaluable help. Indeed, the sustained volume and
quality of Mr. Brader's input over several years and several different
editions has only allowed him to escape co-editor credit by the
slimmest of margins.
Finally, George V. Reilly [66]<georgere@microsoft.com> helped with TeX
arcana and painstakingly proofread some 2.7 and 2.8 versions, and Eric
Tiedemann [67]<est@thyrsus.com> contributed sage advice throughout on
rhetoric, amphigory, and philosophunculism.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Jargon Construction, Next:[68]Hacker Writing Style,
Previous:[69]Revision History, Up:[70]Top
How Jargon Works
Jargon Construction
There are some standard methods of jargonification that became
established quite early (i.e., before 1970), spreading from such
sources as the Tech Model Railroad Club, the PDP-1 SPACEWAR hackers,
and John McCarthy's original crew of LISPers. These include verb
doubling, soundalike slang, the `-P' convention, overgeneralization,
spoken inarticulations, and anthropomorphization. Each is discussed
below. We also cover the standard comparatives for design quality.
Of these six, verb doubling, overgeneralization, anthropomorphization,
and (especially) spoken inarticulations have become quite general; but
soundalike slang is still largely confined to MIT and other large
universities, and the `-P' convention is found only where LISPers
flourish.
* [71]Verb Doubling: Doubling a verb may change its semantics
* [72]Soundalike Slang: Punning jargon
* [73]The -P convention: A LISPy way to form questions
* [74]Overgeneralization: Standard abuses of grammar
* [75]Spoken Inarticulations: Sighing and <*sigh*>ing
* [76]Anthropomorphization: Homunculi, daemons, and confused
programs
* [77]Comparatives: Standard comparatives for design quality
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Verb Doubling, Next:[78]Soundalike Slang, Up:[79]Jargon
Construction
Verb Doubling
A standard construction in English is to double a verb and use it as
an exclamation, such as "Bang, bang!" or "Quack, quack!". Most of
these are names for noises. Hackers also double verbs as a concise,
sometimes sarcastic comment on what the implied subject does. Also, a
doubled verb is often used to terminate a conversation, in the process
remarking on the current state of affairs or what the speaker intends
to do next. Typical examples involve [80]win, [81]lose, [82]hack,
[83]flame, [84]barf, [85]chomp:
"The disk heads just crashed." "Lose, lose."
"Mostly he talked about his latest crock. Flame, flame."
"Boy, what a bagbiter! Chomp, chomp!"
Some verb-doubled constructions have special meanings not immediately
obvious from the verb. These have their own listings in the lexicon.
The [86]Usenet culture has one tripling convention unrelated to this;
the names of `joke' topic groups often have a tripled last element.
The first and paradigmatic example was alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork
(a "Muppet Show" reference); other infamous examples have included:
alt.french.captain.borg.borg.borg
alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die
comp.unix.internals.system.calls.brk.brk.brk
sci.physics.edward.teller.boom.boom.boom
alt.sadistic.dentists.drill.drill.drill
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Soundalike Slang, Next:[87]The -P convention, Previous:[88]Verb
Doubling, Up:[89]Jargon Construction
Soundalike slang
Hackers will often make rhymes or puns in order to convert an ordinary
word or phrase into something more interesting. It is considered
particularly [90]flavorful if the phrase is bent so as to include some
other jargon word; thus the computer hobbyist magazine "Dr. Dobb's
Journal" is almost always referred to among hackers as `Dr. Frob's
Journal' or simply `Dr. Frob's'. Terms of this kind that have been in
fairly wide use include names for newspapers:
Boston Herald => Horrid (or Harried)
Boston Globe => Boston Glob
Houston (or San Francisco) Chronicle
=> the Crocknicle (or the Comical)
New York Times => New York Slime
Wall Street Journal => Wall Street Urinal
However, terms like these are often made up on the spur of the moment.
Standard examples include:
Data General => Dirty Genitals
IBM 360 => IBM Three-Sickly
Government Property --- Do Not Duplicate (on keys)
=> Government Duplicity --- Do Not Propagate
for historical reasons => for hysterical raisins
Margaret Jacks Hall (the CS building at Stanford)
=> Marginal Hacks Hall
Microsoft => Microsloth
Internet Explorer => Internet Exploiter
This is not really similar to the Cockney rhyming slang it has been
compared to in the past, because Cockney substitutions are opaque
whereas hacker punning jargon is intentionally transparent.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:The -P convention, Next:[91]Overgeneralization,
Previous:[92]Soundalike Slang, Up:[93]Jargon Construction
The `-P' convention
Turning a word into a question by appending the syllable `P'; from the
LISP convention of appending the letter `P' to denote a predicate (a
boolean-valued function). The question should expect a yes/no answer,
though it needn't. (See [94]T and [95]NIL.)
At dinnertime:
Q: ``Foodp?''
A: ``Yeah, I'm pretty hungry.'' or ``T!''
At any time:
Q: ``State-of-the-world-P?''
A: (Straight) ``I'm about to go home.''
A: (Humorous) ``Yes, the world has a state.''
On the phone to Florida:
Q: ``State-p Florida?''
A: ``Been reading JARGON.TXT again, eh?''
[One of the best of these is a [96]Gosperism. Once, when we were at a
Chinese restaurant, Bill Gosper wanted to know whether someone would
like to share with him a two-person-sized bowl of soup. His inquiry
was: "Split-p soup?" -- GLS]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Overgeneralization, Next:[97]Spoken Inarticulations,
Previous:[98]The -P convention, Up:[99]Jargon Construction
Overgeneralization
A very conspicuous feature of jargon is the frequency with which
techspeak items such as names of program tools, command language
primitives, and even assembler opcodes are applied to contexts outside
of computing wherever hackers find amusing analogies to them. Thus (to
cite one of the best-known examples) Unix hackers often [100]grep for
things rather than searching for them. Many of the lexicon entries are
generalizations of exactly this kind.
Hackers enjoy overgeneralization on the grammatical level as well.
Many hackers love to take various words and add the wrong endings to
them to make nouns and verbs, often by extending a standard rule to
nonuniform cases (or vice versa). For example, because
porous => porosity
generous => generosity
hackers happily generalize:
mysterious => mysteriosity
ferrous => ferrosity
obvious => obviosity
dubious => dubiosity
Another class of common construction uses the suffix `-itude' to
abstract a quality from just about any adjective or noun. This usage
arises especially in cases where mainstream English would perform the
same abstraction through `-iness' or `-ingness'. Thus:
win => winnitude (a common exclamation)
loss => lossitude
cruft => cruftitude
lame => lameitude
Some hackers cheerfully reverse this transformation; they argue, for
example, that the horizontal degree lines on a globe ought to be
called `lats' -- after all, they're measuring latitude!
Also, note that all nouns can be verbed. E.g.: "All nouns can be
verbed", "I'll mouse it up", "Hang on while I clipboard it over", "I'm
grepping the files". English as a whole is already heading in this
direction (towards pure-positional grammar like Chinese); hackers are
simply a bit ahead of the curve.
The suffix "-full" can also be applied in generalized and fanciful
ways, as in "As soon as you have more than one cachefull of data, the
system starts thrashing," or "As soon as I have more than one headfull
of ideas, I start writing it all down." A common use is "screenfull",
meaning the amount of text that will fit on one screen, usually in
text mode where you have no choice as to character size. Another
common form is "bufferfull".
However, hackers avoid the unimaginative verb-making techniques
characteristic of marketroids, bean-counters, and the Pentagon; a
hacker would never, for example, `productize', `prioritize', or
`securitize' things. Hackers have a strong aversion to bureaucratic
bafflegab and regard those who use it with contempt.
Similarly, all verbs can be nouned. This is only a slight
overgeneralization in modern English; in hackish, however, it is good
form to mark them in some standard nonstandard way. Thus:
win => winnitude, winnage
disgust => disgustitude
hack => hackification
Further, note the prevalence of certain kinds of nonstandard plural
forms. Some of these go back quite a ways; the TMRC Dictionary
includes an entry which implies that the plural of `mouse' is
[101]meeces, and notes that the defined plural of `caboose' is
`cabeese'. This latter has apparently been standard (or at least a
standard joke) among railfans (railroad enthusiasts) for many years.
On a similarly Anglo-Saxon note, almost anything ending in `x' may
form plurals in `-xen' (see [102]VAXen and [103]boxen in the main
text). Even words ending in phonetic /k/ alone are sometimes treated
this way; e.g., `soxen' for a bunch of socks. Other funny plurals are
`frobbotzim' for the plural of `frobbozz' (see [104]frobnitz) and
`Unices' and `Twenices' (rather than `Unixes' and `Twenexes'; see
[105]Unix, [106]TWENEX in main text). But note that `Twenexen' was
never used, and `Unixen' was not sighted in the wild until the year
2000, thirty years after it might logically have come into use; it has
been suggested that this is because `-ix' and `-ex' are Latin singular
endings that attract a Latinate plural. Finally, it has been suggested
to general approval that the plural of `mongoose' ought to be
`polygoose'.
The pattern here, as with other hackish grammatical quirks, is
generalization of an inflectional rule that in English is either an
import or a fossil (such as the Hebrew plural ending `-im', or the
Anglo-Saxon plural suffix `-en') to cases where it isn't normally
considered to apply.
This is not `poor grammar', as hackers are generally quite well aware
of what they are doing when they distort the language. It is
grammatical creativity, a form of playfulness. It is done not to
impress but to amuse, and never at the expense of clarity.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Spoken Inarticulations, Next:[107]Anthropomorphization,
Previous:[108]Overgeneralization, Up:[109]Jargon Construction
Spoken inarticulations
Words such as `mumble', `sigh', and `groan' are spoken in places where
their referent might more naturally be used. It has been suggested
that this usage derives from the impossibility of representing such
noises on a comm link or in electronic mail, MUDs, and IRC channels
(interestingly, the same sorts of constructions have been showing up
with increasing frequency in comic strips). Another expression
sometimes heard is "Complain!", meaning "I have a complaint!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Anthropomorphization, Next:[110]Comparatives,
Previous:[111]Spoken Inarticulations, Up:[112]Jargon Construction
Anthropomorphization
Semantically, one rich source of jargon constructions is the hackish
tendency to anthropomorphize hardware and software. English purists
and academic computer scientists frequently look down on others for
anthropomorphizing hardware and software, considering this sort of
behavior to be characteristic of naive misunderstanding. But most
hackers anthropomorphize freely, frequently describing program
behavior in terms of wants and desires.
Thus it is common to hear hardware or software talked about as though
it has homunculi talking to each other inside it, with intentions and
desires. Thus, one hears "The protocol handler got confused", or that
programs "are trying" to do things, or one may say of a routine that
"its goal in life is to X". One even hears explanations like "... and
its poor little brain couldn't understand X, and it died." Sometimes
modelling things this way actually seems to make them easier to
understand, perhaps because it's instinctively natural to think of
anything with a really complex behavioral repertoire as `like a
person' rather than `like a thing'.
At first glance, to anyone who understands how these programs actually
work, this seems like an absurdity. As hackers are among the people
who know best how these phenomena work, it seems odd that they would
use language that seemds to ascribe conciousness to them. The mind-set
behind this tendency thus demands examination.
The key to understanding this kind of usage is that it isn't done in a
naive way; hackers don't personalize their stuff in the sense of
feeling empathy with it, nor do they mystically believe that the
things they work on every day are `alive'. To the contrary: hackers
who anthropomorphize are expressing not a vitalistic view of program
behavior but a mechanistic view of human behavior.
Almost all hackers subscribe to the mechanistic, materialistic
ontology of science (this is in practice true even of most of the
minority with contrary religious theories). In this view, people are
biological machines - consciousness is an interesting and valuable
epiphenomenon, but mind is implemented in machinery which is not
fundamentally different in information-processing capacity from
computers.
Hackers tend to take this a step further and argue that the difference
between a substrate of CHON atoms and water and a substrate of silicon
and metal is a relatively unimportant one; what matters, what makes a
thing `alive', is information and richness of pattern. This is animism
from the flip side; it implies that humans and computers and dolphins
and rocks are all machines exhibiting a continuum of modes of
`consciousness' according to their information-processing capacity.
Because hackers accept a that a human machine can have intentions, it
is therefore easy for them to ascribe consciousness and intention to
complex patterned systems such as computers. If consciousness is
mechanical, it is neither more or less absurd to say that "The program
wants to go into an infinite loop" than it is to say that "I want to
go eat some chocolate" - and even defensible to say that "The stone,
once dropped, wants to move towards the center of the earth".
This viewpoint has respectable company in academic philosophy. Daniel
Dennett organizes explanations of behavior using three stances: the
"physical stance" (thing-to-be-explained as a physical object), the
"design stance" (thing-to-be-explained as an artifact), and the
"intentional stance" (thing-to-be-explained as an agent with desires
and intentions). Which stances are appropriate is a matter not of
truth but of utility. Hackers typically view simple programs from the
design stance, but more complex ones are modelled using the
intentional stance.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Comparatives, Previous:[113]Anthropomorphization, Up:[114]Jargon
Construction
Comparatives
Finally, note that many words in hacker jargon have to be understood
as members of sets of comparatives. This is especially true of the
adjectives and nouns used to describe the beauty and functional
quality of code. Here is an approximately correct spectrum:
monstrosity brain-damage screw bug lose misfeature
crock kluge hack win feature elegance perfection
The last is spoken of as a mythical absolute, approximated but never
actually attained. Another similar scale is used for describing the
reliability of software:
broken flaky dodgy fragile brittle
solid robust bulletproof armor-plated
Note, however, that `dodgy' is primarily Commonwealth Hackish (it is
rare in the U.S.) and may change places with `flaky' for some
speakers.
Coinages for describing [115]lossage seem to call forth the very
finest in hackish linguistic inventiveness; it has been truly said
that hackers have even more words for equipment failures than Yiddish
has for obnoxious people.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Hacker Writing Style, Next:[116]Email Quotes,
Previous:[117]Jargon Construction, Up:[118]Top
Hacker Writing Style
We've already seen that hackers often coin jargon by overgeneralizing
grammatical rules. This is one aspect of a more general fondness for
form-versus-content language jokes that shows up particularly in
hackish writing. One correspondent reports that he consistently
misspells `wrong' as `worng'. Others have been known to criticize
glitches in Jargon File drafts by observing (in the mode of Douglas
Hofstadter) "This sentence no verb", or "Too repetetetive", or "Bad
speling", or "Incorrectspa cing." Similarly, intentional spoonerisms
are often made of phrases relating to confusion or things that are
confusing; `dain bramage' for `brain damage' is perhaps the most
common (similarly, a hacker would be likely to write "Excuse me, I'm
cixelsyd today", rather than "I'm dyslexic today"). This sort of thing
is quite common and is enjoyed by all concerned.
Hackers tend to use quotes as balanced delimiters like parentheses,
much to the dismay of American editors. Thus, if "Jim is going" is a
phrase, and so are "Bill runs" and "Spock groks", then hackers
generally prefer to write: "Jim is going", "Bill runs", and "Spock
groks". This is incorrect according to standard American usage (which
would put the continuation commas and the final period inside the
string quotes); however, it is counter-intuitive to hackers to
mutilate literal strings with characters that don't belong in them.
Given the sorts of examples that can come up in discussions of
programming, American-style quoting can even be grossly misleading.
When communicating command lines or small pieces of code, extra
characters can be a real pain in the neck.
Consider, for example, a sentence in a [119]vi tutorial that looks
like this:
Then delete a line from the file by typing "dd".
Standard usage would make this
Then delete a line from the file by typing "dd."
but that would be very bad -- because the reader would be prone to
type the string d-d-dot, and it happens that in vi(1) dot repeats the
last command accepted. The net result would be to delete two lines!
The Jargon File follows hackish usage throughout.
Interestingly, a similar style is now preferred practice in Great
Britain, though the older style (which became established for
typographical reasons having to do with the aesthetics of comma and
quotes in typeset text) is still accepted there. "Hart's Rules" and
the "Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors" call the hacker-like
style `new' or `logical' quoting. This returns British English to the
style Latin languages (including Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan)
have been using all along.
Another hacker habit is a tendency to distinguish between `scare'
quotes and `speech' quotes; that is, to use British-style single
quotes for marking and reserve American-style double quotes for actual
reports of speech or text included from elsewhere. Interestingly, some
authorities describe this as correct general usage, but mainstream
American English has gone to using double-quotes indiscriminately
enough that hacker usage appears marked [and, in fact, I thought this
was a personal quirk of mine until I checked with Usenet --ESR]. One
further permutation that is definitely not standard is a hackish
tendency to do marking quotes by using apostrophes (single quotes) in
pairs; that is, 'like this'. This is modelled on string and character
literal syntax in some programming languages (reinforced by the fact
that many character-only terminals display the apostrophe in
typewriter style, as a vertical single quote).
One quirk that shows up frequently in the [120]email style of Unix
hackers in particular is a tendency for some things that are normally
all-lowercase (including usernames and the names of commands and C
routines) to remain uncapitalized even when they occur at the
beginning of sentences. It is clear that, for many hackers, the case
of such identifiers becomes a part of their internal representation
(the `spelling') and cannot be overridden without mental effort (an
appropriate reflex because Unix and C both distinguish cases and
confusing them can lead to [121]lossage). A way of escaping this
dilemma is simply to avoid using these constructions at the beginning
of sentences.
There seems to be a meta-rule behind these nonstandard hackerisms to
the effect that precision of expression is more important than
conformance to traditional rules; where the latter create ambiguity or
lose information they can be discarded without a second thought. It is
notable in this respect that other hackish inventions (for example, in
vocabulary) also tend to carry very precise shades of meaning even
when constructed to appear slangy and loose. In fact, to a hacker, the
contrast between `loose' form and `tight' content in jargon is a
substantial part of its humor!
Hackers have also developed a number of punctuation and emphasis
conventions adapted to single-font all-ASCII communications links, and
these are occasionally carried over into written documents even when
normal means of font changes, underlining, and the like are available.
One of these is that TEXT IN ALL CAPS IS INTERPRETED AS `LOUD', and
this becomes such an ingrained synesthetic reflex that a person who
goes to caps-lock while in [122]talk mode may be asked to "stop
shouting, please, you're hurting my ears!".
Also, it is common to use bracketing with unusual characters to
signify emphasis. The asterisk is most common, as in "What the
*hell*?" even though this interferes with the common use of the
asterisk suffix as a footnote mark. The underscore is also common,
suggesting underlining (this is particularly common with book titles;
for example, "It is often alleged that Joe Haldeman wrote
_The_Forever_War_ as a rebuttal to Robert Heinlein's earlier novel of
the future military, _Starship_Troopers_."). Other forms exemplified
by "=hell=", "\hell/", or "/hell/" are occasionally seen (it's claimed
that in the last example the first slash pushes the letters over to
the right to make them italic, and the second keeps them from falling
over). On FidoNet, you might see #bright# and ^dark^ text, which was
actually interpreted by some reader software. Finally, words may also
be emphasized L I K E T H I S, or by a series of carets (^) under them
on the next line of the text.
There is a semantic difference between *emphasis like this* (which
emphasizes the phrase as a whole), and *emphasis* *like* *this* (which
suggests the writer speaking very slowly and distinctly, as if to a
very young child or a mentally impaired person). Bracketing a word
with the `*' character may also indicate that the writer wishes
readers to consider that an action is taking place or that a sound is
being made. Examples: *bang*, *hic*, *ring*, *grin*, *kick*, *stomp*,
*mumble*.
One might also see the above sound effects as <bang>, <hic>, <ring>,
<grin>, <kick>, <stomp>, <mumble>. This use of angle brackets to mark
their contents originally derives from conventions used in [123]BNF,
but since about 1993 it has been reinforced by the HTML markup used on
the World Wide Web.
Angle-bracket enclosure is also used to indicate that a term stands
for some [124]random member of a larger class (this is straight from
[125]BNF). Examples like the following are common:
So this <ethnic> walks into a bar one day...
There is also an accepted convention for `writing under erasure'; the
text
Be nice to this fool^H^H^H^Hgentleman,
he's visiting from corporate HQ.
reads roughly as "Be nice to this fool, er, gentleman...", with irony
emphasized. The digraph ^H is often used as a print representation for
a backspace, and was actually very visible on old-style printing
terminals. As the text was being composed the characters would be
echoed and printed immediately, and when a correction was made the
backspace keystrokes would be echoed with the string '^H'. Of course,
the final composed text would have no trace of the backspace
characters (or the original erroneous text).
This convention parallels (and may have been influenced by) the ironic
use of `slashouts' in science-fiction fanzines.
A related habit uses editor commands to signify corrections to
previous text. This custom faded in email as more mailers got good
editing capabilities, only to tale on new life on IRCs and other
line-based chat systems.
I've seen that term used on alt.foobar often.
Send it to Erik for the File.
Oops...s/Erik/Eric/.
The s/Erik/Eric/ says "change Erik to Eric in the preceding". This
syntax is borrowed from the Unix editing tools ed and sed, but is
widely recognized by non-Unix hackers as well.
In a formula, * signifies multiplication but two asterisks in a row
are a shorthand for exponentiation (this derives from FORTRAN). Thus,
one might write 2 ** 8 = 256.
Another notation for exponentiation one sees more frequently uses the
caret (^, ASCII 1011110); one might write instead 2^8 = 256. This goes
all the way back to Algol-60, which used the archaic ASCII `up-arrow'
that later became the caret; this was picked up by Kemeny and Kurtz's
original BASIC, which in turn influenced the design of the bc(1) and
dc(1) Unix tools, which have probably done most to reinforce the
convention on Usenet. (TeX math mode also uses ^ for exponention.) The
notation is mildly confusing to C programmers, because ^ means bitwise
exclusive-or in C. Despite this, it was favored 3:1 over ** in a
late-1990 snapshot of Usenet. It is used consistently in this lexicon.
In on-line exchanges, hackers tend to use decimal forms or improper
fractions (`3.5' or `7/2') rather than `typewriter style' mixed
fractions (`3-1/2'). The major motive here is probably that the former
are more readable in a monospaced font, together with a desire to
avoid the risk that the latter might be read as `three minus
one-half'. The decimal form is definitely preferred for fractions with
a terminating decimal representation; there may be some cultural
influence here from the high status of scientific notation.
Another on-line convention, used especially for very large or very
small numbers, is taken from C (which derived it from FORTRAN). This
is a form of `scientific notation' using `e' to replace `*10^'; for
example, one year is about 3e7 seconds long.
The tilde (~) is commonly used in a quantifying sense of
`approximately'; that is, ~50 means `about fifty'.
On Usenet and in the [126]MUD world, common C boolean, logical, and
relational operators such as |, &, ||, &&, !, ==, !=, >, <, >=, and =<
are often combined with English. The Pascal not-equals, <>, is also
recognized, and occasionally one sees /= for not-equals (from Ada,
Common Lisp, and Fortran 90). The use of prefix `!' as a loose synonym
for `not-' or `no-' is particularly common; thus, `!clue' is read
`no-clue' or `clueless'.
A related practice borrows syntax from preferred programming languages
to express ideas in a natural-language text. For example, one might
see the following:
In <jrh578689@thudpucker.com> J. R. Hacker wrote:
>I recently had occasion to field-test the Snafu
>Systems 2300E adaptive gonkulator. The price was
>right, and the racing stripe on the case looked
>kind of neat, but its performance left something
>to be desired.
Yeah, I tried one out too.
#ifdef FLAME
Hasn't anyone told those idiots that you can't get
decent bogon suppression with AFJ filters at today's
net volumes?
#endif /* FLAME */
I guess they figured the price premium for true
frame-based semantic analysis was too high.
Unfortunately, it's also the only workable approach.
I wouldn't recommend purchase of this product unless
you're on a *very* tight budget.
#include <disclaimer.h>
--
== Frank Foonly (Fubarco Systems)
In the above, the #ifdef/#endif pair is a conditional compilation
syntax from C; here, it implies that the text between (which is a
[127]flame) should be evaluated only if you have turned on (or defined
on) the switch FLAME. The #include at the end is C for "include
standard disclaimer here"; the `standard disclaimer' is understood to
read, roughly, "These are my personal opinions and not to be construed
as the official position of my employer."
The top section in the example, with > at the left margin, is an
example of an inclusion convention we'll discuss below.
More recently, following on the huge popularity of the World Wide Web,
pseudo-HTML markup has become popular for similar purposes:
<flame>
Your father was a hamster and your mother smelt of elderberries!
</flame>
You'll even see this with an HTML-style modifier:
<flame intensity="100%">
You seem well-suited for a career in government.
</flame>
Another recent (late 1990s) construction now common on USENET seems to
be borrowed from Perl. It consists of using a dollar sign before an
uppercased form of a word or acronym to suggest any [128]random member
of the class indicated by the word. Thus: `$PHB' means "any random
member of the class `Pointy-Haired Boss'".
Hackers also mix letters and numbers more freely than in mainstream
usage. In particular, it is good hackish style to write a digit
sequence where you intend the reader to understand the text string
that names that number in English. So, hackers prefer to write `1970s'
rather than `nineteen-seventies' or `1970's' (the latter looks like a
possessive).
It should also be noted that hackers exhibit much less reluctance to
use multiply-nested parentheses than is normal in English. Part of
this is almost certainly due to influence from LISP (which uses deeply
nested parentheses (like this (see?)) in its syntax a lot), but it has
also been suggested that a more basic hacker trait of enjoying playing
with complexity and pushing systems to their limits is in operation.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that many studies of on-line
communication have shown that electronic links have a de-inhibiting
effect on people. Deprived of the body-language cues through which
emotional state is expressed, people tend to forget everything about
other parties except what is presented over that ASCII link. This has
both good and bad effects. A good one is that it encourages honesty
and tends to break down hierarchical authority relationships; a bad
one is that it may encourage depersonalization and gratuitous
rudeness. Perhaps in response to this, experienced netters often
display a sort of conscious formal politesse in their writing that has
passed out of fashion in other spoken and written media (for example,
the phrase "Well said, sir!" is not uncommon).
Many introverted hackers who are next to inarticulate in person
communicate with considerable fluency over the net, perhaps precisely
because they can forget on an unconscious level that they are dealing
with people and thus don't feel stressed and anxious as they would
face to face.
Though it is considered gauche to publicly criticize posters for poor
spelling or grammar, the network places a premium on literacy and
clarity of expression. It may well be that future historians of
literature will see in it a revival of the great tradition of personal
letters as art.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Email Quotes, Next:[129]Hacker Speech Style, Previous:[130]Hacker
Writing Style, Up:[131]Top
Email Quotes and Inclusion Conventions
One area where conventions for on-line writing are still in some flux
is the marking of included material from earlier messages -- what
would be called `block quotations' in ordinary English. From the usual
typographic convention employed for these (smaller font at an extra
indent), there derived a practice of included text being indented by
one ASCII TAB (0001001) character, which under Unix and many other
environments gives the appearance of an 8-space indent.
Early mail and netnews readers had no facility for including messages
this way, so people had to paste in copy manually. BSD Mail(1) was the
first message agent to support inclusion, and early Usenetters
emulated its style. But the TAB character tended to push included text
too far to the right (especially in multiply nested inclusions),
leading to ugly wraparounds. After a brief period of confusion (during
which an inclusion leader consisting of three or four spaces became
established in EMACS and a few mailers), the use of leading > or >
became standard, perhaps owing to its use in ed(1) to display tabs
(alternatively, it may derive from the > that some early Unix mailers
used to quote lines starting with "From" in text, so they wouldn't
look like the beginnings of new message headers). Inclusions within
inclusions keep their > leaders, so the `nesting level' of a quotation
is visually apparent.
The practice of including text from the parent article when posting a
followup helped solve what had been a major nuisance on Usenet: the
fact that articles do not arrive at different sites in the same order.
Careless posters used to post articles that would begin with, or even
consist entirely of, "No, that's wrong" or "I agree" or the like. It
was hard to see who was responding to what. Consequently, around 1984,
new news-posting software evolved a facility to automatically include
the text of a previous article, marked with "> " or whatever the
poster chose. The poster was expected to delete all but the relevant
lines. The result has been that, now, careless posters post articles
containing the entire text of a preceding article, followed only by
"No, that's wrong" or "I agree".
Many people feel that this cure is worse than the original disease,
and there soon appeared newsreader software designed to let the reader
skip over included text if desired. Today, some posting software
rejects articles containing too high a proportion of lines beginning
with `>' -- but this too has led to undesirable workarounds, such as
the deliberate inclusion of zero-content filler lines which aren't
quoted and thus pull the message below the rejection threshold.
Because the default mailers supplied with Unix and other operating
systems haven't evolved as quickly as human usage, the older
conventions using a leading TAB or three or four spaces are still
alive; however, >-inclusion is now clearly the prevalent form in both
netnews and mail.
Inclusion practice is still evolving, and disputes over the `correct'
inclusion style occasionally lead to [132]holy wars.
Most netters view an inclusion as a promise that comment on it will
immediately follow. The preferred, conversational style looks like
this,
> relevant excerpt 1
response to excerpt
> relevant excerpt 2
response to excerpt
> relevant excerpt 3
response to excerpt
or for short messages like this:
> entire message
response to message
Thanks to poor design of some PC-based mail agents, one will
occasionally see the entire quoted message after the response, like
this
response to message
> entire message
but this practice is strongly deprecated.
Though > remains the standard inclusion leader, | is occasionally used
for extended quotations where original variations in indentation are
being retained (one mailer even combines these and uses |>). One also
sees different styles of quoting a number of authors in the same
message: one (deprecated because it loses information) uses a leader
of > for everyone, another (the most common) is > > > > , > > > ,
etc. (or >>>> , >>>, etc., depending on line length and nesting depth)
reflecting the original order of messages, and yet another is to use a
different citation leader for each author, say > , : , | , }
(preserving nesting so that the inclusion order of messages is still
apparent, or tagging the inclusions with authors' names). Yet another
style is to use each poster's initials (or login name) as a citation
leader for that poster.
Occasionally one sees a # leader used for quotations from
authoritative sources such as standards documents; the intended
allusion is to the root prompt (the special Unix command prompt issued
when one is running as the privileged super-user).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Hacker Speech Style, Next:[133]International Style,
Previous:[134]Email Quotes, Up:[135]Top
Hacker Speech Style
Hackish speech generally features extremely precise diction, careful
word choice, a relatively large working vocabulary, and relatively
little use of contractions or street slang. Dry humor, irony, puns,
and a mildly flippant attitude are highly valued -- but an underlying
seriousness and intelligence are essential. One should use just enough
jargon to communicate precisely and identify oneself as a member of
the culture; overuse of jargon or a breathless, excessively gung-ho
attitude is considered tacky and the mark of a loser.
This speech style is a variety of the precisionist English normally
spoken by scientists, design engineers, and academics in technical
fields. In contrast with the methods of jargon construction, it is
fairly constant throughout hackerdom.
It has been observed that many hackers are confused by negative
questions -- or, at least, that the people to whom they are talking
are often confused by the sense of their answers. The problem is that
they have done so much programming that distinguishes between
if (going) ...
and
if (!going) ...
that when they parse the question "Aren't you going?" it may seem to
be asking the opposite question from "Are you going?", and so to merit
an answer in the opposite sense. This confuses English-speaking
non-hackers because they were taught to answer as though the negative
part weren't there. In some other languages (including Russian,
Chinese, and Japanese) the hackish interpretation is standard and the
problem wouldn't arise. Hackers often find themselves wishing for a
word like French `si', German `doch', or Dutch `jawel' - a word with
which one could unambiguously answer `yes' to a negative question.
(See also [136]mu)
For similar reasons, English-speaking hackers almost never use double
negatives, even if they live in a region where colloquial usage allows
them. The thought of uttering something that logically ought to be an
affirmative knowing it will be misparsed as a negative tends to
disturb them.
In a related vein, hackers sometimes make a game of answering
questions containing logical connectives with a strictly literal
rather than colloquial interpretation. A non-hacker who is indelicate
enough to ask a question like "So, are you working on finding that bug
now or leaving it until later?" is likely to get the perfectly correct
answer "Yes!" (that is, "Yes, I'm doing it either now or later, and
you didn't ask which!").
_________________________________________________________________
Node:International Style, Next:[137]Lamer-speak, Previous:[138]Hacker
Speech Style, Up:[139]Top
International Style
Although the Jargon File remains primarily a lexicon of hacker usage
in American English, we have made some effort to get input from
abroad. Though the hacker-speak of other languages often uses
translations of jargon from English (often as transmitted to them by
earlier Jargon File versions!), the local variations are interesting,
and knowledge of them may be of some use to travelling hackers.
There are some references herein to `Commonwealth hackish'. These are
intended to describe some variations in hacker usage as reported in
the English spoken in Great Britain and the Commonwealth (Canada,
Australia, India, etc. -- though Canada is heavily influenced by
American usage). There is also an entry on [140]Commonwealth Hackish
reporting some general phonetic and vocabulary differences from U.S.
hackish.
Hackers in Western Europe and (especially) Scandinavia report that
they often use a mixture of English and their native languages for
technical conversation. Occasionally they develop idioms in their
English usage that are influenced by their native-language styles.
Some of these are reported here.
On the other hand, English often gives rise to grammatical and
vocabulary mutations in the native language. For example, Italian
hackers often use the nonexistent verbs `scrollare' (to scroll) and
`deletare' (to delete) rather than native Italian `scorrere' and
`cancellare'. Similarly, the English verb `to hack' has been seen
conjugated in Swedish. In German, many Unix terms in English are
casually declined as if they were German verbs - thus:
mount/mounten/gemountet; grep/grepen/gegrept; fork/forken/geforkt;
core dump/core-dumpen, core-gedumpt. And Spanish-speaking hackers use
`linkar' (to link), `debugear' (to debug), and `lockear' (to lock).
European hackers report that this happens partly because the English
terms make finer distinctions than are available in their native
vocabularies, and partly because deliberate language-crossing makes
for amusing wordplay.
A few notes on hackish usages in Russian have been added where they
are parallel with English idioms and thus comprehensible to
English-speakers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Lamer-speak, Next:[141]Pronunciation Guide,
Previous:[142]International Style, Up:[143]Top
Crackers, Phreaks, and Lamers
From the early 1980s onward, a flourishing culture of local,
MS-DOS-based bulletin boards developed separately from Internet
hackerdom. The BBS culture has, as its seamy underside, a stratum of
`pirate boards' inhabited by [144]crackers, phone phreaks, and
[145]warez d00dz. These people (mostly teenagers running IBM-PC clones
from their bedrooms) have developed their own characteristic jargon,
heavily influenced by skateboard lingo and underground-rock slang.
Though crackers often call themselves `hackers', they aren't (they
typically have neither significant programming ability, nor Internet
expertise, nor experience with UNIX or other true multi-user systems).
Their vocabulary has little overlap with hackerdom's. Nevertheless,
this lexicon covers much of it so the reader will be able to
understand what goes by on bulletin-board systems.
Here is a brief guide to cracker and [146]warez d00dz usage:
* Misspell frequently. The substitutions
phone => fone
freak => phreak
are obligatory.
* Always substitute `z's for `s's. (i.e. "codes" -> "codez"). The
substitution of 'z' for 's' has evolved so that a 'z' is bow
systematically put at the end of words to denote an illegal or
cracking connection. Examples : Appz, passwordz, passez, utilz,
MP3z, distroz, pornz, sitez, gamez, crackz, serialz, downloadz,
FTPz, etc.
* Type random emphasis characters after a post line (i.e. "Hey
Dudes!#!$#$!#!$").
* Use the emphatic `k' prefix ("k-kool", "k-rad", "k-awesome")
frequently.
* Abbreviate compulsively ("I got lotsa warez w/ docs").
* Substitute `0' for `o' ("r0dent", "l0zer").
* TYPE ALL IN CAPS LOCK, SO IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE YELLING ALL THE
TIME.
These traits are similar to those of [147]B1FF, who originated as a
parody of naive [148]BBS users; also of his latter-day equivalent
[149]Jeff K.. Occasionally, this sort of distortion may be used as
heavy sarcasm by a real hacker, as in:
> I got X Windows running under Linux!
d00d! u R an 31337 hax0r
The only practice resembling this in actual hacker usage is the
substitution of a dollar sign of `s' in names of products or service
felt to be excessively expensive, e.g. Compu$erve, Micro$oft.
For further discussion of the pirate-board subculture, see [150]lamer,
[151]elite, [152]leech, [153]poser, [154]cracker, and especially
[155]warez d00dz, [156]banner site, [157]ratio site, [158]leech mode.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Pronunciation Guide, Next:[159]Other Lexicon Conventions,
Previous:[160]Lamer-speak, Up:[161]Top
How to Use the Lexicon
Pronunciation Guide
Pronunciation keys are provided in the jargon listings for all entries
that are neither dictionary words pronounced as in standard English
nor obvious compounds thereof. Slashes bracket phonetic
pronunciations, which are to be interpreted using the following
conventions:
1. Syllables are hyphen-separated, except that an accent or
back-accent follows each accented syllable (the back-accent marks
a secondary accent in some words of four or more syllables). If no
accent is given, the word is pronounced with equal accentuation on
all syllables (this is common for abbreviations).
2. Consonants are pronounced as in American English. The letter `g'
is always hard (as in "got" rather than "giant"); `ch' is soft
("church" rather than "chemist"). The letter `j' is the sound that
occurs twice in "judge". The letter `s' is always as in "pass",
never a z sound. The digraph `kh' is the guttural of "loch" or
"l'chaim". The digraph 'gh' is the aspirated g+h of "bughouse" or
"ragheap" (rare in English).
3. Uppercase letters are pronounced as their English letter names;
thus (for example) /H-L-L/ is equivalent to /aych el el/. /Z/ may
be pronounced /zee/ or /zed/ depending on your local dialect.
4. Vowels are represented as follows:
/a/
back, that
/ah/
father, palm (see note)
/ar/
far, mark
/aw/
flaw, caught
/ay/
bake, rain
/e/
less, men
/ee/
easy, ski
/eir/
their, software
/i/
trip, hit
/i:/
life, sky
/o/
block, stock (see note)
/oh/
flow, sew
/oo/
loot, through
/or/
more, door
/ow/
out, how
/oy/
boy, coin
/uh/
but, some
/u/
put, foot
/y/
yet, young
/yoo/
few, chew
/[y]oo/
/oo/ with optional fronting as in `news' (/nooz/ or
/nyooz/)
The glyph /*/ is used for the `schwa' sound of unstressed or occluded
vowels (the one that is often written with an upside-down `e'). The
schwa vowel is omitted in syllables containing vocalic r, l, m or n;
that is, `kitten' and `color' would be rendered /kit'n/ and /kuhl'r/,
not /kit'*n/ and /kuhl'*r/.
Note that the above table reflects mainly distinctions found in
standard American English (that is, the neutral dialect spoken by TV
network announcers and typical of educated speech in the Upper
Midwest, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Philadelphia). However, we
separate /o/ from /ah/, which tend to merge in standard American. This
may help readers accustomed to accents resembling British Received
Pronunciation.
The intent of this scheme is to permit as many readers as possible to
map the pronunciations into their local dialect by ignoring some
subset of the distinctions we make. Speakers of British RP, for
example, can smash terminal /r/ and all unstressed vowels. Speakers of
many varieties of southern American will automatically map /o/ to
/aw/; and so forth. (Standard American makes a good reference dialect
for this purpose because it has crisp consonants and more vowel
distinctions than other major dialects, and tends to retain
distinctions between unstressed vowels. It also happens to be what
your editor speaks.)
Entries with a pronunciation of `//' are written-only usages. (No,
Unix weenies, this does not mean `pronounce like previous
pronunciation'!)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Other Lexicon Conventions, Next:[162]Format for New Entries,
Previous:[163]Pronunciation Guide, Up:[164]Top
Other Lexicon Conventions
Entries are sorted in case-blind ASCII collation order (rather than
the letter-by-letter order ignoring interword spacing common in
mainstream dictionaries), except that all entries beginning with
nonalphabetic characters are sorted after Z. The case-blindness is a
feature, not a bug.
The beginning of each entry is marked by a colon (:) at the left
margin. This convention helps out tools like hypertext browsers that
benefit from knowing where entry boundaries are, but aren't as
context-sensitive as humans.
In pure ASCII renderings of the Jargon File, you will see {} used to
bracket words which themselves have entries in the File. This isn't
done all the time for every such word, but it is done everywhere that
a reminder seems useful that the term has a jargon meaning and one
might wish to refer to its entry.
In this all-ASCII version, headwords for topic entries are
distinguished from those for ordinary entries by being followed by
"::" rather than ":"; similarly, references are surrounded by "{{" and
"}}" rather than "{" and "}".
Defining instances of terms and phrases appear in `slanted type'. A
defining instance is one which occurs near to or as part of an
explanation of it.
Prefixed ** is used as linguists do; to mark examples of incorrect
usage.
We follow the `logical' quoting convention described in the Writing
Style section above. In addition, we reserve double quotes for actual
excerpts of text or (sometimes invented) speech. Scare quotes (which
mark a word being used in a nonstandard way), and philosopher's quotes
(which turn an utterance into the string of letters or words that name
it) are both rendered with single quotes.
References such as malloc(3) and patch(1) are to Unix facilities (some
of which, such as patch(1), are actually freeware distributed over
Usenet). The Unix manuals use foo(n) to refer to item foo in section
(n) of the manual, where n=1 is utilities, n=2 is system calls, n=3 is
C library routines, n=6 is games, and n=8 (where present) is system
administration utilities. Sections 4, 5, and 7 of the manuals have
changed roles frequently and in any case are not referred to in any of
the entries.
Various abbreviations used frequently in the lexicon are summarized
here:
abbrev.
abbreviation
adj.
adjective
adv.
adverb
alt.
alternate
cav.
caveat
conj.
conjunction
esp.
especially
excl.
exclamation
imp.
imperative
interj.
interjection
n.
noun
obs.
obsolete
pl.
plural
poss.
possibly
pref.
prefix
prob.
probably
prov.
proverbial
quant.
quantifier
suff.
suffix
syn.
synonym (or synonymous with)
v.
verb (may be transitive or intransitive)
var.
variant
vi.
intransitive verb
vt.
transitive verb
Where alternate spellings or pronunciations are given, alt. separates
two possibilities with nearly equal distribution, while var. prefixes
one that is markedly less common than the primary.
Where a term can be attributed to a particular subculture or is known
to have originated there, we have tried to so indicate. Here is a list
of abbreviations used in etymologies:
Amateur Packet Radio
A technical culture of ham-radio sites using AX.25 and TCP/IP
for wide-area networking and BBS systems.
Berkeley
University of California at Berkeley
BBN
Bolt, Beranek & Newman
Cambridge
the university in England (not the city in Massachusetts where
MIT happens to be located!)
CMU
Carnegie-Mellon University
Commodore
Commodore Business Machines
DEC
The Digital Equipment Corporation (now Compaq).
Fairchild
The Fairchild Instruments Palo Alto development group
FidoNet
See the [165]FidoNet entry
IBM
International Business Machines
MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; esp. the legendary MIT
AI Lab culture of roughly 1971 to 1983 and its feeder groups,
including the Tech Model Railroad Club
NRL
Naval Research Laboratories
NYU
New York University
OED
The Oxford English Dictionary
Purdue
Purdue University
SAIL
Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (at Stanford
University)
SI
From Système International, the name for the standard
conventions of metric nomenclature used in the sciences
Stanford
Stanford University
Sun
Sun Microsystems
TMRC
Some MITisms go back as far as the Tech Model Railroad Club
(TMRC) at MIT c. 1960. Material marked TMRC is from "An
Abridged Dictionary of the TMRC Language", originally compiled
by Pete Samson in 1959
UCLA
University of California at Los Angeles
UK
the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland)
Usenet
See the [166]Usenet entry
WPI
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, site of a very active
community of PDP-10 hackers during the 1970s
WWW
The World-Wide-Web.
XEROX PARC
XEROX's Palo Alto Research Center, site of much pioneering
research in user interface design and networking
Yale
Yale University
Some other etymology abbreviations such as [167]Unix and [168]PDP-10
refer to technical cultures surrounding specific operating systems,
processors, or other environments. The fact that a term is labelled
with any one of these abbreviations does not necessarily mean its use
is confined to that culture. In particular, many terms labelled `MIT'
and `Stanford' are in quite general use. We have tried to give some
indication of the distribution of speakers in the usage notes;
however, a number of factors mentioned in the introduction conspire to
make these indications less definite than might be desirable.
A few new definitions attached to entries are marked [proposed]. These
are usually generalizations suggested by editors or Usenet respondents
in the process of commenting on previous definitions of those entries.
These are not represented as established jargon.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Format for New Entries, Next:[169]The Jargon Lexicon,
Previous:[170]Other Lexicon Conventions, Up:[171]Top
Format For New Entries
You can mail submissions for the Jargon File to
[172]jargon@snark.thyrsus.com.
We welcome new jargon, and corrections to or amplifications of
existing entries. You can improve your submission's chances of being
included by adding background information on user population and years
of currency. References to actual usage via URLs and/or DejaNews
pointers are particularly welcomed.
All contributions and suggestions about the Jargon File will be
considered donations to be placed in the public domain as part of this
File, and may be used in subsequent paper editions. Submissions may be
edited for accuracy, clarity and concision.
We are looking to expand the File's range of technical specialties
covered. There are doubtless rich veins of jargon yet untapped in the
scientific computing, graphics, and networking hacker communities;
also in numerical analysis, computer architectures and VLSI design,
language design, and many other related fields. Send us your jargon!
We are not interested in straight technical terms explained by
textbooks or technical dictionaries unless an entry illuminates
`underground' meanings or aspects not covered by official histories.
We are also not interested in `joke' entries -- there is a lot of
humor in the file but it must flow naturally out of the explanations
of what hackers do and how they think.
It is OK to submit items of jargon you have originated if they have
spread to the point of being used by people who are not personally
acquainted with you. We prefer items to be attested by independent
submission from two different sites.
An HTML version of the File is available at
http://www.tuxedo.org/jargon. Please send us URLs for materials
related to the entries, so we can enrich the File's link structure.
The Jargon File will be regularly maintained and made available for
browsing on the World Wide Web, and will include a version number.
Read it, pass it around, contribute -- this is your monument!
_________________________________________________________________
Node:The Jargon Lexicon, Next:[173]Appendix A, Previous:[174]Format
for New Entries, Up:[175]Top
The Jargon Lexicon
* [176]= 0 =:
* [177]= A =:
* [178]= B =:
* [179]= C =:
* [180]= D =:
* [181]= E =:
* [182]= F =:
* [183]= G =:
* [184]= H =:
* [185]= I =:
* [186]= J =:
* [187]= K =:
* [188]= L =:
* [189]= M =:
* [190]= N =:
* [191]= O =:
* [192]= P =:
* [193]= Q =:
* [194]= R =:
* [195]= S =:
* [196]= T =:
* [197]= U =:
* [198]= V =:
* [199]= W =:
* [200]= X =:
* [201]= Y =:
* [202]= Z =:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:= 0 =, Next:[203]= A =, Up:[204]The Jargon Lexicon
= 0 =
* [205]0:
* [206]1TBS:
* [207]120 reset:
* [208]2:
* [209]404:
* [210]404 compliant:
* [211]4.2:
* [212]@-party:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:0, Next:[213]1TBS, Up:[214]= 0 =
0
Numeric zero, as opposed to the letter `O' (the 15th letter of the
English alphabet). In their unmodified forms they look a lot alike,
and various kluges invented to make them visually distinct have
compounded the confusion. If your zero is center-dotted and letter-O
is not, or if letter-O looks almost rectangular but zero looks more
like an American football stood on end (or the reverse), you're
probably looking at a modern character display (though the dotted zero
seems to have originated as an option on IBM 3270 controllers). If
your zero is slashed but letter-O is not, you're probably looking at
an old-style ASCII graphic set descended from the default typewheel on
the venerable ASR-33 Teletype (Scandinavians, for whom Ø is a letter,
curse this arrangement). (Interestingly, the slashed zero long
predates computers; Florian Cajori's monumental "A History of
Mathematical Notations" notes that it was used in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries.) If letter-O has a slash across it and the zero
does not, your display is tuned for a very old convention used at IBM
and a few other early mainframe makers (Scandinavians curse this
arrangement even more, because it means two of their letters collide).
Some Burroughs/Unisys equipment displays a zero with a reversed slash.
Old CDC computers rendered letter O as an unbroken oval and 0 as an
oval broken at upper right and lower left. And yet another convention
common on early line printers left zero unornamented but added a tail
or hook to the letter-O so that it resembled an inverted Q or cursive
capital letter-O (this was endorsed by a draft ANSI standard for how
to draw ASCII characters, but the final standard changed the
distinguisher to a tick-mark in the upper-left corner). Are we
sufficiently confused yet?
_________________________________________________________________
Node:1TBS, Next:[215]120 reset, Previous:[216]0, Up:[217]= 0 =
1TBS // n.
The "One True Brace Style"; see [218]indent style.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:120 reset, Next:[219]2, Previous:[220]1TBS, Up:[221]= 0 =
120 reset /wuhn-twen'tee ree'set/ n.
[from 120 volts, U.S. wall voltage] To cycle power on a machine in
order to reset or unjam it. Compare [222]Big Red Switch, [223]power
cycle.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:2, Next:[224]404, Previous:[225]120 reset, Up:[226]= 0 =
2 infix.
In translation software written by hackers, infix 2 often represents
the syllable to with the connotation `translate to': as in dvi2ps (DVI
to PostScript), int2string (integer to string), and texi2roff (Texinfo
to [nt]roff). Several versions of a joke have floated around the
internet in which some idiot programmer fixes the Y2K bug by changing
all the Y's in something to K's, as in Januark, Februark, etc.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:404, Next:[227]404 compliant, Previous:[228]2, Up:[229]= 0 =
404 // n.
[from the HTTP error "file not found on server"] Extended to humans to
convey that the subject has no idea or no clue - sapience not found.
May be used reflexively; "Uh, I'm 404ing" means "I'm drawing a blank".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:404 compliant, Next:[230]4.2, Previous:[231]404, Up:[232]= 0 =
404 compliant adj.
The status of a website which has been completely removed, usually by
the administrators of the hosting site as a result of net abuse by the
website operators. The term is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the
standard "301 compliant" Murkowski Bill disclaimer used by spammers.
See also: [233]spam, [234]spamvertize.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:4.2, Next:[235]@-party, Previous:[236]404 compliant, Up:[237]= 0
=
4.2 /for' poynt too'/ n.
Without a prefix, this almost invariably refers to [238]BSD Unix
release 4.2. Note that it is an indication of cluelessness to say
"version 4.2", and "release 4.2" is rare; the number stands on its
own, or is used in the more explicit forms 4.2BSD or (less commonly)
BSD 4.2. Similar remarks apply to "4.3", "4.4" and to earlier,
less-widespread releases 4.1 and 2.9.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:@-party, Next:[239]abbrev, Previous:[240]4.2, Up:[241]= 0 =
@-party /at'par`tee/ n.
[from the @-sign in an Internet address] (alt. `@-sign party' /at'si:n
par`tee/) A semi-closed party thrown for hackers at a science-fiction
convention (esp. the annual World Science Fiction Convention or
"Worldcon"); one must have a [242]network address to get in, or at
least be in company with someone who does. One of the most reliable
opportunities for hackers to meet face to face with people who might
otherwise be represented by mere phosphor dots on their screens.
Compare [243]boink.
The first recorded @-party was held at the Westercon (a U.S. western
regional SF convention) over the July 4th weekend in 1980. It is not
clear exactly when the canonical @-party venue shifted to the Worldcon
but it had certainly become established by Constellation in 1983.
Sadly, the @-party tradition has been in decline since about 1996,
mainly because having an @-address no longer functions as an effective
lodge pin.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:= A =, Next:[244]= B =, Previous:[245]= 0 =, Up:[246]The Jargon
Lexicon
= A =
* [247]abbrev:
* [248]ABEND:
* [249]accumulator:
* [250]ACK:
* [251]Acme:
* [252]acolyte:
* [253]ad-hockery:
* [254]Ada:
* [255]address harvester:
* [256]adger:
* [257]admin:
* [258]ADVENT:
* [259]AFAIK:
* [260]AFJ:
* [261]AFK:
* [262]AI:
* [263]AI-complete:
* [264]AI koans:
* [265]AIDS:
* [266]AIDX:
* [267]airplane rule:
* [268]Alderson loop:
* [269]aliasing bug:
* [270]Alice and Bob:
* [271]all-elbows:
* [272]alpha geek:
* [273]alpha particles:
* [274]alt:
* [275]alt bit:
* [276]Aluminum Book:
* [277]ambimouseterous:
* [278]Amiga:
* [279]Amiga Persecution Complex:
* [280]amoeba:
* [281]amp off:
* [282]amper:
* [283]Angband:
* [284]angle brackets:
* [285]angry fruit salad:
* [286]annoybot:
* [287]annoyware:
* [288]ANSI:
* [289]ANSI standard:
* [290]ANSI standard pizza:
* [291]AOL!:
* [292]app:
* [293]arena:
* [294]arg:
* [295]ARMM:
* [296]armor-plated:
* [297]asbestos:
* [298]asbestos cork award:
* [299]asbestos longjohns:
* [300]ASCII:
* [301]ASCII art:
* [302]ASCIIbetical order:
* [303]astroturfing:
* [304]atomic:
* [305]attoparsec:
* [306]AUP:
* [307]autobogotiphobia:
* [308]automagically:
* [309]avatar:
* [310]awk:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:abbrev, Next:[311]ABEND, Previous:[312]@-party, Up:[313]= A =
abbrev /*-breev'/, /*-brev'/ n.
Common abbreviation for `abbreviation'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ABEND, Next:[314]accumulator, Previous:[315]abbrev, Up:[316]= A =
ABEND /a'bend/, /*-bend'/ n.
[ABnormal END] 1. Abnormal termination (of software); [317]crash;
[318]lossage. Derives from an error message on the IBM 360; used
jokingly by hackers but seriously mainly by [319]code grinders.
Usually capitalized, but may appear as `abend'. Hackers will try to
persuade you that ABEND is called `abend' because it is what system
operators do to the machine late on Friday when they want to call it a
day, and hence is from the German `Abend' = `Evening'. 2.
[alt.callahans] Absent By Enforced Net Deprivation - used in the
subject lines of postings warning friends of an imminent loss of
Internet access. (This can be because of computer downtime, loss of
provider, moving or illness.) Variants of this also appear: ABVND =
`Absent By Voluntary Net Deprivation' and ABSEND = `Absent By
Self-Enforced Net Deprivation' have been sighted.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:accumulator, Next:[320]ACK, Previous:[321]ABEND, Up:[322]= A =
accumulator n. obs.
1. Archaic term for a register. On-line use of it as a synonym for
`register' is a fairly reliable indication that the user has been
around for quite a while and/or that the architecture under discussion
is quite old. The term in full is almost never used of microprocessor
registers, for example, though symbolic names for arithmetic registers
beginning in `A' derive from historical use of the term `accumulator'
(and not, actually, from `arithmetic'). Confusingly, though, an `A'
register name prefix may also stand for `address', as for example on
the Motorola 680x0 family. 2. A register being used for arithmetic or
logic (as opposed to addressing or a loop index), especially one being
used to accumulate a sum or count of many items. This use is in
context of a particular routine or stretch of code. "The FOOBAZ
routine uses A3 as an accumulator." 3. One's in-basket (esp. among
old-timers who might use sense 1). "You want this reviewed? Sure, just
put it in the accumulator." (See [323]stack.)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ACK, Next:[324]Acme, Previous:[325]accumulator, Up:[326]= A =
ACK /ak/ interj.
1. [common; from the ASCII mnemonic for 0000110] Acknowledge. Used to
register one's presence (compare mainstream Yo!). An appropriate
response to [327]ping or [328]ENQ. 2. [from the comic strip "Bloom
County"] An exclamation of surprised disgust, esp. in "Ack pffft!"
Semi-humorous. Generally this sense is not spelled in caps (ACK) and
is distinguished by a following exclamation point. 3. Used to politely
interrupt someone to tell them you understand their point (see
[329]NAK). Thus, for example, you might cut off an overly long
explanation with "Ack. Ack. Ack. I get it now". 4. An affirmative.
"Think we ought to ditch that damn NT server for a Linux box?" "ACK!"
There is also a usage "ACK?" (from sense 1) meaning "Are you there?",
often used in email when earlier mail has produced no reply, or during
a lull in [330]talk mode to see if the person has gone away (the
standard humorous response is of course [331]NAK (sense 1), i.e., "I'm
not here").
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Acme, Next:[332]acolyte, Previous:[333]ACK, Up:[334]= A =
Acme n.
The canonical supplier of bizarre, elaborate, and non-functional
gadgetry - where Rube Goldberg and Heath Robinson (two cartoonists who
specialized in elaborate contraptions) shop. The name has been
humorously expanded as A (or American) Company Making Everything. (In
fact, Acme was a real brand sold from Sears Roebuck catalogs in the
early 1900s.) Describing some X as an "Acme X" either means "This is
[335]insanely great", or, more likely, "This looks [336]insanely great
on paper, but in practice it's really easy to shoot yourself in the
foot with it." Compare [337]pistol.
This term, specially cherished by American hackers and explained here
for the benefit of our overseas brethren, comes from the Warner
Brothers' series of "Roadrunner" cartoons. In these cartoons, the
famished Wile E. Coyote was forever attempting to catch up with, trap,
and eat the Roadrunner. His attempts usually involved one or more
high-technology Rube Goldberg devices - rocket jetpacks, catapults,
magnetic traps, high-powered slingshots, etc. These were usually
delivered in large cardboard boxes, labeled prominently with the Acme
name. These devices invariably malfunctioned in improbable and violent
ways.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:acolyte, Next:[338]ad-hockery, Previous:[339]Acme, Up:[340]= A =
acolyte n. obs.
[TMRC] An [341]OSU privileged enough to submit data and programs to a
member of the [342]priesthood.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ad-hockery, Next:[343]Ada, Previous:[344]acolyte, Up:[345]= A =
ad-hockery /ad-hok'*r-ee/ n.
[Purdue] 1. Gratuitous assumptions made inside certain programs, esp.
expert systems, which lead to the appearance of semi-intelligent
behavior but are in fact entirely arbitrary. For example,
fuzzy-matching of input tokens that might be typing errors against a
symbol table can make it look as though a program knows how to spell.
2. Special-case code to cope with some awkward input that would
otherwise cause a program to [346]choke, presuming normal inputs are
dealt with in some cleaner and more regular way. Also called
`ad-hackery', `ad-hocity' (/ad-hos'*-tee/), `ad-crockery'. See also
[347]ELIZA effect.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Ada, Next:[348]address harvester, Previous:[349]ad-hockery,
Up:[350]= A =
Ada n.
A [351]Pascal-descended language that was at one time made mandatory
for Department of Defense software projects by the Pentagon. Hackers
are nearly unanimous in observing that, technically, it is precisely
what one might expect given that kind of endorsement by fiat; designed
by committee, crockish, difficult to use, and overall a disastrous,
multi-billion-dollar boondoggle (one common description wss "The PL/I
of the 1980s"). Hackers find Ada's exception-handling and
inter-process communication features particularly hilarious. Ada
Lovelace (the daughter of Lord Byron who became the world's first
programmer while cooperating with Charles Babbage on the design of his
mechanical computing engines in the mid-1800s) would almost certainly
blanch at the use to which her name has latterly been put; the kindest
thing that has been said about it is that there is probably a good
small language screaming to get out from inside its vast,
[352]elephantine bulk.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:address harvester, Next:[353]adger, Previous:[354]Ada, Up:[355]=
A =
address harvester n.
A robot that searches web pages and/or filters netnews traffic looking
for valid email addresses. Some address harvesters are benign, used
only for compiling address directories. Most, unfortunately, are run
by miscreants compiling address lists to [356]spam. Address harvesters
can be foiled by a [357]teergrube.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:adger, Next:[358]admin, Previous:[359]address harvester,
Up:[360]= A =
adger /aj'r/ vt.
[UCLA mutant of [361]nadger, poss. also from the middle name of an
infamous [362]tenured graduate student] To make a bonehead move with
consequences that could have been foreseen with even slight mental
effort. E.g., "He started removing files and promptly adgered the
whole project". Compare [363]dumbass attack.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:admin, Next:[364]ADVENT, Previous:[365]adger, Up:[366]= A =
admin /ad-min'/ n.
Short for `administrator'; very commonly used in speech or on-line to
refer to the systems person in charge on a computer. Common
constructions on this include `sysadmin' and `site admin' (emphasizing
the administrator's role as a site contact for email and news) or
`newsadmin' (focusing specifically on news). Compare [367]postmaster,
[368]sysop, [369]system mangler.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ADVENT, Next:[370]AFAIK, Previous:[371]admin, Up:[372]= A =
ADVENT /ad'vent/ n.
The prototypical computer adventure game, first designed by Will
Crowther on the [373]PDP-10 in the mid-1970s as an attempt at
computer-refereed fantasy gaming, and expanded into a puzzle-oriented
game by Don Woods at Stanford in 1976. (Woods had been one of the
authors of [374]INTERCAL.) Now better known as Adventure or Colossal
Cave Adventure, but the [375]TOPS-10 operating system permitted only
six-letter filenames. See also [376]vadding, [377]Zork, and
[378]Infocom.
This game defined the terse, dryly humorous style since expected in
text adventure games, and popularized several tag lines that have
become fixtures of hacker-speak: "A huge green fierce snake bars the
way!" "I see no X here" (for some noun X). "You are in a maze of
twisty little passages, all alike." "You are in a little maze of
twisty passages, all different." The `magic words' [379]xyzzy and
[380]plugh also derive from this game.
Crowther, by the way, participated in the exploration of the Mammoth &
Flint Ridge cave system; it actually has a `Colossal Cave' and a
`Bedquilt' as in the game, and the `Y2' that also turns up is cavers'
jargon for a map reference to a secondary entrance.
ADVENT sources are available for FTP at
[381]ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/doc/misc/if-archive/games/source/advent.tar.Z
. There is a
[382]http://people.delphi.com/rickadams/adventure/index.html.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:AFAIK, Next:[383]AFJ, Previous:[384]ADVENT, Up:[385]= A =
AFAIK // n.
[Usenet] Abbrev. for "As Far As I Know".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:AFJ, Next:[386]AFK, Previous:[387]AFAIK, Up:[388]= A =
AFJ // n.
Written-only abbreviation for "April Fool's Joke". Elaborate April
Fool's hoaxes are a long-established tradition on Usenet and Internet;
see [389]kremvax for an example. In fact, April Fool's Day is the only
seasonal holiday consistently marked by customary observances on
Internet and other hacker networks.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:AFK, Next:[390]AI, Previous:[391]AFJ, Up:[392]= A =
AFK
[MUD] Abbrev. for "Away From Keyboard". Used to notify others that you
will be momentarily unavailable online. eg. "Let's not go kill that
frost giant yet, I need to go AFK to make a phone call". Often MUDs
will have a command to politely inform others of your absence when
they try to talk with you. The term is not restricted to MUDs,
however, and has become common in many chat situations, from IRC to
Unix talk.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:AI, Next:[393]AI-complete, Previous:[394]AFK, Up:[395]= A =
AI /A-I/ n.
Abbreviation for `Artificial Intelligence', so common that the full
form is almost never written or spoken among hackers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:AI-complete, Next:[396]AI koans, Previous:[397]AI, Up:[398]= A =
AI-complete /A-I k*m-pleet'/ adj.
[MIT, Stanford: by analogy with `NP-complete' (see [399]NP-)] Used to
describe problems or subproblems in AI, to indicate that the solution
presupposes a solution to the `strong AI problem' (that is, the
synthesis of a human-level intelligence). A problem that is
AI-complete is, in other words, just too hard.
Examples of AI-complete problems are `The Vision Problem' (building a
system that can see as well as a human) and `The Natural Language
Problem' (building a system that can understand and speak a natural
language as well as a human). These may appear to be modular, but all
attempts so far (1999) to solve them have foundered on the amount of
context information and `intelligence' they seem to require. See also
[400]gedanken.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:AI koans, Next:[401]AIDS, Previous:[402]AI-complete, Up:[403]= A
=
AI koans /A-I koh'anz/ pl.n.
A series of pastiches of Zen teaching riddles created by Danny Hillis
at the MIT AI Lab around various major figures of the Lab's culture
(several are included under [404]Some AI Koans in Appendix A). See
also [405]ha ha only serious, [406]mu, and [407]hacker humor.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:AIDS, Next:[408]AIDX, Previous:[409]AI koans, Up:[410]= A =
AIDS /aydz/ n.
Short for A* Infected Disk Syndrome (`A*' is a [411]glob pattern that
matches, but is not limited to, Apple or Amiga), this condition is
quite often the result of practicing unsafe [412]SEX. See [413]virus,
[414]worm, [415]Trojan horse, [416]virgin.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:AIDX, Next:[417]airplane rule, Previous:[418]AIDS, Up:[419]= A =
AIDX /ayd'k*z/ n.
Derogatory term for IBM's perverted version of Unix, AIX, especially
for the AIX 3.? used in the IBM RS/6000 series (some hackers think it
is funnier just to pronounce "AIX" as "aches"). A victim of the
dreaded "hybridism" disease, this attempt to combine the two main
currents of the Unix stream ([420]BSD and [421]USG Unix) became a
[422]monstrosity to haunt system administrators' dreams. For example,
if new accounts are created while many users are logged on, the load
average jumps quickly over 20 due to silly implementation of the user
databases. For a quite similar disease, compare [423]HP-SUX. Also,
compare [424]Macintrash, [425]Nominal Semidestructor, [426]ScumOS,
[427]sun-stools.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:airplane rule, Next:[428]Alderson loop, Previous:[429]AIDX,
Up:[430]= A =
airplane rule n.
"Complexity increases the possibility of failure; a twin-engine
airplane has twice as many engine problems as a single-engine
airplane." By analogy, in both software and electronics, the rule that
simplicity increases robustness. It is correspondingly argued that the
right way to build reliable systems is to put all your eggs in one
basket, after making sure that you've built a really good basket. See
also [431]KISS Principle, [432]elegant.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Alderson loop, Next:[433]aliasing bug, Previous:[434]airplane
rule, Up:[435]= A =
Alderson loop n.
[Intel] A special version of an [436]infinite loop where there is an
exit condition available, but inaccessible in the current
implementation of the code. Typically this is created while debugging
user interface code. An example would be when there is a menu stating,
"Select 1-3 or 9 to quit" and 9 is not allowed by the function that
takes the selection from the user.
This term received its name from a programmer who had coded a modal
message box in MSAccess with no Ok or Cancel buttons, thereby
disabling the entire program whenever the box came up. The message box
had the proper code for dismissal and even was set up so that when the
non-existent Ok button was pressed the proper code would be called.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:aliasing bug, Next:[437]Alice and Bob, Previous:[438]Alderson
loop, Up:[439]= A =
aliasing bug n.
A class of subtle programming errors that can arise in code that does
dynamic allocation, esp. via malloc(3) or equivalent. If several
pointers address (`aliases for') a given hunk of storage, it may
happen that the storage is freed or reallocated (and thus moved)
through one alias and then referenced through another, which may lead
to subtle (and possibly intermittent) lossage depending on the state
and the allocation history of the malloc [440]arena. Avoidable by use
of allocation strategies that never alias allocated core, or by use of
higher-level languages, such as [441]LISP, which employ a garbage
collector (see [442]GC). Also called a [443]stale pointer bug. See
also [444]precedence lossage, [445]smash the stack, [446]fandango on
core, [447]memory leak, [448]memory smash, [449]overrun screw,
[450]spam.
Historical note: Though this term is nowadays associated with C
programming, it was already in use in a very similar sense in the
Algol-60 and FORTRAN communities in the 1960s.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Alice and Bob, Next:[451]all-elbows, Previous:[452]aliasing bug,
Up:[453]= A =
Alice and Bob n.
The archetypal individuals used as examples in discussions of
cryptographic protocols. Originally, theorists would say something
like: "A communicates with someone who claims to be B, So to be sure,
A tests that B knows a secret number K. So A sends to B a random
number X. B then forms Y by encrypting X under key K and sends Y back
to A" Because this sort of thing is is quite hard to follow, theorists
stopped using the unadorned letters A and B to represent the main
players and started calling them Alice and Bob. So now we say "Alice
communicates with someone claiming to be Bob, and to be sure, So Alice
tests that Bob knows a secret number K. Alice sends to Bob a random
number X. Bob then forms Y by encrypting X under key K and sends Y
back to Alice". A whole mythology rapidly grew up around the
metasyntactic names; see
[454]http://www.conceptlabs.co.uk/alicebob.html.
In Bruce Schneier's definitive introductory text "Applied
Cryptography" (2nd ed., 1996, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-471-11709-9)
he introduces a table of dramatis personae headed by Alice and Bob.
Others include Carol (a participant in three- and four-party
protocols), Dave (a participant in four-party protocols), Eve (an
eavesdropper), Mallory (a malicious active attacker), Trent (a trusted
arbitrator), Walter (a warden), Peggy (a prover) and Victor (a
verifier). These names for roles are either already standard or, given
the wide popularity of the book, may be expected to quickly become so.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:all-elbows, Next:[455]alpha geek, Previous:[456]Alice and Bob,
Up:[457]= A =
all-elbows adj.
[MS-DOS] Of a TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) IBM PC program, such
as the N pop-up calendar and calculator utilities that circulate on
[458]BBS systems: unsociable. Used to describe a program that rudely
steals the resources that it needs without considering that other TSRs
may also be resident. One particularly common form of rudeness is
lock-up due to programs fighting over the keyboard interrupt. See
[459]rude, also [460]mess-dos.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:alpha geek, Next:[461]alpha particles, Previous:[462]all-elbows,
Up:[463]= A =
alpha geek n.
[from animal ethologists' `alpha male'] The most technically
accomplished or skillful person in some implied context. "Ask Larry,
he's the alpha geek here."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:alpha particles, Next:[464]alt, Previous:[465]alpha geek,
Up:[466]= A =
alpha particles n.
See [467]bit rot.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:alt, Next:[468]alt bit, Previous:[469]alpha particles, Up:[470]=
A =
alt /awlt/
1. n. The alt shift key on an IBM PC or [471]clone keyboard; see
[472]bucky bits, sense 2 (though typical PC usage does not simply set
the 0200 bit). 2. n. The `option' key on a Macintosh; use of this term
usually reveals that the speaker hacked PCs before coming to the Mac
(see also [473]feature key, which is sometimes incorrectly called
`alt'). 3. n.,obs. [PDP-10; often capitalized to ALT] Alternate name
for the ASCII ESC character (ASCII 0011011), after the keycap labeling
on some older terminals; also `altmode' (/awlt'mohd/). This character
was almost never pronounced `escape' on an ITS system, in [474]TECO,
or under TOPS-10 -- always alt, as in "Type alt alt to end a TECO
command" or "alt-U onto the system" (for "log onto the [ITS] system").
This usage probably arose because alt is more convenient to say than
`escape', especially when followed by another alt or a character (or
another alt and a character, for that matter). 4. The alt hierarchy on
Usenet, the tree of newsgroups created by users without a formal vote
and approval procedure. There is a myth, not entirely implausible,
that alt is acronymic for "anarchists, lunatics, and terrorists"; but
in fact it is simply short for "alternative".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:alt bit, Next:[475]Aluminum Book, Previous:[476]alt, Up:[477]= A
=
alt bit /awlt bit/ [from alternate] adj.
See [478]meta bit.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Aluminum Book, Next:[479]ambimouseterous, Previous:[480]alt bit,
Up:[481]= A =
Aluminum Book n.
[MIT] "Common LISP: The Language", by Guy L. Steele Jr. (Digital
Press, first edition 1984, second edition 1990). Note that due to a
technical screwup some printings of the second edition are actually of
a color the author describes succinctly as "yucky green". See also
[482]book titles.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ambimouseterous, Next:[483]Amiga, Previous:[484]Aluminum Book,
Up:[485]= A =
ambimouseterous /am-b*-mows'ter-us/ or /am-b*-mows'trus/ adj.
[modeled on ambidextrous] Able to use a mouse with either hand.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Amiga, Next:[486]Amiga Persecution Complex,
Previous:[487]ambimouseterous, Up:[488]= A =
Amiga n
A series of personal computer models originally sold by Commodore,
based on 680x0 processors, custom support chips and an operating
system that combined some of the best features of Macintosh and Unix
with compatibility with neither.
The Amiga was released just as the personal computing world
standardized on IBM-PC clones. This prevented it from gaining serious
market share, despite the fact that the first Amigas had a substantial
technological lead on the IBM XTs of the time. Instead, it acquired a
small but zealous population of enthusiastic hackers who dreamt of one
day unseating the clones (see [489]Amiga Persecution Complex). The
traits of this culture are both spoofed and illuminated in [490]The
BLAZE Humor Viewer. The strength of the Amiga platform seeded a small
industry of companies building software and hardware for the platform,
especially in graphics and video applications (see [491]video
toaster).
Due to spectacular mismanagement, Commodore did hardly any R&D,
allowing the competition to close Amiga's technological lead. After
Commodore went bankrupt in 1994 the technology passed through several
hands, none of whom did much with it. However, the Amiga is still
being produced in Europe under license and has a substantial number of
fans, which will probably extend the platform's life considerably.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Amiga Persecution Complex, Next:[492]amoeba, Previous:[493]Amiga,
Up:[494]= A =
Amiga Persecution Complex n.
The disorder suffered by a particularly egregious variety of
[495]bigot, those who believe that the marginality of their preferred
machine is the result of some kind of industry-wide conspiracy (for
without a conspiracy of some kind, the eminent superiority of their
beloved shining jewel of a platform would obviously win over all,
market pressures be damned!) Those afflicted are prone to engaging in
[496]flame wars and calling for boycotts and mailbombings. Amiga
Persecution Complex is by no means limited to Amiga users; NeXT,
[497]NeWS, [498]OS/2, Macintosh, [499]LISP, and [500]GNU users are
also common victims. [501]Linux users used to display symptoms very
frequently before Linux started winning; some still do. See also
[502]newbie, [503]troll, [504]holy wars, [505]weenie, [506]Get a
life!.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:amoeba, Next:[507]amp off, Previous:[508]Amiga Persecution
Complex, Up:[509]= A =
amoeba n.
Humorous term for the Commodore Amiga personal computer.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:amp off, Next:[510]amper, Previous:[511]amoeba, Up:[512]= A =
amp off vt.
[Purdue] To run in [513]background. From the Unix shell `&' operator.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:amper, Next:[514]Angband, Previous:[515]amp off, Up:[516]= A =
amper n.
Common abbreviation for the name of the ampersand (`&', ASCII 0100110)
character. See [517]ASCII for other synonyms.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Angband, Next:[518]angle brackets, Previous:[519]amper, Up:[520]=
A =
Angband n. /ang'band/
Like [521]nethack, [522]moria, and [523]rogue, one of the large freely
distributed Dungeons-and-Dragons-like simulation games, available for
a wide range of machines and operating systems. The name is from
Tolkien's Pits of Angband (compare [524]elder days, [525]elvish). Has
been described as "Moria on steroids"; but, unlike Moria, many aspects
of the game are customizable. This leads many hackers and would-be
hackers into fooling with these instead of doing productive work.
There are many Angband variants, of which the most notorious is
probably the rather whimsical Zangband. In this game, when a key that
does not correspond to a command is pressed, the game will display
"Type ? for help" 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time, random
error messages including "An error has occurred because an error of
type 42 has occurred" and "Windows 95 uninstalled successfully" will
be displayed. Zangband also allows the player to kill Santa Claus (who
has some really good stuff, but also has a lot of friends), "Bull
Gates", and Barney the Dinosaur (but be watchful; Barney has a nasty
case of halitosis). There is an official angband home page at
[526]http://www.phial.com/angband and a zangband one at
[527]http://thangorodrim.angband.org. See also [528]Random Number God.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:angle brackets, Next:[529]angry fruit salad,
Previous:[530]Angband, Up:[531]= A =
angle brackets n.
Either of the characters < (ASCII 0111100) and > (ASCII 0111110)
(ASCII less-than or greater-than signs). Typographers in the [532]Real
World use angle brackets which are either taller and slimmer (the ISO
`Bra' and `Ket' characters), or significantly smaller (single or
double guillemets) than the less-than and greater-than signs. See
[533]broket, [534]ASCII.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:angry fruit salad, Next:[535]annoybot, Previous:[536]angle
brackets, Up:[537]= A =
angry fruit salad n.
A bad visual-interface design that uses too many colors. (This term
derives, of course, from the bizarre day-glo colors found in canned
fruit salad.) Too often one sees similar effects from interface
designers using color window systems such as [538]X; there is a
tendency to create displays that are flashy and attention-getting but
uncomfortable for long-term use.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:annoybot, Next:[539]annoyware, Previous:[540]angry fruit salad,
Up:[541]= A =
annoybot /*-noy-bot/ n.
[IRC] See [542]bot.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:annoyware, Next:[543]ANSI, Previous:[544]annoybot, Up:[545]= A =
annoyware n.
A type of [546]shareware that frequently disrupts normal program
operation to display requests for payment to the author in return for
the ability to disable the request messages. (Also called `nagware')
The requests generally require user action to acknowledge the message
before normal operation is resumed and are often tied to the most
frequently used features of the software. See also [547]careware,
[548]charityware, [549]crippleware, [550]freeware, [551]FRS,
[552]guiltware, [553]postcardware, and [554]-ware; compare
[555]payware.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ANSI, Next:[556]ANSI standard, Previous:[557]annoyware, Up:[558]=
A =
ANSI /an'see/
1. n. [techspeak] The American National Standards Institute. ANSI,
along with the International Organization for Standards (ISO),
standardized the C programming language (see [559]K&R, [560]Classic
C), and promulgates many other important software standards. 2. n.
[techspeak] A terminal may be said to be `ANSI' if it meets the ANSI
X.364 standard for terminal control. Unfortunately, this standard was
both over-complicated and too permissive. It has been retired and
replaced by the ECMA-48 standard, which shares both flaws. 3. n. [BBS
jargon] The set of screen-painting codes that most MS-DOS and Amiga
computers accept. This comes from the ANSI.SYS device driver that must
be loaded on an MS-DOS computer to view such codes. Unfortunately,
neither DOS ANSI nor the BBS ANSIs derived from it exactly match the
ANSI X.364 terminal standard. For example, the ESC-[1m code turns on
the bold highlight on large machines, but in IBM PC/MS-DOS ANSI, it
turns on `intense' (bright) colors. Also, in BBS-land, the term `ANSI'
is often used to imply that a particular computer uses or can emulate
the IBM high-half character set from MS-DOS. Particular use depends on
context. Occasionally, the vanilla ASCII character set is used with
the color codes, but on BBSs, ANSI and `IBM characters' tend to go
together.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ANSI standard, Next:[561]ANSI standard pizza, Previous:[562]ANSI,
Up:[563]= A =
ANSI standard /an'see stan'd*rd/
The ANSI standard usage of `ANSI standard' refers to any practice
which is typical or broadly done. It's most appropriately applied to
things that everyone does that are not quite regulation. For example:
ANSI standard shaking of a laser printer cartridge to get extra life
from it, or the ANSI standard word tripling in names of usenet alt
groups.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ANSI standard pizza, Next:[564]AOL!, Previous:[565]ANSI standard,
Up:[566]= A =
ANSI standard pizza /an'see stan'd*rd peet'z*/
[CMU] Pepperoni and mushroom pizza. Coined allegedly because most
pizzas ordered by CMU hackers during some period leading up to
mid-1990 were of that flavor. See also [567]rotary debugger; compare
[568]ISO standard cup of tea.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:AOL!, Next:[569]app, Previous:[570]ANSI standard pizza, Up:[571]=
A =
AOL! n.
[Usenet] Common synonym for "Me, too!" alluding to the legendary
propensity of America Online users to utter contentless "Me, too!"
postings. The number of exclamation points following varies from zero
to five or so. The pseudo-HTML
<AOL>Me, too!</AOL>
is also frequently seen. See also [572]September that never ended.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:app, Next:[573]arena, Previous:[574]AOL!, Up:[575]= A =
app /ap/ n.
Short for `application program', as opposed to a systems program. Apps
are what systems vendors are forever chasing developers to create for
their environments so they can sell more boxes. Hackers tend not to
think of the things they themselves run as apps; thus, in hacker
parlance the term excludes compilers, program editors, games, and
messaging systems, though a user would consider all those to be apps.
(Broadly, an app is often a self-contained environment for performing
some well-defined task such as `word processing'; hackers tend to
prefer more general-purpose tools.) See [576]killer app; oppose
[577]tool, [578]operating system.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:arena, Next:[579]arg, Previous:[580]app, Up:[581]= A =
arena n.
[common; Unix] The area of memory attached to a process by brk(2) and
sbrk(2) and used by malloc(3) as dynamic storage. So named from a
malloc: corrupt arena message emitted when some early versions
detected an impossible value in the free block list. See [582]overrun
screw, [583]aliasing bug, [584]memory leak, [585]memory smash,
[586]smash the stack.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:arg, Next:[587]ARMM, Previous:[588]arena, Up:[589]= A =
arg /arg/ n.
Abbreviation for `argument' (to a function), used so often as to have
become a new word (like `piano' from `pianoforte'). "The sine function
takes 1 arg, but the arc-tangent function can take either 1 or 2
args." Compare [590]param, [591]parm, [592]var.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ARMM, Next:[593]armor-plated, Previous:[594]arg, Up:[595]= A =
ARMM n.
[acronym, `Automated Retroactive Minimal Moderation'] A Usenet
[596]cancelbot created by Dick Depew of Munroe Falls, Ohio. ARMM was
intended to automatically cancel posts from anonymous-posting sites.
Unfortunately, the robot's recognizer for anonymous postings triggered
on its own automatically-generated control messages! Transformed by
this stroke of programming ineptitude into a monster of
Frankensteinian proportions, it broke loose on the night of March 31,
1993 and proceeded to [597]spam news.admin.policy with a recursive
explosion of over 200 messages.
ARMM's bug produced a recursive [598]cascade of messages each of which
mechanically added text to the ID and Subject and some other headers
of its parent. This produced a flood of messages in which each header
took up several screens and each message ID and subject line got
longer and longer and longer.
Reactions varied from amusement to outrage. The pathological messages
crashed at least one mail system, and upset people paying line charges
for their Usenet feeds. One poster described the ARMM debacle as
"instant Usenet history" (also establishing the term [599]despew), and
it has since been widely cited as a cautionary example of the havoc
the combination of good intentions and incompetence can wreak on a
network. Compare [600]Great Worm; [601]sorcerer's apprentice mode. See
also [602]software laser, [603]network meltdown.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:armor-plated, Next:[604]asbestos, Previous:[605]ARMM, Up:[606]= A
=
armor-plated n.
Syn. for [607]bulletproof.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:asbestos, Next:[608]asbestos cork award,
Previous:[609]armor-plated, Up:[610]= A =
asbestos adj.
[common] Used as a modifier to anything intended to protect one from
[611]flames; also in other highly [612]flame-suggestive usages. See,
for example, [613]asbestos longjohns and [614]asbestos cork award.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:asbestos cork award, Next:[615]asbestos longjohns,
Previous:[616]asbestos, Up:[617]= A =
asbestos cork award n.
Once, long ago at MIT, there was a [618]flamer so consistently
obnoxious that another hacker designed, had made, and distributed
posters announcing that said flamer had been nominated for the
`asbestos cork award'. (Any reader in doubt as to the intended
application of the cork should consult the etymology under
[619]flame.) Since then, it is agreed that only a select few have
risen to the heights of bombast required to earn this dubious dignity
-- but there is no agreement on which few.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:asbestos longjohns, Next:[620]ASCII, Previous:[621]asbestos cork
award, Up:[622]= A =
asbestos longjohns n.
Notional garments donned by [623]Usenet posters just before emitting a
remark they expect will elicit [624]flamage. This is the most common
of the [625]asbestos coinages. Also `asbestos underwear', `asbestos
overcoat', etc.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ASCII, Next:[626]ASCII art, Previous:[627]asbestos longjohns,
Up:[628]= A =
ASCII /as'kee/ n.
[originally an acronym (American Standard Code for Information
Interchange) but now merely conventional] The predominant character
set encoding of present-day computers. The standard version uses 7
bits for each character, whereas most earlier codes (including early
drafts of of ASCII prior to June 1961) used fewer. This change allowed
the inclusion of lowercase letters -- a major [629]win -- but it did
not provide for accented letters or any other letterforms not used in
English (such as the German sharp-S or the ae-ligature which is a
letter in, for example, Norwegian). It could be worse, though. It
could be much worse. See [630]EBCDIC to understand how. A history of
ASCII and its ancestors is at
[631]http://www.wps.com/texts/codes/index.html.
Computers are much pickier and less flexible about spelling than
humans; thus, hackers need to be very precise when talking about
characters, and have developed a considerable amount of verbal
shorthand for them. Every character has one or more names -- some
formal, some concise, some silly. Common jargon names for ASCII
characters are collected here. See also individual entries for
[632]bang, [633]excl, [634]open, [635]ques, [636]semi, [637]shriek,
[638]splat, [639]twiddle, and [640]Yu-Shiang Whole Fish.
This list derives from revision 2.3 of the Usenet ASCII pronunciation
guide. Single characters are listed in ASCII order; character pairs
are sorted in by first member. For each character, common names are
given in rough order of popularity, followed by names that are
reported but rarely seen; official ANSI/CCITT names are surrounded by
brokets: <>. Square brackets mark the particularly silly names
introduced by [641]INTERCAL. The abbreviations "l/r" and "o/c" stand
for left/right and "open/close" respectively. Ordinary parentheticals
provide some usage information.
!
Common: [642]bang; pling; excl; shriek; ball-bat; <exclamation
mark>. Rare: factorial; exclam; smash; cuss; boing; yell; wow;
hey; wham; eureka; [spark-spot]; soldier, control.
"
Common: double quote; quote. Rare: literal mark; double-glitch;
<quotation marks>; <dieresis>; dirk; [rabbit-ears]; double
prime.
#
Common: number sign; pound; pound sign; hash; sharp;
[643]crunch; hex; [mesh]. Rare: grid; crosshatch; octothorpe;
flash; <square>, pig-pen; tictactoe; scratchmark; thud; thump;
[644]splat.
$
Common: dollar; <dollar sign>. Rare: currency symbol; buck;
cash; string (from BASIC); escape (when used as the echo of
ASCII ESC); ding; cache; [big money].
%
Common: percent; <percent sign>; mod; grapes. Rare:
[double-oh-seven].
&
Common: <ampersand>; amper; and, and sign. Rare: address (from
C); reference (from C++); andpersand; bitand; background (from
sh(1)); pretzel; amp. [INTERCAL called this `ampersand'; what
could be sillier?]
'
Common: single quote; quote; <apostrophe>. Rare: prime; glitch;
tick; irk; pop; [spark]; <closing single quotation mark>;
<acute accent>.
( )
Common: l/r paren; l/r parenthesis; left/right; open/close;
paren/thesis; o/c paren; o/c parenthesis; l/r parenthesis; l/r
banana. Rare: so/already; lparen/rparen; <opening/closing
parenthesis>; o/c round bracket, l/r round bracket, [wax/wane];
parenthisey/unparenthisey; l/r ear.
*
Common: star; [[645]splat]; <asterisk>. Rare: wildcard; gear;
dingle; mult; spider; aster; times; twinkle; glob (see
[646]glob); [647]Nathan Hale.
+
Common: <plus>; add. Rare: cross; [intersection].
,
Common: <comma>. Rare: <cedilla>; [tail].
-
Common: dash; <hyphen>; <minus>. Rare: [worm]; option; dak;
bithorpe.
.
Common: dot; point; <period>; <decimal point>. Rare: radix
point; full stop; [spot].
/
Common: slash; stroke; <slant>; forward slash. Rare: diagonal;
solidus; over; slak; virgule; [slat].
:
Common: <colon>. Rare: dots; [two-spot].
;
Common: <semicolon>; semi. Rare: weenie; [hybrid], pit-thwong.
< >
Common: <less/greater than>; bra/ket; l/r angle; l/r angle
bracket; l/r broket. Rare: from/{into, towards}; read
from/write to; suck/blow; comes-from/gozinta; in/out;
crunch/zap (all from UNIX); tic/tac; [angle/right angle].
=
Common: <equals>; gets; takes. Rare: quadrathorpe; [half-mesh].
?
Common: query; <question mark>; [648]ques. Rare: whatmark;
[what]; wildchar; huh; hook; buttonhook; hunchback.
@
Common: at sign; at; strudel. Rare: each; vortex; whorl;
[whirlpool]; cyclone; snail; ape; cat; rose; cabbage;
<commercial at>.
V
Rare: [book].
[ ]
Common: l/r square bracket; l/r bracket; <opening/closing
bracket>; bracket/unbracket. Rare: square/unsquare; [U turn/U
turn back].
\
Common: backslash, hack, whack; escape (from C/UNIX); reverse
slash; slosh; backslant; backwhack. Rare: bash; <reverse
slant>; reversed virgule; [backslat].
^
Common: hat; control; uparrow; caret; <circumflex>. Rare: xor
sign, chevron; [shark (or shark-fin)]; to the (`to the power
of'); fang; pointer (in Pascal).
_
Common: <underline>; underscore; underbar; under. Rare: score;
backarrow; skid; [flatworm].
`
Common: backquote; left quote; left single quote; open quote;
<grave accent>; grave. Rare: backprime; [backspark];
unapostrophe; birk; blugle; back tick; back glitch; push;
<opening single quotation mark>; quasiquote.
{ }
Common: o/c brace; l/r brace; l/r squiggly; l/r squiggly
bracket/brace; l/r curly bracket/brace; <opening/closing
brace>. Rare: brace/unbrace; curly/uncurly; leftit/rytit; l/r
squirrelly; [embrace/bracelet].
|
Common: bar; or; or-bar; v-bar; pipe; vertical bar. Rare:
<vertical line>; gozinta; thru; pipesinta (last three from
UNIX); [spike].
~
Common: <tilde>; squiggle; [649]twiddle; not. Rare: approx;
wiggle; swung dash; enyay; [sqiggle (sic)].
The pronunciation of # as `pound' is common in the U.S. but a bad
idea; [650]Commonwealth Hackish has its own, rather more apposite use
of `pound sign' (confusingly, on British keyboards the pound graphic
happens to replace #; thus Britishers sometimes call # on a U.S.-ASCII
keyboard `pound', compounding the American error). The U.S. usage
derives from an old-fashioned commercial practice of using a # suffix
to tag pound weights on bills of lading. The character is usually
pronounced `hash' outside the U.S. There are more culture wars over
the correct pronunciation of this character than any other, which has
led to the [651]ha ha only serious suggestion that it be pronounced
`shibboleth' (see Judges 12:6 in an Old Testament or Tanakh).
The `uparrow' name for circumflex and `leftarrow' name for underline
are historical relics from archaic ASCII (the 1963 version), which had
these graphics in those character positions rather than the modern
punctuation characters.
The `swung dash' or `approximation' sign is not quite the same as
tilde in typeset material but the ASCII tilde serves for both (compare
[652]angle brackets).
Some other common usages cause odd overlaps. The #, $, >, and &
characters, for example, are all pronounced "hex" in different
communities because various assemblers use them as a prefix tag for
hexadecimal constants (in particular, # in many assembler-programming
cultures, $ in the 6502 world, > at Texas Instruments, and & on the
BBC Micro, Sinclair, and some Z80 machines). See also [653]splat.
The inability of ASCII text to correctly represent any of the world's
other major languages makes the designers' choice of 7 bits look more
and more like a serious [654]misfeature as the use of international
networks continues to increase (see [655]software rot). Hardware and
software from the U.S. still tends to embody the assumption that ASCII
is the universal character set and that characters have 7 bits; this
is a major irritant to people who want to use a character set suited
to their own languages. Perversely, though, efforts to solve this
problem by proliferating `national' character sets produce an
evolutionary pressure to use a smaller subset common to all those in
use.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ASCII art, Next:[656]ASCIIbetical order, Previous:[657]ASCII,
Up:[658]= A =
ASCII art n.
The fine art of drawing diagrams using the ASCII character set (mainly
|, -, /, \, and +). Also known as `character graphics' or `ASCII
graphics'; see also [659]boxology. Here is a serious example:
o----)||(--+--|<----+ +---------o + D O
L )||( | | | C U
A I )||( +-->|-+ | +-\/\/-+--o - T
C N )||( | | | | P
E )||( +-->|-+--)---+--|(--+-o U
)||( | | | GND T
o----)||(--+--|<----+----------+
A power supply consisting of a full wave rectifier circuit
feeding a capacitor input filter circuit
And here are some very silly examples:
|\/\/\/| ____/| ___ |\_/| ___
| | \ o.O| ACK! / \_ |` '| _/ \
| | =(_)= THPHTH! / \/ \/ \
| (o)(o) U / \
C _) (__) \/\/\/\ _____ /\/\/\/
| ,___| (oo) \/ \/
| / \/-------\ U (__)
/____\ || | \ /---V `v'- oo )
/ \ ||---W|| * * |--| || |`. |_/\
//-o-\\
____---=======---____
====___\ /.. ..\ /___==== Klingons rule OK!
// ---\__O__/--- \\
\_\ /_/
There is an important subgenre of ASCII art that puns on the standard
character names in the fashion of a rebus.
+--------------------------------------------------------+
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^ |
| ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ |
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |
| ^^^^^^^ B ^^^^^^^^^ |
| ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
" A Bee in the Carrot Patch "
Within humorous ASCII art, there is for some reason an entire
flourishing subgenre of pictures of silly cows. Four of these are
reproduced in the examples above, here are three more:
(__) (__) (__)
(\/) ($$) (**)
/-------\/ /-------\/ /-------\/
/ | 666 || / |=====|| / | ||
* ||----|| * ||----|| * ||----||
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
Satanic cow This cow is a Yuppie Cow in love
Finally, here's a magnificent example of ASCII art depicting an
Edwardian train station in Dunedin, New Zealand:
.-.
/___\
|___|
|]_[|
/ I \
JL/ | \JL
.-. i () | () i .-.
|_| .^. /_\ LJ=======LJ /_\ .^. |_|
._/___\._./___\_._._._._.L_J_/.-. .-.\_L_J._._._._._/___\._./___\._._._
., |-,-| ., L_J |_| [I] |_| L_J ., |-,-| ., .,
JL |-O-| JL L_J%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%L_J JL |-O-| JL JL
IIIIII_HH_'-'-'_HH_IIIIII|_|=======H=======|_|IIIIII_HH_'-'-'_HH_IIIIII_HH_
-------[]-------[]-------[_]----\.=I=./----[_]-------[]-------[]--------[]-
_/\_ ||\\_I_//|| _/\_ [_] []_/_L_J_\_[] [_] _/\_ ||\\_I_//|| _/\_ ||\
|__| ||=/_|_\=|| |__|_|_| _L_L_J_J_ |_|_|__| ||=/_|_\=|| |__| ||-
|__| |||__|__||| |__[___]__--__===__--__[___]__| |||__|__||| |__| |||
IIIIIII[_]IIIII[_]IIIIIL___J__II__|_|__II__L___JIIIII[_]IIIII[_]IIIIIIII[_]
\_I_/ [_]\_I_/[_] \_I_[_]\II/[]\_\I/_/[]\II/[_]\_I_/ [_]\_I_/[_] \_I_/ [_]
./ \.L_J/ \L_J./ L_JI I[]/ \[]I IL_J \.L_J/ \L_J./ \.L_J
| |L_J| |L_J| L_J| |[]| |[]| |L_J |L_J| |L_J| |L_J
|_____JL_JL___JL_JL____|-|| |[]| |[]| ||-|_____JL_JL___JL_JL_____JL_J
There is a newsgroup, alt.ascii-art, devoted to this genre; however,
see also [660]warlording.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ASCIIbetical order, Next:[661]astroturfing, Previous:[662]ASCII
art, Up:[663]= A =
ASCIIbetical order /as'kee-be'-t*-kl or'dr/ adj.,n.
Used to indicate that data is sorted in ASCII collated order rather
than alphabetical order. This lexicon is sorted in something close to
ASCIIbetical order, but with case ignored and entries beginning with
non-alphabetic characters moved to the end. "At my video store, they
used their computer to sort the videos into ASCIIbetical order, so I
couldn't find `"Crocodile" Dundee' until I thought to look before
`2001' and `48 HRS.'!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:astroturfing, Next:[664]atomic, Previous:[665]ASCIIbetical order,
Up:[666]= A =
astroturfing n.
The use of paid shills to create the impression of a popular movement,
through means like letters to newspapers from soi-disant `concerned
citizens', paid opinion pieces, and the formation of grass-roots
lobbying groups that are actually funded by a PR group (astroturf is
fake grass; hence the term). This term became common among hackers
after it came to light in early 1998 that Microsoft had attempted to
use such tactics to forestall the U.S. Department of Justice's
antitrust action against the company.
This backfired horribly, angering a number of state attorneys-general
enough to induce them to go public with plans to join the Federal
suit. It also set anybody defending Microsoft on the net for the
accusation "You're just astroturfing!".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:atomic, Next:[667]attoparsec, Previous:[668]astroturfing,
Up:[669]= A =
atomic adj.
[from Gk. `atomos', indivisible] 1. Indivisible; cannot be split up.
For example, an instruction may be said to do several things
`atomically', i.e., all the things are done immediately, and there is
no chance of the instruction being half-completed or of another being
interspersed. Used esp. to convey that an operation cannot be screwed
up by interrupts. "This routine locks the file and increments the
file's semaphore atomically." 2. [primarily techspeak] Guaranteed to
complete successfully or not at all, usu. refers to database
transactions. If an error prevents a partially-performed transaction
from proceeding to completion, it must be "backed out," as the
database must not be left in an inconsistent state.
Computer usage, in either of the above senses, has none of the
connotations that `atomic' has in mainstream English (i.e. of
particles of matter, nuclear explosions etc.).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:attoparsec, Next:[670]AUP, Previous:[671]atomic, Up:[672]= A =
attoparsec n.
About an inch. `atto-' is the standard SI prefix for multiplication by
10^(-18). A parsec (parallax-second) is 3.26 light-years; an
attoparsec is thus 3.26 * 10^(-18) light years, or about 3.1 cm (thus,
1 attoparsec/[673]microfortnight equals about 1 inch/sec). This unit
is reported to be in use (though probably not very seriously) among
hackers in the U.K. See [674]micro-.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:AUP, Next:[675]autobogotiphobia, Previous:[676]attoparsec,
Up:[677]= A =
AUP /A-U-P/
Abbreviation, "Acceptable Use Policy". The policy of a given ISP which
sets out what the ISP considers to be (un)acceptable uses of its
Internet resources.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:autobogotiphobia, Next:[678]automagically, Previous:[679]AUP,
Up:[680]= A =
autobogotiphobia /aw'toh-boh-got`*-foh'bee-*/
n. See [681]bogotify.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:automagically, Next:[682]avatar, Previous:[683]autobogotiphobia,
Up:[684]= A =
automagically /aw-toh-maj'i-klee/ adv.
Automatically, but in a way that, for some reason (typically because
it is too complicated, or too ugly, or perhaps even too trivial), the
speaker doesn't feel like explaining to you. See [685]magic. "The
C-INTERCAL compiler generates C, then automagically invokes cc(1) to
produce an executable."
This term is quite old, going back at least to the mid-70s in jargon
and probably much earlier. The word `automagic' occurred in
advertising (for a shirt-ironing gadget) as far back as the late
1940s.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:avatar, Next:[686]awk, Previous:[687]automagically, Up:[688]= A =
avatar n. Syn.
[in Hindu mythology, the incarnation of a god] 1. Among people working
on virtual reality and [689]cyberspace interfaces, an avatar is an
icon or representation of a user in a shared virtual reality. The term
is sometimes used on [690]MUDs. 2. [CMU, Tektronix] [691]root,
[692]superuser. There are quite a few Unix machines on which the name
of the superuser account is `avatar' rather than `root'. This quirk
was originated by a CMU hacker who found the terms `root' and
`superuser' unimaginative, and thought `avatar' might better impress
people with the responsibility they were accepting.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:awk, Next:[693]B5, Previous:[694]avatar, Up:[695]= A =
awk /awk/
1. n. [Unix techspeak] An interpreted language for massaging text data
developed by Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan (the
name derives from their initials). It is characterized by C-like
syntax, a declaration-free approach to variable typing and
declarations, associative arrays, and field-oriented text processing.
See also [696]Perl. 2. n. Editing term for an expression awkward to
manipulate through normal [697]regexp facilities (for example, one
containing a [698]newline). 3. vt. To process data using awk(1).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:= B =, Next:[699]= C =, Previous:[700]= A =, Up:[701]The Jargon
Lexicon
= B =
* [702]B5:
* [703]back door:
* [704]backbone cabal:
* [705]backbone site:
* [706]backgammon:
* [707]background:
* [708]backreference:
* [709]backronym:
* [710]backspace and overstrike:
* [711]backward combatability:
* [712]BAD:
* [713]Bad and Wrong:
* [714]Bad Thing:
* [715]bag on the side:
* [716]bagbiter:
* [717]bagbiting:
* [718]baggy pantsing:
* [719]balloonian variable:
* [720]bamf:
* [721]banana label:
* [722]banana problem:
* [723]banner ad:
* [724]banner site:
* [725]barn:
* [726]batbelt:
* [727]Befunge:
* [728]BI:
* [729]binary four:
* [730]bandwidth:
* [731]bang:
* [732]bang on:
* [733]bang path:
* [734]banner:
* [735]bar:
* [736]bare metal:
* [737]barf:
* [738]barfmail:
* [739]barfulation:
* [740]barfulous:
* [741]barney:
* [742]baroque:
* [743]BASIC:
* [744]batch:
* [745]bathtub curve:
* [746]baud:
* [747]baud barf:
* [748]baz:
* [749]bazaar:
* [750]bboard:
* [751]BBS:
* [752]BCPL:
* [753]beam:
* [754]beanie key:
* [755]beep:
* [756]beige toaster:
* [757]bells and whistles:
* [758]bells whistles and gongs:
* [759]benchmark:
* [760]Berkeley Quality Software:
* [761]berklix:
* [762]Berzerkeley:
* [763]beta:
* [764]BFI:
* [765]bible:
* [766]BiCapitalization:
* [767]B1FF:
* [768]biff:
* [769]Big Gray Wall:
* [770]big iron:
* [771]Big Red Switch:
* [772]Big Room:
* [773]big win:
* [774]big-endian:
* [775]bignum:
* [776]bigot:
* [777]bit:
* [778]bit bang:
* [779]bit bashing:
* [780]bit bucket:
* [781]bit decay:
* [782]bit rot:
* [783]bit twiddling:
* [784]bit-paired keyboard:
* [785]bitblt:
* [786]BITNET:
* [787]bits:
* [788]bitty box:
* [789]bixen:
* [790]bixie:
* [791]black art:
* [792]black hole:
* [793]black magic:
* [794]Black Screen of Death:
* [795]Black Thursday:
* [796]blammo:
* [797]blargh:
* [798]blast:
* [799]blat:
* [800]bletch:
* [801]bletcherous:
* [802]blink:
* [803]blinkenlights:
* [804]blit:
* [805]blitter:
* [806]blivet:
* [807]bloatware:
* [808]BLOB:
* [809]block:
* [810]block transfer computations:
* [811]Bloggs Family:
* [812]blow an EPROM:
* [813]blow away:
* [814]blow out:
* [815]blow past:
* [816]blow up:
* [817]BLT:
* [818]Blue Book:
* [819]blue box:
* [820]Blue Glue:
* [821]blue goo:
* [822]Blue Screen of Death:
* [823]blue wire:
* [824]blurgle:
* [825]BNF:
* [826]boa:
* [827]board:
* [828]boat anchor:
* [829]bob:
* [830]bodysurf code:
* [831]BOF:
* [832]BOFH:
* [833]bogo-sort:
* [834]bogometer:
* [835]BogoMIPS:
* [836]bogon:
* [837]bogon filter:
* [838]bogon flux:
* [839]bogosity:
* [840]bogotify:
* [841]bogue out:
* [842]bogus:
* [843]Bohr bug:
* [844]boink:
* [845]bomb:
* [846]bondage-and-discipline language:
* [847]bonk/oif:
* [848]book titles:
* [849]boot:
* [850]Borg:
* [851]borken:
* [852]bot:
* [853]bot spot:
* [854]bottom feeder:
* [855]bottom-up implementation:
* [856]bounce:
* [857]bounce message:
* [858]boustrophedon:
* [859]box:
* [860]boxed comments:
* [861]boxen:
* [862]boxology:
* [863]bozotic:
* [864]BQS:
* [865]brain dump:
* [866]brain fart:
* [867]brain-damaged:
* [868]brain-dead:
* [869]braino:
* [870]branch to Fishkill:
* [871]bread crumbs:
* [872]break:
* [873]break-even point:
* [874]breath-of-life packet:
* [875]breedle:
* [876]Breidbart Index:
* [877]bring X to its knees:
* [878]brittle:
* [879]broadcast storm:
* [880]brochureware:
* [881]broken:
* [882]broken arrow:
* [883]BrokenWindows:
* [884]broket:
* [885]Brooks's Law:
* [886]brown-paper-bag bug:
* [887]browser:
* [888]BRS:
* [889]brute force:
* [890]brute force and ignorance:
* [891]BSD:
* [892]BSOD:
* [893]BUAF:
* [894]BUAG:
* [895]bubble sort:
* [896]bucky bits:
* [897]buffer chuck:
* [898]buffer overflow:
* [899]bug:
* [900]bug-compatible:
* [901]bug-for-bug compatible:
* [902]bug-of-the-month club:
* [903]buglix:
* [904]bulletproof:
* [905]bullschildt:
* [906]bum:
* [907]bump:
* [908]burble:
* [909]buried treasure:
* [910]burn-in period:
* [911]burst page:
* [912]busy-wait:
* [913]buzz:
* [914]BWQ:
* [915]by hand:
* [916]byte:
* [917]byte sex:
* [918]bytesexual:
* [919]Bzzzt! Wrong.:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:B5, Next:[920]back door, Previous:[921]awk, Up:[922]= B =
B5 //
[common] Abbreviation for "Babylon 5", a science-fiction TV series as
revered among hackers as was the original Star Trek.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:back door, Next:[923]backbone cabal, Previous:[924]B5, Up:[925]=
B =
back door n.
[common] A hole in the security of a system deliberately left in place
by designers or maintainers. The motivation for such holes is not
always sinister; some operating systems, for example, come out of the
box with privileged accounts intended for use by field service
technicians or the vendor's maintenance programmers. Syn. [926]trap
door; may also be called a `wormhole'. See also [927]iron box,
[928]cracker, [929]worm, [930]logic bomb.
Historically, back doors have often lurked in systems longer than
anyone expected or planned, and a few have become widely known. Ken
Thompson's 1983 Turing Award lecture to the ACM admitted the existence
of a back door in early Unix versions that may have qualified as the
most fiendishly clever security hack of all time. In this scheme, the
C compiler contained code that would recognize when the `login'
command was being recompiled and insert some code recognizing a
password chosen by Thompson, giving him entry to the system whether or
not an account had been created for him.
Normally such a back door could be removed by removing it from the
source code for the compiler and recompiling the compiler. But to
recompile the compiler, you have to use the compiler -- so Thompson
also arranged that the compiler would recognize when it was compiling
a version of itself, and insert into the recompiled compiler the code
to insert into the recompiled `login' the code to allow Thompson entry
-- and, of course, the code to recognize itself and do the whole thing
again the next time around! And having done this once, he was then
able to recompile the compiler from the original sources; the hack
perpetuated itself invisibly, leaving the back door in place and
active but with no trace in the sources.
The talk that suggested this truly moby hack was published as
"Reflections on Trusting Trust", "Communications of the ACM 27", 8
(August 1984), pp. 761-763 (text available at
[931]http://www.acm.org/classics). Ken Thompson has since confirmed
that this hack was implemented and that the Trojan Horse code did
appear in the login binary of a Unix Support group machine. Ken says
the crocked compiler was never distributed. Your editor has heard two
separate reports that suggest that the crocked login did make it out
of Bell Labs, notably to BBN, and that it enabled at least one
late-night login across the network by someone using the login name
`kt'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:backbone cabal, Next:[932]backbone site, Previous:[933]back door,
Up:[934]= B =
backbone cabal n.
A group of large-site administrators who pushed through the [935]Great
Renaming and reined in the chaos of [936]Usenet during most of the
1980s. During most of its lifetime, the Cabal (as it was sometimes
capitalized) steadfastly denied its own existence; it was almost
obligatory for anyone privy to their secrets to respond "There is no
Cabal" whenever the existence or activities of the group were
speculated on in public.
The result of this policy was an attractive aura of mystery. Even a
decade after the cabal [937]mailing list disbanded in late 1988
following a bitter internal catfight, many people believed (or claimed
to believe) that it had not actually disbanded but only gone deeper
underground with its power intact.
This belief became a model for various paranoid theories about various
Cabals with dark nefarious objectives beginning with taking over the
Usenet or Internet. These paranoias were later satirized in ways that
took on a life of their own. See [938]Eric Conspiracy for one example.
See [939]NANA for the subsequent history of "the Cabal".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:backbone site, Next:[940]backgammon, Previous:[941]backbone
cabal, Up:[942]= B =
backbone site n.,obs.
Formerly, a key Usenet and email site, one that processes a large
amount of third-party traffic, especially if it is the home site of
any of the regional coordinators for the Usenet maps. Notable backbone
sites as of early 1993, when this sense of the term was beginning to
pass out of general use due to wide availability of cheap Internet
connections, included uunet and the mail machines at Rutgers
University, UC Berkeley, [943]DEC's Western Research Laboratories,
Ohio State University, and the University of Texas. Compare [944]rib
site, [945]leaf site.
[1996 update: This term is seldom heard any more. The UUCP network
world that gave it meaning has nearly disappeared; everyone is on the
Internet now and network traffic is distributed in very different
patterns. Today one might see references to a `backbone router'
instead --ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:backgammon, Next:[946]background, Previous:[947]backbone site,
Up:[948]= B =
backgammon
See [949]bignum (sense 3), [950]moby (sense 4), and [951]pseudoprime.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:background, Next:[952]backreference, Previous:[953]backgammon,
Up:[954]= B =
background n.,adj.,vt.
[common] To do a task `in background' is to do it whenever
[955]foreground matters are not claiming your undivided attention, and
`to background' something means to relegate it to a lower priority.
"For now, we'll just print a list of nodes and links; I'm working on
the graph-printing problem in background." Note that this implies
ongoing activity but at a reduced level or in spare time, in contrast
to mainstream `back burner' (which connotes benign neglect until some
future resumption of activity). Some people prefer to use the term for
processing that they have queued up for their unconscious minds (a
tack that one can often fruitfully take upon encountering an obstacle
in creative work). Compare [956]amp off, [957]slopsucker.
Technically, a task running in background is detached from the
terminal where it was started (and often running at a lower priority);
oppose [958]foreground. Nowadays this term is primarily associated
with [959]Unix, but it appears to have been first used in this sense
on OS/360.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:backreference, Next:[960]backronym, Previous:[961]background,
Up:[962]= B =
backreference n.
1. In a regular expression or pattern match, the text which was
matched within grouping parentheses parentheses. 2. The part of the
pattern which refers back to the matched text. 3. By extension,
anything which refers back to something which has been seen or
discussed before. "When you said `she' just now, who were you
backreferencing?"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:backronym, Next:[963]backspace and overstrike,
Previous:[964]backreference, Up:[965]= B =
backronym n.
[portmanteau of back + acronym] A word interpreted as an acronym that
was not originally so intended. This is a special case of what
linguists call `back formation'. Examples are given under [966]BASIC,
[967]recursive acronym (Cygnus), [968]Acme, and [969]mung. Discovering
backronyms is a common form of wordplay among hackers. Compare
[970]retcon.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:backspace and overstrike, Next:[971]backward combatability,
Previous:[972]backronym, Up:[973]= B =
backspace and overstrike interj.
[rare] Whoa! Back up. Used to suggest that someone just said or did
something wrong. Once common among APL programmers; may now be
obsolete.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:backward combatability, Next:[974]BAD, Previous:[975]backspace
and overstrike, Up:[976]= B =
backward combatability /bak'w*rd k*m-bat'*-bil'*-tee/ n.
[CMU, Tektronix: from `backward compatibility'] A property of hardware
or software revisions in which previous protocols, formats, layouts,
etc. are irrevocably discarded in favor of `new and improved'
protocols, formats, and layouts, leaving the previous ones not merely
deprecated but actively defeated. (Too often, the old and new versions
cannot definitively be distinguished, such that lingering instances of
the previous ones yield crashes or other infelicitous effects, as
opposed to a simple "version mismatch" message.) A backwards
compatible change, on the other hand, allows old versions to coexist
without crashes or error messages, but too many major changes
incorporating elaborate backwards compatibility processing can lead to
extreme [977]software bloat. See also [978]flag day.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BAD, Next:[979]Bad and Wrong, Previous:[980]backward
combatability, Up:[981]= B =
BAD /B-A-D/ adj.
[IBM: acronym, `Broken As Designed'] Said of a program that is
[982]bogus because of bad design and misfeatures rather than because
of bugginess. See [983]working as designed.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Bad and Wrong, Next:[984]Bad Thing, Previous:[985]BAD, Up:[986]=
B =
Bad and Wrong adj.
[Durham, UK] Said of something that is both badly designed and wrongly
executed. This common term is the prototype of, and is used by
contrast with, three less common terms - Bad and Right (a kludge,
something ugly but functional); Good and Wrong (an overblown GUI or
other attractive nuisance); and (rare praise) Good and Right. These
terms entered common use at Durham c.1994 and may have been imported
from elsewhere; they are also in use at Oxford, and the emphatic form
"Evil, Bad and Wrong" (abbreviated EBW) is reported fromm there. There
are standard abbreviations: they start with B&R, a typo for "Bad and
Wrong". Consequently, B&W is actually "Bad and Right", G&R = "Good and
Wrong", and G&W = "Good and Right". Compare [987]evil and rude,
[988]Good Thing, [989]Bad Thing.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Bad Thing, Next:[990]bag on the side, Previous:[991]Bad and
Wrong, Up:[992]= B =
Bad Thing n.
[very common; from the 1930 Sellar & Yeatman parody "1066 And All
That"] Something that can't possibly result in improvement of the
subject. This term is always capitalized, as in "Replacing all of the
9600-baud modems with bicycle couriers would be a Bad Thing". Oppose
[993]Good Thing. British correspondents confirm that [994]Bad Thing
and [995]Good Thing (and prob. therefore [996]Right Thing and
[997]Wrong Thing) come from the book referenced in the etymology,
which discusses rulers who were Good Kings but Bad Things. This has
apparently created a mainstream idiom on the British side of the pond.
It is very common among American hackers, but not in mainstream usage
here. Compare [998]Bad and Wrong.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bag on the side, Next:[999]bagbiter, Previous:[1000]Bad Thing,
Up:[1001]= B =
bag on the side n.
[prob. originally related to a colostomy bag] An extension to an
established hack that is supposed to add some functionality to the
original. Usually derogatory, implying that the original was being
overextended and should have been thrown away, and the new product is
ugly, inelegant, or bloated. Also v. phrase, `to hang a bag on the
side [of]'. "C++? That's just a bag on the side of C ...." "They want
me to hang a bag on the side of the accounting system."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bagbiter, Next:[1002]bagbiting, Previous:[1003]bag on the side,
Up:[1004]= B =
bagbiter /bag'bi:t-*r/ n.
1. Something, such as a program or a computer, that fails to work, or
works in a remarkably clumsy manner. "This text editor won't let me
make a file with a line longer than 80 characters! What a bagbiter!"
2. A person who has caused you some trouble, inadvertently or
otherwise, typically by failing to program the computer properly.
Synonyms: [1005]loser, [1006]cretin, [1007]chomper. 3. `bite the bag'
vi. To fail in some manner. "The computer keeps crashing every five
minutes." "Yes, the disk controller is really biting the bag."
The original loading of these terms was almost undoubtedly obscene,
possibly referring to a douche bag or the scrotum (we have reports of
"Bite the douche bag!" being used as a taunt at MIT 1970-1976, and we
have another report that "Bite the bag!" was in common use at least as
early as 1965), but in their current usage they have become almost
completely sanitized.
ITS's [1008]lexiphage program was the first and to date only known
example of a program intended to be a bagbiter.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bagbiting, Next:[1009]baggy pantsing, Previous:[1010]bagbiter,
Up:[1011]= B =
bagbiting adj.
Having the quality of a [1012]bagbiter. "This bagbiting system won't
let me compute the factorial of a negative number." Compare
[1013]losing, [1014]cretinous, [1015]bletcherous, `barfucious' (under
[1016]barfulous) and `chomping' (under [1017]chomp).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:baggy pantsing, Next:[1018]balloonian variable,
Previous:[1019]bagbiting, Up:[1020]= B =
baggy pantsing v.
[Georgia Tech] A "baggy pantsing" is used to reprimand hackers who
incautiously leave their terminals unlocked. The affected user will
come back to find a post from them on internal newsgroups discussing
exactly how baggy their pants are, an accepted stand-in for
"unattentive user who left their work unprotected in the clusters". A
properly-done baggy pantsing is highly mocking and humorous (see
examples below). It is considered bad form to post a baggy pantsing to
off-campus newsgroups or the more technical, serious groups. A
particularly nice baggy pantsing may be "claimed" by immediately
quoting the message in full, followed by your sig; this has the added
benefit of keeping the embarassed victim from being able to delete the
post. Interesting baggy-pantsings have been done involving adding
commands to login scripts to repost the message every time the unlucky
user logs in; Unix boxes on the residential network, when cracked,
oftentimes have their homepages replaced (after being politely
backedup to another file) with a baggy-pants message; .plan files are
also occasionally targeted. Usage: "Prof. Greenlee fell asleep in the
Solaris cluster again; we baggy-pantsed him to
git.cc.class.2430.flame."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:balloonian variable, Next:[1021]bamf, Previous:[1022]baggy
pantsing, Up:[1023]= B =
balloonian variable n.
[Commodore users; perh. a deliberate phonetic mangling of `boolean
variable'?] Any variable that doesn't actually hold or control state,
but must nevertheless be declared, checked, or set. A typical
balloonian variable started out as a flag attached to some environment
feature that either became obsolete or was planned but never
implemented. Compatibility concerns (or politics attached to same) may
require that such a flag be treated as though it were [1024]live.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bamf, Next:[1025]banana label, Previous:[1026]balloonian
variable, Up:[1027]= B =
bamf /bamf/
1. [from X-Men comics; originally "bampf"] interj. Notional sound made
by a person or object teleporting in or out of the hearer's vicinity.
Often used in [1028]virtual reality (esp. [1029]MUD) electronic
[1030]fora when a character wishes to make a dramatic entrance or
exit. 2. The sound of magical transformation, used in virtual reality
[1031]fora like MUDs. 3. In MUD circles, "bamf" is also used to refer
to the act by which a MUD server sends a special notification to the
MUD client to switch its connection to another server ("I'll set up
the old site to just bamf people over to our new location."). 4. Used
by MUDders on occasion in a more general sense related to sense 3, to
refer to directing someone to another location or resource ("A user
was asking about some technobabble so I bamfed them to
[1032]http://www.tuxedo.org/jargon/".)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:banana label, Next:[1033]banana problem, Previous:[1034]bamf,
Up:[1035]= B =
banana label n.
The labels often used on the sides of [1036]macrotape reels, so called
because they are shaped roughly like blunt-ended bananas. This term,
like macrotapes themselves, is still current but visibly headed for
obsolescence.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:banana problem, Next:[1037]binary four, Previous:[1038]banana
label, Up:[1039]= B =
banana problem n.
[from the story of the little girl who said "I know how to spell
`banana', but I don't know when to stop"]. Not knowing where or when
to bring a production to a close (compare [1040]fencepost error). One
may say `there is a banana problem' of an algorithm with poorly
defined or incorrect termination conditions, or in discussing the
evolution of a design that may be succumbing to featuritis (see also
[1041]creeping elegance, [1042]creeping featuritis). See item 176
under [1043]HAKMEM, which describes a banana problem in a
[1044]Dissociated Press implementation. Also, see [1045]one-banana
problem for a superficially similar but unrelated usage.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:binary four, Next:[1046]bandwidth, Previous:[1047]banana problem,
Up:[1048]= B =
binary four n.
[Usenet] The finger, in the sense of `digitus impudicus'. This comes
from an analogy between binary and the hand, i.e. 1=00001=thumb,
2=00010=index finger, 3=00011=index and thumb, 4=00100. Considered
silly. Prob. from humorous derivative of [1049]finger, sense 4.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bandwidth, Next:[1050]bang, Previous:[1051]binary four,
Up:[1052]= B =
bandwidth n.
1. [common] Used by hackers (in a generalization of its technical
meaning) as the volume of information per unit time that a computer,
person, or transmission medium can handle. "Those are amazing
graphics, but I missed some of the detail -- not enough bandwidth, I
guess." Compare [1053]low-bandwidth. This generalized usage began to
go mainstream after the Internet population explosion of 1993-1994. 2.
Attention span. 3. On [1054]Usenet, a measure of network capacity that
is often wasted by people complaining about how items posted by others
are a waste of bandwidth.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bang, Next:[1055]bang on, Previous:[1056]bandwidth, Up:[1057]= B
=
bang
1. n. Common spoken name for ! (ASCII 0100001), especially when used
in pronouncing a [1058]bang path in spoken hackish. In [1059]elder
days this was considered a CMUish usage, with MIT and Stanford hackers
preferring [1060]excl or [1061]shriek; but the spread of Unix has
carried `bang' with it (esp. via the term [1062]bang path) and it is
now certainly the most common spoken name for !. Note that it is used
exclusively for non-emphatic written !; one would not say
"Congratulations bang" (except possibly for humorous purposes), but if
one wanted to specify the exact characters `foo!' one would speak "Eff
oh oh bang". See [1063]shriek, [1064]ASCII. 2. interj. An exclamation
signifying roughly "I have achieved enlightenment!", or "The dynamite
has cleared out my brain!" Often used to acknowledge that one has
perpetrated a [1065]thinko immediately after one has been called on
it.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bang on, Next:[1066]bang path, Previous:[1067]bang, Up:[1068]= B
=
bang on vt.
To stress-test a piece of hardware or software: "I banged on the new
version of the simulator all day yesterday and it didn't crash once. I
guess it is ready for release." The term [1069]pound on is synonymous.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bang path, Next:[1070]banner, Previous:[1071]bang on, Up:[1072]=
B =
bang path n.
[now historical] An old-style UUCP electronic-mail address specifying
hops to get from some assumed-reachable location to the addressee, so
called because each [1073]hop is signified by a [1074]bang sign. Thus,
for example, the path ...!bigsite!foovax!barbox!me directs people to
route their mail to machine bigsite (presumably a well-known location
accessible to everybody) and from there through the machine foovax to
the account of user me on barbox.
In the bad old days of not so long ago, before autorouting mailers
became commonplace, people often published compound bang addresses
using the { } convention (see [1075]glob) to give paths from several
big machines, in the hopes that one's correspondent might be able to
get mail to one of them reliably (example: ...!{seismo, ut-sally,
ihnp4}!rice!beta!gamma!me). Bang paths of 8 to 10 hops were not
uncommon in 1981. Late-night dial-up UUCP links would cause week-long
transmission times. Bang paths were often selected by both
transmission time and reliability, as messages would often get lost.
See [1076]Internet address, [1077]the network, and [1078]sitename.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:banner, Next:[1079]banner ad, Previous:[1080]bang path,
Up:[1081]= B =
banner n.
1. The title page added to printouts by most print spoolers (see
[1082]spool). Typically includes user or account ID information in
very large character-graphics capitals. Also called a `burst page',
because it indicates where to burst (tear apart) fanfold paper to
separate one user's printout from the next. 2. A similar printout
generated (typically on multiple pages of fan-fold paper) from
user-specified text, e.g., by a program such as Unix's banner({1,6}).
3. On interactive software, a first screen containing a logo and/or
author credits and/or a copyright notice. This is probably now the
commonest sense.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:banner ad, Next:[1083]banner site, Previous:[1084]banner,
Up:[1085]= B =
banner ad n.
Any of the annoying graphical advertisements that span the tops of way
too many Web pages.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:banner site, Next:[1086]bar, Previous:[1087]banner ad, Up:[1088]=
B =
banner site n.
[warez d00dz] A FTP site storing pirated files where one must first
click on several banners and/or subscribe to various `free' services,
usually generating some form of revenues for the site owner, to be
able to access the site. More often than not, the username/password
painfully obtained by clicking on banners and subscribing to bogus
services or mailing lists turns out to be non-working or gives access
to a site that always responds busy. See [1089]ratio site, [1090]leech
mode.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bar, Next:[1091]bare metal, Previous:[1092]banner site,
Up:[1093]= B =
bar /bar/ n.
1. [very common] The second [1094]metasyntactic variable, after
[1095]foo and before [1096]baz. "Suppose we have two functions: FOO
and BAR. FOO calls BAR...." 2. Often appended to [1097]foo to produce
[1098]foobar.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bare metal, Next:[1099]barf, Previous:[1100]bar, Up:[1101]= B =
bare metal n.
1. [common] New computer hardware, unadorned with such snares and
delusions as an [1102]operating system, an [1103]HLL, or even
assembler. Commonly used in the phrase `programming on the bare
metal', which refers to the arduous work of [1104]bit bashing needed
to create these basic tools for a new machine. Real bare-metal
programming involves things like building boot proms and BIOS chips,
implementing basic monitors used to test device drivers, and writing
the assemblers that will be used to write the compiler back ends that
will give the new machine a real development environment. 2.
`Programming on the bare metal' is also used to describe a style of
[1105]hand-hacking that relies on bit-level peculiarities of a
particular hardware design, esp. tricks for speed and space
optimization that rely on crocks such as overlapping instructions (or,
as in the famous case described in [1106]The Story of Mel (in Appendix
A), interleaving of opcodes on a magnetic drum to minimize fetch
delays due to the device's rotational latency). This sort of thing has
become less common as the relative costs of programming time and
machine resources have changed, but is still found in heavily
constrained environments such as industrial embedded systems, and in
the code of hackers who just can't let go of that low-level control.
See [1107]Real Programmer.
In the world of personal computing, bare metal programming (especially
in sense 1 but sometimes also in sense 2) is often considered a
[1108]Good Thing, or at least a necessary evil (because these machines
have often been sufficiently slow and poorly designed to make it
necessary; see [1109]ill-behaved). There, the term usually refers to
bypassing the BIOS or OS interface and writing the application to
directly access device registers and machine addresses. "To get 19.2
kilobaud on the serial port, you need to get down to the bare metal."
People who can do this sort of thing well are held in high regard.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:barf, Next:[1110]barfmail, Previous:[1111]bare metal, Up:[1112]=
B =
barf /barf/ n.,v.
[common; from mainstream slang meaning `vomit'] 1. interj. Term of
disgust. This is the closest hackish equivalent of the Valspeak "gag
me with a spoon". (Like, euwww!) See [1113]bletch. 2. vi. To say
"Barf!" or emit some similar expression of disgust. "I showed him my
latest hack and he barfed" means only that he complained about it, not
that he literally vomited. 3. vi. To fail to work because of
unacceptable input, perhaps with a suitable error message, perhaps
not. Examples: "The division operation barfs if you try to divide by
0." (That is, the division operation checks for an attempt to divide
by zero, and if one is encountered it causes the operation to fail in
some unspecified, but generally obvious, manner.) "The text editor
barfs if you try to read in a new file before writing out the old
one." See [1114]choke, [1115]gag. In Commonwealth Hackish, `barf' is
generally replaced by `puke' or `vom'. [1116]barf is sometimes also
used as a [1117]metasyntactic variable, like [1118]foo or [1119]bar.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:barfmail, Next:[1120]barfulation, Previous:[1121]barf, Up:[1122]=
B =
barfmail n.
Multiple [1123]bounce messages accumulating to the level of serious
annoyance, or worse. The sort of thing that happens when an
inter-network mail gateway goes down or wonky.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:barfulation, Next:[1124]barfulous, Previous:[1125]barfmail,
Up:[1126]= B =
barfulation /bar`fyoo-lay'sh*n/ interj.
Variation of [1127]barf used around the Stanford area. An exclamation,
expressing disgust. On seeing some particularly bad code one might
exclaim, "Barfulation! Who wrote this, Quux?"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:barfulous, Next:[1128]barn, Previous:[1129]barfulation,
Up:[1130]= B =
barfulous /bar'fyoo-l*s/ adj.
(alt. `barfucious', /bar-fyoo-sh*s/) Said of something that would make
anyone barf, if only for esthetic reasons.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:barn, Next:[1131]barney, Previous:[1132]barfulous, Up:[1133]= B =
barn n.
[uncommon; prob. from the nuclear military] An unexpectedly large
quantity of something: a unit of measurement. "Why is /var/adm taking
up so much space?" "The logs have grown to several barns." The source
of this is clear: when physicists were first studying nuclear
interactions, the probability was thought to be proportional to the
cross-sectional area of the nucleus (this probability is still called
the cross-section). Upon experimenting, they discovered the
interactions were far more probable than expected; the nuclei were `as
big as a barn'. The units for cross-sections were christened Barns,
(10^-24 cm^2) and the book containing cross-sections has a picture of
a barn on the cover.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:barney, Next:[1134]baroque, Previous:[1135]barn, Up:[1136]= B =
barney n.
In Commonwealth hackish, `barney' is to [1137]fred (sense #1) as
[1138]bar is to [1139]foo. That is, people who commonly use `fred' as
their first metasyntactic variable will often use `barney' second. The
reference is, of course, to Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble in the
Flintstones cartoons.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:baroque, Next:[1140]BASIC, Previous:[1141]barney, Up:[1142]= B =
baroque adj.
[common] Feature-encrusted; complex; gaudy; verging on excessive. Said
of hardware or (esp.) software designs, this has many of the
connotations of [1143]elephantine or [1144]monstrosity but is less
extreme and not pejorative in itself. "Metafont even has features to
introduce random variations to its letterform output. Now that is
baroque!" See also [1145]rococo.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BASIC, Next:[1146]batbelt, Previous:[1147]baroque, Up:[1148]= B =
BASIC /bay'-sic/ n.
A programming language, originally designed for Dartmouth's
experimental timesharing system in the early 1960s, which for many
years was the leading cause of brain damage in proto-hackers. Edsger
W. Dijkstra observed in "Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal
Perspective" that "It is practically impossible to teach good
programming style to students that have had prior exposure to BASIC:
as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of
regeneration." This is another case (like [1149]Pascal) of the
cascading [1150]lossage that happens when a language deliberately
designed as an educational toy gets taken too seriously. A novice can
write short BASIC programs (on the order of 10-20 lines) very easily;
writing anything longer (a) is very painful, and (b) encourages bad
habits that will make it harder to use more powerful languages well.
This wouldn't be so bad if historical accidents hadn't made BASIC so
common on low-end micros in the 1980s. As it is, it probably ruined
tens of thousands of potential wizards.
[1995: Some languages called `BASIC' aren't quite this nasty any more,
having acquired Pascal- and C-like procedures and control structures
and shed their line numbers. --ESR]
Note: the name is commonly parsed as Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic
Instruction Code, but this is a [1151]backronym. BASIC was originally
named Basic, simply because it was a simple and basic programming
language. Because most programming language names were in fact
acronyms, BASIC was often capitalized just out of habit or to be
silly. No acronym for BASIC originally existed or was intended (as one
can verify by reading texts through the early 1970s). Later, around
the mid-1970s, people began to make up backronyms for BASIC because
they weren't sure. Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code is
the one that caught on.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:batbelt, Next:[1152]batch, Previous:[1153]BASIC, Up:[1154]= B =
batbelt n.
Many hackers routinely hang numerous devices such as pagers,
cell-phones, personal organizers, leatherman multitools, pocket
knives, flashlights, walkie-talkies, even miniature computers from
their belts. When many of these devices are worn at once, the hacker's
belt somewhat resembles Batman's utility belt; hence it is referred to
as a batbelt.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:batch, Next:[1155]bathtub curve, Previous:[1156]batbelt,
Up:[1157]= B =
batch adj.
1. Non-interactive. Hackers use this somewhat more loosely than the
traditional technical definitions justify; in particular, switches on
a normally interactive program that prepare it to receive
non-interactive command input are often referred to as `batch mode'
switches. A `batch file' is a series of instructions written to be
handed to an interactive program running in batch mode. 2. Performance
of dreary tasks all at one sitting. "I finally sat down in batch mode
and wrote out checks for all those bills; I guess they'll turn the
electricity back on next week..." 3. `batching up': Accumulation of a
number of small tasks that can be lumped together for greater
efficiency. "I'm batching up those letters to send sometime" "I'm
batching up bottles to take to the recycling center."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bathtub curve, Next:[1158]baud, Previous:[1159]batch, Up:[1160]=
B =
bathtub curve n.
Common term for the curve (resembling an end-to-end section of one of
those claw-footed antique bathtubs) that describes the expected
failure rate of electronics with time: initially high, dropping to
near 0 for most of the system's lifetime, then rising again as it
`tires out'. See also [1161]burn-in period, [1162]infant mortality.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:baud, Next:[1163]baud barf, Previous:[1164]bathtub curve,
Up:[1165]= B =
baud /bawd/ n.
[simplified from its technical meaning] n. Bits per second. Hence
kilobaud or Kbaud, thousands of bits per second. The technical meaning
is `level transitions per second'; this coincides with bps only for
two-level modulation with no framing or stop bits. Most hackers are
aware of these nuances but blithely ignore them.
Historical note: `baud' was originally a unit of telegraph signalling
speed, set at one pulse per second. It was proposed at the November,
1926 conference of the Comité Consultatif International Des
Communications Télégraphiques as an improvement on the then standard
practice of referring to line speeds in terms of words per minute, and
named for Jean Maurice Emile Baudot (1845-1903), a French engineer who
did a lot of pioneering work in early teleprinters.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:baud barf, Next:[1166]baz, Previous:[1167]baud, Up:[1168]= B =
baud barf /bawd barf/ n.
The garbage one gets a terminal (or terminal emulator) when using a
modem connection with some protocol setting (esp. line speed)
incorrect, or when someone picks up a voice extension on the same
line, or when really bad line noise disrupts the connection. Baud barf
is not completely [1169]random, by the way; hackers with a lot of
serial-line experience can usually tell whether the device at the
other end is expecting a higher or lower speed than the terminal is
set to. Really experienced ones can identify particular speeds.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:baz, Next:[1170]bazaar, Previous:[1171]baud barf, Up:[1172]= B =
baz /baz/ n.
1. [common] The third [1173]metasyntactic variable "Suppose we have
three functions: FOO, BAR, and BAZ. FOO calls BAR, which calls
BAZ...." (See also [1174]fum) 2. interj. A term of mild annoyance. In
this usage the term is often drawn out for 2 or 3 seconds, producing
an effect not unlike the bleating of a sheep; /baaaaaaz/. 3.
Occasionally appended to [1175]foo to produce `foobaz'.
Earlier versions of this lexicon derived `baz' as a Stanford
corruption of [1176]bar. However, Pete Samson (compiler of the
[1177]TMRC lexicon) reports it was already current when he joined TMRC
in 1958. He says "It came from "Pogo". Albert the Alligator, when
vexed or outraged, would shout `Bazz Fazz!' or `Rowrbazzle!' The club
layout was said to model the (mythical) New England counties of
Rowrfolk and Bassex (Rowrbazzle mingled with
(Norfolk/Suffolk/Middlesex/Essex)."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bazaar, Next:[1178]bboard, Previous:[1179]baz, Up:[1180]= B =
bazaar n.,adj.
In 1997, after meditatating on the success of [1181]Linux for three
years, the Jargon File's own editor ESR wrote an analytical paper on
hacker culture and development models titled [1182]The Cathedral and
the Bazaar. The main argument of the paper was that [1183]Brooks's Law
is not the whole story; given the right social machinery, debugging
can be efficiently parallelized across large numbers of programmers.
The title metaphor caught on (see also [1184]cathedral), and the style
of development typical in the Linux community is now often referred to
as the bazaar mode. Its characteristics include releasing code early
and often, and actively seeking the largest possible pool of peer
reviewers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bboard, Next:[1185]BBS, Previous:[1186]bazaar, Up:[1187]= B =
bboard /bee'bord/ n.
[contraction of `bulletin board'] 1. Any electronic bulletin board;
esp. used of [1188]BBS systems running on personal micros, less
frequently of a Usenet [1189]newsgroup (in fact, use of this term for
a newsgroup generally marks one either as a [1190]newbie fresh in from
the BBS world or as a real old-timer predating Usenet). 2. At CMU and
other colleges with similar facilities, refers to campus-wide
electronic bulletin boards. 3. The term `physical bboard' is sometimes
used to refer to an old-fashioned, non-electronic cork-and-thumbtack
memo board. At CMU, it refers to a particular one outside the CS
Lounge.
In either of senses 1 or 2, the term is usually prefixed by the name
of the intended board (`the Moonlight Casino bboard' or `market
bboard'); however, if the context is clear, the better-read bboards
may be referred to by name alone, as in (at CMU) "Don't post for-sale
ads on general".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BBS, Next:[1191]BCPL, Previous:[1192]bboard, Up:[1193]= B =
BBS /B-B-S/ n.
[common; abbreviation, `Bulletin Board System'] An electronic bulletin
board system; that is, a message database where people can log in and
leave broadcast messages for others grouped (typically) into
[1194]topic groups. The term was especially applied to the thousands
of local BBS systems that operated during the pre-Internet
microcomputer era of roughly 1980 to 1995, typically run by amateurs
for fun out of their homes on MS-DOS boxes with a single modem line
each. Fans of Usenet and Internet or the big commercial timesharing
bboards such as CompuServe and GEnie tended to consider local BBSes
the low-rent district of the hacker culture, but they served a
valuable function by knitting together lots of hackers and users in
the personal-micro world who would otherwise have been unable to
exchange code at all. Post-Internet, BBSs are likely to be local
newsgroups on an ISP; efficiency has increased but a certain flavor
has been lost. See also [1195]bboard.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BCPL, Next:[1196]beam, Previous:[1197]BBS, Up:[1198]= B =
BCPL // n.
[abbreviation, `Basic Combined Programming Language') A programming
language developed by Martin Richards in Cambridge in 1967. It is
remarkable for its rich syntax, small size of compiler (it can be run
in 16k) and extreme portability. It reached break-even point at a very
early stage, and was the language in which the original [1199]hello
world program was written. It has been ported to so many different
systems that its creator confesses to having lost count. It has only
one data type (a machine word) which can be used as an integer, a
character, a floating point number, a pointer, or almost anything
else, depending on context. BCPL was a precursor of C, which inherited
some of its features.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:beam, Next:[1200]beanie key, Previous:[1201]BCPL, Up:[1202]= B =
beam vt.
[from Star Trek Classic's "Beam me up, Scotty!"] 1. To transfer
[1203]softcopy of a file electronically; most often in combining forms
such as `beam me a copy' or `beam that over to his site'. 2. Palm
Pilot users very commonly use this term for the act of exchanging bits
via the infrared links on their machines (this term seems to have
originated with the ill-fated Newton Message Pad). Compare
[1204]blast, [1205]snarf, [1206]BLT.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:beanie key, Next:[1207]beep, Previous:[1208]beam, Up:[1209]= B =
beanie key n.
[Mac users] See [1210]command key.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:beep, Next:[1211]Befunge, Previous:[1212]beanie key, Up:[1213]= B
=
beep n.,v.
Syn. [1214]feep. This term is techspeak under MS-DOS and OS/2, and
seems to be generally preferred among micro hobbyists.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Befunge, Next:[1215]beige toaster, Previous:[1216]beep,
Up:[1217]= B =
Befunge n.
A worthy companion to [1218]INTERCAL; a computer language family which
escapes the quotidian limitation of linear control flow and embraces
program counters flying through multiple dimensions with exotic
topologies. Sadly, the Befunge home page has vanished, but a Befunge
version of the [1219]hello world program is at
[1220]http://www.catseye.mb.ca/esoteric/befunge.html.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:beige toaster, Next:[1221]bells and whistles,
Previous:[1222]Befunge, Up:[1223]= B =
beige toaster n.
A Macintosh. See [1224]toaster; compare [1225]Macintrash,
[1226]maggotbox.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bells and whistles, Next:[1227]bells whistles and gongs,
Previous:[1228]beige toaster, Up:[1229]= B =
bells and whistles n.
[common] Features added to a program or system to make it more
[1230]flavorful from a hacker's point of view, without necessarily
adding to its utility for its primary function. Distinguished from
[1231]chrome, which is intended to attract users. "Now that we've got
the basic program working, let's go back and add some bells and
whistles." No one seems to know what distinguishes a bell from a
whistle. The recognized emphatic form is "bells, whistles, and gongs".
It used to be thought that this term derived from the toyboxes on
theater organs. However, the "and gongs" strongly suggests a different
origin, at sea. Before powered horns, ships routinely used bells,
whistles, and gongs to signal each other over longer distances than
voice can carry.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bells whistles and gongs, Next:[1232]benchmark,
Previous:[1233]bells and whistles, Up:[1234]= B =
bells whistles and gongs n.
A standard elaborated form of [1235]bells and whistles; typically said
with a pronounced and ironic accent on the `gongs'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:benchmark, Next:[1236]Berkeley Quality Software,
Previous:[1237]bells whistles and gongs, Up:[1238]= B =
benchmark n.
[techspeak] An inaccurate measure of computer performance. "In the
computer industry, there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and
benchmarks." Well-known ones include Whetstone, Dhrystone, Rhealstone
(see [1239]h), the Gabriel LISP benchmarks (see [1240]gabriel), the
SPECmark suite, and LINPACK. See also [1241]machoflops, [1242]MIPS,
[1243]smoke and mirrors.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Berkeley Quality Software, Next:[1244]berklix,
Previous:[1245]benchmark, Up:[1246]= B =
Berkeley Quality Software adj.
(often abbreviated `BQS') Term used in a pejorative sense to refer to
software that was apparently created by rather spaced-out hackers late
at night to solve some unique problem. It usually has nonexistent,
incomplete, or incorrect documentation, has been tested on at least
two examples, and core dumps when anyone else attempts to use it. This
term was frequently applied to early versions of the dbx(1) debugger.
See also [1247]Berzerkeley.
Note to British and Commonwealth readers: that's /berk'lee/, not
/bark'lee/ as in British Received Pronunciation.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:berklix, Next:[1248]Berzerkeley, Previous:[1249]Berkeley Quality
Software, Up:[1250]= B =
berklix /berk'liks/ n.,adj.
[contraction of `Berkeley Unix'] See [1251]BSD. Not used at Berkeley
itself. May be more common among [1252]suits attempting to sound like
cognoscenti than among hackers, who usually just say `BSD'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Berzerkeley, Next:[1253]beta, Previous:[1254]berklix, Up:[1255]=
B =
Berzerkeley /b*r-zer'klee/ n.
[from `berserk', via the name of a now-deceased record label; poss.
originated by famed columnist Herb Caen] Humorous distortion of
`Berkeley' used esp. to refer to the practices or products of the
[1256]BSD Unix hackers. See [1257]software bloat,
[1258]Missed'em-five, [1259]Berkeley Quality Software.
Mainstream use of this term in reference to the cultural and political
peculiarities of UC Berkeley as a whole has been reported from as far
back as the 1960s.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:beta, Next:[1260]BFI, Previous:[1261]Berzerkeley, Up:[1262]= B =
beta /bay't*/, /be't*/ or (Commonwealth) /bee't*/ n.
1. Mostly working, but still under test; usu. used with `in': `in
beta'. In the [1263]Real World, systems (hardware or software)
software often go through two stages of release testing: Alpha
(in-house) and Beta (out-house?). Beta releases are generally made to
a group of lucky (or unlucky) trusted customers. 2. Anything that is
new and experimental. "His girlfriend is in beta" means that he is
still testing for compatibility and reserving judgment. 3. Flaky;
dubious; suspect (since beta software is notoriously buggy).
Historical note: More formally, to beta-test is to test a pre-release
(potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software by making it
available to selected (or self-selected) customers and users. This
term derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle
checkpoints, first used at IBM but later standard throughout the
industry. `Alpha Test' was the unit, module, or component test phase;
`Beta Test' was initial system test. These themselves came from
earlier A- and B-tests for hardware. The A-test was a feasibility and
manufacturability evaluation done before any commitment to design and
development. The B-test was a demonstration that the engineering model
functioned as specified. The C-test (corresponding to today's beta)
was the B-test performed on early samples of the production design,
and the D test was the C test repeated after the model had been in
production a while.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BFI, Next:[1264]bible, Previous:[1265]beta, Up:[1266]= B =
BFI /B-F-I/ n.
See [1267]brute force and ignorance. Also encountered in the variants
`BFMI', `brute force and massive ignorance' and `BFBI' `brute force
and bloody ignorance'. In dome parts of the U.S. this abbreviation was
probably reinforced by a company called Browning-Ferris Industries who
used to be in the waste-management business; a large BFI logo in
white-on-blue could be seen on the sides of garbage trucks.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bible, Next:[1268]BiCapitalization, Previous:[1269]BFI,
Up:[1270]= B =
bible n.
1. One of a small number of fundamental source books such as
[1271]Knuth, [1272]K&R, or the [1273]Camel Book. 2. The most detailed
and authoritative reference for a particular language, operating
system, or other complex software system.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BiCapitalization, Next:[1274]B1FF, Previous:[1275]bible,
Up:[1276]= B =
BiCapitalization n.
The act said to have been performed on trademarks (such as
[1277]PostScript, NeXT, [1278]NeWS, VisiCalc, FrameMaker, TK!solver,
EasyWriter) that have been raised above the ruck of common coinage by
nonstandard capitalization. Too many [1279]marketroid types think this
sort of thing is really cute, even the 2,317th time they do it.
Compare [1280]studlycaps.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:B1FF, Next:[1281]BI, Previous:[1282]BiCapitalization, Up:[1283]=
B =
B1FF /bif/ [Usenet] (alt. `BIFF') n.
The most famous [1284]pseudo, and the prototypical [1285]newbie.
Articles from B1FF feature all uppercase letters sprinkled liberally
with bangs, typos, `cute' misspellings (EVRY BUDY LUVS GOOD OLD BIFF
CUZ HE"S A K00L DOOD AN HE RITES REEL AWESUM THINGZ IN CAPITULL LETTRS
LIKE THIS!!!), use (and often misuse) of fragments of [1286]talk mode
abbreviations, a long [1287]sig block (sometimes even a [1288]doubled
sig), and unbounded naivete. B1FF posts articles using his elder
brother's VIC-20. B1FF's location is a mystery, as his articles appear
to come from a variety of sites. However, [1289]BITNET seems to be the
most frequent origin. The theory that B1FF is a denizen of BITNET is
supported by B1FF's (unfortunately invalid) electronic mail address:
B1FF@BIT.NET.
[1993: Now It Can Be Told! My spies inform me that B1FF was originally
created by Joe Talmadge <jat@cup.hp.com>, also the author of the
infamous and much-plagiarized "Flamer's Bible". The BIFF filter he
wrote was later passed to Richard Sexton, who posted BIFFisms much
more widely. Versions have since been posted for the amusement of the
net at large. See also [1290]Jeff K. --ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BI, Next:[1291]biff, Previous:[1292]B1FF, Up:[1293]= B =
BI //
Common written abbreviation for [1294]Breidbart Index.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:biff, Next:[1295]Big Gray Wall, Previous:[1296]BI, Up:[1297]= B =
biff /bif/ vt.
To notify someone of incoming mail. From the BSD utility biff(1),
which was in turn named after a friendly dog who used to chase
frisbees in the halls at UCB while 4.2BSD was in development. There
was a legend that it had a habit of barking whenever the mailman came,
but the author of biff says this is not true. No relation to
[1298]B1FF.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Big Gray Wall, Next:[1299]big iron, Previous:[1300]biff,
Up:[1301]= B =
Big Gray Wall n.
What faces a [1302]VMS user searching for documentation. A full VMS
kit comes on a pallet, the documentation taking up around 15 feet of
shelf space before the addition of layered products such as compilers,
databases, multivendor networking, and programming tools. Recent
(since VMS version 5) documentation comes with gray binders; under VMS
version 4 the binders were orange (`big orange wall'), and under
version 3 they were blue. See [1303]VMS. Often contracted to `Gray
Wall'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:big iron, Next:[1304]Big Red Switch, Previous:[1305]Big Gray
Wall, Up:[1306]= B =
big iron n.
[common] Large, expensive, ultra-fast computers. Used generally of
[1307]number-crunching supercomputers such as Crays, but can include
more conventional big commercial IBMish mainframes. Term of approval;
compare [1308]heavy metal, oppose [1309]dinosaur.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Big Red Switch, Next:[1310]Big Room, Previous:[1311]big iron,
Up:[1312]= B =
Big Red Switch n.
[IBM] The power switch on a computer, esp. the `Emergency Pull' switch
on an IBM [1313]mainframe or the power switch on an IBM PC where it
really is large and red. "This !@%$% [1314]bitty box is hung again;
time to hit the Big Red Switch." Sources at IBM report that, in tune
with the company's passion for [1315]TLAs, this is often abbreviated
as `BRS' (this has also become established on FidoNet and in the PC
[1316]clone world). It is alleged that the emergency pull switch on an
IBM 360/91 actually fired a non-conducting bolt into the main power
feed; the BRSes on more recent mainframes physically drop a block into
place so that they can't be pushed back in. People get fired for
pulling them, especially inappropriately (see also [1317]molly-guard).
Compare [1318]power cycle, [1319]three-finger salute, [1320]120 reset;
see also [1321]scram switch.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Big Room, Next:[1322]big win, Previous:[1323]Big Red Switch,
Up:[1324]= B =
Big Room n.
(Also `Big Blue Room') The extremely large room with the blue ceiling
and intensely bright light (during the day) or black ceiling with lots
of tiny night-lights (during the night) found outside all computer
installations. "He can't come to the phone right now, he's somewhere
out in the Big Room."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:big win, Next:[1325]big-endian, Previous:[1326]Big Room,
Up:[1327]= B =
big win n.
1. [common] Major success. 2. [MIT] Serendipity. "Yes, those two
physicists discovered high-temperature superconductivity in a batch of
ceramic that had been prepared incorrectly according to their
experimental schedule. Small mistake; big win!" See [1328]win big.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:big-endian, Next:[1329]bignum, Previous:[1330]big win, Up:[1331]=
B =
big-endian adj.
[common; From Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" via the famous paper "On
Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace" by Danny Cohen, USC/ISI IEN 137, dated
April 1, 1980] 1. Describes a computer architecture in which, within a
given multi-byte numeric representation, the most significant byte has
the lowest address (the word is stored `big-end-first'). Most
processors, including the IBM 370 family, the [1332]PDP-10, the
Motorola microprocessor families, and most of the various RISC designs
are big-endian. Big-endian byte order is also sometimes called
`network order'. See [1333]little-endian, [1334]middle-endian,
[1335]NUXI problem, [1336]swab. 2. An [1337]Internet address the wrong
way round. Most of the world follows the Internet standard and writes
email addresses starting with the name of the computer and ending up
with the name of the country. In the U.K. the Joint Networking Team
had decided to do it the other way round before the Internet domain
standard was established. Most gateway sites have [1338]ad-hockery in
their mailers to handle this, but can still be confused. In
particular, the address me@uk.ac.bris.pys.as could be interpreted in
JANET's big-endian way as one in the U.K. (domain uk) or in the
standard little-endian way as one in the domain as (American Samoa) on
the opposite side of the world.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bignum, Next:[1339]bigot, Previous:[1340]big-endian, Up:[1341]= B
=
bignum /big'nuhm/ n.
[common; orig. from MIT MacLISP] 1. [techspeak] A multiple-precision
computer representation for very large integers. 2. More generally,
any very large number. "Have you ever looked at the United States
Budget? There's bignums for you!" 3. [Stanford] In backgammon, large
numbers on the dice especially a roll of double fives or double sixes
(compare [1342]moby, sense 4). See also [1343]El Camino Bignum.
Sense 1 may require some explanation. Most computer languages provide
a kind of data called `integer', but such computer integers are
usually very limited in size; usually they must be smaller than 2^(31)
(2,147,483,648) or (on a [1344]bitty box) 2^(15) (32,768). If you want
to work with numbers larger than that, you have to use floating-point
numbers, which are usually accurate to only six or seven decimal
places. Computer languages that provide bignums can perform exact
calculations on very large numbers, such as 1000! (the factorial of
1000, which is 1000 times 999 times 998 times ... times 2 times 1).
For example, this value for 1000! was computed by the MacLISP system
using bignums:
40238726007709377354370243392300398571937486421071
46325437999104299385123986290205920442084869694048
00479988610197196058631666872994808558901323829669
94459099742450408707375991882362772718873251977950
59509952761208749754624970436014182780946464962910
56393887437886487337119181045825783647849977012476
63288983595573543251318532395846307555740911426241
74743493475534286465766116677973966688202912073791
43853719588249808126867838374559731746136085379534
52422158659320192809087829730843139284440328123155
86110369768013573042161687476096758713483120254785
89320767169132448426236131412508780208000261683151
02734182797770478463586817016436502415369139828126
48102130927612448963599287051149649754199093422215
66832572080821333186116811553615836546984046708975
60290095053761647584772842188967964624494516076535
34081989013854424879849599533191017233555566021394
50399736280750137837615307127761926849034352625200
01588853514733161170210396817592151090778801939317
81141945452572238655414610628921879602238389714760
88506276862967146674697562911234082439208160153780
88989396451826324367161676217916890977991190375403
12746222899880051954444142820121873617459926429565
81746628302955570299024324153181617210465832036786
90611726015878352075151628422554026517048330422614
39742869330616908979684825901254583271682264580665
26769958652682272807075781391858178889652208164348
34482599326604336766017699961283186078838615027946
59551311565520360939881806121385586003014356945272
24206344631797460594682573103790084024432438465657
24501440282188525247093519062092902313649327349756
55139587205596542287497740114133469627154228458623
77387538230483865688976461927383814900140767310446
64025989949022222176590433990188601856652648506179
97023561938970178600408118897299183110211712298459
01641921068884387121855646124960798722908519296819
37238864261483965738229112312502418664935314397013
74285319266498753372189406942814341185201580141233
44828015051399694290153483077644569099073152433278
28826986460278986432113908350621709500259738986355
42771967428222487575867657523442202075736305694988
25087968928162753848863396909959826280956121450994
87170124451646126037902930912088908694202851064018
21543994571568059418727489980942547421735824010636
77404595741785160829230135358081840096996372524230
56085590370062427124341690900415369010593398383577
79394109700277534720000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bigot, Next:[1345]bit, Previous:[1346]bignum, Up:[1347]= B =
bigot n.
[common] A person who is religiously attached to a particular
computer, language, operating system, editor, or other tool (see
[1348]religious issues). Usually found with a specifier; thus, `cray
bigot', `ITS bigot', `APL bigot', `VMS bigot', `Berkeley bigot'. Real
bigots can be distinguished from mere partisans or zealots by the fact
that they refuse to learn alternatives even when the march of time
and/or technology is threatening to obsolete the favored tool. It is
truly said "You can tell a bigot, but you can't tell him much."
Compare [1349]weenie, [1350]Amiga Persecution Complex.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bit, Next:[1351]bit bang, Previous:[1352]bigot, Up:[1353]= B =
bit n.
[from the mainstream meaning and `Binary digIT'] 1. [techspeak] The
unit of information; the amount of information obtained by asking a
yes-or-no question for which the two outcomes are equally probable. 2.
[techspeak] A computational quantity that can take on one of two
values, such as true and false or 0 and 1. 3. A mental flag: a
reminder that something should be done eventually. "I have a bit set
for you." (I haven't seen you for a while, and I'm supposed to tell or
ask you something.) 4. More generally, a (possibly incorrect) mental
state of belief. "I have a bit set that says that you were the last
guy to hack on EMACS." (Meaning "I think you were the last guy to hack
on EMACS, and what I am about to say is predicated on this, so please
stop me if this isn't true.")
"I just need one bit from you" is a polite way of indicating that you
intend only a short interruption for a question that can presumably be
answered yes or no.
A bit is said to be `set' if its value is true or 1, and `reset' or
`clear' if its value is false or 0. One speaks of setting and clearing
bits. To [1354]toggle or `invert' a bit is to change it, either from 0
to 1 or from 1 to 0. See also [1355]flag, [1356]trit, [1357]mode bit.
The term `bit' first appeared in print in the computer-science sense
in a 1948 paper by information theorist Claude Shannon, and was there
credited to the early computer scientist John Tukey (who also seems to
have coined the term `software'). Tukey records that `bit' evolved
over a lunch table as a handier alternative to `bigit' or `binit', at
a conference in the winter of 1943-44.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bit bang, Next:[1358]bit bashing, Previous:[1359]bit, Up:[1360]=
B =
bit bang n.
Transmission of data on a serial line, when accomplished by rapidly
tweaking a single output bit, in software, at the appropriate times.
The technique is a simple loop with eight OUT and SHIFT instruction
pairs for each byte. Input is more interesting. And full duplex (doing
input and output at the same time) is one way to separate the real
hackers from the [1361]wannabees.
Bit bang was used on certain early models of Prime computers,
presumably when UARTs were too expensive, and on archaic Z80 micros
with a Zilog PIO but no SIO. In an interesting instance of the
[1362]cycle of reincarnation, this technique returned to use in the
early 1990s on some RISC architectures because it consumes such an
infinitesimal part of the processor that it actually makes sense not
to have a UART. Compare [1363]cycle of reincarnation.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bit bashing, Next:[1364]bit bucket, Previous:[1365]bit bang,
Up:[1366]= B =
bit bashing n.
(alt. `bit diddling' or [1367]bit twiddling) Term used to describe any
of several kinds of low-level programming characterized by
manipulation of [1368]bit, [1369]flag, [1370]nybble, and other
smaller-than-character-sized pieces of data; these include low-level
device control, encryption algorithms, checksum and error-correcting
codes, hash functions, some flavors of graphics programming (see
[1371]bitblt), and assembler/compiler code generation. May connote
either tedium or a real technical challenge (more usually the former).
"The command decoding for the new tape driver looks pretty solid but
the bit-bashing for the control registers still has bugs." See also
[1372]bit bang, [1373]mode bit.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bit bucket, Next:[1374]bit decay, Previous:[1375]bit bashing,
Up:[1376]= B =
bit bucket n.
[very common] 1. The universal data sink (originally, the mythical
receptacle used to catch bits when they fall off the end of a register
during a shift instruction). Discarded, lost, or destroyed data is
said to have `gone to the bit bucket'. On [1377]Unix, often used for
[1378]/dev/null. Sometimes amplified as `the Great Bit Bucket in the
Sky'. 2. The place where all lost mail and news messages eventually
go. The selection is performed according to [1379]Finagle's Law;
important mail is much more likely to end up in the bit bucket than
junk mail, which has an almost 100% probability of getting delivered.
Routing to the bit bucket is automatically performed by mail-transfer
agents, news systems, and the lower layers of the network. 3. The
ideal location for all unwanted mail responses: "Flames about this
article to the bit bucket." Such a request is guaranteed to overflow
one's mailbox with flames. 4. Excuse for all mail that has not been
sent. "I mailed you those figures last week; they must have landed in
the bit bucket." Compare [1380]black hole.
This term is used purely in jest. It is based on the fanciful notion
that bits are objects that are not destroyed but only misplaced. This
appears to have been a mutation of an earlier term `bit box', about
which the same legend was current; old-time hackers also report that
trainees used to be told that when the CPU stored bits into memory it
was actually pulling them `out of the bit box'. See also [1381]chad
box.
Another variant of this legend has it that, as a consequence of the
`parity preservation law', the number of 1 bits that go to the bit
bucket must equal the number of 0 bits. Any imbalance results in bits
filling up the bit bucket. A qualified computer technician can empty a
full bit bucket as part of scheduled maintenance.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bit decay, Next:[1382]bit rot, Previous:[1383]bit bucket,
Up:[1384]= B =
bit decay n.
See [1385]bit rot. People with a physics background tend to prefer
this variant for the analogy with particle decay. See also
[1386]computron, [1387]quantum bogodynamics.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bit rot, Next:[1388]bit twiddling, Previous:[1389]bit decay,
Up:[1390]= B =
bit rot n.
[common] Also [1391]bit decay. Hypothetical disease the existence of
which has been deduced from the observation that unused programs or
features will often stop working after sufficient time has passed,
even if `nothing has changed'. The theory explains that bits decay as
if they were radioactive. As time passes, the contents of a file or
the code in a program will become increasingly garbled.
There actually are physical processes that produce such effects (alpha
particles generated by trace radionuclides in ceramic chip packages,
for example, can change the contents of a computer memory
unpredictably, and various kinds of subtle media failures can corrupt
files in mass storage), but they are quite rare (and computers are
built with error-detecting circuitry to compensate for them). The
notion long favored among hackers that cosmic rays are among the
causes of such events turns out to be a myth; see the [1392]cosmic
rays entry for details.
The term [1393]software rot is almost synonymous. Software rot is the
effect, bit rot the notional cause.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bit twiddling, Next:[1394]bit-paired keyboard, Previous:[1395]bit
rot, Up:[1396]= B =
bit twiddling n.
[very common] 1. (pejorative) An exercise in tuning (see [1397]tune)
in which incredible amounts of time and effort go to produce little
noticeable improvement, often with the result that the code becomes
incomprehensible. 2. Aimless small modification to a program, esp. for
some pointless goal. 3. Approx. syn. for [1398]bit bashing; esp. used
for the act of frobbing the device control register of a peripheral in
an attempt to get it back to a known state.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bit-paired keyboard, Next:[1399]bitblt, Previous:[1400]bit
twiddling, Up:[1401]= B =
bit-paired keyboard n.,obs.
(alt. `bit-shift keyboard') A non-standard keyboard layout that seems
to have originated with the Teletype ASR-33 and remained common for
several years on early computer equipment. The ASR-33 was a mechanical
device (see [1402]EOU), so the only way to generate the character
codes from keystrokes was by some physical linkage. The design of the
ASR-33 assigned each character key a basic pattern that could be
modified by flipping bits if the SHIFT or the CTRL key was pressed. In
order to avoid making the thing even more of a kluge than it already
was, the design had to group characters that shared the same basic bit
pattern on one key.
Looking at the ASCII chart, we find:
high low bits
bits 0000 0001 0010 0011 0100 0101 0110 0111 1000 1001
010 ! " # $ % & ' ( )
011 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
This is why the characters !"#$%&'() appear where they do on a
Teletype (thankfully, they didn't use shift-0 for space). The Teletype
Model 33 was actually designed before ASCII existed, and was
originally intended to use a code that contained these two rows:
low bits
high 0000 0010 0100 0110 1000 1010 1100 1110
bits 0001 0011 0101 0111 1001 1011 1101 1111
10 ) ! bel # $ % wru & * ( " : ? _ , .
11 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ' ; / - esc del
The result would have been something closer to a normal keyboard. But
as it happened, Teletype had to use a lot of persuasion just to keep
ASCII, and the Model 33 keyboard, from looking like this instead:
! " ? $ ' & - ( ) ; : * / , .
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 + ~ < > × |
Teletype's was not the weirdest variant of the [1403]QWERTY layout
widely seen, by the way; that prize should probably go to one of
several (differing) arrangements on IBM's even clunkier 026 and 029
card punches.
When electronic terminals became popular, in the early 1970s, there
was no agreement in the industry over how the keyboards should be laid
out. Some vendors opted to emulate the Teletype keyboard, while others
used the flexibility of electronic circuitry to make their product
look like an office typewriter. Either choice was supported by the
ANSI computer keyboard standard, X4.14-1971, which referred to the
alternatives as `logical bit pairing' and `typewriter pairing'. These
alternatives became known as `bit-paired' and `typewriter-paired'
keyboards. To a hacker, the bit-paired keyboard seemed far more
logical -- and because most hackers in those days had never learned to
touch-type, there was little pressure from the pioneering users to
adapt keyboards to the typewriter standard.
The doom of the bit-paired keyboard was the large-scale introduction
of the computer terminal into the normal office environment, where
out-and-out technophobes were expected to use the equipment. The
`typewriter-paired' standard became universal, X4.14 was superseded by
X4.23-1982, `bit-paired' hardware was quickly junked or relegated to
dusty corners, and both terms passed into disuse.
However, in countries without a long history of touch typing, the
argument against the bit-paired keyboard layout was weak or
nonexistent. As a result, the standard Japanese keyboard, used on PCs,
Unix boxen etc. still has all of the !"#$%&'() characters above the
numbers in the ASR-33 layout.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bitblt, Next:[1404]BITNET, Previous:[1405]bit-paired keyboard,
Up:[1406]= B =
bitblt /bit'blit/ n.
[from [1407]BLT, q.v.] 1. [common] Any of a family of closely related
algorithms for moving and copying rectangles of bits between main and
display memory on a bit-mapped device, or between two areas of either
main or display memory (the requirement to do the [1408]Right Thing in
the case of overlapping source and destination rectangles is what
makes BitBlt tricky). 2. Synonym for [1409]blit or [1410]BLT. Both
uses are borderline techspeak.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BITNET, Next:[1411]bits, Previous:[1412]bitblt, Up:[1413]= B =
BITNET /bit'net/ n., obs.
[acronym: Because It's Time NETwork] Everybody's least favorite piece
of the network (see [1414]the network) - until AOL happened. The
BITNET hosts were a collection of IBM dinosaurs and VAXen (the latter
with lobotomized comm hardware) that communicate using 80-character
[1415]EBCDIC card images (see [1416]eighty-column mind); thus, they
tend to mangle the headers and text of third-party traffic from the
rest of the ASCII/[1417]RFC-822 world with annoying regularity. BITNET
was also notorious as the apparent home of [1418]B1FF. By 1995 it had,
much to everyone's relief, been obsolesced and absorbed into the
Internet. Unfortunately, around this time we also got AOL.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bits, Next:[1419]bitty box, Previous:[1420]BITNET, Up:[1421]= B =
bits pl.n.
1. Information. Examples: "I need some bits about file formats." ("I
need to know about file formats.") Compare [1422]core dump, sense 4.
2. Machine-readable representation of a document, specifically as
contrasted with paper: "I have only a photocopy of the Jargon File;
does anyone know where I can get the bits?". See [1423]softcopy,
[1424]source of all good bits See also [1425]bit.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bitty box, Next:[1426]bixen, Previous:[1427]bits, Up:[1428]= B =
bitty box /bit'ee boks/ n.
1. A computer sufficiently small, primitive, or incapable as to cause
a hacker acute claustrophobia at the thought of developing software on
or for it. Especially used of small, obsolescent, single-tasking-only
personal machines such as the Atari 800, Osborne, Sinclair, VIC-20,
TRS-80, or IBM PC. 2. [Pejorative] More generally, the opposite of
`real computer' (see [1429]Get a real computer!). See also
[1430]mess-dos, [1431]toaster, and [1432]toy.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bixen, Next:[1433]bixie, Previous:[1434]bitty box, Up:[1435]= B =
bixen pl.n.
Users of BIX (the BIX Information eXchange, formerly the Byte
Information eXchange). Parallels other plurals like boxen,
[1436]VAXen, oxen.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bixie, Next:[1437]black art, Previous:[1438]bixen, Up:[1439]= B =
bixie /bik'see/ n.
Variant [1440]emoticons used on BIX (the BIX Information eXchange).
The most common ([1441]smiley) bixie is <@_@>, representing two
cartoon eyes and a mouth. These were originally invented in an SF
fanzine called APA-L and imported to BIX by one of the earliest users.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:black art, Next:[1442]black hole, Previous:[1443]bixie,
Up:[1444]= B =
black art n.
[common] A collection of arcane, unpublished, and (by implication)
mostly ad-hoc techniques developed for a particular application or
systems area (compare [1445]black magic). VLSI design and compiler
code optimization were (in their beginnings) considered classic
examples of black art; as theory developed they became [1446]deep
magic, and once standard textbooks had been written, became merely
[1447]heavy wizardry. The huge proliferation of formal and informal
channels for spreading around new computer-related technologies during
the last twenty years has made both the term `black art' and what it
describes less common than formerly. See also [1448]voodoo
programming.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:black hole, Next:[1449]black magic, Previous:[1450]black art,
Up:[1451]= B =
black hole n.,vt.
[common] What data (a piece of email or netnews, or a stream of TCP/IP
packets) has fallen into if it disappears mysteriously between its
origin and destination sites (that is, without returning a
[1452]bounce message). "I think there's a black hole at foovax!"
conveys suspicion that site foovax has been dropping a lot of stuff on
the floor lately (see [1453]drop on the floor). The implied metaphor
of email as interstellar travel is interesting in itself. Readily
verbed as `blackhole': "That router is blackholing IDP packets."
Compare [1454]bit bucket and see [1455]RBL.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:black magic, Next:[1456]Black Screen of Death,
Previous:[1457]black hole, Up:[1458]= B =
black magic n.
[common] A technique that works, though nobody really understands why.
More obscure than [1459]voodoo programming, which may be done by
cookbook. Compare also [1460]black art, [1461]deep magic, and
[1462]magic number (sense 2).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Black Screen of Death, Next:[1463]Black Thursday,
Previous:[1464]black magic, Up:[1465]= B =
Black Screen of Death n.
[prob. related to the Floating Head of Death in a famous "Far Side"
cartoon.] A failure mode of [1466]Microsloth Windows. On an attempt to
launch a DOS box, a networked Windows system not uncommonly blanks the
screen and locks up the PC so hard that it requires a cold [1467]boot
to recover. This unhappy phenomenon is known as The Black Screen of
Death. See also [1468]Blue Screen of Death, which has become rather
more common.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Black Thursday, Next:[1469]blammo, Previous:[1470]Black Screen of
Death, Up:[1471]= B =
Black Thursday n.
February 8th, 1996 - the day of the signing into law of the [1472]CDA,
so called by analogy with the catastrophic "Black Friday" in 1929 that
began the Great Depression.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blammo, Next:[1473]blargh, Previous:[1474]Black Thursday,
Up:[1475]= B =
blammo v.
[Oxford Brookes University and alumni, UK] To forcibly remove someone
from any interactive system, especially talker systems. The operators,
who may remain hidden, may `blammo' a user who is misbehaving. Very
similar to MIT [1476]gun; in fact, the `blammo-gun' is a notional
device used to `blammo' someone. While in actual fact the only
incarnation of the blammo-gun is the command used to forcibly eject a
user, operators speak of different levels of blammo-gun fire; e.g., a
blammo-gun to `stun' will temporarily remove someone, but a blammo-gun
set to `maim' will stop someone coming back on for a while.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blargh, Next:[1477]blast, Previous:[1478]blammo, Up:[1479]= B =
blargh /blarg/ n.
[MIT; now common] The opposite of [1480]ping, sense 5; an exclamation
indicating that one has absorbed or is emitting a quantum of
unhappiness. Less common than [1481]ping.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blast, Next:[1482]blat, Previous:[1483]blargh, Up:[1484]= B =
blast 1. v.,n.
Synonym for [1485]BLT, used esp. for large data sends over a network
or comm line. Opposite of [1486]snarf. Usage: uncommon. The variant
`blat' has been reported. 2. vt. [HP/Apollo] Synonymous with
[1487]nuke (sense 3). Sometimes the message Unable to kill all
processes. Blast them (y/n)? would appear in the command window upon
logout.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blat, Next:[1488]bletch, Previous:[1489]blast, Up:[1490]= B =
blat n.
1. Syn. [1491]blast, sense 1. 2. See [1492]thud.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bletch, Next:[1493]bletcherous, Previous:[1494]blat, Up:[1495]= B
=
bletch /blech/ interj.
[very common; from Yiddish/German `brechen', to vomit, poss. via
comic-strip exclamation `blech'] Term of disgust. Often used in "Ugh,
bletch". Compare [1496]barf.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bletcherous, Next:[1497]blink, Previous:[1498]bletch, Up:[1499]=
B =
bletcherous /blech'*-r*s/ adj.
Disgusting in design or function; esthetically unappealing. This word
is seldom used of people. "This keyboard is bletcherous!" (Perhaps the
keys don't work very well, or are misplaced.) See [1500]losing,
[1501]cretinous, [1502]bagbiting, [1503]bogus, and [1504]random. The
term [1505]bletcherous applies to the esthetics of the thing so
described; similarly for [1506]cretinous. By contrast, something that
is `losing' or `bagbiting' may be failing to meet objective criteria.
See also [1507]bogus and [1508]random, which have richer and wider
shades of meaning than any of the above.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blink, Next:[1509]blinkenlights, Previous:[1510]bletcherous,
Up:[1511]= B =
blink vi.,n.
To use a navigator or off-line message reader to minimize time spent
on-line to a commercial network service (a necessity in many places
outside the U.S. where the telecoms monopolies charge per-minute for
local calls). This term attained wide use in the UK, but is rare or
unknown in the US.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blinkenlights, Next:[1512]blit, Previous:[1513]blink, Up:[1514]=
B =
blinkenlights /blink'*n-li:tz/ n.
[common] Front-panel diagnostic lights on a computer, esp. a
[1515]dinosaur. Now that dinosaurs are rare, this term usually refers
to status lights on a modem, network hub, or the like.
This term derives from the last word of the famous blackletter-Gothic
sign in mangled pseudo-German that once graced about half the computer
rooms in the English-speaking world. One version ran in its entirety
as follows:
ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS!
Das computermachine ist nicht fuer gefingerpoken und mittengrabben.
Ist easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und poppencorken
mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei das dumpkopfen. Das
rubbernecken sichtseeren keepen das cotten-pickenen hans in das
pockets muss; relaxen und watchen das blinkenlichten.
This silliness dates back at least as far as 1959 at Stanford
University and had already gone international by the early 1960s, when
it was reported at London University's ATLAS computing site. There are
several variants of it in circulation, some of which actually do end
with the word `blinkenlights'.
In an amusing example of turnabout-is-fair-play, German hackers have
developed their own versions of the blinkenlights poster in fractured
English, one of which is reproduced here:
ATTENTION
This room is fullfilled mit special electronische equippment.
Fingergrabbing and pressing the cnoeppkes from the computers is
allowed for die experts only! So all the "lefthanders" stay away
and do not disturben the brainstorming von here working
intelligencies. Otherwise you will be out thrown and kicked
anderswhere! Also: please keep still and only watchen astaunished
the blinkenlights.
See also [1516]geef.
Old-time hackers sometimes get nostalgic for blinkenlights because
they were so much more fun to look at than a blank panel. Sadly, very
few computers still have them (the three LEDs on a PC keyboard
certainly don't count). The obvious reasons (cost of wiring, cost of
front-panel cutouts, almost nobody needs or wants to interpret
machine-register states on the fly anymore) are only part of the
story. Another part of it is that radio-frequency leakage from the
lamp wiring was beginning to be a problem as far back as transistor
machines. But the most fundamental fact is that there are very few
signals slow enough to blink an LED these days! With slow CPUs, you
could watch the bus register or instruction counter tick, but at
33/66/150MHz it's all a blur.
Finally, a version updated for the Internet has been seen on
news.admin.net-abuse.email:
ACHTUNG! ALLES LOOKENSPEEPERS!
Das Internet is nicht fuer gefingerclicken und giffengrabben. Ist
easy droppenpacket der routers und overloaden der backbone mit der
spammen und der me-tooen. Ist nicht fuer gewerken bei das
dumpkopfen. Das mausklicken sichtseeren keepen das bandwit-spewin
hans in das pockets muss; relaxen und watchen das cursorblinken.
This newest version partly reflects reports that the word
`blinkenlights' is (in 1999) undergoing something of a revival in
usage, but applied to networking equipment. The transmit and receive
lights on routers, activity lights on switches and hubs, and other
network equipment often blink in visually pleasing and seemingly
coordinated ways. Although this is different in some ways from
register readings, a tall stack of Cisco equipment or a 19-inch rack
of ISDN terminals can provoke a similar feeling of hypnotic awe,
especially in a darkened network operations center or server room.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blit, Next:[1517]blitter, Previous:[1518]blinkenlights,
Up:[1519]= B =
blit /blit/ vt.
1. [common] To copy a large array of bits from one part of a
computer's memory to another part, particularly when the memory is
being used to determine what is shown on a display screen. "The
storage allocator picks through the table and copies the good parts up
into high memory, and then blits it all back down again." See
[1520]bitblt, [1521]BLT, [1522]dd, [1523]cat, [1524]blast,
[1525]snarf. More generally, to perform some operation (such as
toggling) on a large array of bits while moving them. 2. [historical,
rare] Sometimes all-capitalized as `BLIT': an early experimental
bit-mapped terminal designed by Rob Pike at Bell Labs, later
commercialized as the AT&T 5620. (The folk etymology from `Bell Labs
Intelligent Terminal' is incorrect. Its creators liked to claim that
"Blit" stood for the Bacon, Lettuce, and Interactive Tomato.)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blitter, Next:[1526]blivet, Previous:[1527]blit, Up:[1528]= B =
blitter /blit'r/ n.
[common] A special-purpose chip or hardware system built to perform
[1529]blit operations, esp. used for fast implementation of bit-mapped
graphics. The Commodore Amiga and a few other micros have these, but
since 1990 the trend has been away from them (however, see [1530]cycle
of reincarnation). Syn. [1531]raster blaster.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blivet, Next:[1532]bloatware, Previous:[1533]blitter, Up:[1534]=
B =
blivet /bliv'*t/ n.
[allegedly from a World War II military term meaning "ten pounds of
manure in a five-pound bag"] 1. An intractable problem. 2. A crucial
piece of hardware that can't be fixed or replaced if it breaks. 3. A
tool that has been hacked over by so many incompetent programmers that
it has become an unmaintainable tissue of hacks. 4. An out-of-control
but unkillable development effort. 5. An embarrassing bug that pops up
during a customer demo. 6. In the subjargon of computer security
specialists, a denial-of-service attack performed by hogging limited
resources that have no access controls (for example, shared spool
space on a multi-user system).
This term has other meanings in other technical cultures; among
experimental physicists and hardware engineers of various kinds it
seems to mean any random object of unknown purpose (similar to hackish
use of [1535]frob). It has also been used to describe an amusing
trick-the-eye drawing resembling a three-pronged fork that appears to
depict a three-dimensional object until one realizes that the parts
fit together in an impossible way.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bloatware, Next:[1536]BLOB, Previous:[1537]blivet, Up:[1538]= B =
bloatware n.
[common] Software that provides minimal functionality while requiring
a disproportionate amount of diskspace and memory. Especially used for
application and OS upgrades. This term is very common in the
Windows/NT world. So is its cause.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BLOB, Next:[1539]block, Previous:[1540]bloatware, Up:[1541]= B =
BLOB
1. n. [acronym: Binary Large OBject] Used by database people to refer
to any random large block of bits that needs to be stored in a
database, such as a picture or sound file. The essential point about a
BLOB is that it's an object that cannot be interpreted within the
database itself. 2. v. To [1542]mailbomb someone by sending a BLOB to
him/her; esp. used as a mild threat. "If that program crashes again,
I'm going to BLOB the core dump to you."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:block, Next:[1543]block transfer computations,
Previous:[1544]BLOB, Up:[1545]= B =
block v.
[common; from process scheduling terminology in OS theory] 1. vi. To
delay or sit idle while waiting for something. "We're blocking until
everyone gets here." Compare [1546]busy-wait. 2. `block on' vt. To
block, waiting for (something). "Lunch is blocked on Phil's arrival."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:block transfer computations, Next:[1547]Bloggs Family,
Previous:[1548]block, Up:[1549]= B =
block transfer computations n.
[from the television series "Dr. Who"] Computations so fiendishly
subtle and complex that they could not be performed by machines. Used
to refer to any task that should be expressible as an algorithm in
theory, but isn't. (The Z80's LDIR instruction, "Computed Block
Transfer with increment", may also be relevant.)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Bloggs Family, Next:[1550]blow an EPROM, Previous:[1551]block
transfer computations, Up:[1552]= B =
Bloggs Family n.
An imaginary family consisting of Fred and Mary Bloggs and their
children. Used as a standard example in knowledge representation to
show the difference between extensional and intensional objects. For
example, every occurrence of "Fred Bloggs" is the same unique person,
whereas occurrences of "person" may refer to different people. Members
of the Bloggs family have been known to pop up in bizarre places such
as the old [1553]DEC Telephone Directory. Compare [1554]Dr. Fred
Mbogo; [1555]J. Random Hacker; [1556]Fred Foobar.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blow an EPROM, Next:[1557]blow away, Previous:[1558]Bloggs
Family, Up:[1559]= B =
blow an EPROM /bloh *n ee'prom/ v.
(alt. `blast an EPROM', `burn an EPROM') To program a read-only
memory, e.g. for use with an embedded system. This term arose because
the programming process for the Programmable Read-Only Memories
(PROMs) that preceded present-day Erasable Programmable Read-Only
Memories (EPROMs) involved intentionally blowing tiny electrical fuses
on the chip. The usage lives on (it's too vivid and expressive to
discard) even though the write process on EPROMs is nondestructive.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blow away, Next:[1560]blow out, Previous:[1561]blow an EPROM,
Up:[1562]= B =
blow away vt.
To remove (files and directories) from permanent storage, generally by
accident. "He reformatted the wrong partition and blew away last
night's netnews." Oppose [1563]nuke.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blow out, Next:[1564]blow past, Previous:[1565]blow away,
Up:[1566]= B =
blow out vi.
[prob. from mining and tunneling jargon] Of software, to fail
spectacularly; almost as serious as [1567]crash and burn. See
[1568]blow past, [1569]blow up, [1570]die horribly.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blow past, Next:[1571]blow up, Previous:[1572]blow out,
Up:[1573]= B =
blow past vt.
To [1574]blow out despite a safeguard. "The server blew past the 5K
reserve buffer."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blow up, Next:[1575]BLT, Previous:[1576]blow past, Up:[1577]= B =
blow up vi.
1. [scientific computation] To become unstable. Suggests that the
computation is diverging so rapidly that it will soon overflow or at
least go [1578]nonlinear. 2. Syn. [1579]blow out.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BLT, Next:[1580]Blue Book, Previous:[1581]blow up, Up:[1582]= B =
BLT /B-L-T/, /bl*t/ or (rarely) /belt/ n.,vt.
Synonym for [1583]blit. This is the original form of [1584]blit and
the ancestor of [1585]bitblt. It referred to any large bit-field copy
or move operation (one resource-intensive memory-shuffling operation
done on pre-paged versions of ITS, WAITS, and TOPS-10 was sardonically
referred to as `The Big BLT'). The jargon usage has outlasted the
[1586]PDP-10 BLock Transfer instruction from which [1587]BLT derives;
nowadays, the assembler mnemonic [1588]BLT almost always means `Branch
if Less Than zero'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Blue Book, Next:[1589]blue box, Previous:[1590]BLT, Up:[1591]= B
=
Blue Book n.
1. Informal name for one of the four standard references on the
page-layout and graphics-control language [1592]PostScript
("PostScript Language Tutorial and Cookbook", Adobe Systems,
Addison-Wesley 1985, QA76.73.P67P68, ISBN 0-201-10179-3); the other
three official guides are known as the [1593]Green Book, the [1594]Red
Book, and the [1595]White Book (sense 2). 2. Informal name for one of
the three standard references on Smalltalk: "Smalltalk-80: The
Language and its Implementation", David Robson, Addison-Wesley 1983,
QA76.8.S635G64, ISBN 0-201-11371-63 (this book also has green and red
siblings). 3. Any of the 1988 standards issued by the CCITT's ninth
plenary assembly. These include, among other things, the X.400 email
spec and the Group 1 through 4 fax standards. See also [1596]book
titles.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blue box, Next:[1597]Blue Glue, Previous:[1598]Blue Book,
Up:[1599]= B =
blue box
n. 1. obs. Once upon a time, before all-digital switches made it
possible for the phone companies to move them out of band, one could
actually hear the switching tones used to route long-distance calls.
Early [1600]phreakers built devices called `blue boxes' that could
reproduce these tones, which could be used to commandeer portions of
the phone network. (This was not as hard as it may sound; one early
phreak acquired the sobriquet `Captain Crunch' after he proved that he
could generate switching tones with a plastic whistle pulled out of a
box of Captain Crunch cereal!) There were other colors of box with
more specialized phreaking uses; red boxes, black boxes, silver boxes,
etc. 2. n. An [1601]IBM machine, especially a large (non-PC) one.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Blue Glue, Next:[1602]blue goo, Previous:[1603]blue box,
Up:[1604]= B =
Blue Glue n.
[IBM] IBM's SNA (Systems Network Architecture), an incredibly
[1605]losing and [1606]bletcherous communications protocol widely
favored at commercial shops that don't know any better. The official
IBM definition is "that which binds blue boxes together." See
[1607]fear and loathing. It may not be irrelevant that Blue Glue is
the trade name of a 3M product that is commonly used to hold down the
carpet squares to the removable panel floors common in [1608]dinosaur
pens. A correspondent at U. Minn. reports that the CS department there
has about 80 bottles of the stuff hanging about, so they often refer
to any messy work to be done as `using the blue glue'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blue goo, Next:[1609]Blue Screen of Death, Previous:[1610]Blue
Glue, Up:[1611]= B =
blue goo n.
Term for `police' [1612]nanobots intended to prevent [1613]gray goo,
denature hazardous waste, destroy pollution, put ozone back into the
stratosphere, prevent halitosis, and promote truth, justice, and the
American way, etc. The term `Blue Goo' can be found in Dr. Seuss's
"Fox In Socks" to refer to a substance much like bubblegum. `Would you
like to chew blue goo, sir?'. See [1614]nanotechnology.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Blue Screen of Death, Next:[1615]blue wire, Previous:[1616]blue
goo, Up:[1617]= B =
Blue Screen of Death n.
[common] This term is closely related to the older [1618]Black Screen
of Death but much more common (many non-hackers have picked it up).
Due to the extreme fragility and bugginess of Microsoft Windows
misbehaving applications can readily crash the OS (and the OS
sometimes crashes itself spontaneously). The Blue Screen of Death,
sometimes decorated with hex error codes, is what you get when this
happens. (Commonly abbreviated [1619]BSOD.)
The following entry from the [1620]Salon Haiku Contest, seems to have
predated popular use of the term:
Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death
No one hears your screams.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blue wire, Next:[1621]blurgle, Previous:[1622]Blue Screen of
Death, Up:[1623]= B =
blue wire n.
[IBM] Patch wires (esp. 30 AWG gauge) added to circuit boards at the
factory to correct design or fabrication problems. Blue wire is not
necessarily blue, the term describes function rather than color. These
may be necessary if there hasn't been time to design and qualify
another board version. In Great Britain this can be `bodge wire',
after mainstreanm slang `bodge' for a clumsy improvisation or sloppy
job of work. Compare [1624]purple wire, [1625]red wire, [1626]yellow
wire, [1627]pink wire.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:blurgle, Next:[1628]BNF, Previous:[1629]blue wire, Up:[1630]= B =
blurgle /bler'gl/ n.
[UK] Spoken [1631]metasyntactic variable, to indicate some text that
is obvious from context, or which is already known. If several words
are to be replaced, blurgle may well be doubled or tripled. "To look
for something in several files use `grep string blurgle blurgle'." In
each case, "blurgle blurgle" would be understood to be replaced by the
file you wished to search. Compare [1632]mumble, sense 7.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BNF, Next:[1633]boa, Previous:[1634]blurgle, Up:[1635]= B =
BNF /B-N-F/ n.
1. [techspeak] Acronym for `Backus Normal Form' (later retronymed to
`Backus-Naur Form' because BNF was not in fact a normal form), a
metasyntactic notation used to specify the syntax of programming
languages, command sets, and the like. Widely used for language
descriptions but seldom documented anywhere, so that it must usually
be learned by osmosis from other hackers. Consider this BNF for a U.S.
postal address:
<postal-address> ::= <name-part> <street-address> <zip-part>
<personal-part> ::= <name> | <initial> "."
<name-part> ::= <personal-part> <last-name> [<jr-part>] <EOL>
| <personal-part> <name-part>
<street-address> ::= [<apt>] <house-num> <street-name> <EOL>
<zip-part> ::= <town-name> "," <state-code> <ZIP-code> <EOL>
This translates into English as: "A postal-address consists of a
name-part, followed by a street-address part, followed by a zip-code
part. A personal-part consists of either a first name or an initial
followed by a dot. A name-part consists of either: a personal-part
followed by a last name followed by an optional `jr-part' (Jr., Sr.,
or dynastic number) and end-of-line, or a personal part followed by a
name part (this rule illustrates the use of recursion in BNFs,
covering the case of people who use multiple first and middle names
and/or initials). A street address consists of an optional apartment
specifier, followed by a street number, followed by a street name. A
zip-part consists of a town-name, followed by a comma, followed by a
state code, followed by a ZIP-code followed by an end-of-line." Note
that many things (such as the format of a personal-part, apartment
specifier, or ZIP-code) are left unspecified. These are presumed to be
obvious from context or detailed somewhere nearby. See also
[1636]parse. 2. Any of a number of variants and extensions of BNF
proper, possibly containing some or all of the [1637]regexp wildcards
such as * or +. In fact the example above isn't the pure form invented
for the Algol-60 report; it uses [], which was introduced a few years
later in IBM's PL/I definition but is now universally recognized. 3.
In [1638]science-fiction fandom, a `Big-Name Fan' (someone famous or
notorious). Years ago a fan started handing out black-on-green BNF
buttons at SF conventions; this confused the hacker contingent
terribly.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:boa, Next:[1639]board, Previous:[1640]BNF, Up:[1641]= B =
boa [IBM] n.
Any one of the fat cables that lurk under the floor in a
[1642]dinosaur pen. Possibly so called because they display a
ferocious life of their own when you try to lay them straight and flat
after they have been coiled for some time. It is rumored within IBM
that channel cables for the 370 are limited to 200 feet because beyond
that length the boas get dangerous -- and it is worth noting that one
of the major cable makers uses the trademark `Anaconda'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:board, Next:[1643]boat anchor, Previous:[1644]boa, Up:[1645]= B =
board n.
1. In-context synonym for [1646]bboard; sometimes used even for Usenet
newsgroups (but see usage note under [1647]bboard, sense 1). 2. An
electronic circuit board.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:boat anchor, Next:[1648]bob, Previous:[1649]board, Up:[1650]= B =
boat anchor n.
[common; from ham radio] 1. Like [1651]doorstop but more severe;
implies that the offending hardware is irreversibly dead or useless.
"That was a working motherboard once. One lightning strike later,
instant boat anchor!" 2. A person who just takes up space. 3. Obsolete
but still working hardware, especially when used of an old S100-bus
hobbyist system; originally a term of annoyance, but became more and
more affectionate as the hardware became more and more obsolete.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bob, Next:[1652]bodysurf code, Previous:[1653]boat anchor,
Up:[1654]= B =
bob n.
At [1655]Demon Internet, all tech support personnel are called "Bob".
(Female support personnel have an option on "Bobette"). This has
nothing to do with Bob the divine drilling-equipment salesman of the
[1656]Church of the SubGenius. Nor is it acronymized from "Brother Of
[1657]BOFH", though all parties agree it could have been. Rather, it
was triggered by an unusually large draft of new tech-support people
in 1995. It was observed that there would be much duplication of
names. To ease the confusion, it was decided that all support techs
would henceforth be known as "Bob", and identity badges were created
labelled "Bob 1" and "Bob 2". ("No, we never got any further" reports
a witness).
The reason for "Bob" rather than anything else is due to a [1658]luser
calling and asking to speak to "Bob", despite the fact that no "Bob"
was currently working for Tech Support. Since we all know "the
customer is always right", it was decided that there had to be at
least one "Bob" on duty at all times, just in case.
This sillyness inexorably snowballed. Shift leaders and managers began
to refer to their groups of "bobs". Whole ranks of support machines
were set up (and still exist in the DNS as of 1999) as bob1 through
bobN. Then came alt.tech-support.recovery, and it was filled with
Demon support personnel. They all referred to themselves, and to
others, as `bob', and after a while it caught on. There is now a
[1659]Bob Code describing the Bob nature.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bodysurf code, Next:[1660]BOF, Previous:[1661]bob, Up:[1662]= B =
bodysurf code n.
A program or segment of code written quickly in the heat of
inspiration without the benefit of formal design or deep thought. Like
its namesake sport, the result is too often a wipeout that leaves the
programmer eating sand.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BOF, Next:[1663]BOFH, Previous:[1664]bodysurf code, Up:[1665]= B
=
BOF /B-O-F/ or /bof/ n.
1. [common] Abbreviation for the phrase "Birds Of a Feather" (flocking
together), an informal discussion group and/or bull session scheduled
on a conference program. It is not clear where or when this term
originated, but it is now associated with the USENIX conferences for
Unix techies and was already established there by 1984. It was used
earlier than that at DECUS conferences and is reported to have been
common at SHARE meetings as far back as the early 1960s. 2. Acronym,
`Beginning of File'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BOFH, Next:[1666]bogo-sort, Previous:[1667]BOF, Up:[1668]= B =
BOFH // n.
[common] Acronym, Bastard Operator From Hell. A system administrator
with absolutely no tolerance for [1669]lusers. "You say you need more
filespace? <massive-global-delete> Seems to me you have plenty
left..." Many BOFHs (and others who would be BOFHs if they could get
away with it) hang out in the newsgroup alt.sysadmin.recovery,
although there has also been created a top-level newsgroup hierarchy
(bofh.*) of their own.
Several people have written stories about BOFHs. The set usually
considered canonical is by Simon Travaglia and may be found at the
[1670]Bastard Home Page. BOFHs and BOFH wannabes hang out on
[1671]scary devil monastery and wield [1672]LARTs.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bogo-sort, Next:[1673]bogometer, Previous:[1674]BOFH, Up:[1675]=
B =
bogo-sort /boh`goh-sort'/ n.
(var. `stupid-sort') The archetypical perversely awful algorithm (as
opposed to [1676]bubble sort, which is merely the generic bad
algorithm). Bogo-sort is equivalent to repeatedly throwing a deck of
cards in the air, picking them up at random, and then testing whether
they are in order. It serves as a sort of canonical example of
awfulness. Looking at a program and seeing a dumb algorithm, one might
say "Oh, I see, this program uses bogo-sort." Esp. appropriate for
algorithms with factorial or super-exponential running time in the
average case and probabilistically infinite worst-case running time.
Compare [1677]bogus, [1678]brute force, [1679]lasherism.
A spectacular variant of bogo-sort has been proposed which has the
interesting property that, if the Many Worlds interpretation of
quantum mechanics is true, it can sort an arbitrarily large array in
constant time. (In the Many-Worlds model, the result of any quantum
action is to split the universe-before into a sheaf of
universes-after, one for each possible way the state vector can
collapse; in any one of the universes-after the result appears
random.) The steps are: 1. Permute the array randomly using a quantum
process, 2. If the array is not sorted, destroy the universe.
Implementation of step 2 is left as an exercise for the reader.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bogometer, Next:[1680]BogoMIPS, Previous:[1681]bogo-sort,
Up:[1682]= B =
bogometer /boh-gom'-*t-er/ n.
A notional instrument for measuring [1683]bogosity. Compare the
[1684]Troll-O-Meter and the `wankometer' described in the [1685]wank
entry; see also [1686]bogus.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BogoMIPS, Next:[1687]bogon, Previous:[1688]bogometer, Up:[1689]=
B =
BogoMIPS /bo'go-mips/ n.
The number of million times a second a processor can do absolutely
nothing. The [1690]Linux OS measures BogoMIPS at startup in order to
calibrate some soft timing loops that will be used later on; details
at [1691]the BogoMIPS mini-HOWTO. The name Linus chose, of course, is
an ironic comment on the uselessness of all other [1692]MIPS figures.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bogon, Next:[1693]bogon filter, Previous:[1694]BogoMIPS,
Up:[1695]= B =
bogon /boh'gon/ n.
[very common; by analogy with proton/electron/neutron, but doubtless
reinforced after 1980 by the similarity to Douglas Adams's `Vogons';
see the [1696]Bibliography in Appendix C and note that Arthur Dent
actually mispronounces `Vogons' as `Bogons' at one point] 1. The
elementary particle of bogosity (see [1697]quantum bogodynamics). For
instance, "the Ethernet is emitting bogons again" means that it is
broken or acting in an erratic or bogus fashion. 2. A query packet
sent from a TCP/IP domain resolver to a root server, having the reply
bit set instead of the query bit. 3. Any bogus or incorrectly formed
packet sent on a network. 4. By synecdoche, used to refer to any bogus
thing, as in "I'd like to go to lunch with you but I've got to go to
the weekly staff bogon". 5. A person who is bogus or who says bogus
things. This was historically the original usage, but has been
overtaken by its derivative senses 1-4. See also [1698]bogosity,
[1699]bogus; compare [1700]psyton, [1701]fat electrons, [1702]magic
smoke.
The bogon has become the type case for a whole bestiary of nonce
particle names, including the `clutron' or `cluon' (indivisible
particle of cluefulness, obviously the antiparticle of the bogon) and
the futon (elementary particle of [1703]randomness, or sometimes of
lameness). These are not so much live usages in themselves as examples
of a live meta-usage: that is, it has become a standard joke or
linguistic maneuver to "explain" otherwise mysterious circumstances by
inventing nonce particle names. And these imply nonce particle
theories, with all their dignity or lack thereof (we might note
parenthetically that this is a generalization from "(bogus particle)
theories" to "bogus (particle theories)"!). Perhaps such particles are
the modern-day equivalents of trolls and wood-nymphs as standard
starting-points around which to construct explanatory myths. Of
course, playing on an existing word (as in the `futon') yields
additional flavor. Compare [1704]magic smoke.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bogon filter, Next:[1705]bogon flux, Previous:[1706]bogon,
Up:[1707]= B =
bogon filter /boh'gon fil'tr/ n.
Any device, software or hardware, that limits or suppresses the flow
and/or emission of bogons. "Engineering hacked a bogon filter between
the Cray and the VAXen, and now we're getting fewer dropped packets."
See also [1708]bogosity, [1709]bogus.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bogon flux, Next:[1710]bogosity, Previous:[1711]bogon filter,
Up:[1712]= B =
bogon flux /boh'gon fluhks/ n.
A measure of a supposed field of [1713]bogosity emitted by a speaker,
measured by a [1714]bogometer; as a speaker starts to wander into
increasing bogosity a listener might say "Warning, warning, bogon flux
is rising". See [1715]quantum bogodynamics.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bogosity, Next:[1716]bogotify, Previous:[1717]bogon flux,
Up:[1718]= B =
bogosity /boh-go's*-tee/ n.
1. [orig. CMU, now very common] The degree to which something is
[1719]bogus. Bogosity is measured with a [1720]bogometer; in a
seminar, when a speaker says something bogus, a listener might raise
his hand and say "My bogometer just triggered". More extremely, "You
just pinned my bogometer" means you just said or did something so
outrageously bogus that it is off the scale, pinning the bogometer
needle at the highest possible reading (one might also say "You just
redlined my bogometer"). The agreed-upon unit of bogosity is the
[1721]microLenat. 2. The potential field generated by a [1722]bogon
flux; see [1723]quantum bogodynamics. See also [1724]bogon flux,
[1725]bogon filter, [1726]bogus.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bogotify, Next:[1727]bogue out, Previous:[1728]bogosity,
Up:[1729]= B =
bogotify /boh-go't*-fi:/ vt.
To make or become bogus. A program that has been changed so many times
as to become completely disorganized has become bogotified. If you
tighten a nut too hard and strip the threads on the bolt, the bolt has
become bogotified and you had better not use it any more. This coinage
led to the notional `autobogotiphobia' defined as `the fear of
becoming bogotified'; but is not clear that the latter has ever been
`live' jargon rather than a self-conscious joke in jargon about
jargon. See also [1730]bogosity, [1731]bogus.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bogue out, Next:[1732]bogus, Previous:[1733]bogotify, Up:[1734]=
B =
bogue out /bohg owt/ vi.
To become bogus, suddenly and unexpectedly. "His talk was relatively
sane until somebody asked him a trick question; then he bogued out and
did nothing but [1735]flame afterwards." See also [1736]bogosity,
[1737]bogus.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bogus, Next:[1738]Bohr bug, Previous:[1739]bogue out, Up:[1740]=
B =
bogus adj.
1. Non-functional. "Your patches are bogus." 2. Useless. "OPCON is a
bogus program." 3. False. "Your arguments are bogus." 4. Incorrect.
"That algorithm is bogus." 5. Unbelievable. "You claim to have solved
the halting problem for Turing Machines? That's totally bogus." 6.
Silly. "Stop writing those bogus sagas."
Astrology is bogus. So is a bolt that is obviously about to break. So
is someone who makes blatantly false claims to have solved a
scientific problem. (This word seems to have some, but not all, of the
connotations of [1741]random -- mostly the negative ones.)
It is claimed that `bogus' was originally used in the hackish sense at
Princeton in the late 1960s. It was spread to CMU and Yale by Michael
Shamos, a migratory Princeton alumnus. A glossary of bogus words was
compiled at Yale when the word was first popularized there about
1975-76. These coinages spread into hackerdom from CMU and MIT. Most
of them remained wordplay objects rather than actual vocabulary items
or live metaphors. Examples: `amboguous' (having multiple bogus
interpretations); `bogotissimo' (in a gloriously bogus manner);
`bogotophile' (one who is pathologically fascinated by the bogus);
`paleobogology' (the study of primeval bogosity).
Some bogowords, however, obtained sufficient live currency to be
listed elsewhere in this lexicon; see [1742]bogometer, [1743]bogon,
[1744]bogotify, and [1745]quantum bogodynamics and the related but
unlisted [1746]Dr. Fred Mbogo.
By the early 1980s `bogus' was also current in something like hacker
usage sense in West Coast teen slang, and it had gone mainstream by
1985. A correspondent from Cambridge reports, by contrast, that these
uses of `bogus' grate on British nerves; in Britain the word means,
rather specifically, `counterfeit', as in "a bogus 10-pound note".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Bohr bug, Next:[1747]boink, Previous:[1748]bogus, Up:[1749]= B =
Bohr bug /bohr buhg/ n.
[from quantum physics] A repeatable [1750]bug; one that manifests
reliably under a possibly unknown but well-defined set of conditions.
Antonym of [1751]heisenbug; see also [1752]mandelbug,
[1753]schroedinbug.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:boink, Next:[1754]bomb, Previous:[1755]Bohr bug, Up:[1756]= B =
boink /boynk/
[Usenet: variously ascribed to the TV series "Cheers" "Moonlighting",
and "Soap"] 1. v. To have sex with; compare [1757]bounce, sense 3.
(This is mainstream slang.) In Commonwealth hackish the variant `bonk'
is more common. 2. n. After the original Peter Korn `Boinkon'
[1758]Usenet parties, used for almost any net social gathering, e.g.,
Miniboink, a small boink held by Nancy Gillett in 1988; Minniboink, a
Boinkcon in Minnesota in 1989; Humpdayboinks, Wednesday get-togethers
held in the San Francisco Bay Area. Compare [1759]@-party. 3. Var of
`bonk'; see [1760]bonk/oif.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bomb, Next:[1761]bondage-and-discipline language,
Previous:[1762]boink, Up:[1763]= B =
bomb
1. v. General synonym for [1764]crash (sense 1) except that it is not
used as a noun; esp. used of software or OS failures. "Don't run
Empire with less than 32K stack, it'll bomb." 2. n.,v. Atari ST and
Macintosh equivalents of a Unix `panic' or Amiga [1765]guru
meditation, in which icons of little black-powder bombs or mushroom
clouds are displayed, indicating that the system has died. On the Mac,
this may be accompanied by a decimal (or occasionally hexadecimal)
number indicating what went wrong, similar to the Amiga [1766]guru
meditation number. [1767]MS-DOS machines tend to get [1768]locked up
in this situation.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bondage-and-discipline language, Next:[1769]bonk/oif,
Previous:[1770]bomb, Up:[1771]= B =
bondage-and-discipline language n.
A language (such as [1772]Pascal, [1773]Ada, APL, or Prolog) that,
though ostensibly general-purpose, is designed so as to enforce an
author's theory of `right programming' even though said theory is
demonstrably inadequate for systems hacking or even vanilla
general-purpose programming. Often abbreviated `B&D'; thus, one may
speak of things "having the B&D nature". See [1774]Pascal; oppose
[1775]languages of choice.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bonk/oif, Next:[1776]book titles,
Previous:[1777]bondage-and-discipline language, Up:[1778]= B =
bonk/oif /bonk/, /oyf/ interj.
In the U.S. [1779]MUD community, it has become traditional to express
pique or censure by `bonking' the offending person. Convention holds
that one should acknowledge a bonk by saying `oif!' and there is a
myth to the effect that failing to do so upsets the cosmic bonk/oif
balance, causing much trouble in the universe. Some MUDs have
implemented special commands for bonking and oifing. Note: in parts of
the U.K. `bonk' is a sexually loaded slang term; care is advised in
transatlantic conversations (see [1780]boink). Commonwealth hackers
report a similar convention involving the `fish/bang' balance. See
also [1781]talk mode.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:book titles, Next:[1782]boot, Previous:[1783]bonk/oif, Up:[1784]=
B =
book titles
There is a tradition in hackerdom of informally tagging important
textbooks and standards documents with the dominant color of their
covers or with some other conspicuous feature of the cover. Many of
these are described in this lexicon under their own entries. See
[1785]Aluminum Book, [1786]Blue Book, [1787]Camel Book,
[1788]Cinderella Book, [1789]Devil Book, [1790]Dragon Book,
[1791]Green Book, [1792]Orange Book, [1793]Purple Book, [1794]Red
Book, [1795]Silver Book, [1796]White Book, [1797]Wizard Book,
[1798]Yellow Book, and [1799]bible; see also [1800]rainbow series.
Since about 1983 this tradition has gotten a boost from the popular
O'Reilly and Associates line of technical books, which usually feature
some kind of exotic animal on the cover.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:boot, Next:[1801]Borg, Previous:[1802]book titles, Up:[1803]= B =
boot v.,n.
[techspeak; from `by one's bootstraps'] To load and initialize the
operating system on a machine. This usage is no longer jargon (having
passed into techspeak) but has given rise to some derivatives that are
still jargon.
The derivative `reboot' implies that the machine hasn't been down for
long, or that the boot is a [1804]bounce (sense 4) intended to clear
some state of [1805]wedgitude. This is sometimes used of human thought
processes, as in the following exchange: "You've lost me." "OK,
reboot. Here's the theory...."
This term is also found in the variants `cold boot' (from power-off
condition) and `warm boot' (with the CPU and all devices already
powered up, as after a hardware reset or software crash).
Another variant: `soft boot', reinitialization of only part of a
system, under control of other software still running: "If you're
running the [1806]mess-dos emulator, control-alt-insert will cause a
soft-boot of the emulator, while leaving the rest of the system
running."
Opposed to this there is `hard boot', which connotes hostility towards
or frustration with the machine being booted: "I'll have to hard-boot
this losing Sun." "I recommend booting it hard." One often hard-boots
by performing a [1807]power cycle.
Historical note: this term derives from `bootstrap loader', a short
program that was read in from cards or paper tape, or toggled in from
the front panel switches. This program was always very short (great
efforts were expended on making it short in order to minimize the
labor and chance of error involved in toggling it in), but was just
smart enough to read in a slightly more complex program (usually from
a card or paper tape reader), to which it handed control; this program
in turn was smart enough to read the application or operating system
from a magnetic tape drive or disk drive. Thus, in successive steps,
the computer `pulled itself up by its bootstraps' to a useful
operating state. Nowadays the bootstrap is usually found in ROM or
EPROM, and reads the first stage in from a fixed location on the disk,
called the `boot block'. When this program gains control, it is
powerful enough to load the actual OS and hand control over to it.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Borg, Next:[1808]borken, Previous:[1809]boot, Up:[1810]= B =
Borg n.
In "Star Trek: The Next Generation" the Borg is a species of cyborg
that ruthlessly seeks to incorporate all sentient life into itself;
their slogan is "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." In
hacker parlance, the Borg is usually [1811]Microsoft, which is thought
to be trying just as ruthlessly to assimilate all computers and the
entire Internet to itself (there is a widely circulated image of Bill
Gates as a Borg). Being forced to use Windows or NT is often referred
to as being "Borged". Interestingly, the [1812]Halloween Documents
reveal that this jargon is live within Microsoft itself. (Other
companies, notably Intel and UUNet, have also occasionally been
equated to the Borg.) See also [1813]Evil Empire, [1814]Internet
Exploiter.
In IETF circles, where direct pressure from Microsoft is not a daily
reality, the Borg is sometimes Cisco. This usage commemmorates their
tendency to pay any price to hire talent away from their competitors.
In fact, at the Spring 1997 IETF, a large number of ex-Cisco
employees, all former members of Routing Geeks, showed up with
t-shirts printed with "Recovering Borg".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:borken, Next:[1815]bot, Previous:[1816]Borg, Up:[1817]= B =
borken adj.
(also `borked') Common deliberate typo for `broken'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bot, Next:[1818]bot spot, Previous:[1819]borken, Up:[1820]= B =
bot n
[common on IRC, MUD and among gamers; from `robot'] 1. An [1821]IRC or
[1822]MUD user who is actually a program. On IRC, typically the robot
provides some useful service. Examples are NickServ, which tries to
prevent random users from adopting [1823]nicks already claimed by
others, and MsgServ, which allows one to send asynchronous messages to
be delivered when the recipient signs on. Also common are `annoybots',
such as KissServ, which perform no useful function except to send cute
messages to other people. Service bots are less common on MUDs; but
some others, such as the `Julia' bot active in 1990-91, have been
remarkably impressive Turing-test experiments, able to pass as human
for as long as ten or fifteen minutes of conversation. 2. An
AI-controlled player in a computer game (especially a first-person
shooter such as Quake) which, unlike ordinary monsters, operates like
a human-controlled player, with access to a player's weapons and
abilities. An example can be found at
[1824]http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/. 3. Term used, though less
commonly, for a web [1825]spider. The file for controlling spider
behavior on your site is officially the "Robots Exclusion File" and
its URL is "http://<somehost>/robots.txt")
Note that bots in all senses were `robots' when the terms first
appeared in the early 1990s, but the shortened form is now habitual.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bot spot, Next:[1826]bottom feeder, Previous:[1827]bot,
Up:[1828]= B =
bot spot n.
[MUD] The user on a MUD with the longest connect time. Derives from
the fact that [1829]bots on MUDS often stay constantly connected and
appear at the bottom of the list.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bottom feeder, Next:[1830]bottom-up implementation,
Previous:[1831]bot spot, Up:[1832]= B =
bottom feeder n.
1. An Internet user that leeches off ISPs - the sort you can never
provide good enough services for, always complains about the price, no
matter how low it may be, and will bolt off to another service the
moment there is even the slimmest price difference. While most bottom
feeders infest free or almost free services such as AOL, MSN, and
Hotmail, too many flock to whomever happens to be the cheapest
regional ISP at the time. Bottom feeders are often the classic problem
user, known for unleashing spam, flamage, and other breaches of
[1833]netiquette. 2. Syn. for [1834]slopsucker, derived from the
fishermen's and naturalists' term for finny creatures who subsist on
the primordial ooze. (This sense is older.)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bottom-up implementation, Next:[1835]bounce,
Previous:[1836]bottom feeder, Up:[1837]= B =
bottom-up implementation n.
Hackish opposite of the techspeak term `top-down design'. It has been
received wisdom in most programming cultures that it is best to design
from higher levels of abstraction down to lower, specifying sequences
of action in increasing detail until you get to actual code. Hackers
often find (especially in exploratory designs that cannot be closely
specified in advance) that it works best to build things in the
opposite order, by writing and testing a clean set of primitive
operations and then knitting them together. Naively applied, this
leads to hacked-together bottom-up implementations; a more
sophisticated response is `middle-out implementation', in which
scratch code within primitives at the mid-level of the system is
gradually replaced with a more polished version of the lowest level at
the same time the structure above the midlevel is being built.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bounce, Next:[1838]bounce message, Previous:[1839]bottom-up
implementation, Up:[1840]= B =
bounce v.
1. [common; perhaps by analogy to a bouncing check] An electronic mail
message that is undeliverable and returns an error notification to the
sender is said to `bounce'. See also [1841]bounce message. 2.
[Stanford] To play volleyball. The now-demolished [1842]D. C. Power
Lab building used by the Stanford AI Lab in the 1970s had a volleyball
court on the front lawn. From 5 P.M. to 7 P.M. was the scheduled
maintenance time for the computer, so every afternoon at 5 would come
over the intercom the cry: "Now hear this: bounce, bounce!", followed
by Brian McCune loudly bouncing a volleyball on the floor outside the
offices of known volleyballers. 3. To engage in sexual intercourse;
prob. from the expression `bouncing the mattress', but influenced by
Roo's psychosexually loaded "Try bouncing me, Tigger!" from the
"Winnie-the-Pooh" books. Compare [1843]boink. 4. To casually reboot a
system in order to clear up a transient problem. Reported primarily
among [1844]VMS and [1845]Unix users. 5. [VM/CMS programmers]
Automatic warm-start of a machine after an error. "I logged on this
morning and found it had bounced 7 times during the night" 6. [IBM] To
[1846]power cycle a peripheral in order to reset it.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bounce message, Next:[1847]boustrophedon, Previous:[1848]bounce,
Up:[1849]= B =
bounce message n.
[common] Notification message returned to sender by a site unable to
relay [1850]email to the intended [1851]Internet address recipient or
the next link in a [1852]bang path (see [1853]bounce, sense 1).
Reasons might include a nonexistent or misspelled username or a
[1854]down relay site. Bounce messages can themselves fail, with
occasionally ugly results; see [1855]sorcerer's apprentice mode and
[1856]software laser. The terms `bounce mail' and `barfmail' are also
common.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:boustrophedon, Next:[1857]box, Previous:[1858]bounce message,
Up:[1859]= B =
boustrophedon n.
[from a Greek word for turning like an ox while plowing] An ancient
method of writing using alternate left-to-right and right-to-left
lines. This term is actually philologists' techspeak and typesetters'
jargon. Erudite hackers use it for an optimization performed by some
computer typesetting software and moving-head printers. The adverbial
form `boustrophedonically' is also found (hackers purely love
constructions like this).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:box, Next:[1860]boxed comments, Previous:[1861]boustrophedon,
Up:[1862]= B =
box n.
1. A computer; esp. in the construction `foo box' where foo is some
functional qualifier, like `graphics', or the name of an OS (thus,
`Unix box', `MS-DOS box', etc.) "We preprocess the data on Unix boxes
before handing it up to the mainframe." 2. [IBM] Without qualification
but within an SNA-using site, this refers specifically to an IBM
front-end processor or FEP /F-E-P/. An FEP is a small computer
necessary to enable an IBM [1863]mainframe to communicate beyond the
limits of the [1864]dinosaur pen. Typically used in expressions like
the cry that goes up when an SNA network goes down: "Looks like the
[1865]box has fallen over." (See [1866]fall over.) See also [1867]IBM,
[1868]fear and loathing, [1869]Blue Glue.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:boxed comments, Next:[1870]boxen, Previous:[1871]box, Up:[1872]=
B =
boxed comments n.
Comments (explanatory notes attached to program instructions) that
occupy several lines by themselves; so called because in assembler and
C code they are often surrounded by a box in a style something like
this:
/*************************************************
*
* This is a boxed comment in C style
*
*************************************************/
Common variants of this style omit the asterisks in column 2 or add a
matching row of asterisks closing the right side of the box. The
sparest variant omits all but the comment delimiters themselves; the
`box' is implied. Oppose [1873]winged comments.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:boxen, Next:[1874]boxology, Previous:[1875]boxed comments,
Up:[1876]= B =
boxen /bok'sn/ pl.n.
[very common; by analogy with [1877]VAXen] Fanciful plural of
[1878]box often encountered in the phrase `Unix boxen', used to
describe commodity [1879]Unix hardware. The connotation is that any
two Unix boxen are interchangeable.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:boxology, Next:[1880]bozotic, Previous:[1881]boxen, Up:[1882]= B
=
boxology /bok-sol'*-jee/ n.
Syn. [1883]ASCII art. This term implies a more restricted domain, that
of box-and-arrow drawings. "His report has a lot of boxology in it."
Compare [1884]macrology.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bozotic, Next:[1885]BQS, Previous:[1886]boxology, Up:[1887]= B =
bozotic /boh-zoh'tik/ or /boh-zo'tik/ adj.
[from the name of a TV clown even more losing than Ronald McDonald]
Resembling or having the quality of a bozo; that is, clownish,
ludicrously wrong, unintentionally humorous. Compare [1888]wonky,
[1889]demented. Note that the noun `bozo' occurs in slang, but the
mainstream adjectival form would be `bozo-like' or (in New England)
`bozoish'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BQS, Next:[1890]brain dump, Previous:[1891]bozotic, Up:[1892]= B
=
BQS /B-Q-S/ adj.
Syn. [1893]Berkeley Quality Software.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:brain dump, Next:[1894]brain fart, Previous:[1895]BQS, Up:[1896]=
B =
brain dump n.
[common] The act of telling someone everything one knows about a
particular topic or project. Typically used when someone is going to
let a new party maintain a piece of code. Conceptually analogous to an
operating system [1897]core dump in that it saves a lot of useful
[1898]state before an exit. "You'll have to give me a brain dump on
FOOBAR before you start your new job at HackerCorp." See [1899]core
dump (sense 4). At Sun, this is also known as `TOI' (transfer of
information).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:brain fart, Next:[1900]brain-damaged, Previous:[1901]brain dump,
Up:[1902]= B =
brain fart n.
The actual result of a [1903]braino, as opposed to the mental glitch
that is the braino itself. E.g., typing dir on a Unix box after a
session with DOS.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:brain-damaged, Next:[1904]brain-dead, Previous:[1905]brain fart,
Up:[1906]= B =
brain-damaged adj.
1. [common; generalization of `Honeywell Brain Damage' (HBD), a
theoretical disease invented to explain certain utter cretinisms in
Honeywell [1907]Multics] adj. Obviously wrong; [1908]cretinous;
[1909]demented. There is an implication that the person responsible
must have suffered brain damage, because he should have known better.
Calling something brain-damaged is really bad; it also implies it is
unusable, and that its failure to work is due to poor design rather
than some accident. "Only six monocase characters per file name? Now
that's brain-damaged!" 2. [esp. in the Mac world] May refer to free
demonstration software that has been deliberately crippled in some way
so as not to compete with the product it is intended to sell. Syn.
[1910]crippleware.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:brain-dead, Next:[1911]braino, Previous:[1912]brain-damaged,
Up:[1913]= B =
brain-dead adj.
[common] Brain-damaged in the extreme. It tends to imply terminal
design failure rather than malfunction or simple stupidity. "This comm
program doesn't know how to send a break -- how brain-dead!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:braino, Next:[1914]branch to Fishkill, Previous:[1915]brain-dead,
Up:[1916]= B =
braino /bray'no/ n.
Syn. for [1917]thinko. See also [1918]brain fart.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:branch to Fishkill, Next:[1919]bread crumbs,
Previous:[1920]braino, Up:[1921]= B =
branch to Fishkill n.
[IBM: from the location of one of the corporation's facilities] Any
unexpected jump in a program that produces catastrophic or just plain
weird results. See [1922]jump off into never-never land,
[1923]hyperspace.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bread crumbs, Next:[1924]break, Previous:[1925]branch to
Fishkill, Up:[1926]= B =
bread crumbs n.
1. Debugging statements inserted into a program that emit output or
log indicators of the program's [1927]state to a file so you can see
where it dies or pin down the cause of surprising behavior. The term
is probably a reference to the Hansel and Gretel story from the
Brothers Grimm or the older French folktale of Thumbelina; in several
variants of these, a character leaves a trail of bread crumbs so as
not to get lost in the woods. 2. In user-interface design, any feature
that allows some tracking of where you've been, like coloring visited
links purple rather than blue in Netscape (also called `footrinting').
_________________________________________________________________
Node:break, Next:[1928]break-even point, Previous:[1929]bread crumbs,
Up:[1930]= B =
break
1. vt. To cause to be [1931]broken (in any sense). "Your latest patch
to the editor broke the paragraph commands." 2. v. (of a program) To
stop temporarily, so that it may debugged. The place where it stops is
a `breakpoint'. 3. [techspeak] vi. To send an RS-232 break (two
character widths of line high) over a serial comm line. 4. [Unix] vi.
To strike whatever key currently causes the tty driver to send SIGINT
to the current process. Normally, break (sense 3), delete or
[1932]control-C does this. 5. `break break' may be said to interrupt a
conversation (this is an example of verb doubling). This usage comes
from radio communications, which in turn probably came from landline
telegraph/teleprinter usage, as badly abused in the Citizen's Band
craze a few years ago.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:break-even point, Next:[1933]breath-of-life packet,
Previous:[1934]break, Up:[1935]= B =
break-even point n.
In the process of implementing a new computer language, the point at
which the language is sufficiently effective that one can implement
the language in itself. That is, for a new language called,
hypothetically, FOOGOL, one has reached break-even when one can write
a demonstration compiler for FOOGOL in FOOGOL, discard the original
implementation language, and thereafter use working versions of FOOGOL
to develop newer ones. This is an important milestone; see [1936]MFTL.
Since this entry was first written, several correspondents have
reported that there actually was a compiler for a tiny Algol-like
language called Foogol floating around on various [1937]VAXen in the
early and mid-1980s. A FOOGOL implementation is available at the
Retrocomputing Museum [1938]http://www.ccil.org/retro.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:breath-of-life packet, Next:[1939]breedle,
Previous:[1940]break-even point, Up:[1941]= B =
breath-of-life packet n.
[XEROX PARC] An Ethernet packet that contains bootstrap (see
[1942]boot) code, periodically sent out from a working computer to
infuse the `breath of life' into any computer on the network that has
happened to crash. Machines depending on such packets have sufficient
hardware or firmware code to wait for (or request) such a packet
during the reboot process. See also [1943]dickless workstation.
The notional `kiss-of-death packet', with a function complementary to
that of a breath-of-life packet, is recommended for dealing with hosts
that consume too many network resources. Though `kiss-of-death packet'
is usually used in jest, there is at least one documented instance of
an Internet subnet with limited address-table slots in a gateway
machine in which such packets were routinely used to compete for
slots, rather like Christmas shoppers competing for scarce parking
spaces.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:breedle, Next:[1944]Breidbart Index,
Previous:[1945]breath-of-life packet, Up:[1946]= B =
breedle n.
See [1947]feep.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Breidbart Index, Next:[1948]bring X to its knees,
Previous:[1949]breedle, Up:[1950]= B =
Breidbart Index /bri:d'bart ind*ks/
A measurement of the severity of spam invented by long-time hacker
Seth Breidbart, used for programming cancelbots. The Breidbart Index
takes into account the fact that excessive multi-posting [1951]EMP is
worse than excessive cross-posting [1952]ECP. The Breidbart Index is
computed as follows: For each article in a spam, take the square-root
of the number of newsgroups to which the article is posted. The
Breidbart Index is the sum of the square roots of all of the posts in
the spam. For example, one article posted to nine newsgroups and again
to sixteen would have BI = sqrt(9) + sqrt(16) = 7. It is generally
agreed that a spam is cancelable if the Breidbart Index exceeds 20.
The Breidbart Index accumulates over a 45-day window. Ten articles
yesterday and ten articles today and ten articles tomorrow add up to a
30-article spam. Spam fighters will often reset the count if you can
convince them that the spam was accidental and/or you have seen the
error of your ways and won't repeat it. Breidbart Index can accumulate
over multiple authors. For example, the "Make Money Fast" pyramid
scheme exceeded a BI of 20 a long time ago, and is now considered
"cancel on sight".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bring X to its knees, Next:[1953]brittle,
Previous:[1954]Breidbart Index, Up:[1955]= B =
bring X to its knees v.
[common] To present a machine, operating system, piece of software, or
algorithm with a load so extreme or [1956]pathological that it grinds
to a halt. "To bring a MicroVAX to its knees, try twenty users running
[1957]vi -- or four running [1958]EMACS." Compare [1959]hog.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:brittle, Next:[1960]broadcast storm, Previous:[1961]bring X to
its knees, Up:[1962]= B =
brittle adj.
Said of software that is functional but easily broken by changes in
operating environment or configuration, or by any minor tweak to the
software itself. Also, any system that responds inappropriately and
disastrously to abnormal but expected external stimuli; e.g., a file
system that is usually totally scrambled by a power failure is said to
be brittle. This term is often used to describe the results of a
research effort that were never intended to be robust, but it can be
applied to commercial software, which (due to closed-source
development) displays the quality far more often than it ought to.
Oppose [1963]robust.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:broadcast storm, Next:[1964]brochureware, Previous:[1965]brittle,
Up:[1966]= B =
broadcast storm n.
[common] An incorrect packet broadcast on a network that causes most
hosts to respond all at once, typically with wrong answers that start
the process over again. See [1967]network meltdown; compare [1968]mail
storm.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:brochureware, Next:[1969]broken, Previous:[1970]broadcast storm,
Up:[1971]= B =
brochureware n.
Planned but non-existent product like [1972]vaporware, but with the
added implication that marketing is actively selling and promoting it
(they've printed brochures). Brochureware is often deployed as a
strategic weapon; the idea is to con customers into not committing to
an existing product of the competition's. It is a safe bet that when a
brochureware product finally becomes real, it will be more expensive
than and inferior to the alternatives that had been available for
years.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:broken, Next:[1973]broken arrow, Previous:[1974]brochureware,
Up:[1975]= B =
broken adj.
1. Not working properly (of programs). 2. Behaving strangely;
especially (when used of people) exhibiting extreme depression.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:broken arrow, Next:[1976]BrokenWindows, Previous:[1977]broken,
Up:[1978]= B =
broken arrow n.
[IBM] The error code displayed on line 25 of a 3270 terminal (or a PC
emulating a 3270) for various kinds of protocol violations and
"unexpected" error conditions (including connection to a [1979]down
computer). On a PC, simulated with `->/_', with the two center
characters overstruck.
Note: to appreciate this term fully, it helps to know that `broken
arrow' is also military jargon for an accident involving nuclear
weapons....
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BrokenWindows, Next:[1980]broket, Previous:[1981]broken arrow,
Up:[1982]= B =
BrokenWindows n.
Abusive hackerism for the [1983]crufty and [1984]elephantine [1985]X
environment on Sun machines; properly called `OpenWindows'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:broket, Next:[1986]Brooks's Law, Previous:[1987]BrokenWindows,
Up:[1988]= B =
broket /broh'k*t/ or /broh'ket`/ n.
[rare; by analogy with `bracket': a `broken bracket'] Either of the
characters < and >, when used as paired enclosing delimiters. This
word originated as a contraction of the phrase `broken bracket', that
is, a bracket that is bent in the middle. (At MIT, and apparently in
the [1989]Real World as well, these are usually called [1990]angle
brackets.)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Brooks's Law, Next:[1991]brown-paper-bag bug,
Previous:[1992]broket, Up:[1993]= B =
Brooks's Law prov.
"Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later" -- a
result of the fact that the expected advantage from splitting
development work among N programmers is O(N) (that is, proportional to
N), but the complexity and communications cost associated with
coordinating and then merging their work is O(N^2) (that is,
proportional to the square of N). The quote is from Fred Brooks, a
manager of IBM's OS/360 project and author of "The Mythical Man-Month"
(Addison-Wesley, 1975, ISBN 0-201-00650-2), an excellent early book on
software engineering. The myth in question has been most tersely
expressed as "Programmer time is fungible" and Brooks established
conclusively that it is not. Hackers have never forgotten his advice
(though it's not the whole story; see [1994]bazaar); too often,
[1995]management still does. See also [1996]creationism,
[1997]second-system effect, [1998]optimism.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:brown-paper-bag bug, Next:[1999]browser, Previous:[2000]Brooks's
Law, Up:[2001]= B =
brown-paper-bag bug n.
A bug in a public software release that is so embarrassing that the
author notionally wears a brown paper bag over his head for a while so
he won't be recognized on the net. Entered popular usage after the
early-1999 release of the first Linux 2.2, which had one. The phrase
was used in Linus Torvalds's apology posting.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:browser, Next:[2002]BRS, Previous:[2003]brown-paper-bag bug,
Up:[2004]= B =
browser n.
A program specifically designed to help users view and navigate
hypertext, on-line documentation, or a database. While this general
sense has been present in jargon for a long time, the proliferation of
browsers for the World Wide Web after 1992 has made it much more
popular and provided a central or default techspeak meaning of the
word previously lacking in hacker usage. Nowadays, if someone mentions
using a `browser' without qualification, one may assume it is a Web
browser.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BRS, Next:[2005]brute force, Previous:[2006]browser, Up:[2007]= B
=
BRS /B-R-S/ n.
Syn. [2008]Big Red Switch. This abbreviation is fairly common on-line.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:brute force, Next:[2009]brute force and ignorance,
Previous:[2010]BRS, Up:[2011]= B =
brute force adj.
Describes a primitive programming style, one in which the programmer
relies on the computer's processing power instead of using his or her
own intelligence to simplify the problem, often ignoring problems of
scale and applying naive methods suited to small problems directly to
large ones. The term can also be used in reference to programming
style: brute-force programs are written in a heavyhanded, tedious way,
full of repetition and devoid of any elegance or useful abstraction
(see also [2012]brute force and ignorance).
The [2013]canonical example of a brute-force algorithm is associated
with the `traveling salesman problem' (TSP), a classical [2014]NP-hard
problem: Suppose a person is in, say, Boston, and wishes to drive to N
other cities. In what order should the cities be visited in order to
minimize the distance travelled? The brute-force method is to simply
generate all possible routes and compare the distances; while
guaranteed to work and simple to implement, this algorithm is clearly
very stupid in that it considers even obviously absurd routes (like
going from Boston to Houston via San Francisco and New York, in that
order). For very small N it works well, but it rapidly becomes
absurdly inefficient when N increases (for N = 15, there are already
1,307,674,368,000 possible routes to consider, and for N = 1000 --
well, see [2015]bignum). Sometimes, unfortunately, there is no better
general solution than brute force. See also [2016]NP-.
A more simple-minded example of brute-force programming is finding the
smallest number in a large list by first using an existing program to
sort the list in ascending order, and then picking the first number
off the front.
Whether brute-force programming should actually be considered stupid
or not depends on the context; if the problem is not terribly big, the
extra CPU time spent on a brute-force solution may cost less than the
programmer time it would take to develop a more `intelligent'
algorithm. Additionally, a more intelligent algorithm may imply more
long-term complexity cost and bug-chasing than are justified by the
speed improvement.
Ken Thompson, co-inventor of Unix, is reported to have uttered the
epigram "When in doubt, use brute force". He probably intended this as
a [2017]ha ha only serious, but the original Unix kernel's preference
for simple, robust, and portable algorithms over [2018]brittle `smart'
ones does seem to have been a significant factor in the success of
that OS. Like so many other tradeoffs in software design, the choice
between brute force and complex, finely-tuned cleverness is often a
difficult one that requires both engineering savvy and delicate
esthetic judgment.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:brute force and ignorance, Next:[2019]BSD, Previous:[2020]brute
force, Up:[2021]= B =
brute force and ignorance n.
A popular design technique at many software houses -- [2022]brute
force coding unrelieved by any knowledge of how problems have been
previously solved in elegant ways. Dogmatic adherence to design
methodologies tends to encourage this sort of thing. Characteristic of
early [2023]larval stage programming; unfortunately, many never
outgrow it. Often abbreviated BFI: "Gak, they used a [2024]bubble
sort! That's strictly from BFI." Compare [2025]bogosity.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BSD, Next:[2026]BSOD, Previous:[2027]brute force and ignorance,
Up:[2028]= B =
BSD /B-S-D/ n.
[abbreviation for `Berkeley Software Distribution'] a family of
[2029]Unix versions for the [2030]DEC [2031]VAX and PDP-11 developed
by Bill Joy and others at [2032]Berzerkeley starting around 1977,
incorporating paged virtual memory, TCP/IP networking enhancements,
and many other features. The BSD versions (4.1, 4.2, and 4.3) and the
commercial versions derived from them (SunOS, ULTRIX, and Mt. Xinu)
held the technical lead in the Unix world until AT&T's successful
standardization efforts after about 1986; descendants including
Free/Open/NetBSD, BSD/OS and MacOS X are still widely popular. Note
that BSD versions going back to 2.9 are often referred to by their
version numbers alone, without the BSD prefix. See [2033]4.2,
[2034]Unix, [2035]USG Unix.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BSOD, Next:[2036]BUAF, Previous:[2037]BSD, Up:[2038]= B =
BSOD /B-S-O-D/
Very commmon abbreviation for [2039]Blue Screen of Death. Both spoken
and written.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BUAF, Next:[2040]BUAG, Previous:[2041]BSOD, Up:[2042]= B =
BUAF // n.
[abbreviation, from alt.fan.warlord] Big Ugly ASCII Font -- a special
form of [2043]ASCII art. Various programs exist for rendering text
strings into block, bloob, and pseudo-script fonts in cells between
four and six character cells on a side; this is smaller than the
letters generated by older [2044]banner (sense 2) programs. These are
sometimes used to render one's name in a [2045]sig block, and are
critically referred to as `BUAF's. See [2046]warlording.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BUAG, Next:[2047]bubble sort, Previous:[2048]BUAF, Up:[2049]= B =
BUAG // n.
[abbreviation, from alt.fan.warlord] Big Ugly ASCII Graphic.
Pejorative term for ugly [2050]ASCII art, especially as found in
[2051]sig blocks. For some reason, mutations of the head of Bart
Simpson are particularly common in the least imaginative [2052]sig
blocks. See [2053]warlording.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bubble sort, Next:[2054]bucky bits, Previous:[2055]BUAG,
Up:[2056]= B =
bubble sort n.
Techspeak for a particular sorting technique in which pairs of
adjacent values in the list to be sorted are compared and interchanged
if they are out of order; thus, list entries `bubble upward' in the
list until they bump into one with a lower sort value. Because it is
not very good relative to other methods and is the one typically
stumbled on by [2057]naive and untutored programmers, hackers consider
it the [2058]canonical example of a naive algorithm. (However, it's
been shown by repeated experiment that below about 5000 records
bubble-sort is OK anyway.) The canonical example of a really bad
algorithm is [2059]bogo-sort. A bubble sort might be used out of
ignorance, but any use of bogo-sort could issue only from brain damage
or willful perversity.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bucky bits, Next:[2060]buffer chuck, Previous:[2061]bubble sort,
Up:[2062]= B =
bucky bits /buh'kee bits/ n.
1. obs. The bits produced by the CONTROL and META shift keys on a SAIL
keyboard (octal 200 and 400 respectively), resulting in a 9-bit
keyboard character set. The MIT AI TV (Knight) keyboards extended this
with TOP and separate left and right CONTROL and META keys, resulting
in a 12-bit character set; later, LISP Machines added such keys as
SUPER, HYPER, and GREEK (see [2063]space-cadet keyboard). 2. By
extension, bits associated with `extra' shift keys on any keyboard,
e.g., the ALT on an IBM PC or command and option keys on a Macintosh.
It has long been rumored that `bucky bits' were named for Buckminster
Fuller during a period when he was consulting at Stanford. Actually,
bucky bits were invented by Niklaus Wirth when he was at Stanford in
1964-65; he first suggested the idea of an EDIT key to set the 8th bit
of an otherwise 7-bit ASCII character). It seems that, unknown to
Wirth, certain Stanford hackers had privately nicknamed him `Bucky'
after a prominent portion of his dental anatomy, and this nickname
transferred to the bit. Bucky-bit commands were used in a number of
editors written at Stanford, including most notably TV-EDIT and NLS.
The term spread to MIT and CMU early and is now in general use.
Ironically, Wirth himself remained unaware of its derivation for
nearly 30 years, until GLS dug up this history in early 1993! See
[2064]double bucky, [2065]quadruple bucky.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:buffer chuck, Next:[2066]buffer overflow, Previous:[2067]bucky
bits, Up:[2068]= B =
buffer chuck n.
Shorter and ruder syn. for [2069]buffer overflow.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:buffer overflow, Next:[2070]bug, Previous:[2071]buffer chuck,
Up:[2072]= B =
buffer overflow n.
What happens when you try to stuff more data into a buffer (holding
area) than it can handle. This problem is commonly exploited by
[2073]crackers to get arbitrary commands executed by a program running
with root permissions. This may be due to a mismatch in the processing
rates of the producing and consuming processes (see [2074]overrun and
[2075]firehose syndrome), or because the buffer is simply too small to
hold all the data that must accumulate before a piece of it can be
processed. For example, in a text-processing tool that [2076]crunches
a line at a time, a short line buffer can result in [2077]lossage as
input from a long line overflows the buffer and trashes data beyond
it. Good defensive programming would check for overflow on each
character and stop accepting data when the buffer is full up. The term
is used of and by humans in a metaphorical sense. "What time did I
agree to meet you? My buffer must have overflowed." Or "If I answer
that phone my buffer is going to overflow." See also [2078]spam,
[2079]overrun screw.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bug, Next:[2080]bug-compatible, Previous:[2081]buffer overflow,
Up:[2082]= B =
bug n.
An unwanted and unintended property of a program or piece of hardware,
esp. one that causes it to malfunction. Antonym of [2083]feature.
Examples: "There's a bug in the editor: it writes things out
backwards." "The system crashed because of a hardware bug." "Fred is a
winner, but he has a few bugs" (i.e., Fred is a good guy, but he has a
few personality problems).
Historical note: Admiral Grace Hopper (an early computing pioneer
better known for inventing [2084]COBOL) liked to tell a story in which
a technician solved a [2085]glitch in the Harvard Mark II machine by
pulling an actual insect out from between the contacts of one of its
relays, and she subsequently promulgated [2086]bug in its hackish
sense as a joke about the incident (though, as she was careful to
admit, she was not there when it happened). For many years the logbook
associated with the incident and the actual bug in question (a moth)
sat in a display case at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC). The
entire story, with a picture of the logbook and the moth taped into
it, is recorded in the "Annals of the History of Computing", Vol. 3,
No. 3 (July 1981), pp. 285-286.
The text of the log entry (from September 9, 1947), reads "1545 Relay
#70 Panel F (moth) in relay. First actual case of bug being found".
This wording establishes that the term was already in use at the time
in its current specific sense -- and Hopper herself reports that the
term `bug' was regularly applied to problems in radar electronics
during WWII.
Indeed, the use of `bug' to mean an industrial defect was already
established in Thomas Edison's time, and a more specific and rather
modern use can be found in an electrical handbook from 1896 ("Hawkin's
New Catechism of Electricity", Theo. Audel & Co.) which says: "The
term `bug' is used to a limited extent to designate any fault or
trouble in the connections or working of electric apparatus." It
further notes that the term is "said to have originated in quadruplex
telegraphy and have been transferred to all electric apparatus."
The latter observation may explain a common folk etymology of the
term; that it came from telephone company usage, in which "bugs in a
telephone cable" were blamed for noisy lines. Though this derivation
seems to be mistaken, it may well be a distorted memory of a joke
first current among telegraph operators more than a century ago!
Or perhaps not a joke. Historians of the field inform us that the term
"bug" was regularly used in the early days of telegraphy to refer to a
variety of semi-automatic telegraphy keyers that would send a string
of dots if you held them down. In fact, the Vibroplex keyers (which
were among the most common of this type) even had a graphic of a
beetle on them (and still do)! While the ability to send repeated dots
automatically was very useful for professional morse code operators,
these were also significantly trickier to use than the older manual
keyers, and it could take some practice to ensure one didn't introduce
extraneous dots into the code by holding the key down a fraction too
long. In the hands of an inexperienced operator, a Vibroplex "bug" on
the line could mean that a lot of garbled Morse would soon be coming
your way.
Further, the term "bug" has long been used among radio technicians to
describe a device that converts electromagnetic field variations into
acoustic signals. It is used to trace radio interference and look for
dangerous radio emissions. Radio community usage derives from the
roach-like shape of the first versions used by 19th century
physicists. The first versions consisted of a coil of wire (roach
body), with the two wire ends sticking out and bent back to nearly
touch forming a spark gap (roach antennae). The bug is to the radio
technician what the stethoscope is to the stereotype medical doctor.
This sense is almost certainly ancestral to modern use of "bug" for a
covert monitoring device, but may also have contributed to the use of
"bug" for the effects of radio interference itself.
Actually, use of `bug' in the general sense of a disruptive event goes
back to Shakespeare! (Henry VI, part III - Act V, Scene II: King
Edward: "So, lie thou there. Die thou; and die our fear; For Warwick
was a bug that fear'd us all.") In the first edition of Samuel
Johnson's dictionary one meaning of `bug' is "A frightful object; a
walking spectre"; this is traced to `bugbear', a Welsh term for a
variety of mythological monster which (to complete the circle) has
recently been reintroduced into the popular lexicon through fantasy
role-playing games.
In any case, in jargon the word almost never refers to insects. Here
is a plausible conversation that never actually happened:
"There is a bug in this ant farm!"
"What do you mean? I don't see any ants in it."
"That's the bug."
A careful discussion of the etymological issues can be found in a
paper by Fred R. Shapiro, 1987, "Entomology of the Computer Bug:
History and Folklore", American Speech 62(4):376-378.
[There has been a widespread myth that the original bug was moved to
the Smithsonian, and an earlier version of this entry so asserted. A
correspondent who thought to check discovered that the bug was not
there. While investigating this in late 1990, your editor discovered
that the NSWC still had the bug, but had unsuccessfully tried to get
the Smithsonian to accept it -- and that the present curator of their
History of American Technology Museum didn't know this and agreed that
it would make a worthwhile exhibit. It was moved to the Smithsonian in
mid-1991, but due to space and money constraints was not actually
exhibited years afterwards. Thus, the process of investigating the
original-computer-bug bug fixed it in an entirely unexpected way, by
making the myth true! --ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bug-compatible, Next:[2087]bug-for-bug compatible,
Previous:[2088]bug, Up:[2089]= B =
bug-compatible adj.
[common] Said of a design or revision that has been badly compromised
by a requirement to be compatible with [2090]fossils or
[2091]misfeatures in other programs or (esp.) previous releases of
itself. "MS-DOS 2.0 used \ as a path separator to be bug-compatible
with some cretin's choice of / as an option character in 1.0."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bug-for-bug compatible, Next:[2092]bug-of-the-month club,
Previous:[2093]bug-compatible, Up:[2094]= B =
bug-for-bug compatible n.
Same as [2095]bug-compatible, with the additional implication that
much tedious effort went into ensuring that each (known) bug was
replicated.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bug-of-the-month club, Next:[2096]buglix,
Previous:[2097]bug-for-bug compatible, Up:[2098]= B =
bug-of-the-month club n.
[from "book-of-the-month club", a time-honored mail-order-marketing
technique in the U.S.] A mythical club which users of `sendmail(8)'
(the UNIX mail daemon) belong to; this was coined on the Usenet
newsgroup comp.security.unix at a time when sendmail security holes,
which allowed outside [2099]crackers access to the system, were being
uncovered at an alarming rate, forcing sysadmins to update very often.
Also, more completely, `fatal security bug-of-the-month club'. See
also [2100]kernel-of-the-week club.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:buglix, Next:[2101]bulletproof, Previous:[2102]bug-of-the-month
club, Up:[2103]= B =
buglix /buhg'liks/ n.
[uncommon] Pejorative term referring to [2104]DEC's ULTRIX operating
system in its earlier severely buggy versions. Still used to describe
ULTRIX, but without nearly so much venom. Compare [2105]AIDX,
[2106]HP-SUX, [2107]Nominal Semidestructor, [2108]Telerat,
[2109]sun-stools.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bulletproof, Next:[2110]bullschildt, Previous:[2111]buglix,
Up:[2112]= B =
bulletproof adj.
Used of an algorithm or implementation considered extremely
[2113]robust; lossage-resistant; capable of correctly recovering from
any imaginable exception condition -- a rare and valued quality.
Implies that the programmer has thought of all possible errors, and
added [2114]code to protect against each one. Thus, in some cases,
this can imply code that is too heavyweight, due to excessive paranoia
on the part of the programmer. Syn. [2115]armor-plated.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bullschildt, Next:[2116]bum, Previous:[2117]bulletproof,
Up:[2118]= B =
bullschildt /bul'shilt/ n.
[comp.lang.c on USENET] A confident, but incorrect, statement about a
programming language. This immortalizes a very bad book about [2119]C,
Herbert Schildt's "C - The Complete Reference". One reviewer commented
"The naive errors in this book would be embarassing even in a
programming assignment turned in by a computer science college
sophomore."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bum, Next:[2120]bump, Previous:[2121]bullschildt, Up:[2122]= B =
bum
1. vt. To make highly efficient, either in time or space, often at the
expense of clarity. "I managed to bum three more instructions out of
that code." "I spent half the night bumming the interrupt code." In
1996, this term and the practice it describes are semi-obsolete. In
[2123]elder days, John McCarthy (inventor of [2124]LISP) used to
compare some efficiency-obsessed hackers among his students to "ski
bums"; thus, optimization became "program bumming", and eventually
just "bumming". 2. To squeeze out excess; to remove something in order
to improve whatever it was removed from (without changing function;
this distinguishes the process from a [2125]featurectomy). 3. n. A
small change to an algorithm, program, or hardware device to make it
more efficient. "This hardware bum makes the jump instruction faster."
Usage: now uncommon, largely superseded by v. [2126]tune (and n.
[2127]tweak, [2128]hack), though none of these exactly capture sense
2. All these uses are rare in Commonwealth hackish, because in the
parent dialects of English the noun `bum' is a rude synonym for
`buttocks' and the verb `bum' for buggery.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bump, Next:[2129]burble, Previous:[2130]bum, Up:[2131]= B =
bump vt.
Synonym for increment. Has the same meaning as C's ++ operator. Used
esp. of counter variables, pointers, and index dummies in for, while,
and do-while loops.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:burble, Next:[2132]buried treasure, Previous:[2133]bump,
Up:[2134]= B =
burble v.
[from Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky"] Like [2135]flame, but connotes
that the source is truly clueless and ineffectual (mere flamers can be
competent). A term of deep contempt. "There's some guy on the phone
burbling about how he got a DISK FULL error and it's all our comm
software's fault." This is mainstream slang in some parts of England.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:buried treasure, Next:[2136]burn-in period,
Previous:[2137]burble, Up:[2138]= B =
buried treasure n.
A surprising piece of code found in some program. While usually not
wrong, it tends to vary from [2139]crufty to [2140]bletcherous, and
has lain undiscovered only because it was functionally correct,
however horrible it is. Used sarcastically, because what is found is
anything but treasure. Buried treasure almost always needs to be dug
up and removed. "I just found that the scheduler sorts its queue using
[2141]bubble sort! Buried treasure!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:burn-in period, Next:[2142]burst page, Previous:[2143]buried
treasure, Up:[2144]= B =
burn-in period n.
1. A factory test designed to catch systems with [2145]marginal
components before they get out the door; the theory is that burn-in
will protect customers by outwaiting the steepest part of the
[2146]bathtub curve (see [2147]infant mortality). 2. A period of
indeterminate length in which a person using a computer is so
intensely involved in his project that he forgets basic needs such as
food, drink, sleep, etc. Warning: Excessive burn-in can lead to
burn-out. See [2148]hack mode, [2149]larval stage.
Historical note: the origin of "burn-in" (sense 1) is apparently the
practice of setting a new-model airplane's brakes on fire, then
extinguishing the fire, in order to make them hold better. This was
done on the first version of the U.S. spy-plane, the U-2.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:burst page, Next:[2150]busy-wait, Previous:[2151]burn-in period,
Up:[2152]= B =
burst page n.
Syn. [2153]banner, sense 1.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:busy-wait, Next:[2154]buzz, Previous:[2155]burst page, Up:[2156]=
B =
busy-wait vi.
Used of human behavior, conveys that the subject is busy waiting for
someone or something, intends to move instantly as soon as it shows
up, and thus cannot do anything else at the moment. "Can't talk now,
I'm busy-waiting till Bill gets off the phone."
Technically, `busy-wait' means to wait on an event by [2157]spinning
through a tight or timed-delay loop that polls for the event on each
pass, as opposed to setting up an interrupt handler and continuing
execution on another part of the task. In applications this is a
wasteful technique, and best avoided on time-sharing systems where a
busy-waiting program may [2158]hog the processor. However, it is often
unavoidable in kernel programming. In the Linux world, kernel
busy-waits are usually referred to as `spinlocks'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:buzz, Next:[2159]BWQ, Previous:[2160]busy-wait, Up:[2161]= B =
buzz vi.
1. Of a program, to run with no indication of progress and perhaps
without guarantee of ever finishing; esp. said of programs thought to
be executing tight loops of code. A program that is buzzing appears to
be [2162]catatonic, but never gets out of catatonia, while a buzzing
loop may eventually end of its own accord. "The program buzzes for
about 10 seconds trying to sort all the names into order." See
[2163]spin; see also [2164]grovel. 2. [ETA Systems] To test a wire or
printed circuit trace for continuity, esp. by applying an AC rather
than DC signal. Some wire faults will pass DC tests but fail an AC
buzz test. 3. To process an array or list in sequence, doing the same
thing to each element. "This loop buzzes through the tz array looking
for a terminator type."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:BWQ, Next:[2165]by hand, Previous:[2166]buzz, Up:[2167]= B =
BWQ /B-W-Q/ n.
[IBM: abbreviation, `Buzz Word Quotient'] The percentage of buzzwords
in a speech or documents. Usually roughly proportional to
[2168]bogosity. See [2169]TLA.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:by hand, Next:[2170]byte, Previous:[2171]BWQ, Up:[2172]= B =
by hand adv.
[common] 1. Said of an operation (especially a repetitive, trivial,
and/or tedious one) that ought to be performed automatically by the
computer, but which a hacker instead has to step tediously through.
"My mailer doesn't have a command to include the text of the message
I'm replying to, so I have to do it by hand." This does not
necessarily mean the speaker has to retype a copy of the message; it
might refer to, say, dropping into a subshell from the mailer, making
a copy of one's mailbox file, reading that into an editor, locating
the top and bottom of the message in question, deleting the rest of
the file, inserting `>' characters on each line, writing the file,
leaving the editor, returning to the mailer, reading the file in, and
later remembering to delete the file. Compare [2173]eyeball search. 2.
By extension, writing code which does something in an explicit or
low-level way for which a presupplied library routine ought to have
been available. "This cretinous B-tree library doesn't supply a decent
iterator, so I'm having to walk the trees by hand."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:byte, Next:[2174]byte sex, Previous:[2175]by hand, Up:[2176]= B =
byte /bi:t/ n.
[techspeak] A unit of memory or data equal to the amount used to
represent one character; on modern architectures this is usually 8
bits, but may be 9 on 36-bit machines. Some older architectures used
`byte' for quantities of 6 or 7 bits, and the PDP-10 supported `bytes'
that were actually bitfields of 1 to 36 bits! These usages are now
obsolete, and even 9-bit bytes have become rare in the general trend
toward power-of-2 word sizes.
Historical note: The term was coined by Werner Buchholz in 1956 during
the early design phase for the IBM Stretch computer; originally it was
described as 1 to 6 bits (typical I/O equipment of the period used
6-bit chunks of information). The move to an 8-bit byte happened in
late 1956, and this size was later adopted and promulgated as a
standard by the System/360. The word was coined by mutating the word
`bite' so it would not be accidentally misspelled as [2177]bit. See
also [2178]nybble.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:byte sex, Next:[2179]bytesexual, Previous:[2180]byte, Up:[2181]=
B =
byte sex n.
[common] The byte sex of hardware is [2182]big-endian or
[2183]little-endian; see those entries.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:bytesexual, Next:[2184]Bzzzt! Wrong., Previous:[2185]byte sex,
Up:[2186]= B =
bytesexual /bi:t`sek'shu-*l/ adj.
[rare] Said of hardware, denotes willingness to compute or pass data
in either [2187]big-endian or [2188]little-endian format (depending,
presumably, on a [2189]mode bit somewhere). See also [2190]NUXI
problem.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Bzzzt! Wrong., Next:[2191]C, Previous:[2192]bytesexual,
Up:[2193]= B =
Bzzzt! Wrong. /bzt rong/ excl.
[common; Usenet/Internet; punctuation varies] From a Robin Williams
routine in the movie "Dead Poets Society" spoofing radio or TV quiz
programs, such as Truth or Consequences, where an incorrect answer
earns one a blast from the buzzer and condolences from the
interlocutor. A way of expressing mock-rude disagreement, usually
immediately following an included quote from another poster. The less
abbreviated "*Bzzzzt*, wrong, but thank you for playing" is also
common; capitalization and emphasis of the buzzer sound varies.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:= C =, Next:[2194]= D =, Previous:[2195]= B =, Up:[2196]The
Jargon Lexicon
= C =
* [2197]C:
* [2198]C Programmer's Disease:
* [2199]C&C:
* [2200]C++:
* [2201]calculator:
* [2202]Camel Book:
* [2203]can:
* [2204]can't happen:
* [2205]cancelbot:
* [2206]Cancelmoose[tm]:
* [2207]candygrammar:
* [2208]canonical:
* [2209]card walloper:
* [2210]careware:
* [2211]cargo cult programming:
* [2212]cascade:
* [2213]case and paste:
* [2214]casters-up mode:
* [2215]casting the runes:
* [2216]cat:
* [2217]catatonic:
* [2218]cathedral:
* [2219]cd tilde:
* [2220]CDA:
* [2221]cdr:
* [2222]chad:
* [2223]chad box:
* [2224]chain:
* [2225]channel:
* [2226]channel hopping:
* [2227]channel op:
* [2228]chanop:
* [2229]char:
* [2230]charityware:
* [2231]chase pointers:
* [2232]chawmp:
* [2233]check:
* [2234]cheerfully:
* [2235]chemist:
* [2236]Chernobyl chicken:
* [2237]Chernobyl packet:
* [2238]chicken head:
* [2239]chiclet keyboard:
* [2240]Chinese Army technique:
* [2241]choad:
* [2242]choke:
* [2243]chomp:
* [2244]chomper:
* [2245]CHOP:
* [2246]Christmas tree:
* [2247]Christmas tree packet:
* [2248]chrome:
* [2249]chug:
* [2250]Church of the SubGenius:
* [2251]Cinderella Book:
* [2252]CI$:
* [2253]Classic C:
* [2254]clean:
* [2255]CLM:
* [2256]clobber:
* [2257]clock:
* [2258]clocks:
* [2259]clone:
* [2260]clone-and-hack coding:
* [2261]clover key:
* [2262]clue-by-four:
* [2263]clustergeeking:
* [2264]co-lo:
* [2265]code:
* [2266]coaster:
* [2267]COBOL:
* [2268]COBOL fingers:
* [2269]cobweb site:
* [2270]code grinder:
* [2271]code monkey:
* [2272]Code of the Geeks:
* [2273]code police:
* [2274]codes:
* [2275]codewalker:
* [2276]coefficient of X:
* [2277]cokebottle:
* [2278]cold boot:
* [2279]COME FROM:
* [2280]comm mode:
* [2281]command key:
* [2282]comment out:
* [2283]Commonwealth Hackish:
* [2284]compact:
* [2285]compiler jock:
* [2286]compo:
* [2287]compress:
* [2288]Compu$erve:
* [2289]computer confetti:
* [2290]computer geek:
* [2291]computron:
* [2292]con:
* [2293]condition out:
* [2294]condom:
* [2295]confuser:
* [2296]connector conspiracy:
* [2297]cons:
* [2298]considered harmful:
* [2299]console:
* [2300]console jockey:
* [2301]content-free:
* [2302]control-C:
* [2303]control-O:
* [2304]control-Q:
* [2305]control-S:
* [2306]Conway's Law:
* [2307]cookbook:
* [2308]cooked mode:
* [2309]cookie:
* [2310]cookie bear:
* [2311]cookie file:
* [2312]cookie jar:
* [2313]cookie monster:
* [2314]copious free time:
* [2315]copper:
* [2316]copy protection:
* [2317]copybroke:
* [2318]copycenter:
* [2319]copyleft:
* [2320]copyparty:
* [2321]copywronged:
* [2322]core:
* [2323]core cancer:
* [2324]core dump:
* [2325]core leak:
* [2326]Core Wars:
* [2327]corge:
* [2328]cosmic rays:
* [2329]cough and die:
* [2330]courier:
* [2331]cow orker:
* [2332]cowboy:
* [2333]CP/M:
* [2334]CPU Wars:
* [2335]crack:
* [2336]crack root:
* [2337]cracker:
* [2338]cracking:
* [2339]crank:
* [2340]crapplet:
* [2341]CrApTeX:
* [2342]crash:
* [2343]crash and burn:
* [2344]crawling horror:
* [2345]cray:
* [2346]cray instability:
* [2347]crayola:
* [2348]crayola books:
* [2349]crayon:
* [2350]creationism:
* [2351]creep:
* [2352]creeping elegance:
* [2353]creeping featurism:
* [2354]creeping featuritis:
* [2355]cretin:
* [2356]cretinous:
* [2357]crippleware:
* [2358]critical mass:
* [2359]crlf:
* [2360]crock:
* [2361]cross-post:
* [2362]crossload:
* [2363]crudware:
* [2364]cruft:
* [2365]cruft together:
* [2366]cruftsmanship:
* [2367]crufty:
* [2368]crumb:
* [2369]crunch:
* [2370]cryppie:
* [2371]CTSS:
* [2372]cube:
* [2373]cubing:
* [2374]cup holder:
* [2375]cursor dipped in X:
* [2376]cuspy:
* [2377]cut a tape:
* [2378]cybercrud:
* [2379]cyberpunk:
* [2380]cyberspace:
* [2381]cycle:
* [2382]cycle crunch:
* [2383]cycle drought:
* [2384]cycle of reincarnation:
* [2385]cycle server:
* [2386]cypherpunk:
* [2387]C|N>K:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:C, Next:[2388]C Programmer's Disease, Previous:[2389]Bzzzt!
Wrong., Up:[2390]= C =
C n.
1. The third letter of the English alphabet. 2. ASCII 1000011. 3. The
name of a programming language designed by Dennis Ritchie during the
early 1970s and immediately used to reimplement [2391]Unix; so called
because many features derived from an earlier compiler named `B' in
commemoration of its parent, BCPL. (BCPL was in turn descended from an
earlier Algol-derived language, CPL.) Before Bjarne Stroustrup settled
the question by designing [2392]C++, there was a humorous debate over
whether C's successor should be named `D' or `P'. C became immensely
popular outside Bell Labs after about 1980 and is now the dominant
language in systems and microcomputer applications programming. See
also [2393]languages of choice, [2394]indent style.
C is often described, with a mixture of fondness and disdain varying
according to the speaker, as "a language that combines all the
elegance and power of assembly language with all the readability and
maintainability of assembly language".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:C Programmer's Disease, Next:[2395]C&C, Previous:[2396]C,
Up:[2397]= C =
C Programmer's Disease n.
The tendency of the undisciplined C programmer to set arbitrary but
supposedly generous static limits on table sizes (defined, if you're
lucky, by constants in header files) rather than taking the trouble to
do proper dynamic storage allocation. If an application user later
needs to put 68 elements into a table of size 50, the afflicted
programmer reasons that he or she can easily reset the table size to
68 (or even as much as 70, to allow for future expansion) and
recompile. This gives the programmer the comfortable feeling of having
made the effort to satisfy the user's (unreasonable) demands, and
often affords the user multiple opportunities to explore the marvelous
consequences of [2398]fandango on core. In severe cases of the
disease, the programmer cannot comprehend why each fix of this kind
seems only to further disgruntle the user.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:C&C, Next:[2399]C++, Previous:[2400]C Programmer's Disease,
Up:[2401]= C =
C&C //
[common, esp. on news.admin.net-abuse.email] Contraction of "Coffee &
Cats". This frequently occurs as a warning label on USENET posts that
are likely to cause you to [2402]snarf coffee onto your keyboard and
startle the cat off your lap.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:C++, Next:[2403]calculator, Previous:[2404]C&C, Up:[2405]= C =
C++ /C'-pluhs-pluhs/ n.
Designed by Bjarne Stroustrup of AT&T Bell Labs as a successor to
[2406]C. Now one of the [2407]languages of choice, although many
hackers still grumble that it is the successor to either Algol 68 or
[2408]Ada (depending on generation), and a prime example of
[2409]second-system effect. Almost anything that can be done in any
language can be done in C++, but it requires a [2410]language lawyer
to know what is and what is not legal-- the design is almost too large
to hold in even hackers' heads. Much of the [2411]cruft results from
C++'s attempt to be backward compatible with C. Stroustrup himself has
said in his retrospective book "The Design and Evolution of C++" (p.
207), "Within C++, there is a much smaller and cleaner language
struggling to get out." [Many hackers would now add "Yes, and it's
called [2412]Java" --ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:calculator, Next:[2413]Camel Book, Previous:[2414]C++, Up:[2415]=
C =
calculator [Cambridge] n.
Syn. for [2416]bitty box.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Camel Book, Next:[2417]can, Previous:[2418]calculator, Up:[2419]=
C =
Camel Book n.
Universally recognized nickname for the book "Programming Perl", by
Larry Wall and Randal L. Schwartz, O'Reilly and Associates 1991, ISBN
0-937175-64-1 (second edition 1996, ISBN 1-56592-149-6). The
definitive reference on [2420]Perl.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:can, Next:[2421]can't happen, Previous:[2422]Camel Book,
Up:[2423]= C =
can vt.
To abort a job on a time-sharing system. Used esp. when the person
doing the deed is an operator, as in "canned from the [2424]console".
Frequently used in an imperative sense, as in "Can that print job, the
LPT just popped a sprocket!" Synonymous with [2425]gun. It is said
that the ASCII character with mnemonic CAN (0011000) was used as a
kill-job character on some early OSes. Alternatively, this term may
derive from mainstream slang `canned' for being laid off or fired.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:can't happen, Next:[2426]cancelbot, Previous:[2427]can,
Up:[2428]= C =
can't happen
The traditional program comment for code executed under a condition
that should never be true, for example a file size computed as
negative. Often, such a condition being true indicates data corruption
or a faulty algorithm; it is almost always handled by emitting a fatal
error message and terminating or crashing, since there is little else
that can be done. Some case variant of "can't happen" is also often
the text emitted if the `impossible' error actually happens! Although
"can't happen" events are genuinely infrequent in production code,
programmers wise enough to check for them habitually are often
surprised at how frequently they are triggered during development and
how many headaches checking for them turns out to head off. See also
[2429]firewall code (sense 2).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cancelbot, Next:[2430]Cancelmoose[tm], Previous:[2431]can't
happen, Up:[2432]= C =
cancelbot /kan'sel-bot/
[Usenet: compound, cancel + robot] 1. Mythically, a
[2433]robocanceller 2. In reality, most cancelbots are manually
operated by being fed lists of spam message IDs.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Cancelmoose[tm], Next:[2434]candygrammar,
Previous:[2435]cancelbot, Up:[2436]= C =
Cancelmoose[tm] /kan'sel-moos/
[Usenet] The archetype and model of all good [2437]spam-fighters. Once
upon a time, the 'Moose would send out spam-cancels and then post
notice anonymously to news.admin.policy, news.admin.misc, and
alt.current-events.net-abuse. The 'Moose stepped to the fore on its
own initiative, at a time (mid-1994) when spam-cancels were irregular
and disorganized, and behaved altogether admirably - fair,
even-handed, and quick to respond to comments and criticism, all
without self-aggrandizement or martyrdom. Cancelmoose[tm] quickly
gained near-unanimous support from the readership of all three
above-mentioned groups.
Nobody knows who Cancelmoose[tm] really is, and there aren't even any
good rumors. However, the 'Moose now has an e-mail address
([2438]moose@cm.org) and a web site ([2439]http://www.cm.org.)
By early 1995, others had stepped into the spam-cancel business, and
appeared to be comporting themselves well, after the 'Moose's manner.
The 'Moose has now gotten out of the business, and is more interested
in ending spam (and cancels) entirely.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:candygrammar, Next:[2440]canonical,
Previous:[2441]Cancelmoose[tm], Up:[2442]= C =
candygrammar n.
A programming-language grammar that is mostly [2443]syntactic sugar;
the term is also a play on `candygram'. [2444]COBOL, Apple's Hypertalk
language, and a lot of the so-called `4GL' database languages share
this property. The usual intent of such designs is that they be as
English-like as possible, on the theory that they will then be easier
for unskilled people to program. This intention comes to grief on the
reality that syntax isn't what makes programming hard; it's the mental
effort and organization required to specify an algorithm precisely
that costs. Thus the invariable result is that `candygrammar'
languages are just as difficult to program in as terser ones, and far
more painful for the experienced hacker.
[The overtones from the old Chevy Chase skit on Saturday Night Live
should not be overlooked. This was a "Jaws" parody. Someone lurking
outside an apartment door tries all kinds of bogus ways to get the
occupant to open up, while ominous music plays in the background. The
last attempt is a half-hearted "Candygram!" When the door is opened, a
shark bursts in and chomps the poor occupant. [There is a similar gag
in "Blazing Saddles" --ESR] There is a moral here for those attracted
to candygrammars. Note that, in many circles, pretty much the same
ones who remember Monty Python sketches, all it takes is the word
"Candygram!", suitably timed, to get people rolling on the floor. --
GLS]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:canonical, Next:[2445]card walloper, Previous:[2446]candygrammar,
Up:[2447]= C =
canonical adj.
[very common; historically, `according to religious law'] The usual or
standard state or manner of something. This word has a somewhat more
technical meaning in mathematics. Two formulas such as 9 + x and x + 9
are said to be equivalent because they mean the same thing, but the
second one is in `canonical form' because it is written in the usual
way, with the highest power of x first. Usually there are fixed rules
you can use to decide whether something is in canonical form. The
jargon meaning, a relaxation of the technical meaning, acquired its
present loading in computer-science culture largely through its
prominence in Alonzo Church's work in computation theory and
mathematical logic (see [2448]Knights of the Lambda Calculus). Compare
[2449]vanilla.
Non-technical academics do not use the adjective `canonical' in any of
the senses defined above with any regularity; they do however use the
nouns `canon' and `canonicity' (not **canonicalness or
**canonicality). The `canon' of a given author is the complete body of
authentic works by that author (this usage is familiar to Sherlock
Holmes fans as well as to literary scholars). `The canon' is the body
of works in a given field (e.g., works of literature, or of art, or of
music) deemed worthwhile for students to study and for scholars to
investigate.
The word `canon' has an interesting history. It derives ultimately
from the Greek `kanon' (akin to the English `cane') referring to a
reed. Reeds were used for measurement, and in Latin and later Greek
the word `canon' meant a rule or a standard. The establishment of a
canon of scriptures within Christianity was meant to define a standard
or a rule for the religion. The above non-techspeak academic usages
stem from this instance of a defined and accepted body of work.
Alongside this usage was the promulgation of `canons' (`rules') for
the government of the Catholic Church. The techspeak usages
("according to religious law") derive from this use of the Latin
`canon'.
Hackers invest this term with a playfulness that makes an ironic
contrast with its historical meaning. A true story: One Bob Sjoberg,
new at the MIT AI Lab, expressed some annoyance at the incessant use
of jargon. Over his loud objections, GLS and RMS made a point of using
as much of it as possible in his presence, and eventually it began to
sink in. Finally, in one conversation, he used the word `canonical' in
jargon-like fashion without thinking. Steele: "Aha! We've finally got
you talking jargon too!" Stallman: "What did he say?" Steele: "Bob
just used `canonical' in the canonical way."
Of course, canonicality depends on context, but it is implicitly
defined as the way hackers normally expect things to be. Thus, a
hacker may claim with a straight face that `according to religious
law' is not the canonical meaning of `canonical'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:card walloper, Next:[2450]careware, Previous:[2451]canonical,
Up:[2452]= C =
card walloper n.
An EDP programmer who grinds out batch programs that do stupid things
like print people's paychecks. Compare [2453]code grinder. See also
[2454]punched card, [2455]eighty-column mind.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:careware, Next:[2456]cargo cult programming, Previous:[2457]card
walloper, Up:[2458]= C =
careware /keir'weir/ n.
A variety of [2459]shareware for which either the author suggests that
some payment be made to a nominated charity or a levy directed to
charity is included on top of the distribution charge. Syn.
[2460]charityware; compare [2461]crippleware, sense 2.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cargo cult programming, Next:[2462]cascade,
Previous:[2463]careware, Up:[2464]= C =
cargo cult programming n.
A style of (incompetent) programming dominated by ritual inclusion of
code or program structures that serve no real purpose. A cargo cult
programmer will usually explain the extra code as a way of working
around some bug encountered in the past, but usually neither the bug
nor the reason the code apparently avoided the bug was ever fully
understood (compare [2465]shotgun debugging, [2466]voodoo
programming).
The term `cargo cult' is a reference to aboriginal religions that grew
up in the South Pacific after World War II. The practices of these
cults center on building elaborate mockups of airplanes and military
style landing strips in the hope of bringing the return of the
god-like airplanes that brought such marvelous cargo during the war.
Hackish usage probably derives from Richard Feynman's characterization
of certain practices as "cargo cult science" in his book "Surely
You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" (W. W. Norton & Co, New York 1985, ISBN
0-393-01921-7).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cascade, Next:[2467]case and paste, Previous:[2468]cargo cult
programming, Up:[2469]= C =
cascade n.
1. A huge volume of spurious error-message output produced by a
compiler with poor error recovery. Too frequently, one trivial syntax
error (such as a missing `)' or `}') throws the parser out of synch so
that much of the remaining program text is interpreted as garbaged or
ill-formed. 2. A chain of Usenet followups, each adding some trivial
variation or riposte to the text of the previous one, all of which is
reproduced in the new message; an [2470]include war in which the
object is to create a sort of communal graffito.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:case and paste, Next:[2471]casters-up mode,
Previous:[2472]cascade, Up:[2473]= C =
case and paste n.
[from `cut and paste'] 1. The addition of a new [2474]feature to an
existing system by selecting the code from an existing feature and
pasting it in with minor changes. Common in telephony circles because
most operations in a telephone switch are selected using case
statements. Leads to [2475]software bloat.
In some circles of EMACS users this is called `programming by Meta-W',
because Meta-W is the EMACS command for copying a block of text to a
kill buffer in preparation to pasting it in elsewhere. The term is
condescending, implying that the programmer is acting mindlessly
rather than thinking carefully about what is required to integrate the
code for two similar cases.
At [2476]DEC (now Compaq), this is sometimes called `clone-and-hack'
coding.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:casters-up mode, Next:[2477]casting the runes,
Previous:[2478]case and paste, Up:[2479]= C =
casters-up mode n.
[IBM, prob. fr. slang belly up] Yet another synonym for `broken' or
`down'. Usually connotes a major failure. A system (hardware or
software) which is `down' may be already being restarted before the
failure is noticed, whereas one which is `casters up' is usually a
good excuse to take the rest of the day off (as long as you're not
responsible for fixing it).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:casting the runes, Next:[2480]cat, Previous:[2481]casters-up
mode, Up:[2482]= C =
casting the runes n.
What a [2483]guru does when you ask him or her to run a particular
program and type at it because it never works for anyone else; esp.
used when nobody can ever see what the guru is doing different from
what J. Random Luser does. Compare [2484]incantation, [2485]runes,
[2486]examining the entrails; also see the AI koan about Tom Knight in
"[2487]Some AI Koans" (Appendix A).
A correspondent from England tells us that one of ICL's most talented
systems designers used to be called out occasionally to service
machines which the [2488]field circus had given up on. Since he knew
the design inside out, he could often find faults simply by listening
to a quick outline of the symptoms. He used to play on this by going
to some site where the field circus had just spent the last two weeks
solid trying to find a fault, and spreading a diagram of the system
out on a table top. He'd then shake some chicken bones and cast them
over the diagram, peer at the bones intently for a minute, and then
tell them that a certain module needed replacing. The system would
start working again immediately upon the replacement.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cat, Next:[2489]catatonic, Previous:[2490]casting the runes,
Up:[2491]= C =
cat [from `catenate' via [2492]Unix cat(1)] vt.
1. [techspeak] To spew an entire file to the screen or some other
output sink without pause (syn. [2493]blast). 2. By extension, to dump
large amounts of data at an unprepared target or with no intention of
browsing it carefully. Usage: considered silly. Rare outside Unix
sites. See also [2494]dd, [2495]BLT.
Among Unix fans, cat(1) is considered an excellent example of
user-interface design, because it delivers the file contents without
such verbosity as spacing or headers between the files, and because it
does not require the files to consist of lines of text, but works with
any sort of data.
Among Unix haters, cat(1) is considered the [2496]canonical example of
bad user-interface design, because of its woefully unobvious name. It
is far more often used to [2497]blast a file to standard output than
to concatenate two files. The name cat for the former operation is
just as unintuitive as, say, LISP's [2498]cdr.
Of such oppositions are [2499]holy wars made....
_________________________________________________________________
Node:catatonic, Next:[2500]cathedral, Previous:[2501]cat, Up:[2502]= C
=
catatonic adj.
Describes a condition of suspended animation in which something is so
[2503]wedged or [2504]hung that it makes no response. If you are
typing on a terminal and suddenly the computer doesn't even echo the
letters back to the screen as you type, let alone do what you're
asking it to do, then the computer is suffering from catatonia
(possibly because it has crashed). "There I was in the middle of a
winning game of [2505]nethack and it went catatonic on me! Aaargh!"
Compare [2506]buzz.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cathedral, Next:[2507]cd tilde, Previous:[2508]catatonic,
Up:[2509]= C =
cathedral n.,adj.
[see [2510]bazaar for derivation] The `classical' mode of software
engineering long thought to be necessarily implied by [2511]Brooks's
Law. Features small teams, tight project control, and long release
intervals. This term came into use after analysis of the Linux
experience suggested there might be something wrong (or at least
incomplete) in the classical assumptions.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cd tilde, Next:[2512]CDA, Previous:[2513]cathedral, Up:[2514]= C
=
cd tilde /C-D til-d*/ vi.
To go home. From the Unix C-shell and Korn-shell command cd ~, which
takes one to one's $HOME (cd with no arguments happens to do the same
thing). By extension, may be used with other arguments; thus, over an
electronic chat link, cd ~coffee would mean "I'm going to the coffee
machine."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:CDA, Next:[2515]cdr, Previous:[2516]cd tilde, Up:[2517]= C =
CDA /C-D-A/
The "Communications Decency Act" of 1996, passed on [2518]Black
Thursday as section 502 of a major telecommunications reform bill. The
CDA made it a federal crime in the USA to send a communication which
is "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, with intent to
annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person." It also threatened
with imprisonment anyone who "knowingly" makes accessible to minors
any message that "describes, in terms patently offensive as measured
by contemporary community standards, sexual or excretory activities or
organs".
While the CDA was sold as a measure to protect minors from the
putative evils of pornography, the repressive political aims of the
bill were laid bare by the Hyde amendment, which intended to outlaw
discussion of abortion on the Internet.
To say that this direct attack on First Amendment free-speech rights
was not well received on the Internet would be putting it mildly. A
firestorm of protest followed, including a February 29th mass
demonstration by thousands of netters who turned their [2519]home
pages black for 48 hours. Several civil-rights groups and
computing/telecommunications companies mounted a constitutional
challenge. The CDA was demolished by a strongly-worded decision handed
down on in 8th-circuit Federal court and subsequently affirmed by the
U.S. Supreme Court on 26 June 1997 (`White Thursday'). See also
[2520]Exon.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cdr, Next:[2521]chad, Previous:[2522]CDA, Up:[2523]= C =
cdr /ku'dr/ or /kuh'dr/ vt.
[from LISP] To skip past the first item from a list of things
(generalized from the LISP operation on binary tree structures, which
returns a list consisting of all but the first element of its
argument). In the form `cdr down', to trace down a list of elements:
"Shall we cdr down the agenda?" Usage: silly. See also [2524]loop
through.
Historical note: The instruction format of the IBM 704 that hosted the
original LISP implementation featured two 15-bit fields called the
`address' and `decrement' parts. The term `cdr' was originally
`Contents of Decrement part of Register'. Similarly, `car' stood for
`Contents of Address part of Register'.
The cdr and car operations have since become bases for formation of
compound metaphors in non-LISP contexts. GLS recalls, for example, a
programming project in which strings were represented as linked lists;
the get-character and skip-character operations were of course called
CHAR and CHDR.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:chad, Next:[2525]chad box, Previous:[2526]cdr, Up:[2527]= C =
chad /chad/ n.
1. [common] The perforated edge strips on printer paper, after they
have been separated from the printed portion. Also called
[2528]selvage, [2529]perf, and [2530]ripoff. 2. obs. The confetti-like
paper bits punched out of cards or paper tape; this has also been
called `chaff', `computer confetti', and `keypunch droppings'. It's
reported that this was very old Army slang, and it may now be
mainstream; it has been reported seen (1993) in directions for a
card-based voting machine in California.
Historical note: One correspondent believes `chad' (sense 2) derives
from the Chadless keypunch (named for its inventor), which cut little
u-shaped tabs in the card to make a hole when the tab folded back,
rather than punching out a circle/rectangle; it was clear that if the
Chadless keypunch didn't make them, then the stuff that other
keypunches made had to be `chad'. There is a legend that the word was
originally acronymic, standing for "Card Hole Aggregate Debris", but
this has all the earmarks of a [2531]backronym.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:chad box, Next:[2532]chain, Previous:[2533]chad, Up:[2534]= C =
chad box n.
A metal box about the size of a lunchbox (or in some models a large
wastebasket), for collecting the [2535]chad (sense 2) that accumulated
in [2536]Iron Age card punches. You had to open the covers of the card
punch periodically and empty the chad box. The [2537]bit bucket was
notionally the equivalent device in the CPU enclosure, which was
typically across the room in another great gray-and-blue box.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:chain, Next:[2538]channel, Previous:[2539]chad box, Up:[2540]= C
=
chain
1. vi. [orig. from BASIC's CHAIN statement] To hand off execution to a
child or successor without going through the [2541]OS command
interpreter that invoked it. The state of the parent program is lost
and there is no returning to it. Though this facility used to be
common on memory-limited micros and is still widely supported for
backward compatibility, the jargon usage is semi-obsolescent; in
particular, most Unix programmers will think of this as an [2542]exec.
Oppose the more modern `subshell'. 2. n. A series of linked data areas
within an operating system or application. `Chain rattling' is the
process of repeatedly running through the linked data areas searching
for one which is of interest to the executing program. The implication
is that there is a very large number of links on the chain.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:channel, Next:[2543]channel hopping, Previous:[2544]chain,
Up:[2545]= C =
channel n.
[IRC] The basic unit of discussion on [2546]IRC. Once one joins a
channel, everything one types is read by others on that channel.
Channels are named with strings that begin with a `#' sign and can
have topic descriptions (which are generally irrelevant to the actual
subject of discussion). Some notable channels are #initgame, #hottub,
callahans, and #report. At times of international crisis, #report has
hundreds of members, some of whom take turns listening to various news
services and typing in summaries of the news, or in some cases, giving
first-hand accounts of the action (e.g., Scud missile attacks in Tel
Aviv during the Gulf War in 1991).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:channel hopping, Next:[2547]channel op, Previous:[2548]channel,
Up:[2549]= C =
channel hopping n.
[common; IRC, GEnie] To rapidly switch channels on [2550]IRC, or a
GEnie chat board, just as a social butterfly might hop from one group
to another at a party. This term may derive from the TV watcher's
idiom, `channel surfing'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:channel op, Next:[2551]chanop, Previous:[2552]channel hopping,
Up:[2553]= C =
channel op /chan'l op/ n.
[IRC] Someone who is endowed with privileges on a particular [2554]IRC
channel; commonly abbreviated `chanop' or `CHOP' or just `op' (as of
2000 these short forms have almost crowded out the parent usage).
These privileges include the right to [2555]kick users, to change
various status bits, and to make others into CHOPs.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:chanop, Next:[2556]char, Previous:[2557]channel op, Up:[2558]= C
=
chanop /chan'-op/ n.
[IRC] See [2559]channel op.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:char, Next:[2560]charityware, Previous:[2561]chanop, Up:[2562]= C
=
char /keir/ or /char/; rarely, /kar/ n.
Shorthand for `character'. Esp. used by C programmers, as `char' is
C's typename for character data.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:charityware, Next:[2563]chase pointers, Previous:[2564]char,
Up:[2565]= C =
charityware /cha'rit-ee-weir`/ n.
Syn. [2566]careware.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:chase pointers, Next:[2567]chawmp, Previous:[2568]charityware,
Up:[2569]= C =
chase pointers
1. vi. To go through multiple levels of indirection, as in traversing
a linked list or graph structure. Used esp. by programmers in C, where
explicit pointers are a very common data type. This is techspeak, but
it remains jargon when used of human networks. "I'm chasing pointers.
Bob said you could tell me who to talk to about...." See
[2570]dangling pointer and [2571]snap. 2. [Cambridge] `pointer chase'
or `pointer hunt': The process of going through a [2572]core dump
(sense 1), interactively or on a large piece of paper printed with hex
[2573]runes, following dynamic data-structures. Used only in a
debugging context.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:chawmp, Next:[2574]check, Previous:[2575]chase pointers,
Up:[2576]= C =
chawmp n.
[University of Florida] 16 or 18 bits (half of a machine word). This
term was used by FORTH hackers during the late 1970s/early 1980s; it
is said to have been archaic then, and may now be obsolete. It was
coined in revolt against the promiscuous use of `word' for anything
between 16 and 32 bits; `word' has an additional special meaning for
FORTH hacks that made the overloading intolerable. For similar
reasons, /gaw'bl/ (spelled `gawble' or possibly `gawbul') was in use
as a term for 32 or 48 bits (presumably a full machine word, but our
sources are unclear on this). These terms are more easily understood
if one thinks of them as faithful phonetic spellings of `chomp' and
`gobble' pronounced in a Florida or other Southern U.S. dialect. For
general discussion of similar terms, see [2577]nybble.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:check, Next:[2578]cheerfully, Previous:[2579]chawmp, Up:[2580]= C
=
check n.
A hardware-detected error condition, most commonly used to refer to
actual hardware failures rather than software-induced traps. E.g., a
`parity check' is the result of a hardware-detected parity error.
Recorded here because the word often humorously extended to
non-technical problems. For example, the term `child check' has been
used to refer to the problems caused by a small child who is curious
to know what happens when s/he presses all the cute buttons on a
computer's console (of course, this particular problem could have been
prevented with [2581]molly-guards).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cheerfully, Next:[2582]chemist, Previous:[2583]check, Up:[2584]=
C =
cheerfully adv.
See [2585]happily.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:chemist, Next:[2586]Chernobyl chicken, Previous:[2587]cheerfully,
Up:[2588]= C =
chemist n.
[Cambridge] Someone who wastes computer time on [2589]number-crunching
when you'd far rather the machine were doing something more
productive, such as working out anagrams of your name or printing
Snoopy calendars or running [2590]life patterns. May or may not refer
to someone who actually studies chemistry.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Chernobyl chicken, Next:[2591]Chernobyl packet,
Previous:[2592]chemist, Up:[2593]= C =
Chernobyl chicken n.
See [2594]laser chicken.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Chernobyl packet, Next:[2595]chicken head,
Previous:[2596]Chernobyl chicken, Up:[2597]= C =
Chernobyl packet /cher-noh'b*l pak'*t/ n.
A network packet that induces a [2598]broadcast storm and/or
[2599]network meltdown, in memory of the April 1986 nuclear accident
at Chernobyl in Ukraine. The typical scenario involves an IP Ethernet
datagram that passes through a gateway with both source and
destination Ether and IP address set as the respective broadcast
addresses for the subnetworks being gated between. Compare
[2600]Christmas tree packet.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:chicken head, Next:[2601]chiclet keyboard,
Previous:[2602]Chernobyl packet, Up:[2603]= C =
chicken head n.
[Commodore] The Commodore Business Machines logo, which strongly
resembles a poultry part (within Commodore itself the logo was always
called `chicken lips'). Rendered in ASCII as `C='. With the arguable
exception of the Amiga (see [2604]amoeba), Commodore's machines were
notoriously crocky little [2605]bitty boxes (see also [2606]PETSCII),
albeit people have written multitasking Unix-like operating systems
with TCP/IP networking for them. Thus, this usage may owe something to
Philip K. Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (the
basis for the movie "Blade Runner"; the novel is now sold under that
title), in which a `chickenhead' is a mutant with below-average
intelligence.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:chiclet keyboard, Next:[2607]Chinese Army technique,
Previous:[2608]chicken head, Up:[2609]= C =
chiclet keyboard n.
A keyboard with a small, flat rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or
plastic keys that look like pieces of chewing gum. (Chiclets is the
brand name of a variety of chewing gum that does in fact resemble the
keys of chiclet keyboards.) Used esp. to describe the original IBM
PCjr keyboard. Vendors unanimously liked these because they were
cheap, and a lot of early portable and laptop products got launched
using them. Customers rejected the idea with almost equal unanimity,
and chiclets are not often seen on anything larger than a digital
watch any more.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Chinese Army technique, Next:[2610]choad, Previous:[2611]chiclet
keyboard, Up:[2612]= C =
Chinese Army technique n.
Syn. [2613]Mongolian Hordes technique.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:choad, Next:[2614]choke, Previous:[2615]Chinese Army technique,
Up:[2616]= C =
choad /chohd/ n.
Synonym for `penis' used in alt.tasteless and popularized by the
denizens thereof. They say: "We think maybe it's from Middle English
but we're all too damned lazy to check the OED." [I'm not. It isn't.
--ESR] This term is alleged to have been inherited through 1960s
underground comics, and to have been recently sighted in the Beavis
and Butthead cartoons. Speakers of the Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati
languages have confirmed that `choad' is in fact an Indian vernacular
word equivalent to `fuck'; it is therefore likely to have entered
English slang via the British Raj.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:choke, Next:[2617]chomp, Previous:[2618]choad, Up:[2619]= C =
choke v.
1. [common] To reject input, often ungracefully. "NULs make System V's
lpr(1) choke." "I tried building an [2620]EMACS binary to use [2621]X,
but cpp(1) choked on all those #defines." See [2622]barf, [2623]gag,
[2624]vi. 2. [MIT] More generally, to fail at any endeavor, but with
some flair or bravado; the popular definition is "to snatch defeat
from the jaws of victory."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:chomp, Next:[2625]chomper, Previous:[2626]choke, Up:[2627]= C =
chomp vi.
1. To [2628]lose; specifically, to chew on something of which more was
bitten off than one can. Probably related to gnashing of teeth. 2. To
bite the bag; See [2629]bagbiter.
A hand gesture commonly accompanies this. To perform it, hold the four
fingers together and place the thumb against their tips. Now open and
close your hand rapidly to suggest a biting action (much like what
Pac-Man does in the classic video game, though this pantomime seems to
predate that). The gesture alone means `chomp chomp' (see "[2630]Verb
Doubling" in the "[2631]Jargon Construction" section of the
Prependices). The hand may be pointed at the object of complaint, and
for real emphasis you can use both hands at once. Doing this to a
person is equivalent to saying "You chomper!" If you point the gesture
at yourself, it is a humble but humorous admission of some failure.
You might do this if someone told you that a program you had written
had failed in some surprising way and you felt dumb for not having
anticipated it.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:chomper, Next:[2632]CHOP, Previous:[2633]chomp, Up:[2634]= C =
chomper n.
Someone or something that is chomping; a loser. See [2635]loser,
[2636]bagbiter, [2637]chomp.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:CHOP, Next:[2638]Christmas tree, Previous:[2639]chomper,
Up:[2640]= C =
CHOP /chop/ n.
[IRC] See [2641]channel op.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Christmas tree, Next:[2642]Christmas tree packet,
Previous:[2643]CHOP, Up:[2644]= C =
Christmas tree n.
A kind of RS-232 line tester or breakout box featuring rows of
blinking red and green LEDs suggestive of Christmas lights.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Christmas tree packet, Next:[2645]chrome,
Previous:[2646]Christmas tree, Up:[2647]= C =
Christmas tree packet n.
A packet with every single option set for whatever protocol is in use.
See [2648]kamikaze packet, [2649]Chernobyl packet. (The term doubtless
derives from a fanciful image of each little option bit being
represented by a different-colored light bulb, all turned on.) Compare
[2650]Godzillagram.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:chrome, Next:[2651]chug, Previous:[2652]Christmas tree packet,
Up:[2653]= C =
chrome n.
[from automotive slang via wargaming] Showy features added to attract
users but contributing little or nothing to the power of a system.
"The 3D icons in Motif are just chrome, but they certainly are pretty
chrome!" Distinguished from [2654]bells and whistles by the fact that
the latter are usually added to gratify developers' own desires for
featurefulness. Often used as a term of contempt.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:chug, Next:[2655]Church of the SubGenius, Previous:[2656]chrome,
Up:[2657]= C =
chug vi.
To run slowly; to [2658]grind or [2659]grovel. "The disk is chugging
like crazy."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Church of the SubGenius, Next:[2660]Cinderella Book,
Previous:[2661]chug, Up:[2662]= C =
Church of the SubGenius n.
A mutant offshoot of [2663]Discordianism launched in 1981 as a spoof
of fundamentalist Christianity by the `Reverend' Ivan Stang, a
brilliant satirist with a gift for promotion. Popular among hackers as
a rich source of bizarre imagery and references such as "Bob" the
divine drilling-equipment salesman, the Benevolent Space Xists, and
the Stark Fist of Removal. Much SubGenius theory is concerned with the
acquisition of the mystical substance or quality of [2664]slack. There
is a home page at [2665]http://www.subgenius.com/.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Cinderella Book, Next:[2666]CI$, Previous:[2667]Church of the
SubGenius, Up:[2668]= C =
Cinderella Book [CMU] n.
"Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation", by John
Hopcroft and Jeffrey Ullman, (Addison-Wesley, 1979). So called because
the cover depicts a girl (putatively Cinderella) sitting in front of a
Rube Goldberg device and holding a rope coming out of it. On the back
cover, the device is in shambles after she has (inevitably) pulled on
the rope. See also [2669]book titles.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:CI$, Next:[2670]Classic C, Previous:[2671]Cinderella Book,
Up:[2672]= C =
CI$ // n.
Hackerism for `CIS', CompuServe Information Service. The dollar sign
refers to CompuServe's rather steep line charges. Often used in
[2673]sig blocks just before a CompuServe address. Syn.
[2674]Compu$erve.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Classic C, Next:[2675]clean, Previous:[2676]CI$, Up:[2677]= C =
Classic C /klas'ik C/ n.
[a play on `Coke Classic'] The C programming language as defined in
the first edition of [2678]K&R, with some small additions. It is also
known as `K&R C'. The name came into use while C was being
standardized by the ANSI X3J11 committee. Also `C Classic'.
An analogous construction is sometimes applied elsewhere: thus, `X
Classic', where X = Star Trek (referring to the original TV series) or
X = PC (referring to IBM's ISA-bus machines as opposed to the PS/2
series). This construction is especially used of product series in
which the newer versions are considered serious losers relative to the
older ones.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:clean, Next:[2679]CLM, Previous:[2680]Classic C, Up:[2681]= C =
clean 1. adj.
Used of hardware or software designs, implies `elegance in the small',
that is, a design or implementation that may not hold any surprises
but does things in a way that is reasonably intuitive and relatively
easy to comprehend from the outside. The antonym is `grungy' or
[2682]crufty. 2. v. To remove unneeded or undesired files in a effort
to reduce clutter: "I'm cleaning up my account." "I cleaned up the
garbage and now have 100 Meg free on that partition."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:CLM, Next:[2683]clobber, Previous:[2684]clean, Up:[2685]= C =
CLM /C-L-M/
[Sun: `Career Limiting Move'] 1. n. An action endangering one's future
prospects of getting plum projects and raises, and possibly one's job:
"His Halloween costume was a parody of his manager. He won the prize
for `best CLM'." 2. adj. Denotes extreme severity of a bug, discovered
by a customer and obviously missed earlier because of poor testing:
"That's a CLM bug!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:clobber, Next:[2686]clock, Previous:[2687]CLM, Up:[2688]= C =
clobber vt.
To overwrite, usually unintentionally: "I walked off the end of the
array and clobbered the stack." Compare [2689]mung, [2690]scribble,
[2691]trash, and [2692]smash the stack.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:clock, Next:[2693]clocks, Previous:[2694]clobber, Up:[2695]= C =
clock
1. n 1. [techspeak] The master oscillator that steps a CPU or other
digital circuit through its paces. This has nothing to do with the
time of day, although the software counter that keeps track of the
latter may be derived from the former. 2. vt. To run a CPU or other
digital circuit at a particular rate. "If you clock it at 100MHz, it
gets warm.". See [2696]overclock. 3. vt. To force a digital circuit
from one state to the next by applying a single clock pulse. "The data
must be stable 10ns before you clock the latch."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:clocks, Next:[2697]clone, Previous:[2698]clock, Up:[2699]= C =
clocks n.
Processor logic cycles, so called because each generally corresponds
to one clock pulse in the processor's timing. The relative execution
times of instructions on a machine are usually discussed in clocks
rather than absolute fractions of a second; one good reason for this
is that clock speeds for various models of the machine may increase as
technology improves, and it is usually the relative times one is
interested in when discussing the instruction set. Compare
[2700]cycle, [2701]jiffy.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:clone, Next:[2702]clone-and-hack coding, Previous:[2703]clocks,
Up:[2704]= C =
clone n.
1. An exact duplicate: "Our product is a clone of their product."
Implies a legal reimplementation from documentation or by
reverse-engineering. Also connotes lower price. 2. A shoddy, spurious
copy: "Their product is a clone of our product." 3. A blatant ripoff,
most likely violating copyright, patent, or trade secret protections:
"Your product is a clone of my product." This use implies legal action
is pending. 4. `PC clone:' a PC-BUS/ISA or EISA-compatible 80x86-based
microcomputer (this use is sometimes spelled `klone' or `PClone').
These invariably have much more bang for the buck than the IBM
archetypes they resemble. 5. In the construction `Unix clone': An OS
designed to deliver a Unix-lookalike environment without Unix license
fees, or with additional `mission-critical' features such as support
for real-time programming. 6. v. To make an exact copy of something.
"Let me clone that" might mean "I want to borrow that paper so I can
make a photocopy" or "Let me get a copy of that file before you
[2705]mung it".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:clone-and-hack coding, Next:[2706]clover key,
Previous:[2707]clone, Up:[2708]= C =
clone-and-hack coding n.
[DEC] Syn. [2709]case and paste.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:clover key, Next:[2710]clue-by-four,
Previous:[2711]clone-and-hack coding, Up:[2712]= C =
clover key n.
[Mac users] See [2713]feature key.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:clue-by-four, Next:[2714]clustergeeking, Previous:[2715]clover
key, Up:[2716]= C =
clue-by-four
[Usenet: portmanteau, clue + two-by-four] The notional stick with
which one whacks an aggressively clueless person. This term derives
from a western American folk saying about training a mule "First, you
got to hit him with a two-by-four. That's to get his attention." The
clue-by-four is a close relative of the [2717]LART. Syn. `clue stick'.
This metaphor is commonly elaborated; your editor once heard a hacker
say "I strike you with the great sword Clue-Bringer!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:clustergeeking, Next:[2718]co-lo, Previous:[2719]clue-by-four,
Up:[2720]= C =
clustergeeking /kluh'st*r-gee`king/ n.
[CMU] Spending more time at a computer cluster doing CS homework than
most people spend breathing.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:co-lo, Next:[2721]coaster, Previous:[2722]clustergeeking,
Up:[2723]= C =
co-lo /koh'loh`/ n.
[very common; first heard c.1995] Short for `co-location', used of a
machine you own that is physically sited on the premises of an ISP in
order to take advantage of the ISP's direct access to lots of network
bandwidthm. Often in the phrases `co-lo box' or `co-lo machines'.
Co-lo boxes are typically web and FTP servers remote-administered by
their owners, who may seldom or never visit the actual site.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:coaster, Next:[2724]COBOL, Previous:[2725]co-lo, Up:[2726]= C =
coaster n.
1. Unuseable CD produced during failed attempt at writing to writeable
or re-writeable CD media. Certainly related to the coaster-like shape
of a CD, and the relative value of these failures. "I made a lot of
coasters before I got a good CD." 2. Useless CDs received in the mail
from the likes of AOL, MSN, CI$, Prodigy, ad nauseam.
In the U.K., `beermat' is often used in these senses.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:COBOL, Next:[2727]COBOL fingers, Previous:[2728]coaster,
Up:[2729]= C =
COBOL /koh'bol/ n.
[COmmon Business-Oriented Language] (Synonymous with [2730]evil.) A
weak, verbose, and flabby language used by [2731]card wallopers to do
boring mindless things on [2732]dinosaur mainframes. Hackers believe
that all COBOL programmers are [2733]suits or [2734]code grinders, and
no self-respecting hacker will ever admit to having learned the
language. Its very name is seldom uttered without ritual expressions
of disgust or horror. One popular one is Edsger W. Dijkstra's famous
observation that "The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching
should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense." (from "Selected
Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective") See also [2735]fear
and loathing, [2736]software rot.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:COBOL fingers, Next:[2737]cobweb site, Previous:[2738]COBOL,
Up:[2739]= C =
COBOL fingers /koh'bol fing'grz/ n.
Reported from Sweden, a (hypothetical) disease one might get from
coding in COBOL. The language requires code verbose beyond all reason
(see [2740]candygrammar); thus it is alleged that programming too much
in COBOL causes one's fingers to wear down to stubs by the endless
typing. "I refuse to type in all that source code again; it would give
me COBOL fingers!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cobweb site, Next:[2741]code, Previous:[2742]COBOL fingers,
Up:[2743]= C =
cobweb site n.
A World Wide Web Site that hasn't been updated so long it has
figuratively grown cobwebs.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:code, Next:[2744]code grinder, Previous:[2745]cobweb site,
Up:[2746]= C =
code n.
The stuff that software writers write, either in source form or after
translation by a compiler or assembler. Often used in opposition to
"data", which is the stuff that code operates on. This is a mass noun,
as in "How much code does it take to do a [2747]bubble sort?", or "The
code is loaded at the high end of RAM." Anyone referring to software
as "the software codes" is probably a [2748]newbie or a [2749]suit.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:code grinder, Next:[2750]code monkey, Previous:[2751]code,
Up:[2752]= C =
code grinder n.
1. A [2753]suit-wearing minion of the sort hired in legion strength by
banks and insurance companies to implement payroll packages in RPG and
other such unspeakable horrors. In its native habitat, the code
grinder often removes the suit jacket to reveal an underplumage
consisting of button-down shirt (starch optional) and a tie. In times
of dire stress, the sleeves (if long) may be rolled up and the tie
loosened about half an inch. It seldom helps. The [2754]code grinder's
milieu is about as far from hackerdom as one can get and still touch a
computer; the term connotes pity. See [2755]Real World, [2756]suit. 2.
Used of or to a hacker, a really serious slur on the person's creative
ability; connotes a design style characterized by primitive technique,
rule-boundedness, [2757]brute force, and utter lack of imagination.
Compare [2758]card walloper; contrast [2759]hacker, [2760]Real
Programmer.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:code monkey, Next:[2761]Code of the Geeks, Previous:[2762]code
grinder, Up:[2763]= C =
code monkey n
1. A person only capable of grinding out code, but unable to perform
the higher-primate tasks of software architecture, analysis, and
design. Mildly insulting. Often applied to the most junior people on a
programming team. 2. Anyone who writes code for a living; a
programmer. 3. A self-deprecating way of denying responsibility for a
[2764]management decision, or of complaining about having to live with
such decisions. As in "Don't ask me why we need to write a compiler
in+COBOL, I'm just a code monkey."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Code of the Geeks, Next:[2765]code police, Previous:[2766]code
monkey, Up:[2767]= C =
Code of the Geeks n.
see [2768]geek code.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:code police, Next:[2769]codes, Previous:[2770]Code of the Geeks,
Up:[2771]= C =
code police n.
[by analogy with George Orwell's `thought police'] A mythical team of
Gestapo-like storm troopers that might burst into one's office and
arrest one for violating programming style rules. May be used either
seriously, to underline a claim that a particular style violation is
dangerous, or ironically, to suggest that the practice under
discussion is condemned mainly by anal-retentive [2772]weenies. "Dike
out that goto or the code police will get you!" The ironic usage is
perhaps more common.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:codes, Next:[2773]codewalker, Previous:[2774]code police,
Up:[2775]= C =
codes n.
[scientific computing] Programs. This usage is common in people who
hack supercomputers and heavy-duty [2776]number-crunching, rare to
unknown elsewhere (if you say "codes" to hackers outside scientific
computing, their first association is likely to be "and cyphers").
_________________________________________________________________
Node:codewalker, Next:[2777]coefficient of X, Previous:[2778]codes,
Up:[2779]= C =
codewalker n.
A program component that traverses other programs for a living.
Compilers have codewalkers in their front ends; so do cross-reference
generators and some database front ends. Other utility programs that
try to do too much with source code may turn into codewalkers. As in
"This new vgrind feature would require a codewalker to implement."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:coefficient of X, Next:[2780]cokebottle,
Previous:[2781]codewalker, Up:[2782]= C =
coefficient of X n.
Hackish speech makes heavy use of pseudo-mathematical metaphors. Four
particularly important ones involve the terms `coefficient', `factor',
`index of X', and `quotient'. They are often loosely applied to things
you cannot really be quantitative about, but there are subtle
distinctions among them that convey information about the way the
speaker mentally models whatever he or she is describing.
`Foo factor' and `foo quotient' tend to describe something for which
the issue is one of presence or absence. The canonical example is
[2783]fudge factor. It's not important how much you're fudging; the
term simply acknowledges that some fudging is needed. You might talk
of liking a movie for its silliness factor. Quotient tends to imply
that the property is a ratio of two opposing factors: "I would have
won except for my luck quotient." This could also be "I would have won
except for the luck factor", but using quotient emphasizes that it was
bad luck overpowering good luck (or someone else's good luck
overpowering your own).
`Foo index' and `coefficient of foo' both tend to imply that foo is,
if not strictly measurable, at least something that can be larger or
smaller. Thus, you might refer to a paper or person as having a `high
bogosity index', whereas you would be less likely to speak of a `high
bogosity factor'. `Foo index' suggests that foo is a condensation of
many quantities, as in the mundane cost-of-living index; `coefficient
of foo' suggests that foo is a fundamental quantity, as in a
coefficient of friction. The choice between these terms is often one
of personal preference; e.g., some people might feel that bogosity is
a fundamental attribute and thus say `coefficient of bogosity',
whereas others might feel it is a combination of factors and thus say
`bogosity index'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cokebottle, Next:[2784]cold boot, Previous:[2785]coefficient of
X, Up:[2786]= C =
cokebottle /kohk'bot-l/ n.
Any very unusual character, particularly one you can't type because it
isn't on your keyboard. MIT people used to complain about the
`control-meta-cokebottle' commands at SAIL, and SAIL people complained
right back about the `escape-escape-cokebottle' commands at MIT. After
the demise of the [2787]space-cadet keyboard, `cokebottle' faded away
as serious usage, but was often invoked humorously to describe an
(unspecified) weird or non-intuitive keystroke command. It may be due
for a second inning, however. The OSF/Motif window manager, mwm(1),
has a reserved keystroke for switching to the default set of
keybindings and behavior. This keystroke is (believe it or not)
`control-meta-bang' (see [2788]bang). Since the exclamation point
looks a lot like an upside down Coke bottle, Motif hackers have begun
referring to this keystroke as `cokebottle'. See also [2789]quadruple
bucky.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cold boot, Next:[2790]COME FROM, Previous:[2791]cokebottle,
Up:[2792]= C =
cold boot n.
See [2793]boot.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:COME FROM, Next:[2794]comm mode, Previous:[2795]cold boot,
Up:[2796]= C =
COME FROM n.
A semi-mythical language construct dual to the `go to'; COME FROM
<label> would cause the referenced label to act as a sort of trapdoor,
so that if the program ever reached it control would quietly and
[2797]automagically be transferred to the statement following the COME
FROM. COME FROM was first proposed in R. Lawrence Clark's "A
Linguistic Contribution to GOTO-less programming", which appeared in a
1973 [2798]Datamation issue (and was reprinted in the April 1984 issue
of "Communications of the ACM"). This parodied the then-raging
`structured programming' [2799]holy wars (see [2800]considered
harmful). Mythically, some variants are the `assigned COME FROM' and
the `computed COME FROM' (parodying some nasty control constructs in
FORTRAN and some extended BASICs). Of course, multi-tasking (or
non-determinism) could be implemented by having more than one COME
FROM statement coming from the same label.
In some ways the FORTRAN DO looks like a COME FROM statement. After
the terminating statement number/CONTINUE is reached, control
continues at the statement following the DO. Some generous FORTRANs
would allow arbitrary statements (other than CONTINUE) for the
statement, leading to examples like:
DO 10 I=1,LIMIT
C imagine many lines of code here, leaving the
C original DO statement lost in the spaghetti...
WRITE(6,10) I,FROB(I)
10 FORMAT(1X,I5,G10.4)
in which the trapdoor is just after the statement labeled 10. (This is
particularly surprising because the label doesn't appear to have
anything to do with the flow of control at all!)
While sufficiently astonishing to the unsuspecting reader, this form
of COME FROM statement isn't completely general. After all, control
will eventually pass to the following statement. The implementation of
the general form was left to Univac FORTRAN, ca. 1975 (though a
roughly similar feature existed on the IBM 7040 ten years earlier).
The statement AT 100 would perform a COME FROM 100. It was intended
strictly as a debugging aid, with dire consequences promised to anyone
so deranged as to use it in production code. More horrible things had
already been perpetrated in production languages, however; doubters
need only contemplate the ALTER verb in [2801]COBOL.
COME FROM was supported under its own name for the first time 15 years
later, in C-INTERCAL (see [2802]INTERCAL, [2803]retrocomputing);
knowledgeable observers are still reeling from the shock.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:comm mode, Next:[2804]command key, Previous:[2805]COME FROM,
Up:[2806]= C =
comm mode /kom mohd/ n.
[ITS: from the feature supporting on-line chat; the term may spelled
with one or two m's] Syn. for [2807]talk mode.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:command key, Next:[2808]comment out, Previous:[2809]comm mode,
Up:[2810]= C =
command key n.
[Mac users] Syn. [2811]feature key.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:comment out, Next:[2812]Commonwealth Hackish,
Previous:[2813]command key, Up:[2814]= C =
comment out vt.
To surround a section of code with comment delimiters or to prefix
every line in the section with a comment marker; this prevents it from
being compiled or interpreted. Often done when the code is redundant
or obsolete, but is being left in the source to make the intent of the
active code clearer; also when the code in that section is broken and
you want to bypass it in order to debug some other part of the code.
Compare [2815]condition out, usually the preferred technique in
languages (such as [2816]C) that make it possible.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Commonwealth Hackish, Next:[2817]compact, Previous:[2818]comment
out, Up:[2819]= C =
Commonwealth Hackish n.
Hacker jargon as spoken in English outside the U.S., esp. in the
British Commonwealth. It is reported that Commonwealth speakers are
more likely to pronounce truncations like `char' and `soc', etc., as
spelled (/char/, /sok/), as opposed to American /keir/ and /sohsh/.
Dots in [2820]newsgroup names (especially two-component names) tend to
be pronounced more often (so soc.wibble is /sok dot wib'l/ rather than
/sohsh wib'l/).
Preferred [2821]metasyntactic variables include [2822]blurgle, eek,
ook, frodo, and bilbo; [2823]wibble, wobble, and in emergencies
wubble; flob, banana, tom, dick, harry, wombat, frog, [2824]fish,
[2825]womble and so on and on (see [2826]foo, sense 4). Alternatives
to verb doubling include suffixes `-o-rama', `frenzy' (as in feeding
frenzy), and `city' (examples: "barf city!" "hack-o-rama!" "core dump
frenzy!").
All the generic differences within the anglophone world inevitably
show themselves in the associated hackish dialects. The Greek letters
beta and zeta are usually pronounced /bee't*/ and /zee't*/; meta may
also be pronounced /mee't*/. Various punctuators (and even letters - Z
is called `zed', not `zee') are named differently: most crucially, for
hackish, where Americans use `parens', `brackets' and `braces' for (),
[] and {}, Commonwealth English uses `brackets', `square brackets' and
`curly brackets', though `parentheses' may be used for the first; the
exclamation mark, `!', is called pling rather than bang and the pound
sign, `#', is called hash; furthermore, the term `the pound sign' is
understood to mean the pound currency symbol (of course).
See also [2827]attoparsec, [2828]calculator, [2829]chemist,
[2830]console jockey, [2831]fish, [2832]go-faster stripes,
[2833]grunge, [2834]hakspek, [2835]heavy metal, [2836]leaky heap,
[2837]lord high fixer, [2838]loose bytes, [2839]muddie, [2840]nadger,
[2841]noddy, [2842]psychedelicware, [2843]plingnet, [2844]raster
blaster, [2845]RTBM, [2846]seggie, [2847]spod, [2848]sun lounge,
[2849]terminal junkie, [2850]tick-list features, [2851]weeble,
[2852]weasel, [2853]YABA, and notes or definitions under [2854]Bad
Thing, [2855]barf, [2856]bogus, [2857]bum, [2858]chase pointers,
[2859]cosmic rays, [2860]crippleware, [2861]crunch, [2862]dodgy,
[2863]gonk, [2864]hamster, [2865]hardwarily, [2866]mess-dos,
[2867]nybble, [2868]proglet, [2869]root, [2870]SEX, [2871]tweak,
[2872]womble, and [2873]xyzzy.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:compact, Next:[2874]compiler jock, Previous:[2875]Commonwealth
Hackish, Up:[2876]= C =
compact adj.
Of a design, describes the valuable property that it can all be
apprehended at once in one's head. This generally means the thing
created from the design can be used with greater facility and fewer
errors than an equivalent tool that is not compact. Compactness does
not imply triviality or lack of power; for example, C is compact and
FORTRAN is not, but C is more powerful than FORTRAN. Designs become
non-compact through accreting [2877]features and [2878]cruft that
don't merge cleanly into the overall design scheme (thus, some fans of
[2879]Classic C maintain that ANSI C is no longer compact).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:compiler jock, Next:[2880]compo, Previous:[2881]compact,
Up:[2882]= C =
compiler jock n.
See [2883]jock (sense 2).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:compo, Next:[2884]compress, Previous:[2885]compiler jock,
Up:[2886]= C =
compo n.
[[2887]demoscene] Finnish-originated slang for `competition'. Demo
compos are held at a [2888]demoparty. The usual protocol is that
several groups make demos for a compo, they are shown on a big screen,
and then the party participants vote for the best one. Prizes (from
sponsors and party entrance fees) are given. Standard compo formats
include [2889]intro compos (4k or 64k demos), music compos, graphics
compos, quick [2890]demo compos (build a demo within 4 hours for
example), etc.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:compress, Next:[2891]Compu$erve, Previous:[2892]compo, Up:[2893]=
C =
compress [Unix] vt.
When used without a qualifier, generally refers to [2894]crunching of
a file using a particular C implementation of compression by Joseph M.
Orost et al. and widely circulated via [2895]Usenet; use of
[2896]crunch itself in this sense is rare among Unix hackers.
Specifically, compress is built around the Lempel-Ziv-Welch algorithm
as described in "A Technique for High Performance Data Compression",
Terry A. Welch, "IEEE Computer", vol. 17, no. 6 (June 1984), pp. 8-19.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Compu$erve, Next:[2897]computer confetti,
Previous:[2898]compress, Up:[2899]= C =
Compu$erve n.
See [2900]CI$. Synonyms CompuSpend and Compu$pend are also reported.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:computer confetti, Next:[2901]computer geek,
Previous:[2902]Compu$erve, Up:[2903]= C =
computer confetti n.
Syn. [2904]chad. Though this term is common, this use of punched-card
chad is not a good idea, as the pieces are stiff and have sharp
corners that could injure the eyes. GLS reports that he once attended
a wedding at MIT during which he and a few other guests
enthusiastically threw chad instead of rice. The groom later grumbled
that he and his bride had spent most of the evening trying to get the
stuff out of their hair.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:computer geek, Next:[2905]computron, Previous:[2906]computer
confetti, Up:[2907]= C =
computer geek n.
1. One who eats (computer) bugs for a living. One who fulfills all the
dreariest negative stereotypes about hackers: an asocial, malodorous,
pasty-faced monomaniac with all the personality of a cheese grater.
Cannot be used by outsiders without implied insult to all hackers;
compare black-on-black vs. white-on-black usage of `nigger'. A
computer geek may be either a fundamentally clueless individual or a
proto-hacker in [2908]larval stage. Also called `turbo nerd', `turbo
geek'. See also [2909]propeller head, [2910]clustergeeking, [2911]geek
out, [2912]wannabee, [2913]terminal junkie, [2914]spod, [2915]weenie.
2. Some self-described computer geeks use this term in a positive
sense and protest sense 1 (this seems to have been a post-1990
development). For one such argument, see
[2916]http://www.darkwater.com/omni/geek.html. See also [2917]geek
code.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:computron, Next:[2918]con, Previous:[2919]computer geek,
Up:[2920]= C =
computron /kom'pyoo-tron`/
n. 1. [common] A notional unit of computing power combining
instruction speed and storage capacity, dimensioned roughly in
instructions-per-second times megabytes-of-main-store times
megabytes-of-mass-storage. "That machine can't run GNU Emacs, it
doesn't have enough computrons!" This usage is usually found in
metaphors that treat computing power as a fungible commodity good,
like a crop yield or diesel horsepower. See [2921]bitty box, [2922]Get
a real computer!, [2923]toy, [2924]crank. 2. A mythical subatomic
particle that bears the unit quantity of computation or information,
in much the same way that an electron bears one unit of electric
charge (see also [2925]bogon). An elaborate pseudo-scientific theory
of computrons has been developed based on the physical fact that the
molecules in a solid object move more rapidly as it is heated. It is
argued that an object melts because the molecules have lost their
information about where they are supposed to be (that is, they have
emitted computrons). This explains why computers get so hot and
require air conditioning; they use up computrons. Conversely, it
should be possible to cool down an object by placing it in the path of
a computron beam. It is believed that this may also explain why
machines that work at the factory fail in the computer room: the
computrons there have been all used up by the other hardware. (The
popularity of this theory probably owes something to the "Warlock"
stories by Larry Niven, the best known being "What Good is a Glass
Dagger?", in which magic is fueled by an exhaustible natural resource
called `mana'.)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:con, Next:[2926]condition out, Previous:[2927]computron,
Up:[2928]= C =
con n.
[from SF fandom] A science-fiction convention. Not used of other sorts
of conventions, such as professional meetings. This term, unlike many
others imported from SF-fan slang, is widely recognized even by
hackers who aren't [2929]fans. "We'd been corresponding on the net for
months, then we met face-to-face at a con."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:condition out, Next:[2930]condom, Previous:[2931]con, Up:[2932]=
C =
condition out vt.
To prevent a section of code from being compiled by surrounding it
with a conditional-compilation directive whose condition is always
false. The [2933]canonical examples of these directives are #if 0 (or
#ifdef notdef, though some find the latter [2934]bletcherous) and
#endif in C. Compare [2935]comment out.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:condom, Next:[2936]confuser, Previous:[2937]condition out,
Up:[2938]= C =
condom n.
1. The protective plastic bag that accompanies 3.5-inch microfloppy
diskettes. Rarely, also used of (paper) disk envelopes. Unlike the
write protect tab, the condom (when left on) not only impedes the
practice of [2939]SEX but has also been shown to have a high failure
rate as drive mechanisms attempt to access the disk -- and can even
fatally frustrate insertion. 2. The protective cladding on a
[2940]light pipe. 3. `keyboard condom': A flexible, transparent
plastic cover for a keyboard, designed to provide some protection
against dust and [2941]programming fluid without impeding typing. 4.
`elephant condom': the plastic shipping bags used inside cardboard
boxes to protect hardware in transit. 5. n. obs. A dummy directory
/usr/tmp/sh, created to foil the [2942]Great Worm by exploiting a
portability bug in one of its parts. So named in the title of a
comp.risks article by Gene Spafford during the Worm crisis, and again
in the text of "The Internet Worm Program: An Analysis", Purdue
Technical Report CSD-TR-823.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:confuser, Next:[2943]connector conspiracy, Previous:[2944]condom,
Up:[2945]= C =
confuser n.
Common soundalike slang for `computer'. Usually encountered in
compounds such as `confuser room', `personal confuser', `confuser
guru'. Usage: silly.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:connector conspiracy, Next:[2946]cons, Previous:[2947]confuser,
Up:[2948]= C =
connector conspiracy n.
[probably came into prominence with the appearance of the KL-10 (one
model of the [2949]PDP-10), none of whose connectors matched anything
else] The tendency of manufacturers (or, by extension, programmers or
purveyors of anything) to come up with new products that don't fit
together with the old stuff, thereby making you buy either all new
stuff or expensive interface devices. The KL-10 Massbus connector was
actually patented by [2950]DEC, which reputedly refused to license the
design and thus effectively locked third parties out of competition
for the lucrative Massbus peripherals market. This policy is a source
of never-ending frustration for the diehards who maintain older PDP-10
or VAX systems. Their CPUs work fine, but they are stuck with dying,
obsolescent disk and tape drives with low capacity and high power
requirements.
(A closely related phenomenon, with a slightly different intent, is
the habit manufacturers have of inventing new screw heads so that only
Designated Persons, possessing the magic screwdrivers, can remove
covers and make repairs or install options. A good 1990s example is
the use of Torx screws for cable-TV set-top boxes. Older Apple
Macintoshes took this one step further, requiring not only a long Torx
screwdriver but a specialized case-cracking tool to open the box.)
In these latter days of open-systems computing this term has fallen
somewhat into disuse, to be replaced by the observation that
"Standards are great! There are so many of them to choose from!"
Compare [2951]backward combatability.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cons, Next:[2952]considered harmful, Previous:[2953]connector
conspiracy, Up:[2954]= C =
cons /konz/ or /kons/
[from LISP] 1. vt. To add a new element to a specified list, esp. at
the top. "OK, cons picking a replacement for the console TTY onto the
agenda." 2. `cons up': vt. To synthesize from smaller pieces: "to cons
up an example".
In LISP itself, cons is the most fundamental operation for building
structures. It takes any two objects and returns a `dot-pair' or
two-branched tree with one object hanging from each branch. Because
the result of a cons is an object, it can be used to build binary
trees of any shape and complexity. Hackers think of it as a sort of
universal constructor, and that is where the jargon meanings spring
from.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:considered harmful, Next:[2955]console, Previous:[2956]cons,
Up:[2957]= C =
considered harmful adj.
[very common] Edsger W. Dijkstra's note in the March 1968
"Communications of the ACM", "Goto Statement Considered Harmful",
fired the first salvo in the structured programming wars (text at
[2958]http://www.acm.org/classics). Amusingly, the ACM considered the
resulting acrimony sufficiently harmful that it will (by policy) no
longer print an article taking so assertive a position against a
coding practice. (Years afterwards, a contrary view was uttered in a
CACM letter called, inevitably, "`Goto considered harmful' considered
harmful'"'. In the ensuing decades, a large number of both serious
papers and parodies have borne titles of the form "X considered Y".
The structured-programming wars eventually blew over with the
realization that both sides were wrong, but use of such titles has
remained as a persistent minor in-joke (the `considered silly' found
at various places in this lexicon is related).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:console, Next:[2959]console jockey, Previous:[2960]considered
harmful, Up:[2961]= C =
console n.
1. The operator's station of a [2962]mainframe. In times past, this
was a privileged location that conveyed godlike powers to anyone with
fingers on its keys. Under Unix and other modern timesharing OSes,
such privileges are guarded by passwords instead, and the console is
just the [2963]tty the system was booted from. Some of the mystique
remains, however, and it is traditional for sysadmins to post urgent
messages to all users from the console (on Unix, /dev/console). 2. On
microcomputer Unix boxes, the main screen and keyboard (as opposed to
character-only terminals talking to a serial port). Typically only the
console can do real graphics or run [2964]X.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:console jockey, Next:[2965]content-free, Previous:[2966]console,
Up:[2967]= C =
console jockey n.
See [2968]terminal junkie.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:content-free, Next:[2969]control-C, Previous:[2970]console
jockey, Up:[2971]= C =
content-free adj.
[by analogy with techspeak `context-free'] Used of a message that adds
nothing to the recipient's knowledge. Though this adjective is
sometimes applied to [2972]flamage, it more usually connotes derision
for communication styles that exalt form over substance or are
centered on concerns irrelevant to the subject ostensibly at hand.
Perhaps most used with reference to speeches by company presidents and
other professional manipulators. "Content-free? Uh... that's anything
printed on glossy paper." (See also [2973]four-color glossies.) "He
gave a talk on the implications of electronic networks for
postmodernism and the fin-de-siecle aesthetic. It was content-free."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:control-C, Next:[2974]control-O, Previous:[2975]content-free,
Up:[2976]= C =
control-C vi.
1. "Stop whatever you are doing." From the interrupt character used on
many operating systems to abort a running program. Considered silly.
2. interj. Among BSD Unix hackers, the canonical humorous response to
"Give me a break!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:control-O, Next:[2977]control-Q, Previous:[2978]control-C,
Up:[2979]= C =
control-O vi.
"Stop talking." From the character used on some operating systems to
abort output but allow the program to keep on running. Generally means
that you are not interested in hearing anything more from that person,
at least on that topic; a standard response to someone who is flaming.
Considered silly. Compare [2980]control-S.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:control-Q, Next:[2981]control-S, Previous:[2982]control-O,
Up:[2983]= C =
control-Q vi.
"Resume." From the ASCII DC1 or [2984]XON character (the pronunciation
/X-on/ is therefore also used), used to undo a previous
[2985]control-S.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:control-S, Next:[2986]Conway's Law, Previous:[2987]control-Q,
Up:[2988]= C =
control-S vi.
"Stop talking for a second." From the ASCII DC3 or XOFF character (the
pronunciation /X-of/ is therefore also used). Control-S differs from
[2989]control-O in that the person is asked to stop talking (perhaps
because you are on the phone) but will be allowed to continue when
you're ready to listen to him -- as opposed to control-O, which has
more of the meaning of "Shut up." Considered silly.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Conway's Law, Next:[2990]cookbook, Previous:[2991]control-S,
Up:[2992]= C =
Conway's Law prov.
The rule that the organization of the software and the organization of
the software team will be congruent; commonly stated as "If you have
four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler". The
original statement was more general, "Organizations which design
systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the
communication structures of these organizations." This first appeared
in the April 1968 issue of [2993]Datamation. Compare [2994]SNAFU
principle.
The law was named after Melvin Conway, an early proto-hacker who wrote
an assembler for the Burroughs 220 called SAVE. (The name `SAVE'
didn't stand for anything; it was just that you lost fewer card decks
and listings because they all had SAVE written on them.)
There is also Tom Cheatham's amendment of Conway's Law: "If a group of
N persons implements a COBOL compiler, there will be N-1 passes.
Someone in the group has to be the manager."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cookbook, Next:[2995]cooked mode, Previous:[2996]Conway's Law,
Up:[2997]= C =
cookbook n.
[from amateur electronics and radio] A book of small code segments
that the reader can use to do various [2998]magic things in programs.
One current example is the "[2999]PostScript Language Tutorial and
Cookbook" by Adobe Systems, Inc (Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-10179-3),
also known as the [3000]Blue Book which has recipes for things like
wrapping text around arbitrary curves and making 3D fonts. Cookbooks,
slavishly followed, can lead one into [3001]voodoo programming, but
are useful for hackers trying to [3002]monkey up small programs in
unknown languages. This function is analogous to the role of
phrasebooks in human languages.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cooked mode, Next:[3003]cookie, Previous:[3004]cookbook,
Up:[3005]= C =
cooked mode n.
[Unix, by opposition from [3006]raw mode] The normal character-input
mode, with interrupts enabled and with erase, kill and other
special-character interpretations performed directly by the tty
driver. Oppose [3007]raw mode, [3008]rare mode. This term is techspeak
under Unix but jargon elsewhere; other operating systems often have
similar mode distinctions, and the raw/rare/cooked way of describing
them has spread widely along with the C language and other Unix
exports. Most generally, `cooked mode' may refer to any mode of a
system that does extensive preprocessing before presenting data to a
program.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cookie, Next:[3009]cookie bear, Previous:[3010]cooked mode,
Up:[3011]= C =
cookie n.
A handle, transaction ID, or other token of agreement between
cooperating programs. "I give him a packet, he gives me back a
cookie." The claim check you get from a dry-cleaning shop is a perfect
mundane example of a cookie; the only thing it's useful for is to
relate a later transaction to this one (so you get the same clothes
back). Compare [3012]magic cookie; see also [3013]fortune cookie. Now
mainstream in the specific sense of web-browser cookies.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cookie bear, Next:[3014]cookie file, Previous:[3015]cookie,
Up:[3016]= C =
cookie bear n. obs.
Original term, pre-Sesame-Street, for what is now universally called a
[3017]cookie monster. A correspondent observes "In those days, hackers
were actually getting their yucks from...sit down now...Andy Williams.
Yes, that Andy Williams. Seems he had a rather hip (by the standards
of the day) TV variety show. One of the best parts of the show was the
recurring `cookie bear' sketch. In these sketches, a guy in a bear
suit tried all sorts of tricks to get a cookie out of Williams. The
sketches would always end with Williams shrieking (and I don't mean
figuratively), `No cookies! Not now, not ever...NEVER!!!' And the bear
would fall down. Great stuff."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cookie file, Next:[3018]cookie jar, Previous:[3019]cookie bear,
Up:[3020]= C =
cookie file n.
A collection of [3021]fortune cookies in a format that facilitates
retrieval by a fortune program. There are several different cookie
files in public distribution, and site admins often assemble their own
from various sources including this lexicon.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cookie jar, Next:[3022]cookie monster, Previous:[3023]cookie
file, Up:[3024]= C =
cookie jar n.
An area of memory set aside for storing [3025]cookies. Most commonly
heard in the Atari ST community; many useful ST programs record their
presence by storing a distinctive [3026]magic number in the jar.
Programs can inquire after the presence or otherwise of other programs
by searching the contents of the jar.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cookie monster, Next:[3027]copious free time,
Previous:[3028]cookie jar, Up:[3029]= C =
cookie monster n.
[from the children's TV program "Sesame Street"] Any of a family of
early (1970s) hacks reported on [3030]TOPS-10, [3031]ITS,
[3032]Multics, and elsewhere that would lock up either the victim's
terminal (on a time-sharing machine) or the [3033]console (on a batch
[3034]mainframe), repeatedly demanding "I WANT A COOKIE". The required
responses ranged in complexity from "COOKIE" through "HAVE A COOKIE"
and upward. Folklorist Jan Brunvand (see [3035]FOAF) has described
these programs as urban legends (implying they probably never existed)
but they existed, all right, in several different versions. See also
[3036]wabbit. Interestingly, the term `cookie monster' appears to be a
[3037]retcon; the original term was [3038]cookie bear.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:copious free time, Next:[3039]copper, Previous:[3040]cookie
monster, Up:[3041]= C =
copious free time n.
[Apple; orig. fr. the intro to Tom Lehrer's song "It Makes A Fellow
Proud To Be A Soldier"] 1. [used ironically to indicate the speaker's
lack of the quantity in question] A mythical schedule slot for
accomplishing tasks held to be unlikely or impossible. Sometimes used
to indicate that the speaker is interested in accomplishing the task,
but believes that the opportunity will not arise. "I'll implement the
automatic layout stuff in my copious free time." 2. [Archly] Time
reserved for bogus or otherwise idiotic tasks, such as implementation
of [3042]chrome, or the stroking of [3043]suits. "I'll get back to him
on that feature in my copious free time."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:copper, Next:[3044]copy protection, Previous:[3045]copious free
time, Up:[3046]= C =
copper n.
Conventional electron-carrying network cable with a core conductor of
copper -- or aluminum! Opposed to [3047]light pipe or, say, a
short-range microwave link.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:copy protection, Next:[3048]copybroke, Previous:[3049]copper,
Up:[3050]= C =
copy protection n.
A class of methods for preventing incompetent pirates from stealing
software and legitimate customers from using it. Considered silly.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:copybroke, Next:[3051]copycenter, Previous:[3052]copy protection,
Up:[3053]= C =
copybroke /kop'ee-brohk/ adj.
1. [play on `copyright'] Used to describe an instance of a
copy-protected program that has been `broken'; that is, a copy with
the copy-protection scheme disabled. Syn. [3054]copywronged. 2.
Copy-protected software which is unusable because of some bit-rot or
bug that has confused the anti-piracy check. See also [3055]copy
protection.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:copycenter, Next:[3056]copyleft, Previous:[3057]copybroke,
Up:[3058]= C =
copycenter n.
[play on `copyright' and `copyleft'] 1. The copyright notice carried
by the various flavors of freeware BSD. According to Kirk McKusick at
BSDCon 1999: "The way it was characterized politically, you had
copyright, which is what the big companies use to lock everything up;
you had copyleft, which is free software's way of making sure they
can't lock it up; and then Berkeley had what we called "copycenter",
which is "take it down to the copy center and make as many copies as
you want".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:copyleft, Next:[3059]copyparty, Previous:[3060]copycenter,
Up:[3061]= C =
copyleft /kop'ee-left/ n.
[play on `copyright'] 1. The copyright notice (`General Public
License') carried by [3062]GNU [3063]EMACS and other Free Software
Foundation software, granting reuse and reproduction rights to all
comers (but see also [3064]General Public Virus). 2. By extension, any
copyright notice intended to achieve similar aims.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:copyparty, Next:[3065]copywronged, Previous:[3066]copyleft,
Up:[3067]= C =
copyparty n.
[C64/amiga [3068]demoscene ]A computer party organized so demosceners
can meet other in real life, and to facilitate software copying
(mostly pirated software). The copyparty has become less common as the
Internet makes communication easier. The demoscene has gradually
evolved the [3069]demoparty to replace it.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:copywronged, Next:[3070]core, Previous:[3071]copyparty,
Up:[3072]= C =
copywronged /kop'ee-rongd/ adj.
[play on `copyright'] Syn. for [3073]copybroke.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:core, Next:[3074]core cancer, Previous:[3075]copywronged,
Up:[3076]= C =
core n.
Main storage or RAM. Dates from the days of ferrite-core memory; now
archaic as techspeak most places outside IBM, but also still used in
the Unix community and by old-time hackers or those who would sound
like them. Some derived idioms are quite current; `in core', for
example, means `in memory' (as opposed to `on disk'), and both
[3077]core dump and the `core image' or `core file' produced by one
are terms in favor. Some varieties of Commonwealth hackish prefer
[3078]store.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:core cancer, Next:[3079]core dump, Previous:[3080]core,
Up:[3081]= C =
core cancer n.
[rare] A process that exhibits a slow but inexorable resource
[3082]leak -- like a cancer, it kills by crowding out productive
`tissue'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:core dump, Next:[3083]core leak, Previous:[3084]core cancer,
Up:[3085]= C =
core dump n.
[common [3086]Iron Age jargon, preserved by Unix] 1. [techspeak] A
copy of the contents of [3087]core, produced when a process is aborted
by certain kinds of internal error. 2. By extension, used for humans
passing out, vomiting, or registering extreme shock. "He dumped core.
All over the floor. What a mess." "He heard about X and dumped core."
3. Occasionally used for a human rambling on pointlessly at great
length; esp. in apology: "Sorry, I dumped core on you". 4. A
recapitulation of knowledge (compare [3088]bits, sense 1). Hence,
spewing all one knows about a topic (syn. [3089]brain dump), esp. in a
lecture or answer to an exam question. "Short, concise answers are
better than core dumps" (from the instructions to an exam at
Columbia). See [3090]core.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:core leak, Next:[3091]Core Wars, Previous:[3092]core dump,
Up:[3093]= C =
core leak n.
Syn. [3094]memory leak.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Core Wars, Next:[3095]corge, Previous:[3096]core leak, Up:[3097]=
C =
Core Wars n.
A game between `assembler' programs in a machine or machine simulator,
where the objective is to kill your opponent's program by overwriting
it. Popularized in the 1980s by A. K. Dewdney's column in "Scientific
American" magazine, but described in "Software Practice And
Experience" a decade earlier. The game was actually devised and played
by Victor Vyssotsky, Robert Morris Sr., and Doug McIlroy in the early
1960s (Dennis Ritchie is sometimes incorrectly cited as a co-author,
but was not involved). Their original game was called `Darwin' and ran
on a IBM 7090 at Bell Labs. See [3098]core. For information on the
modern game, do a web search for the `rec.games.corewar FAQ' or surf
to the [3099]King Of The Hill site.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:corge, Next:[3100]cosmic rays, Previous:[3101]Core Wars,
Up:[3102]= C =
corge /korj/ n.
[originally, the name of a cat] Yet another [3103]metasyntactic
variable, invented by Mike Gallaher and propagated by the
[3104]GOSMACS documentation. See [3105]grault.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cosmic rays, Next:[3106]cough and die, Previous:[3107]corge,
Up:[3108]= C =
cosmic rays n.
Notionally, the cause of [3109]bit rot. However, this is a
semi-independent usage that may be invoked as a humorous way to
[3110]handwave away any minor [3111]randomness that doesn't seem worth
the bother of investigating. "Hey, Eric -- I just got a burst of
garbage on my [3112]tube, where did that come from?" "Cosmic rays, I
guess." Compare [3113]sunspots, [3114]phase of the moon. The British
seem to prefer the usage `cosmic showers'; `alpha particles' is also
heard, because stray alpha particles passing through a memory chip can
cause single-bit errors (this becomes increasingly more likely as
memory sizes and densities increase).
Factual note: Alpha particles cause bit rot, cosmic rays do not
(except occasionally in spaceborne computers). Intel could not explain
random bit drops in their early chips, and one hypothesis was cosmic
rays. So they created the World's Largest Lead Safe, using 25 tons of
the stuff, and used two identical boards for testing. One was placed
in the safe, one outside. The hypothesis was that if cosmic rays were
causing the bit drops, they should see a statistically significant
difference between the error rates on the two boards. They did not
observe such a difference. Further investigation demonstrated
conclusively that the bit drops were due to alpha particle emissions
from thorium (and to a much lesser degree uranium) in the
encapsulation material. Since it is impossible to eliminate these
radioactives (they are uniformly distributed through the earth's
crust, with the statistically insignificant exception of uranium
lodes) it became obvious that one has to design memories to withstand
these hits.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cough and die, Next:[3115]courier, Previous:[3116]cosmic rays,
Up:[3117]= C =
cough and die v.
Syn. [3118]barf. Connotes that the program is throwing its hands up by
design rather than because of a bug or oversight. "The parser saw a
control-A in its input where it was looking for a printable, so it
coughed and died." Compare [3119]die, [3120]die horribly, [3121]scream
and die.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:courier, Next:[3122]cow orker, Previous:[3123]cough and die,
Up:[3124]= C =
courier
[BBS & cracker cultures] A person who distributes newly cracked
[3125]warez, as opposed to a [3126]server who makes them available for
download or a [3127]leech who merely downloads them. Hackers recognize
this term but don't use it themselves, as the act is not part of their
culture. See also [3128]warez d00dz, [3129]cracker, [3130]elite.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cow orker, Next:[3131]cowboy, Previous:[3132]courier, Up:[3133]=
C =
cow orker n.
[Usenet] n. fortuitous typo for co-worker, widely used in Usenet, with
perhaps a hint that orking cows is illegal. This term was popularized
by Scott Adams (the creator of [3134]Dilbert) but already appears in
the January 1996 version of the [3135]scary devil monastery FAQ. There
are plausible reports that it was in use on talk.bizarre as early as
1992. Compare [3136]hing, [3137]grilf, [3138]filk, [3139]newsfroup.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cowboy, Next:[3140]CP/M, Previous:[3141]cow orker, Up:[3142]= C =
cowboy n.
[Sun, from William Gibson's [3143]cyberpunk SF] Synonym for
[3144]hacker. It is reported that at Sun this word is often said with
reverence.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:CP/M, Next:[3145]CPU Wars, Previous:[3146]cowboy, Up:[3147]= C =
CP/M /C-P-M/ n.
[Control Program/Monitor; later [3148]retconned to Control Program for
Microcomputers] An early microcomputer [3149]OS written by hacker Gary
Kildall for 8080- and Z80-based machines, very popular in the late
1970s but virtually wiped out by MS-DOS after the release of the IBM
PC in 1981. Legend has it that Kildall's company blew its chance to
write the OS for the IBM PC because Kildall decided to spend a day
IBM's reps wanted to meet with him enjoying the perfect flying weather
in his private plane. Many of CP/M's features and conventions strongly
resemble those of early [3150]DEC operating systems such as
[3151]TOPS-10, OS/8, RSTS, and RSX-11. See [3152]MS-DOS,
[3153]operating system.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:CPU Wars, Next:[3154]crack, Previous:[3155]CP/M, Up:[3156]= C =
CPU Wars /C-P-U worz/ n.
A 1979 large-format comic by Chas Andres chronicling the attempts of
the brainwashed androids of IPM (Impossible to Program Machines) to
conquer and destroy the peaceful denizens of HEC (Human Engineered
Computers). This rather transparent allegory featured many references
to [3157]ADVENT and the immortal line "Eat flaming death, minicomputer
mongrels!" (uttered, of course, by an IPM stormtrooper). The whole
shebang is now [3158]available on the Web.
It is alleged that the author subsequently received a letter of
appreciation on IBM company stationery from the head of IBM's Thomas
J. Watson Research Laboratories (then, as now, one of the few islands
of true hackerdom in the IBM archipelago). The lower loop of the B in
the IBM logo, it is said, had been carefully whited out. See [3159]eat
flaming death.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crack, Next:[3160]crack root, Previous:[3161]CPU Wars, Up:[3162]=
C =
crack
[warez d00dz] 1. v. To break into a system (compare [3163]cracker). 2.
v. Action of removing the copy protection from a commercial program.
People who write cracks consider themselves challenged by the copy
protection measures. They will often do it as much to show that they
are smarter than the developper who designed the copy protection
scheme than to actually copy the program. 3. n. A program,
instructions or patch used to remove the copy protection of a program
or to uncripple features from a demo/time limited program. 4. An
[3164]exploit.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crack root, Next:[3165]cracker, Previous:[3166]crack, Up:[3167]=
C =
crack root v.
[very common] To defeat the security system of a Unix machine and gain
[3168]root privileges thereby; see [3169]cracking.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cracker, Next:[3170]cracking, Previous:[3171]crack root,
Up:[3172]= C =
cracker n.
One who breaks security on a system. Coined ca. 1985 by hackers in
defense against journalistic misuse of [3173]hacker (q.v., sense 8).
An earlier attempt to establish `worm' in this sense around 1981-82 on
Usenet was largely a failure.
Use of both these neologisms reflects a strong revulsion against the
theft and vandalism perpetrated by cracking rings. While it is
expected that any real hacker will have done some playful cracking and
knows many of the basic techniques, anyone past [3174]larval stage is
expected to have outgrown the desire to do so except for immediate,
benign, practical reasons (for example, if it's necessary to get
around some security in order to get some work done).
Thus, there is far less overlap between hackerdom and crackerdom than
the [3175]mundane reader misled by sensationalistic journalism might
expect. Crackers tend to gather in small, tight-knit, very secretive
groups that have little overlap with the huge, open poly-culture this
lexicon describes; though crackers often like to describe themselves
as hackers, most true hackers consider them a separate and lower form
of life.
Ethical considerations aside, hackers figure that anyone who can't
imagine a more interesting way to play with their computers than
breaking into someone else's has to be pretty [3176]losing. Some other
reasons crackers are looked down on are discussed in the entries on
[3177]cracking and [3178]phreaking. See also [3179]samurai,
[3180]dark-side hacker, and [3181]hacker ethic. For a portrait of the
typical teenage cracker, see [3182]warez d00dz.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cracking, Next:[3183]crank, Previous:[3184]cracker, Up:[3185]= C
=
cracking n.
[very common] The act of breaking into a computer system; what a
[3186]cracker does. Contrary to widespread myth, this does not usually
involve some mysterious leap of hackerly brilliance, but rather
persistence and the dogged repetition of a handful of fairly
well-known tricks that exploit common weaknesses in the security of
target systems. Accordingly, most crackers are only mediocre hackers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crank, Next:[3187]crapplet, Previous:[3188]cracking, Up:[3189]= C
=
crank vt.
[from automotive slang] Verb used to describe the performance of a
machine, especially sustained performance. "This box cranks (or,
cranks at) about 6 megaflops, with a burst mode of twice that on
vectorized operations."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crapplet, Next:[3190]CrApTeX, Previous:[3191]crank, Up:[3192]= C
=
crapplet n.
[portmanteau, crap + applet] A worthless applet, esp. a Java widget
attached to a web page that doesn't work or even crashes your browser.
Also spelled `craplet'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:CrApTeX, Next:[3193]crash, Previous:[3194]crapplet, Up:[3195]= C
=
CrApTeX /krap'tekh/ n.
[University of York, England] Term of abuse used to describe TeX and
LaTeX when they don't work (when used by TeXhackers), or all the time
(by everyone else). The non-TeX-enthusiasts generally dislike it
because it is more verbose than other formatters (e.g. [3196]troff)
and because (particularly if the standard Computer Modern fonts are
used) it generates vast output files. See [3197]religious issues,
[3198]TeX.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crash, Next:[3199]crash and burn, Previous:[3200]CrApTeX,
Up:[3201]= C =
crash
1. n. A sudden, usually drastic failure. Most often said of the
[3202]system (q.v., sense 1), esp. of magnetic disk drives (the term
originally described what happens when the air gap of a hard disk
collapses). "Three [3203]lusers lost their files in last night's disk
crash." A disk crash that involves the read/write heads dropping onto
the surface of the disks and scraping off the oxide may also be
referred to as a `head crash', whereas the term `system crash'
usually, though not always, implies that the operating system or other
software was at fault. 2. v. To fail suddenly. "Has the system just
crashed?" "Something crashed the OS!" See [3204]down. Also used
transitively to indicate the cause of the crash (usually a person or a
program, or both). "Those idiots playing [3205]SPACEWAR crashed the
system." 3. vi. Sometimes said of people hitting the sack after a long
[3206]hacking run; see [3207]gronk out.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crash and burn, Next:[3208]crawling horror, Previous:[3209]crash,
Up:[3210]= C =
crash and burn vi.,n.
A spectacular crash, in the mode of the conclusion of the car-chase
scene in the movie "Bullitt" and many subsequent imitators (compare
[3211]die horribly). Sun-3 monitors losing the flyback transformer and
lightning strikes on VAX-11/780 backplanes are notable crash and burn
generators. The construction `crash-and-burn machine' is reported for
a computer used exclusively for alpha or [3212]beta testing, or
reproducing bugs (i.e., not for development). The implication is that
it wouldn't be such a disaster if that machine crashed, since only the
testers would be inconvenienced.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crawling horror, Next:[3213]cray, Previous:[3214]crash and burn,
Up:[3215]= C =
crawling horror n.
Ancient crufty hardware or software that is kept obstinately alive by
forces beyond the control of the hackers at a site. Like [3216]dusty
deck or [3217]gonkulator, but connotes that the thing described is not
just an irritation but an active menace to health and sanity. "Mostly
we code new stuff in C, but they pay us to maintain one big FORTRAN II
application from nineteen-sixty-X that's a real crawling horror...."
Compare [3218]WOMBAT.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cray, Next:[3219]cray instability, Previous:[3220]crawling
horror, Up:[3221]= C =
cray /kray/ n.
1. (properly, capitalized) One of the line of supercomputers designed
by Cray Research. 2. Any supercomputer at all. 3. The [3222]canonical
[3223]number-crunching machine.
The term is actually the lowercased last name of Seymour Cray, a noted
computer architect and co-founder of the company. Numerous vivid
legends surround him, some true and some admittedly invented by Cray
Research brass to shape their corporate culture and image.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cray instability, Next:[3224]crayola, Previous:[3225]cray,
Up:[3226]= C =
cray instability n.
1. A shortcoming of a program or algorithm that manifests itself only
when a large problem is being run on a powerful machine (see
[3227]cray). Generally more subtle than bugs that can be detected in
smaller problems running on a workstation or mini. 2. More
specifically, a shortcoming of algorithms which are well behaved when
run on gentle floating point hardware (such as IEEE-standard or
PDP-series machines) but which break down badly when exposed to a
Cray's unique `rounding' rules.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crayola, Next:[3228]crayola books, Previous:[3229]cray
instability, Up:[3230]= C =
crayola /kray-oh'l*/ n.
A super-mini or -micro computer that provides some reasonable
percentage of supercomputer performance for an unreasonably low price.
Might also be a [3231]killer micro.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crayola books, Next:[3232]crayon, Previous:[3233]crayola,
Up:[3234]= C =
crayola books n.
The [3235]rainbow series of National Computer Security Center (NCSC)
computer security standards (see [3236]Orange Book). Usage: humorous
and/or disparaging.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crayon, Next:[3237]creationism, Previous:[3238]crayola books,
Up:[3239]= C =
crayon n.
1. Someone who works on Cray supercomputers. More specifically, it
implies a programmer, probably of the CDC ilk, probably male, and
almost certainly wearing a tie (irrespective of gender). Systems types
who have a Unix background tend not to be described as crayons. 2.
Formerly, anyone who worked for Cray Research; since the buyout by
SGI, anyone they inherited from Cray. 3. A [3240]computron (sense 2)
that participates only in [3241]number-crunching. 4. A unit of
computational power equal to that of a single Cray-1. There is a
standard joke about this usage that derives from an old Crayola crayon
promotional gimmick: When you buy 64 crayons you get a free sharpener.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:creationism, Next:[3242]creep, Previous:[3243]crayon, Up:[3244]=
C =
creationism n.
The (false) belief that large, innovative software designs can be
completely specified in advance and then painlessly magicked out of
the void by the normal efforts of a team of normally talented
programmers. In fact, experience has shown repeatedly that good
designs arise only from evolutionary, exploratory interaction between
one (or at most a small handful of) exceptionally able designer(s) and
an active user population -- and that the first try at a big new idea
is always wrong. Unfortunately, because these truths don't fit the
planning models beloved of [3245]management, they are generally
ignored.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:creep, Next:[3246]creeping elegance, Previous:[3247]creationism,
Up:[3248]= C =
creep v.
To advance, grow, or multiply inexorably. In hackish usage this verb
has overtones of menace and silliness, evoking the creeping horrors of
low-budget monster movies.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:creeping elegance, Next:[3249]creeping featurism,
Previous:[3250]creep, Up:[3251]= C =
creeping elegance n.
Describes a tendency for parts of a design to become [3252]elegant
past the point of diminishing return, something which often happens at
the expense of the less interesting parts of the design, the schedule,
and other things deemed important in the [3253]Real World. See also
[3254]creeping featurism, [3255]second-system effect, [3256]tense.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:creeping featurism, Next:[3257]creeping featuritis,
Previous:[3258]creeping elegance, Up:[3259]= C =
creeping featurism /kree'ping fee'chr-izm/ n.
[common] 1. Describes a systematic tendency to load more [3260]chrome
and [3261]features onto systems at the expense of whatever elegance
they may have possessed when originally designed. See also
[3262]feeping creaturism. "You know, the main problem with [3263]BSD
Unix has always been creeping featurism." 2. More generally, the
tendency for anything complicated to become even more complicated
because people keep saying "Gee, it would be even better if it had
this feature too". (See [3264]feature.) The result is usually a
patchwork because it grew one ad-hoc step at a time, rather than being
planned. Planning is a lot of work, but it's easy to add just one
extra little feature to help someone ... and then another ... and
another.... When creeping featurism gets out of hand, it's like a
cancer. Usually this term is used to describe computer programs, but
it could also be said of the federal government, the IRS 1040 form,
and new cars. A similar phenomenon sometimes afflicts conscious
redesigns; see [3265]second-system effect. See also [3266]creeping
elegance.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:creeping featuritis, Next:[3267]cretin, Previous:[3268]creeping
featurism, Up:[3269]= C =
creeping featuritis /kree'ping fee'-chr-i:`t*s/ n.
Variant of [3270]creeping featurism, with its own spoonerization:
`feeping creaturitis'. Some people like to reserve this form for the
disease as it actually manifests in software or hardware, as opposed
to the lurking general tendency in designers' minds. (After all, -ism
means `condition' or `pursuit of', whereas -itis usually means
`inflammation of'.)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cretin, Next:[3271]cretinous, Previous:[3272]creeping featuritis,
Up:[3273]= C =
cretin /kret'in/ or /kree'tn/ n.
Congenital [3274]loser; an obnoxious person; someone who can't do
anything right. It has been observed that many American hackers tend
to favor the British pronunciation /kret'in/ over standard American
/kree'tn/; it is thought this may be due to the insidious phonetic
influence of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cretinous, Next:[3275]crippleware, Previous:[3276]cretin,
Up:[3277]= C =
cretinous /kret'n-*s/ or /kreet'n-*s/ adj.
Wrong; stupid; non-functional; very poorly designed. Also used
pejoratively of people. See [3278]dread high-bit disease for an
example. Approximate synonyms: [3279]bletcherous, [3280]bagbiting
[3281]losing, [3282]brain-damaged.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crippleware, Next:[3283]critical mass, Previous:[3284]cretinous,
Up:[3285]= C =
crippleware n.
1. [common] Software that has some important functionality
deliberately removed, so as to entice potential users to pay for a
working version. 2. [Cambridge] Variety of [3286]guiltware that
exhorts you to donate to some charity (compare [3287]careware,
[3288]nagware). 3. Hardware deliberately crippled, which can be
upgraded to a more expensive model by a trivial change (e.g., cutting
a jumper).
An excellent example of crippleware (sense 3) is Intel's 486SX chip,
which is a standard 486DX chip with the co-processor diked out (in
some early versions it was present but disabled). To upgrade, you buy
a complete 486DX chip with working co-processor (its identity thinly
veiled by a different pinout) and plug it into the board's expansion
socket. It then disables the SX, which becomes a fancy power sink.
Don't you love Intel?
_________________________________________________________________
Node:critical mass, Next:[3289]crlf, Previous:[3290]crippleware,
Up:[3291]= C =
critical mass n.
In physics, the minimum amount of fissionable material required to
sustain a chain reaction. Of a software product, describes a condition
of the software such that fixing one bug introduces one plus
[3292]epsilon bugs. (This malady has many causes: [3293]creeping
featurism, ports to too many disparate environments, poor initial
design, etc.) When software achieves critical mass, it can never be
fixed; it can only be discarded and rewritten.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crlf, Next:[3294]crock, Previous:[3295]critical mass, Up:[3296]=
C =
crlf /ker'l*f/, sometimes /kru'l*f/ or /C-R-L-F/ n.
(often capitalized as `CRLF') A carriage return (CR, ASCII 0001101)
followed by a line feed (LF, ASCII 0001010). More loosely, whatever it
takes to get you from the end of one line of text to the beginning of
the next line. See [3297]newline, [3298]terpri. Under [3299]Unix
influence this usage has become less common (Unix uses a bare line
feed as its `CRLF').
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crock, Next:[3300]cross-post, Previous:[3301]crlf, Up:[3302]= C =
crock n.
[from the American scatologism `crock of shit'] 1. An awkward feature
or programming technique that ought to be made cleaner. For example,
using small integers to represent error codes without the program
interpreting them to the user (as in, for example, Unix make(1), which
returns code 139 for a process that dies due to [3303]segfault). 2. A
technique that works acceptably, but which is quite prone to failure
if disturbed in the least. For example, a too-clever programmer might
write an assembler which mapped instruction mnemonics to numeric
opcodes algorithmically, a trick which depends far too intimately on
the particular bit patterns of the opcodes. (For another example of
programming with a dependence on actual opcode values, see [3304]The
Story of Mel in Appendix A.) Many crocks have a tightly woven, almost
completely unmodifiable structure. See [3305]kluge, [3306]brittle. The
adjectives `crockish' and `crocky', and the nouns `crockishness' and
`crockitude', are also used.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cross-post, Next:[3307]crossload, Previous:[3308]crock,
Up:[3309]= C =
cross-post vi.
[Usenet; very common] To post a single article simultaneously to
several newsgroups. Distinguished from posting the article repeatedly,
once to each newsgroup, which causes people to see it multiple times
(which is very bad form). Gratuitous cross-posting without a
Followup-To line directing responses to a single followup group is
frowned upon, as it tends to cause [3310]followup articles to go to
inappropriate newsgroups when people respond to only one part of the
original posting.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crossload, Next:[3311]crudware, Previous:[3312]cross-post,
Up:[3313]= C =
crossload v.,n.
[proposed, by analogy with [3314]upload and [3315]download] To move
files between machines on a peer-to-peer network of nodes that act as
both servers and clients for a distributed file store. Esp.
appropriate for ananonymized networks like Gnutella and Freenet.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crudware, Next:[3316]cruft, Previous:[3317]crossload, Up:[3318]=
C =
crudware /kruhd'weir/ n.
Pejorative term for the hundreds of megabytes of low-quality
[3319]freeware circulated by user's groups and BBS systems in the
micro-hobbyist world. "Yet another set of disk catalog utilities for
[3320]MS-DOS? What crudware!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cruft, Next:[3321]cruft together, Previous:[3322]crudware,
Up:[3323]= C =
cruft /kruhft/
[very common; back-formation from [3324]crufty] 1. n. An unpleasant
substance. The dust that gathers under your bed is cruft; the TMRC
Dictionary correctly noted that attacking it with a broom only
produces more. 2. n. The results of shoddy construction. 3. vt. [from
`hand cruft', pun on `hand craft'] To write assembler code for
something normally (and better) done by a compiler (see
[3325]hand-hacking). 4. n. Excess; superfluous junk; used esp. of
redundant or superseded code. 5. [University of Wisconsin] n. Cruft is
to hackers as gaggle is to geese; that is, at UW one properly says "a
cruft of hackers".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cruft together, Next:[3326]cruftsmanship, Previous:[3327]cruft,
Up:[3328]= C =
cruft together vt.
(also `cruft up') To throw together something ugly but temporarily
workable. Like vt. [3329]kluge up, but more pejorative. "There isn't
any program now to reverse all the lines of a file, but I can probably
cruft one together in about 10 minutes." See [3330]hack together,
[3331]hack up, [3332]kluge up, [3333]crufty.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cruftsmanship, Next:[3334]crufty, Previous:[3335]cruft together,
Up:[3336]= C =
cruftsmanship /kruhfts'm*n-ship / n.
[from [3337]cruft] The antithesis of craftsmanship.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crufty, Next:[3338]crumb, Previous:[3339]cruftsmanship,
Up:[3340]= C =
crufty /kruhf'tee/ adj.
[very common; origin unknown; poss. from `crusty' or `cruddy'] 1.
Poorly built, possibly over-complex. The [3341]canonical example is
"This is standard old crufty [3342]DEC software". In fact, one
fanciful theory of the origin of `crufty' holds that was originally a
mutation of `crusty' applied to DEC software so old that the `s'
characters were tall and skinny, looking more like `f' characters. 2.
Unpleasant, especially to the touch, often with encrusted junk. Like
spilled coffee smeared with peanut butter and catsup. 3. Generally
unpleasant. 4. (sometimes spelled `cruftie') n. A small crufty object
(see [3343]frob); often one that doesn't fit well into the scheme of
things. "A LISP property list is a good place to store crufties (or,
collectively, [3344]random cruft)."
This term is one of the oldest in the jargon and no one is sure of its
etymology, but it is suggestive that there is a Cruft Hall at Harvard
University which is part of the old physics building; it's said to
have been the physics department's radar lab during WWII. To this day
(early 1993) the windows appear to be full of random techno-junk. MIT
or Lincoln Labs people may well have coined the term as a knock on the
competition.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crumb, Next:[3345]crunch, Previous:[3346]crufty, Up:[3347]= C =
crumb n.
Two binary digits; a [3348]quad. Larger than a [3349]bit, smaller than
a [3350]nybble. Considered silly. Syn. [3351]tayste. General
discussion of such terms is under [3352]nybble.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:crunch, Next:[3353]cryppie, Previous:[3354]crumb, Up:[3355]= C =
crunch 1. vi.
To process, usually in a time-consuming or complicated way. Connotes
an essentially trivial operation that is nonetheless painful to
perform. The pain may be due to the triviality's being embedded in a
loop from 1 to 1,000,000,000. "FORTRAN programs do mostly
[3356]number-crunching." 2. vt. To reduce the size of a file by a
complicated scheme that produces bit configurations completely
unrelated to the original data, such as by a Huffman code. (The file
ends up looking something like a paper document would if somebody
crunched the paper into a wad.) Since such compression usually takes
more computations than simpler methods such as run-length encoding,
the term is doubly appropriate. (This meaning is usually used in the
construction `file crunch(ing)' to distinguish it from
[3357]number-crunching.) See [3358]compress. 3. n. The character #.
Used at XEROX and CMU, among other places. See [3359]ASCII. 4. vt. To
squeeze program source into a minimum-size representation that will
still compile or execute. The term came into being specifically for a
famous program on the BBC micro that crunched BASIC source in order to
make it run more quickly (it was a wholly interpretive BASIC, so the
number of characters mattered). [3360]Obfuscated C Contest entries are
often crunched; see the first example under that entry.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cryppie, Next:[3361]CTSS, Previous:[3362]crunch, Up:[3363]= C =
cryppie /krip'ee/ n.
A cryptographer. One who hacks or implements cryptographic software or
hardware.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:CTSS, Next:[3364]cube, Previous:[3365]cryppie, Up:[3366]= C =
CTSS /C-T-S-S/ n.
Compatible Time-Sharing System. An early (1963) experiment in the
design of interactive time-sharing operating systems, ancestral to
[3367]Multics, [3368]Unix, and [3369]ITS. The name [3370]ITS
(Incompatible Time-sharing System) was a hack on CTSS, meant both as a
joke and to express some basic differences in philosophy about the way
I/O services should be presented to user programs.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cube, Next:[3371]cubing, Previous:[3372]CTSS, Up:[3373]= C =
cube n.
1. [short for `cubicle'] A module in the open-plan offices used at
many programming shops. "I've got the manuals in my cube." 2. A NeXT
machine (which resembles a matte-black cube).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cubing, Next:[3374]cup holder, Previous:[3375]cube, Up:[3376]= C
=
cubing vi.
[parallel with `tubing'] 1. Hacking on an IPSC (Intel Personal
SuperComputer) hypercube. "Louella's gone cubing again!!" 2. Hacking
Rubik's Cube or related puzzles, either physically or mathematically.
3. An indescribable form of self-torture (see sense 1 or 2).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cup holder, Next:[3377]cursor dipped in X, Previous:[3378]cubing,
Up:[3379]= C =
cup holder n.
The tray of a CD-ROM drive, or by extension the CD drive itself. So
called because of a common tech support legend about the idiot who
called to complain that the cup holder on his computer broke. A joke
program was once distributed around the net called "cupholder.exe",
which when run simply extended the CD drive tray. The humor of this
was of course lost on people whose drive had a slot or a caddy
instead.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cursor dipped in X, Next:[3380]cuspy, Previous:[3381]cup holder,
Up:[3382]= C =
cursor dipped in X n.
There are a couple of metaphors in English of the form `pen dipped in
X' (perhaps the most common values of X are `acid', `bile', and
`vitriol'). These map over neatly to this hackish usage (the cursor
being what moves, leaving letters behind, when one is composing
on-line). "Talk about a [3383]nastygram! He must've had his cursor
dipped in acid when he wrote that one!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cuspy, Next:[3384]cut a tape, Previous:[3385]cursor dipped in X,
Up:[3386]= C =
cuspy /kuhs'pee/ adj.
[WPI: from the [3387]DEC abbreviation CUSP, for `Commonly Used System
Program', i.e., a utility program used by many people] 1. (of a
program) Well-written. 2. Functionally excellent. A program that
performs well and interfaces well to users is cuspy. See [3388]rude.
3. [NYU] Said of an attractive woman, especially one regarded as
available. Implies a certain curvaceousness.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cut a tape, Next:[3389]cybercrud, Previous:[3390]cuspy,
Up:[3391]= C =
cut a tape vi.
To write a software or document distribution on magnetic tape for
shipment. Has nothing to do with physically cutting the medium! Early
versions of this lexicon claimed that one never analogously speaks of
`cutting a disk', but this has since been reported as live usage.
Related slang usages are mainstream business's `cut a check', the
recording industry's `cut a record', and the military's `cut an
order'.
All of these usages reflect physical processes in obsolete recording
and duplication technologies. The first stage in manufacturing an
old-style vinyl record involved cutting grooves in a stamping die with
a precision lathe. More mundanely, the dominant technology for mass
duplication of paper documents in pre-photocopying days involved
"cutting a stencil", punching away portions of the wax overlay on a
silk screen. More directly, paper tape with holes punched in it was an
important early storage medium.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cybercrud, Next:[3392]cyberpunk, Previous:[3393]cut a tape,
Up:[3394]= C =
cybercrud /si:'ber-kruhd/ n.
1. [coined by Ted Nelson] Obfuscatory tech-talk. Verbiage with a high
[3395]MEGO factor. The computer equivalent of bureaucratese. 2.
Incomprehensible stuff embedded in email. First there were the
"Received" headers that show how mail flows through systems, then MIME
(Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions) headers and part boundaries,
and now huge blocks of radix-64 for PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail) or PGP
(Pretty Good Privacy) digital signatures and certificates of
authenticity. This stuff all services a purpose and good user
interfaces should hide it, but all too often users are forced to wade
through it.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cyberpunk, Next:[3396]cyberspace, Previous:[3397]cybercrud,
Up:[3398]= C =
cyberpunk /si:'ber-puhnk/ n.,adj.
[orig. by SF writer Bruce Bethke and/or editor Gardner Dozois] A
subgenre of SF launched in 1982 by William Gibson's epoch-making novel
"Neuromancer" (though its roots go back through Vernor Vinge's "True
Names" (see the [3399]Bibliography in Appendix C) to John Brunner's
1975 novel "The Shockwave Rider"). Gibson's near-total ignorance of
computers and the present-day hacker culture enabled him to speculate
about the role of computers and hackers in the future in ways hackers
have since found both irritatingly naïve and tremendously stimulating.
Gibson's work was widely imitated, in particular by the short-lived
but innovative "Max Headroom" TV series. See [3400]cyberspace,
[3401]ice, [3402]jack in, [3403]go flatline.
Since 1990 or so, popular culture has included a movement or fashion
trend that calls itself `cyberpunk', associated especially with the
rave/techno subculture. Hackers have mixed feelings about this. On the
one hand, self-described cyberpunks too often seem to be shallow
trendoids in black leather who have substituted enthusiastic
blathering about technology for actually learning and doing it.
Attitude is no substitute for competence. On the other hand, at least
cyberpunks are excited about the right things and properly respectful
of hacking talent in those who have it. The general consensus is to
tolerate them politely in hopes that they'll attract people who grow
into being true hackers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cyberspace, Next:[3404]cycle, Previous:[3405]cyberpunk,
Up:[3406]= C =
cyberspace /si:'br-spays`/ n.
1. Notional `information-space' loaded with visual cues and navigable
with brain-computer interfaces called `cyberspace decks'; a
characteristic prop of [3407]cyberpunk SF. Serious efforts to
construct [3408]virtual reality interfaces modeled explicitly on
Gibsonian cyberspace are under way, using more conventional devices
such as glove sensors and binocular TV headsets. Few hackers are
prepared to deny outright the possibility of a cyberspace someday
evolving out of the network (see [3409]the network). 2. The Internet
or [3410]Matrix (sense #2) as a whole, considered as a crude
cyberspace (sense 1). Although this usage became widely popular in the
mainstream press during 1994 when the Internet exploded into public
awareness, it is strongly deprecated among hackers because the
Internet does not meet the high, SF-inspired standards they have for
true cyberspace technology. Thus, this use of the term usually tags a
[3411]wannabee or outsider. Oppose [3412]meatspace. 3. Occasionally,
the metaphoric location of the mind of a person in [3413]hack mode.
Some hackers report experiencing strong eidetic imagery when in hack
mode; interestingly, independent reports from multiple sources suggest
that there are common features to the experience. In particular, the
dominant colors of this subjective `cyberspace' are often gray and
silver, and the imagery often involves constellations of marching
dots, elaborate shifting patterns of lines and angles, or moire
patterns.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cycle, Next:[3414]cycle crunch, Previous:[3415]cyberspace,
Up:[3416]= C =
cycle
1. n. The basic unit of computation. What every hacker wants more of
(noted hacker Bill Gosper described himself as a "cycle junkie"). One
can describe an instruction as taking so many `clock cycles'. Often
the computer can access its memory once on every clock cycle, and so
one speaks also of `memory cycles'. These are technical meanings of
[3417]cycle. The jargon meaning comes from the observation that there
are only so many cycles per second, and when you are sharing a
computer the cycles get divided up among the users. The more cycles
the computer spends working on your program rather than someone
else's, the faster your program will run. That's why every hacker
wants more cycles: so he can spend less time waiting for the computer
to respond. 2. By extension, a notional unit of human thought power,
emphasizing that lots of things compete for the typical hacker's think
time. "I refused to get involved with the Rubik's Cube back when it
was big. Knew I'd burn too many cycles on it if I let myself." 3. vt.
Syn. [3418]bounce (sense 4), [3419]120 reset; from the phrase `cycle
power'. "Cycle the machine again, that serial port's still hung."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cycle crunch, Next:[3420]cycle drought, Previous:[3421]cycle,
Up:[3422]= C =
cycle crunch n.,obs.
A situation wherein the number of people trying to use a computer
simultaneously has reached the point where no one can get enough
cycles because they are spread too thin and the system has probably
begun to [3423]thrash. This scenario is an inevitable result of
Parkinson's Law applied to timesharing. Usually the only solution is
to buy more computer. Happily, this has rapidly become easier since
the mid-1980s, so much so that the very term `cycle crunch' now has a
faintly archaic flavor; most hackers now use workstations or personal
computers as opposed to traditional timesharing systems, and are far
more likely to complain of `bandwidth crunch' on their shared networks
rather than cycle crunch.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cycle drought, Next:[3424]cycle of reincarnation,
Previous:[3425]cycle crunch, Up:[3426]= C =
cycle drought n.
A scarcity of cycles. It may be due to a [3427]cycle crunch, but it
could also occur because part of the computer is temporarily not
working, leaving fewer cycles to go around. "The [3428]high moby is
[3429]down, so we're running with only half the usual amount of
memory. There will be a cycle drought until it's fixed."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cycle of reincarnation, Next:[3430]cycle server,
Previous:[3431]cycle drought, Up:[3432]= C =
cycle of reincarnation n.
See [3433]wheel of reincarnation.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cycle server, Next:[3434]cypherpunk, Previous:[3435]cycle of
reincarnation, Up:[3436]= C =
cycle server n.
A powerful machine that exists primarily for running large compute-,
disk-, or memory-intensive jobs (more formally called a `compute
server'). Implies that interactive tasks such as editing are done on
other machines on the network, such as workstations.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:cypherpunk, Next:[3437]C|N>K, Previous:[3438]cycle server,
Up:[3439]= C =
cypherpunk n.
[from [3440]cyberpunk] Someone interested in the uses of encryption
via electronic ciphers for enhancing personal privacy and guarding
against tyranny by centralized, authoritarian power structures,
especially government. There is an active cypherpunks mailing list at
[3441]cypherpunks-request@toad.com coordinating work on public-key
encryption freeware, privacy, and digital cash. See also
[3442]tentacle.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:C|N>K, Next:[3443]D. C. Power Lab, Previous:[3444]cypherpunk,
Up:[3445]= C =
C|N>K n.
[Usenet] Coffee through Nose to Keyboard; that is, "I laughed so hard
I [3446]snarfed my coffee onto my keyboard.". Common on
alt.fan.pratchett and [3447]scary devil monastery; recognized
elsewhere. The [3448]Acronymphomania FAQ on alt.fan.pratchett
recognizes variants such as T|N>K = `Tea through Nose to Keyboard' and
C|N>S = `Coffee through Nose to Screen'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:= D =, Next:[3449]= E =, Previous:[3450]= C =, Up:[3451]The
Jargon Lexicon
= D =
* [3452]D. C. Power Lab:
* [3453]daemon:
* [3454]daemon book:
* [3455]dahmum:
* [3456]dancing frog:
* [3457]dangling pointer:
* [3458]dark-side hacker:
* [3459]Datamation:
* [3460]DAU:
* [3461]Dave the Resurrector:
* [3462]day mode:
* [3463]dd:
* [3464]DDT:
* [3465]de-rezz:
* [3466]dead:
* [3467]dead beef attack:
* [3468]dead code:
* [3469]dead link:
* [3470]DEADBEEF:
* [3471]deadlock:
* [3472]deadly embrace:
* [3473]death code:
* [3474]Death Square:
* [3475]Death Star:
* [3476]DEC:
* [3477]DEC:
* [3478]DEC Wars:
* [3479]decay:
* [3480]deckle:
* [3481]DED:
* [3482]deep hack mode:
* [3483]deep magic:
* [3484]deep space:
* [3485]defenestration:
* [3486]defined as:
* [3487]dehose:
* [3488]deletia:
* [3489]deliminator:
* [3490]delint:
* [3491]delta:
* [3492]demented:
* [3493]demigod:
* [3494]demo:
* [3495]demo mode:
* [3496]demoeffect:
* [3497]demogroup:
* [3498]demon:
* [3499]demon dialer:
* [3500]demoparty:
* [3501]demoscene:
* [3502]dentro:
* [3503]depeditate:
* [3504]deprecated:
* [3505]derf:
* [3506]deserves to lose:
* [3507]desk check:
* [3508]despew:
* [3509]Devil Book:
* [3510]/dev/null:
* [3511]dickless workstation:
* [3512]dictionary flame:
* [3513]diddle:
* [3514]die:
* [3515]die horribly:
* [3516]diff:
* [3517]digit:
* [3518]dike:
* [3519]Dilbert:
* [3520]ding:
* [3521]dink:
* [3522]dinosaur:
* [3523]dinosaur pen:
* [3524]dinosaurs mating:
* [3525]dirtball:
* [3526]dirty power:
* [3527]disclaimer:
* [3528]Discordianism:
* [3529]disk farm:
* [3530]display hack:
* [3531]dispress:
* [3532]Dissociated Press:
* [3533]distribution:
* [3534]distro:
* [3535]disusered:
* [3536]do protocol:
* [3537]doc:
* [3538]documentation:
* [3539]dodgy:
* [3540]dogcow:
* [3541]dogfood:
* [3542]dogpile:
* [3543]dogwash:
* [3544]domainist:
* [3545]Don't do that then!:
* [3546]dongle:
* [3547]dongle-disk:
* [3548]donuts:
* [3549]doorstop:
* [3550]DoS attack:
* [3551]dot file:
* [3552]double bucky:
* [3553]doubled sig:
* [3554]down:
* [3555]download:
* [3556]DP:
* [3557]DPB:
* [3558]DPer:
* [3559]Dr. Fred Mbogo:
* [3560]dragon:
* [3561]Dragon Book:
* [3562]drain:
* [3563]dread high-bit disease:
* [3564]Dread Questionmark Disease:
* [3565]DRECNET:
* [3566]driver:
* [3567]droid:
* [3568]drone:
* [3569]drool-proof paper:
* [3570]drop on the floor:
* [3571]drop-ins:
* [3572]drop-outs:
* [3573]drugged:
* [3574]drum:
* [3575]drunk mouse syndrome:
* [3576]dub dub dub:
* [3577]Duff's device:
* [3578]dumb terminal:
* [3579]dumbass attack:
* [3580]dumbed down:
* [3581]dump:
* [3582]dumpster diving:
* [3583]dup killer:
* [3584]dup loop:
* [3585]dusty deck:
* [3586]DWIM:
* [3587]dynner:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:D. C. Power Lab, Next:[3588]daemon, Previous:[3589]C|N>K,
Up:[3590]= D =
D. C. Power Lab n.
The former site of [3591]SAIL. Hackers thought this was very funny
because the obvious connection to electrical engineering was
nonexistent -- the lab was named for a Donald C. Power. Compare
[3592]Marginal Hacks.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:daemon, Next:[3593]daemon book, Previous:[3594]D. C. Power Lab,
Up:[3595]= D =
daemon /day'mn/ or /dee'mn/ n.
[from the mythological meaning, later rationalized as the acronym
`Disk And Execution MONitor'] A program that is not invoked
explicitly, but lies dormant waiting for some condition(s) to occur.
The idea is that the perpetrator of the condition need not be aware
that a daemon is lurking (though often a program will commit an action
only because it knows that it will implicitly invoke a daemon). For
example, under [3596]ITS writing a file on the [3597]LPT spooler's
directory would invoke the spooling daemon, which would then print the
file. The advantage is that programs wanting (in this example) files
printed need neither compete for access to nor understand any
idiosyncrasies of the [3598]LPT. They simply enter their implicit
requests and let the daemon decide what to do with them. Daemons are
usually spawned automatically by the system, and may either live
forever or be regenerated at intervals.
Daemon and [3599]demon are often used interchangeably, but seem to
have distinct connotations. The term `daemon' was introduced to
computing by [3600]CTSS people (who pronounced it /dee'mon/) and used
it to refer to what ITS called a [3601]dragon; the prototype was a
program called DAEMON that automatically made tape backups of the file
system. Although the meaning and the pronunciation have drifted, we
think this glossary reflects current (2000) usage.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:daemon book, Next:[3602]dahmum, Previous:[3603]daemon, Up:[3604]=
D =
daemon book n.
"The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System",
by Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J. Karels, and
John S. Quarterman (Addison-Wesley Publishers, 1989, ISBN
0-201-06196-1); or "The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD
Operating System" by Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J.
Karels and John S. Quarterman (Addison-Wesley Longman, 1996, SBN
0-201-54979-4) Either of the standard reference books on the internals
of [3605]BSD Unix. So called because the covers have a picture
depicting a little devil (a visual play on [3606]daemon) in sneakers,
holding a pitchfork (referring to one of the characteristic features
of Unix, the fork(2) system call). Also known as the [3607]Devil Book.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dahmum, Next:[3608]dancing frog, Previous:[3609]daemon book,
Up:[3610]= D =
dahmum /dah'mum/ n.
[Usenet] The material of which protracted [3611]flame wars, especially
those about operating systems, is composed. Homeomorphic to
[3612]spam. The term `dahmum' is derived from the name of a militant
[3613]OS/2 advocate, and originated when an extensively crossposted
OS/2-versus-[3614]Linux debate was fed through [3615]Dissociated
Press.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dancing frog, Next:[3616]dangling pointer, Previous:[3617]dahmum,
Up:[3618]= D =
dancing frog n.
[Vancouver area] A problem that occurs on a computer that will not
reappear while anyone else is watching. From the classic Warner
Brothers cartoon "One Froggy Evening", featuring a dancing and singing
Michigan J. Frog that just croaks when anyone else is around (now the
WB network mascot).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dangling pointer, Next:[3619]dark-side hacker,
Previous:[3620]dancing frog, Up:[3621]= D =
dangling pointer n.
[common] A reference that doesn't actually lead anywhere (in C and
some other languages, a pointer that doesn't actually point at
anything valid). Usually this happens because it formerly pointed to
something that has moved or disappeared. Used as jargon in a
generalization of its techspeak meaning; for example, a local phone
number for a person who has since moved to the other coast is a
dangling pointer. Compare [3622]dead link.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dark-side hacker, Next:[3623]Datamation, Previous:[3624]dangling
pointer, Up:[3625]= D =
dark-side hacker n.
A criminal or malicious hacker; a [3626]cracker. From George Lucas's
Darth Vader, "seduced by the dark side of the Force". The implication
that hackers form a sort of elite of technological Jedi Knights is
intended. Oppose [3627]samurai.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Datamation, Next:[3628]DAU, Previous:[3629]dark-side hacker,
Up:[3630]= D =
Datamation /day`t*-may'sh*n/ n.
A magazine that many hackers assume all [3631]suits read. Used to
question an unbelieved quote, as in "Did you read that in
`Datamation?'" (But see below; this slur may be dated by the time you
read this.) It used to publish something hackishly funny every once in
a while, like the original paper on [3632]COME FROM in 1973, and Ed
Post's "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal" ten years later, but for a
long time after that it was much more exclusively [3633]suit-oriented
and boring. Following a change of editorship in 1994, Datamation is
trying for more of the technical content and irreverent humor that
marked its early days.
Datamation now has a WWW page at [3634]http://www.datamation.com worth
visiting for its selection of computer humor, including "Real
Programmers Don't Use Pascal" and the `Bastard Operator From Hell'
stories by Simon Travaglia (see [3635]BOFH).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:DAU, Next:[3636]Dave the Resurrector, Previous:[3637]Datamation,
Up:[3638]= D =
DAU /dow/ n.
[German FidoNet] German acronym for Dümmster Anzunehmender User
(stupidest imaginable user). From the engineering-slang GAU for
Grösster Anzunehmender Unfall, worst assumable accident, esp. of a LNG
tank farm plant or something with similarly disastrous consequences.
In popular German, GAU is used only to refer to worst-case nuclear
acidents such as a core meltdown. See [3639]cretin, [3640]fool,
[3641]loser and [3642]weasel.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Dave the Resurrector, Next:[3643]day mode, Previous:[3644]DAU,
Up:[3645]= D =
Dave the Resurrector n.
[Usenet; also abbreviated DtR] A [3646]cancelbot that cancels cancels.
Dave the Resurrector originated when some [3647]spam-spewers decided
to try to impede spam-fighting by wholesale cancellation of anti-spam
coordination messages in the news.admin.net-abuse.usenet newsgroup.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:day mode, Next:[3648]dd, Previous:[3649]Dave the Resurrector,
Up:[3650]= D =
day mode n.
See [3651]phase (sense 1). Used of people only.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dd, Next:[3652]DDT, Previous:[3653]day mode, Up:[3654]= D =
dd /dee-dee/ vt.
[Unix: from IBM [3655]JCL] Equivalent to [3656]cat or [3657]BLT.
Originally the name of a Unix copy command with special options
suitable for block-oriented devices; it was often used in heavy-handed
system maintenance, as in "Let's dd the root partition onto a tape,
then use the boot PROM to load it back on to a new disk". The Unix
dd(1) was designed with a weird, distinctly non-Unixy keyword option
syntax reminiscent of IBM System/360 JCL (which had an elaborate DD
`Dataset Definition' specification for I/O devices); though the
command filled a need, the interface design was clearly a prank. The
jargon usage is now very rare outside Unix sites and now nearly
obsolete even there, as dd(1) has been [3658]deprecated for a long
time (though it has no exact replacement). The term has been displaced
by [3659]BLT or simple English `copy'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:DDT, Next:[3660]de-rezz, Previous:[3661]dd, Up:[3662]= D =
DDT /D-D-T/ n.
[from the insecticide para-dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethene] 1.
Generic term for a program that assists in debugging other programs by
showing individual machine instructions in a readable symbolic form
and letting the user change them. In this sense the term DDT is now
archaic, having been widely displaced by `debugger' or names of
individual programs like adb, sdb, dbx, or gdb. 2. [ITS] Under MIT's
fabled [3663]ITS operating system, DDT (running under the alias
HACTRN, a six-letterism for `Hack Translator') was also used as the
[3664]shell or top level command language used to execute other
programs. 3. Any one of several specific DDTs (sense 1) supported on
early [3665]DEC hardware and CP/M. The PDP-10 Reference Handbook
(1969) contained a footnote on the first page of the documentation for
DDT that illuminates the origin of the term:
Historical footnote: DDT was developed at MIT for the PDP-1
computer in 1961. At that time DDT stood for "DEC Debugging Tape".
Since then, the idea of an on-line debugging program has propagated
throughout the computer industry. DDT programs are now available
for all DEC computers. Since media other than tape are now
frequently used, the more descriptive name "Dynamic Debugging
Technique" has been adopted, retaining the DDT abbreviation.
Confusion between DDT-10 and another well known pesticide,
dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (C14-H9-Cl5) should be minimal
since each attacks a different, and apparently mutually exclusive,
class of bugs.
(The `tape' referred to was, incidentally, not magnetic but paper.)
Sadly, this quotation was removed from later editions of the handbook
after the [3666]suits took over and [3667]DEC became much more
`businesslike'.
The history above is known to many old-time hackers. But there's more:
Peter Samson, compiler of the original [3668]TMRC lexicon, reports
that he named `DDT' after a similar tool on the TX-0 computer, the
direct ancestor of the PDP-1 built at MIT's Lincoln Lab in 1957. The
debugger on that ground-breaking machine (the first transistorized
computer) rejoiced in the name FLIT (FLexowriter Interrogation Tape).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:de-rezz, Next:[3669]dead, Previous:[3670]DDT, Up:[3671]= D =
de-rezz /dee-rez'/
[from `de-resolve' via the movie "Tron"] (also `derez') 1. vi. To
disappear or dissolve; the image that goes with it is of an object
breaking up into raster lines and static and then dissolving.
Occasionally used of a person who seems to have suddenly `fuzzed out'
mentally rather than physically. Usage: extremely silly, also rare.
This verb was actually invented as fictional hacker jargon, and
adopted in a spirit of irony by real hackers years after the fact. 2.
vt. The Macintosh resource decompiler. On a Macintosh, many program
structures (including the code itself) are managed in small segments
of the program file known as `resources'; `Rez' and `DeRez' are a pair
of utilities for compiling and decompiling resource files. Thus,
decompiling a resource is `derezzing'. Usage: very common.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dead, Next:[3672]dead beef attack, Previous:[3673]de-rezz,
Up:[3674]= D =
dead adj.
1. Non-functional; [3675]down; [3676]crashed. Especially used of
hardware. 2. At XEROX PARC, software that is working but not
undergoing continued development and support. 3. Useless;
inaccessible. Antonym: `live'. Compare [3677]dead code.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dead beef attack, Next:[3678]dead code, Previous:[3679]dead,
Up:[3680]= D =
dead beef attack n.
[cypherpunks list, 1996] An attack on a public-key cryptosystem
consisting of publishing a key having the same ID as another key (thus
making it possible to spoof a user's identity if recipients aren't
careful about verifying keys). In PGP and GPG the key ID is the last
eight hex digits of (for RSA keys) the product of two primes. The
attack was demonstrated by creating a key whose ID was 0xdeadbeef (see
[3681]DEADBEEF).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dead code, Next:[3682]dead link, Previous:[3683]dead beef attack,
Up:[3684]= D =
dead code n.
Routines that can never be accessed because all calls to them have
been removed, or code that cannot be reached because it is guarded by
a control structure that provably must always transfer control
somewhere else. The presence of dead code may reveal either logical
errors due to alterations in the program or significant changes in the
assumptions and environment of the program (see also [3685]software
rot); a good compiler should report dead code so a maintainer can
think about what it means. (Sometimes it simply means that an
extremely defensive programmer has inserted [3686]can't happen tests
which really can't happen -- yet.) Syn. [3687]grunge. See also
[3688]dead, and [3689]The Story of Mel.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dead link, Next:[3690]DEADBEEF, Previous:[3691]dead code,
Up:[3692]= D =
dead link n.
[very common] A World-Wide-Web URL that no longer points to the
information it was written to reach. Usually this happens because the
document has been moved or deleted. Lots of dead links make a WWW page
frustrating and useless and are the #1 sign of poor page maintainance.
Compare [3693]dangling pointer, [3694]link rot.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:DEADBEEF, Next:[3695]deadlock, Previous:[3696]dead link,
Up:[3697]= D =
DEADBEEF /ded-beef/ n.
The hexadecimal word-fill pattern for freshly allocated memory
(decimal -21524111) under a number of IBM environments, including the
RS/6000. Some modern debugging tools deliberately fill freed memory
with this value as a way of converting [3698]heisenbugs into
[3699]Bohr bugs. As in "Your program is DEADBEEF" (meaning gone,
aborted, flushed from memory); if you start from an odd half-word
boundary, of course, you have BEEFDEAD. See also the anecdote under
[3700]fool and [3701]dead beef attack.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:deadlock, Next:[3702]deadly embrace, Previous:[3703]DEADBEEF,
Up:[3704]= D =
deadlock n.
1. [techspeak] A situation wherein two or more processes are unable to
proceed because each is waiting for one of the others to do something.
A common example is a program communicating to a server, which may
find itself waiting for output from the server before sending anything
more to it, while the server is similarly waiting for more input from
the controlling program before outputting anything. (It is reported
that this particular flavor of deadlock is sometimes called a
`starvation deadlock', though the term `starvation' is more properly
used for situations where a program can never run simply because it
never gets high enough priority. Another common flavor is
`constipation', in which each process is trying to send stuff to the
other but all buffers are full because nobody is reading anything.)
See [3705]deadly embrace. 2. Also used of deadlock-like interactions
between humans, as when two people meet in a narrow corridor, and each
tries to be polite by moving aside to let the other pass, but they end
up swaying from side to side without making any progress because they
always move the same way at the same time.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:deadly embrace, Next:[3706]death code, Previous:[3707]deadlock,
Up:[3708]= D =
deadly embrace n.
Same as [3709]deadlock, though usually used only when exactly two
processes are involved. This is the more popular term in Europe, while
[3710]deadlock predominates in the United States.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:death code, Next:[3711]Death Square, Previous:[3712]deadly
embrace, Up:[3713]= D =
death code n.
A routine whose job is to set everything in the computer -- registers,
memory, flags, everything -- to zero, including that portion of memory
where it is running; its last act is to stomp on its own "store zero"
instruction. Death code isn't very useful, but writing it is an
interesting hacking challenge on architectures where the instruction
set makes it possible, such as the PDP-8 (it has also been done on the
DG Nova).
Perhaps the ultimate death code is on the TI 990 series, where all
registers are actually in RAM, and the instruction "store immediate 0"
has the opcode "0". The PC will immediately wrap around core as many
times as it can until a user hits HALT. Any empty memory location is
death code. Worse, the manufacturer recommended use of this
instruction in startup code (which would be in ROM and therefore
survive).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Death Square, Next:[3714]Death Star, Previous:[3715]death code,
Up:[3716]= D =
Death Square n.
The corporate logo of Novell, the people who acquired USL after AT&T
let go of it (Novell eventually sold the Unix group to SCO). Coined by
analogy with [3717]Death Star, because many people believed Novell was
bungling the lead in Unix systems exactly as AT&T did for many years.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Death Star, Next:[3718]DEC, Previous:[3719]Death Square,
Up:[3720]= D =
Death Star n.
[from the movie "Star Wars"] 1. The AT&T corporate logo, which appears
on computers sold by AT&T and bears an uncanny resemblance to the
Death Star in the movie. This usage is particularly common among
partisans of [3721]BSD Unix, who tend to regard the AT&T versions as
inferior and AT&T as a bad guy. Copies still circulate of a poster
printed by Mt. Xinu showing a starscape with a space fighter labeled
4.2 BSD streaking away from a broken AT&T logo wreathed in flames. 2.
AT&T's internal magazine, "Focus", uses `death star' to describe an
incorrectly done AT&T logo in which the inner circle in the top left
is dark instead of light -- a frequent result of dark-on-light logo
images.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:DEC, Next:[3722]DEC Wars, Previous:[3723]Death Star, Up:[3724]= D
=
DEC /dek/ n.
1. v. Verbal (and only rarely written) shorthand for decrement, i.e.
`decrease by one'. Especially used by assembly programmers, as many
assembly languages have a dec mnemonic. Antonym: [3725]inc. 2. n.
Commonly used abbreviation for Digital Equipment Corporation, later
deprecated by DEC itself in favor of "Digital" and now entirely
obsolete following the buyout by Compaq. Before the [3726]killer micro
revolution of the late 1980s, hackerdom was closely symbiotic with
DEC's pioneering timesharing machines. The first of the group of
cultures described by this lexicon nucleated around the PDP-1 (see
[3727]TMRC). Subsequently, the PDP-6, [3728]PDP-10, [3729]PDP-20,
PDP-11 and [3730]VAX were all foci of large and important hackerdoms,
and DEC machines long dominated the ARPANET and Internet machine
population. DEC was the technological leader of the minicomputer era
(roughly 1967 to 1987), but its failure to embrace microcomputers and
Unix early cost it heavily in profits and prestige after [3731]silicon
got cheap. Nevertheless, the microprocessor design tradition owes a
major debt to the PDP-11 instruction set, and every one of the major
general-purpose microcomputer OSs so far (CP/M, MS-DOS, Unix, OS/2,
Windows NT) was either genetically descended from a DEC OS, or
incubated on DEC hardware, or both. Accordingly, DEC was for many
years still regarded with a certain wry affection even among many
hackers too young to have grown up on DEC machines.
DEC reclaimed some of its old reputation among techies in the first
half of the 1990s. The success of the Alpha, an innovatively-designed
and very high-performance [3732]killer micro, helped a lot. So did
DEC's newfound receptiveness to Unix and open systems in general. When
Compaq acquired DEC at the end of 1998 there was some concern that
these gains would be lost along with the DEC nameplate, but the merged
company has so far turned out to be culturally dominated by the ex-DEC
side.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:DEC Wars, Next:[3733]decay, Previous:[3734]DEC, Up:[3735]= D =
DEC Wars n.
A 1983 [3736]Usenet posting by Alan Hastings and Steve Tarr spoofing
the "Star Wars" movies in hackish terms. Some years later, ESR
(disappointed by Hastings and Tarr's failure to exploit a great
premise more thoroughly) posted a 3-times-longer complete rewrite
called [3737]Unix WARS; the two are often confused.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:decay, Next:[3738]deckle, Previous:[3739]DEC Wars, Up:[3740]= D =
decay n.,vi
[from nuclear physics] An automatic conversion which is applied to
most array-valued expressions in [3741]C; they `decay into'
pointer-valued expressions pointing to the array's first element. This
term is borderline techspeak, but is not used in the official standard
for the language.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:deckle, Next:[3742]DED, Previous:[3743]decay, Up:[3744]= D =
deckle /dek'l/ n.
[from dec- and [3745]nybble; the original spelling seems to have been
`decle'] Two [3746]nickles; 10 bits. Reported among developers for
Mattel's GI 1600 (the Intellivision games processor), a chip with
16-bit-wide RAM but 10-bit-wide ROM. See [3747]nybble for other such
terms.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:DED, Next:[3748]deep hack mode, Previous:[3749]deckle, Up:[3750]=
D =
DED /D-E-D/ n.
Dark-Emitting Diode (that is, a burned-out LED). Compare [3751]SED,
[3752]LER, [3753]write-only memory. In the early 1970s both Signetics
and Texas instruments released DED spec sheets as [3754]AFJs
(suggested uses included "as a power-off indicator").
_________________________________________________________________
Node:deep hack mode, Next:[3755]deep magic, Previous:[3756]DED,
Up:[3757]= D =
deep hack mode n.
See [3758]hack mode.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:deep magic, Next:[3759]deep space, Previous:[3760]deep hack mode,
Up:[3761]= D =
deep magic n.
[poss. from C. S. Lewis's "Narnia" books] An awesomely arcane
technique central to a program or system, esp. one neither generally
published nor available to hackers at large (compare [3762]black art);
one that could only have been composed by a true [3763]wizard.
Compiler optimization techniques and many aspects of [3764]OS design
used to be [3765]deep magic; many techniques in cryptography, signal
processing, graphics, and AI still are. Compare [3766]heavy wizardry.
Esp. found in comments of the form "Deep magic begins here...".
Compare [3767]voodoo programming.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:deep space, Next:[3768]defenestration, Previous:[3769]deep magic,
Up:[3770]= D =
deep space n.
1. Describes the notional location of any program that has gone
[3771]off the trolley. Esp. used of programs that just sit there
silently grinding long after either failure or some output is
expected. "Uh oh. I should have gotten a prompt ten seconds ago. The
program's in deep space somewhere." Compare [3772]buzz,
[3773]catatonic, [3774]hyperspace. 2. The metaphorical location of a
human so dazed and/or confused or caught up in some esoteric form of
[3775]bogosity that he or she no longer responds coherently to normal
communication. Compare [3776]page out.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:defenestration, Next:[3777]defined as, Previous:[3778]deep space,
Up:[3779]= D =
defenestration n.
[mythically from a traditional Czech assasination method, via SF
fandom] 1. Proper karmic retribution for an incorrigible punster. "Oh,
ghod, that was awful!" "Quick! Defenestrate him!" 2. The act of
exiting a window system in order to get better response time from a
full-screen program. This comes from the dictionary meaning of
`defenestrate', which is to throw something out a window. 3. The act
of discarding something under the assumption that it will improve
matters. "I don't have any disk space left." "Well, why don't you
defenestrate that 100 megs worth of old core dumps?" 4. Under a GUI,
the act of dragging something out of a window (onto the screen).
"Next, defenestrate the MugWump icon." 5. The act of completely
removing Micro$oft Windows from a PC in favor of a better OS
(typically Linux).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:defined as, Next:[3780]dehose, Previous:[3781]defenestration,
Up:[3782]= D =
defined as adj.
In the role of, usually in an organization-chart sense. "Pete is
currently defined as bug prioritizer." Compare [3783]logical.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dehose, Next:[3784]deletia, Previous:[3785]defined as, Up:[3786]=
D =
dehose /dee-hohz/ vt.
To clear a [3787]hosed condition.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:deletia, Next:[3788]deliminator, Previous:[3789]dehose,
Up:[3790]= D =
deletia n. /d*-lee'sha/
[USENET; common] In an email reply, material omitted from the quote of
the original. Usually written rather than spoken; often appears as a
pseudo-tag or ellipsis in the body of the reply, as "[deletia]" or
"<deletia>".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:deliminator, Next:[3791]delint, Previous:[3792]deletia,
Up:[3793]= D =
deliminator /de-lim'-in-ay-t*r/ n.
[portmanteau, delimiter + eliminate] A string or pattern used to
delimit text into fields, but which is itself eliminated from the
resulting list of fields. This jargon seems to have originated among
Perl hackers in connection with the Perl split() function; however, it
has been sighted in live use among Java and even Visual Basic
programmers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:delint, Next:[3794]delta, Previous:[3795]deliminator, Up:[3796]=
D =
delint /dee-lint/ v. obs.
To modify code to remove problems detected when [3797]linting.
Confusingly, this process is also referred to as `linting' code. This
term is no longer in general use because ANSI C compilers typically
issue compile-time warnings almost as detailed as lint warnings.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:delta, Next:[3798]demented, Previous:[3799]delint, Up:[3800]= D =
delta n.
1. [techspeak] A quantitative change, especially a small or
incremental one (this use is general in physics and engineering). "I
just doubled the speed of my program!" "What was the delta on program
size?" "About 30 percent." (He doubled the speed of his program, but
increased its size by only 30 percent.) 2. [Unix] A [3801]diff,
especially a [3802]diff stored under the set of version-control tools
called SCCS (Source Code Control System) or RCS (Revision Control
System). 3. n. A small quantity, but not as small as [3803]epsilon.
The jargon usage of [3804]delta and [3805]epsilon stems from the
traditional use of these letters in mathematics for very small
numerical quantities, particularly in `epsilon-delta' proofs in limit
theory (as in the differential calculus). The term [3806]delta is
often used, once [3807]epsilon has been mentioned, to mean a quantity
that is slightly bigger than [3808]epsilon but still very small. "The
cost isn't epsilon, but it's delta" means that the cost isn't totally
negligible, but it is nevertheless very small. Common constructions
include `within delta of --', `within epsilon of --': that is, `close
to' and `even closer to'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:demented, Next:[3809]demigod, Previous:[3810]delta, Up:[3811]= D
=
demented adj.
Yet another term of disgust used to describe a malfunctioning program.
The connotation in this case is that the program works as designed,
but the design is bad. Said, for example, of a program that generates
large numbers of meaningless error messages, implying that it is on
the brink of imminent collapse. Compare [3812]wonky,
[3813]brain-damaged, [3814]bozotic.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:demigod, Next:[3815]demo, Previous:[3816]demented, Up:[3817]= D =
demigod n.
A hacker with years of experience, a world-wide reputation, and a
major role in the development of at least one design, tool, or game
used by or known to more than half of the hacker community. To qualify
as a genuine demigod, the person must recognizably identify with the
hacker community and have helped shape it. Major demigods include Ken
Thompson and Dennis Ritchie (co-inventors of [3818]Unix and [3819]C),
Richard M. Stallman (inventor of [3820]EMACS), Larry Wall (inventor of
[3821]Perl), Linus Torvalds (inventor of [3822]Linux), and most
recently James Gosling (inventor of Java, [3823]NeWS, and
[3824]GOSMACS) and Guido van Rossum (inventor of [3825]Python). In
their hearts of hearts, most hackers dream of someday becoming
demigods themselves, and more than one major software project has been
driven to completion by the author's veiled hopes of apotheosis. See
also [3826]net.god, [3827]true-hacker.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:demo, Next:[3828]demo mode, Previous:[3829]demigod, Up:[3830]= D
=
demo /de'moh/
[short for `demonstration'] 1. v. To demonstrate a product or
prototype. A far more effective way of inducing bugs to manifest than
any number of [3831]test runs, especially when important people are
watching. 2. n. The act of demoing. "I've gotta give a demo of the
drool-proof interface; how does it work again?" 3. n. Esp. as `demo
version', can refer either to an early, barely-functional version of a
program which can be used for demonstration purposes as long as the
operator uses exactly the right commands and skirts its numerous bugs,
deficiencies, and unimplemented portions, or to a special version of a
program (frequently with some features crippled) which is distributed
at little or no cost to the user for enticement purposes. 4.
[[3832]demoscene] A sequence of [3833]demoeffects (usually) combined
with self-composed music and hand-drawn ("pixelated") graphics. These
days (1997) usually built to attend a [3834]compo. Often called
`eurodemos' outside Europe, as most of the [3835]demoscene activity
seems to have gathered in northern Europe and especially Scandinavia.
See also [3836]intro, [3837]dentro.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:demo mode, Next:[3838]demoeffect, Previous:[3839]demo, Up:[3840]=
D =
demo mode n.
1. [Sun] The state of being [3841]heads down in order to finish code
in time for a [3842]demo, usually due yesterday. 2. A mode in which
video games sit by themselves running through a portion of the game,
also known as `attract mode'. Some serious [3843]apps have a demo mode
they use as a screen saver, or may go through a demo mode on startup
(for example, the Microsoft Windows opening screen -- which lets you
impress your neighbors without actually having to put up with
[3844]Microsloth Windows).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:demoeffect, Next:[3845]demogroup, Previous:[3846]demo mode,
Up:[3847]= D =
demoeffect n.
[[3848]demoscene] What among hackers is called a [3849]display hack.
Classical effects include "plasma" (colorful mess), "keftales"
(x*x+y*y and other similar patterns, usually combined with
color-cycling), realtime fractals, realtime 3d graphics, etc.
Historically, demo effects have cheated as much as possible to gain
more speed and more complexity, using low-precision math and masses of
assembler code and building animation realtime are three common
tricks, but use of special hardware to fake effects is a [3850]Good
Thing on the demoscene (though this is becoming less common as
platforms like the Amiga fade away).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:demogroup, Next:[3851]demon, Previous:[3852]demoeffect,
Up:[3853]= D =
demogroup n.
[[3854]demoscene] A group of [3855]demo (sense 4) composers. Job
titles within a group include coders (the ones who write programs),
graphicians (the ones who painstakingly pixelate the fine art),
musicians (the music composers), [3856]sysops, traders/swappers (the
ones who do the trading and other PR), and organizers (in larger
groups). It is not uncommon for one person to do multiple jobs, but it
has been observed that good coders are rarely good composers and vice
versa. [How odd. Musical talent seems common among Internet/Unix
hackers --ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:demon, Next:[3857]demon dialer, Previous:[3858]demogroup,
Up:[3859]= D =
demon n.
1. [MIT] A portion of a program that is not invoked explicitly, but
that lies dormant waiting for some condition(s) to occur. See
[3860]daemon. The distinction is that demons are usually processes
within a program, while daemons are usually programs running on an
operating system. 2. [outside MIT] Often used equivalently to
[3861]daemon -- especially in the [3862]Unix world, where the latter
spelling and pronunciation is considered mildly archaic.
Demons in sense 1 are particularly common in AI programs. For example,
a knowledge-manipulation program might implement inference rules as
demons. Whenever a new piece of knowledge was added, various demons
would activate (which demons depends on the particular piece of data)
and would create additional pieces of knowledge by applying their
respective inference rules to the original piece. These new pieces
could in turn activate more demons as the inferences filtered down
through chains of logic. Meanwhile, the main program could continue
with whatever its primary task was.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:demon dialer, Next:[3863]demoparty, Previous:[3864]demon,
Up:[3865]= D =
demon dialer n.
A program which repeatedly calls the same telephone number. Demon
dialing may be benign (as when a number of communications programs
contend for legitimate access to a [3866]BBS line) or malign (that is,
used as a prank or denial-of-service attack). This term dates from the
[3867]blue box days of the 1970s and early 1980s and is now
semi-obsolescent among [3868]phreakers; see [3869]war dialer for its
contemporary progeny.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:demoparty, Next:[3870]demoscene, Previous:[3871]demon dialer,
Up:[3872]= D =
demoparty n.
[[3873]demoscene] Aboveground descendant of the [3874]copyparty, with
emphasis shifted away from software piracy and towards [3875]compos.
Smaller demoparties, for 100 persons or less, are held quite often,
sometimes even once a month, and usually last for one to two days. On
the other end of the scale, huge demo parties are held once a year
(and four of these have grown very large and occur annually - Assembly
in Finland, The Party in Denmark, The Gathering in Norway, and NAID
somewhere in north America). These parties usually last for three to
five days, have room for 3000-5000 people, and have a party network
with connection to the internet.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:demoscene, Next:[3876]dentro, Previous:[3877]demoparty,
Up:[3878]= D =
demoscene /dem'oh-seen/
[also `demo scene'] A culture of multimedia hackers located primarily
in Scandinavia and northern Europe. Demoscene folklore recounts that
when old-time [3879]warez d00dz cracked some piece of software they
often added an advertisement of in the beginning, usually containing
colorful [3880]display hacks with greetings to other cracking groups.
The demoscene was born among people who decided building these display
hacks is more interesting than hacking and began to build
self-contained display hacks of considerable elaboration and beauty
(within the culture such a hack is called a [3881]demo). The split
seems to have happened at the end of the 1980s. As more of these
[3882]demogroups emerged, they started to have [3883]compos at copying
parties (see [3884]copyparty), which later evolved to standalone
events (see [3885]demoparty). The demoscene has retained some traits
from the [3886]warez d00dz, including their style of handles and group
names and some of their jargon.
Traditionally demos were written in assembly language, with lots of
smart tricks, self-modifying code, undocumented op-codes and the like.
Some time around 1995, people started coding demos in C, and a couple
of years after that, they also started using Java.
Ten years on (in 1998-1999), the demoscene is changing as its original
platforms (C64, Amiga, Spectrum, Atari ST, IBM PC under DOS) die out
and activity shifts towards Windows, Linux, and the Internet. While
deeply underground in the past, demoscene is trying to get into the
mainstream as accepted art form, and one symptom of this is the
commercialization of bigger demoparties. Older demosceneers frown at
this, but the majority think it's a good direction. Many demosceneers
end up working in the computer game industry. Demoscene resource pages
are available at [3887]http://www.oldskool.org/demos/explained/ and
[3888]http://www.scene.org/.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dentro, Next:[3889]depeditate, Previous:[3890]demoscene,
Up:[3891]= D =
dentro /den'troh/
[[3892]demoscene] Combination of [3893]demo (sense 4) and [3894]intro.
Other name mixings include intmo, dentmo etc. and are used usually
when the authors are not quite sure whether the program is a
[3895]demo or an [3896]intro. Special-purpose coinages like wedtro
(some member of a group got married), invtro (invitation intro) etc.
have also been sighted.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:depeditate, Next:[3897]deprecated, Previous:[3898]dentro,
Up:[3899]= D =
depeditate /dee-ped'*-tayt/ n.
[by (faulty) analogy with `decapitate'] Humorously, to cut off the
feet of. When one is using some computer-aided typesetting tools,
careless placement of text blocks within a page or above a rule can
result in chopped-off letter descenders. Such letters are said to have
been depeditated.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:deprecated, Next:[3900]derf, Previous:[3901]depeditate,
Up:[3902]= D =
deprecated adj.
Said of a program or feature that is considered obsolescent and in the
process of being phased out, usually in favor of a specified
replacement. Deprecated features can, unfortunately, linger on for
many years. This term appears with distressing frequency in standards
documents when the committees writing the documents realize that large
amounts of extant (and presumably happily working) code depend on the
feature(s) that have passed out of favor. See also [3903]dusty deck.
[Usage note: don't confuse this word with `depreciate', or the verb
form `deprecate' with `depreciated`. They are different words; see any
dictionary for discussion.]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:derf, Next:[3904]deserves to lose, Previous:[3905]deprecated,
Up:[3906]= D =
derf /derf/ v.,n.
[PLATO] The act of exploiting a terminal which someone else has
absentmindedly left logged on, to use that person's account,
especially to post articles intended to make an ass of the victim
you're impersonating. It has been alleged that the term originated as
a reversal of the name of the gentleman who most usually left himself
vulnerable to it, who also happened to be the head of the department
that handled PLATO at the University of Delaware.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:deserves to lose, Next:[3907]desk check, Previous:[3908]derf,
Up:[3909]= D =
deserves to lose adj.
[common] Said of someone who willfully does the [3910]Wrong Thing;
humorously, if one uses a feature known to be [3911]marginal. What is
meant is that one deserves the consequences of one's [3912]losing
actions. "Boy, anyone who tries to use [3913]mess-dos deserves to
[3914]lose!" ([3915]ITS fans used to say the same thing of [3916]Unix;
many still do.) See also [3917]screw, [3918]chomp, [3919]bagbiter.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:desk check, Next:[3920]despew, Previous:[3921]deserves to lose,
Up:[3922]= D =
desk check n.,v.
To [3923]grovel over hardcopy of source code, mentally simulating the
control flow; a method of catching bugs. No longer common practice in
this age of on-screen editing, fast compiles, and sophisticated
debuggers -- though some maintain stoutly that it ought to be. Compare
[3924]eyeball search, [3925]vdiff, [3926]vgrep.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:despew, Next:[3927]Devil Book, Previous:[3928]desk check,
Up:[3929]= D =
despew /d*-spyoo'/ v.
[Usenet] To automatically generate a large amount of garbage to the
net, esp. from an automated posting program gone wild. See [3930]ARMM.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Devil Book, Next:[3931]/dev/null, Previous:[3932]despew,
Up:[3933]= D =
Devil Book n.
See [3934]daemon book, the term preferred by its authors.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:/dev/null, Next:[3935]dickless workstation, Previous:[3936]Devil
Book, Up:[3937]= D =
/dev/null /dev-nuhl/ n.
[from the Unix null device, used as a data sink] A notional `black
hole' in any information space being discussed, used, or referred to.
A controversial posting, for example, might end "Kudos to
rasputin@kremlin.org, flames to /dev/null". See [3938]bit bucket.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dickless workstation, Next:[3939]dictionary flame,
Previous:[3940]/dev/null, Up:[3941]= D =
dickless workstation n.
Extremely pejorative hackerism for `diskless workstation', a class of
botches including the Sun 3/50 and other machines designed exclusively
to network with an expensive central disk server. These combine all
the disadvantages of time-sharing with all the disadvantages of
distributed personal computers; typically, they cannot even [3942]boot
themselves without help (in the form of some kind of
[3943]breath-of-life packet) from the server.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dictionary flame, Next:[3944]diddle, Previous:[3945]dickless
workstation, Up:[3946]= D =
dictionary flame n.
[Usenet] An attempt to sidetrack a debate away from issues by
insisting on meanings for key terms that presuppose a desired
conclusion or smuggle in an implicit premise. A common tactic of
people who prefer argument over definitions to disputes about reality.
Compare [3947]spelling flame.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:diddle, Next:[3948]die, Previous:[3949]dictionary flame,
Up:[3950]= D =
diddle
1. vt. To work with or modify in a not particularly serious manner. "I
diddled a copy of [3951]ADVENT so it didn't double-space all the
time." "Let's diddle this piece of code and see if the problem goes
away." See [3952]tweak and [3953]twiddle. 2. n. The action or result
of diddling. See also [3954]tweak, [3955]twiddle, [3956]frob.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:die, Next:[3957]die horribly, Previous:[3958]diddle, Up:[3959]= D
=
die v.
Syn. [3960]crash. Unlike [3961]crash, which is used primarily of
hardware, this verb is used of both hardware and software. See also
[3962]go flatline, [3963]casters-up mode.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:die horribly, Next:[3964]diff, Previous:[3965]die, Up:[3966]= D =
die horribly v.
The software equivalent of [3967]crash and burn, and the preferred
emphatic form of [3968]die. "The converter choked on an FF in its
input and died horribly".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:diff, Next:[3969]digit, Previous:[3970]die horribly, Up:[3971]= D
=
diff /dif/ n.
1. A change listing, especially giving differences between (and
additions to) source code or documents (the term is often used in the
plural `diffs'). "Send me your diffs for the Jargon File!" Compare
[3972]vdiff. 2. Specifically, such a listing produced by the diff(1)
command, esp. when used as specification input to the patch(1) utility
(which can actually perform the modifications; see [3973]patch). This
is a common method of distributing patches and source updates in the
Unix/C world. 3. v. To compare (whether or not by use of automated
tools on machine-readable files); see also [3974]vdiff, [3975]mod.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:digit, Next:[3976]dike, Previous:[3977]diff, Up:[3978]= D =
digit n.,obs.
An employee of Digital Equipment Corporation. See also [3979]VAX,
[3980]VMS, [3981]PDP-10, [3982]TOPS-10, [3983]field circus.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dike, Next:[3984]Dilbert, Previous:[3985]digit, Up:[3986]= D =
dike vt.
To remove or disable a portion of something, as a wire from a computer
or a subroutine from a program. A standard slogan is "When in doubt,
dike it out". (The implication is that it is usually more effective to
attack software problems by reducing complexity than by increasing
it.) The word `dikes' is widely used among mechanics and engineers to
mean `diagonal cutters', esp. the heavy-duty metal-cutting version,
but may also refer to a kind of wire-cutters used by electronics
techs. To `dike something out' means to use such cutters to remove
something. Indeed, the TMRC Dictionary defined dike as "to attack with
dikes". Among hackers this term has been metaphorically extended to
informational objects such as sections of code.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Dilbert, Next:[3987]ding, Previous:[3988]dike, Up:[3989]= D =
Dilbert
n. Name and title character of a comic strip nationally syndicated in
the U.S. and enormously popular among hackers. Dilbert is an
archetypical engineer-nerd who works at an anonymous high-technology
company; the strips present a lacerating satire of insane working
conditions and idiotic [3990]management practices all too readily
recognized by hackers. Adams, who spent nine years in [3991]cube
4S700R at Pacific Bell (not [3992]DEC as often reported), often
remarks that he has never been able to come up with a fictional
management blunder that his correspondents didn't quickly either
report to have actually happened or top with a similar but even more
bizarre incident. In 1996 Adams distilled his insights into the
collective psychology of businesses into an even funnier book, "The
Dilbert Principle" (HarperCollins, ISBN 0-887-30787-6). See also
[3993]pointy-haired, [3994]rat dance.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ding, Next:[3995]dink, Previous:[3996]Dilbert, Up:[3997]= D =
ding n.,vi.
1. Synonym for [3998]feep. Usage: rare among hackers, but more common
in the [3999]Real World. 2. `dinged': What happens when someone in
authority gives you a minor bitching about something, esp. something
trivial. "I was dinged for having a messy desk."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dink, Next:[4000]dinosaur, Previous:[4001]ding, Up:[4002]= D =
dink /dink/ adj.
Said of a machine that has the [4003]bitty box nature; a machine too
small to be worth bothering with -- sometimes the system you're
currently forced to work on. First heard from an MIT hacker working on
a CP/M system with 64K, in reference to any 6502 system, then from
fans of 32-bit architectures about 16-bit machines. "GNUMACS will
never work on that dink machine." Probably derived from mainstream
`dinky', which isn't sufficiently pejorative. See [4004]macdink.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dinosaur, Next:[4005]dinosaur pen, Previous:[4006]dink,
Up:[4007]= D =
dinosaur n.
1. Any hardware requiring raised flooring and special power. Used
especially of old minis and mainframes, in contrast with newer
microprocessor-based machines. In a famous quote from the 1988 Unix
EXPO, Bill Joy compared the liquid-cooled mainframe in the massive IBM
display with a grazing dinosaur "with a truck outside pumping its
bodily fluids through it". IBM was not amused. Compare [4008]big iron;
see also [4009]mainframe. 2. [IBM] A very conservative user; a
[4010]zipperhead.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dinosaur pen, Next:[4011]dinosaurs mating,
Previous:[4012]dinosaur, Up:[4013]= D =
dinosaur pen n.
A traditional [4014]mainframe computer room complete with raised
flooring, special power, its own ultra-heavy-duty air conditioning,
and a side order of Halon fire extinguishers. See [4015]boa.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dinosaurs mating, Next:[4016]dirtball, Previous:[4017]dinosaur
pen, Up:[4018]= D =
dinosaurs mating n.
Said to occur when yet another [4019]big iron merger or buyout occurs;
reflects a perception by hackers that these signal another stage in
the long, slow dying of the [4020]mainframe industry. In its glory
days of the 1960s, it was `IBM and the Seven Dwarves': Burroughs,
Control Data, General Electric, Honeywell, NCR, RCA, and Univac. RCA
and GE sold out early, and it was `IBM and the Bunch' (Burroughs,
Univac, NCR, Control Data, and Honeywell) for a while. Honeywell was
bought out by Bull; Burroughs merged with Univac to form Unisys (in
1984 -- this was when the phrase `dinosaurs mating' was coined); and
in 1991 AT&T absorbed NCR (but spat it back out a few years later).
Control Data still exists but is no longer in the mainframe business.
More such earth-shaking unions of doomed giants seem inevitable.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dirtball, Next:[4021]dirty power, Previous:[4022]dinosaurs
mating, Up:[4023]= D =
dirtball n.
[XEROX PARC] A small, perhaps struggling outsider; not in the major or
even the minor leagues. For example, "Xerox is not a dirtball
company".
[Outsiders often observe in the PARC culture an institutional
arrogance which usage of this term exemplifies. The brilliance and
scope of PARC's contributions to computer science have been such that
this superior attitude is not much resented. --ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dirty power, Next:[4024]disclaimer, Previous:[4025]dirtball,
Up:[4026]= D =
dirty power n.
Electrical mains voltage that is unfriendly to the delicate innards of
computers. Spikes, [4027]drop-outs, average voltage significantly
higher or lower than nominal, or just plain noise can all cause
problems of varying subtlety and severity (these are collectively
known as [4028]power hits).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:disclaimer, Next:[4029]Discordianism, Previous:[4030]dirty power,
Up:[4031]= D =
disclaimer n.
[Usenet] Statement ritually appended to many Usenet postings
(sometimes automatically, by the posting software) reiterating the
fact (which should be obvious, but is easily forgotten) that the
article reflects its author's opinions and not necessarily those of
the organization running the machine through which the article entered
the network.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Discordianism, Next:[4032]disk farm, Previous:[4033]disclaimer,
Up:[4034]= D =
Discordianism /dis-kor'di-*n-ism/ n.
The veneration of [4035]Eris, a.k.a. Discordia; widely popular among
hackers. Discordianism was popularized by Robert Shea and Robert Anton
Wilson's novel "Illuminatus!" as a sort of self-subverting Dada-Zen
for Westerners -- it should on no account be taken seriously but is
far more serious than most jokes. Consider, for example, the Fifth
Commandment of the Pentabarf, from "Principia Discordia": "A
Discordian is Prohibited of Believing What he Reads." Discordianism is
usually connected with an elaborate conspiracy theory/joke involving
millennia-long warfare between the anarcho-surrealist partisans of
Eris and a malevolent, authoritarian secret society called the
Illuminati. See [4036]Religion in Appendix B, [4037]Church of the
SubGenius, and [4038]ha ha only serious.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:disk farm, Next:[4039]display hack, Previous:[4040]Discordianism,
Up:[4041]= D =
disk farm n.
(also [4042]laundromat) A large room or rooms filled with disk drives
(esp. [4043]washing machines).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:display hack, Next:[4044]dispress, Previous:[4045]disk farm,
Up:[4046]= D =
display hack n.
A program with the same approximate purpose as a kaleidoscope: to make
pretty pictures. Famous display hacks include [4047]munching squares,
[4048]smoking clover, the BSD Unix rain(6) program, worms(6) on
miscellaneous Unixes, and the [4049]X kaleid(1) program. Display hacks
can also be implemented by creating text files containing numerous
escape sequences for interpretation by a video terminal; one notable
example displayed, on any VT100, a Christmas tree with twinkling
lights and a toy train circling its base. The [4050]hack value of a
display hack is proportional to the esthetic value of the images times
the cleverness of the algorithm divided by the size of the code. Syn.
[4051]psychedelicware.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dispress, Next:[4052]Dissociated Press, Previous:[4053]display
hack, Up:[4054]= D =
dispress vt.
[contraction of `Dissociated Press' due to eight-character MS-DOS
filenames] To apply the [4055]Dissociated Press algorithm to a block
of text. The resultant output is also referred to as a 'dispression'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Dissociated Press, Next:[4056]distribution,
Previous:[4057]dispress, Up:[4058]= D =
Dissociated Press n.
[play on `Associated Press'; perhaps inspired by a reference in the
1950 Bugs Bunny cartoon "What's Up, Doc?"] An algorithm for
transforming any text into potentially humorous garbage even more
efficiently than by passing it through a [4059]marketroid. The
algorithm starts by printing any N consecutive words (or letters) in
the text. Then at every step it searches for any random occurrence in
the original text of the last N words (or letters) already printed and
then prints the next word or letter. [4060]EMACS has a handy command
for this. Here is a short example of word-based Dissociated Press
applied to an earlier version of this Jargon File:
wart: n. A small, crocky [4061]feature that sticks out of an array
(C has no checks for this). This is relatively benign and easy to
spot if the phrase is bent so as to be not worth paying attention
to the medium in question.
Here is a short example of letter-based Dissociated Press applied to
the same source:
window sysIWYG: n. A bit was named aften /bee't*/ prefer to use the
other guy's re, especially in every cast a chuckle on neithout
getting into useful informash speech makes removing a featuring a
move or usage actual abstractionsidered interj. Indeed spectace
logic or problem!
A hackish idle pastime is to apply letter-based Dissociated Press to a
random body of text and [4062]vgrep the output in hopes of finding an
interesting new word. (In the preceding example, `window sysIWYG' and
`informash' show some promise.) Iterated applications of Dissociated
Press usually yield better results. Similar techniques called
`travesty generators' have been employed with considerable satirical
effect to the utterances of Usenet flamers; see [4063]pseudo.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:distribution, Next:[4064]distro, Previous:[4065]Dissociated
Press, Up:[4066]= D =
distribution n.
1. A software source tree packaged for distribution; but see
[4067]kit. Since about 1996 unqualified use of this term often implies
`[4068]Linux distribution'. The short for [4069]distro is often used
for this sense. 2. A vague term encompassing mailing lists and Usenet
newsgroups (but not [4070]BBS [4071]fora); any topic-oriented message
channel with multiple recipients. 3. An information-space domain
(usually loosely correlated with geography) to which propagation of a
Usenet message is restricted; a much-underutilized feature.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:distro, Next:[4072]disusered, Previous:[4073]distribution,
Up:[4074]= D =
distro n.
Synonym for [4075]distribution, sense 1.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:disusered, Next:[4076]do protocol, Previous:[4077]distro,
Up:[4078]= D =
disusered adj.
[Usenet] Said of a person whose account on a computer has been
removed, esp. for cause rather than through normal attrition. "He got
disusered when they found out he'd been cracking through the school's
Internet access." The verbal form `disuser' is live but less common.
Both usages probably derive from the DISUSER account status flag on
VMS; setting it disables the account. Compare [4079]star out.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:do protocol, Next:[4080]doc, Previous:[4081]disusered, Up:[4082]=
D =
do protocol vi.
[from network protocol programming] To perform an interaction with
somebody or something that follows a clearly defined procedure. For
example, "Let's do protocol with the check" at a restaurant means to
ask for the check, calculate the tip and everybody's share, collect
money from everybody, generate change as necessary, and pay the bill.
See [4083]protocol.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:doc, Next:[4084]documentation, Previous:[4085]do protocol,
Up:[4086]= D =
doc /dok/ n.
Common spoken and written shorthand for `documentation'. Often used in
the plural `docs' and in the construction `doc file' (i.e.,
documentation available on-line).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:documentation, Next:[4087]dodgy, Previous:[4088]doc, Up:[4089]= D
=
documentation n.
The multiple kilograms of macerated, pounded, steamed, bleached, and
pressed trees that accompany most modern software or hardware products
(see also [4090]tree-killer). Hackers seldom read paper documentation
and (too) often resist writing it; they prefer theirs to be terse and
on-line. A common comment on this predilection is "You can't
[4091]grep dead trees". See [4092]drool-proof paper, [4093]verbiage,
[4094]treeware.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dodgy, Next:[4095]dogcow, Previous:[4096]documentation,
Up:[4097]= D =
dodgy adj.
Syn. with [4098]flaky. Preferred outside the U.S.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dogcow, Next:[4099]dogfood, Previous:[4100]dodgy, Up:[4101]= D =
dogcow /dog'kow/ n.
See [4102]Moof. The dogcow is a semi-legendary creature that lurks in
the depths of the Macintosh Technical Notes Hypercard stack V3.1. The
full story of the dogcow is told in technical note #31 (the particular
dogcow illustrated is properly named `Clarus'). Option-shift-click
will cause it to emit a characteristic `Moof!' or `!fooM' sound.
Getting to tech note 31 is the hard part; to discover how to do that,
one must needs examine the stack script with a hackerly eye. Clue:
[4103]rot13 is involved. A dogcow also appears if you choose `Page
Setup...' with a LaserWriter selected and click on the `Options'
button. It also lurks in other Mac printer drivers, notably those for
the now-discontinued Style Writers. Sadly, Apple has removed the pages
that used to describe the dogcow.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dogfood, Next:[4104]dogpile, Previous:[4105]dogcow, Up:[4106]= D
=
dogfood n.
[Microsoft, Netscape] Interim software used internally for testing.
"To eat one's own dogfood" (from which the slang noun derives) means
to use the software one is developing, as part of one's everyday
development environment (the phrase is used outside Microsoft and
Netscape). The practice is normal in the Linux community and
elsewhere, but the term `dogfood' is seldom used as open-source betas
tend to be quite tasty and nourishing. The idea is that developers who
are using their own software will quickly learn what's missing or
broken. Dogfood is typically not even of [4107]beta quality.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dogpile, Next:[4108]dogwash, Previous:[4109]dogfood, Up:[4110]= D
=
dogpile v.
[Usenet: prob. fr. mainstream "puppy pile"] When many people post
unfriendly responses in short order to a single posting, they are
sometimes said to "dogpile" or "dogpile on" the person to whom they're
responding. For example, when a religious missionary posts a
simplistic appeal to alt.atheism, he can expect to be dogpiled. It has
been suggested that this derives from U.S, football slang for a tackle
involving three or more people; among hackers, it seems at least as
likely do derive from an `autobiographical' Bugs Bunny cartoon in
which a gang of attacking canines actually yells "Dogpile on the
rabbit!".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dogwash, Next:[4111]domainist, Previous:[4112]dogpile, Up:[4113]=
D =
dogwash /dog'wosh/
[From a quip in the `urgency' field of a very optional software change
request, ca. 1982. It was something like "Urgency: Wash your dog
first".] 1. n. A project of minimal priority, undertaken as an escape
from more serious work. 2. v. To engage in such a project. Many games
and much [4114]freeware get written this way.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:domainist, Next:[4115]Don't do that then!,
Previous:[4116]dogwash, Up:[4117]= D =
domainist /doh-mayn'ist/ adj.
1. [Usenet, by pointed analogy with "sexist", "racist", etc.] Someone
who judges people by the domain of their email addresses; esp. someone
who dismisses anyone who posts from a public internet provider. "What
do you expect from an article posted from aol.com?" 2. Said of an
[4118]Internet address (as opposed to a [4119]bang path) because the
part to the right of the @ specifies a nested series of `domains'; for
example, [4120]esr@snark.thyrsus.com specifies the machine called
snark in the subdomain called thyrsus within the top-level domain
called com. See also [4121]big-endian, sense 2.
The meaning of this term has drifted. At one time sense 2 was primary.
In elder days it was also used of a site, mailer, or routing program
which knew how to handle domainist addresses; or of a person (esp. a
site admin) who preferred domain addressing, supported a domainist
mailer, or proselytized for domainist addressing and disdained
[4122]bang paths. These senses are now (1996) obsolete, as effectively
all sites have converted.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Don't do that then!, Next:[4123]dongle, Previous:[4124]domainist,
Up:[4125]= D =
Don't do that then! imp.
[from an old doctor's office joke about a patient with a trivial
complaint] Stock response to a user complaint. "When I type control-S,
the whole system comes to a halt for thirty seconds." "Don't do that,
then!" (or "So don't do that!"). Compare [4126]RTFM.
Here's a classic example of "Don't do that then!" from Neil
Stephenson's "In The Beginning Was The Command Line". A friend of his
built a network with a load of Macs and a few high-powered database
servers. He found that from time to time the whole network would lock
up for no apparent reason. The problem was eventually tracked down to
MacOS's cooperative multitasking: when a user held down the mouse
button for too long, the network stack wouldn't get a chance to run...
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dongle, Next:[4127]dongle-disk, Previous:[4128]Don't do that
then!, Up:[4129]= D =
dongle /dong'gl/ n.
1. [now obs.] A security or [4130]copy protection device for
proprietary software consisting of a serialized EPROM and some drivers
in a D-25 connector shell, which must be connected to an I/O port of
the computer while the program is run. Programs that use a dongle
query the port at startup and at programmed intervals thereafter, and
terminate if it does not respond with the dongle's programmed
validation code. Thus, users can make as many copies of the program as
they want but must pay for each dongle. The idea was clever, but it
was initially a failure, as users disliked tying up a serial port this
way. By 1993, dongles would typically pass data through the port and
monitor for [4131]magic codes (and combinations of status lines) with
minimal if any interference with devices further down the line -- this
innovation was necessary to allow daisy-chained dongles for multiple
pieces of software. These devices have become rare as the industry has
moved away from copy-protection schemes in general. 2. By extension,
any physical electronic key or transferable ID required for a program
to function. Common variations on this theme have used parallel or
even joystick ports. See [4132]dongle-disk. 3. An adaptor cable mating
a special edge-type connector on a PCMCIA or on-board Ethernet card to
a standard RJ45 Ethernet jack. This usage seems to have surfaced in
1999 and is now dominant. Laptop owners curse these things because
they're notoriously easy to lose and the vendors commonly charge
extortionate prices for replacements.
[Note: in early 1992, advertising copy from Rainbow Technologies (a
manufacturer of dongles) included a claim that the word derived from
"Don Gall", allegedly the inventor of the device. The company's
receptionist will cheerfully tell you that the story is a myth
invented for the ad copy. Nevertheless, I expect it to haunt my life
as a lexicographer for at least the next ten years. :-( --ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dongle-disk, Next:[4133]donuts, Previous:[4134]dongle, Up:[4135]=
D =
dongle-disk /don'gl disk/ n.
A special floppy disk that is required in order to perform some task.
Some contain special coding that allows an application to identify it
uniquely, others are special code that does something that
normally-resident programs don't or can't. (For example, AT&T's "Unix
PC" would only come up in [4136]root mode with a special boot disk.)
Also called a `key disk'. See [4137]dongle.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:donuts, Next:[4138]doorstop, Previous:[4139]dongle-disk,
Up:[4140]= D =
donuts n. obs.
A collective noun for any set of memory bits. This usage is extremely
archaic and may no longer be live jargon; it dates from the days of
ferrite-[4141]core memories in which each bit was implemented by a
doughnut-shaped magnetic flip-flop.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:doorstop, Next:[4142]DoS attack, Previous:[4143]donuts,
Up:[4144]= D =
doorstop n.
Used to describe equipment that is non-functional and halfway expected
to remain so, especially obsolete equipment kept around for political
reasons or ostensibly as a backup. "When we get another Wyse-50 in
here, that ADM 3 will turn into a doorstop." Compare [4145]boat
anchor.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:DoS attack, Next:[4146]dot file, Previous:[4147]doorstop,
Up:[4148]= D =
DoS attack //
[Usenet,common; note that it's unrelated to `DOS' as name of an
operating system] Abbreviation for Denial-Of-Service attack. This
abbreviation is most often used of attempts to shut down newsgroups
with floods of [4149]spam, or to flood network links with large
amounts of traffic, or to flood network links with large amounts of
traffic, often by abusing network broadcast addresses Compare
[4150]slashdot effect.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dot file, Next:[4151]double bucky, Previous:[4152]DoS attack,
Up:[4153]= D =
dot file [Unix] n.
A file that is not visible by default to normal directory-browsing
tools (on Unix, files named with a leading dot are, by convention, not
normally presented in directory listings). Many programs define one or
more dot files in which startup or configuration information may be
optionally recorded; a user can customize the program's behavior by
creating the appropriate file in the current or home directory.
(Therefore, dot files tend to [4154]creep -- with every nontrivial
application program defining at least one, a user's home directory can
be filled with scores of dot files, of course without the user's
really being aware of it.) See also [4155]profile (sense 1), [4156]rc
file.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:double bucky, Next:[4157]doubled sig, Previous:[4158]dot file,
Up:[4159]= D =
double bucky adj.
Using both the CTRL and META keys. "The command to burn all LEDs is
double bucky F."
This term originated on the Stanford extended-ASCII keyboard, and was
later taken up by users of the [4160]space-cadet keyboard at MIT. A
typical MIT comment was that the Stanford [4161]bucky bits (control
and meta shifting keys) were nice, but there weren't enough of them;
you could type only 512 different characters on a Stanford keyboard.
An obvious way to address this was simply to add more shifting keys,
and this was eventually done; but a keyboard with that many shifting
keys is hard on touch-typists, who don't like to move their hands away
from the home position on the keyboard. It was half-seriously
suggested that the extra shifting keys be implemented as pedals;
typing on such a keyboard would be very much like playing a full pipe
organ. This idea is mentioned in a parody of a very fine song by
Jeffrey Moss called "Rubber Duckie", which was published in "The
Sesame Street Songbook" (Simon and Schuster 1971, ISBN 0-671-21036-X).
These lyrics were written on May 27, 1978, in celebration of the
Stanford keyboard:
Double Bucky
Double bucky, you're the one!
You make my keyboard lots of fun.
Double bucky, an additional bit or two:
(Vo-vo-de-o!)
Control and meta, side by side,
Augmented ASCII, nine bits wide!
Double bucky! Half a thousand glyphs, plus a few!
Oh,
I sure wish that I
Had a couple of
Bits more!
Perhaps a
Set of pedals to
Make the number of
Bits four:
Double double bucky!
Double bucky, left and right
OR'd together, outta sight!
Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of
Double bucky, I'm happy I heard of
Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of you!
--- The Great Quux (with apologies to Jeffrey Moss)
[This, by the way, is an excellent example of computer [4162]filk
--ESR] See also [4163]meta bit, [4164]cokebottle, and [4165]quadruple
bucky.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:doubled sig, Next:[4166]down, Previous:[4167]double bucky,
Up:[4168]= D =
doubled sig [Usenet] n.
A [4169]sig block that has been included twice in a [4170]Usenet
article or, less commonly, in an electronic mail message. An article
or message with a doubled sig can be caused by improperly configured
software. More often, however, it reveals the author's lack of
experience in electronic communication. See [4171]B1FF, [4172]pseudo.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:down, Next:[4173]download, Previous:[4174]doubled sig, Up:[4175]=
D =
down
1. adj. Not operating. "The up escalator is down" is considered a
humorous thing to say (unless of course you were expecting to use it),
and "The elevator is down" always means "The elevator isn't working"
and never refers to what floor the elevator is on. With respect to
computers, this term has passed into the mainstream; the extension to
other kinds of machine is still confined to techies (e.g. boiler
mechanics may speak of a boiler being down). 2. `go down' vi. To stop
functioning; usually said of the [4176]system. The message from the
[4177]console that every hacker hates to hear from the operator is
"System going down in 5 minutes". 3. `take down', `bring down' vt. To
deactivate purposely, usually for repair work or [4178]PM. "I'm taking
the system down to work on that bug in the tape drive." Occasionally
one hears the word `down' by itself used as a verb in this vt. sense.
See [4179]crash; oppose [4180]up.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:download, Next:[4181]DP, Previous:[4182]down, Up:[4183]= D =
download vt.
To transfer data or (esp.) code from a far-away system (especially a
larger `host' system) over a digital communications link to a nearby
system (especially a smaller `client' system. Oppose [4184]upload.
Historical use of these terms was at one time associated with
transfers from large timesharing machines to PCs or peripherals
(download) and vice-versa (upload). The modern usage relative to the
speaker (rather than as an indicator of the size and role of the
machines) evolved as machine categories lost most of their former
functional importance.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:DP, Next:[4185]DPB, Previous:[4186]download, Up:[4187]= D =
DP /D-P/ n.
1. Data Processing. Listed here because, according to hackers, use of
the term marks one immediately as a [4188]suit. See [4189]DPer. 2.
Common abbrev for [4190]Dissociated Press.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:DPB, Next:[4191]DPer, Previous:[4192]DP, Up:[4193]= D =
DPB /d*-pib'/ vt.
[from the PDP-10 instruction set] To plop something down in the
middle. Usage: silly. "DPB yourself into that couch there." The
connotation would be that the couch is full except for one slot just
big enough for one last person to sit in. DPB means `DePosit Byte',
and was the name of a PDP-10 instruction that inserts some bits into
the middle of some other bits. Hackish usage has been kept alive by
the Common LISP function of the same name.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:DPer, Next:[4194]Dr. Fred Mbogo, Previous:[4195]DPB, Up:[4196]= D
=
DPer /dee-pee-er/ n.
Data Processor. Hackers are absolutely amazed that [4197]suits use
this term self-referentially. Computers process data, not people! See
[4198]DP.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Dr. Fred Mbogo, Next:[4199]dragon, Previous:[4200]DPer,
Up:[4201]= D =
Dr. Fred Mbogo /*m-boh'goh, dok'tr fred/ n.
[Stanford] The archetypal man you don't want to see about a problem,
esp. an incompetent professional; a shyster. "Do you know a good eye
doctor?" "Sure, try Mbogo Eye Care and Professional Dry Cleaning." The
name comes from synergy between [4202]bogus and the original Dr.
Mbogo, a witch doctor who was Gomez Addams' physician on the old
"Addams Family" TV show. Interestingly enough, it turns out that under
the rules for Swahili noun classes, `m-' is the characteristic prefix
of "nouns referring to human beings". As such, "mbogo" is quite
plausible as a Swahili coinage for a person having the nature of a
[4203]bogon. Compare [4204]Bloggs Family and [4205]J. Random Hacker;
see also [4206]Fred Foobar and [4207]fred.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dragon, Next:[4208]Dragon Book, Previous:[4209]Dr. Fred Mbogo,
Up:[4210]= D =
dragon n.
[MIT] A program similar to a [4211]daemon, except that it is not
invoked at all, but is instead used by the system to perform various
secondary tasks. A typical example would be an accounting program,
which keeps track of who is logged in, accumulates load-average
statistics, etc. Under ITS, many terminals displayed a list of people
logged in, where they were, what they were running, etc., along with
some random picture (such as a unicorn, Snoopy, or the Enterprise),
which was generated by the `name dragon'. Usage: rare outside MIT --
under Unix and most other OSes this would be called a `background
demon' or [4212]daemon. The best-known Unix example of a dragon is
cron(1). At SAIL, they called this sort of thing a `phantom'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Dragon Book, Next:[4213]drain, Previous:[4214]dragon, Up:[4215]=
D =
Dragon Book n.
The classic text "Compilers: Principles, Techniques and Tools", by
Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi, and Jeffrey D. Ullman (Addison-Wesley 1986;
ISBN 0-201-10088-6), so called because of the cover design featuring a
dragon labeled `complexity of compiler design' and a knight bearing
the lance `LALR parser generator' among his other trappings. This one
is more specifically known as the `Red Dragon Book' (1986); an earlier
edition, sans Sethi and titled "Principles Of Compiler Design" (Alfred
V. Aho and Jeffrey D. Ullman; Addison-Wesley, 1977; ISBN
0-201-00022-9), was the `Green Dragon Book' (1977). (Also `New Dragon
Book', `Old Dragon Book'.) The horsed knight and the Green Dragon were
warily eying each other at a distance; now the knight is typing
(wearing gauntlets!) at a terminal showing a video-game representation
of the Red Dragon's head while the rest of the beast extends back in
normal space. See also [4216]book titles.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:drain, Next:[4217]dread high-bit disease, Previous:[4218]Dragon
Book, Up:[4219]= D =
drain v.
[IBM] Syn. for [4220]flush (sense 2). Has a connotation of finality
about it; one speaks of draining a device before taking it offline.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dread high-bit disease, Next:[4221]Dread Questionmark Disease,
Previous:[4222]drain, Up:[4223]= D =
dread high-bit disease n.
A condition endemic to some now-obsolete computers and peripherals
(including ASR-33 teletypes and PRIME minicomputers) that results in
all characters having their high (0x80) bit forced on. This of course
makes transporting files to other systems much more difficult, not to
mention the problems these machines have talking with true 8-bit
devices.
This term was originally used specifically of PRIME (a.k.a. PR1ME)
minicomputers. Folklore has it that PRIME adopted the reversed-8-bit
convention in order to save 25 cents per serial line per machine;
PRIME old-timers, on the other hand, claim they inherited the disease
from Honeywell via customer NASA's compatibility requirements and
struggled heroically to cure it. Whoever was responsible, this
probably qualifies as one of the most [4224]cretinous design tradeoffs
ever made. See [4225]meta bit.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Dread Questionmark Disease, Next:[4226]DRECNET,
Previous:[4227]dread high-bit disease, Up:[4228]= D =
Dread Questionmark Disease
n. The result of saving HTML from Microsoft Word or some other program
that uses the nonstandard Microsoft variant of Latin-1; the symptom is
that various of those nonstandard characters in positions 128-160 show
up as questionmarks. The usual culprit is the misnamed `smart quotes'
feature in Microsoft Word. For more details (and a program called
`demoroniser' that cleans up the mess) see
[4229]http://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/demoroniser/.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:DRECNET, Next:[4230]driver, Previous:[4231]Dread Questionmark
Disease, Up:[4232]= D =
DRECNET /drek'net/ n.
[from Yiddish/German `dreck', meaning filth] Deliberate distortion of
DECNET, a networking protocol used in the [4233]VMS community. So
called because [4234]DEC helped write the Ethernet specification and
then (either stupidly or as a malignant customer-control tactic)
violated that spec in the design of DRECNET in a way that made it
incompatible. See also [4235]connector conspiracy.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:driver, Next:[4236]droid, Previous:[4237]DRECNET, Up:[4238]= D =
driver n.
1. The [4239]main loop of an event-processing program; the code that
gets commands and dispatches them for execution. 2. [techspeak] In
`device driver', code designed to handle a particular peripheral
device such as a magnetic disk or tape unit. 3. In the TeX world and
the computerized typesetting world in general, a program that
translates some device-independent or other common format to something
a real device can actually understand.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:droid, Next:[4240]drone, Previous:[4241]driver, Up:[4242]= D =
droid n.
[from `android', SF terminology for a humanoid robot of essentially
biological (as opposed to mechanical/electronic) construction] A
person (esp. a low-level bureaucrat or service-business employee)
exhibiting most of the following characteristics: (a) naive trust in
the wisdom of the parent organization or `the system'; (b) a
blind-faith propensity to believe obvious nonsense emitted by
authority figures (or computers!); (c) a rule-governed mentality, one
unwilling or unable to look beyond the `letter of the law' in
exceptional situations; (d) a paralyzing fear of official reprimand or
worse if Procedures are not followed No Matter What; and (e) no
interest in doing anything above or beyond the call of a very
narrowly-interpreted duty, or in particular in fixing that which is
broken; an "It's not my job, man" attitude.
Typical droid positions include supermarket checkout assistant and
bank clerk; the syndrome is also endemic in low-level government
employees. The implication is that the rules and official procedures
constitute software that the droid is executing; problems arise when
the software has not been properly debugged. The term `droid
mentality' is also used to describe the mindset behind this behavior.
Compare [4243]suit, [4244]marketroid; see [4245]-oid.
In England there is equivalent mainstream slang; a `jobsworth' is an
obstructive, rule-following bureaucrat, often of the uniformed or
suited variety. Named for the habit of denying a reasonable request by
sucking his teeth and saying "Oh no, guv, sorry I can't help you:
that's more than my job's worth".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:drone, Next:[4246]drool-proof paper, Previous:[4247]droid,
Up:[4248]= D =
drone n.
Ignorant sales or customer service personnel in computer or
electronics superstores. Characterized by a lack of even superficial
knowledge about the products they sell, yet possessed of the
conviction that they are more competent than their hacker customers.
Usage: "That video board probably sucks, it was recommended by a drone
at Fry's" In the year 2000, their natural habitats include Fry's
Electronics, Best Buy, and CompUSA.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:drool-proof paper, Next:[4249]drop on the floor,
Previous:[4250]drone, Up:[4251]= D =
drool-proof paper n.
Documentation that has been obsessively [4252]dumbed down, to the
point where only a [4253]cretin could bear to read it, is said to have
succumbed to the `drool-proof paper syndrome' or to have been `written
on drool-proof paper'. For example, this is an actual quote from
Apple's LaserWriter manual: "Do not expose your LaserWriter to open
fire or flame." The SGI Indy manual is said to include the line "Do
not dangle the mouse by the cord or throw it at coworkers.", but this
sounds like parody.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:drop on the floor, Next:[4254]drop-ins,
Previous:[4255]drool-proof paper, Up:[4256]= D =
drop on the floor vt.
To react to an error condition by silently discarding messages or
other valuable data. "The gateway ran out of memory, so it just
started dropping packets on the floor." Also frequently used of faulty
mail and netnews relay sites that lose messages. See also [4257]black
hole, [4258]bit bucket.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:drop-ins, Next:[4259]drop-outs, Previous:[4260]drop on the floor,
Up:[4261]= D =
drop-ins n.
[prob. by analogy with [4262]drop-outs] Spurious characters appearing
on a terminal or console as a result of line noise or a system
malfunction of some sort. Esp. used when these are interspersed with
one's own typed input. Compare [4263]drop-outs, sense 2.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:drop-outs, Next:[4264]drugged, Previous:[4265]drop-ins,
Up:[4266]= D =
drop-outs n.
1. A variety of `power glitch' (see [4267]glitch); momentary 0 voltage
on the electrical mains. 2. Missing characters in typed input due to
software malfunction or system saturation (one cause of such behavior
under Unix when a bad connection to a modem swamps the processor with
spurious character interrupts; see [4268]screaming tty). 3. Mental
glitches; used as a way of describing those occasions when the mind
just seems to shut down for a couple of beats. See [4269]glitch,
[4270]fried.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:drugged, Next:[4271]drum, Previous:[4272]drop-outs, Up:[4273]= D
=
drugged adj.
(also `on drugs') 1. Conspicuously stupid, heading toward
[4274]brain-damaged. Often accompanied by a pantomime of toking a
joint. 2. Of hardware, very slow relative to normal performance.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:drum, Next:[4275]drunk mouse syndrome, Previous:[4276]drugged,
Up:[4277]= D =
drum adj, n.
Ancient techspeak term referring to slow, cylindrical magnetic media
that were once state-of-the-art storage devices. Under BSD Unix the
disk partition used for swapping is still called /dev/drum; this has
led to considerable humor and not a few straight-faced but utterly
bogus `explanations' getting foisted on [4278]newbies. See also
"[4279]The Story of Mel" in Appendix A.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:drunk mouse syndrome, Next:[4280]dub dub dub,
Previous:[4281]drum, Up:[4282]= D =
drunk mouse syndrome n.
(also `mouse on drugs') A malady exhibited by the mouse pointing
device of some computers. The typical symptom is for the mouse cursor
on the screen to move in random directions and not in sync with the
motion of the actual mouse. Can usually be corrected by unplugging the
mouse and plugging it back again. Another recommended fix for optical
mice is to rotate your mouse pad 90 degrees.
At Xerox PARC in the 1970s, most people kept a can of copier cleaner
(isopropyl alcohol) at their desks. When the steel ball on the mouse
had picked up enough [4283]cruft to be unreliable, the mouse was
doused in cleaner, which restored it for a while. However, this
operation left a fine residue that accelerated the accumulation of
cruft, so the dousings became more and more frequent. Finally, the
mouse was declared `alcoholic' and sent to the clinic to be dried out
in a CFC ultrasonic bath.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dub dub dub, Next:[4284]Duff's device, Previous:[4285]drunk mouse
syndrome, Up:[4286]= D =
dub dub dub
[common] Spoken-only shorthand for the "www" (double-u double-u
double-u) in many web host names. Nothing to do with the style of
reggae music called `dub'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Duff's device, Next:[4287]dumb terminal, Previous:[4288]dub dub
dub, Up:[4289]= D =
Duff's device n.
The most dramatic use yet seen of [4290]fall through in C, invented by
Tom Duff when he was at Lucasfilm. Trying to [4291]bum all the
instructions he could out of an inner loop that copied data serially
onto an output port, he decided to unroll it. He then realized that
the unrolled version could be implemented by interlacing the
structures of a switch and a loop:
register n = (count + 7) / 8; /* count > 0 assumed */
switch (count % 8)
{
case 0: do { *to = *from++;
case 7: *to = *from++;
case 6: *to = *from++;
case 5: *to = *from++;
case 4: *to = *from++;
case 3: *to = *from++;
case 2: *to = *from++;
case 1: *to = *from++;
} while (--n > 0);
}
Shocking though it appears to all who encounter it for the first time,
the device is actually perfectly valid, legal C. C's default
[4292]fall through in case statements has long been its most
controversial single feature; Duff observed that "This code forms some
sort of argument in that debate, but I'm not sure whether it's for or
against." Duff has discussed the device in detail at
[4293]http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/duffs-device.html. Note that the
omission of postfix ++ from *to was intentional (though confusing).
Duff's device can be used to implement memory copy, but the original
aim was to copy values serially into a magic IO register.
[For maximal obscurity, the outermost pair of braces above could
actually be removed -- GLS]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dumb terminal, Next:[4294]dumbass attack, Previous:[4295]Duff's
device, Up:[4296]= D =
dumb terminal n.
A terminal that is one step above a [4297]glass tty, having a
minimally addressable cursor but no on-screen editing or other
features normally supported by a [4298]smart terminal. Once upon a
time, when glass ttys were common and addressable cursors were
something special, what is now called a dumb terminal could pass for a
smart terminal.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dumbass attack, Next:[4299]dumbed down, Previous:[4300]dumb
terminal, Up:[4301]= D =
dumbass attack /duhm'as *-tak'/ n.
[Purdue] Notional cause of a novice's mistake made by the experienced,
especially one made while running as [4302]root under Unix, e.g.,
typing rm -r * or mkfs on a mounted file system. Compare [4303]adger.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dumbed down, Next:[4304]dump, Previous:[4305]dumbass attack,
Up:[4306]= D =
dumbed down adj.
Simplified, with a strong connotation of oversimplified. Often, a
[4307]marketroid will insist that the interfaces and documentation of
software be dumbed down after the designer has burned untold gallons
of midnight oil making it smart. This creates friction. See
[4308]user-friendly.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dump, Next:[4309]dumpster diving, Previous:[4310]dumbed down,
Up:[4311]= D =
dump n.
1. An undigested and voluminous mass of information about a problem or
the state of a system, especially one routed to the slowest available
output device (compare [4312]core dump), and most especially one
consisting of hex or octal [4313]runes describing the byte-by-byte
state of memory, mass storage, or some file. In [4314]elder days,
debugging was generally done by `groveling over' a dump (see
[4315]grovel); increasing use of high-level languages and interactive
debuggers has made such tedium uncommon, and the term `dump' now has a
faintly archaic flavor. 2. A backup. This usage is typical only at
large timesharing installations.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dumpster diving, Next:[4316]dup killer, Previous:[4317]dump,
Up:[4318]= D =
dumpster diving /dump'-ster di:'-ving/ n.
1. The practice of sifting refuse from an office or technical
installation to extract confidential data, especially
security-compromising information (`dumpster' is an Americanism for
what is elsewhere called a `skip'). Back in AT&T's monopoly days,
before paper shredders became common office equipment, phone phreaks
(see [4319]phreaking) used to organize regular dumpster runs against
phone company plants and offices. Discarded and damaged copies of AT&T
internal manuals taught them much. The technique is still rumored to
be a favorite of crackers operating against careless targets. 2. The
practice of raiding the dumpsters behind buildings where producers
and/or consumers of high-tech equipment are located, with the
expectation (usually justified) of finding discarded but
still-valuable equipment to be nursed back to health in some hacker's
den. Experienced dumpster-divers not infrequently accumulate basements
full of moldering (but still potentially useful) [4320]cruft.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dup killer, Next:[4321]dup loop, Previous:[4322]dumpster diving,
Up:[4323]= D =
dup killer /d[y]oop kill'r/ n.
[FidoNet] Software that is supposed to detect and delete duplicates of
a message that may have reached the FidoNet system via different
routes.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dup loop, Next:[4324]dusty deck, Previous:[4325]dup killer,
Up:[4326]= D =
dup loop /d[y]oop loop/ (also `dupe loop') n.
[FidoNet] An infinite stream of duplicated, near-identical messages on
a FidoNet [4327]echo, the only difference being unique or mangled
identification information applied by a faulty or incorrectly
configured system or network gateway, thus rendering [4328]dup killers
ineffective. If such a duplicate message eventually reaches a system
through which it has already passed (with the original identification
information), all systems passed on the way back to that system are
said to be involved in a [4329]dup loop.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dusty deck, Next:[4330]DWIM, Previous:[4331]dup loop, Up:[4332]=
D =
dusty deck n.
Old software (especially applications) which one is obliged to remain
compatible with, or to maintain ([4333]DP types call this `legacy
code', a term hackers consider smarmy and excessively reverent). The
term implies that the software in question is a holdover from
card-punch days. Used esp. when referring to old scientific and
[4334]number-crunching software, much of which was written in FORTRAN
and very poorly documented but is believed to be too expensive to
replace. See [4335]fossil; compare [4336]crawling horror.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:DWIM, Next:[4337]dynner, Previous:[4338]dusty deck, Up:[4339]= D
=
DWIM /dwim/
[acronym, `Do What I Mean'] 1. adj. Able to guess, sometimes even
correctly, the result intended when bogus input was provided. 2. n.
obs. The BBNLISP/INTERLISP function that attempted to accomplish this
feat by correcting many of the more common errors. See [4340]hairy. 3.
Occasionally, an interjection hurled at a balky computer, esp. when
one senses one might be tripping over legalisms (see [4341]legalese).
4. Of a person, someone whose directions are incomprehensible and
vague, but who nevertheless has the expectation that you will solve
the problem using the specific method he/she has in mind.
Warren Teitelman originally wrote DWIM to fix his typos and spelling
errors, so it was somewhat idiosyncratic to his style, and would often
make hash of anyone else's typos if they were stylistically different.
Some victims of DWIM thus claimed that the acronym stood for `Damn
Warren's Infernal Machine!'.
In one notorious incident, Warren added a DWIM feature to the command
interpreter used at Xerox PARC. One day another hacker there typed
delete *$ to free up some disk space. (The editor there named backup
files by appending $ to the original file name, so he was trying to
delete any backup files left over from old editing sessions.) It
happened that there weren't any editor backup files, so DWIM helpfully
reported *$ not found, assuming you meant 'delete *'. It then started
to delete all the files on the disk! The hacker managed to stop it
with a [4342]Vulcan nerve pinch after only a half dozen or so files
were lost.
The disgruntled victim later said he had been sorely tempted to go to
Warren's office, tie Warren down in his chair in front of his
workstation, and then type delete *$ twice.
DWIM is often suggested in jest as a desired feature for a complex
program; it is also occasionally described as the single instruction
the ideal computer would have. Back when proofs of program correctness
were in vogue, there were also jokes about `DWIMC' (Do What I Mean,
Correctly). A related term, more often seen as a verb, is DTRT (Do The
Right Thing); see [4343]Right Thing.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:dynner, Next:[4344]earthquake, Previous:[4345]DWIM, Up:[4346]= D
=
dynner /din'r/ n.
32 bits, by analogy with [4347]nybble and [4348]byte. Usage: rare and
extremely silly. See also [4349]playte, [4350]tayste, [4351]crumb.
General discussion of such terms is under [4352]nybble.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:= E =, Next:[4353]= F =, Previous:[4354]= D =, Up:[4355]The
Jargon Lexicon
= E =
* [4356]earthquake:
* [4357]Easter egg:
* [4358]Easter egging:
* [4359]eat flaming death:
* [4360]EBCDIC:
* [4361]echo:
* [4362]ECP:
* [4363]ed:
* [4364]egosurf:
* [4365]eighty-column mind:
* [4366]El Camino Bignum:
* [4367]elder days:
* [4368]elegant:
* [4369]elephantine:
* [4370]elevator controller:
* [4371]elite:
* [4372]ELIZA effect:
* [4373]elvish:
* [4374]EMACS:
* [4375]email:
* [4376]emoticon:
* [4377]EMP:
* [4378]empire:
* [4379]engine:
* [4380]English:
* [4381]enhancement:
* [4382]ENQ:
* [4383]EOF:
* [4384]EOL:
* [4385]EOU:
* [4386]epoch:
* [4387]epsilon:
* [4388]epsilon squared:
* [4389]era the:
* [4390]Eric Conspiracy:
* [4391]Eris:
* [4392]erotics:
* [4393]error 33:
* [4394]eurodemo:
* [4395]evil:
* [4396]evil and rude:
* [4397]Evil Empire:
* [4398]exa-:
* [4399]examining the entrails:
* [4400]EXCH:
* [4401]excl:
* [4402]EXE:
* [4403]exec:
* [4404]exercise left as an:
* [4405]Exon:
* [4406]Exploder:
* [4407]exploit:
* [4408]external memory:
* [4409]eye candy:
* [4410]eyeball search:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:earthquake, Next:[4411]Easter egg, Previous:[4412]dynner,
Up:[4413]= E =
earthquake n.
[IBM] The ultimate real-world shock test for computer hardware.
Hackish sources at IBM deny the rumor that the Bay Area quake of 1989
was initiated by the company to test quality-assurance procedures at
its California plants.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Easter egg, Next:[4414]Easter egging, Previous:[4415]earthquake,
Up:[4416]= E =
Easter egg n.
[from the custom of the Easter Egg hunt observed in the U.S. and many
parts of Europe] 1. A message hidden in the object code of a program
as a joke, intended to be found by persons disassembling or browsing
the code. 2. A message, graphic, or sound effect emitted by a program
(or, on a PC, the BIOS ROM) in response to some undocumented set of
commands or keystrokes, intended as a joke or to display program
credits. One well-known early Easter egg found in a couple of OSes
caused them to respond to the command make love with not war?. Many
personal computers have much more elaborate eggs hidden in ROM,
including lists of the developers' names, political exhortations,
snatches of music, and (in one case) graphics images of the entire
development team.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Easter egging, Next:[4417]eat flaming death,
Previous:[4418]Easter egg, Up:[4419]= E =
Easter egging n.
[IBM] The act of replacing unrelated components more or less at random
in hopes that a malfunction will go away. Hackers consider this the
normal operating mode of [4420]field circus techs and do not love them
for it. See also the jokes under [4421]field circus. Compare
[4422]shotgun debugging.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:eat flaming death, Next:[4423]EBCDIC, Previous:[4424]Easter
egging, Up:[4425]= E =
eat flaming death imp.
A construction popularized among hackers by the infamous [4426]CPU
Wars comic; supposedly derive from a famously turgid line in a
WWII-era anti-Nazi propaganda comic that ran "Eat flaming death,
non-Aryan mongrels!" or something of the sort (however, it is also
reported that the Firesign Theatre's 1975 album "In The Next World,
You're On Your Own" a character won the right to scream "Eat flaming
death, fascist media pigs" in the middle of Oscar night on a game
show; this may have been an influence). Used in humorously overblown
expressions of hostility. "Eat flaming death, [4427]EBCDIC users!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:EBCDIC, Next:[4428]echo, Previous:[4429]eat flaming death,
Up:[4430]= E =
EBCDIC /eb's*-dik/, /eb'see`dik/, or /eb'k*-dik/ n.
[abbreviation, Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code] An
alleged character set used on IBM [4431]dinosaurs. It exists in at
least six mutually incompatible versions, all featuring such delights
as non-contiguous letter sequences and the absence of several ASCII
punctuation characters fairly important for modern computer languages
(exactly which characters are absent varies according to which version
of EBCDIC you're looking at). IBM adapted EBCDIC from [4432]punched
card code in the early 1960s and promulgated it as a customer-control
tactic (see [4433]connector conspiracy), spurning the already
established ASCII standard. Today, IBM claims to be an open-systems
company, but IBM's own description of the EBCDIC variants and how to
convert between them is still internally classified top-secret,
burn-before-reading. Hackers blanch at the very name of EBCDIC and
consider it a manifestation of purest [4434]evil. See also [4435]fear
and loathing.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:echo, Next:[4436]ECP, Previous:[4437]EBCDIC, Up:[4438]= E =
echo [FidoNet] n.
A [4439]topic group on [4440]FidoNet's echomail system. Compare
[4441]newsgroup.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ECP, Next:[4442]ed, Previous:[4443]echo, Up:[4444]= E =
ECP /E-C-P/ n.
See [4445]spam and [4446]velveeta.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ed, Next:[4447]egosurf, Previous:[4448]ECP, Up:[4449]= E =
ed n.
"ed is the standard text editor." Line taken from original the
[4450]Unix manual page on ed, an ancient line-oriented editor that is
by now used only by a few [4451]Real Programmers, and even then only
for batch operations. The original line is sometimes uttered near the
beginning of an emacs vs. vi holy war on [4452]Usenet, with the (vain)
hope to quench the discussion before it really takes off. Often
followed by a standard text describing the many virtues of ed (such as
the small memory [4453]footprint on a Timex Sinclair, and the
consistent (because nearly non-existent) user interface).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:egosurf, Next:[4454]eighty-column mind, Previous:[4455]ed,
Up:[4456]= E =
egosurf vi.
To search the net for your name or links to your web pages. Perhaps
connected to long-established SF-fan slang `egoscan', to search for
one's name in a fanzine.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:eighty-column mind, Next:[4457]El Camino Bignum,
Previous:[4458]egosurf, Up:[4459]= E =
eighty-column mind n.
[IBM] The sort said to be possessed by persons for whom the transition
from [4460]punched card to tape was traumatic (nobody has dared tell
them about disks yet). It is said that these people, including
(according to an old joke) the founder of IBM, will be buried `face
down, 9-edge first' (the 9-edge being the bottom of the card). This
directive is inscribed on IBM's 1402 and 1622 card readers and is
referenced in a famous bit of doggerel called "The Last Bug", the
climactic lines of which are as follows:
He died at the console
Of hunger and thirst.
Next day he was buried,
Face down, 9-edge first.
The eighty-column mind was thought by most hackers to dominate IBM's
customer base and its thinking. This only began to change in the
mid-1990s when IBM began to reinvent itself after the triumph of the
[4461]killer micro. See [4462]IBM, [4463]fear and loathing, [4464]card
walloper. A copy of "The Last Bug" lives on the the GNU site at
[4465]http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/last.bug.html.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:El Camino Bignum, Next:[4466]elder days,
Previous:[4467]eighty-column mind, Up:[4468]= E =
El Camino Bignum /el' k*-mee'noh big'nuhm/ n.
The road mundanely called El Camino Real, running along San Francisco
peninsula. It originally extended all the way down to Mexico City;
many portions of the old road are still intact. Navigation on the San
Francisco peninsula is usually done relative to El Camino Real, which
defines [4469]logical north and south even though it isn't really
north-south in many places. El Camino Real runs right past Stanford
University and so is familiar to hackers.
The Spanish word `real' (which has two syllables: /ray-ahl'/) means
`royal'; El Camino Real is `the royal road'. In the FORTRAN language,
a `real' quantity is a number typically precise to seven significant
digits, and a `double precision' quantity is a larger floating-point
number, precise to perhaps fourteen significant digits (other
languages have similar `real' types).
When a hacker from MIT visited Stanford in 1976, he remarked what a
long road El Camino Real was. Making a pun on `real', he started
calling it `El Camino Double Precision' -- but when the hacker was
told that the road was hundreds of miles long, he renamed it `El
Camino Bignum', and that name has stuck. (See [4470]bignum.)
[GLS has since let slip that the unnamed hacker in this story was in
fact himself --ESR]
In recent years, the synonym `El Camino Virtual' has been reported as
an alternate at IBM and Amdahl sites in the Valley. Mathematically
literate hackers in the Valley have also been heard to refer to some
major cross-street intersecting El Camino Real as "El Camino
Imaginary". One popular theory is that the intersection is located
near Moffett Field - where they keep all those complex planes.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:elder days, Next:[4471]elegant, Previous:[4472]El Camino Bignum,
Up:[4473]= E =
elder days n.
The heroic age of hackerdom (roughly, pre-1980); the era of the
[4474]PDP-10, [4475]TECO, [4476]ITS, and the ARPANET. This term has
been rather consciously adopted from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy epic
"The Lord of the Rings". Compare [4477]Iron Age; see also [4478]elvish
and [4479]Great Worm.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:elegant, Next:[4480]elephantine, Previous:[4481]elder days,
Up:[4482]= E =
elegant adj.
[common; from mathematical usage] Combining simplicity, power, and a
certain ineffable grace of design. Higher praise than `clever',
`winning', or even [4483]cuspy.
The French aviator, adventurer, and author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,
probably best known for his classic children's book "The Little
Prince", was also an aircraft designer. He gave us perhaps the best
definition of engineering elegance when he said "A designer knows he
has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but
when there is nothing left to take away."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:elephantine, Next:[4484]elevator controller,
Previous:[4485]elegant, Up:[4486]= E =
elephantine adj.
Used of programs or systems that are both conspicuous [4487]hogs
(owing perhaps to poor design founded on [4488]brute force and
ignorance) and exceedingly [4489]hairy in source form. An elephantine
program may be functional and even friendly, but (as in the old joke
about being in bed with an elephant) it's tough to have around all the
same (and, like a pachyderm, difficult to maintain). In extreme cases,
hackers have been known to make trumpeting sounds or perform
expressive proboscatory mime at the mention of the offending program.
Usage: semi-humorous. Compare `has the elephant nature' and the
somewhat more pejorative [4490]monstrosity. See also
[4491]second-system effect and [4492]baroque.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:elevator controller, Next:[4493]elite,
Previous:[4494]elephantine, Up:[4495]= E =
elevator controller n.
An archetypal dumb embedded-systems application, like [4496]toaster
(which superseded it). During one period (1983-84) in the
deliberations of ANSI X3J11 (the C standardization committee) this was
the canonical example of a really stupid, memory-limited computation
environment. "You can't require printf(3) to be part of the default
runtime library -- what if you're targeting an elevator controller?"
Elevator controllers became important rhetorical weapons on both sides
of several [4497]holy wars.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:elite, Next:[4498]ELIZA effect, Previous:[4499]elevator
controller, Up:[4500]= E =
elite adj.
Clueful. Plugged-in. One of the cognoscenti. Also used as a general
positive adjective. This term is not actually native hacker slang; it
is used primarily by crackers and [4501]warez d00dz, for which reason
hackers use it only with heavy irony. The term used to refer to the
folks allowed in to the "hidden" or "privileged" sections of BBSes in
the early 1980s (which, typically, contained pirated software).
Frequently, early boards would only let you post, or even see, a
certain subset of the sections (or `boards') on a BBS. Those who got
to the frequently legendary `triple super secret' boards were elite.
Misspellings of this term in warez d00dz style abound; the forms
`eleet', and `31337' (among others) have been sighted.
A true hacker would be more likely to use `wizardly'. Oppose
[4502]lamer.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ELIZA effect, Next:[4503]elvish, Previous:[4504]elite, Up:[4505]=
E =
ELIZA effect /*-li:'z* *-fekt'/ n.
[AI community] The tendency of humans to attach associations to terms
from prior experience. For example, there is nothing magic about the
symbol + that makes it well-suited to indicate addition; it's just
that people associate it with addition. Using + or `plus' to mean
addition in a computer language is taking advantage of the ELIZA
effect.
This term comes from the famous ELIZA program by Joseph Weizenbaum,
which simulated a Rogerian psychotherapist by rephrasing many of the
patient's statements as questions and posing them to the patient. It
worked by simple pattern recognition and substitution of key words
into canned phrases. It was so convincing, however, that there are
many anecdotes about people becoming very emotionally caught up in
dealing with ELIZA. All this was due to people's tendency to attach to
words meanings which the computer never put there. The ELIZA effect is
a [4506]Good Thing when writing a programming language, but it can
blind you to serious shortcomings when analyzing an Artificial
Intelligence system. Compare [4507]ad-hockery; see also
[4508]AI-complete. Sources for a clone of the original Eliza are
available at
[4509]ftp://ftp.cc.utexas.edu/pub/AI_ATTIC/Programs/Classic/Eliza/Eliz
a.c.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:elvish, Next:[4510]EMACS, Previous:[4511]ELIZA effect, Up:[4512]=
E =
elvish n.
1. The Tengwar of Feanor, a table of letterforms resembling the
beautiful Celtic half-uncial hand of the "Book of Kells". Invented and
described by J. R. R. Tolkien in "The Lord of The Rings" as an
orthography for his fictional `elvish' languages, this system (which
is both visually and phonetically [4513]elegant) has long fascinated
hackers (who tend to be intrigued by artificial languages in general).
It is traditional for graphics printers, plotters, window systems, and
the like to support a Feanorian typeface as one of their demo items.
See also [4514]elder days. 2. By extension, any odd or unreadable
typeface produced by a graphics device. 3. The typeface mundanely
called `Böcklin', an art-Noveau display font.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:EMACS, Next:[4515]email, Previous:[4516]elvish, Up:[4517]= E =
EMACS /ee'maks/ n.
[from Editing MACroS] The ne plus ultra of hacker editors, a
programmable text editor with an entire LISP system inside it. It was
originally written by Richard Stallman in [4518]TECO under [4519]ITS
at the MIT AI lab; AI Memo 554 described it as "an advanced,
self-documenting, customizable, extensible real-time display editor".
It has since been reimplemented any number of times, by various
hackers, and versions exist that run under most major operating
systems. Perhaps the most widely used version, also written by
Stallman and now called "[4520]GNU EMACS" or [4521]GNUMACS, runs
principally under Unix. (Its close relative XEmacs is the second most
popular version.) It includes facilities to run compilation
subprocesses and send and receive mail or news; many hackers spend up
to 80% of their [4522]tube time inside it. Other variants include
[4523]GOSMACS, CCA EMACS, UniPress EMACS, Montgomery EMACS, jove,
epsilon, and MicroEMACS. (Though we use the original all-caps spelling
here, it is nowadays very commonly `Emacs'.)
Some EMACS versions running under window managers iconify as an
overflowing kitchen sink, perhaps to suggest the one feature the
editor does not (yet) include. Indeed, some hackers find EMACS too
[4524]heavyweight and [4525]baroque for their taste, and expand the
name as `Escape Meta Alt Control Shift' to spoof its heavy reliance on
keystrokes decorated with [4526]bucky bits. Other spoof expansions
include `Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping' (from when that was
a lot of [4527]core), `Eventually malloc()s All Computer Storage', and
`EMACS Makes A Computer Slow' (see [4528]recursive acronym). See also
[4529]vi.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:email, Next:[4530]emoticon, Previous:[4531]EMACS, Up:[4532]= E =
email /ee'mayl/
(also written `e-mail' and `E-mail') 1. n. Electronic mail
automatically passed through computer networks and/or via modems over
common-carrier lines. Contrast [4533]snail-mail, [4534]paper-net,
[4535]voice-net. See [4536]network address. 2. vt. To send electronic
mail.
Oddly enough, the word `emailed' is actually listed in the OED; it
means "embossed (with a raised pattern) or perh. arranged in a net or
open work". A use from 1480 is given. The word is probably derived
from French `émaillé' (enameled) and related to Old French
`emmailleüre' (network). A French correspondent tells us that in
modern French, `email' is a hard enamel obtained by heating special
paints in a furnace; an `emailleur' (no final e) is a craftsman who
makes email (he generally paints some objects (like, say, jewelry) and
cooks them in a furnace).
There are numerous spelling variants of this word. In Internet traffic
up to 1995, `email' predominates, `e-mail' runs a not-too-distant
second, and `E-mail' and `Email' are a distant third and fourth.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:emoticon, Next:[4537]EMP, Previous:[4538]email, Up:[4539]= E =
emoticon /ee-moh'ti-kon/ n.
[common] An ASCII glyph used to indicate an emotional state in email
or news. Although originally intended mostly as jokes, emoticons (or
some other explicit humor indication) are virtually required under
certain circumstances in high-volume text-only communication forums
such as Usenet; the lack of verbal and visual cues can otherwise cause
what were intended to be humorous, sarcastic, ironic, or otherwise
non-100%-serious comments to be badly misinterpreted (not always even
by [4540]newbies), resulting in arguments and [4541]flame wars.
Hundreds of emoticons have been proposed, but only a few are in common
use. These include:
:-)
`smiley face' (for humor, laughter, friendliness, occasionally
sarcasm)
:-(
`frowney face' (for sadness, anger, or upset)
;-)
`half-smiley' ([4542]ha ha only serious); also known as
`semi-smiley' or `winkey face'.
:-/
`wry face'
(These may become more comprehensible if you tilt your head sideways,
to the left.)
The first two listed are by far the most frequently encountered.
Hyphenless forms of them are common on CompuServe, GEnie, and BIX; see
also [4543]bixie. On [4544]Usenet, `smiley' is often used as a generic
term synonymous with [4545]emoticon, as well as specifically for the
happy-face emoticon.
It appears that the emoticon was invented by one Scott Fahlman on the
CMU [4546]bboard systems sometime between early 1981 and mid-1982. He
later wrote: "I wish I had saved the original post, or at least
recorded the date for posterity, but I had no idea that I was starting
something that would soon pollute all the world's communication
channels." [GLS confirms that he remembers this original posting].
Note for the [4547]newbie: Overuse of the smiley is a mark of
loserhood! More than one per paragraph is a fairly sure sign that
you've gone over the line.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:EMP, Next:[4548]empire, Previous:[4549]emoticon, Up:[4550]= E =
EMP /E-M-P/
See [4551]spam.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:empire, Next:[4552]engine, Previous:[4553]EMP, Up:[4554]= E =
empire n.
Any of a family of military simulations derived from a game written by
Peter Langston many years ago. A number of multi-player variants of
varying degrees of sophistication exist, and one single-player version
implemented for both Unix and VMS; the latter is even available as
MS-DOS freeware. All are notoriously addictive. Of various commercial
derivatives the best known is probably "Empire Deluxe" on PCs and
Amigas.
Modern empire is a real-time wargame played over the internet by up to
120 players. Typical games last from 24 hours (blitz) to a couple of
months (long term). The amount of sleep you can get while playing is a
function of the rate at which updates occur and the number of
co-rulers of your country. Empire server software is available for
unix-like machines, and clients for Unix and other platforms. A
comprehensive history of the game is available at
[4555]http://www.empire.cx/infopages/History.html. The Empire resource
site is at [4556]http://www.empire.cx/.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:engine, Next:[4557]English, Previous:[4558]empire, Up:[4559]= E =
engine n.
1. A piece of hardware that encapsulates some function but can't be
used without some kind of [4560]front end. Today we have, especially,
`print engine': the guts of a laser printer. 2. An analogous piece of
software; notionally, one that does a lot of noisy crunching, such as
a `database engine'.
The hacker senses of `engine' are actually close to its original,
pre-Industrial-Revolution sense of a skill, clever device, or
instrument (the word is cognate to `ingenuity'). This sense had not
been completely eclipsed by the modern connotation of
power-transducing machinery in Charles Babbage's time, which explains
why he named the stored-program computer that he designed in 1844 the
`Analytical Engine'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:English, Next:[4561]enhancement, Previous:[4562]engine,
Up:[4563]= E =
English
1. n. obs. The source code for a program, which may be in any
language, as opposed to the linkable or executable binary produced
from it by a compiler. The idea behind the term is that to a real
hacker, a program written in his favorite programming language is at
least as readable as English. Usage: mostly by old-time hackers,
though recognizable in context. Today the prefereed shorthand is
sinply [4564]source. 2. The official name of the database language
used by the old Pick Operating System, actually a sort of crufty,
brain-damaged SQL with delusions of grandeur. The name permitted
[4565]marketroids to say "Yes, and you can program our computers in
English!" to ignorant [4566]suits without quite running afoul of the
truth-in-advertising laws.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:enhancement, Next:[4567]ENQ, Previous:[4568]English, Up:[4569]= E
=
enhancement n.
Common [4570]marketroid-speak for a bug [4571]fix. This abuse of
language is a popular and time-tested way to turn incompetence into
increased revenue. A hacker being ironic would instead call the fix a
[4572]feature -- or perhaps save some effort by declaring the bug
itself to be a feature.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ENQ, Next:[4573]EOF, Previous:[4574]enhancement, Up:[4575]= E =
ENQ /enkw/ or /enk/
[from the ASCII mnemonic ENQuire for 0000101] An on-line convention
for querying someone's availability. After opening a [4576]talk mode
connection to someone apparently in heavy hack mode, one might type
SYN SYN ENQ? (the SYNs representing notional synchronization bytes),
and expect a return of [4577]ACK or [4578]NAK depending on whether or
not the person felt interruptible. Compare [4579]ping, [4580]finger,
and the usage of FOO? listed under [4581]talk mode.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:EOF, Next:[4582]EOL, Previous:[4583]ENQ, Up:[4584]= E =
EOF /E-O-F/ n.
[abbreviation, `End Of File'] 1. [techspeak] The [4585]out-of-band
value returned by C's sequential character-input functions (and their
equivalents in other environments) when end of file has been reached.
This value is usually -1 under C libraries postdating V6 Unix, but was
originally 0. DOS hackers think EOF is ^Z, and a few Amiga hackers
think it's ^\. 2. [Unix] The keyboard character (usually control-D,
the ASCII EOT (End Of Transmission) character) that is mapped by the
terminal driver into an end-of-file condition. 3. Used by extension in
non-computer contexts when a human is doing something that can be
modeled as a sequential read and can't go further. "Yeah, I looked for
a list of 360 mnemonics to post as a joke, but I hit EOF pretty fast;
all the library had was a [4586]JCL manual." See also [4587]EOL.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:EOL, Next:[4588]EOU, Previous:[4589]EOF, Up:[4590]= E =
EOL /E-O-L/ n.
[End Of Line] Syn. for [4591]newline, derived perhaps from the
original CDC6600 Pascal. Now rare, but widely recognized and
occasionally used for brevity. Used in the example entry under
[4592]BNF. See also [4593]EOF.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:EOU, Next:[4594]epoch, Previous:[4595]EOL, Up:[4596]= E =
EOU /E-O-U/ n.
The mnemonic of a mythical ASCII control character (End Of User) that
would make an ASR-33 Teletype explode on receipt. This construction
parodies the numerous obscure delimiter and control characters left in
ASCII from the days when it was associated more with wire-service
teletypes than computers (e.g., FS, GS, RS, US, EM, SUB, ETX, and esp.
EOT). It is worth remembering that ASR-33s were big, noisy mechanical
beasts with a lot of clattering parts; the notion that one might
explode was nowhere near as ridiculous as it might seem to someone
sitting in front of a [4597]tube or flatscreen today.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:epoch, Next:[4598]epsilon, Previous:[4599]EOU, Up:[4600]= E =
epoch n.
[Unix: prob. from astronomical timekeeping] The time and date
corresponding to 0 in an operating system's clock and timestamp
values. Under most Unix versions the epoch is 00:00:00 GMT, January 1,
1970; under VMS, it's 00:00:00 of November 17, 1858 (base date of the
U.S. Naval Observatory's ephemerides); on a Macintosh, it's the
midnight beginning January 1 1904. System time is measured in seconds
or [4601]ticks past the epoch. Weird problems may ensue when the clock
wraps around (see [4602]wrap around), which is not necessarily a rare
event; on systems counting 10 ticks per second, a signed 32-bit count
of ticks is good only for 6.8 years. The 1-tick-per-second clock of
Unix is good only until January 18, 2038, assuming at least some
software continues to consider it signed and that word lengths don't
increase by then. See also [4603]wall time. Microsoft Windows, on the
other hand, has an epoch problem every 49.7 days - but this is seldom
noticed as Windows is almost incapable of staying up continuously for
that long.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:epsilon, Next:[4604]epsilon squared, Previous:[4605]epoch,
Up:[4606]= E =
epsilon
[see [4607]delta] 1. n. A small quantity of anything. "The cost is
epsilon." 2. adj. Very small, negligible; less than [4608]marginal.
"We can get this feature for epsilon cost." 3. `within epsilon of':
close enough to be indistinguishable for all practical purposes, even
closer than being `within delta of'. "That's not what I asked for, but
it's within epsilon of what I wanted." Alternatively, it may mean not
close enough, but very little is required to get it there: "My program
is within epsilon of working."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:epsilon squared, Next:[4609]era the, Previous:[4610]epsilon,
Up:[4611]= E =
epsilon squared n.
A quantity even smaller than [4612]epsilon, as small in comparison to
epsilon as epsilon is to something normal; completely negligible. If
you buy a supercomputer for a million dollars, the cost of the
thousand-dollar terminal to go with it is [4613]epsilon, and the cost
of the ten-dollar cable to connect them is epsilon squared. Compare
[4614]lost in the underflow, [4615]lost in the noise.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:era the, Next:[4616]Eric Conspiracy, Previous:[4617]epsilon
squared, Up:[4618]= E =
era n.
Syn. [4619]epoch. Webster's Unabridged makes these words almost
synonymous, but `era' more often connotes a span of time rather than a
point in time, whereas the reverse is true for [4620]epoch. The
[4621]epoch usage is recommended.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Eric Conspiracy, Next:[4622]Eris, Previous:[4623]era the,
Up:[4624]= E =
Eric Conspiracy n.
A shadowy group of mustachioed hackers named Eric first pinpointed as
a sinister conspiracy by an infamous talk.bizarre posting ca. 1987;
this was doubtless influenced by the numerous `Eric' jokes in the
Monty Python oeuvre. There do indeed seem to be considerably more
mustachioed Erics in hackerdom than the frequency of these three
traits can account for unless they are correlated in some arcane way.
Well-known examples include Eric Allman (he of the `Allman style'
described under [4625]indent style) and Erik Fair (co-author of NNTP);
your editor has heard from more than sixty others by email, and the
organization line `Eric Conspiracy Secret Laboratories' now emanates
regularly from more than one site. See the Eric Conspiracy Web Page at
[4626]http://www.ccil.org/~esr/ecsl/ for full details.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Eris, Next:[4627]erotics, Previous:[4628]Eric Conspiracy,
Up:[4629]= E =
Eris /e'ris/ n.
The Greek goddess of Chaos, Discord, Confusion, and Things You Know
Not Of; her name was latinized to Discordia and she was worshiped by
that name in Rome. Not a very friendly deity in the Classical
original, she was reinvented as a more benign personification of
creative anarchy starting in 1959 by the adherents of
[4630]Discordianism and has since been a semi-serious subject of
veneration in several `fringe' cultures, including hackerdom. See
[4631]Discordianism, [4632]Church of the SubGenius.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:erotics, Next:[4633]error 33, Previous:[4634]Eris, Up:[4635]= E =
erotics /ee-ro'tiks/ n.
[Helsinki University of Technology, Finland] n. English-language
university slang for electronics. Often used by hackers in Helsinki,
maybe because good electronics excites them and makes them warm.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:error 33, Next:[4636]eurodemo, Previous:[4637]erotics, Up:[4638]=
E =
error 33 [XEROX PARC] n.
1. Predicating one research effort upon the success of another. 2.
Allowing your own research effort to be placed on the critical path of
some other project (be it a research effort or not).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:eurodemo, Next:[4639]evil, Previous:[4640]error 33, Up:[4641]= E
=
eurodemo /yoor'o-dem`-o/
a [4642]demo, sense 4
_________________________________________________________________
Node:evil, Next:[4643]evil and rude, Previous:[4644]eurodemo,
Up:[4645]= E =
evil adj.
As used by hackers, implies that some system, program, person, or
institution is sufficiently maldesigned as to be not worth the bother
of dealing with. Unlike the adjectives in the
[4646]cretinous/[4647]losing/[4648]brain-damaged series, `evil' does
not imply incompetence or bad design, but rather a set of goals or
design criteria fatally incompatible with the speaker's. This usage is
more an esthetic and engineering judgment than a moral one in the
mainstream sense. "We thought about adding a [4649]Blue Glue interface
but decided it was too evil to deal with." "[4650]TECO is neat, but it
can be pretty evil if you're prone to typos." Often pronounced with
the first syllable lengthened, as /eeee'vil/. Compare [4651]evil and
rude.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:evil and rude, Next:[4652]Evil Empire, Previous:[4653]evil,
Up:[4654]= E =
evil and rude adj.
Both [4655]evil and [4656]rude, but with the additional connotation
that the rudeness was due to malice rather than incompetence. Thus,
for example: Microsoft's Windows NT is evil because it's a competent
implementation of a bad design; it's rude because it's gratuitously
incompatible with Unix in places where compatibility would have been
as easy and effective to do; but it's evil and rude because the
incompatibilities are apparently there not to fix design bugs in Unix
but rather to lock hapless customers and developers into the Microsoft
way. Hackish evil and rude is close to the mainstream sense of `evil'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Evil Empire, Next:[4657]exa-, Previous:[4658]evil and rude,
Up:[4659]= E =
Evil Empire n.
[from Ronald Reagan's famous characterization of the communist Soviet
Union] Formerly [4660]IBM, now [4661]Microsoft. Functionally, the
company most hackers love to hate at any given time. Hackers like to
see themselves as romantic rebels against the Evil Empire, and
frequently adopt this role to the point of ascribing rather more power
and malice to the Empire than it actually has. See also [4662]Borg and
search for [4663]Evil Empire pages on the Web.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:exa-, Next:[4664]examining the entrails, Previous:[4665]Evil
Empire, Up:[4666]= E =
exa- /ek's*/ pref.
[SI] See [4667]quantifiers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:examining the entrails, Next:[4668]EXCH, Previous:[4669]exa-,
Up:[4670]= E =
examining the entrails n.
The process of [4671]grovelling through a [4672]core dump or hex image
in an attempt to discover the bug that brought a program or system
down. The reference is to divination from the entrails of a sacrified
animal. Compare [4673]runes, [4674]incantation, [4675]black art,
[4676]desk check.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:EXCH, Next:[4677]excl, Previous:[4678]examining the entrails,
Up:[4679]= E =
EXCH /eks'ch*/ or /eksch/ vt.
To exchange two things, each for the other; to swap places. If you
point to two people sitting down and say "Exch!", you are asking them
to trade places. EXCH, meaning EXCHange, was originally the name of a
PDP-10 instruction that exchanged the contents of a register and a
memory location. Many newer hackers are probably thinking instead of
the [4680]PostScript exchange operator (which is usually written in
lowercase).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:excl, Next:[4681]EXE, Previous:[4682]EXCH, Up:[4683]= E =
excl /eks'kl/ n.
Abbreviation for `exclamation point'. See [4684]bang, [4685]shriek,
[4686]ASCII.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:EXE, Next:[4687]exec, Previous:[4688]excl, Up:[4689]= E =
EXE /eks'ee/ or /eek'see/ or /E-X-E/ n.
An executable binary file. Some operating systems (notably MS-DOS,
VMS, and TWENEX) use the extension .EXE to mark such files. This usage
is also occasionally found among Unix programmers even though Unix
executables don't have any required suffix.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:exec, Next:[4690]exercise left as an, Previous:[4691]EXE,
Up:[4692]= E =
exec /eg-zek'/ or /eks'ek/ vt., n.
1. [Unix: from `execute'] Synonym for [4693]chain, derives from the
exec(2) call. 2. [from `executive'] obs. The command interpreter for
an [4694]OS (see [4695]shell); term esp. used around mainframes, and
prob. derived from UNIVAC's archaic EXEC 2 and EXEC 8 operating
systems. 3. At IBM and VM/CMS shops, the equivalent of a shell command
file (among VM/CMS users).
The mainstream `exec' as an abbreviation for (human) executive is not
used. To a hacker, an `exec' is a always a program, never a person.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:exercise left as an, Next:[4696]Exon, Previous:[4697]exec,
Up:[4698]= E =
exercise, left as an adj.
[from technical books] Used to complete a proof when one doesn't mind
a [4699]handwave, or to avoid one entirely. The complete phrase is:
"The proof [or `the rest'] is left as an exercise for the reader."
This comment has occasionally been attached to unsolved research
problems by authors possessed of either an evil sense of humor or a
vast faith in the capabilities of their audiences.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Exon, Next:[4700]Exploder, Previous:[4701]exercise left as an,
Up:[4702]= E =
Exon /eks'on/ excl.
A generic obscenity that quickly entered wide use on the Internet and
Usenet after [4703]Black Thursday. From the last name of Senator James
Exon (Democrat-Nebraska), primary author of the [4704]CDA.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Exploder, Next:[4705]exploit, Previous:[4706]Exon, Up:[4707]= E =
Exploder n.
Used within Microsoft to refer to the Windows Explorer, the interface
component of Windows 95 and WinNT 4. Our spies report that most of the
heavy guns at MS came from a Unix background and use command line
utilities; even they are scornful of the over-gingerbreaded [4708]WIMP
environments that they have been called upon to create.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:exploit, Next:[4709]external memory, Previous:[4710]Exploder,
Up:[4711]= E =
exploit n.
[originally cracker slang] 1. A vulnerability in software that can be
used for breaking security or otherwise attacking an Internet host
over the network. The [4712]Ping O' Death is a famous exploit. 2. More
grammatically, a program that exploits an exploit in sense 1,
_________________________________________________________________
Node:external memory, Next:[4713]eye candy, Previous:[4714]exploit,
Up:[4715]= E =
external memory n.
A memo pad, palmtop computer, or written notes. "Hold on while I write
that to external memory". The analogy is with store or DRAM versus
nonvolatile disk storage on computers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:eye candy, Next:[4716]eyeball search, Previous:[4717]external
memory, Up:[4718]= E =
eye candy /i:' kand`ee/ n.
[from mainstream slang "ear candy"] A display of some sort that's
presented to [4719]lusers to keep them distracted while the program
performs necessary background tasks. "Give 'em some eye candy while
the back-end [4720]slurps that [4721]BLOB into core." Reported as
mainstream usage among players of graphics-heavy computer games. We're
also told this term is mainstream slang for soft pornography, but that
sense does not appear to be live among hackers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:eyeball search, Next:[4722]face time, Previous:[4723]eye candy,
Up:[4724]= E =
eyeball search n.,v.
To look for something in a mass of code or data with one's own native
optical sensors, as opposed to using some sort of pattern matching
software like [4725]grep or any other automated search tool. Also
called a [4726]vgrep; compare [4727]vdiff, [4728]desk check.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:= F =, Next:[4729]= G =, Previous:[4730]= E =, Up:[4731]The
Jargon Lexicon
= F =
* [4732]face time:
* [4733]factor:
* [4734]fairings:
* [4735]fall over:
* [4736]fall through:
* [4737]fan:
* [4738]fandango on core:
* [4739]FAQ:
* [4740]FAQ list:
* [4741]FAQL:
* [4742]faradize:
* [4743]farkled:
* [4744]farming:
* [4745]fascist:
* [4746]fat electrons:
* [4747]fat-finger:
* [4748]faulty:
* [4749]fd leak:
* [4750]fear and loathing:
* [4751]feature:
* [4752]feature creature:
* [4753]feature creep:
* [4754]feature key:
* [4755]feature shock:
* [4756]featurectomy:
* [4757]feep:
* [4758]feeper:
* [4759]feeping creature:
* [4760]feeping creaturism:
* [4761]feetch feetch:
* [4762]fence:
* [4763]fencepost error:
* [4764]fiber-seeking backhoe:
* [4765]FidoNet:
* [4766]field circus:
* [4767]field servoid:
* [4768]Fight-o-net:
* [4769]File Attach:
* [4770]File Request:
* [4771]file signature:
* [4772]filk:
* [4773]film at 11:
* [4774]filter:
* [4775]Finagle's Law:
* [4776]fine:
* [4777]finger:
* [4778]finger trouble:
* [4779]finger-pointing syndrome:
* [4780]finn:
* [4781]firebottle:
* [4782]firefighting:
* [4783]firehose syndrome:
* [4784]firewall code:
* [4785]firewall machine:
* [4786]fireworks mode:
* [4787]firmware:
* [4788]firmy:
* [4789]fish:
* [4790]FISH queue:
* [4791]FITNR:
* [4792]fix:
* [4793]FIXME:
* [4794]flag:
* [4795]flag day:
* [4796]flaky:
* [4797]flamage:
* [4798]flame:
* [4799]flame bait:
* [4800]flame on:
* [4801]flame war:
* [4802]flamer:
* [4803]flap:
* [4804]flarp:
* [4805]flash crowd:
* [4806]flat:
* [4807]flat-ASCII:
* [4808]flat-file:
* [4809]flatten:
* [4810]flavor:
* [4811]flavorful:
* [4812]flippy:
* [4813]flood:
* [4814]flowchart:
* [4815]flower key:
* [4816]flush:
* [4817]flypage:
* [4818]Flyspeck 3:
* [4819]flytrap:
* [4820]FM:
* [4821]fnord:
* [4822]FOAF:
* [4823]FOD:
* [4824]fold case:
* [4825]followup:
* [4826]fontology:
* [4827]foo:
* [4828]foobar:
* [4829]fool:
* [4830]fool file:
* [4831]Foonly:
* [4832]footprint:
* [4833]for free:
* [4834]for the rest of us:
* [4835]for values of:
* [4836]fora:
* [4837]foreground:
* [4838]fork:
* [4839]fork bomb:
* [4840]forked:
* [4841]Fortrash:
* [4842]fortune cookie:
* [4843]forum:
* [4844]fossil:
* [4845]four-color glossies:
* [4846]frag:
* [4847]fragile:
* [4848]fred:
* [4849]Fred Foobar:
* [4850]frednet:
* [4851]free software:
* [4852]freeware:
* [4853]freeze:
* [4854]fried:
* [4855]frink:
* [4856]friode:
* [4857]fritterware:
* [4858]frob:
* [4859]frobnicate:
* [4860]frobnitz:
* [4861]frog:
* [4862]frogging:
* [4863]front end:
* [4864]frotz:
* [4865]frotzed:
* [4866]frowney:
* [4867]FRS:
* [4868]fry:
* [4869]fscking:
* [4870]FSF:
* [4871]FTP:
* [4872]-fu:
* [4873]FUBAR:
* [4874]fuck me harder:
* [4875]FUD:
* [4876]FUD wars:
* [4877]fudge:
* [4878]fudge factor:
* [4879]fuel up:
* [4880]Full Monty:
* [4881]fum:
* [4882]functino:
* [4883]funky:
* [4884]funny money:
* [4885]furrfu:
* [4886]fuzzball:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:face time, Next:[4887]factor, Previous:[4888]eyeball search,
Up:[4889]= F =
face time n.
[common] Time spent interacting with somebody face-to-face (as opposed
to via electronic links). "Oh, yeah, I spent some face time with him
at the last Usenix."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:factor, Next:[4890]fairings, Previous:[4891]face time, Up:[4892]=
F =
factor n.
See [4893]coefficient of X.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fairings, Next:[4894]fall over, Previous:[4895]factor, Up:[4896]=
F =
fairings n. /fer'ingz/
[FreeBSD; orig. a typo for `fairness'] A term thrown out in discussion
whenever a completely and transparently nonsensical argument in one's
favor(?) seems called for, e,g. at the end of a really long thread for
which the outcome is no longer even cared about since everyone is now
so sick of it; or in rebuttal to another nonsensical argument ("Change
the loader to look for /kernel.pl? What about fairings?")
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fall over, Next:[4897]fall through, Previous:[4898]fairings,
Up:[4899]= F =
fall over vi.
[IBM] Yet another synonym for [4900]crash or [4901]lose. `Fall over
hard' equates to [4902]crash and burn.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fall through, Next:[4903]fan, Previous:[4904]fall over,
Up:[4905]= F =
fall through v.
(n. `fallthrough', var. `fall-through') 1. To exit a loop by
exhaustion, i.e., by having fulfilled its exit condition rather than
via a break or exception condition that exits from the middle of it.
This usage appears to be really old, dating from the 1940s and 1950s.
2. To fail a test that would have passed control to a subroutine or
some other distant portion of code. 3. In C, `fall-through' occurs
when the flow of execution in a switch statement reaches a case label
other than by jumping there from the switch header, passing a point
where one would normally expect to find a break. A trivial example:
switch (color)
{
case GREEN:
do_green();
break;
case PINK:
do_pink();
/* FALL THROUGH */
case RED:
do_red();
break;
default:
do_blue();
break;
}
The variant spelling /* FALL THRU */ is also common.
The effect of the above code is to do_green() when color is GREEN,
do_red() when color is RED, do_blue() on any other color other than
PINK, and (and this is the important part) do_pink() and then do_red()
when color is PINK. Fall-through is [4906]considered harmful by some,
though there are contexts (such as the coding of state machines) in
which it is natural; it is generally considered good practice to
include a comment highlighting the fall-through where one would
normally expect a break. See also [4907]Duff's device.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fan, Next:[4908]fandango on core, Previous:[4909]fall through,
Up:[4910]= F =
fan n.
Without qualification, indicates a fan of science fiction, especially
one who goes to [4911]cons and tends to hang out with other fans. Many
hackers are fans, so this term has been imported from fannish slang;
however, unlike much fannish slang it is recognized by most
non-fannish hackers. Among SF fans the plural is correctly `fen', but
this usage is not automatic to hackers. "Laura reads the stuff
occasionally but isn't really a fan."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fandango on core, Next:[4912]FAQ, Previous:[4913]fan, Up:[4914]=
F =
fandango on core n.
[Unix/C hackers, from the Iberian dance] In C, a wild pointer that
runs out of bounds, causing a [4915]core dump, or corrupts the
malloc(3) [4916]arena in such a way as to cause mysterious failures
later on, is sometimes said to have `done a fandango on core'. On
low-end personal machines without an MMU (or Windows boxes, which have
an MMU but use it incompetently), this can corrupt the OS itself,
causing massive lossage. Other frenetic dances such as the cha-cha or
the watusi, may be substituted. See [4917]aliasing bug,
[4918]precedence lossage, [4919]smash the stack, [4920]memory leak,
[4921]memory smash, [4922]overrun screw, [4923]core.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FAQ, Next:[4924]FAQ list, Previous:[4925]fandango on core,
Up:[4926]= F =
FAQ /F-A-Q/ or /fak/ n.
[Usenet] 1. A Frequently Asked Question. 2. A compendium of
accumulated lore, posted periodically to high-volume newsgroups in an
attempt to forestall such questions. Some people prefer the term `FAQ
list' or `FAQL' /fa'kl/, reserving `FAQ' for sense 1.
This lexicon itself serves as a good example of a collection of one
kind of lore, although it is far too big for a regular FAQ posting.
Examples: "What is the proper type of NULL?" and "What's that funny
name for the # character?" are both Frequently Asked Questions.
Several FAQs refer readers to this file.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FAQ list, Next:[4927]FAQL, Previous:[4928]FAQ, Up:[4929]= F =
FAQ list /F-A-Q list/ or /fak list/ n.
[common; Usenet] Syn [4930]FAQ, sense 2.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FAQL, Next:[4931]faradize, Previous:[4932]FAQ list, Up:[4933]= F
=
FAQL /fa'kl/ n.
Syn. [4934]FAQ list.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:faradize, Next:[4935]farkled, Previous:[4936]FAQL, Up:[4937]= F =
faradize /far'*-di:z/ v.
[US Geological Survey] To start any hyper-addictive process or trend,
or to continue adding current to such a trend. Telling one user about
a new octo-tetris game you compiled would be a faradizing act -- in
two weeks you might find your entire department playing the faradic
game.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:farkled, Next:[4938]farming, Previous:[4939]faradize, Up:[4940]=
F =
farkled /far'kld/ adj.
[DeVry Institute of Technology, Atlanta] Syn. [4941]hosed. Poss. owes
something to Yiddish `farblondjet' and/or the `Farkle Family' skits on
"Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In", a popular comedy show of the late
1960s.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:farming, Next:[4942]fascist, Previous:[4943]farkled, Up:[4944]= F
=
farming n.
[Adelaide University, Australia] What the heads of a disk drive are
said to do when they plow little furrows in the magnetic media.
Associated with a [4945]crash. Typically used as follows: "Oh no, the
machine has just crashed; I hope the hard drive hasn't gone
[4946]farming again." No longer common; modern drives automatically
park their heads in a safe zone on power-down, so it takes a real
mechanical problem to induce this.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fascist, Next:[4947]fat electrons, Previous:[4948]farming,
Up:[4949]= F =
fascist adj.
1. [common] Said of a computer system with excessive or annoying
security barriers, usage limits, or access policies. The implication
is that said policies are preventing hackers from getting interesting
work done. The variant `fascistic' seems to have been preferred at
MIT, poss. by analogy with `touristic' (see [4950]tourist or under the
influence of German/Yiddish `faschistisch'). 2. In the design of
languages and other software tools, `the fascist alternative' is the
most restrictive and structured way of capturing a particular
function; the implication is that this may be desirable in order to
simplify the implementation or provide tighter error checking. Compare
[4951]bondage-and-discipline language, although that term is global
rather than local.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fat electrons, Next:[4952]fat-finger, Previous:[4953]fascist,
Up:[4954]= F =
fat electrons n.
Old-time hacker David Cargill's theory on the causation of computer
glitches. Your typical electric utility draws its line current out of
the big generators with a pair of coil taps located near the top of
the dynamo. When the normal tap brushes get dirty, they take them off
line to clean them up, and use special auxiliary taps on the bottom of
the coil. Now, this is a problem, because when they do that they get
not ordinary or `thin' electrons, but the fat'n'sloppy electrons that
are heavier and so settle to the bottom of the generator. These flow
down ordinary wires just fine, but when they have to turn a sharp
corner (as in an integrated-circuit via), they're apt to get stuck.
This is what causes computer glitches. [Fascinating. Obviously, fat
electrons must gain mass by [4955]bogon absorption --ESR] Compare
[4956]bogon, [4957]magic smoke.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fat-finger, Next:[4958]faulty, Previous:[4959]fat electrons,
Up:[4960]= F =
fat-finger vt.
1. To introduce a typo while editing in such a way that the resulting
manglification of a configuration file does something useless,
damaging, or wildly unexpected. "NSI fat-fingered their DNS zone file
and took half the net down again." 2. More generally, any typo that
produces dramatically bad results.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:faulty, Next:[4961]fd leak, Previous:[4962]fat-finger, Up:[4963]=
F =
faulty adj.
Non-functional; buggy. Same denotation as [4964]bletcherous,
[4965]losing, q.v., but the connotation is much milder.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fd leak, Next:[4966]fear and loathing, Previous:[4967]faulty,
Up:[4968]= F =
fd leak /F-D leek/ n.
A kind of programming bug analogous to a [4969]core leak, in which a
program fails to close file descriptors (`fd's) after file operations
are completed, and thus eventually runs out of them. See [4970]leak.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fear and loathing, Next:[4971]feature, Previous:[4972]fd leak,
Up:[4973]= F =
fear and loathing n.
[from Hunter S. Thompson] A state inspired by the prospect of dealing
with certain real-world systems and standards that are totally
[4974]brain-damaged but ubiquitous -- Intel 8086s, or [4975]COBOL, or
[4976]EBCDIC, or any [4977]IBM machine bigger than a workstation.
"Ack! They want PCs to be able to talk to the AI machine. Fear and
loathing time!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:feature, Next:[4978]feature creature, Previous:[4979]fear and
loathing, Up:[4980]= F =
feature n.
1. [common] A good property or behavior (as of a program). Whether it
was intended or not is immaterial. 2. [common] An intended property or
behavior (as of a program). Whether it is good or not is immaterial
(but if bad, it is also a [4981]misfeature). 3. A surprising property
or behavior; in particular, one that is purposely inconsistent because
it works better that way -- such an inconsistency is therefore a
[4982]feature and not a [4983]bug. This kind of feature is sometimes
called a [4984]miswart; see that entry for a classic example. 4. A
property or behavior that is gratuitous or unnecessary, though perhaps
also impressive or cute. For example, one feature of Common LISP's
format function is the ability to print numbers in two different
Roman-numeral formats (see [4985]bells whistles and gongs). 5. A
property or behavior that was put in to help someone else but that
happens to be in your way. 6. [common] A bug that has been documented.
To call something a feature sometimes means the author of the program
did not consider the particular case, and that the program responded
in a way that was unexpected but not strictly incorrect. A standard
joke is that a bug can be turned into a [4986]feature simply by
documenting it (then theoretically no one can complain about it
because it's in the manual), or even by simply declaring it to be
good. "That's not a bug, that's a feature!" is a common catchphrase.
See also [4987]feetch feetch, [4988]creeping featurism, [4989]wart,
[4990]green lightning.
The relationship among bugs, features, misfeatures, warts, and
miswarts might be clarified by the following hypothetical exchange
between two hackers on an airliner:
A: "This seat doesn't recline."
B: "That's not a bug, that's a feature. There is an emergency exit
door built around the window behind you, and the route has to be kept
clear."
A: "Oh. Then it's a misfeature; they should have increased the spacing
between rows here."
B: "Yes. But if they'd increased spacing in only one section it would
have been a wart -- they would've had to make nonstandard-length
ceiling panels to fit over the displaced seats."
A: "A miswart, actually. If they increased spacing throughout they'd
lose several rows and a chunk out of the profit margin. So unequal
spacing would actually be the Right Thing."
B: "Indeed."
`Undocumented feature' is a common, allegedly humorous euphemism for a
[4991]bug. There's a related joke that is sometimes referred to as the
"one-question geek test". You say to someone "I saw a Volkswagen
Beetle today with a vanity license plate that read FEATURE". If he/she
laughs, he/she is a geek (see [4992]computer geek, sense 2).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:feature creature, Next:[4993]feature creep,
Previous:[4994]feature, Up:[4995]= F =
feature creature n.
[poss. fr. slang `creature feature' for a horror movie] 1. One who
loves to add features to designs or programs, perhaps at the expense
of coherence, concision, or [4996]taste. 2. Alternately, a mythical
being that induces otherwise rational programmers to perpetrate such
crocks. See also [4997]feeping creaturism, [4998]creeping featurism.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:feature creep, Next:[4999]feature key, Previous:[5000]feature
creature, Up:[5001]= F =
feature creep n.
[common] The result of [5002]creeping featurism, as in "Emacs has a
bad case of feature creep".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:feature key, Next:[5003]feature shock, Previous:[5004]feature
creep, Up:[5005]= F =
feature key n.
[common] The Macintosh key with the cloverleaf graphic on its keytop;
sometimes referred to as `flower', `pretzel', `clover', `propeller',
`beanie' (an apparent reference to the major feature of a propeller
beanie), [5006]splat, `open-apple' or (officially, in Mac
documentation) the `command key'. In French, the term `papillon'
(butterfly) has been reported. The proliferation of terms for this
creature may illustrate one subtle peril of iconic interfaces.
Many people have been mystified by the cloverleaf-like symbol that
appears on the feature key. Its oldest name is `cross of St. Hannes',
but it occurs in pre-Christian Viking art as a decorative motif.
Throughout Scandinavia today the road agencies use it to mark sites of
historical interest. Apple picked up the symbol from an early Mac
developer who happened to be Swedish. Apple documentation gives the
translation "interesting feature"!
There is some dispute as to the proper (Swedish) name of this symbol.
It technically stands for the word `sevärdhet' (thing worth seeing);
many of these are old churches. Some Swedes report as an idiom for the
sign the word `kyrka', cognate to English `church' and pronounced
(roughly) /chur'ka/ in modern Swedish. Others say this is nonsense.
Other idioms reported for the sign are `runa' (rune) or `runsten'
/roon'stn/ (runestone), derived from the fact that many of the
interesting features are Viking rune-stones. The term `fornminne'
/foorn'min'*/ (relic of antiquity, ancient monument) is also reported,
especially among those who think that the Mac itself is a relic of
antiquity.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:feature shock, Next:[5007]featurectomy, Previous:[5008]feature
key, Up:[5009]= F =
feature shock n.
[from Alvin Toffler's book title "Future Shock"] A user's (or
programmer's!) confusion when confronted with a package that has too
many features and poor introductory material.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:featurectomy, Next:[5010]feep, Previous:[5011]feature shock,
Up:[5012]= F =
featurectomy /fee`ch*r-ek't*-mee/ n.
The act of removing a feature from a program. Featurectomies come in
two flavors, the `righteous' and the `reluctant'. Righteous
featurectomies are performed because the remover believes the program
would be more elegant without the feature, or there is already an
equivalent and better way to achieve the same end. (Doing so is not
quite the same thing as removing a [5013]misfeature.) Reluctant
featurectomies are performed to satisfy some external constraint such
as code size or execution speed.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:feep, Next:[5014]feeper, Previous:[5015]featurectomy, Up:[5016]=
F =
feep /feep/
1. n. The soft electronic `bell' sound of a display terminal (except
for a VT-52); a beep (in fact, the microcomputer world seems to prefer
[5017]beep). 2. vi. To cause the display to make a feep sound. ASR-33s
(the original TTYs) do not feep; they have mechanical bells that ring.
Alternate forms: [5018]beep, `bleep', or just about anything suitably
onomatopoeic. (Jeff MacNelly, in his comic strip "Shoe", uses the word
`eep' for sounds made by computer terminals and video games; this is
perhaps the closest written approximation yet.) The term `breedle' was
sometimes heard at SAIL, where the terminal bleepers are not
particularly soft (they sound more like the musical equivalent of a
raspberry or Bronx cheer; for a close approximation, imagine the sound
of a Star Trek communicator's beep lasting for five seconds). The
`feeper' on a VT-52 has been compared to the sound of a '52 Chevy
stripping its gears. See also [5019]ding.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:feeper, Next:[5020]feeping creature, Previous:[5021]feep,
Up:[5022]= F =
feeper /fee'pr/ n.
The device in a terminal or workstation (usually a loudspeaker of some
kind) that makes the [5023]feep sound.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:feeping creature, Next:[5024]feeping creaturism,
Previous:[5025]feeper, Up:[5026]= F =
feeping creature n.
[from [5027]feeping creaturism] An unnecessary feature; a bit of
[5028]chrome that, in the speaker's judgment, is the camel's nose for
a whole horde of new features.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:feeping creaturism, Next:[5029]feetch feetch,
Previous:[5030]feeping creature, Up:[5031]= F =
feeping creaturism /fee'ping kree`ch*r-izm/ n.
A deliberate spoonerism for [5032]creeping featurism, meant to imply
that the system or program in question has become a misshapen creature
of hacks. This term isn't really well defined, but it sounds so neat
that most hackers have said or heard it. It is probably reinforced by
an image of terminals prowling about in the dark making their
customary noises.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:feetch feetch, Next:[5033]fence, Previous:[5034]feeping
creaturism, Up:[5035]= F =
feetch feetch /feech feech/ interj.
If someone tells you about some new improvement to a program, you
might respond: "Feetch, feetch!" The meaning of this depends
critically on vocal inflection. With enthusiasm, it means something
like "Boy, that's great! What a great hack!" Grudgingly or with
obvious doubt, it means "I don't know; it sounds like just one more
unnecessary and complicated thing". With a tone of resignation, it
means, "Well, I'd rather keep it simple, but I suppose it has to be
done".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fence, Next:[5036]fencepost error, Previous:[5037]feetch feetch,
Up:[5038]= F =
fence n. 1.
A sequence of one or more distinguished ([5039]out-of-band) characters
(or other data items), used to delimit a piece of data intended to be
treated as a unit (the computer-science literature calls this a
`sentinel'). The NUL (ASCII 0000000) character that terminates strings
in C is a fence. Hex FF is also (though slightly less frequently) used
this way. See [5040]zigamorph. 2. An extra data value inserted in an
array or other data structure in order to allow some normal test on
the array's contents also to function as a termination test. For
example, a highly optimized routine for finding a value in an array
might artificially place a copy of the value to be searched for after
the last slot of the array, thus allowing the main search loop to
search for the value without having to check at each pass whether the
end of the array had been reached. 3. [among users of optimizing
compilers] Any technique, usually exploiting knowledge about the
compiler, that blocks certain optimizations. Used when explicit
mechanisms are not available or are overkill. Typically a hack: "I
call a dummy procedure there to force a flush of the optimizer's
register-coloring info" can be expressed by the shorter "That's a
fence procedure".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fencepost error, Next:[5041]fiber-seeking backhoe,
Previous:[5042]fence, Up:[5043]= F =
fencepost error n.
1. [common] A problem with the discrete equivalent of a boundary
condition, often exhibited in programs by iterative loops. From the
following problem: "If you build a fence 100 feet long with posts 10
feet apart, how many posts do you need?" (Either 9 or 11 is a better
answer than the obvious 10.) For example, suppose you have a long list
or array of items, and want to process items m through n; how many
items are there? The obvious answer is n - m, but that is off by one;
the right answer is n - m + 1. A program that used the `obvious'
formula would have a fencepost error in it. See also [5044]zeroth and
[5045]off-by-one error, and note that not all off-by-one errors are
fencepost errors. The game of Musical Chairs involves a catastrophic
off-by-one error where N people try to sit in N - 1 chairs, but it's
not a fencepost error. Fencepost errors come from counting things
rather than the spaces between them, or vice versa, or by neglecting
to consider whether one should count one or both ends of a row. 2.
[rare] An error induced by unexpected regularities in input values,
which can (for instance) completely thwart a theoretically efficient
binary tree or hash table implementation. (The error here involves the
difference between expected and worst case behaviors of an algorithm.)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fiber-seeking backhoe, Next:[5046]FidoNet,
Previous:[5047]fencepost error, Up:[5048]= F =
fiber-seeking backhoe
[common among backbone ISP personnel] Any of a genus of large,
disruptive machines which routinely cut critical backbone links,
creating Internet outages and [5049]packet over air problems.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FidoNet, Next:[5050]field circus, Previous:[5051]fiber-seeking
backhoe, Up:[5052]= F =
FidoNet n.
A worldwide hobbyist network of personal computers which exchanges
mail, discussion groups, and files. Founded in 1984 and originally
consisting only of IBM PCs and compatibles, FidoNet now includes such
diverse machines as Apple ][s, Ataris, Amigas, and Unix systems. For
years FidoNet actually grew faster than Usenet, but the advent of
cheap Internet access probably means its days are numbered. In early
1999 Fidonet has approximately 30,000 nodes, down from 38K in 1996.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:field circus, Next:[5053]field servoid, Previous:[5054]FidoNet,
Up:[5055]= F =
field circus n.
[a derogatory pun on `field service'] The field service organization
of any hardware manufacturer, but originally [5056]DEC. There is an
entire genre of jokes about field circus engineers:
Q: How can you recognize a field circus engineer
with a flat tire?
A: He's changing one tire at a time to see which one is flat.
Q: How can you recognize a field circus engineer
who is out of gas?
A: He's changing one tire at a time to see which one is flat.
Q: How can you tell it's your field circus engineer?
A: The spare is flat, too.
[See [5057]Easter egging for additional insight on these jokes.]
There is also the `Field Circus Cheer' (from the old [5058]plan file
for DEC on MIT-AI):
Maynard! Maynard!
Don't mess with us!
We're mean and we're tough!
If you get us confused
We'll screw up your stuff.
(DEC's service HQ, still extant under the Compaq regime, is located in
Maynard, Massachusetts.)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:field servoid, Next:[5059]Fight-o-net, Previous:[5060]field
circus, Up:[5061]= F =
field servoid [play on `android'] /fee'ld ser'voyd/ n.
Representative of a field service organization (see [5062]field
circus). This has many of the implications of [5063]droid.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Fight-o-net, Next:[5064]File Attach, Previous:[5065]field
servoid, Up:[5066]= F =
Fight-o-net n.
[FidoNet] Deliberate distortion of [5067]FidoNet, often applied after
a flurry of [5068]flamage in a particular [5069]echo, especially the
SYSOP echo or Fidonews (see [5070]'Snooze).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:File Attach, Next:[5071]File Request, Previous:[5072]Fight-o-net,
Up:[5073]= F =
File Attach [FidoNet]
1. n. A file sent along with a mail message from one FidoNet to
another. 2. vt. Sending someone a file by using the File Attach option
in a FidoNet mailer.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:File Request, Next:[5074]file signature, Previous:[5075]File
Attach, Up:[5076]= F =
File Request [FidoNet]
1. n. The [5077]FidoNet equivalent of [5078]FTP, in which one FidoNet
system automatically dials another and [5079]snarfs one or more files.
Often abbreviated `FReq'; files are often announced as being
"available for FReq" in the same way that files are announced as being
"available for/by anonymous FTP" on the Internet. 2. vt. The act of
getting a copy of a file by using the File Request option of the
FidoNet mailer.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:file signature, Next:[5080]filk, Previous:[5081]File Request,
Up:[5082]= F =
file signature n.
A [5083]magic number, sense 3.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:filk, Next:[5084]film at 11, Previous:[5085]file signature,
Up:[5086]= F =
filk /filk/ n.,v.
[from SF fandom, where a typo for `folk' was adopted as a new word] A
popular or folk song with lyrics revised or completely new lyrics
and/or music, intended for humorous effect when read, and/or to be
sung late at night at SF conventions. There is a flourishing subgenre
of these called `computer filks', written by hackers and often
containing rather sophisticated technical humor. See [5087]double
bucky for an example. Compare [5088]grilf, [5089]hing, [5090]pr0n, and
[5091]newsfroup.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:film at 11, Next:[5092]filter, Previous:[5093]filk, Up:[5094]= F
=
film at 11
[MIT: in parody of TV newscasters] 1. Used in conversation to announce
ordinary events, with a sarcastic implication that these events are
earth-shattering. "[5095]ITS crashes; film at 11." "Bug found in
scheduler; film at 11." 2. Also widely used outside MIT to indicate
that additional information will be available at some future time,
without the implication of anything particularly ordinary about the
referenced event. For example, "The mail file server died this
morning; we found garbage all over the root directory. Film at 11."
would indicate that a major failure had occurred but that the people
working on it have no additional information about it as yet; use of
the phrase in this way suggests gently that the problem is liable to
be fixed more quickly if the people doing the fixing can spend time
doing the fixing rather than responding to questions, the answers to
which will appear on the normal "11:00 news", if people will just be
patient.
The variant "MPEGs at 11" has recently been cited (MPEG is a
digital-video format.)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:filter, Next:[5096]Finagle's Law, Previous:[5097]film at 11,
Up:[5098]= F =
filter n.
[very common; orig. [5099]Unix, now also in [5100]MS-DOS] A program
that processes an input data stream into an output data stream in some
well-defined way, and does no I/O to anywhere else except possibly on
error conditions; one designed to be used as a stage in a `pipeline'
(see [5101]plumbing). Compare [5102]sponge.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Finagle's Law, Next:[5103]fine, Previous:[5104]filter, Up:[5105]=
F =
Finagle's Law n.
The generalized or `folk' version of [5106]Murphy's Law, fully named
"Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives" and usually rendered "Anything
that can go wrong, will". One variant favored among hackers is "The
perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum" (but see also
[5107]Hanlon's Razor). The label `Finagle's Law' was popularized by SF
author Larry Niven in several stories depicting a frontier culture of
asteroid miners; this `Belter' culture professed a religion and/or
running joke involving the worship of the dread god Finagle and his
mad prophet Murphy. Some technical and scientific cultures (e.g.,
paleontologists) know it under the name `Sod's Law'; this usage may be
more common in Great Britain.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fine, Next:[5108]finger, Previous:[5109]Finagle's Law, Up:[5110]=
F =
fine adj.
[WPI] Good, but not good enough to be [5111]cuspy. The word `fine' is
used elsewhere, of course, but without the implicit comparison to the
higher level implied by [5112]cuspy.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:finger, Next:[5113]finger trouble, Previous:[5114]fine,
Up:[5115]= F =
finger
[WAITS, via BSD Unix] 1. n. A program that displays information about
a particular user or all users logged on the system, or a remote
system. Typically shows full name, last login time, idle time,
terminal line, and terminal location (where applicable). May also
display a [5116]plan file left by the user (see also [5117]Hacking X
for Y). 2. vt. To apply finger to a username. 3. vt. By extension, to
check a human's current state by any means. "Foodp?" "T!" "OK, finger
Lisa and see if she's idle." 4. Any picture (composed of ASCII
characters) depicting `the finger'. Originally a humorous component of
one's plan file to deter the curious fingerer (sense 2), it has
entered the arsenal of some [5118]flamers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:finger trouble, Next:[5119]finger-pointing syndrome,
Previous:[5120]finger, Up:[5121]= F =
finger trouble n.
Mistyping, typos, or generalized keyboard incompetence (this is
surprisingly common among hackers, given the amount of time they spend
at keyboards). "I keep putting colons at the end of statements instead
of semicolons", "Finger trouble again, eh?".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:finger-pointing syndrome, Next:[5122]finn, Previous:[5123]finger
trouble, Up:[5124]= F =
finger-pointing syndrome n.
All-too-frequent result of bugs, esp. in new or experimental
configurations. The hardware vendor points a finger at the software.
The software vendor points a finger at the hardware. All the poor
users get is the finger.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:finn, Next:[5125]firebottle, Previous:[5126]finger-pointing
syndrome, Up:[5127]= F =
finn v.
[IRC] To pull rank on somebody based on the amount of time one has
spent on [5128]IRC. The term derives from the fact that IRC was
originally written in Finland in 1987. There may be some influence
from the `Finn' character in William Gibson's seminal cyberpunk novel
"Count Zero", who at one point says to another (much younger)
character "I have a pair of shoes older than you are, so shut up!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:firebottle, Next:[5129]firefighting, Previous:[5130]finn,
Up:[5131]= F =
firebottle n.obs.
A large, primitive, power-hungry active electrical device, similar in
function to a FET but constructed out of glass, metal, and vacuum.
Characterized by high cost, low density, low reliability,
high-temperature operation, and high power dissipation. Sometimes
mistakenly called a `tube' in the U.S. or a `valve' in England;
another hackish term is [5132]glassfet.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:firefighting, Next:[5133]firehose syndrome,
Previous:[5134]firebottle, Up:[5135]= F =
firefighting n.
1. What sysadmins have to do to correct sudden operational problems.
An opposite of hacking. "Been hacking your new newsreader?" "No, a
power glitch hosed the network and I spent the whole afternoon
fighting fires." 2. The act of throwing lots of manpower and late
nights at a project, esp. to get it out before deadline. See also
[5136]gang bang, [5137]Mongolian Hordes technique; however, the term
`firefighting' connotes that the effort is going into chasing bugs
rather than adding features.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:firehose syndrome, Next:[5138]firewall code,
Previous:[5139]firefighting, Up:[5140]= F =
firehose syndrome n.
In mainstream folklore it is observed that trying to drink from a
firehose can be a good way to rip your lips off. On computer networks,
the absence or failure of flow control mechanisms can lead to
situations in which the sending system sprays a massive flood of
packets at an unfortunate receiving system, more than it can handle.
Compare [5141]overrun, [5142]buffer overflow.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:firewall code, Next:[5143]firewall machine,
Previous:[5144]firehose syndrome, Up:[5145]= F =
firewall code n.
1. The code you put in a system (say, a telephone switch) to make sure
that the users can't do any damage. Since users always want to be able
to do everything but never want to suffer for any mistakes, the
construction of a firewall is a question not only of defensive coding
but also of interface presentation, so that users don't even get
curious about those corners of a system where they can burn
themselves. 2. Any sanity check inserted to catch a [5146]can't happen
error. Wise programmers often change code to fix a bug twice: once to
fix the bug, and once to insert a firewall which would have arrested
the bug before it did quite as much damage.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:firewall machine, Next:[5147]fireworks mode,
Previous:[5148]firewall code, Up:[5149]= F =
firewall machine n.
A dedicated gateway machine with special security precautions on it,
used to service outside network connections and dial-in lines. The
idea is to protect a cluster of more loosely administered machines
hidden behind it from [5150]crackers. The typical firewall is an
inexpensive micro-based Unix box kept clean of critical data, with a
bunch of modems and public network ports on it but just one carefully
watched connection back to the rest of the cluster. The special
precautions may include threat monitoring, callback, and even a
complete [5151]iron box keyable to particular incoming IDs or activity
patterns. Syn. [5152]flytrap, [5153]Venus flytrap.
[When first coined in the mid-1980s this term was pure jargon. Now
(1999) it is techspeak, and has been retained only as an example of
uptake --ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fireworks mode, Next:[5154]firmware, Previous:[5155]firewall
machine, Up:[5156]= F =
fireworks mode n.
1. The mode a machine is sometimes said to be in when it is performing
a [5157]crash and burn operation. 2. There is (or was) a more specific
meaning of this term in the Amiga community. The word fireworks
described the effects of a particularly serious crash which prevented
the video pointer(s) from getting reset at the start of the vertical
blank. This caused the DAC to scroll through the entire contents of
CHIP (video or video+CPU) memory. Since each bit plane would scroll
separately this was quite a spectacular effect.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:firmware, Next:[5158]firmy, Previous:[5159]fireworks mode,
Up:[5160]= F =
firmware /ferm'weir/ n.
Embedded software contained in EPROM or flash memory. It isn't quite
hardware, but at least doesn't have to be loaded from a disk like
regular software. Hacker usage differs from straight techspeak in that
hackers don't normally apply it to stuff that you can't possibly get
at, such as the program that runs a pocket calculator. Instead, it
implies that the firmware could be changed, even if doing so would
mean opening a box and plugging in a new chip. A computer's BIOS is
the classic example, although nowadays there is firmware in disk
controllers, modems, video cards and even CD-ROM drives.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:firmy, Next:[5161]fish, Previous:[5162]firmware, Up:[5163]= F =
firmy /fer'mee/ n.
Syn. [5164]stiffy (a 3.5-inch floppy disk).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fish, Next:[5165]FISH queue, Previous:[5166]firmy, Up:[5167]= F =
fish n.
[Adelaide University, Australia] 1. Another [5168]metasyntactic
variable. See [5169]foo. Derived originally from the Monty Python skit
in the middle of "The Meaning of Life" entitled "Find the Fish". 2. A
pun for `microfiche'. A microfiche file cabinet may be referred to as
a `fish tank'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FISH queue, Next:[5170]FITNR, Previous:[5171]fish, Up:[5172]= F =
FISH queue n.
[acronym, by analogy with FIFO (First In, First Out)] `First In, Still
Here'. A joking way of pointing out that processing of a particular
sequence of events or requests has stopped dead. Also `FISH mode' and
`FISHnet'; the latter may be applied to any network that is running
really slowly or exhibiting extreme flakiness.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FITNR, Next:[5173]fix, Previous:[5174]FISH queue, Up:[5175]= F =
FITNR // adj.
[Thinking Machines, Inc.] Fixed In The Next Release. A written-only
notation attached to bug reports. Often wishful thinking.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fix, Next:[5176]FIXME, Previous:[5177]FITNR, Up:[5178]= F =
fix n.,v.
What one does when a problem has been reported too many times to be
ignored.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FIXME, Next:[5179]flag, Previous:[5180]fix, Up:[5181]= F =
FIXME imp.
[common] A standard tag often put in C comments near a piece of code
that needs work. The point of doing so is that a grep or a similar
pattern-matching tool can find all such places quickly.
/* FIXME: note this is common in [5182]GNU code. */
Compare [5183]XXX.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flag, Next:[5184]flag day, Previous:[5185]FIXME, Up:[5186]= F =
flag n.
[very common] A variable or quantity that can take on one of two
values; a bit, particularly one that is used to indicate one of two
outcomes or is used to control which of two things is to be done.
"This flag controls whether to clear the screen before printing the
message." "The program status word contains several flag bits." Used
of humans analogously to [5187]bit. See also [5188]hidden flag,
[5189]mode bit.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flag day, Next:[5190]flaky, Previous:[5191]flag, Up:[5192]= F =
flag day n.
A software change that is neither forward- nor backward-compatible,
and which is costly to make and costly to reverse. "Can we install
that without causing a flag day for all users?" This term has nothing
to do with the use of the word [5193]flag to mean a variable that has
two values. It came into use when a massive change was made to the
[5194]Multics timesharing system to convert from the short-lived 1965
version of the ASCII code to the 1967 version (in draft at the time);
this was scheduled for Flag Day (a U.S. holiday), June 14, 1966. The
actual change moved the code point for the ASCII newline character;
this required that all of the Multics source code, documentation, and
device drivers be changed simultaneously. See also [5195]backward
combatability.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flaky, Next:[5196]flamage, Previous:[5197]flag day, Up:[5198]= F
=
flaky adj.
(var sp. `flakey') Subject to frequent [5199]lossage. This use is of
course related to the common slang use of the word to describe a
person as eccentric, crazy, or just unreliable. A system that is flaky
is working, sort of -- enough that you are tempted to try to use it --
but fails frequently enough that the odds in favor of finishing what
you start are low. Commonwealth hackish prefers [5200]dodgy or
[5201]wonky.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flamage, Next:[5202]flame, Previous:[5203]flaky, Up:[5204]= F =
flamage /flay'm*j/ n.
[very common] Flaming verbiage, esp. high-noise, low-signal postings
to [5205]Usenet or other electronic [5206]fora. Often in the phrase
`the usual flamage'. `Flaming' is the act itself; `flamage' the
content; a `flame' is a single flaming message. See [5207]flame, also
[5208]dahmum.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flame, Next:[5209]flame bait, Previous:[5210]flamage, Up:[5211]=
F =
flame
[at MIT, orig. from the phrase `flaming asshole'] 1. vi. To post an
email message intended to insult and provoke. 2. vi. To speak
incessantly and/or rabidly on some relatively uninteresting subject or
with a patently ridiculous attitude. 3. vt. Either of senses 1 or 2,
directed with hostility at a particular person or people. 4. n. An
instance of flaming. When a discussion degenerates into useless
controversy, one might tell the participants "Now you're just flaming"
or "Stop all that flamage!" to try to get them to cool down (so to
speak).
The term may have been independently invented at several different
places. It has been reported from MIT, Carleton College and RPI (among
many other places) from as far back as 1969, and from the University
of Virginia in the early 1960s.
It is possible that the hackish sense of `flame' is much older than
that. The poet Chaucer was also what passed for a wizard hacker in his
time; he wrote a treatise on the astrolabe, the most advanced
computing device of the day. In Chaucer's "Troilus and Cressida",
Cressida laments her inability to grasp the proof of a particular
mathematical theorem; her uncle Pandarus then observes that it's
called "the fleminge of wrecches." This phrase seems to have been
intended in context as "that which puts the wretches to flight" but
was probably just as ambiguous in Middle English as "the flaming of
wretches" would be today. One suspects that Chaucer would feel right
at home on Usenet.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flame bait, Next:[5212]flame on, Previous:[5213]flame, Up:[5214]=
F =
flame bait n.
[common] A posting intended to trigger a [5215]flame war, or one that
invites flames in reply. See also [5216]troll.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flame on, Next:[5217]flame war, Previous:[5218]flame bait,
Up:[5219]= F =
flame on vi.,interj.
1. To begin to [5220]flame. The punning reference to Marvel Comics's
Human Torch is no longer widely recognized. 2. To continue to flame.
See [5221]rave, [5222]burble.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flame war, Next:[5223]flamer, Previous:[5224]flame on, Up:[5225]=
F =
flame war n.
[common] (var. `flamewar') An acrimonious dispute, especially when
conducted on a public electronic forum such as [5226]Usenet.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flamer, Next:[5227]flap, Previous:[5228]flame war, Up:[5229]= F =
flamer n.
[common] One who habitually [5230]flames. Said esp. of obnoxious
[5231]Usenet personalities.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flap, Next:[5232]flarp, Previous:[5233]flamer, Up:[5234]= F =
flap vt.
1. [obs.] To unload a DECtape (so it goes flap, flap, flap...).
Old-time hackers at MIT tell of the days when the disk was device 0
and DEC microtapes were 1, 2,... and attempting to flap device 0 would
instead start a motor banging inside a cabinet near the disk. 2. By
extension, to unload any magnetic tape. See also [5235]macrotape.
Modern cartridge tapes no longer actually flap, but the usage has
remained. (The term could well be re-applied to DEC's TK50 cartridge
tape drive, a spectacularly misengineered contraption which makes a
loud flapping sound, almost like an old reel-type lawnmower, in one of
its many tape-eating failure modes.)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flarp, Next:[5236]flash crowd, Previous:[5237]flap, Up:[5238]= F
=
flarp /flarp/ n.
[Rutgers University] Yet another [5239]metasyntactic variable (see
[5240]foo). Among those who use it, it is associated with a legend
that any program not containing the word `flarp' somewhere will not
work. The legend is discreetly silent on the reliability of programs
which do contain the magic word.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flash crowd, Next:[5241]flat, Previous:[5242]flarp, Up:[5243]= F
=
flash crowd
Larry Niven's 1973 SF short story "Flash Crowd" predicted that one
consequence of cheap teleportation would be huge crowds materializing
almost instantly at the sites of interesting news stories. Twenty
years later the term passed into common use on the Internet to
describe exponential spikes in website or server usage when one passes
a certain threshold of popular interest (this may also be called
[5244]slashdot effect).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flat, Next:[5245]flat-ASCII, Previous:[5246]flash crowd,
Up:[5247]= F =
flat adj.
1. [common] Lacking any complex internal structure. "That [5248]bitty
box has only a flat filesystem, not a hierarchical one." The verb form
is [5249]flatten. 2. Said of a memory architecture (like that of the
VAX or 680x0) that is one big linear address space (typically with
each possible value of a processor register corresponding to a unique
core address), as opposed to a `segmented' architecture (like that of
the 80x86) in which addresses are composed from a base-register/offset
pair (segmented designs are generally considered [5250]cretinous).
Note that sense 1 (at least with respect to filesystems) is usually
used pejoratively, while sense 2 is a [5251]Good Thing.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flat-ASCII, Next:[5252]flat-file, Previous:[5253]flat, Up:[5254]=
F =
flat-ASCII adj.
[common] Said of a text file that contains only 7-bit ASCII characters
and uses only ASCII-standard control characters (that is, has no
embedded codes specific to a particular text formatter markup
language, or output device, and no [5255]meta-characters). Syn.
[5256]plain-ASCII. Compare [5257]flat-file.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flat-file, Next:[5258]flatten, Previous:[5259]flat-ASCII,
Up:[5260]= F =
flat-file adj.
A [5261]flattened representation of some database or tree or network
structure as a single file from which the structure could implicitly
be rebuilt, esp. one in [5262]flat-ASCII form. See also
[5263]sharchive.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flatten, Next:[5264]flavor, Previous:[5265]flat-file, Up:[5266]=
F =
flatten vt.
[common] To remove structural information, esp. to filter something
with an implicit tree structure into a simple sequence of leaves; also
tends to imply mapping to [5267]flat-ASCII. "This code flattens an
expression with parentheses into an equivalent [5268]canonical form."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flavor, Next:[5269]flavorful, Previous:[5270]flatten, Up:[5271]=
F =
flavor n.
1. [common] Variety, type, kind. "DDT commands come in two flavors."
"These lights come in two flavors, big red ones and small green ones."
"Linux is a flavor of Unix" See [5272]vanilla. 2. The attribute that
causes something to be [5273]flavorful. Usually used in the phrase
"yields additional flavor". "This convention yields additional flavor
by allowing one to print text either right-side-up or upside-down."
See [5274]vanilla. This usage was certainly reinforced by the
terminology of quantum chromodynamics, in which quarks (the
constituents of, e.g., protons) come in six flavors (up, down,
strange, charm, top, bottom) and three colors (red, blue, green) --
however, hackish use of `flavor' at MIT predated QCD. 3. The term for
`class' (in the object-oriented sense) in the LISP Machine Flavors
system. Though the Flavors design has been superseded (notably by the
Common LISP CLOS facility), the term `flavor' is still used as a
general synonym for `class' by some LISP hackers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flavorful, Next:[5275]flippy, Previous:[5276]flavor, Up:[5277]= F
=
flavorful adj.
Full of [5278]flavor (sense 2); esthetically pleasing. See
[5279]random and [5280]losing for antonyms. See also the entries for
[5281]taste and [5282]elegant.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flippy, Next:[5283]flood, Previous:[5284]flavorful, Up:[5285]= F
=
flippy /flip'ee/ n.
A single-sided floppy disk altered for double-sided use by addition of
a second write-notch, so called because it must be flipped over for
the second side to be accessible. No longer common.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flood, Next:[5286]flowchart, Previous:[5287]flippy, Up:[5288]= F
=
flood v.
[common] 1. To overwhelm a network channel with mechanically-generated
traffic; especially used of IP, TCP/IP, UDP, or ICMP denial-of-service
attacks. 2. To dump large amounts of text onto an [5289]IRC channel.
This is especially rude when the text is uninteresting and the other
users are trying to carry on a serious conversation. Also used in a
similar sense on Usenet. 3. [Usenet] To post an unusually large number
or volume of files on a related topic.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flowchart, Next:[5290]flower key, Previous:[5291]flood,
Up:[5292]= F =
flowchart n.
[techspeak] An archaic form of visual control-flow specification
employing arrows and `speech balloons' of various shapes. Hackers
never use flowcharts, consider them extremely silly, and associate
them with [5293]COBOL programmers, [5294]card wallopers, and other
lower forms of life. This attitude follows from the observations that
flowcharts (at least from a hacker's point of view) are no easier to
read than code, are less precise, and tend to fall out of sync with
the code (so that they either obfuscate it rather than explaining it,
or require extra maintenance effort that doesn't improve the code).
See also [5295]PDL, sense 1.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flower key, Next:[5296]flush, Previous:[5297]flowchart,
Up:[5298]= F =
flower key n.
[Mac users] See [5299]feature key.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flush, Next:[5300]flypage, Previous:[5301]flower key, Up:[5302]=
F =
flush v.
1. [common] To delete something, usually superfluous, or to abort an
operation. "All that nonsense has been flushed." 2. [Unix/C] To force
buffered I/O to disk, as with an fflush(3) call. This is not an abort
or deletion as in sense 1, but a demand for early completion! 3. To
leave at the end of a day's work (as opposed to leaving for a meal).
"I'm going to flush now." "Time to flush." 4. To exclude someone from
an activity, or to ignore a person.
`Flush' was standard ITS terminology for aborting an output operation;
one spoke of the text that would have been printed, but was not, as
having been flushed. It is speculated that this term arose from a
vivid image of flushing unwanted characters by hosing down the
internal output buffer, washing the characters away before they could
be printed. The Unix/C usage, on the other hand, was propagated by the
fflush(3) call in C's standard I/O library (though it is reported to
have been in use among BLISS programmers at [5303]DEC and on Honeywell
and IBM machines as far back as 1965). Unix/C hackers found the ITS
usage confusing, and vice versa.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flypage, Next:[5304]Flyspeck 3, Previous:[5305]flush, Up:[5306]=
F =
flypage /fli:'payj/ n.
(alt. `fly page') A [5307]banner, sense 1.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Flyspeck 3, Next:[5308]flytrap, Previous:[5309]flypage,
Up:[5310]= F =
Flyspeck 3 n.
Standard name for any font that is so tiny as to be unreadable (by
analogy with names like `Helvetica 10' for 10-point Helvetica). Legal
boilerplate is usually printed in Flyspeck 3.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:flytrap, Next:[5311]FM, Previous:[5312]Flyspeck 3, Up:[5313]= F =
flytrap n.
[rare] See [5314]firewall machine.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FM, Next:[5315]fnord, Previous:[5316]flytrap, Up:[5317]= F =
FM /F-M/ n.
1. [common] Not `Frequency Modulation' but rather an abbreviation for
`Fucking Manual', the back-formation from [5318]RTFM. Used to refer to
the manual itself in the [5319]RTFM. "Have you seen the Networking FM
lately?" 2. Abbreviation for "Fucking Magic", used in the sense of
[5320]black magic.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fnord, Next:[5321]FOAF, Previous:[5322]FM, Up:[5323]= F =
fnord n.
[from the "Illuminatus Trilogy"] 1. A word used in email and news
postings to tag utterances as surrealist mind-play or humor, esp. in
connection with [5324]Discordianism and elaborate conspiracy theories.
"I heard that David Koresh is sharing an apartment in Argentina with
Hitler. (Fnord.)" "Where can I fnord get the Principia Discordia
from?" 2. A [5325]metasyntactic variable, commonly used by hackers
with ties to [5326]Discordianism or the [5327]Church of the SubGenius.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FOAF, Next:[5328]FOD, Previous:[5329]fnord, Up:[5330]= F =
FOAF // n.
[Usenet; common] Acronym for `Friend Of A Friend'. The source of an
unverified, possibly untrue story. This term was not originated by
hackers (it is used in Jan Brunvand's books on urban folklore), but is
much better recognized on Usenet and elsewhere than in mainstream
English.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FOD, Next:[5331]fold case, Previous:[5332]FOAF, Up:[5333]= F =
FOD /fod/ v.
[Abbreviation for `Finger of Death', originally a spell-name from
fantasy gaming] To terminate with extreme prejudice and with no regard
for other people. From [5334]MUDs where the wizard command `FOD
<player>' results in the immediate and total death of <player>,
usually as punishment for obnoxious behavior. This usage migrated to
other circumstances, such as "I'm going to fod the process that is
burning all the cycles." Compare [5335]gun.
In aviation, FOD means Foreign Object Damage, e.g., what happens when
a jet engine sucks up a rock on the runway or a bird in flight. Finger
of Death is a distressingly apt description of what this generally
does to the engine.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fold case, Next:[5336]followup, Previous:[5337]FOD, Up:[5338]= F
=
fold case v.
See [5339]smash case. This term tends to be used more by people who
don't mind that their tools smash case. It also connotes that case is
ignored but case distinctions in data processed by the tool in
question aren't destroyed.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:followup, Next:[5340]fontology, Previous:[5341]fold case,
Up:[5342]= F =
followup n.
[common] On Usenet, a [5343]posting generated in response to another
posting (as opposed to a [5344]reply, which goes by email rather than
being broadcast). Followups include the ID of the [5345]parent message
in their headers; smart news-readers can use this information to
present Usenet news in `conversation' sequence rather than
order-of-arrival. See [5346]thread.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fontology, Next:[5347]foo, Previous:[5348]followup, Up:[5349]= F
=
fontology n.
[XEROX PARC] The body of knowledge dealing with the construction and
use of new fonts (e.g., for window systems and typesetting software).
It has been said that fontology recapitulates file-ogeny.
[Unfortunately, this reference to the embryological dictum that
"Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" is not merely a joke. On the
Macintosh, for example, System 7 has to go through contortions to
compensate for an earlier design error that created a whole different
set of abstractions for fonts parallel to `files' and `folders' --ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:foo, Next:[5350]foobar, Previous:[5351]fontology, Up:[5352]= F =
foo /foo/
1. interj. Term of disgust. 2. [very common] Used very generally as a
sample name for absolutely anything, esp. programs and files (esp.
scratch files). 3. First on the standard list of [5353]metasyntactic
variables used in syntax examples. See also [5354]bar, [5355]baz,
[5356]qux, [5357]quux, [5358]corge, [5359]grault, [5360]garply,
[5361]waldo, [5362]fred, [5363]plugh, [5364]xyzzy, [5365]thud.
When `foo' is used in connection with `bar' it has generally traced to
the WWII-era Army slang acronym [5366]FUBAR (`Fucked Up Beyond All
Repair'), later modified to [5367]foobar. Early versions of the Jargon
File interpreted this change as a post-war bowdlerization, but it it
now seems more likely that FUBAR was itself a derivative of `foo'
perhaps influenced by German `furchtbar' (terrible) - `foobar' may
actually have been the original form.
For, it seems, the word `foo' itself had an immediate prewar history
in comic strips and cartoons. The earliest documented uses were in the
"Smokey Stover" comic strip popular in the 1930s, which frequently
included the word "foo". Bill Holman, the author of the strip, filled
it with odd jokes and personal contrivances, including other nonsense
phrases such as "Notary Sojac" and "1506 nix nix". According to the
[5368]Warner Brothers Cartoon Companion Holman claimed to have found
the word "foo" on the bottom of a Chinese figurine. This is plausible;
Chinese statuettes often have apotropaic inscriptions, and this may
have been the Chinese word `fu' (sometimes transliterated `foo'),
which can mean "happiness" when spoken with the proper tone (the
lion-dog guardians flanking the steps of many Chinese restaurants are
properly called "fu dogs"). English speakers' reception of Holman's
`foo' nonsense word was undoubtedly influenced by Yiddish `feh' and
English `fooey' and `fool'.
Holman's strip featured a firetruck called the Foomobile that rode on
two wheels. The comic strip was tremendously popular in the late
1930s, and legend has it that a manufacturer in Indiana even produced
an operable version of Holman's Foomobile. According to the
Encyclopedia of American Comics, `Foo' fever swept the U.S., finding
its way into popular songs and generating over 500 `Foo Clubs.' The
fad left `foo' references embedded in popular culture (including a
couple of appearances in Warner Brothers cartoons of 1938-39) but with
their origins rapidly forgotten.
One place they are known to have remained live is in the U.S. military
during the WWII years. In 1944-45, the term `foo fighters' was in use
by radar operators for the kind of mysterious or spurious trace that
would later be called a UFO (the older term resurfaced in popular
American usage in 1995 via the name of one of the better grunge-rock
bands). Informants connected the term to the Smokey Stover strip.
The U.S. and British militaries frequently swapped slang terms during
the war (see [5369]kluge and [5370]kludge for another important
example) Period sources reported that `FOO' became a semi-legendary
subject of WWII British-army graffiti more or less equivalent to the
American Kilroy. Where British troops went, the graffito "FOO was
here" or something similar showed up. Several slang dictionaries aver
that FOO probably came from Forward Observation Officer, but this
(like the contemporaneous "FUBAR") was probably a [5371]backronym .
Forty years later, Paul Dickson's excellent book "Words" (Dell, 1982,
ISBN 0-440-52260-7) traced "Foo" to an unspecified British naval
magazine in 1946, quoting as follows: "Mr. Foo is a mysterious Second
World War product, gifted with bitter omniscience and sarcasm."
Earlier versions of this entry suggested the possibility that hacker
usage actually sprang from "FOO, Lampoons and Parody", the title of a
comic book first issued in September 1958, a joint project of Charles
and Robert Crumb. Though Robert Crumb (then in his mid-teens) later
became one of the most important and influential artists in
underground comics, this venture was hardly a success; indeed, the
brothers later burned most of the existing copies in disgust. The
title FOO was featured in large letters on the front cover. However,
very few copies of this comic actually circulated, and students of
Crumb's `oeuvre' have established that this title was a reference to
the earlier Smokey Stover comics. The Crumbs may also have been
influenced by a short-lived Canadian parody magazine named `Foo'
published in 1951-52.
An old-time member reports that in the 1959 "Dictionary of the TMRC
Language", compiled at [5372]TMRC, there was an entry that went
something like this:
FOO: The first syllable of the sacred chant phrase "FOO MANE PADME
HUM." Our first obligation is to keep the foo counters turning.
(For more about the legendary foo counters, see [5373]TMRC.) This
definition used Bill Holman's nonsense word, only then two decades old
and demonstrably still live in popular culture and slang, to a
[5374]ha ha only serious analogy with esoteric Tibetan Buddhism.
Today's hackers would find it difficult to resist elaborating a joke
like that, and it is not likely 1959's were any less susceptible.
Almost the entire staff of what later became the MIT AI Lab was
involved with TMRC, and the word spread from there.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:foobar, Next:[5375]fool, Previous:[5376]foo, Up:[5377]= F =
foobar n.
[very common] Another widely used [5378]metasyntactic variable; see
[5379]foo for etymology. Probably originally propagated through
DECsystem manuals by Digital Equipment Corporation ([5380]DEC) in
1960s and early 1970s; confirmed sightings there go back to 1972.
Hackers do not generally use this to mean [5381]FUBAR in either the
slang or jargon sense. See also [5382]Fred Foobar. In RFC1639,
"FOOBAR" was made an abbreviation for "FTP Operation Over Big Address
Records", but this was an obvious [5383]backronym.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fool, Next:[5384]fool file, Previous:[5385]foobar, Up:[5386]= F =
fool n.
As used by hackers, specifically describes a person who habitually
reasons from obviously or demonstrably incorrect premises and cannot
be persuaded by evidence to do otherwise; it is not generally used in
its other senses, i.e., to describe a person with a native incapacity
to reason correctly, or a clown. Indeed, in hackish experience many
fools are capable of reasoning all too effectively in executing their
errors. See also [5387]cretin, [5388]loser, [5389]fool file.
The Algol 68-R compiler used to initialize its storage to the
character string "F00LF00LF00LF00L..." because as a pointer or as a
floating point number it caused a crash, and as an integer or a
character string it was very recognizable in a dump. Sadly, one day a
very senior professor at Nottingham University wrote a program that
called him a fool. He proceeded to demonstrate the correctness of this
assertion by lobbying the university (not quite successfully) to
forbid the use of Algol on its computers. See also [5390]DEADBEEF.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fool file, Next:[5391]Foonly, Previous:[5392]fool, Up:[5393]= F =
fool file n.
[Usenet] A notional repository of all the most dramatically and
abysmally stupid utterances ever. An entire subgenre of [5394]sig
blocks consists of the header "From the fool file:" followed by some
quote the poster wishes to represent as an immortal gem of dimwittery;
for this usage to be really effective, the quote has to be so
obviously wrong as to be laughable. More than one Usenetter has
achieved an unwanted notoriety by being quoted in this way.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Foonly, Next:[5395]footprint, Previous:[5396]fool file,
Up:[5397]= F =
Foonly n.
1. The [5398]PDP-10 successor that was to have been built by the Super
Foonly project at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
along with a new operating system. (The name itself came from FOO NLI,
an error message emitted by a PDP-10 assembler at SAIL meaning "FOO is
Not a Legal Identifier". The intention was to leapfrog from the old
[5399]DEC timesharing system SAIL was then running to a new
generation, bypassing TENEX which at that time was the ARPANET
standard. ARPA funding for both the Super Foonly and the new operating
system was cut in 1974. Most of the design team went to DEC and
contributed greatly to the design of the PDP-10 model KL10. 2. The
name of the company formed by Dave Poole, one of the principal Super
Foonly designers, and one of hackerdom's more colorful personalities.
Many people remember the parrot which sat on Poole's shoulder and was
a regular companion. 3. Any of the machines built by Poole's company.
The first was the F-1 (a.k.a. Super Foonly), which was the
computational engine used to create the graphics in the movie "TRON".
The F-1 was the fastest PDP-10 ever built, but only one was ever made.
The effort drained Foonly of its financial resources, and the company
turned towards building smaller, slower, and much less expensive
machines. Unfortunately, these ran not the popular [5400]TOPS-20 but a
TENEX variant called Foonex; this seriously limited their market.
Also, the machines shipped were actually wire-wrapped engineering
prototypes requiring individual attention from more than usually
competent site personnel, and thus had significant reliability
problems. Poole's legendary temper and unwillingness to suffer fools
gladly did not help matters. By the time of the Jupiter project
cancellation in 1983, Foonly's proposal to build another F-1 was
eclipsed by the [5401]Mars, and the company never quite recovered. See
the [5402]Mars entry for the continuation and moral of this story.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:footprint, Next:[5403]for free, Previous:[5404]Foonly, Up:[5405]=
F =
footprint n.
1. The floor or desk area taken up by a piece of hardware. 2. [IBM]
The audit trail (if any) left by a crashed program (often in plural,
`footprints'). See also [5406]toeprint. 3. RAM footprint: The minimum
amount of RAM which an OS or other program takes; this figure gives
one an idea of how much will be left for other applications. How
actively this RAM is used is another matter entirely. Recent
tendencies to featuritis and software bloat can expand the RAM
footprint of an OS to the point of making it nearly unusable in
practice. [This problem is, thankfully, limited to operating systems
so stupid that they don't do virtual memory - ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:for free, Next:[5407]for the rest of us,
Previous:[5408]footprint, Up:[5409]= F =
for free adj.
[common] Said of a capability of a programming language or hardware
that is available by its design without needing cleverness to
implement: "In APL, we get the matrix operations for free." "And owing
to the way revisions are stored in this system, you get revision trees
for free." The term usually refers to a serendipitous feature of doing
things a certain way (compare [5410]big win), but it may refer to an
intentional but secondary feature.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:for the rest of us, Next:[5411]for values of, Previous:[5412]for
free, Up:[5413]= F =
for the rest of us adj.
[from the Mac slogan "The computer for the rest of us"] 1. Used to
describe a [5414]spiffy product whose affordability shames other
comparable products, or (more often) used sarcastically to describe
[5415]spiffy but very overpriced products. 2. Describes a program with
a limited interface, deliberately limited capabilities,
non-orthogonality, inability to compose primitives, or any other
limitation designed to not `confuse' a naive user. This places an
upper bound on how far that user can go before the program begins to
get in the way of the task instead of helping accomplish it. Used in
reference to Macintosh software which doesn't provide obvious
capabilities because it is thought that the poor lusers might not be
able to handle them. Becomes `the rest of them' when used in
third-party reference; thus, "Yes, it is an attractive program, but
it's designed for The Rest Of Them" means a program that superficially
looks neat but has no depth beyond the surface flash. See also
[5416]WIMP environment, [5417]Macintrash, [5418]point-and-drool
interface, [5419]user-friendly.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:for values of, Next:[5420]fora, Previous:[5421]for the rest of
us, Up:[5422]= F =
for values of
[MIT] A common rhetorical maneuver at MIT is to use any of the
canonical [5423]random numbers as placeholders for variables. "The max
function takes 42 arguments, for arbitrary values of 42." "There are
69 ways to leave your lover, for 69 = 50." This is especially likely
when the speaker has uttered a random number and realizes that it was
not recognized as such, but even `non-random' numbers are occasionally
used in this fashion. A related joke is that pi equals 3 -- for small
values of pi and large values of 3.
Historical note: at MIT this usage has traditionally been traced to
the programming language MAD (Michigan Algorithm Decoder), an
Algol-58-like language that was the most common choice among
mainstream (non-hacker) users at MIT in the mid-60s. It inherited from
Algol-58 a control structure FOR VALUES OF X = 3, 7, 99 DO ... that
would repeat the indicated instructions for each value in the list
(unlike the usual FOR that only works for arithmetic sequences of
values). MAD is long extinct, but similar for-constructs still
flourish (e.g., in Unix's shell languages).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fora, Next:[5424]foreground, Previous:[5425]for values of,
Up:[5426]= F =
fora pl.n.
Plural of [5427]forum.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:foreground, Next:[5428]fork, Previous:[5429]fora, Up:[5430]= F =
foreground vt.
[Unix; common] To bring a task to the top of one's [5431]stack for
immediate processing, and hackers often use it in this sense for
non-computer tasks. "If your presentation is due next week, I guess
I'd better foreground writing up the design document."
Technically, on a time-sharing system, a task executing in foreground
is one able to accept input from and return output to the user; oppose
[5432]background. Nowadays this term is primarily associated with
[5433]Unix, but it appears first to have been used in this sense on
OS/360. Normally, there is only one foreground task per terminal (or
terminal window); having multiple processes simultaneously reading the
keyboard is a good way to [5434]lose.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fork, Next:[5435]fork bomb, Previous:[5436]foreground, Up:[5437]=
F =
fork
In the open-source community, a fork is what occurs when two (or more)
versions of a software package's source code are being developed in
parallel which once shared a common code base, and these multiple
versions of the source code have irreconcilable differences between
them. This should not be confused with a development branch, which may
later be folded back into the original source code base. Nor should it
be confused with what happens when a new distribution of Linux or some
other distribution is created, because that largely assembles pieces
than can and will be used in other distributions without conflict.
Forking is uncommon; in fact, it is so uncommon that individual
instances loom large in hacker folklore. Notable in this class were
the [5438]http://www.xemacs.org/About/XEmacsVsGNUemacs.html, the
GCC/EGCS fork (later healed by a merger) and the forks among the
FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD operating systems.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fork bomb, Next:[5439]forked, Previous:[5440]fork, Up:[5441]= F =
fork bomb n.
[Unix] A particular species of [5442]wabbit that can be written in one
line of C (main() {for(;;)fork();}) or shell ($0 & $0 &) on any Unix
system, or occasionally created by an egregious coding bug. A fork
bomb process `explodes' by recursively spawning copies of itself
(using the Unix system call fork(2)). Eventually it eats all the
process table entries and effectively wedges the system. Fortunately,
fork bombs are relatively easy to spot and kill, so creating one
deliberately seldom accomplishes more than to bring the just wrath of
the gods down upon the perpetrator. See also [5443]logic bomb.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:forked, Next:[5444]Fortrash, Previous:[5445]fork bomb, Up:[5446]=
F =
forked adj.,vi.
1. [common after 1997, esp. in the Linux community] An open-source
software project is said to have forked or be forked when the project
group fissions into two or more parts pursuing separate lines of
development (or, less commonly, when a third party unconnected to the
project group ). Forking is considered a [5447]Bad Thing - not merely
because it implies a lot of wasted effort in the future, but because
forks tend to be accompanied by a great deal of strife and acrimony
between the successor groups over issues of legitimacy, succession,
and design direction. There is serious social pressure against
forking. As a result, major forks (such as the Gnu-Emacs/XEmacs split,
the fissionings of the 386BSD group into three daughter project, and
the short-lived GCC/EGCS split) are rare enough that they are
remembered individually in hacker folklore. 2. [Unix; uncommon; prob.
influenced by a mainstream expletive] Terminally slow, or dead.
Originated when one system was slowed to a snail's pace by an
inadvertent [5448]fork bomb.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Fortrash, Next:[5449]fortune cookie, Previous:[5450]forked,
Up:[5451]= F =
Fortrash /for'trash/ n.
Hackerism for the FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator) language, referring to
its primitive design, gross and irregular syntax, limited control
constructs, and slippery, exception-filled semantics.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fortune cookie, Next:[5452]forum, Previous:[5453]Fortrash,
Up:[5454]= F =
fortune cookie n.
[WAITS, via Unix; common] A random quote, item of trivia, joke, or
maxim printed to the user's tty at login time or (less commonly) at
logout time. Items from this lexicon have often been used as fortune
cookies. See [5455]cookie file.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:forum, Next:[5456]fossil, Previous:[5457]fortune cookie,
Up:[5458]= F =
forum n.
[Usenet, GEnie, CI$; pl. `fora' or `forums'] Any discussion group
accessible through a dial-in [5459]BBS, a [5460]mailing list, or a
[5461]newsgroup (see [5462]the network). A forum functions much like a
bulletin board; users submit [5463]postings for all to read and
discussion ensues. Contrast real-time chat via [5464]talk mode or
point-to-point personal [5465]email.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fossil, Next:[5466]four-color glossies, Previous:[5467]forum,
Up:[5468]= F =
fossil n.
1. In software, a misfeature that becomes understandable only in
historical context, as a remnant of times past retained so as not to
break compatibility. Example: the retention of octal as default base
for string escapes in [5469]C, in spite of the better match of
hexadecimal to ASCII and modern byte-addressable architectures. See
[5470]dusty deck. 2. More restrictively, a feature with past but no
present utility. Example: the force-all-caps (LCASE) bits in the V7
and [5471]BSD Unix tty driver, designed for use with monocase
terminals. (In a perversion of the usual backward-compatibility goal,
this functionality has actually been expanded and renamed in some
later [5472]USG Unix releases as the IUCLC and OLCUC bits.) 3. The
FOSSIL (Fido/Opus/Seadog Standard Interface Level) driver
specification for serial-port access to replace the [5473]brain-dead
routines in the IBM PC ROMs. Fossils are used by most MS-DOS [5474]BBS
software in preference to the `supported' ROM routines, which do not
support interrupt-driven operation or setting speeds above 9600; the
use of a semistandard FOSSIL library is preferable to the [5475]bare
metal serial port programming otherwise required. Since the FOSSIL
specification allows additional functionality to be hooked in, drivers
that use the [5476]hook but do not provide serial-port access
themselves are named with a modifier, as in `video fossil'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:four-color glossies, Next:[5477]frag, Previous:[5478]fossil,
Up:[5479]= F =
four-color glossies n.
1. Literature created by [5480]marketroids that allegedly contains
technical specs but which is in fact as superficial as possible
without being totally [5481]content-free. "Forget the four-color
glossies, give me the tech ref manuals." Often applied as an
indication of superficiality even when the material is printed on
ordinary paper in black and white. Four-color-glossy manuals are never
useful for solving a problem. 2. [rare] Applied by extension to manual
pages that don't contain enough information to diagnose why the
program doesn't produce the expected or desired output.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:frag, Next:[5482]fragile, Previous:[5483]four-color glossies,
Up:[5484]= F =
frag n.,v.
[from Vietnam-era U.S. military slang via the games Doom and Quake] 1.
To kill another player's [5485]avatar in a multiuser game. "I hold the
office Quake record with 40 frags." 2. To completely ruin something.
"Forget that power supply, the lightning strike fragged it. See also
[5486]gib.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fragile, Next:[5487]fred, Previous:[5488]frag, Up:[5489]= F =
fragile adj.
Syn [5490]brittle.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fred, Next:[5491]Fred Foobar, Previous:[5492]fragile, Up:[5493]=
F =
fred n.
1. The personal name most frequently used as a [5494]metasyntactic
variable (see [5495]foo). Allegedly popular because it's easy for a
non-touch-typist to type on a standard QWERTY keyboard. In Great
Britain, `fred', `jim' and `sheila' are common metasyntactic variables
because their uppercase versions were official names given to the 3
memory areas that held I/O status registers on the lovingly-remembered
BBC Microcomputer! (It is reported that SHEILA was poked the most
often.) Unlike [5496]J. Random Hacker or `J. Random Loser', the name
`fred' has no positive or negative loading (but see [5497]Dr. Fred
Mbogo). See also [5498]barney. 2. An acronym for `Flipping Ridiculous
Electronic Device'; other F-verbs may be substituted for `flipping'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Fred Foobar, Next:[5499]frednet, Previous:[5500]fred, Up:[5501]=
F =
Fred Foobar n.
[5502]J. Random Hacker's cousin. Any typical human being, more or less
synomous with `someone' except that Fred Foobar can be
[5503]backreferenced by name later on. "So Fred Foobar will enter his
phone number into the database, and it'll be archived with the others.
Months later, when Fred searches..." See also [5504]Bloggs Family and
[5505]Dr. Fred Mbogo
_________________________________________________________________
Node:frednet, Next:[5506]free software, Previous:[5507]Fred Foobar,
Up:[5508]= F =
frednet /fred'net/ n.
Used to refer to some [5509]random and uncommon protocol encountered
on a network. "We're implementing bridging in our router to solve the
frednet problem."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:free software, Next:[5510]freeware, Previous:[5511]frednet,
Up:[5512]= F =
free software n.
As defined by Richard M. Stallman and used by the Free Software
movement, this means software that gives users enough freedom to be
used by the free software community. Specifically, users must be free
to modify the software for their private use, and free to redistribute
it either with or without modifications, either commercially or
noncommercially, either gratis or charging a distribution fee. Free
software has existed since the dawn of computing; Free Software as a
movement began in 1984 with the GNU Project. See also [5513]open
source.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:freeware, Next:[5514]freeze, Previous:[5515]free software,
Up:[5516]= F =
freeware n.
[common] Free software, often written by enthusiasts and distributed
by users' groups, or via electronic mail, local bulletin boards,
[5517]Usenet, or other electronic media. At one time, `freeware' was a
trademark of Andrew Fluegelman, the author of the well-known MS-DOS
comm program PC-TALK III. It wasn't enforced after his mysterious
disappearance and presumed death in 1984. See [5518]shareware,
[5519]FRS.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:freeze, Next:[5520]fried, Previous:[5521]freeware, Up:[5522]= F =
freeze v.
To lock an evolving software distribution or document against changes
so it can be released with some hope of stability. Carries the strong
implication that the item in question will `unfreeze' at some future
date. "OK, fix that bug and we'll freeze for release."
There are more specific constructions on this term. A `feature
freeze', for example, locks out modifications intended to introduce
new features but still allows bugfixes and completion of existing
features; a `code freeze' connotes no more changes at all. At Sun
Microsystems and elsewhere, one may also hear references to `code
slush' -- that is, an almost-but-not-quite frozen state.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fried, Next:[5523]frink, Previous:[5524]freeze, Up:[5525]= F =
fried adj.
1. [common] Non-working due to hardware failure; burnt out. Especially
used of hardware brought down by a `power glitch' (see [5526]glitch),
[5527]drop-outs, a short, or some other electrical event. (Sometimes
this literally happens to electronic circuits! In particular,
resistors can burn out and transformers can melt down, emitting
noxious smoke -- see [5528]friode, [5529]SED and [5530]LER. However,
this term is also used metaphorically.) Compare [5531]frotzed. 2.
[common] Of people, exhausted. Said particularly of those who continue
to work in such a state. Often used as an explanation or excuse.
"Yeah, I know that fix destroyed the file system, but I was fried when
I put it in." Esp. common in conjunction with `brain': "My brain is
fried today, I'm very short on sleep."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:frink, Next:[5532]friode, Previous:[5533]fried, Up:[5534]= F =
frink /frink/ v.
The unknown ur-verb, fill in your own meaning. Found esp. on the
Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.lemurs, where it is said that the lemurs know
what `frink' means, but they aren't telling. Compare [5535]gorets.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:friode, Next:[5536]fritterware, Previous:[5537]frink, Up:[5538]=
F =
friode /fri:'ohd/ n.
[TMRC] A reversible (that is, fused or blown) diode. Compare
[5539]fried; see also [5540]SED, [5541]LER.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fritterware, Next:[5542]frob, Previous:[5543]friode, Up:[5544]= F
=
fritterware n.
An excess of capability that serves no productive end. The canonical
example is font-diddling software on the Mac (see [5545]macdink); the
term describes anything that eats huge amounts of time for quite
marginal gains in function but seduces people into using it anyway.
See also [5546]window shopping.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:frob, Next:[5547]frobnicate, Previous:[5548]fritterware,
Up:[5549]= F =
frob /frob/ 1. n.
[MIT; very common] The [5550]TMRC definition was "FROB = a protruding
arm or trunnion"; by metaphoric extension, a `frob' is any random
small thing; an object that you can comfortably hold in one hand;
something you can frob (sense 2). See [5551]frobnitz. 2. vt.
Abbreviated form of [5552]frobnicate. 3. [from the [5553]MUD world] A
command on some MUDs that changes a player's experience level (this
can be used to make wizards); also, to request [5554]wizard privileges
on the `professional courtesy' grounds that one is a wizard elsewhere.
The command is actually `frobnicate' but is universally abbreviated to
the shorter form.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:frobnicate, Next:[5555]frobnitz, Previous:[5556]frob, Up:[5557]=
F =
frobnicate /frob'ni-kayt/ vt.
[Poss. derived from [5558]frobnitz, and usually abbreviated to
[5559]frob, but `frobnicate' is recognized as the official full form.]
To manipulate or adjust, to tweak. One frequently frobs bits or other
2-state devices. Thus: "Please frob the light switch" (that is, flip
it), but also "Stop frobbing that clasp; you'll break it". One also
sees the construction `to frob a frob'. See [5560]tweak and
[5561]twiddle.
Usage: frob, twiddle, and tweak sometimes connote points along a
continuum. `Frob' connotes aimless manipulation; `twiddle' connotes
gross manipulation, often a coarse search for a proper setting;
`tweak' connotes fine-tuning. If someone is turning a knob on an
oscilloscope, then if he's carefully adjusting it, he is probably
tweaking it; if he is just turning it but looking at the screen, he is
probably twiddling it; but if he's just doing it because turning a
knob is fun, he's frobbing it. The variant `frobnosticate' has been
recently reported.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:frobnitz, Next:[5562]frog, Previous:[5563]frobnicate, Up:[5564]=
F =
frobnitz /frob'nits/, pl. `frobnitzem' /frob'nit-zm/ or `frobni'
/frob'ni:/ n.
[TMRC] An unspecified physical object, a widget. Also refers to
electronic black boxes. This rare form is usually abbreviated to
`frotz', or more commonly to [5565]frob. Also used are `frobnule'
(/frob'n[y]ool/) and `frobule' (/frob'yool/). Starting perhaps in
1979, `frobozz' /fr*-boz'/ (plural: `frobbotzim' /fr*-bot'zm/) has
also become very popular, largely through its exposure as a name via
[5566]Zork. These variants can also be applied to nonphysical objects,
such as data structures.
Pete Samson, compiler of the original [5567]TMRC lexicon, adds, "Under
the TMRC [railroad] layout were many storage boxes, managed (in 1958)
by David R. Sawyer. Several had fanciful designations written on them,
such as `Frobnitz Coil Oil'. Perhaps DRS intended Frobnitz to be a
proper name, but the name was quickly taken for the thing". This was
almost certainly the origin of the term.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:frog, Next:[5568]frogging, Previous:[5569]frobnitz, Up:[5570]= F
=
frog alt. `phrog'
1. interj. Term of disgust (we seem to have a lot of them). 2. Used as
a name for just about anything. See [5571]foo. 3. n. Of things, a
crock. 4. n. Of people, somewhere in between a turkey and a toad. 5.
`froggy': adj. Similar to [5572]bagbiting, but milder. "This froggy
program is taking forever to run!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:frogging, Next:[5573]front end, Previous:[5574]frog, Up:[5575]= F
=
frogging [University of Waterloo] v.
1. Partial corruption of a text file or input stream by some bug or
consistent glitch, as opposed to random events like line noise or
media failures. Might occur, for example, if one bit of each incoming
character on a tty were stuck, so that some characters were correct
and others were not. See [5576]terminak for a historical example and
compare [5577]dread high-bit disease. 2. By extension, accidental
display of text in a mode where the output device emits special
symbols or mnemonics rather than conventional ASCII. This often
happens, for example, when using a terminal or comm program on a
device like an IBM PC with a special `high-half' character set and
with the bit-parity assumption wrong. A hacker sufficiently familiar
with ASCII bit patterns might be able to read the display anyway.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:front end, Next:[5578]frotz, Previous:[5579]frogging, Up:[5580]=
F =
front end n.
1. An intermediary computer that does set-up and filtering for another
(usually more powerful but less friendly) machine (a `back end'). 2.
What you're talking to when you have a conversation with someone who
is making replies without paying attention. "Look at the dancing
elephants!" "Uh-huh." "Do you know what I just said?" "Sorry, you were
talking to the front end." 3. Software that provides an interface to
another program `behind' it, which may not be as user-friendly.
Probably from analogy with hardware front-ends (see sense 1) that
interfaced with mainframes.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:frotz, Next:[5581]frotzed, Previous:[5582]front end, Up:[5583]= F
=
frotz /frots/
1. n. See [5584]frobnitz. 2. `mumble frotz': An interjection of
mildest disgust.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:frotzed, Next:[5585]frowney, Previous:[5586]frotz, Up:[5587]= F =
frotzed /frotst/ adj.
[5588]down because of hardware problems. Compare [5589]fried. A
machine that is merely frotzed may be fixable without replacing parts,
but a fried machine is more seriously damaged.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:frowney, Next:[5590]FRS, Previous:[5591]frotzed, Up:[5592]= F =
frowney n.
(alt. `frowney face') See [5593]emoticon.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FRS, Next:[5594]fry, Previous:[5595]frowney, Up:[5596]= F =
FRS // n.,obs.
Abbreviation for "Freely Redistributable Software" which entered
general use on the Internet in 1995 after years of low-level confusion
over what exactly to call software written to be passed around and
shared (contending terms including [5597]freeware, [5598]shareware,
and `sourceware' were never universally felt to be satisfactory for
various subtle reasons). The first formal conference on freely
redistributable software was held in Cambridge, Massachussetts, in
February 1996 (sponsored by the Free Software Foundation). The
conference organizers used the FRS abbreviation heavily in its calls
for papers and other literature during 1995. The term was in steady
though not common use until 1998 and the invention of [5599]open
source.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fry, Next:[5600]fscking, Previous:[5601]FRS, Up:[5602]= F =
fry
1. vi. To fail. Said especially of smoke-producing hardware failures.
More generally, to become non-working. Usage: never said of software,
only of hardware and humans. See [5603]fried, [5604]magic smoke. 2.
vt. To cause to fail; to [5605]roach, [5606]toast, or [5607]hose a
piece of hardware. Never used of software or humans, but compare
[5608]fried.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fscking, Next:[5609]FSF, Previous:[5610]fry, Up:[5611]= F =
fscking /fus'-king/ or /eff'-seek-ing/ adj.
[Usenet; common] Fucking, in the expletive sense (it refers to the
Unix filesystem-repair command fsck(1), of which it can be said that
if you have to use it at all you are having a bad day). Originated on
[5612]scary devil monastery and the bofh.net newsgroups, but became
much more widespread following the passage of [5613]CDA. Also
occasionally seen in the variant "What the fsck?"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FSF, Next:[5614]FTP, Previous:[5615]fscking, Up:[5616]= F =
FSF /F-S-F/ abbrev.
Common abbreviation (both spoken and written) for the name of the Free
Software Foundation, a nonprofit educational association formed to
support the [5617]GNU project.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FTP, Next:[5618]-fu, Previous:[5619]FSF, Up:[5620]= F =
FTP /F-T-P/, not /fit'ip/
1. [techspeak] n. The File Transfer Protocol for transmitting files
between systems on the Internet. 2. vt. To [5621]beam a file using the
File Transfer Protocol. 3. Sometimes used as a generic even for file
transfers not using [5622]FTP. "Lemme get a copy of "Wuthering
Heights" ftp'd from uunet."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:-fu, Next:[5623]FUBAR, Previous:[5624]FTP, Up:[5625]= F =
-fu
[common; generalized from `kung-fu'] Combining form denoting expert
practice of a skill. "That's going to take some serious code-fu."
First sighted in connection with the GIMP's remote-scripting facility,
script-fu, in 1998.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FUBAR, Next:[5626]fuck me harder, Previous:[5627]-fu, Up:[5628]=
F =
FUBAR n.
The Failed UniBus Address Register in a VAX. A good example of how
jargon can occasionally be snuck past the [5629]suits; see
[5630]foobar, and [5631]foo for a fuller etymology.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fuck me harder, Next:[5632]FUD, Previous:[5633]FUBAR, Up:[5634]=
F =
fuck me harder excl.
Sometimes uttered in response to egregious misbehavior, esp. in
software, and esp. of misbehaviors which seem unfairly persistent (as
though designed in by the imp of the perverse). Often theatrically
elaborated: "Aiighhh! Fuck me with a piledriver and 16 feet of
curare-tipped wrought-iron fence and no lubricants!" The phrase is
sometimes heard abbreviated `FMH' in polite company.
[This entry is an extreme example of the hackish habit of coining
elaborate and evocative terms for lossage. Here we see a quite
self-conscious parody of mainstream expletives that has become a
running gag in part of the hacker culture; it illustrates the hackish
tendency to turn any situation, even one of extreme frustration, into
an intellectual game (the point being, in this case, to creatively
produce a long-winded description of the most anatomically absurd
mental image possible -- the short forms implicitly allude to all the
ridiculous long forms ever spoken). Scatological language is actually
relatively uncommon among hackers, and there was some controversy over
whether this entry ought to be included at all. As it reflects a live
usage recognizably peculiar to the hacker culture, we feel it is in
the hackish spirit of truthfulness and opposition to all forms of
censorship to record it here. --ESR & GLS]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FUD, Next:[5635]FUD wars, Previous:[5636]fuck me harder,
Up:[5637]= F =
FUD /fuhd/ n.
Defined by Gene Amdahl after he left IBM to found his own company:
"FUD is the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that IBM sales people instill
in the minds of potential customers who might be considering [Amdahl]
products." The idea, of course, was to persuade them to go with safe
IBM gear rather than with competitors' equipment. This implicit
coercion was traditionally accomplished by promising that Good Things
would happen to people who stuck with IBM, but Dark Shadows loomed
over the future of competitors' equipment or software. See [5638]IBM.
After 1990 the term FUD was associated increasingly frequently with
[5639]Microsoft, and has become generalized to refer to any kind of
disinformation used as a competitive weapon.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:FUD wars, Next:[5640]fudge, Previous:[5641]FUD, Up:[5642]= F =
FUD wars /fuhd worz/ n.
[from [5643]FUD] Political posturing engaged in by hardware and
software vendors ostensibly committed to standardization but actually
willing to fragment the market to protect their own shares. The Unix
International vs. OSF conflict about Unix standards was one
outstanding example; Microsoft vs. Netscape vs. W3C about HTML
standards is another.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fudge, Next:[5644]fudge factor, Previous:[5645]FUD wars,
Up:[5646]= F =
fudge
1. vt. To perform in an incomplete but marginally acceptable way,
particularly with respect to the writing of a program. "I didn't feel
like going through that pain and suffering, so I fudged it -- I'll fix
it later." 2. n. The resulting code.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fudge factor, Next:[5647]fuel up, Previous:[5648]fudge,
Up:[5649]= F =
fudge factor n.
[common] A value or parameter that is varied in an ad hoc way to
produce the desired result. The terms `tolerance' and [5650]slop are
also used, though these usually indicate a one-sided leeway, such as a
buffer that is made larger than necessary because one isn't sure
exactly how large it needs to be, and it is better to waste a little
space than to lose completely for not having enough. A fudge factor,
on the other hand, can often be tweaked in more than one direction. A
good example is the `fuzz' typically allowed in floating-point
calculations: two numbers being compared for equality must be allowed
to differ by a small amount; if that amount is too small, a
computation may never terminate, while if it is too large, results
will be needlessly inaccurate. Fudge factors are frequently adjusted
incorrectly by programmers who don't fully understand their import.
See also [5651]coefficient of X.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fuel up, Next:[5652]Full Monty, Previous:[5653]fudge factor,
Up:[5654]= F =
fuel up vi.
To eat or drink hurriedly in order to get back to hacking. "Food-p?"
"Yeah, let's fuel up." "Time for a [5655]great-wall!" See also
[5656]oriental food.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Full Monty, Next:[5657]fum, Previous:[5658]fuel up, Up:[5659]= F
=
Full Monty n.
See [5660]monty, sense 2.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fum, Next:[5661]functino, Previous:[5662]Full Monty, Up:[5663]= F
=
fum n.
[XEROX PARC] At PARC, often the third of the standard
[5664]metasyntactic variables (after [5665]foo and [5666]bar).
Competes with [5667]baz, which is more common outside PARC.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:functino, Next:[5668]funky, Previous:[5669]fum, Up:[5670]= F =
functino n.
[uncommon, U.K.; originally a serendipitous typo in 1994] A pointer to
a function in C and C++. By association with sub-atomic particles such
as the neutrino, it accurately conveys an impression of smallness (one
pointer is four bytes on most systems) and speed (hackers can and do
use arrays of functinos to replace a switch() statement).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:funky, Next:[5671]funny money, Previous:[5672]functino,
Up:[5673]= F =
funky adj.
Said of something that functions, but in a slightly strange, klugey
way. It does the job and would be difficult to change, so its obvious
non-optimality is left alone. Often used to describe interfaces. The
more bugs something has that nobody has bothered to fix because
workarounds are easier, the funkier it is. [5674]TECO and UUCP are
funky. The Intel i860's exception handling is extraordinarily funky.
Most standards acquire funkiness as they age. "The new mailer is
installed, but is still somewhat funky; if it bounces your mail for no
reason, try resubmitting it." "This UART is pretty funky. The data
ready line is active-high in interrupt mode and active-low in DMA
mode."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:funny money, Next:[5675]furrfu, Previous:[5676]funky, Up:[5677]=
F =
funny money n.
1. Notional `dollar' units of computing time and/or storage handed to
students at the beginning of a computer course; also called `play
money' or `purple money' (in implicit opposition to real or `green'
money). In New Zealand and Germany the odd usage `paper money' has
been recorded; in Germany, the particularly amusing synonym `transfer
ruble' commemmorates the funny money used for trade between COMECON
countries back when the Soviet Bloc still existed. When your funny
money ran out, your account froze and you needed to go to a professor
to get more. Fortunately, the plunging cost of timesharing cycles has
made this less common. The amounts allocated were almost invariably
too small, even for the non-hackers who wanted to slide by with
minimum work. In extreme cases, the practice led to small-scale black
markets in bootlegged computer accounts. 2. By extension, phantom
money or quantity tickets of any kind used as a resource-allocation
hack within a system. Antonym: `real money'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:furrfu, Next:[5678]fuzzball, Previous:[5679]funny money,
Up:[5680]= F =
furrfu excl.
[Usenet; written, only rarely spoken] Written-only equivalent of
"Sheesh!"; it is, in fact, "sheesh" modified by [5681]rot13. Evolved
in mid-1992 as a response to notably silly postings repeating urban
myths on the Usenet newsgroup alt.folklore.urban, after some posters
complained that "Sheesh!" as a response to [5682]newbies was being
overused. See also [5683]FOAF.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:fuzzball, Next:[5684]G, Previous:[5685]furrfu, Up:[5686]= F =
fuzzball n.
[TCP/IP hackers] A DEC LSI-11 running a particular suite of homebrewed
software written by Dave Mills and assorted co-conspirators, used in
the early 1980s for Internet protocol testbedding and experimentation.
These were used as NSFnet backbone sites in its early 56kb-line days;
a few were still active on the Internet as late as mid-1993, doing odd
jobs such as network time service.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:= G =, Next:[5687]= H =, Previous:[5688]= F =, Up:[5689]The
Jargon Lexicon
= G =
* [5690]G:
* [5691]g-file:
* [5692]gabriel:
* [5693]gag:
* [5694]gang bang:
* [5695]garbage collect:
* [5696]garply:
* [5697]gas:
* [5698]gaseous:
* [5699]Gates's Law:
* [5700]gawble:
* [5701]GC:
* [5702]GCOS:
* [5703]GECOS:
* [5704]gedanken:
* [5705]geef:
* [5706]geek code:
* [5707]geek out:
* [5708]gen:
* [5709]gender mender:
* [5710]General Public Virus:
* [5711]generate:
* [5712]Genius From Mars Technique:
* [5713]gensym:
* [5714]Get a life!:
* [5715]Get a real computer!:
* [5716]GFR:
* [5717]gib:
* [5718]GIFs at 11:
* [5719]gig:
* [5720]giga-:
* [5721]GIGO:
* [5722]gilley:
* [5723]gillion:
* [5724]ginger:
* [5725]GIPS:
* [5726]glark:
* [5727]glass:
* [5728]glass tty:
* [5729]glassfet:
* [5730]glitch:
* [5731]glob:
* [5732]glork:
* [5733]glue:
* [5734]gnarly:
* [5735]GNU:
* [5736]gnubie:
* [5737]GNUMACS:
* [5738]go flatline:
* [5739]go root:
* [5740]go-faster stripes:
* [5741]GoAT:
* [5742]gobble:
* [5743]Godwin's Law:
* [5744]Godzillagram:
* [5745]golden:
* [5746]golf-ball printer:
* [5747]gonk:
* [5748]gonkulator:
* [5749]gonzo:
* [5750]Good Thing:
* [5751]gopher:
* [5752]gopher hole:
* [5753]gorets:
* [5754]gorilla arm:
* [5755]gorp:
* [5756]GOSMACS:
* [5757]Gosperism:
* [5758]gotcha:
* [5759]GPL:
* [5760]GPV:
* [5761]grault:
* [5762]gray goo:
* [5763]Great Renaming:
* [5764]Great Runes:
* [5765]Great Worm:
* [5766]great-wall:
* [5767]Green Book:
* [5768]green bytes:
* [5769]green card:
* [5770]green lightning:
* [5771]green machine:
* [5772]Green's Theorem:
* [5773]greenbar:
* [5774]grep:
* [5775]gribble:
* [5776]grilf:
* [5777]grind:
* [5778]grind crank:
* [5779]gripenet:
* [5780]gritch:
* [5781]grok:
* [5782]gronk:
* [5783]gronk out:
* [5784]gronked:
* [5785]grovel:
* [5786]grue:
* [5787]grunge:
* [5788]gubbish:
* [5789]Guido:
* [5790]guiltware:
* [5791]gumby:
* [5792]gun:
* [5793]gunch:
* [5794]gunpowder chicken:
* [5795]gurfle:
* [5796]guru:
* [5797]guru meditation:
* [5798]gweep:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:G, Next:[5799]g-file, Previous:[5800]fuzzball, Up:[5801]= G =
G pref.,suff.
[SI] See [5802]quantifiers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:g-file, Next:[5803]gabriel, Previous:[5804]G, Up:[5805]= G =
g-file n.
[Commodore BBS culture] Any file that is written with the intention of
being read by a human rather than a machine, such as the Jargon File,
documentation, humor files, hacker lore, and technical materials.
This term survives from the nearly forgotten Commodore 64 underground
and BBS community. In the early 80s, C-Net had emerged as the most
popular C64 BBS software for systems which encouraged messaging (as
opposed to file transfer). There were three main options for files:
Program files (p-files), which served the same function as `doors' in
today's systems, UD files (the user upload/download section), and
g-files. Anything that was meant to be read was included in g-files.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gabriel, Next:[5806]gag, Previous:[5807]g-file, Up:[5808]= G =
gabriel /gay'bree-*l/ n.
[for Dick Gabriel, SAIL LISP hacker and volleyball fanatic] An
unnecessary (in the opinion of the opponent) stalling tactic, e.g.,
tying one's shoelaces or combing one's hair repeatedly, asking the
time, etc. Also used to refer to the perpetrator of such tactics.
Also, `pulling a Gabriel', `Gabriel mode'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gag, Next:[5809]gang bang, Previous:[5810]gabriel, Up:[5811]= G =
gag vi.
Equivalent to [5812]choke, but connotes more disgust. "Hey, this is
FORTRAN code. No wonder the C compiler gagged." See also [5813]barf.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gang bang, Next:[5814]garbage collect, Previous:[5815]gag,
Up:[5816]= G =
gang bang n.
The use of large numbers of loosely coupled programmers in an attempt
to wedge a great many features into a product in a short time. Though
there have been memorable gang bangs (e.g., that over-the-weekend
assembler port mentioned in Steven Levy's "Hackers"), most are
perpetrated by large companies trying to meet deadlines; the
inevitable result is enormous buggy masses of code entirely lacking in
[5817]orthogonality. When market-driven managers make a list of all
the features the competition has and assign one programmer to
implement each, the probability of maintaining a coherent (or even
functional) design goes infinitesimal. See also [5818]firefighting,
[5819]Mongolian Hordes technique, [5820]Conway's Law.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:garbage collect, Next:[5821]garply, Previous:[5822]gang bang,
Up:[5823]= G =
garbage collect vi.
(also `garbage collection', n.) See [5824]GC.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:garply, Next:[5825]gas, Previous:[5826]garbage collect,
Up:[5827]= G =
garply /gar'plee/ n.
[Stanford] Another metasyntactic variable (see [5828]foo); once
popular among SAIL hackers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gas, Next:[5829]gaseous, Previous:[5830]garply, Up:[5831]= G =
gas
[as in `gas chamber'] 1. interj. A term of disgust and hatred,
implying that gas should be dispensed in generous quantities, thereby
exterminating the source of irritation. "Some loser just reloaded the
system for no reason! Gas!" 2. interj. A suggestion that someone or
something ought to be flushed out of mercy. "The system's getting
[5832]wedged every few minutes. Gas!" 3. vt. To [5833]flush (sense 1).
"You should gas that old crufty software." 4. [IBM] n. Dead space in
nonsequentially organized files that was occupied by data that has
since been deleted; the compression operation that removes it is
called `degassing' (by analogy, perhaps, with the use of the same term
in vacuum technology). 5. [IBM] n. Empty space on a disk that has been
clandestinely allocated against future need.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gaseous, Next:[5834]Gates's Law, Previous:[5835]gas, Up:[5836]= G
=
gaseous adj.
Deserving of being [5837]gassed. Disseminated by Geoff Goodfellow
while at SRI; became particularly popular after the Moscone-Milk
killings in San Francisco, when it was learned that the defendant Dan
White (a politician who had supported Proposition 7) would get the gas
chamber under Proposition 7 if convicted of first-degree murder (he
was eventually convicted of manslaughter).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Gates's Law, Next:[5838]gawble, Previous:[5839]gaseous,
Up:[5840]= G =
Gates's Law
"The speed of software halves every 18 months." This oft-cited law is
an ironic comment on the tendency of software bloat to outpace the
every-18-month doubling in hardware caopacity per dollar predicted by
[5841]Moore's Law. The reference is to Bill Gates; Microsoft is widely
considered among the worst if not the worst of the perpetrators of
bloat.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gawble, Next:[5842]GC, Previous:[5843]Gates's Law, Up:[5844]= G =
gawble /gaw'bl/ n.
See [5845]chawmp.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:GC, Next:[5846]GCOS, Previous:[5847]gawble, Up:[5848]= G =
GC /G-C/
[from LISP terminology; `Garbage Collect'] 1. vt. To clean up and
throw away useless things. "I think I'll GC the top of my desk today."
When said of files, this is equivalent to [5849]GFR. 2. vt. To
recycle, reclaim, or put to another use. 3. n. An instantiation of the
garbage collector process.
`Garbage collection' is computer-science techspeak for a particular
class of strategies for dynamically but transparently reallocating
computer memory (i.e., without requiring explicit allocation and
deallocation by higher-level software). One such strategy involves
periodically scanning all the data in memory and determining what is
no longer accessible; useless data items are then discarded so that
the memory they occupy can be recycled and used for another purpose.
Implementations of the LISP language usually use garbage collection.
In jargon, the full phrase is sometimes heard but the [5850]abbrev GC
is more frequently used because it is shorter. Note that there is an
ambiguity in usage that has to be resolved by context: "I'm going to
garbage-collect my desk" usually means to clean out the drawers, but
it could also mean to throw away or recycle the desk itself.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:GCOS, Next:[5851]GECOS, Previous:[5852]GC, Up:[5853]= G =
GCOS /jee'kohs/ n.
A [5854]quick-and-dirty [5855]clone of System/360 DOS that emerged
from GE around 1970; originally called GECOS (the General Electric
Comprehensive Operating System). Later kluged to support primitive
timesharing and transaction processing. After the buyout of GE's
computer division by Honeywell, the name was changed to General
Comprehensive Operating System (GCOS). Other OS groups at Honeywell
began referring to it as `God's Chosen Operating System', allegedly in
reaction to the GCOS crowd's uninformed and snotty attitude about the
superiority of their product. All this might be of zero interest,
except for two facts: (1) The GCOS people won the political war, and
this led in the orphaning and eventual death of Honeywell
[5856]Multics, and (2) GECOS/GCOS left one permanent mark on Unix.
Some early Unix systems at Bell Labs used GCOS machines for print
spooling and various other services; the field added to /etc/passwd to
carry GCOS ID information was called the `GECOS field' and survives
today as the pw_gecos member used for the user's full name and other
human-ID information. GCOS later played a major role in keeping
Honeywell a dismal also-ran in the mainframe market, and was itself
mostly ditched for Unix in the late 1980s when Honeywell began to
retire its aging [5857]big iron designs.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:GECOS, Next:[5858]gedanken, Previous:[5859]GCOS, Up:[5860]= G =
GECOS /jee'kohs/ n.
See [5861]GCOS.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gedanken, Next:[5862]geef, Previous:[5863]GECOS, Up:[5864]= G =
gedanken /g*-dahn'kn/ adj.
Ungrounded; impractical; not well-thought-out; untried; untested.
`Gedanken' is a German word for `thought'. A thought experiment is one
you carry out in your head. In physics, the term `gedanken experiment'
is used to refer to an experiment that is impractical to carry out,
but useful to consider because it can be reasoned about theoretically.
(A classic gedanken experiment of relativity theory involves thinking
about a man in an elevator accelerating through space.) Gedanken
experiments are very useful in physics, but must be used with care.
It's too easy to idealize away some important aspect of the real world
in constructing the `apparatus'.
Among hackers, accordingly, the word has a pejorative connotation. It
is typically used of a project, especially one in artificial
intelligence research, that is written up in grand detail (typically
as a Ph.D. thesis) without ever being implemented to any great extent.
Such a project is usually perpetrated by people who aren't very good
hackers or find programming distasteful or are just in a hurry. A
`gedanken thesis' is usually marked by an obvious lack of intuition
about what is programmable and what is not, and about what does and
does not constitute a clear specification of an algorithm. See also
[5865]AI-complete, [5866]DWIM.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:geef, Next:[5867]geek code, Previous:[5868]gedanken, Up:[5869]= G
=
geef v.
[ostensibly from `gefingerpoken'] vt. Syn. [5870]mung. See also
[5871]blinkenlights.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:geek code, Next:[5872]geek out, Previous:[5873]geef, Up:[5874]= G
=
geek code n.
(also "Code of the Geeks"). A set of codes commonly used in [5875]sig
blocks to broadcast the interests, skills, and aspirations of the
poster. Features a G at the left margin followed by numerous letter
codes, often suffixed with plusses or minuses. Because many net users
are involved in computer science, the most common prefix is `GCS'. To
see a copy of the current code, browse [5876]http://www.geekcode.com.
Here is a sample geek code (that of Robert Hayden, the code's
inventor) from that page:
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GED/J d-- s:++>: a- C++(++++)$ ULUO++ P+>+++ L++ !E---- W+(---) N+++
o+ K+++ w+(---) O- M+$>++ V-- PS++(+++)>$ PE++(+)>$ Y++ PGP++ t- 5+++
X++ R+++>$ tv+ b+ DI+++ D+++ G+++++>$ e++$>++++ h r-- y+**
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
The geek code originated in 1993; it was inspired (according to the
inventor) by previous "bear", "smurf" and "twink"
style-and-sexual-preference codes from lesbian and gay
[5877]newsgroups. It has in turn spawned imitators; there is now even
a "Saturn geek code" for owners of the Saturn car. See also
[5878]computer geek.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:geek out, Next:[5879]gen, Previous:[5880]geek code, Up:[5881]= G
=
geek out vi.
To temporarily enter techno-nerd mode while in a non-hackish context,
for example at parties held near computer equipment. Especially used
when you need to do or say something highly technical and don't have
time to explain: "Pardon me while I geek out for a moment." See
[5882]computer geek; see also [5883]propeller head.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gen, Next:[5884]gender mender, Previous:[5885]geek out,
Up:[5886]= G =
gen /jen/ n.,v.
Short for [5887]generate, used frequently in both spoken and written
contexts.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gender mender, Next:[5888]General Public Virus,
Previous:[5889]gen, Up:[5890]= G =
gender mender n.
[common] A cable connector shell with either two male or two female
connectors on it, used to correct the mismatches that result when some
[5891]loser didn't understand the RS232C specification and the
distinction between DTE and DCE. Used esp. for RS-232C parts in either
the original D-25 or the IBM PC's bogus D-9 format. Also called
`gender bender', `gender blender', `sex changer', and even `homosexual
adapter;' however, there appears to be some confusion as to whether a
`male homosexual adapter' has pins on both sides (is doubly male) or
sockets on both sides (connects two males).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:General Public Virus, Next:[5892]generate, Previous:[5893]gender
mender, Up:[5894]= G =
General Public Virus n.
Pejorative name for some versions of the [5895]GNU project
[5896]copyleft or General Public License (GPL), which requires that
any tools or [5897]apps incorporating copylefted code must be
source-distributed on the same anti-proprietary terms as GNU stuff.
Thus it is alleged that the copyleft `infects' software generated with
GNU tools, which may in turn infect other software that reuses any of
its code. The Free Software Foundation's official position as of
January 1991 is that copyright law limits the scope of the GPL to
"programs textually incorporating significant amounts of GNU code",
and that the `infection' is not passed on to third parties unless
actual GNU source is transmitted. Nevertheless, widespread suspicion
that the [5898]copyleft language is `boobytrapped' has caused many
developers to avoid using GNU tools and the GPL. Changes in the
language of the version 2.0 GPL did not eliminate this problem.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:generate, Next:[5899]Genius From Mars Technique,
Previous:[5900]General Public Virus, Up:[5901]= G =
generate vt.
To produce something according to an algorithm or program or set of
rules, or as a (possibly unintended) side effect of the execution of
an algorithm or program. The opposite of [5902]parse. This term
retains its mechanistic connotations (though often humorously) when
used of human behavior. "The guy is rational most of the time, but
mention nuclear energy around him and he'll generate [5903]infinite
flamage."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Genius From Mars Technique, Next:[5904]gensym,
Previous:[5905]generate, Up:[5906]= G =
Genius From Mars Technique n.
[TMRC] A visionary quality which enables one to ignore the standard
approach and come up with a totally unexpected new algorithm. An
attack on a problem from an offbeat angle that no one has ever thought
of before, but that in retrospect makes total sense. Compare
[5907]grok, [5908]zen.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gensym, Next:[5909]Get a life!, Previous:[5910]Genius From Mars
Technique, Up:[5911]= G =
gensym /jen'sim/
[from MacLISP for `generated symbol'] 1. v. To invent a new name for
something temporary, in such a way that the name is almost certainly
not in conflict with one already in use. 2. n. The resulting name. The
canonical form of a gensym is `Gnnnn' where nnnn represents a number;
any LISP hacker would recognize G0093 (for example) as a gensym. 3. A
freshly generated data structure with a gensymmed name. Gensymmed
names are useful for storing or uniquely identifying crufties (see
[5912]cruft).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Get a life!, Next:[5913]Get a real computer!,
Previous:[5914]gensym, Up:[5915]= G =
Get a life! imp.
Hacker-standard way of suggesting that the person to whom it is
directed has succumbed to terminal geekdom (see [5916]computer geek).
Often heard on [5917]Usenet, esp. as a way of suggesting that the
target is taking some obscure issue of [5918]theology too seriously.
This exhortation was popularized by William Shatner on a 1987
"Saturday Night Live" episode in a speech that ended "Get a life!",
but some respondents believe it to have been in use before then. It
was certainly in wide use among hackers for years before achieving
mainstream currency via the sitcom "Get A Life" in 1990.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Get a real computer!, Next:[5919]GFR, Previous:[5920]Get a life!,
Up:[5921]= G =
Get a real computer! imp.
Typical hacker response to news that somebody is having trouble
getting work done on a system that (a) is single-tasking, (b) has no
hard disk, or (c) has an address space smaller than 16 megabytes. This
is as of early 1996; note that the threshold for `real computer' rises
with time. See [5922]bitty box and [5923]toy.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:GFR, Next:[5924]gib, Previous:[5925]Get a real computer!,
Up:[5926]= G =
GFR /G-F-R/ vt.
[ITS: from `Grim File Reaper', an ITS and LISP Machine utility] To
remove a file or files according to some program-automated or
semi-automatic manual procedure, especially one designed to reclaim
mass storage space or reduce name-space clutter (the original GFR
actually moved files to tape). Often generalized to pieces of data
below file level. "I used to have his phone number, but I guess I
[5927]GFRed it." See also [5928]prowler, [5929]reaper. Compare
[5930]GC, which discards only provably worthless stuff.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gib, Next:[5931]GIFs at 11, Previous:[5932]GFR, Up:[5933]= G =
gib /jib/
1. vi. To destroy utterly. Like [5934]frag, but much more violent and
final. "There's no trace left. You definitely gibbed that bug". 2. n.
Remnants after total obliteration.
Originated first by id software in the game Quake. It's short for
giblets (thus pronounced "jib"), and referred to the bloody remains of
slain opponents. Eventually the word was verbed, and leaked into
general usage afterward.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:GIFs at 11, Next:[5935]gig, Previous:[5936]gib, Up:[5937]= G =
GIFs at 11
[Fidonet] Fidonet alternative to [5938]film at 11, especially in
echoes (Fidonet topic areas) where uuencoded GIFs are permitted. Other
formats, especially JPEG and MPEG, may be referenced instead.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gig, Next:[5939]giga-, Previous:[5940]GIFs at 11, Up:[5941]= G =
gig /jig/ or /gig/ n.
[SI] See [5942]quantifiers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:giga-, Next:[5943]GIGO, Previous:[5944]gig, Up:[5945]= G =
giga- /ji'ga/ or /gi'ga/ pref.
[SI] See [5946]quantifiers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:GIGO, Next:[5947]gilley, Previous:[5948]giga-, Up:[5949]= G =
GIGO /gi:'goh/ [acronym]
1. `Garbage In, Garbage Out' -- usually said in response to
[5950]lusers who complain that a program didn't "do the right thing"
when given imperfect input or otherwise mistreated in some way. Also
commonly used to describe failures in human decision making due to
faulty, incomplete, or imprecise data. 2. `Garbage In, Gospel Out':
this more recent expansion is a sardonic comment on the tendency human
beings have to put excessive trust in `computerized' data.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gilley, Next:[5951]gillion, Previous:[5952]GIGO, Up:[5953]= G =
gilley n.
[Usenet] The unit of analogical [5954]bogosity. According to its
originator, the standard for one gilley was "the act of
bogotoficiously comparing the shutting down of 1000 machines for a day
with the killing of one person". The milligilley has been found to
suffice for most normal conversational exchanges.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gillion, Next:[5955]ginger, Previous:[5956]gilley, Up:[5957]= G =
gillion /gil'y*n/ or /jil'y*n/ n.
[formed from [5958]giga- by analogy with mega/million and
tera/trillion] 10^9. Same as an American billion or a British
`milliard'. How one pronounces this depends on whether one speaks
[5959]giga- with a hard or soft `g'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ginger, Next:[5960]GIPS, Previous:[5961]gillion, Up:[5962]= G =
ginger n.
See [5963]saga.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:GIPS, Next:[5964]glark, Previous:[5965]ginger, Up:[5966]= G =
GIPS /gips/ or /jips/ n.
[analogy with [5967]MIPS] Giga-Instructions per Second (also possibly
`Gillions of Instructions per Second'; see [5968]gillion). In 1991,
this is used of only a handful of highly parallel machines, but this
is expected to change. Compare [5969]KIPS.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:glark, Next:[5970]glass, Previous:[5971]GIPS, Up:[5972]= G =
glark /glark/ vt.
To figure something out from context. "The System III manuals are
pretty poor, but you can generally glark the meaning from context."
Interestingly, the word was originally `glork'; the context was "This
gubblick contains many nonsklarkish English flutzpahs, but the overall
pluggandisp can be glorked [sic] from context" (David Moser, quoted by
Douglas Hofstadter in his "Metamagical Themas" column in the January
1981 "Scientific American"). It is conjectured that hacker usage
mutated the verb to `glark' because [5973]glork was already an
established jargon term (some hackers do report using the original
term). Compare [5974]grok, [5975]zen.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:glass, Next:[5976]glass tty, Previous:[5977]glark, Up:[5978]= G =
glass n.
[IBM] Synonym for [5979]silicon.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:glass tty, Next:[5980]glassfet, Previous:[5981]glass, Up:[5982]=
G =
glass tty /glas T-T-Y/ or /glas ti'tee/ n.
A terminal that has a display screen but which, because of hardware or
software limitations, behaves like a teletype or some other printing
terminal, thereby combining the disadvantages of both: like a printing
terminal, it can't do fancy display hacks, and like a display
terminal, it doesn't produce hard copy. An example is the early `dumb'
version of Lear-Siegler ADM 3 (without cursor control). See
[5983]tube, [5984]tty; compare [5985]dumb terminal, [5986]smart
terminal. See "[5987]TV Typewriters" (Appendix A) for an interesting
true story about a glass tty.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:glassfet, Next:[5988]glitch, Previous:[5989]glass tty, Up:[5990]=
G =
glassfet /glas'fet/ n.
[by analogy with MOSFET, the acronym for `Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor
Field-Effect Transistor'] Syn. [5991]firebottle, a humorous way to
refer to a vacuum tube.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:glitch, Next:[5992]glob, Previous:[5993]glassfet, Up:[5994]= G =
glitch /glich/
[very common; from German `glitschig' to slip, via Yiddish `glitshen',
to slide or skid] 1. n. A sudden interruption in electric service,
sanity, continuity, or program function. Sometimes recoverable. An
interruption in electric service is specifically called a `power
glitch' (also [5995]power hit), of grave concern because it usually
crashes all the computers. In jargon, though, a hacker who got to the
middle of a sentence and then forgot how he or she intended to
complete it might say, "Sorry, I just glitched". 2. vi. To commit a
glitch. See [5996]gritch. 3. vt. [Stanford] To scroll a display
screen, esp. several lines at a time. [5997]WAITS terminals used to do
this in order to avoid continuous scrolling, which is distracting to
the eye. 4. obs. Same as [5998]magic cookie, sense 2.
All these uses of `glitch' derive from the specific technical meaning
the term has in the electronic hardware world, where it is now
techspeak. A glitch can occur when the inputs of a circuit change, and
the outputs change to some [5999]random value for some very brief time
before they settle down to the correct value. If another circuit
inspects the output at just the wrong time, reading the random value,
the results can be very wrong and very hard to debug (a glitch is one
of many causes of electronic [6000]heisenbugs).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:glob, Next:[6001]glork, Previous:[6002]glitch, Up:[6003]= G =
glob /glob/, not /glohb/ v.,n.
[Unix; common] To expand special characters in a wildcarded name, or
the act of so doing (the action is also called `globbing'). The Unix
conventions for filename wildcarding have become sufficiently
pervasive that many hackers use some of them in written English,
especially in email or news on technical topics. Those commonly
encountered include the following:
*
wildcard for any string (see also [6004]UN*X)
?
wildcard for any single character (generally read this way only
at the beginning or in the middle of a word)
[]
delimits a wildcard matching any of the enclosed characters
{}
alternation of comma-separated alternatives; thus,
`foo{baz,qux}' would be read as `foobaz' or `fooqux'
Some examples: "He said his name was [KC]arl" (expresses ambiguity).
"I don't read talk.politics.*" (any of the talk.politics subgroups on
[6005]Usenet). Other examples are given under the entry for [6006]X.
Note that glob patterns are similar, but not identical, to those used
in [6007]regexps.
Historical note: The jargon usage derives from glob, the name of a
subprogram that expanded wildcards in archaic pre-Bourne versions of
the Unix shell.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:glork, Next:[6008]glue, Previous:[6009]glob, Up:[6010]= G =
glork /glork/
1. interj. Term of mild surprise, usually tinged with outrage, as when
one attempts to save the results of two hours of editing and finds
that the system has just crashed. 2. Used as a name for just about
anything. See [6011]foo. 3. vt. Similar to [6012]glitch, but usually
used reflexively. "My program just glorked itself." 4. Syn. for
[6013]glark, which see.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:glue, Next:[6014]gnarly, Previous:[6015]glork, Up:[6016]= G =
glue n.
Generic term for any interface logic or protocol that connects two
component blocks. For example, [6017]Blue Glue is IBM's SNA protocol,
and hardware designers call anything used to connect large VLSI's or
circuit blocks `glue logic'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gnarly, Next:[6018]GNU, Previous:[6019]glue, Up:[6020]= G =
gnarly /nar'lee/ adj.
Both [6021]obscure and [6022]hairy (sense 1). "[6023]Yow! -- the tuned
assembler implementation of BitBlt is really gnarly!" From a similar
but less specific usage in surfer slang.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:GNU, Next:[6024]gnubie, Previous:[6025]gnarly, Up:[6026]= G =
GNU /gnoo/, not /noo/
1. [acronym: `GNU's Not Unix!', see [6027]recursive acronym] A
Unix-workalike development effort of the Free Software Foundation
headed by Richard Stallman [6028]<rms@gnu.org>. GNU EMACS and the GNU
C compiler, two tools designed for this project, have become very
popular in hackerdom and elsewhere. The GNU project was designed
partly to proselytize for RMS's position that information is community
property and all software source should be shared. One of its slogans
is "Help stamp out software hoarding!" Though this remains
controversial (because it implicitly denies any right of designers to
own, assign, and sell the results of their labors), many hackers who
disagree with RMS have nevertheless cooperated to produce large
amounts of high-quality software for free redistribution under the
Free Software Foundation's imprimatur. The GNU project has a web page
at [6029]http://www.gnu.org. See [6030]EMACS, [6031]copyleft,
[6032]General Public Virus, [6033]Linux. 2. Noted Unix hacker John
Gilmore [6034]<gnu@toad.com>, founder of Usenet's anarchic alt.*
hierarchy.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gnubie, Next:[6035]GNUMACS, Previous:[6036]GNU, Up:[6037]= G =
gnubie /noo'bee/ n.
Written-only variant of [6038]newbie in common use on IRC channels,
which implies specifically someone who is new to the Linux/open
source/free software world.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:GNUMACS, Next:[6039]go flatline, Previous:[6040]gnubie,
Up:[6041]= G =
GNUMACS /gnoo'maks/ n.
[contraction of `GNU EMACS'] Often-heard abbreviated name for the
[6042]GNU project's flagship tool, [6043]EMACS. Used esp. in contrast
with GOSMACS.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:go flatline, Next:[6044]go root, Previous:[6045]GNUMACS,
Up:[6046]= G =
go flatline v.
[from cyberpunk SF, refers to flattening of EEG traces upon
brain-death] (also adjectival `flatlined'). 1. To [6047]die,
terminate, or fail, esp. irreversibly. In hacker parlance, this is
used of machines only, human death being considered somewhat too
serious a matter to employ jargon-jokes about. 2. To go completely
quiescent; said of machines undergoing controlled shutdown. "You can
suffer file damage if you shut down Unix but power off before the
system has gone flatline." 3. Of a video tube, to fail by losing
vertical scan, so all one sees is a bright horizontal line bisecting
the screen.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:go root, Next:[6048]go-faster stripes, Previous:[6049]go
flatline, Up:[6050]= G =
go root vi.
[Unix; common] To temporarily enter [6051]root mode in order to
perform a privileged operation. This use is deprecated in Australia,
where v. `root' is a synonym for "fuck".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:go-faster stripes, Next:[6052]GoAT, Previous:[6053]go root,
Up:[6054]= G =
go-faster stripes n.
[UK] Syn. [6055]chrome. Mainstream in some parts of UK.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:GoAT, Next:[6056]gobble, Previous:[6057]go-faster stripes,
Up:[6058]= G =
GoAT //
[Usenet] Abbreviation: "Go Away, Troll". See [6059]troll.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gobble, Next:[6060]Godwin's Law, Previous:[6061]GoAT, Up:[6062]=
G =
gobble vt.
1. To consume, usu. used with `up'. "The output spy gobbles characters
out of a [6063]tty output buffer." 2. To obtain, usu. used with
`down'. "I guess I'll gobble down a copy of the documentation
tomorrow." See also [6064]snarf.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Godwin's Law, Next:[6065]Godzillagram, Previous:[6066]gobble,
Up:[6067]= G =
Godwin's Law prov.
[Usenet] "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a
comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." There is a
tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, that thread is over,
and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever
argument was in progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the
existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups. However
there is also a widely- recognized codicil that any intentional
triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke its thread-ending
effects will be unsuccessful.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Godzillagram, Next:[6068]golden, Previous:[6069]Godwin's Law,
Up:[6070]= G =
Godzillagram /god-zil'*-gram/ n.
[from Japan's national hero] 1. A network packet that in theory is a
broadcast to every machine in the universe. The typical case is an IP
datagram whose destination IP address is [255.255.255.255].
Fortunately, few gateways are foolish enough to attempt to implement
this case! 2. A network packet of maximum size. An IP Godzillagram has
65,536 octets. Compare [6071]super source quench, [6072]Christmas tree
packet, [6073]martian.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:golden, Next:[6074]golf-ball printer,
Previous:[6075]Godzillagram, Up:[6076]= G =
golden adj.
[prob. from folklore's `golden egg'] When used to describe a magnetic
medium (e.g., `golden disk', `golden tape'), describes one containing
a tested, up-to-spec, ready-to-ship software version. Compare
[6077]platinum-iridium.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:golf-ball printer, Next:[6078]gonk, Previous:[6079]golden,
Up:[6080]= G =
golf-ball printer n. obs.
The IBM 2741, a slow but letter-quality printing device and terminal
based on the IBM Selectric typewriter. The `golf ball' was a little
spherical frob bearing reversed embossed images of 88 different
characters arranged on four parallels of latitude; one could change
the font by swapping in a different golf ball. The print element spun
and jerked alarmingly in action and when in motion was sometimes
described as an `infuriated golf ball'. This was the technology that
enabled APL to use a non-EBCDIC, non-ASCII, and in fact completely
non-standard character set. This put it 10 years ahead of its time --
where it stayed, firmly rooted, for the next 20, until character
displays gave way to programmable bit-mapped devices with the
flexibility to support other character sets.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gonk, Next:[6081]gonkulator, Previous:[6082]golf-ball printer,
Up:[6083]= G =
gonk /gonk/ vi.,n.
1. To prevaricate or to embellish the truth beyond any reasonable
recognition. In German the term is (mythically) `gonken'; in Spanish
the verb becomes `gonkar'. "You're gonking me. That story you just
told me is a bunch of gonk." In German, for example, "Du gonkst mich"
(You're pulling my leg). See also [6084]gonkulator. 2. [British] To
grab some sleep at an odd time; compare [6085]gronk out.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gonkulator, Next:[6086]gonzo, Previous:[6087]gonk, Up:[6088]= G =
gonkulator /gon'kyoo-lay-tr/ n.
[common; from the 1960s "Hogan's Heroes" TV series] A pretentious
piece of equipment that actually serves no useful purpose. Usually
used to describe one's least favorite piece of computer hardware. See
[6089]gonk.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gonzo, Next:[6090]Good Thing, Previous:[6091]gonkulator,
Up:[6092]= G =
gonzo /gon'zoh/ adj.
[from Hunter S. Thompson] 1. With total commitment, total
concentration, and a mad sort of panache. (Thompson's original sense.)
2. More loosely: Overwhelming; outrageous; over the top; very large,
esp. used of collections of source code, source files, or individual
functions. Has some of the connotations of [6093]moby and [6094]hairy,
but without the implication of obscurity or complexity.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Good Thing, Next:[6095]gopher, Previous:[6096]gonzo, Up:[6097]= G
=
Good Thing n.,adj.
[very common; often capitalized; always pronounced as if capitalized.]
1. Self-evidently wonderful to anyone in a position to notice: "A
language that manages dynamic memory automatically for you is a Good
Thing." 2. Something that can't possibly have any ill side-effects and
may save considerable grief later: "Removing the self-modifying code
from that shared library would be a Good Thing." 3. When said of
software tools or libraries, as in "YACC is a Good Thing",
specifically connotes that the thing has drastically reduced a
programmer's work load. Oppose [6098]Bad Thing.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gopher, Next:[6099]gopher hole, Previous:[6100]Good Thing,
Up:[6101]= G =
gopher n.
A type of Internet service first floated around 1991 and obsolesced
around 1995 by the World Wide Web. Gopher presents a menuing interface
to a tree or graph of links; the links can be to documents, runnable
programs, or other gopher menus arbitrarily far across the net.
Some claim that the gopher software, which was originally developed at
the University of Minnesota, was named after the Minnesota Gophers (a
sports team). Others claim the word derives from American slang
`gofer' (from "go for", dialectal "go fer"), one whose job is to run
and fetch things. Finally, observe that gophers dig long tunnels, and
the idea of tunneling through the net to find information was a
defining metaphor for the developers. Probably all three things were
true, but with the first two coming first and the gopher-tunnel
metaphor serendipitously adding flavor and impetus to the project as
it developed out of its concept stage.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gopher hole, Next:[6102]gorets, Previous:[6103]gopher, Up:[6104]=
G =
gopher hole n.
1. Any access to a [6105]gopher. 2. [Amateur Packet Radio] The
terrestrial analog of a [6106]wormhole (sense 2), from which this term
was coined. A gopher hole links two amateur packet relays through some
non-ham radio medium.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gorets, Next:[6107]gorilla arm, Previous:[6108]gopher hole,
Up:[6109]= G =
gorets /gor'ets/ n.
The unknown ur-noun, fill in your own meaning. Found esp. on the
Usenet newsgroup alt.gorets, which seems to be a running contest to
redefine the word by implication in the funniest and most peculiar
way, with the understanding that no definition is ever final. [A
correspondent from the Former Soviet Union informs me that `gorets' is
Russian for `mountain dweller'. Another from France informs me that
`goret' is archaic French for a young pig --ESR] Compare [6110]frink.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gorilla arm, Next:[6111]gorp, Previous:[6112]gorets, Up:[6113]= G
=
gorilla arm n.
The side-effect that destroyed touch-screens as a mainstream input
technology despite a promising start in the early 1980s. It seems the
designers of all those [6114]spiffy touch-menu systems failed to
notice that humans aren't designed to hold their arms in front of
their faces making small motions. After more than a very few
selections, the arm begins to feel sore, cramped, and oversized -- the
operator looks like a gorilla while using the touch screen and feels
like one afterwards. This is now considered a classic cautionary tale
to human-factors designers; "Remember the gorilla arm!" is shorthand
for "How is this going to fly in real use?".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gorp, Next:[6115]GOSMACS, Previous:[6116]gorilla arm, Up:[6117]=
G =
gorp /gorp/ n.
[CMU: perhaps from the canonical hiker's food, Good Old Raisins and
Peanuts] Another [6118]metasyntactic variable, like [6119]foo and
[6120]bar.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:GOSMACS, Next:[6121]Gosperism, Previous:[6122]gorp, Up:[6123]= G
=
GOSMACS /goz'maks/ n.
[contraction of `Gosling EMACS'] The first [6124]EMACS-in-C
implementation, predating but now largely eclipsed by [6125]GNUMACS.
Originally freeware; a commercial version was modestly popular as
`UniPress EMACS' during the 1980s. The author, James Gosling, went on
to invent [6126]NeWS and the programming language Java; the latter
earned him [6127]demigod status.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Gosperism, Next:[6128]gotcha, Previous:[6129]GOSMACS, Up:[6130]=
G =
Gosperism /gos'p*r-izm/ n.
A hack, invention, or saying due to [6131]elder days arch-hacker R.
William (Bill) Gosper. This notion merits its own term because there
are so many of them. Many of the entries in [6132]HAKMEM are
Gosperisms; see also [6133]life.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gotcha, Next:[6134]GPL, Previous:[6135]Gosperism, Up:[6136]= G =
gotcha n.
A [6137]misfeature of a system, especially a programming language or
environment, that tends to breed bugs or mistakes because it both
enticingly easy to invoke and completely unexpected and/or
unreasonable in its outcome. For example, a classic gotcha in [6138]C
is the fact that if (a=b) {code;} is syntactically valid and sometimes
even correct. It puts the value of b into a and then executes code if
a is non-zero. What the programmer probably meant was if (a==b)
{code;}, which executes code if a and b are equal.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:GPL, Next:[6139]GPV, Previous:[6140]gotcha, Up:[6141]= G =
GPL /G-P-L/ n.
Abbreviation for `General Public License' in widespread use; see
[6142]copyleft, [6143]General Public Virus. Often mis-expanded as `GNU
Public License'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:GPV, Next:[6144]grault, Previous:[6145]GPL, Up:[6146]= G =
GPV /G-P-V/ n.
Abbrev. for [6147]General Public Virus in widespread use.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:grault, Next:[6148]gray goo, Previous:[6149]GPV, Up:[6150]= G =
grault /grawlt/ n.
Yet another [6151]metasyntactic variable, invented by Mike Gallaher
and propagated by the [6152]GOSMACS documentation. See [6153]corge.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gray goo, Next:[6154]Great Renaming, Previous:[6155]grault,
Up:[6156]= G =
gray goo n.
A hypothetical substance composed of [6157]sagans of sub-micron-sized
self-replicating robots programmed to make copies of themselves out of
whatever is available. The image that goes with the term is one of the
entire biosphere of Earth being eventually converted to robot goo.
This is the simplest of the [6158]nanotechnology disaster scenarios,
easily refuted by arguments from energy requirements and elemental
abundances. Compare [6159]blue goo.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Great Renaming, Next:[6160]Great Runes, Previous:[6161]gray goo,
Up:[6162]= G =
Great Renaming n.
The [6163]flag day in 1987 on which all of the non-local groups on the
[6164]Usenet had their names changed from the net.- format to the
current multiple-hierarchies scheme. Used esp. in discussing the
history of newsgroup names. "The oldest sources group is
comp.sources.misc; before the Great Renaming, it was net.sources."
There is a [6165]Great Renaming FAQ on the Web.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Great Runes, Next:[6166]Great Worm, Previous:[6167]Great
Renaming, Up:[6168]= G =
Great Runes n.
Uppercase-only text or display messages. Some archaic operating
systems still emit these. See also [6169]runes, [6170]smash case,
[6171]fold case.
There is a widespread legend (repeated by earlier versions of this
entry, though tagged as folklore) that the uppercase-only support of
various old character codes and I/O equipment was chosen by a
religious person in a position of power at the Teletype Company
because supporting both upper and lower cases was too expensive and
supporting lower case only would have made it impossible to spell
`God' correctly. Not true; the upper-case interpretation of
teleprinter codes was well established by 1870, long before Teletype
was even founded.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Great Worm, Next:[6172]great-wall, Previous:[6173]Great Runes,
Up:[6174]= G =
Great Worm n.
The 1988 Internet [6175]worm perpetrated by [6176]RTM. This is a play
on Tolkien (compare [6177]elvish, [6178]elder days). In the fantasy
history of his Middle Earth books, there were dragons powerful enough
to lay waste to entire regions; two of these (Scatha and Glaurung)
were known as "the Great Worms". This usage expresses the connotation
that the RTM crack was a sort of devastating watershed event in hacker
history; certainly it did more to make non-hackers nervous about the
Internet than anything before or since.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:great-wall, Next:[6179]Green Book, Previous:[6180]Great Worm,
Up:[6181]= G =
great-wall vi.,n.
[from SF fandom] A mass expedition to an oriental restaurant, esp. one
where food is served family-style and shared. There is a common
heuristic about the amount of food to order, expressed as "Get N - 1
entrees"; the value of N, which is the number of people in the group,
can be inferred from context (see [6182]N). See [6183]oriental food,
[6184]ravs, [6185]stir-fried random.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Green Book, Next:[6186]green bytes, Previous:[6187]great-wall,
Up:[6188]= G =
Green Book n.
1. One of the three standard [6189]PostScript references: "PostScript
Language Program Design", bylined `Adobe Systems' (Addison-Wesley,
1988; QA76.73.P67P66 ISBN 0-201-14396-8); see also [6190]Red Book,
[6191]Blue Book, and the [6192]White Book (sense 2). 2. Informal name
for one of the three standard references on SmallTalk: "Smalltalk-80:
Bits of History, Words of Advice", by Glenn Krasner (Addison-Wesley,
1983; QA76.8.S635S58; ISBN 0-201-11669-3) (this, too, is associated
with blue and red books). 3. The "X/Open Compatibility Guide", which
defines an international standard [6193]Unix environment that is a
proper superset of POSIX/SVID; also includes descriptions of a
standard utility toolkit, systems administrations features, and the
like. This grimoire is taken with particular seriousness in Europe.
See [6194]Purple Book. 4. The IEEE 1003.1 POSIX Operating Systems
Interface standard has been dubbed "The Ugly Green Book". 5. Any of
the 1992 standards issued by the CCITT's tenth plenary assembly. These
include, among other things, the X.400 email standard and the Group 1
through 4 fax standards. See also [6195]book titles.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:green bytes, Next:[6196]green card, Previous:[6197]Green Book,
Up:[6198]= G =
green bytes n.
(also `green words') 1. Meta-information embedded in a file, such as
the length of the file or its name; as opposed to keeping such
information in a separate description file or record. The term comes
from an IBM user's group meeting (ca. 1962) at which these two
approaches were being debated and the diagram of the file on the
blackboard had the `green bytes' drawn in green. 2. By extension, the
non-data bits in any self-describing format. "A GIF file contains,
among other things, green bytes describing the packing method for the
image." Compare [6199]out-of-band, [6200]zigamorph, [6201]fence (sense
1).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:green card, Next:[6202]green lightning, Previous:[6203]green
bytes, Up:[6204]= G =
green card n.
[after the "IBM System/360 Reference Data" card] A summary of an
assembly language, even if the color is not green and not a card. Less
frequently used now because of the decrease in the use of assembly
language. "I'll go get my green card so I can check the addressing
mode for that instruction."
The original green card became a yellow card when the System/370 was
introduced, and later a yellow booklet. An anecdote from IBM refers to
a scene that took place in a programmers' terminal room at Yorktown in
1978. A [6205]luser overheard one of the programmers ask another "Do
you have a green card?" The other grunted and passed the first a thick
yellow booklet. At this point the luser turned a delicate shade of
olive and rapidly left the room, never to return.
In fall 2000 it was reported from Electronic Data Systems that the
green card for 370 machines has been a blue-green booklet since 1989.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:green lightning, Next:[6206]green machine, Previous:[6207]green
card, Up:[6208]= G =
green lightning n.
[IBM] 1. Apparently random flashing streaks on the face of 3278-9
terminals while a new symbol set is being downloaded. This hardware
bug was left deliberately unfixed, as some genius within IBM suggested
it would let the user know that `something is happening'. That, it
certainly does. Later microprocessor-driven IBM color graphics
displays were actually programmed to produce green lightning! 2.
[proposed] Any bug perverted into an alleged feature by adroit
rationalization or marketing. "Motorola calls the CISC cruft in the
88000 architecture `compatibility logic', but I call it green
lightning". See also [6209]feature (sense 6).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:green machine, Next:[6210]Green's Theorem, Previous:[6211]green
lightning, Up:[6212]= G =
green machine n.
A computer or peripheral device that has been designed and built to
military specifications for field equipment (that is, to withstand
mechanical shock, extremes of temperature and humidity, and so forth).
Comes from the olive-drab `uniform' paint used for military equipment.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Green's Theorem, Next:[6213]greenbar, Previous:[6214]green
machine, Up:[6215]= G =
Green's Theorem prov.
[TMRC] For any story, in any group of people there will be at least
one person who has not heard the story. A refinement of the theorem
states that there will be exactly one person (if there were more than
one, it wouldn't be as bad to re-tell the story). [The name of this
theorem is a play on a fundamental theorem in calculus. --ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:greenbar, Next:[6216]grep, Previous:[6217]Green's Theorem,
Up:[6218]= G =
greenbar n.
A style of fanfolded continuous-feed paper with alternating green and
white bars on it, especially used in old-style line printers. This
slang almost certainly dates way back to mainframe days.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:grep, Next:[6219]gribble, Previous:[6220]greenbar, Up:[6221]= G =
grep /grep/ vi.
[from the qed/ed editor idiom g/re/p, where re stands for a regular
expression, to Globally search for the Regular Expression and Print
the lines containing matches to it, via [6222]Unix grep(1)] To rapidly
scan a file or set of files looking for a particular string or pattern
(when browsing through a large set of files, one may speak of
`grepping around'). By extension, to look for something by pattern.
"Grep the bulletin board for the system backup schedule, would you?"
See also [6223]vgrep.
[It has also been alleged that the source is from the title of a paper
"A General Regular Expression Parser" -ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gribble, Next:[6224]grilf, Previous:[6225]grep, Up:[6226]= G =
gribble n.
Random binary data rendered as unreadable text. Noise characters in a
data stream are displayed as gribble. Modems with mismatched bitrates
usually generate gribble (more specifically, [6227]baud barf). Dumping
a binary file to the screen is an excellent source of gribble, and (if
the bell/speaker is active) headaches.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:grilf, Next:[6228]grind, Previous:[6229]gribble, Up:[6230]= G =
grilf // n.
Girlfriend. Like [6231]newsfroup and [6232]filk, a typo reincarnated
as a new word. Seems to have originated sometime in 1992 on
[6233]Usenet. [A friend tells me there was a Lloyd Biggle SF novel
"Watchers Of The Dark", in which alien species after species goes
insane and begins to chant "Grilf! Grilf!". A human detective
eventually determines that the word means "Liar!" I hope this has
nothing to do with the popularity of the Usenet term. --ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:grind, Next:[6234]grind crank, Previous:[6235]grilf, Up:[6236]= G
=
grind vt.
1. [MIT and Berkeley; now rare] To prettify hardcopy of code,
especially LISP code, by reindenting lines, printing keywords and
comments in distinct fonts (if available), etc. This usage was
associated with the MacLISP community and is now rare; prettyprint was
and is the generic term for such operations. 2. [Unix] To generate the
formatted version of a document from the [6237]nroff, [6238]troff,
[6239]TeX, or Scribe source. 3. [common] To run seemingly
interminably, esp. (but not necessarily) if performing some tedious
and inherently useless task. Similar to [6240]crunch or [6241]grovel.
Grinding has a connotation of using a lot of CPU time, but it is
possible to grind a disk, network, etc. See also [6242]hog. 4. To make
the whole system slow. "Troff really grinds a PDP-11." 5. `grind
grind' excl. Roughly, "Isn't the machine slow today!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:grind crank, Next:[6243]gripenet, Previous:[6244]grind,
Up:[6245]= G =
grind crank n. //
A mythical accessory to a terminal. A crank on the side of a monitor,
which when operated makes a zizzing noise and causes the computer to
run faster. Usually one does not refer to a grind crank out loud, but
merely makes the appropriate gesture and noise. See [6246]grind.
Historical note: At least one real machine actually had a grind crank
-- the R1, a research machine built toward the end of the days of the
great vacuum tube computers, in 1959. R1 (also known as `The Rice
Institute Computer' (TRIC) and later as `The Rice University Computer'
(TRUC)) had a single-step/free-run switch for use when debugging
programs. Since single-stepping through a large program was rather
tedious, there was also a crank with a cam and gear arrangement that
repeatedly pushed the single-step button. This allowed one to `crank'
through a lot of code, then slow down to single-step for a bit when
you got near the code of interest, poke at some registers using the
console typewriter, and then keep on cranking.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gripenet, Next:[6247]gritch, Previous:[6248]grind crank,
Up:[6249]= G =
gripenet n.
[IBM] A wry (and thoroughly unofficial) name for IBM's internal VNET
system, deriving from its common use by IBMers to voice pointed
criticism of IBM management that would be taboo in more formal
channels.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gritch, Next:[6250]grok, Previous:[6251]gripenet, Up:[6252]= G =
gritch /grich/
[MIT] 1. n. A complaint (often caused by a [6253]glitch). 2. vi. To
complain. Often verb-doubled: "Gritch gritch". 3. A synonym for
[6254]glitch (as verb or noun).
Interestingly, this word seems to have a separate history from
[6255]glitch, with which it is often confused. Back in the early
1960s, when `glitch' was strictly a hardware-tech's term of art, the
Burton House dorm at M.I.T. maintained a "Gritch Book", a blank
volume, into which the residents hand-wrote complaints, suggestions,
and witticisms. Previous years' volumes of this tradition were
maintained, dating back to antiquity. The word "gritch" was described
as a portmanteau of "gripe" and "bitch". Thus, sense 3 above is at
least historically incorrect.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:grok, Next:[6256]gronk, Previous:[6257]gritch, Up:[6258]= G =
grok /grok/, var. /grohk/ vt.
[from the novel "Stranger in a Strange Land", by Robert A. Heinlein,
where it is a Martian word meaning literally `to drink' and
metaphorically `to be one with'] The emphatic form is `grok in
fullness'. 1. To understand, usually in a global sense. Connotes
intimate and exhaustive knowledge. Contrast [6259]zen, which is
similar supernal understanding experienced as a single brief flash.
See also [6260]glark. 2. Used of programs, may connote merely
sufficient understanding. "Almost all C compilers grok the void type
these days."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gronk, Next:[6261]gronk out, Previous:[6262]grok, Up:[6263]= G =
gronk /gronk/ vt.
[popularized by Johnny Hart's comic strip "B.C." but the word
apparently predates that] 1. To clear the state of a wedged device and
restart it. More severe than `to [6264]frob' (sense 2). 2. [TMRC] To
cut, sever, smash, or similarly disable. 3. The sound made by many
3.5-inch diskette drives. In particular, the microfloppies on a
Commodore Amiga go "grink, gronk".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gronk out, Next:[6265]gronked, Previous:[6266]gronk, Up:[6267]= G
=
gronk out vi.
To cease functioning. Of people, to go home and go to sleep. "I guess
I'll gronk out now; see you all tomorrow."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gronked, Next:[6268]grovel, Previous:[6269]gronk out, Up:[6270]=
G =
gronked adj.
1. Broken. "The teletype scanner was gronked, so we took the system
down." 2. Of people, the condition of feeling very tired or (less
commonly) sick. "I've been chasing that bug for 17 hours now and I am
thoroughly gronked!" Compare [6271]broken, which means about the same
as [6272]gronk used of hardware, but connotes depression or
mental/emotional problems in people.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:grovel, Next:[6273]grue, Previous:[6274]gronked, Up:[6275]= G =
grovel vi.
1. To work interminably and without apparent progress. Often used
transitively with `over' or `through'. "The file scavenger has been
groveling through the /usr directories for 10 minutes now." Compare
[6276]grind and [6277]crunch. Emphatic form: `grovel obscenely'. 2. To
examine minutely or in complete detail. "The compiler grovels over the
entire source program before beginning to translate it." "I grovelled
through all the documentation, but I still couldn't find the command I
wanted."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:grue, Next:[6278]grunge, Previous:[6279]grovel, Up:[6280]= G =
grue n.
[from archaic English verb for `shudder', as with fear] The grue was
originated in the game [6281]Zork (Dave Lebling took the name from
Jack Vance's "Dying Earth" fantasies) and used in several other
[6282]Infocom games as a hint that you should perhaps look for a lamp,
torch or some type of light source. Wandering into a dark area would
cause the game to prompt you, "It is very dark. If you continue you
are likely to be eaten by a grue." If you failed to locate a light
source within the next couple of moves this would indeed be the case.
The grue, according to scholars of the Great Underground Empire, is a
sinister, lurking presence in the dark places of the earth. Its
favorite diet is either adventurers or enchanters, but its insatiable
appetite is tempered by its extreme fear of light. No grues have ever
been seen by the light of day, and only a few have been observed in
their underground lairs. Of those who have seen grues, few have
survived their fearsome jaws to tell the tale. Grues have sharp claws
and fangs, and an uncontrollable tendency to slaver and gurgle. They
are certainly the most evil-tempered of all creatures; to say they are
touchy is a dangerous understatement. "Sour as a grue" is a common
expression, even among themselves.
All this folklore is widely known among hackers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:grunge, Next:[6283]gubbish, Previous:[6284]grue, Up:[6285]= G =
grunge /gruhnj/ n.
1. That which is grungy, or that which makes it so. 2. [Cambridge]
Code which is inaccessible due to changes in other parts of the
program. The preferred term in North America is [6286]dead code.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gubbish, Next:[6287]Guido, Previous:[6288]grunge, Up:[6289]= G =
gubbish /guhb'*sh/ n.
[a portmanteau of `garbage' and `rubbish'; may have originated with SF
author Philip K. Dick] Garbage; crap; nonsense. "What is all this
gubbish?" The opposite portmanteau `rubbage' is also reported; in
fact, it was British slang during the 19th century and appears in
Dickens.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Guido, Next:[6290]guiltware, Previous:[6291]gubbish, Up:[6292]= G
=
Guido /gwee'do/ or /khwee'do/
Without qualification, Guido van Rossum (author of [6293]Python). Note
that Guido answers to English /gwee'do/ but in Dutch it's /khwee'do/.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:guiltware, Next:[6294]gumby, Previous:[6295]Guido, Up:[6296]= G =
guiltware /gilt'weir/ n.
1. A piece of [6297]freeware decorated with a message telling one how
long and hard the author worked on it and intimating that one is a
no-good freeloader if one does not immediately send the poor suffering
martyr gobs of money. 2. A piece of [6298]shareware that works.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gumby, Next:[6299]gun, Previous:[6300]guiltware, Up:[6301]= G =
gumby /guhm'bee/ n.
[from a class of Monty Python characters, poss. with some influence
from the 1960s claymation character] 1. An act of minor but
conspicuous stupidity, often in `gumby maneuver' or `pull a gumby'. 2.
[NRL] n. A bureaucrat, or other technical incompetent who impedes the
progress of real work. 3. adj. Relating to things typically associated
with people in sense 2. (e.g. "Ran would be writing code, but Richard
gave him gumby work that's due on Friday", or, "Dammit! Travel screwed
up my plane tickets. I have to go out on gumby patrol.")
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gun, Next:[6302]gunch, Previous:[6303]gumby, Up:[6304]= G =
gun vt.
[ITS, now rare: from the :GUN command] To forcibly terminate a program
or job (computer, not career). "Some idiot left a background process
running soaking up half the cycles, so I gunned it." Usage: now rare.
Compare [6305]can, [6306]blammo.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gunch, Next:[6307]gunpowder chicken, Previous:[6308]gun,
Up:[6309]= G =
gunch /guhnch/ vt.
[TMRC] To push, prod, or poke at a device that has almost (but not
quite) produced the desired result. Implies a threat to [6310]mung.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gunpowder chicken, Next:[6311]gurfle, Previous:[6312]gunch,
Up:[6313]= G =
gunpowder chicken n.
Same as [6314]laser chicken.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gurfle, Next:[6315]guru, Previous:[6316]gunpowder chicken,
Up:[6317]= G =
gurfle /ger'fl/ interj.
An expression of shocked disbelief. "He said we have to recode this
thing in FORTRAN by next week. Gurfle!" Compare [6318]weeble.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:guru, Next:[6319]guru meditation, Previous:[6320]gurfle,
Up:[6321]= G =
guru n.
[Unix] An expert. Implies not only [6322]wizard skill but also a
history of being a knowledge resource for others. Less often, used
(with a qualifier) for other experts on other systems, as in `VMS
guru'. See [6323]source of all good bits.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:guru meditation, Next:[6324]gweep, Previous:[6325]guru,
Up:[6326]= G =
guru meditation n.
Amiga equivalent of `panic' in Unix (sometimes just called a `guru' or
`guru event'). When the system crashes, a cryptic message of the form
"GURU MEDITATION #XXXXXXXX.YYYYYYYY" may appear, indicating what the
problem was. An Amiga guru can figure things out from the numbers.
Sometimes a [6327]guru event must be followed by a [6328]Vulcan nerve
pinch.
This term is (no surprise) an in-joke from the earliest days of the
Amiga. An earlier product of the Amiga corporation was a device called
a `Joyboard' which was basically a plastic board built onto a
joystick-like device; it was sold with a skiing game cartridge for the
Atari game machine. It is said that whenever the prototype OS crashed,
the system programmer responsible would calm down by concentrating on
a solution while sitting cross-legged on a Joyboard trying to keep the
board in balance. This position resembled that of a meditating guru.
Sadly, the joke was removed fairly early on (but there's a well-known
patch to restore it in more recent versions).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:gweep, Next:[6329]h, Previous:[6330]guru meditation, Up:[6331]= G
=
gweep /gweep/
[WPI] 1. v. To [6332]hack, usually at night. At WPI, from 1975
onwards, one who gweeped could often be found at the College Computing
Center punching cards or crashing the [6333]PDP-10 or, later, the
DEC-20. A correspondent who was there at the time opines that the term
was originally onomatopoetic, describing the keyclick sound of the
Datapoint terminals long connected to the PDP-10. The term has
survived the demise of those technologies, however, and was still
alive in early 1999. "I'm going to go gweep for a while. See you in
the morning." "I gweep from 8 PM till 3 AM during the week." 2. n. One
who habitually gweeps in sense 1; a [6334]hacker. "He's a hard-core
gweep, mumbles code in his sleep."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:= H =, Next:[6335]= I =, Previous:[6336]= G =, Up:[6337]The
Jargon Lexicon
= H =
* [6338]h:
* [6339]ha ha only serious:
* [6340]hack:
* [6341]hack attack:
* [6342]hack mode:
* [6343]hack on:
* [6344]hack together:
* [6345]hack up:
* [6346]hack value:
* [6347]hacked off:
* [6348]hacked up:
* [6349]hacker:
* [6350]hacker ethic:
* [6351]hacker humor:
* [6352]Hackers (the movie):
* [6353]hacking run:
* [6354]Hacking X for Y:
* [6355]Hackintosh:
* [6356]hackish:
* [6357]hackishness:
* [6358]hackitude:
* [6359]hair:
* [6360]hairball:
* [6361]hairy:
* [6362]HAKMEM:
* [6363]hakspek:
* [6364]Halloween Documents:
* [6365]hammer:
* [6366]hamster:
* [6367]HAND:
* [6368]hand cruft:
* [6369]hand-hacking:
* [6370]handle:
* [6371]handle:
* [6372]hand-roll:
* [6373]handshaking:
* [6374]handwave:
* [6375]hang:
* [6376]Hanlon's Razor:
* [6377]happily:
* [6378]haque:
* [6379]hard boot:
* [6380]hardcoded:
* [6381]hardwarily:
* [6382]hardwired:
* [6383]has the X nature:
* [6384]hash bucket:
* [6385]hash collision:
* [6386]hat:
* [6387]HCF:
* [6388]heads down:
* [6389]heartbeat:
* [6390]heatseeker:
* [6391]heavy metal:
* [6392]heavy wizardry:
* [6393]heavyweight:
* [6394]heisenbug:
* [6395]Helen Keller mode:
* [6396]hello sailor!:
* [6397]hello wall!:
* [6398]hello world:
* [6399]hex:
* [6400]hexadecimal:
* [6401]hexit:
* [6402]HHOK:
* [6403]HHOS:
* [6404]hidden flag:
* [6405]high bit:
* [6406]high moby:
* [6407]highly:
* [6408]hing:
* [6409]hired gun:
* [6410]hirsute:
* [6411]HLL:
* [6412]hoarding:
* [6413]hobbit:
* [6414]hog:
* [6415]hole:
* [6416]hollised:
* [6417]holy wars:
* [6418]home box:
* [6419]home machine:
* [6420]home page:
* [6421]honey pot:
* [6422]hook:
* [6423]hop:
* [6424]hose:
* [6425]hosed:
* [6426]hot chat:
* [6427]hot spot:
* [6428]hotlink:
* [6429]house wizard:
* [6430]HP-SUX:
* [6431]HTH:
* [6432]huff:
* [6433]humma:
* [6434]hung:
* [6435]hungry puppy:
* [6436]hungus:
* [6437]hyperspace:
* [6438]hysterical reasons:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:h, Next:[6439]ha ha only serious, Previous:[6440]gweep,
Up:[6441]= H =
h
[from SF fandom] A method of `marking' common words, i.e., calling
attention to the fact that they are being used in a nonstandard,
ironic, or humorous way. Originated in the fannish catchphrase "Bheer
is the One True Ghod!" from decades ago. H-infix marking of `Ghod' and
other words spread into the 1960s counterculture via underground
comix, and into early hackerdom either from the counterculture or from
SF fandom (the three overlapped heavily at the time). More recently,
the h infix has become an expected feature of benchmark names
(Dhrystone, Rhealstone, etc.); this is probably patterning on the
original Whetstone (the name of a laboratory) but influenced by the
fannish/counterculture h infix.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ha ha only serious, Next:[6442]hack, Previous:[6443]h, Up:[6444]=
H =
ha ha only serious
[from SF fandom, orig. as mutation of HHOK, `Ha Ha Only Kidding'] A
phrase (often seen abbreviated as HHOS) that aptly captures the flavor
of much hacker discourse. Applied especially to parodies, absurdities,
and ironic jokes that are both intended and perceived to contain a
possibly disquieting amount of truth, or truths that are constructed
on in-joke and self-parody. This lexicon contains many examples of
ha-ha-only-serious in both form and content. Indeed, the entirety of
hacker culture is often perceived as ha-ha-only-serious by hackers
themselves; to take it either too lightly or too seriously marks a
person as an outsider, a [6445]wannabee, or in [6446]larval stage. For
further enlightenment on this subject, consult any Zen master. See
also [6447]hacker humor, and [6448]AI koans.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hack, Next:[6449]hack attack, Previous:[6450]ha ha only serious,
Up:[6451]= H =
hack
[very common] 1. n. Originally, a quick job that produces what is
needed, but not well. 2. n. An incredibly good, and perhaps very
time-consuming, piece of work that produces exactly what is needed. 3.
vt. To bear emotionally or physically. "I can't hack this heat!" 4.
vt. To work on something (typically a program). In an immediate sense:
"What are you doing?" "I'm hacking TECO." In a general (time-extended)
sense: "What do you do around here?" "I hack TECO." More generally, "I
hack `foo'" is roughly equivalent to "`foo' is my major interest (or
project)". "I hack solid-state physics." See [6452]Hacking X for Y. 5.
vt. To pull a prank on. See sense 2 and [6453]hacker (sense 5). 6. vi.
To interact with a computer in a playful and exploratory rather than
goal-directed way. "Whatcha up to?" "Oh, just hacking." 7. n. Short
for [6454]hacker. 8. See [6455]nethack. 9. [MIT] v. To explore the
basements, roof ledges, and steam tunnels of a large, institutional
building, to the dismay of Physical Plant workers and (since this is
usually performed at educational institutions) the Campus Police. This
activity has been found to be eerily similar to playing adventure
games such as Dungeons and Dragons and [6456]Zork. See also
[6457]vadding.
Constructions on this term abound. They include `happy hacking' (a
farewell), `how's hacking?' (a friendly greeting among hackers) and
`hack, hack' (a fairly content-free but friendly comment, often used
as a temporary farewell). For more on this totipotent term see
"[6458]The Meaning of Hack". See also [6459]neat hack, [6460]real
hack.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hack attack, Next:[6461]hack mode, Previous:[6462]hack,
Up:[6463]= H =
hack attack n.
[poss. by analogy with `Big Mac Attack' from ads for the McDonald's
fast-food chain; the variant `big hack attack' is reported] Nearly
synonymous with [6464]hacking run, though the latter more strongly
implies an all-nighter.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hack mode, Next:[6465]hack on, Previous:[6466]hack attack,
Up:[6467]= H =
hack mode n.
1. What one is in when hacking, of course. 2. More specifically, a
Zen-like state of total focus on The Problem that may be achieved when
one is hacking (this is why every good hacker is part mystic). Ability
to enter such concentration at will correlates strongly with
wizardliness; it is one of the most important skills learned during
[6468]larval stage. Sometimes amplified as `deep hack mode'.
Being yanked out of hack mode (see [6469]priority interrupt) may be
experienced as a physical shock, and the sensation of being in hack
mode is more than a little habituating. The intensity of this
experience is probably by itself sufficient explanation for the
existence of hackers, and explains why many resist being promoted out
of positions where they can code. See also [6470]cyberspace (sense 2).
Some aspects of hacker etiquette will appear quite odd to an observer
unaware of the high value placed on hack mode. For example, if someone
appears at your door, it is perfectly okay to hold up a hand (without
turning one's eyes away from the screen) to avoid being interrupted.
One may read, type, and interact with the computer for quite some time
before further acknowledging the other's presence (of course, he or
she is reciprocally free to leave without a word). The understanding
is that you might be in [6471]hack mode with a lot of delicate
[6472]state (sense 2) in your head, and you dare not [6473]swap that
context out until you have reached a good point to pause. See also
[6474]juggling eggs.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hack on, Next:[6475]hack together, Previous:[6476]hack mode,
Up:[6477]= H =
hack on vt.
[very common] To [6478]hack; implies that the subject is some
pre-existing hunk of code that one is evolving, as opposed to
something one might [6479]hack up.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hack together, Next:[6480]hack up, Previous:[6481]hack on,
Up:[6482]= H =
hack together vt.
[common] To throw something together so it will work. Unlike `kluge
together' or [6483]cruft together, this does not necessarily have
negative connotations.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hack up, Next:[6484]hack value, Previous:[6485]hack together,
Up:[6486]= H =
hack up vt.
To [6487]hack, but generally implies that the result is a hack in
sense 1 (a quick hack). Contrast this with [6488]hack on. To `hack up
on' implies a [6489]quick-and-dirty modification to an existing
system. Contrast [6490]hacked up; compare [6491]kluge up, [6492]monkey
up, [6493]cruft together.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hack value, Next:[6494]hacked off, Previous:[6495]hack up,
Up:[6496]= H =
hack value n.
Often adduced as the reason or motivation for expending effort toward
a seemingly useless goal, the point being that the accomplished goal
is a hack. For example, MacLISP had features for reading and printing
Roman numerals, which were installed purely for hack value. See
[6497]display hack for one method of computing hack value, but this
cannot really be explained, only experienced. As Louis Armstrong once
said when asked to explain jazz: "Man, if you gotta ask you'll never
know." (Feminists please note Fats Waller's explanation of rhythm:
"Lady, if you got to ask, you ain't got it.")
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hacked off, Next:[6498]hacked up, Previous:[6499]hack value,
Up:[6500]= H =
hacked off adj.
[analogous to `pissed off'] Said of system administrators who have
become annoyed, upset, or touchy owing to suspicions that their sites
have been or are going to be victimized by crackers, or used for
inappropriate, technically illegal, or even overtly criminal
activities. For example, having unreadable files in your home
directory called `worm', `lockpick', or `goroot' would probably be an
effective (as well as impressively obvious and stupid) way to get your
sysadmin hacked off at you.
It has been pointed out that there is precedent for this usage in U.S.
Navy slang, in which officers under discipline are sometimes said to
be "in hack" and one may speak of "hacking off the C.O.".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hacked up, Next:[6501]hacker, Previous:[6502]hacked off,
Up:[6503]= H =
hacked up adj.
Sufficiently patched, kluged, and tweaked that the surgical scars are
beginning to crowd out normal tissue (compare [6504]critical mass).
Not all programs that are hacked become `hacked up'; if modifications
are done with some eye to coherence and continued maintainability, the
software may emerge better for the experience. Contrast [6505]hack up.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hacker, Next:[6506]hacker ethic, Previous:[6507]hacked up,
Up:[6508]= H =
hacker n.
[originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] 1. A person who
enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to
stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to
learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who programs enthusiastically
(even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just
theorizing about programming. 3. A person capable of appreciating
[6509]hack value. 4. A person who is good at programming quickly. 5.
An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work
using it or on it; as in `a Unix hacker'. (Definitions 1 through 5 are
correlated, and people who fit them congregate.) 6. An expert or
enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example.
7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming
or circumventing limitations. 8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who
tries to discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence
`password hacker', `network hacker'. The correct term for this sense
is [6510]cracker.
The term `hacker' also tends to connote membership in the global
community defined by the net (see [6511]the network and [6512]Internet
address). For discussion of some of the basics of this culture, see
the [6513]How To Become A Hacker FAQ. It also implies that the person
described is seen to subscribe to some version of the hacker ethic
(see [6514]hacker ethic).
It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe
oneself that way. Hackers consider themselves something of an elite (a
meritocracy based on ability), though one to which new members are
gladly welcome. There is thus a certain ego satisfaction to be had in
identifying yourself as a hacker (but if you claim to be one and are
not, you'll quickly be labeled [6515]bogus). See also [6516]wannabee.
This term seems to have been first adopted as a badge in the 1960s by
the hacker culture surrounding TMRC and the MIT AI Lab. We have a
report that it was used in a sense close to this entry's by teenage
radio hams and electronics tinkerers in the mid-1950s.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hacker ethic, Next:[6517]hacker humor, Previous:[6518]hacker,
Up:[6519]= H =
hacker ethic n.
1. The belief that information-sharing is a powerful positive good,
and that it is an ethical duty of hackers to share their expertise by
writing open-source and facilitating access to information and to
computing resources wherever possible. 2. The belief that
system-cracking for fun and exploration is ethically OK as long as the
cracker commits no theft, vandalism, or breach of confidentiality.
Both of these normative ethical principles are widely, but by no means
universally, accepted among hackers. Most hackers subscribe to the
hacker ethic in sense 1, and many act on it by writing and giving away
open-source software. A few go further and assert that all information
should be free and any proprietary control of it is bad; this is the
philosophy behind the [6520]GNU project.
Sense 2 is more controversial: some people consider the act of
cracking itself to be unethical, like breaking and entering. But the
belief that `ethical' cracking excludes destruction at least moderates
the behavior of people who see themselves as `benign' crackers (see
also [6521]samurai). On this view, it may be one of the highest forms
of hackerly courtesy to (a) break into a system, and then (b) explain
to the sysop, preferably by email from a [6522]superuser account,
exactly how it was done and how the hole can be plugged -- acting as
an unpaid (and unsolicited) [6523]tiger team.
The most reliable manifestation of either version of the hacker ethic
is that almost all hackers are actively willing to share technical
tricks, software, and (where possible) computing resources with other
hackers. Huge cooperative networks such as [6524]Usenet, [6525]FidoNet
and Internet (see [6526]Internet address) can function without central
control because of this trait; they both rely on and reinforce a sense
of community that may be hackerdom's most valuable intangible asset.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hacker humor, Next:[6527]Hackers (the movie),
Previous:[6528]hacker ethic, Up:[6529]= H =
hacker humor
A distinctive style of shared intellectual humor found among hackers,
having the following marked characteristics:
1. Fascination with form-vs.-content jokes, paradoxes, and humor
having to do with confusion of metalevels (see [6530]meta). One way to
make a hacker laugh: hold a red index card in front of him/her with
"GREEN" written on it, or vice-versa (note, however, that this is
funny only the first time).
2. Elaborate deadpan parodies of large intellectual constructs, such
as specifications (see [6531]write-only memory), standards documents,
language descriptions (see [6532]INTERCAL), and even entire scientific
theories (see [6533]quantum bogodynamics, [6534]computron).
3. Jokes that involve screwily precise reasoning from bizarre,
ludicrous, or just grossly counter-intuitive premises.
4. Fascination with puns and wordplay.
5. A fondness for apparently mindless humor with subversive currents
of intelligence in it -- for example, old Warner Brothers and Rocky &
Bullwinkle cartoons, the Marx brothers, the early B-52s, and Monty
Python's Flying Circus. Humor that combines this trait with elements
of high camp and slapstick is especially favored.
6. References to the symbol-object antinomies and associated ideas in
Zen Buddhism and (less often) Taoism. See [6535]has the X nature,
[6536]Discordianism, [6537]zen, [6538]ha ha only serious, [6539]koan,
[6540]AI koans.
See also [6541]filk, [6542]retrocomputing, and the Portrait of J.
Random Hacker in [6543]Appendix B. If you have an itchy feeling that
all six of these traits are really aspects of one thing that is
incredibly difficult to talk about exactly, you are (a) correct and
(b) responding like a hacker. These traits are also recognizable
(though in a less marked form) throughout [6544]science-fiction
fandom.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Hackers (the movie), Next:[6545]hacking run,
Previous:[6546]hacker humor, Up:[6547]= H =
Hackers (the movie) n.
A notable bomb from 1995. Should have been titled "Crackers", because
cracking is what the movie was about. It's understandable that they
didn't however; titles redolent of snack food are probably a tough
sell in Hollywood.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hacking run, Next:[6548]Hacking X for Y, Previous:[6549]Hackers
(the movie), Up:[6550]= H =
hacking run n.
[analogy with `bombing run' or `speed run'] A hack session extended
long outside normal working times, especially one longer than 12
hours. May cause you to `change phase the hard way' (see [6551]phase).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Hacking X for Y, Next:[6552]Hackintosh, Previous:[6553]hacking
run, Up:[6554]= H =
Hacking X for Y n.
[ITS] Ritual phrasing of part of the information which ITS made
publicly available about each user. This information (the INQUIR
record) was a sort of form in which the user could fill out various
fields. On display, two of these fields were always combined into a
project description of the form "Hacking X for Y" (e.g., "Hacking
perceptrons for Minsky"). This form of description became traditional
and has since been carried over to other systems with more general
facilities for self-advertisement (such as Unix [6555]plan files).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Hackintosh, Next:[6556]hackish, Previous:[6557]Hacking X for Y,
Up:[6558]= H =
Hackintosh n.
1. An Apple Lisa that has been hacked into emulating a Macintosh (also
called a `Mac XL'). 2. A Macintosh assembled from parts theoretically
belonging to different models in the line.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hackish, Next:[6559]hackishness, Previous:[6560]Hackintosh,
Up:[6561]= H =
hackish /hak'ish/ adj.
(also [6562]hackishness n.) 1. Said of something that is or involves a
hack. 2. Of or pertaining to hackers or the hacker subculture. See
also [6563]true-hacker.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hackishness, Next:[6564]hackitude, Previous:[6565]hackish,
Up:[6566]= H =
hackishness n.
The quality of being or involving a hack. This term is considered
mildly silly. Syn. [6567]hackitude.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hackitude, Next:[6568]hair, Previous:[6569]hackishness,
Up:[6570]= H =
hackitude n.
Syn. [6571]hackishness; this word is considered sillier.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hair, Next:[6572]hairball, Previous:[6573]hackitude, Up:[6574]= H
=
hair n.
[back-formation from [6575]hairy] The complications that make
something hairy. "Decoding [6576]TECO commands requires a certain
amount of hair." Often seen in the phrase `infinite hair', which
connotes extreme complexity. Also in `hairiferous' (tending to promote
hair growth): "GNUMACS elisp encourages lusers to write complex
editing modes." "Yeah, it's pretty hairiferous all right." (or just:
"Hair squared!")
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hairball, Next:[6577]hairy, Previous:[6578]hair, Up:[6579]= H =
hairball n.
1. [Fidonet] A large batch of messages that a store-and-forward
network is failing to forward when it should. Often used in the phrase
"Fido coughed up a hairball today", meaning that the stuck messages
have just come unstuck, producing a flood of mail where there had
previously been drought. 2. An unmanageably huge mass of source code.
"JWZ thought the Mozilla effort bogged down because the code was a
huge hairball." 3. Any large amount of garbage coming out suddenly.
"Sendmail is coughing up a hairball, so expect some slowness accessing
the Internet."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hairy, Next:[6580]HAKMEM, Previous:[6581]hairball, Up:[6582]= H =
hairy adj.
1. Annoyingly complicated. "[6583]DWIM is incredibly hairy." 2.
Incomprehensible. "[6584]DWIM is incredibly hairy." 3. Of people,
high-powered, authoritative, rare, expert, and/or incomprehensible.
Hard to explain except in context: "He knows this hairy lawyer who
says there's nothing to worry about." See also [6585]hirsute.
A well-known result in topology called the Brouwer Fixed-Point Theorem
states that any continuous transformation of a 2-sphere into itself
has at least one fixed point. Mathematically literate hackers tend to
associate the term `hairy' with the informal version of this theorem;
"You can't comb a hairy ball smooth."
The adjective `long-haired' is well-attested to have been in slang use
among scientists and engineers during the early 1950s; it was
equivalent to modern `hairy' senses 1 and 2, and was very likely
ancestral to the hackish use. In fact the noun `long-hair' was at the
time used to describe a person satisfying sense 3. Both senses
probably passed out of use when long hair was adopted as a signature
trait by the 1960s counterculture, leaving hackish `hairy' as a sort
of stunted mutant relic.
In British mainstream use, "hairy" means "dangerous", and
consequently, in British programming terms, "hairy" may be used to
denote complicated and/or incomprehensible code, but only if that
complexity or incomprehesiveness is also considered dangerous.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:HAKMEM, Next:[6586]hakspek, Previous:[6587]hairy, Up:[6588]= H =
HAKMEM /hak'mem/ n.
MIT AI Memo 239 (February 1972). A legendary collection of neat
mathematical and programming hacks contributed by many people at MIT
and elsewhere. (The title of the memo really is "HAKMEM", which is a
6-letterism for `hacks memo'.) Some of them are very useful
techniques, powerful theorems, or interesting unsolved problems, but
most fall into the category of mathematical and computer trivia. Here
is a sampling of the entries (with authors), slightly paraphrased:
Item 41 (Gene Salamin): There are exactly 23,000 prime numbers less
than 2^(18).
Item 46 (Rich Schroeppel): The most probable suit distribution in
bridge hands is 4-4-3-2, as compared to 4-3-3-3, which is the most
evenly distributed. This is because the world likes to have unequal
numbers: a thermodynamic effect saying things will not be in the state
of lowest energy, but in the state of lowest disordered energy.
Item 81 (Rich Schroeppel): Count the magic squares of order 5 (that
is, all the 5-by-5 arrangements of the numbers from 1 to 25 such that
all rows, columns, and diagonals add up to the same number). There are
about 320 million, not counting those that differ only by rotation and
reflection.
Item 154 (Bill Gosper): The myth that any given programming language
is machine independent is easily exploded by computing the sum of
powers of 2. If the result loops with period = 1 with sign +, you are
on a sign-magnitude machine. If the result loops with period = 1 at
-1, you are on a twos-complement machine. If the result loops with
period greater than 1, including the beginning, you are on a
ones-complement machine. If the result loops with period greater than
1, not including the beginning, your machine isn't binary -- the
pattern should tell you the base. If you run out of memory, you are on
a string or bignum system. If arithmetic overflow is a fatal error,
some fascist pig with a read-only mind is trying to enforce machine
independence. But the very ability to trap overflow is machine
dependent. By this strategy, consider the universe, or, more
precisely, algebra: Let X = the sum of many powers of 2 = ...111111
(base 2). Now add X to itself: X + X = ...111110. Thus, 2X = X - 1, so
X = -1. Therefore algebra is run on a machine (the universe) that is
two's-complement.
Item 174 (Bill Gosper and Stuart Nelson): 21963283741 is the only
number such that if you represent it on the [6589]PDP-10 as both an
integer and a floating-point number, the bit patterns of the two
representations are identical.
Item 176 (Gosper): The "banana phenomenon" was encountered when
processing a character string by taking the last 3 letters typed out,
searching for a random occurrence of that sequence in the text, taking
the letter following that occurrence, typing it out, and iterating.
This ensures that every 4-letter string output occurs in the original.
The program typed BANANANANANANANA.... We note an ambiguity in the
phrase, "the Nth occurrence of." In one sense, there are five 00's in
0000000000; in another, there are nine. The editing program TECO finds
five. Thus it finds only the first ANA in BANANA, and is thus
obligated to type N next. By Murphy's Law, there is but one NAN, thus
forcing A, and thus a loop. An option to find overlapped instances
would be useful, although it would require backing up N - 1 characters
before seeking the next N-character string.
Note: This last item refers to a [6590]Dissociated Press
implementation. See also [6591]banana problem.
HAKMEM also contains some rather more complicated mathematical and
technical items, but these examples show some of its fun flavor.
An HTML transcription of the entire document is available at
[6592]http://www.inwap.com/pdp10/hbaker/hakmem/hakmem.html.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hakspek, Next:[6593]Halloween Documents, Previous:[6594]HAKMEM,
Up:[6595]= H =
hakspek /hak'speek/ n.
A shorthand method of spelling found on many British academic bulletin
boards and [6596]talker systems. Syllables and whole words in a
sentence are replaced by single ASCII characters the names of which
are phonetically similar or equivalent, while multiple letters are
usually dropped. Hence, `for' becomes `4'; `two', `too', and `to'
become `2'; `ck' becomes `k'. "Before I see you tomorrow" becomes "b4
i c u 2moro". First appeared in London about 1986, and was probably
caused by the slowness of available talker systems, which operated on
archaic machines with outdated operating systems and no standard
methods of communication. Has become rarer since. See also [6597]talk
mode.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Halloween Documents, Next:[6598]hammer, Previous:[6599]hakspek,
Up:[6600]= H =
Halloween Documents n.
A pair of Microsoft internal strategy memoranda leaked to ESR in late
1998 that confirmed everybody's paranoia about the current [6601]Evil
Empire. [6602]These documents praised the technical excellence of
[6603]Linux and outlined a counterstrategy of attempting to lock in
customers by "de-commoditizing" Internet protocols and services. They
were extensively cited on the Internet and in the press and proved so
embarrassing that Microsoft PR barely said a word in public for six
months afterwards.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hammer, Next:[6604]hamster, Previous:[6605]Halloween Documents,
Up:[6606]= H =
hammer vt.
Commonwealth hackish syn. for [6607]bang on.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hamster, Next:[6608]HAND, Previous:[6609]hammer, Up:[6610]= H =
hamster n.
1. [Fairchild] A particularly slick little piece of code that does one
thing well; a small, self-contained hack. The image is of a hamster
[6611]happily spinning its exercise wheel. 2. A tailless mouse; that
is, one with an infrared link to a receiver on the machine, as opposed
to the conventional cable. 3. [UK] Any item of hardware made by
Amstrad, a company famous for its cheap plastic PC-almost-compatibles.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:HAND, Next:[6612]hand cruft, Previous:[6613]hamster, Up:[6614]= H
=
HAND //
[Usenet: very common] Abbreviation: Have A Nice Day. Typically used to
close a [6615]Usenet posting, but also used to informally close
emails; often preceded by [6616]HTH.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hand cruft, Next:[6617]hand-hacking, Previous:[6618]HAND,
Up:[6619]= H =
hand cruft vt.
[pun on `hand craft'] See [6620]cruft, sense 3.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hand-hacking, Next:[6621]hand-roll, Previous:[6622]hand cruft,
Up:[6623]= H =
hand-hacking n.
1. [rare] The practice of translating [6624]hot spots from an
[6625]HLL into hand-tuned assembler, as opposed to trying to coerce
the compiler into generating better code. Both the term and the
practice are becoming uncommon. See [6626]tune, [6627]bum, [6628]by
hand; syn. with v. [6629]cruft. 2. [common] More generally, manual
construction or patching of data sets that would normally be generated
by a translation utility and interpreted by another program, and
aren't really designed to be read or modified by humans.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hand-roll, Next:[6630]handle, Previous:[6631]hand-hacking,
Up:[6632]= H =
hand-roll v.
[from obs. mainstream slang `hand-rolled' in opposition to
`ready-made', referring to cigarettes] To perform a normally automated
software installation or configuration process [6633]by hand; implies
that the normal process failed due to bugs in the configurator or was
defeated by something exceptional in the local environment. "The worst
thing about being a gateway between four different nets is having to
hand-roll a new sendmail configuration every time any of them
upgrades."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:handle, Next:[6634]handshaking, Previous:[6635]hand-roll,
Up:[6636]= H =
handle n.
1. [from CB slang] An electronic pseudonym; a `nom de guerre' intended
to conceal the user's true identity. Network and BBS handles function
as the same sort of simultaneous concealment and display one finds on
Citizen's Band radio, from which the term was adopted. Use of
grandiose handles is characteristic of [6637]warez d00dz,
[6638]crackers, [6639]weenies, [6640]spods, and other lower forms of
network life; true hackers travel on their own reputations rather than
invented legendry. Compare [6641]nick, [6642]screen name. 2. A
[6643]magic cookie, often in the form of a numeric index into some
array somewhere, through which you can manipulate an object like a
file or window. The form `file handle' is especially common. 3. [Mac]
A pointer to a pointer to dynamically-allocated memory; the extra
level of indirection allows on-the-fly memory compaction (to cut down
on fragmentation) or aging out of unused resources, with minimal
impact on the (possibly multiple) parts of the larger program
containing references to the allocated memory. Compare [6644]snap (to
snap a handle would defeat its purpose); see also [6645]aliasing bug,
[6646]dangling pointer.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:handshaking, Next:[6647]handwave, Previous:[6648]handle,
Up:[6649]= H =
handshaking n.
[very common] Hardware or software activity designed to start or keep
two machines or programs in synchronization as they [6650]do protocol.
Often applied to human activity; thus, a hacker might watch two people
in conversation nodding their heads to indicate that they have heard
each others' points and say "Oh, they're handshaking!". See also
[6651]protocol.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:handwave, Next:[6652]hang, Previous:[6653]handshaking, Up:[6654]=
H =
handwave
[poss. from gestures characteristic of stage magicians] 1. v. To gloss
over a complex point; to distract a listener; to support a (possibly
actually valid) point with blatantly faulty logic. 2. n. The act of
handwaving. "Boy, what a handwave!"
If someone starts a sentence with "Clearly..." or "Obviously..." or
"It is self-evident that...", it is a good bet he is about to handwave
(alternatively, use of these constructions in a sarcastic tone before
a paraphrase of someone else's argument suggests that it is a
handwave). The theory behind this term is that if you wave your hands
at the right moment, the listener may be sufficiently distracted to
not notice that what you have said is [6655]bogus. Failing that, if a
listener does object, you might try to dismiss the objection with a
wave of your hand.
The use of this word is often accompanied by gestures: both hands up,
palms forward, swinging the hands in a vertical plane pivoting at the
elbows and/or shoulders (depending on the magnitude of the handwave);
alternatively, holding the forearms in one position while rotating the
hands at the wrist to make them flutter. In context, the gestures
alone can suffice as a remark; if a speaker makes an outrageously
unsupported assumption, you might simply wave your hands in this way,
as an accusation, far more eloquent than words could express, that his
logic is faulty.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hang, Next:[6656]Hanlon's Razor, Previous:[6657]handwave,
Up:[6658]= H =
hang v.
1. [very common] To wait for an event that will never occur. "The
system is hanging because it can't read from the crashed drive". See
[6659]wedged, [6660]hung. 2. To wait for some event to occur; to hang
around until something happens. "The program displays a menu and then
hangs until you type a character." Compare [6661]block. 3. To attach a
peripheral device, esp. in the construction `hang off': "We're going
to hang another tape drive off the file server." Implies a device
attached with cables, rather than something that is strictly inside
the machine's chassis.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Hanlon's Razor, Next:[6662]happily, Previous:[6663]hang,
Up:[6664]= H =
Hanlon's Razor prov.
A corollary of [6665]Finagle's Law, similar to Occam's Razor, that
reads "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately
explained by stupidity." The derivation of the Hanlon eponym is not
definitely known, but a very similar remark ("You have attributed
conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.") appears in
"Logic of Empire", a classic 1941 SF story by Robert A. Heinlein, who
calls it the `devil theory' of sociology. Heinlein's popularity in the
hacker culture makes plausible the supposition that `Hanlon' is
derived from `Heinlein' by phonetic corruption. A similar epigram has
been attributed to William James, but Heinlein more probably got the
idea from Alfred Korzybski and other practitioners of General
Semantics. Quoted here because it seems to be a particular favorite of
hackers, often showing up in [6666]sig blocks, [6667]fortune cookie
files and the login banners of BBS systems and commercial networks.
This probably reflects the hacker's daily experience of environments
created by well-intentioned but short-sighted people. Compare
[6668]Sturgeon's Law, [6669]Ninety-Ninety Rule.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:happily, Next:[6670]haque, Previous:[6671]Hanlon's Razor,
Up:[6672]= H =
happily adv.
Of software, used to emphasize that a program is unaware of some
important fact about its environment, either because it has been
fooled into believing a lie, or because it doesn't care. The sense of
`happy' here is not that of elation, but rather that of blissful
ignorance. "The program continues to run, happily unaware that its
output is going to /dev/null." Also used to suggest that a program or
device would really rather be doing something destructive, and is
being given an opportunity to do so. "If you enter an O here instead
of a zero, the program will happily erase all your data." Neverheless,
use of this term implies a basically benign attitude towards the
program: It didn't mean any harm, it was just eager to do its job.
We'd like to be angry at it but we shouldn't, we should try to
understand it instead. The adjective "cheerfully" is often used in
exactly the same way.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:haque, Next:[6673]hard boot, Previous:[6674]happily, Up:[6675]= H
=
haque /hak/ n.
[Usenet] Variant spelling of [6676]hack, used only for the noun form
and connoting an [6677]elegant hack. that is a [6678]hack in sense 2.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hard boot, Next:[6679]hardcoded, Previous:[6680]haque, Up:[6681]=
H =
hard boot n.
See [6682]boot.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hardcoded, Next:[6683]hardwarily, Previous:[6684]hard boot,
Up:[6685]= H =
hardcoded adj.
1. [common] Said of data inserted directly into a program, where it
cannot be easily modified, as opposed to data in some [6686]profile,
resource (see [6687]de-rezz sense 2), or environment variable that a
[6688]user or hacker can easily modify. 2. In C, this is esp. applied
to use of a literal instead of a #define macro (see [6689]magic
number).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hardwarily, Next:[6690]hardwired, Previous:[6691]hardcoded,
Up:[6692]= H =
hardwarily /hard-weir'*-lee/ adv.
In a way pertaining to hardware. "The system is hardwarily
unreliable." The adjective `hardwary' is not traditionally used,
though it has recently been reported from the U.K. See
[6693]softwarily.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hardwired, Next:[6694]has the X nature,
Previous:[6695]hardwarily, Up:[6696]= H =
hardwired adj.
1. In software, syn. for [6697]hardcoded. 2. By extension, anything
that is not modifiable, especially in the sense of customizable to
one's particular needs or tastes.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:has the X nature, Next:[6698]hash bucket,
Previous:[6699]hardwired, Up:[6700]= H =
has the X nature
[seems to derive from Zen Buddhist koans of the form "Does an X have
the Buddha-nature?"] adj. Common hacker construction for `is an X',
used for humorous emphasis. "Anyone who can't even use a program with
on-screen help embedded in it truly has the [6701]loser nature!" See
also [6702]the X that can be Y is not the true X. See also [6703]mu.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hash bucket, Next:[6704]hash collision, Previous:[6705]has the X
nature, Up:[6706]= H =
hash bucket n.
A notional receptacle, a set of which might be used to apportion data
items for sorting or lookup purposes. When you look up a name in the
phone book (for example), you typically hash it by extracting its
first letter; the hash buckets are the alphabetically ordered letter
sections. This term is used as techspeak with respect to code that
uses actual hash functions; in jargon, it is used for human
associative memory as well. Thus, two things `in the same hash bucket'
are more difficult to discriminate, and may be confused. "If you hash
English words only by length, you get too many common grammar words in
the first couple of hash buckets." Compare [6707]hash collision.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hash collision, Next:[6708]hat, Previous:[6709]hash bucket,
Up:[6710]= H =
hash collision n.
[from the techspeak] (var. `hash clash') When used of people,
signifies a confusion in associative memory or imagination, especially
a persistent one (see [6711]thinko). True story: One of us [ESR] was
once on the phone with a friend about to move out to Berkeley. When
asked what he expected Berkeley to be like, the friend replied: "Well,
I have this mental picture of naked women throwing Molotov cocktails,
but I think that's just a collision in my hash tables." Compare
[6712]hash bucket.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hat, Next:[6713]HCF, Previous:[6714]hash collision, Up:[6715]= H
=
hat n.
Common (spoken) name for the circumflex (`^', ASCII 1011110)
character. See [6716]ASCII for other synonyms.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:HCF, Next:[6717]heads down, Previous:[6718]hat, Up:[6719]= H =
HCF /H-C-F/ n.
Mnemonic for `Halt and Catch Fire', any of several undocumented and
semi-mythical machine instructions with destructive side-effects,
supposedly included for test purposes on several well-known
architectures going as far back as the IBM 360. The MC6800
microprocessor was the first for which an HCF opcode became widely
known. This instruction caused the processor to [6720]toggle a subset
of the bus lines as rapidly as it could; in some configurations this
could actually cause lines to burn up. Compare [6721]killer poke.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:heads down, Next:[6722]heartbeat, Previous:[6723]HCF, Up:[6724]=
H =
heads down [Sun] adj.
Concentrating, usually so heavily and for so long that everything
outside the focus area is missed. See also [6725]hack mode and
[6726]larval stage, although this mode is hardly confined to fledgling
hackers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:heartbeat, Next:[6727]heatseeker, Previous:[6728]heads down,
Up:[6729]= H =
heartbeat n.
1. The signal emitted by a Level 2 Ethernet transceiver at the end of
every packet to show that the collision-detection circuit is still
connected. 2. A periodic synchronization signal used by software or
hardware, such as a bus clock or a periodic interrupt. 3. The
`natural' oscillation frequency of a computer's clock crystal, before
frequency division down to the machine's clock rate. 4. A signal
emitted at regular intervals by software to demonstrate that it is
still alive. Sometimes hardware is designed to reboot the machine if
it stops hearing a heartbeat. See also [6730]breath-of-life packet.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:heatseeker, Next:[6731]heavy metal, Previous:[6732]heartbeat,
Up:[6733]= H =
heatseeker n.
[IBM] A customer who can be relied upon to buy, without fail, the
latest version of an existing product (not quite the same as a member
of the [6734]lunatic fringe). A 1993 example of a heatseeker was
someone who, owning a 286 PC and Windows 3.0, went out and bought
Windows 3.1 (which offers no worthwhile benefits unless you have a
386). If all customers were heatseekers, vast amounts of money could
be made by just fixing some of the bugs in each release (n) and
selling it to them as release (n+1). Microsoft in fact seems to have
mastered this technique.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:heavy metal, Next:[6735]heavy wizardry,
Previous:[6736]heatseeker, Up:[6737]= H =
heavy metal n.
[Cambridge] Syn. [6738]big iron.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:heavy wizardry, Next:[6739]heavyweight, Previous:[6740]heavy
metal, Up:[6741]= H =
heavy wizardry n.
Code or designs that trade on a particularly intimate knowledge or
experience of a particular operating system or language or complex
application interface. Distinguished from [6742]deep magic, which
trades more on arcane theoretical knowledge. Writing device drivers is
heavy wizardry; so is interfacing to [6743]X (sense 2) without a
toolkit. Esp. found in source-code comments of the form "Heavy
wizardry begins here". Compare [6744]voodoo programming.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:heavyweight, Next:[6745]heisenbug, Previous:[6746]heavy wizardry,
Up:[6747]= H =
heavyweight adj.
[common] High-overhead; [6748]baroque; code-intensive; featureful, but
costly. Esp. used of communication protocols, language designs, and
any sort of implementation in which maximum generality and/or ease of
implementation has been pushed at the expense of mundane
considerations such as speed, memory utilization, and startup time.
[6749]EMACS is a heavyweight editor; [6750]X is an extremely
heavyweight window system. This term isn't pejorative, but one
hacker's heavyweight is another's [6751]elephantine and a third's
[6752]monstrosity. Oppose `lightweight'. Usage: now borders on
techspeak, especially in the compound `heavyweight process'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:heisenbug, Next:[6753]Helen Keller mode,
Previous:[6754]heavyweight, Up:[6755]= H =
heisenbug /hi:'zen-buhg/ n.
[from Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle in quantum physics] A bug
that disappears or alters its behavior when one attempts to probe or
isolate it. (This usage is not even particularly fanciful; the use of
a debugger sometimes alters a program's operating environment
significantly enough that buggy code, such as that which relies on the
values of uninitialized memory, behaves quite differently.) Antonym of
[6756]Bohr bug; see also [6757]mandelbug, [6758]schroedinbug. In C,
nine out of ten heisenbugs result from uninitialized auto variables,
[6759]fandango on core phenomena (esp. lossage related to corruption
of the malloc [6760]arena) or errors that [6761]smash the stack.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Helen Keller mode, Next:[6762]hello sailor!,
Previous:[6763]heisenbug, Up:[6764]= H =
Helen Keller mode n.
1. State of a hardware or software system that is deaf, dumb, and
blind, i.e., accepting no input and generating no output, usually due
to an infinite loop or some other excursion into [6765]deep space.
(Unfair to the real Helen Keller, whose success at learning speech was
triumphant.) See also [6766]go flatline, [6767]catatonic. 2. On IBM
PCs under DOS, refers to a specific failure mode in which a screen
saver has kicked in over an [6768]ill-behaved application which
bypasses the very interrupts the screen saver watches for activity.
Your choices are to try to get from the program's current state
through a successful save-and-exit without being able to see what
you're doing, or to re-boot the machine. This isn't (strictly
speaking) a crash.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hello sailor!, Next:[6769]hello wall!, Previous:[6770]Helen
Keller mode, Up:[6771]= H =
hello sailor! interj.
Occasional West Coast equivalent of [6772]hello world; seems to have
originated at SAIL, later associated with the game [6773]Zork (which
also included "hello, aviator" and "hello, implementor"). Originally
from the traditional hooker's greeting to a swabbie fresh off the
boat, of course. The standard response is "Nothing happens here."; of
all the Zork/Dungeon games, only in Infocom's Zork 3 is "Hello,
Sailor" actually useful (excluding the unique situation where
_knowing_ this fact is important in Dungeon...).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hello wall!, Next:[6774]hello world, Previous:[6775]hello
sailor!, Up:[6776]= H =
hello, wall! excl.
See [6777]wall.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hello world, Next:[6778]hex, Previous:[6779]hello wall!,
Up:[6780]= H =
hello world interj.
1. The canonical minimal test message in the C/Unix universe. 2. Any
of the minimal programs that emit this message. Traditionally, the
first program a C coder is supposed to write in a new environment is
one that just prints "hello, world" to standard output (and indeed it
is the first example program in [6781]K&R). Environments that generate
an unreasonably large executable for this trivial test or which
require a [6782]hairy compiler-linker invocation to generate it are
considered to [6783]lose (see [6784]X). 3. Greeting uttered by a
hacker making an entrance or requesting information from anyone
present. "Hello, world! Is the LAN back up yet?"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hex, Next:[6785]hexadecimal, Previous:[6786]hello world,
Up:[6787]= H =
hex n.
1. Short for [6788]hexadecimal, base 16. 2. A 6-pack of anything
(compare [6789]quad, sense 2). Neither usage has anything to do with
[6790]magic or [6791]black art, though the pun is appreciated and
occasionally used by hackers. True story: As a joke, some hackers once
offered some surplus ICs for sale to be worn as protective amulets
against hostile magic. The chips were, of course, hex inverters.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hexadecimal, Next:[6792]hexit, Previous:[6793]hex, Up:[6794]= H =
hexadecimal n.
Base 16. Coined in the early 1960s to replace earlier `sexadecimal',
which was too racy and amusing for stuffy IBM, and later adopted by
the rest of the industry.
Actually, neither term is etymologically pure. If we take `binary' to
be paradigmatic, the most etymologically correct term for base 10, for
example, is `denary', which comes from `deni' (ten at a time, ten
each), a Latin `distributive' number; the corresponding term for
base-16 would be something like `sendenary'. `Decimal' is from an
ordinal number; the corresponding prefix for 6 would imply something
like `sextidecimal'. The `sexa-' prefix is Latin but incorrect in this
context, and `hexa-' is Greek. The word `octal' is similarly
incorrect; a correct form would be `octaval' (to go with decimal), or
`octonary' (to go with binary). If anyone ever implements a base-3
computer, computer scientists will be faced with the unprecedented
dilemma of a choice between two correct forms; both `ternary' and
`trinary' have a claim to this throne.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hexit, Next:[6795]HHOK, Previous:[6796]hexadecimal, Up:[6797]= H
=
hexit /hek'sit/ n.
A hexadecimal digit (0-9, and A-F or a-f). Used by people who claim
that there are only ten digits, dammit; sixteen-fingered human beings
are rather rare, despite what some keyboard designs might seem to
imply (see [6798]space-cadet keyboard).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:HHOK, Next:[6799]HHOS, Previous:[6800]hexit, Up:[6801]= H =
HHOK
See [6802]ha ha only serious.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:HHOS, Next:[6803]hidden flag, Previous:[6804]HHOK, Up:[6805]= H =
HHOS
See [6806]ha ha only serious.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hidden flag, Next:[6807]high bit, Previous:[6808]HHOS, Up:[6809]=
H =
hidden flag n.
[scientific computation] An extra option added to a routine without
changing the calling sequence. For example, instead of adding an
explicit input variable to instruct a routine to give extra diagnostic
output, the programmer might just add a test for some otherwise
meaningless feature of the existing inputs, such as a negative mass.
The use of hidden flags can make a program very hard to debug and
understand, but is all too common wherever programs are hacked on in a
hurry.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:high bit, Next:[6810]high moby, Previous:[6811]hidden flag,
Up:[6812]= H =
high bit n.
[from `high-order bit'] 1. The most significant bit in a byte. 2.
[common] By extension, the most significant part of something other
than a data byte: "Spare me the whole [6813]saga, just give me the
high bit." See also [6814]meta bit, [6815]hobbit, [6816]dread high-bit
disease, and compare the mainstream slang `bottom line'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:high moby, Next:[6817]highly, Previous:[6818]high bit, Up:[6819]=
H =
high moby /hi:' mohb'ee/ n.
The high half of a 512K [6820]PDP-10's physical address space; the
other half was of course the low moby. This usage has been generalized
in a way that has outlasted the [6821]PDP-10; for example, at the 1990
Washington D.C. Area Science Fiction Conclave (Disclave), when a
miscommunication resulted in two separate wakes being held in
commemoration of the shutdown of MIT's last [6822]ITS machines, the
one on the upper floor was dubbed the `high moby' and the other the
`low moby'. All parties involved [6823]grokked this instantly. See
[6824]moby.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:highly, Next:[6825]hing, Previous:[6826]high moby, Up:[6827]= H =
highly adv.
[scientific computation] The preferred modifier for overstating an
understatement. As in: `highly nonoptimal', the worst possible way to
do something; `highly nontrivial', either impossible or requiring a
major research project; `highly nonlinear', completely erratic and
unpredictable; `highly nontechnical', drivel written for [6828]lusers,
oversimplified to the point of being misleading or incorrect (compare
[6829]drool-proof paper). In other computing cultures, postfixing of
[6830]in the extreme might be preferred.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hing, Next:[6831]hired gun, Previous:[6832]highly, Up:[6833]= H =
hing // n.
[IRC] Fortuitous typo for `hint', now in wide intentional use among
players of [6834]initgame. Compare [6835]newsfroup, [6836]filk.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hired gun, Next:[6837]hirsute, Previous:[6838]hing, Up:[6839]= H
=
hired gun n.
A contract programmer, as opposed to a full-time staff member. All the
connotations of this term suggested by innumerable spaghetti Westerns
are intentional.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hirsute, Next:[6840]HLL, Previous:[6841]hired gun, Up:[6842]= H =
hirsute adj.
Occasionally used humorously as a synonym for [6843]hairy.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:HLL, Next:[6844]hoarding, Previous:[6845]hirsute, Up:[6846]= H =
HLL /H-L-L/ n.
[High-Level Language (as opposed to assembler)] Found primarily in
email and news rather than speech. Rarely, the variants `VHLL' and
`MLL' are found. VHLL stands for `Very-High-Level Language' and is
used to describe a [6847]bondage-and-discipline language that the
speaker happens to like; Prolog and Backus's FP are often called
VHLLs. `MLL' stands for `Medium-Level Language' and is sometimes used
half-jokingly to describe [6848]C, alluding to its
`structured-assembler' image. See also [6849]languages of choice.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hoarding, Next:[6850]hobbit, Previous:[6851]HLL, Up:[6852]= H =
hoarding n.
See [6853]software hoarding.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hobbit, Next:[6854]hog, Previous:[6855]hoarding, Up:[6856]= H =
hobbit n.
1. [rare] The High Order BIT of a byte; same as the [6857]meta bit or
[6858]high bit. 2. The non-ITS name of [6859]vad@ai.mit.edu
(*Hobbit*), master of lasers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hog, Next:[6860]hole, Previous:[6861]hobbit, Up:[6862]= H =
hog n.,vt.
1. Favored term to describe programs or hardware that seem to eat far
more than their share of a system's resources, esp. those which
noticeably degrade interactive response. Not used of programs that are
simply extremely large or complex or that are merely painfully slow
themselves. More often than not encountered in qualified forms, e.g.,
`memory hog', `core hog', `hog the processor', `hog the disk'. "A
controller that never gives up the I/O bus gets killed after the
bus-hog timer expires." 2. Also said of people who use more than their
fair share of resources (particularly disk, where it seems that 10% of
the people use 90% of the disk, no matter how big the disk is or how
many people use it). Of course, once disk hogs fill up one filesystem,
they typically find some other new one to infect, claiming to the
sysadmin that they have an important new project to complete.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hole, Next:[6863]hollised, Previous:[6864]hog, Up:[6865]= H =
hole n.
A region in an otherwise [6866]flat entity which is not actually
present. For example, some Unix filesystems can store large files with
holes so that unused regions of the file are never actually stored on
disk. (In techspeak, these are referred to as `sparse' files.) As
another example, the region of memory in IBM PCs reserved for
memory-mapped I/O devices which may not actually be present is called
`the I/O hole', since memory-management systems must skip over this
area when filling user requests for memory.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hollised, Next:[6867]holy wars, Previous:[6868]hole, Up:[6869]= H
=
hollised /hol'ist/ adj.
[Usenet: sci.space] To be hollised is to have been ordered by one's
employer not to post any even remotely job-related material to Usenet
(or, by extension, to other Internet media). The original and most
notorious case of this involved one Ken Hollis, a Lockheed employee
and space-program enthusiast who posted publicly available material on
access to Space Shuttle launches to sci.space. He was gagged under
threat of being fired in 1994 at the behest of NASA public-relations
officers. The result was, of course, a huge publicity black eye for
NASA. Nevertheless several other NASA contractor employees were
subsequently hollised for similar activities. Use of this term carries
the strong connotation that the persons doing the gagging are
bureaucratic idiots blinded to their own best interests by territorial
reflexes.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:holy wars, Next:[6870]home box, Previous:[6871]hollised,
Up:[6872]= H =
holy wars n.
[from [6873]Usenet, but may predate it; common] n. [6874]flame wars
over [6875]religious issues. The paper by Danny Cohen that popularized
the terms [6876]big-endian and [6877]little-endian in connection with
the LSB-first/MSB-first controversy was entitled "On Holy Wars and a
Plea for Peace".
Great holy wars of the past have included [6878]ITS vs. [6879]Unix,
[6880]Unix vs. [6881]VMS, [6882]BSD Unix vs. [6883]USG Unix, [6884]C
vs. [6885]Pascal, [6886]C vs. FORTRAN, etc. In the year 2000, popular
favorites of the day are KDE vs, GNOME, vim vs. elvis, Linux vs.
[Free|Net|Open]BSD. Hardy perennials include [6887]EMACS vs. [6888]vi,
my personal computer vs. everyone else's personal computer, ad
nauseam. The characteristic that distinguishes holy wars from normal
technical disputes is that in a holy war most of the participants
spend their time trying to pass off personal value choices and
cultural attachments as objective technical evaluations. This happens
precisely because in a true holy war, the actual substantive
differences between the sides are relatively minor. See also
[6889]theology.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:home box, Next:[6890]home machine, Previous:[6891]holy wars,
Up:[6892]= H =
home box n.
A hacker's personal machine, especially one he or she owns. "Yeah?
Well, my home box runs a full 4.4 BSD, so there!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:home machine, Next:[6893]home page, Previous:[6894]home box,
Up:[6895]= H =
home machine n.
1. Syn. [6896]home box. 2. The machine that receives your email. These
senses might be distinct, for example, for a hacker who owns one
computer at home, but reads email at work.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:home page, Next:[6897]honey pot, Previous:[6898]home machine,
Up:[6899]= H =
home page n.
1. One's personal billboard on the World Wide Web. The term `home
page' is perhaps a bit misleading because home directories and
physical homes in [6900]RL are private, but home pages are designed to
be very public. 2. By extension, a WWW repository for information and
links related to a project or organization. Compare [6901]home box.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:honey pot, Next:[6902]hook, Previous:[6903]home page, Up:[6904]=
H =
honey pot n.
A box designed to attract [6905]crackers so that they can be observed
in action. It is usually well isolated from the rest of the network,
but has extensive logging (usually network layer, on a different
machine). Different from an [6906]iron box in that it's purpose is to
attract, not merely observe. Sometimes, it is also a defensive network
security tactic - you set up an easy-to-crack box so that your real
servers don't get messed with. The concept was presented in Cheswick &
Bellovin's book "Firewalls and Internet Security".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hook, Next:[6907]hop, Previous:[6908]honey pot, Up:[6909]= H =
hook n.
A software or hardware feature included in order to simplify later
additions or changes by a user. For example, a simple program that
prints numbers might always print them in base 10, but a more flexible
version would let a variable determine what base to use; setting the
variable to 5 would make the program print numbers in base 5. The
variable is a simple hook. An even more flexible program might examine
the variable and treat a value of 16 or less as the base to use, but
treat any other number as the address of a user-supplied routine for
printing a number. This is a [6910]hairy but powerful hook; one can
then write a routine to print numbers as Roman numerals, say, or as
Hebrew characters, and plug it into the program through the hook.
Often the difference between a good program and a superb one is that
the latter has useful hooks in judiciously chosen places. Both may do
the original job about equally well, but the one with the hooks is
much more flexible for future expansion of capabilities ([6911]EMACS,
for example, is all hooks). The term `user exit' is synonymous but
much more formal and less hackish.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hop, Next:[6912]hose, Previous:[6913]hook, Up:[6914]= H =
hop
1. n. [common] One file transmission in a series required to get a
file from point A to point B on a store-and-forward network. On such
networks (including [6915]UUCPNET and [6916]FidoNet), an important
inter-machine metric is the number of hops in the shortest path
between them, which can be more significant than their geographical
separation. See [6917]bang path. 2. v. [rare] To log in to a remote
machine, esp. via rlogin or telnet. "I'll hop over to foovax to FTP
that."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hose, Next:[6918]hosed, Previous:[6919]hop, Up:[6920]= H =
hose
1. vt. [common] To make non-functional or greatly degraded in
performance. "That big ray-tracing program really hoses the system."
See [6921]hosed. 2. n. A narrow channel through which data flows under
pressure. Generally denotes data paths that represent performance
bottlenecks. 3. n. Cabling, especially thick Ethernet cable. This is
sometimes called `bit hose' or `hosery' (play on `hosiery') or
`etherhose'. See also [6922]washing machine.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hosed, Next:[6923]hot chat, Previous:[6924]hose, Up:[6925]= H =
hosed adj.
Same as [6926]down. Used primarily by Unix hackers. Humorous: also
implies a condition thought to be relatively easy to reverse. Probably
derived from the Canadian slang `hoser' popularized by the Bob and
Doug Mackenzie skits on SCTV, but this usage predated SCTV by years in
hackerdom (it was certainly already live at CMU in the 1970s). See
[6927]hose. It is also widely used of people in the mainstream sense
of `in an extremely unfortunate situation'.
Once upon a time, a Cray that had been experiencing periodic
difficulties crashed, and it was announced to have been hosed. It was
discovered that the crash was due to the disconnection of some coolant
hoses. The problem was corrected, and users were then assured that
everything was OK because the system had been rehosed. See also
[6928]dehose.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hot chat, Next:[6929]hot spot, Previous:[6930]hosed, Up:[6931]= H
=
hot chat n.
Sexually explicit one-on-one chat. See [6932]teledildonics.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hot spot, Next:[6933]hotlink, Previous:[6934]hot chat, Up:[6935]=
H =
hot spot n.
1. [primarily used by C/Unix programmers, but spreading] It is
received wisdom that in most programs, less than 10% of the code eats
90% of the execution time; if one were to graph instruction visits
versus code addresses, one would typically see a few huge spikes
amidst a lot of low-level noise. Such spikes are called `hot spots'
and are good candidates for heavy optimization or [6936]hand-hacking.
The term is especially used of tight loops and recursions in the
code's central algorithm, as opposed to (say) initial set-up costs or
large but infrequent I/O operations. See [6937]tune, [6938]bum,
[6939]hand-hacking. 2. The active location of a cursor on a bit-map
display. "Put the mouse's hot spot on the `ON' widget and click the
left button." 3. A screen region that is sensitive to mouse gestures,
which trigger some action. World Wide Web pages now provide the
[6940]canonical examples; WWW browsers present hypertext links as hot
spots which, when clicked on, point the browser at another document
(these are specifically called [6941]hotlinks). 4. In a massively
parallel computer with shared memory, the one location that all 10,000
processors are trying to read or write at once (perhaps because they
are all doing a [6942]busy-wait on the same lock). 5. More generally,
any place in a hardware design that turns into a performance
bottleneck due to resource contention.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hotlink, Next:[6943]house wizard, Previous:[6944]hot spot,
Up:[6945]= H =
hotlink /hot'link/ n.
A [6946]hot spot on a World Wide Web page; an area, which, when
clicked or selected, chases a URL. Also spelled `hot link'. Use of
this term focuses on the link's role as an immediate part of your
display, as opposed to the timeless sense of logical connection
suggested by [6947]web pointer. Your screen shows hotlinks but your
document has web pointers, not (in normal usage) the other way around.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:house wizard, Next:[6948]HP-SUX, Previous:[6949]hotlink,
Up:[6950]= H =
house wizard n.
[prob. from ad-agency tradetalk, `house freak'] A hacker occupying a
technical-specialist, R&D, or systems position at a commercial shop. A
really effective house wizard can have influence out of all proportion
to his/her ostensible rank and still not have to wear a suit. Used
esp. of Unix wizards. The term `house guru' is equivalent.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:HP-SUX, Next:[6951]HTH, Previous:[6952]house wizard, Up:[6953]= H
=
HP-SUX /H-P suhks/ n.
Unflattering hackerism for HP-UX, Hewlett-Packard's Unix port, which
features some truly unique bogosities in the filesystem internals and
elsewhere (these occasionally create portability problems). HP-UX is
often referred to as `hockey-pux' inside HP, and one respondent claims
that the proper pronunciation is /H-P ukkkhhhh/ as though one were
about to spit. Another such alternate spelling and pronunciation is
"H-PUX" /H-puhks/. Hackers at HP/Apollo (the former Apollo Computers
which was swallowed by HP in 1989) have been heard to complain that
Mr. Packard should have pushed to have his name first, if for no other
reason than the greater eloquence of the resulting acronym. Compare
[6954]AIDX, [6955]buglix. See also [6956]Nominal Semidestructor,
[6957]Telerat, [6958]ScumOS, [6959]sun-stools, [6960]Slowlaris.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:HTH, Next:[6961]huff, Previous:[6962]HP-SUX, Up:[6963]= H =
HTH //
[Usenet: very common] Abbreviation: Hope This Helps (e.g. following a
response to a technical question). Often used just before [6964]HAND.
See also [6965]YHBT.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:huff, Next:[6966]humma, Previous:[6967]HTH, Up:[6968]= H =
huff v.
To compress data using a Huffman code. Various programs that use such
methods have been called `HUFF' or some variant thereof. Oppose
[6969]puff. Compare [6970]crunch, [6971]compress.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:humma, Next:[6972]hung, Previous:[6973]huff, Up:[6974]= H =
humma // excl.
A filler word used on various `chat' and `talk' programs when you had
nothing to say but felt that it was important to say something. The
word apparently originated (at least with this definition) on the MECC
Timeshare System (MTS, a now-defunct educational time-sharing system
running in Minnesota during the 1970s and the early 1980s) but was
later sighted on early Unix systems. Compare the U.K's [6975]wibble.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hung, Next:[6976]hungry puppy, Previous:[6977]humma, Up:[6978]= H
=
hung adj.
[from `hung up'; common] Equivalent to [6979]wedged, but more common
at Unix/C sites. Not generally used of people. Syn. with [6980]locked
up, [6981]wedged; compare [6982]hosed. See also [6983]hang. A hung
state is distinguished from [6984]crashed or [6985]down, where the
program or system is also unusable but because it is not running
rather than because it is waiting for something. However, the recovery
from both situations is often the same. It is also distinguished from
the similar but more drastic state [6986]wedged - hung software can be
woken up with easy things like interrupt keys, but wedged will need a
kill -9 or even reboot.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hungry puppy, Next:[6987]hungus, Previous:[6988]hung, Up:[6989]=
H =
hungry puppy n.
Syn. [6990]slopsucker.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hungus, Next:[6991]hyperspace, Previous:[6992]hungry puppy,
Up:[6993]= H =
hungus /huhng'g*s/ adj.
[perhaps related to slang `humongous'] Large, unwieldy, usually
unmanageable. "TCP is a hungus piece of code." "This is a hungus set
of modifications." The [6994]Infocom text adventure game "Beyond Zork"
included two monsters called hunguses.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hyperspace, Next:[6995]hysterical reasons, Previous:[6996]hungus,
Up:[6997]= H =
hyperspace /hi:'per-spays/ n.
A memory location that is far away from where the program counter
should be pointing, especially a place that is inaccessible because it
is not even mapped in by the virtual-memory system. "Another core dump
-- looks like the program jumped off to hyperspace somehow." (Compare
[6998]jump off into never-never land.) This usage is from the SF
notion of a spaceship jumping `into hyperspace', that is, taking a
shortcut through higher-dimensional space -- in other words, bypassing
this universe. The variant `east hyperspace' is recorded among CMU and
Bliss hackers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:hysterical reasons, Next:[6999]I didn't change anything!,
Previous:[7000]hyperspace, Up:[7001]= H =
hysterical reasons n.
(also `hysterical raisins') A variant on the stock phrase "for
historical reasons", indicating specifically that something must be
done in some stupid way for backwards compatibility, and moreover that
the feature it must be compatible with was the result of a bad design
in the first place. "All IBM PC video adapters have to support MDA
text mode for hysterical reasons." Compare [7002]bug-for-bug
compatible.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:= I =, Next:[7003]= J =, Previous:[7004]= H =, Up:[7005]The
Jargon Lexicon
= I =
* [7006]I didn't change anything!:
* [7007]I see no X here.:
* [7008]IANAL:
* [7009]IBM:
* [7010]IBM discount:
* [7011]ICBM address:
* [7012]ice:
* [7013]ID10T error:
* [7014]idempotent:
* [7015]IDP:
* [7016]If you want X you know where to find it.:
* [7017]ifdef out:
* [7018]IIRC:
* [7019]ill-behaved:
* [7020]IMHO:
* [7021]Imminent Death Of The Net Predicted!:
* [7022]in the extreme:
* [7023]inc:
* [7024]incantation:
* [7025]include:
* [7026]include war:
* [7027]indent style:
* [7028]index of X:
* [7029]infant mortality:
* [7030]infinite:
* [7031]infinite loop:
* [7032]Infinite-Monkey Theorem:
* [7033]infinity:
* [7034]inflate:
* [7035]Infocom:
* [7036]initgame:
* [7037]insanely great:
* [7038]installfest:
* [7039]INTERCAL:
* [7040]interesting:
* [7041]Internet:
* [7042]Internet address:
* [7043]Internet Death Penalty:
* [7044]Internet Exploder:
* [7045]Internet Exploiter:
* [7046]interrupt:
* [7047]interrupt list:
* [7048]interrupts locked out:
* [7049]intro:
* [7050]IRC:
* [7051]iron:
* [7052]Iron Age:
* [7053]iron box:
* [7054]ironmonger:
* [7055]ISO standard cup of tea:
* [7056]ISP:
* [7057]ITS:
* [7058]IWBNI:
* [7059]IYFEG:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:I didn't change anything!, Next:[7060]I see no X here.,
Previous:[7061]hysterical reasons, Up:[7062]= I =
I didn't change anything! interj.
An aggrieved cry often heard as bugs manifest during a regression
test. The [7063]canonical reply to this assertion is "Then it works
just the same as it did before, doesn't it?" See also [7064]one-line
fix. This is also heard from applications programmers trying to blame
an obvious applications problem on an unrelated systems software
change, for example a divide-by-0 fault after terminals were added to
a network. Usually, their statement is found to be false. Upon close
questioning, they will admit some major restructuring of the program
that shouldn't have broken anything, in their opinion, but which
actually [7065]hosed the code completely.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:I see no X here., Next:[7066]IANAL, Previous:[7067]I didn't
change anything!, Up:[7068]= I =
I see no X here.
Hackers (and the interactive computer games they write) traditionally
favor this slightly marked usage over other possible equivalents such
as "There's no X here!" or "X is missing." or "Where's the X?". This
goes back to the original PDP-10 [7069]ADVENT, which would respond in
this wise if you asked it to do something involving an object not
present at your location in the game.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:IANAL, Next:[7070]IBM, Previous:[7071]I see no X here.,
Up:[7072]= I =
IANAL //
[Usenet] Abbreviation, "I Am Not A Lawyer". Usually precedes legal
advice.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:IBM, Next:[7073]IBM discount, Previous:[7074]IANAL, Up:[7075]= I
=
IBM /I-B-M/
Inferior But Marketable; It's Better Manually; Insidious Black Magic;
It's Been Malfunctioning; Incontinent Bowel Movement; and a
near-[7076]infinite number of even less complimentary expansions,
including `International Business Machines'. See [7077]TLA. These
abbreviations illustrate the considerable antipathy most hackers long
felt toward the `industry leader' (see [7078]fear and loathing).
What galled hackers about most IBM machines above the PC level wasn't
so much that they were underpowered and overpriced (though that does
count against them), but that the designs are incredibly archaic,
[7079]crufty, and [7080]elephantine ... and you can't fix them --
source code is locked up tight, and programming tools are expensive,
hard to find, and bletcherous to use once you've found them. For many
years, before Microsoft, IBM was the company hackers loved to hate.
But everything changes. In the 1980s IBM had its own troubles with
Microsoft. In the late 1990s IBM re-invented itself as a services
company, began to release open-source software through its AlphaWorks
group, and began shipping [7081]Linux systems and building ties to the
Linux community. To the astonishment of all parties, IBM emerged as a
friend of the hacker community
This lexicon includes a number of entries attributed to `IBM'; these
derive from some rampantly unofficial jargon lists circulated within
IBM's own beleaguered hacker underground.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:IBM discount, Next:[7082]ICBM address, Previous:[7083]IBM,
Up:[7084]= I =
IBM discount n.
A price increase. Outside IBM, this derives from the common perception
that IBM products are generally overpriced (see [7085]clone); inside,
it is said to spring from a belief that large numbers of IBM employees
living in an area cause prices to rise.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ICBM address, Next:[7086]ice, Previous:[7087]IBM discount,
Up:[7088]= I =
ICBM address n.
(Also `missile address') The form used to register a site with the
Usenet mapping project, back before the day of pervasive Internet,
included a blank for longitude and latitude, preferably to
seconds-of-arc accuracy. This was actually used for generating
geographically-correct maps of Usenet links on a plotter; however, it
became traditional to refer to this as one's `ICBM address' or
`missile address', and some people include it in their [7089]sig block
with that name. (A real missile address would include target
elevation.)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ice, Next:[7090]ID10T error, Previous:[7091]ICBM address,
Up:[7092]= I =
ice n.
[coined by Usenetter Tom Maddox, popularized by William Gibson's
cyberpunk SF novels: a contrived acronym for `Intrusion Countermeasure
Electronics'] Security software (in Gibson's novels, software that
responds to intrusion by attempting to immobilize or even literally
kill the intruder). Hence, `icebreaker': a program designed for
cracking security on a system.
Neither term is in serious use yet as of early 1999, but many hackers
find the metaphor attractive, and each may develop a denotation in the
future. In the meantime, the speculative usage could be confused with
`ICE', an acronym for "in-circuit emulator".
In ironic reference to the speculative usage, however, some hackers
and computer scientists formed ICE (International Cryptographic
Experiment) in 1994. ICE is a consortium to promote uniform
international access to strong cryptography.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ID10T error, Next:[7093]idempotent, Previous:[7094]ice,
Up:[7095]= I =
ID10T error /I-D-ten-T er'*r/
Synonym for [7096]PEBKAC, e.g. "The user is being an idiot".
Tech-support people passing a problem report to someone higher up the
food chain (and presumably better equipped to deal with idiots) may
ask the user to convey that there seems to be an I-D-ten-T error.
Users never twig.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:idempotent, Next:[7097]IDP, Previous:[7098]ID10T error,
Up:[7099]= I =
idempotent adj.
[from mathematical techspeak] Acting as if used only once, even if
used multiple times. This term is often used with respect to [7100]C
header files, which contain common definitions and declarations to be
included by several source files. If a header file is ever included
twice during the same compilation (perhaps due to nested #include
files), compilation errors can result unless the header file has
protected itself against multiple inclusion; a header file so
protected is said to be idempotent. The term can also be used to
describe an initialization subroutine that is arranged to perform some
critical action exactly once, even if the routine is called several
times.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:IDP, Next:[7101]If you want X you know where to find it.,
Previous:[7102]idempotent, Up:[7103]= I =
IDP /I-D-P/ v.,n.
[Usenet] Abbreviation for [7104]Internet Death Penalty. Common
(probably now more so than the full form), and frequently verbed.
Compare [7105]UDP.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:If you want X you know where to find it., Next:[7106]ifdef out,
Previous:[7107]IDP, Up:[7108]= I =
If you want X, you know where to find it.
There is a legend that Dennis Ritchie, inventor of [7109]C, once
responded to demands for features resembling those of what at the time
was a much more popular language by observing "If you want PL/I, you
know where to find it." Ever since, this has been hackish standard
form for fending off requests to alter a new design to mimic some
older (and, by implication, inferior and [7110]baroque) one. The case
X = [7111]Pascal manifests semi-regularly on Usenet's comp.lang.c
newsgroup. Indeed, the case X = X has been reported in discussions of
graphics software (see [7112]X).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ifdef out, Next:[7113]IIRC, Previous:[7114]If you want X you know
where to find it., Up:[7115]= I =
ifdef out /if'def owt/ v.
Syn. for [7116]condition out, specific to [7117]C.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:IIRC, Next:[7118]ill-behaved, Previous:[7119]ifdef out,
Up:[7120]= I =
IIRC //
Common abbreviation for "If I Recall Correctly".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ill-behaved, Next:[7121]IMHO, Previous:[7122]IIRC, Up:[7123]= I =
ill-behaved adj.
1. [numerical analysis] Said of an algorithm or computational method
that tends to blow up because of accumulated roundoff error or poor
convergence properties. 2. Software that bypasses the defined [7124]OS
interfaces to do things (like screen, keyboard, and disk I/O) itself,
often in a way that depends on the hardware of the machine it is
running on or which is nonportable or incompatible with other pieces
of software. In the IBM PC/MS-DOS world, there is a folk theorem
(nearly true) to the effect that (owing to gross inadequacies and
performance penalties in the OS interface) all interesting
applications are ill-behaved. See also [7125]bare metal. Oppose
[7126]well-behaved, compare [7127]PC-ism. See [7128]mess-dos.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:IMHO, Next:[7129]Imminent Death Of The Net Predicted!,
Previous:[7130]ill-behaved, Up:[7131]= I =
IMHO // abbrev.
[from SF fandom via Usenet; abbreviation for `In My Humble Opinion']
"IMHO, mixed-case C names should be avoided, as mistyping something in
the wrong case can cause hard-to-detect errors -- and they look too
Pascalish anyhow." Also seen in variant forms such as IMNSHO (In My
Not-So-Humble Opinion) and IMAO (In My Arrogant Opinion).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Imminent Death Of The Net Predicted!, Next:[7132]in the extreme,
Previous:[7133]IMHO, Up:[7134]= I =
Imminent Death Of The Net Predicted! prov.
[Usenet] Since [7135]Usenet first got off the ground in 1980-81, it
has grown exponentially, approximately doubling in size every year. On
the other hand, most people feel the [7136]signal-to-noise ratio of
Usenet has dropped steadily. These trends led, as far back as
mid-1983, to predictions of the imminent collapse (or death) of the
net. Ten years and numerous doublings later, enough of these gloomy
prognostications have been confounded that the phrase "Imminent Death
Of The Net Predicted!" has become a running joke, hauled out any time
someone grumbles about the [7137]S/N ratio or the huge and steadily
increasing volume, or the possible loss of a key node or link, or the
potential for lawsuits when ignoramuses post copyrighted material,
etc., etc., etc.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:in the extreme, Next:[7138]inc, Previous:[7139]Imminent Death Of
The Net Predicted!, Up:[7140]= I =
in the extreme adj.
A preferred superlative suffix for many hackish terms. See, for
example, `obscure in the extreme' under [7141]obscure, and compare
[7142]highly.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:inc, Next:[7143]incantation, Previous:[7144]in the extreme,
Up:[7145]= I =
inc /ink/ v.
Verbal (and only rarely written) shorthand for increment, i.e.
`increase by one'. Especially used by assembly programmers, as many
assembly languages have an inc mnemonic. Antonym: dec (see [7146]DEC).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:incantation, Next:[7147]include, Previous:[7148]inc, Up:[7149]= I
=
incantation n.
Any particularly arbitrary or obscure command that one must mutter at
a system to attain a desired result. Not used of passwords or other
explicit security features. Especially used of tricks that are so
poorly documented that they must be learned from a [7150]wizard. "This
compiler normally locates initialized data in the data segment, but if
you [7151]mutter the right incantation they will be forced into text
space."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:include, Next:[7152]include war, Previous:[7153]incantation,
Up:[7154]= I =
include vt.
[Usenet] 1. To duplicate a portion (or whole) of another's message
(typically with attribution to the source) in a reply or followup, for
clarifying the context of one's response. See the discussion of
inclusion styles under "Hacker Writing Style". 2. [from [7155]C]
#include <disclaimer.h> has appeared in [7156]sig blocks to refer to a
notional `standard [7157]disclaimer file'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:include war, Next:[7158]indent style, Previous:[7159]include,
Up:[7160]= I =
include war n.
Excessive multi-leveled inclusion within a discussion [7161]thread, a
practice that tends to annoy readers. In a forum with high-traffic
newsgroups, such as Usenet, this can lead to [7162]flames and the urge
to start a [7163]kill file.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:indent style, Next:[7164]index of X, Previous:[7165]include war,
Up:[7166]= I =
indent style n.
[C, C++, and Java programmers] The rules one uses to indent code in a
readable fashion. There are four major C indent styles, described
below; all have the aim of making it easier for the reader to visually
track the scope of control constructs. They have been inherited by C++
and Java, which have C-like syntaxes. The significant variable is the
placement of { and } with respect to the statement(s) they enclose and
to the guard or controlling statement (if, else, for, while, or do) on
the block, if any.
`K&R style' -- Named after Kernighan & Ritchie, because the examples
in [7167]K&R are formatted this way. Also called `kernel style'
because the Unix kernel is written in it, and the `One True Brace
Style' (abbrev. 1TBS) by its partisans. In C code, the body is
typically indented by eight spaces (or one tab) per level, as shown
here. Four spaces are occasionally seen in C, but in C++ and Java four
tends to be the rule rather than the exception.
if (<cond>) {
<body>
}
`Allman style' -- Named for Eric Allman, a Berkeley hacker who wrote a
lot of the BSD utilities in it (it is sometimes called `BSD style').
Resembles normal indent style in Pascal and Algol. It is the only
style other than K&R in widespread use among Java programmers. Basic
indent per level shown here is eight spaces, but four (or sometimes
three) spaces are generally preferred by C++ and Java programmers.
if (<cond>)
{
<body>
}
`Whitesmiths style' -- popularized by the examples that came with
Whitesmiths C, an early commercial C compiler. Basic indent per level
shown here is eight spaces, but four spaces are occasionally seen.
if (<cond>)
{
<body>
}
`GNU style' -- Used throughout GNU EMACS and the Free Software
Foundation code, and just about nowhere else. Indents are always four
spaces per level, with { and } halfway between the outer and inner
indent levels.
if (<cond>)
{
<body>
}
Surveys have shown the Allman and Whitesmiths styles to be the most
common, with about equal mind shares. K&R/1TBS used to be nearly
universal, but is now much less common in C (the opening brace tends
to get lost against the right paren of the guard part in an if or
while, which is a [7168]Bad Thing). Defenders of 1TBS argue that any
putative gain in readability is less important than their style's
relative economy with vertical space, which enables one to see more
code on one's screen at once.
The Java Language Specification legislates not only the capitalization
of identifiers, but where nouns, adjectives, and verbs should be in
method, class, interface, and variable names (section 6.8). While the
specification stops short of also standardizing on a bracing style,
all source code originating from Sun Laboratories uses the K&R style.
This has set a precedent for Java programmers, which most follow.
Doubtless these issues will continue to be the subject of [7169]holy
wars.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:index of X, Next:[7170]infant mortality, Previous:[7171]indent
style, Up:[7172]= I =
index of X n.
See [7173]coefficient of X.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:infant mortality, Next:[7174]infinite, Previous:[7175]index of X,
Up:[7176]= I =
infant mortality n.
It is common lore among hackers (and in the electronics industry at
large; this term is possibly techspeak by now) that the chances of
sudden hardware failure drop off exponentially with a machine's time
since first use (that is, until the relatively distant time at which
enough mechanical wear in I/O devices and thermal-cycling stress in
components has accumulated for the machine to start going senile). Up
to half of all chip and wire failures happen within a new system's
first few weeks; such failures are often referred to as `infant
mortality' problems (or, occasionally, as `sudden infant death
syndrome'). See [7177]bathtub curve, [7178]burn-in period.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:infinite, Next:[7179]infinite loop, Previous:[7180]infant
mortality, Up:[7181]= I =
infinite adj.
[common] Consisting of a large number of objects; extreme. Used very
loosely as in: "This program produces infinite garbage." "He is an
infinite loser." The word most likely to follow `infinite', though, is
[7182]hair. (It has been pointed out that fractals are an excellent
example of infinite hair.) These uses are abuses of the word's
mathematical meaning. The term `semi-infinite', denoting an
immoderately large amount of some resource, is also heard. "This
compiler is taking a semi-infinite amount of time to optimize my
program." See also [7183]semi.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:infinite loop, Next:[7184]Infinite-Monkey Theorem,
Previous:[7185]infinite, Up:[7186]= I =
infinite loop n.
One that never terminates (that is, the machine [7187]spins or
[7188]buzzes forever and goes [7189]catatonic). There is a standard
joke that has been made about each generation's exemplar of the
ultra-fast machine: "The Cray-3 is so fast it can execute an infinite
loop in under 2 seconds!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Infinite-Monkey Theorem, Next:[7190]infinity,
Previous:[7191]infinite loop, Up:[7192]= I =
Infinite-Monkey Theorem n.
"If you put an [7193]infinite number of monkeys at typewriters,
eventually one will bash out the script for Hamlet." (One may also
hypothesize a small number of monkeys and a very long period of time.)
This theorem asserts nothing about the intelligence of the one
[7194]random monkey that eventually comes up with the script (and note
that the mob will also type out all the possible incorrect versions of
Hamlet). It may be referred to semi-seriously when justifying a
[7195]brute force method; the implication is that, with enough
resources thrown at it, any technical challenge becomes a
[7196]one-banana problem. This argument gets more respect since
[7197]Linux justified the [7198]bazaar mode of development.
This theorem was first popularized by the astronomer Sir Arthur
Eddington. It became part of the idiom of techies via the classic SF
short story "Inflexible Logic" by Russell Maloney, and many younger
hackers know it through a reference in Douglas Adams's "Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy". On 1 April 2000 the usage acquired its own
Internet standard, [7199]http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2795.txt
(Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:infinity, Next:[7200]inflate, Previous:[7201]Infinite-Monkey
Theorem, Up:[7202]= I =
infinity n.
1. The largest value that can be represented in a particular type of
variable (register, memory location, data type, whatever). 2. `minus
infinity': The smallest such value, not necessarily or even usually
the simple negation of plus infinity. In N-bit twos-complement
arithmetic, infinity is 2^(N-1) - 1 but minus infinity is - (2^(N-1)),
not -(2^(N-1) - 1). Note also that this is different from time T
equals minus infinity, which is closer to a mathematician's usage of
infinity.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:inflate, Next:[7203]Infocom, Previous:[7204]infinity, Up:[7205]=
I =
inflate vt.
To decompress or [7206]puff a file. Rare among Internet hackers, used
primarily by MS-DOS/Windows types.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Infocom, Next:[7207]initgame, Previous:[7208]inflate, Up:[7209]=
I =
Infocom n.
A now-legendary games company, active from 1979 to 1989, that
commercialized the MDL parser technology used for [7210]Zork to
produce a line of text adventure games that remain favorites among
hackers. Infocom's games were intelligent, funny, witty, erudite,
irreverent, challenging, satirical, and most thoroughly hackish in
spirit. The physical game packages from Infocom are now prized
collector's items. After being acquired by Activision in 1989 they did
a few more "modern" (e.g. graphics-intensive) games which were less
successful than reissues of their classics.
The software, thankfully, is still extant; Infocom games were written
in a kind of P-code and distributed with a P-code interpreter core,
and not only freeware emulators for that interpreter but an actual
compiler as well have been written to permit the P-code to be run on
platforms the games never originally graced. In fact, new games
written in this P-code are still bering written. (Emulators that can
run Infocom game ZIPs, and new games, are available at
[7211]ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu:/doc/misc/if-archive/infocom.)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:initgame, Next:[7212]insanely great, Previous:[7213]Infocom,
Up:[7214]= I =
initgame /in-it'gaym/ n.
[IRC] An [7215]IRC version of the trivia game "Botticelli", in which
one user changes his [7216]nick to the initials of a famous person or
other named entity, and the others on the channel ask yes or no
questions, with the one to guess the person getting to be "it" next.
As a courtesy, the one picking the initials starts by providing a
4-letter hint of the form sex, nationality, life-status,
reality-status. For example, MAAR means "Male, American, Alive, Real"
(as opposed to "fictional"). Initgame can be surprisingly addictive.
See also [7217]hing.
[1996 update: a recognizable version of the initgame has become a
staple of some radio talk shows in the U.S. We had it first! - ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:insanely great, Next:[7218]installfest, Previous:[7219]initgame,
Up:[7220]= I =
insanely great adj.
[Mac community, from Steve Jobs; also BSD Unix people via Bill Joy]
Something so incredibly [7221]elegant that it is imaginable only to
someone possessing the most puissant of [7222]hacker-natures.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:installfest, Next:[7223]INTERCAL, Previous:[7224]insanely great,
Up:[7225]= I =
installfest
[Linux community since c.1998] Common portmanteau word for
"installation festival"; Linux user groups frequently run these.
Computer users are invited to bring their machines to have Linux
installed on their machines. The idea is to get them painlessly over
the biggest hump in migrating to Linux, which is initially installing
and configuring it for the user's machine.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:INTERCAL, Next:[7226]interesting, Previous:[7227]installfest,
Up:[7228]= I =
INTERCAL /in't*r-kal/ n.
[said by the authors to stand for `Compiler Language With No
Pronounceable Acronym'] A computer language designed by Don Woods and
James Lyons in 1972. INTERCAL is purposely different from all other
computer languages in all ways but one; it is purely a written
language, being totally unspeakable. An excerpt from the INTERCAL
Reference Manual will make the style of the language clear:
It is a well-known and oft-demonstrated fact that a person whose
work is incomprehensible is held in high esteem. For example, if
one were to state that the simplest way to store a value of 65536
in a 32-bit INTERCAL variable is:
DO :1 <- #0$#256
any sensible programmer would say that that was absurd. Since this
is indeed the simplest method, the programmer would be made to look
foolish in front of his boss, who would of course have happened to
turn up, as bosses are wont to do. The effect would be no less
devastating for the programmer having been correct.
INTERCAL has many other peculiar features designed to make it even
more unspeakable. The Woods-Lyons implementation was actually used by
many (well, at least several) people at Princeton. The language has
been recently reimplemented as C-INTERCAL and is consequently enjoying
an unprecedented level of unpopularity; there is even an
alt.lang.intercal newsgroup devoted to the study and ... appreciation
of the language on Usenet.
Inevitably, INTERCAL has a home page on the Web:
[7229]http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/intercal/. An extended version,
implemented in (what else?) [7230]Perl and adding object-oriented
features, is available at [7231]http://dd-sh.assurdo.com/INTERCAL. See
also [7232]Befunge.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:interesting, Next:[7233]Internet, Previous:[7234]INTERCAL,
Up:[7235]= I =
interesting adj.
In hacker parlance, this word has strong connotations of `annoying',
or `difficult', or both. Hackers relish a challenge, and enjoy
wringing all the irony possible out of the ancient Chinese curse "May
you live in interesting times". Oppose [7236]trivial,
[7237]uninteresting.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Internet, Next:[7238]Internet address,
Previous:[7239]interesting, Up:[7240]= I =
Internet n.
The mother of all networks. First incarnated beginning in 1969 as the
ARPANET, a U.S. Department of Defense research testbed. Though it has
been widely believed that the goal was to develop a network
architecture for military command-and-control that could survive
disruptions up to and including nuclear war, this is a myth; in fact,
ARPANET was conceived from the start as a way to get most economical
use out of then-scarce large-computer resources.
As originally imagined, ARPANET's major use would have been to support
what is now called remote login and more sophisticated forms of
distributed computing, but the infant technology of electronic mail
quickly grew to dominate actual usage. Universities, research labs and
defense contractors early discovered the Internet's potential as a
medium of communication between humans and linked up in steadily
increasing numbers, connecting together a quirky mix of academics,
techies, hippies, SF fans, hackers, and anarchists. The roots of this
lexicon lie in those early years.
Over the next quarter-century the Internet evolved in many ways. The
typical machine/OS combination moved from [7241]DEC [7242]PDP-10s and
[7243]PDP-20s, running [7244]TOPS-10 and [7245]TOPS-20, to PDP-11s and
VAXes and Suns running [7246]Unix, and in the 1990s to Unix on Intel
microcomputers. The Internet's protocols grew more capable, most
notably in the move from NCP/IP to [7247]TCP/IP in 1982 and the
implementation of Domain Name Service in 1983. It was around this time
that people began referring to the collection of interconnected
networks with ARPANET at its core as "the Internet".
The ARPANET had a fairly strict set of participation guidelines -
connected institutions had to be involved with a DOD-related research
project. By the mid-80s, many of the organizations clamoring to join
didn't fit this profile. In 1986, the National Science Foundation
built NSFnet to open up access to its five regional supercomputing
centers; NSFnet became the backbone of the Internet, replacing the
original ARPANET pipes (which were formally shut down in 1990).
Between 1990 and late 1994 the pieces of NSFnet were sold to major
telecommunications companies until the Internet backbone had gone
completely commercial.
That year, 1994, was also the year the mainstream culture discovered
the Internet. Once again, the [7248]killer app was not the anticipated
one - rather, what caught the public imagination was the hypertext and
multimedia features of the World Wide Web. Subsequently the Internet
has seen off its only serious challenger (the OSI protocol stack
favored by European telecom monopolies) and is in the process of
absorbing into itself many of the proprietary networks built during
the second wave of wide-area networking after 1980. It is now (1996) a
commonplace even in mainstream media to predict that a
globally-extended Internet will become the key unifying communications
technology of the next century. See also [7249]the network and
[7250]Internet address.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Internet address, Next:[7251]Internet Death Penalty,
Previous:[7252]Internet, Up:[7253]= I =
Internet address n.
1. [techspeak] An absolute network address of the form foo@bar.baz,
where foo is a user name, bar is a [7254]sitename, and baz is a
`domain' name, possibly including periods itself. Contrast with
[7255]bang path; see also [7256]the network and [7257]network address.
All Internet machines and most UUCP sites can now resolve these
addresses, thanks to a large amount of behind-the-scenes magic and
[7258]PD software written since 1980 or so. See also [7259]bang path,
[7260]domainist. 2. More loosely, any network address reachable
through Internet; this includes [7261]bang path addresses and some
internal corporate and government networks.
Reading Internet addresses is something of an art. Here are the four
most important top-level functional Internet domains followed by a
selection of geographical domains:
com
commercial organizations
edu
educational institutions
gov
U.S. government civilian sites
mil
U.S. military sites
Note that most of the sites in the com and edu domains are in the U.S.
or Canada.
us
sites in the U.S. outside the functional domains
su
sites in the ex-Soviet Union (see [7262]kremvax).
uk
sites in the United Kingdom
Within the us domain, there are subdomains for the fifty states, each
generally with a name identical to the state's postal abbreviation.
Within the uk domain, there is an ac subdomain for academic sites and
a co domain for commercial ones. Other top-level domains may be
divided up in similar ways.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Internet Death Penalty, Next:[7263]Internet Exploder,
Previous:[7264]Internet address, Up:[7265]= I =
Internet Death Penalty
[Usenet] (often abbreviated IDP) The ultimate sanction against
[7266]spam-emitting sites - complete shunning at the router level of
all mail and packets, as well as Usenet messages, from the offending
domain(s). Compare [7267]Usenet Death Penalty, with which it is
sometimes confused.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Internet Exploder, Next:[7268]Internet Exploiter,
Previous:[7269]Internet Death Penalty, Up:[7270]= I =
Internet Exploder
[very common] Pejorative hackerism for Microsoft's "Internet Explorer"
web browser (also "Internet Exploiter"). Compare [7271]HP-SUX,
[7272]AIDX, [7273]buglix, [7274]Macintrash, [7275]Telerat,
[7276]ScumOS, [7277]sun-stools, [7278]Slowlaris.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Internet Exploiter, Next:[7279]interrupt, Previous:[7280]Internet
Exploder, Up:[7281]= I =
Internet Exploiter n.
Another common name-of-insult for Internet Explorer, Microsoft's
overweight Web Browser; more hostile than [7282]Internet Exploder.
Reflects widespread hostility to Microsoft and a sense that it is
seeking to hijack, monopolize, and corrupt the Internet. Compare
[7283]Exploder and the less pejorative [7284]Netscrape.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:interrupt, Next:[7285]interrupt list, Previous:[7286]Internet
Exploiter, Up:[7287]= I =
interrupt
1. [techspeak] n. On a computer, an event that interrupts normal
processing and temporarily diverts flow-of-control through an
"interrupt handler" routine. See also [7288]trap. 2. interj. A request
for attention from a hacker. Often explicitly spoken. "Interrupt --
have you seen Joe recently?" See [7289]priority interrupt. 3. Under
MS-DOS, nearly synonymous with `system call', because the OS and BIOS
routines are both called using the INT instruction (see
[7290]interrupt list) and because programmers so often have to bypass
the OS (going directly to a BIOS interrupt) to get reasonable
performance.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:interrupt list, Next:[7291]interrupts locked out,
Previous:[7292]interrupt, Up:[7293]= I =
interrupt list n.
[MS-DOS] The list of all known software interrupt calls (both
documented and undocumented) for IBM PCs and compatibles, maintained
and made available for free redistribution by Ralf Brown
[7294]<ralf@cs.cmu.edu>. As of late 1992, it had grown to
approximately two megabytes in length.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:interrupts locked out, Next:[7295]intro, Previous:[7296]interrupt
list, Up:[7297]= I =
interrupts locked out adj.
When someone is ignoring you. In a restaurant, after several fruitless
attempts to get the waitress's attention, a hacker might well observe
"She must have interrupts locked out". The synonym `interrupts
disabled' is also common. Variations abound; "to have one's interrupt
mask bit set" and "interrupts masked out" are also heard. See also
[7298]spl.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:intro, Next:[7299]IRC, Previous:[7300]interrupts locked out,
Up:[7301]= I =
intro n.
[[7302]demoscene] Introductory [7303]screen of some production. 2. A
short [7304]demo, usually showing just one or two [7305]screens. 3.
Small, usually 64k, 40k or 4k [7306]demo. Sizes are generally dictated
by [7307]compo rules. See also [7308]dentro, [7309]demo.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:IRC, Next:[7310]iron, Previous:[7311]intro, Up:[7312]= I =
IRC /I-R-C/ n.
[Internet Relay Chat] A worldwide "party line" network that allows one
to converse with others in real time. IRC is structured as a network
of Internet servers, each of which accepts connections from client
programs, one per user. The IRC community and the [7313]Usenet and
[7314]MUD communities overlap to some extent, including both hackers
and regular folks who have discovered the wonders of computer
networks. Some Usenet jargon has been adopted on IRC, as have some
conventions such as [7315]emoticons. There is also a vigorous native
jargon, represented in this lexicon by entries marked `[IRC]'. See
also [7316]talk mode.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:iron, Next:[7317]Iron Age, Previous:[7318]IRC, Up:[7319]= I =
iron n.
Hardware, especially older and larger hardware of [7320]mainframe
class with big metal cabinets housing relatively low-density
electronics (but the term is also used of modern supercomputers).
Often in the phrase [7321]big iron. Oppose [7322]silicon. See also
[7323]dinosaur.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Iron Age, Next:[7324]iron box, Previous:[7325]iron, Up:[7326]= I
=
Iron Age n.
In the history of computing, 1961-1971 -- the formative era of
commercial [7327]mainframe technology, when ferrite-core
[7328]dinosaurs ruled the earth. The Iron Age began, ironically
enough, with the delivery of the first minicomputer (the PDP-1) and
ended with the introduction of the first commercial microprocessor
(the Intel 4004) in 1971. See also [7329]Stone Age; compare
[7330]elder days.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:iron box, Next:[7331]ironmonger, Previous:[7332]Iron Age,
Up:[7333]= I =
iron box n.
[Unix/Internet] A special environment set up to trap a [7334]cracker
logging in over remote connections long enough to be traced. May
include a modified [7335]shell restricting the cracker's movements in
unobvious ways, and `bait' files designed to keep him interested and
logged on. See also [7336]back door, [7337]firewall machine,
[7338]Venus flytrap, and Clifford Stoll's account in "[7339]The
Cuckoo's Egg" of how he made and used one (see the [7340]Bibliography
in Appendix C). Compare [7341]padded cell, [7342]honey pot.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ironmonger, Next:[7343]ISO standard cup of tea,
Previous:[7344]iron box, Up:[7345]= I =
ironmonger n.
[IBM] A hardware specialist (derogatory). Compare [7346]sandbender,
[7347]polygon pusher.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ISO standard cup of tea, Next:[7348]ISP,
Previous:[7349]ironmonger, Up:[7350]= I =
ISO standard cup of tea n.
[South Africa] A cup of tea with milk and one teaspoon of sugar, where
the milk is poured into the cup before the tea. Variations are ISO 0,
with no sugar; ISO 2, with two spoons of sugar; and so on. This may
derive from the "NATO standard" cup of coffee and tea (milk and two
sugars), military slang going back to the late 1950s and parodying
NATO's relentless bureacratic drive to standardize parts across
European and U.S. militaries.
Like many ISO standards, this one has a faintly alien ring in North
America, where hackers generally shun the decadent British practice of
adulterating perfectly good tea with dairy products and prefer instead
to add a wedge of lemon, if anything. If one were feeling extremely
silly, one might hypothesize an analogous `ANSI standard cup of tea'
and wind up with a political situation distressingly similar to
several that arise in much more serious technical contexts. (Milk and
lemon don't mix very well.)
[2000 update: There is now, in fact, a `British Standard BS6008: How
to make a standard cup of tea.' - ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ISP, Next:[7351]ITS, Previous:[7352]ISO standard cup of tea,
Up:[7353]= I =
ISP /I-S-P/
Common abbreviation for Internet Service Provider, a kind of company
that barely existed before 1993. ISPs sell Internet access to the mass
market. While the big nationwide commercial BBSs with Internet access
(like America Online, CompuServe, GEnie, Netcom, etc.) are technically
ISPs, the term is usually reserved for local or regional small
providers (often run by hackers turned entrepreneurs) who resell
Internet access cheaply without themselves being information providers
or selling advertising. Compare [7354]NSP.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ITS, Next:[7355]IWBNI, Previous:[7356]ISP, Up:[7357]= I =
ITS /I-T-S/ n.
1. Incompatible Time-sharing System, an influential though highly
idiosyncratic operating system written for PDP-6s and PDP-10s at MIT
and long used at the MIT AI Lab. Much AI-hacker jargon derives from
ITS folklore, and to have been `an ITS hacker' qualifies one instantly
as an old-timer of the most venerable sort. ITS pioneered many
important innovations, including transparent file sharing between
machines and terminal-independent I/O. After about 1982, most actual
work was shifted to newer machines, with the remaining ITS boxes run
essentially as a hobby and service to the hacker community. The
shutdown of the lab's last ITS machine in May 1990 marked the end of
an era and sent old-time hackers into mourning nationwide (see
[7358]high moby). 2. A mythical image of operating-system perfection
worshiped by a bizarre, fervent retro-cult of old-time hackers and
ex-users (see [7359]troglodyte, sense 2). ITS worshipers manage
somehow to continue believing that an OS maintained by
assembly-language hand-hacking that supported only monocase
6-character filenames in one directory per account remains superior to
today's state of commercial art (their venom against [7360]Unix is
particularly intense). See also [7361]holy wars, [7362]Weenix.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:IWBNI, Next:[7363]IYFEG, Previous:[7364]ITS, Up:[7365]= I =
IWBNI //
Abbreviation for `It Would Be Nice If'. Compare [7366]WIBNI.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:IYFEG, Next:[7367]J. Random, Previous:[7368]IWBNI, Up:[7369]= I =
IYFEG //
[Usenet] Abbreviation for `Insert Your Favorite Ethnic Group'. Used as
a meta-name when telling ethnic jokes on the net to avoid offending
anyone. See [7370]JEDR.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:= J =, Next:[7371]= K =, Previous:[7372]= I =, Up:[7373]The
Jargon Lexicon
= J =
* [7374]J. Random:
* [7375]J. Random Hacker:
* [7376]jack in:
* [7377]jaggies:
* [7378]Java:
* [7379]JCL:
* [7380]JEDR:
* [7381]Jeff K.:
* [7382]jello:
* [7383]jiffy:
* [7384]job security:
* [7385]jock:
* [7386]joe code:
* [7387]jolix:
* [7388]juggling eggs:
* [7389]jump off into never-never land:
* [7390]jupiter:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:J. Random, Next:[7391]J. Random Hacker, Previous:[7392]IYFEG,
Up:[7393]= J =
J. Random /J rand'm/ n.
[common; generalized from [7394]J. Random Hacker] Arbitrary; ordinary;
any one; any old. `J. Random' is often prefixed to a noun to make a
name out of it. It means roughly `some particular' or `any specific
one'. "Would you let J. Random Loser marry your daughter?" The most
common uses are `J. Random Hacker', `J. Random Loser', and `J. Random
Nerd' ("Should J. Random Loser be allowed to [7395]gun down other
people?"), but it can be used simply as an elaborate version of
[7396]random in any sense.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:J. Random Hacker, Next:[7397]jack in, Previous:[7398]J. Random,
Up:[7399]= J =
J. Random Hacker /J rand'm hak'r/ n.
[very common] A mythical figure like the Unknown Soldier; the
archetypal hacker nerd. This term is one of the oldest in the jargon,
apparently going back to MIT in the 1960s. See [7400]random,
[7401]Suzie COBOL. This may originally have been inspired by `J. Fred
Muggs', a show-biz chimpanzee whose name was a household word back in
the early days of [7402]TMRC, and was probably influenced by `J.
Presper Eckert' (one of the co-inventors of the electronic computer).
See also [7403]Fred Foobar.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:jack in, Next:[7404]jaggies, Previous:[7405]J. Random Hacker,
Up:[7406]= J =
jack in v.
To log on to a machine or connect to a network or [7407]BBS, esp. for
purposes of entering a [7408]virtual reality simulation such as a
[7409]MUD or [7410]IRC (leaving is "jacking out"). This term derives
from [7411]cyberpunk SF, in which it was used for the act of plugging
an electrode set into neural sockets in order to interface the brain
directly to a virtual reality. It is primarily used by MUD and IRC
fans and younger hackers on BBS systems.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:jaggies, Next:[7412]Java, Previous:[7413]jack in, Up:[7414]= J =
jaggies /jag'eez/ n.
The `stairstep' effect observable when an edge (esp. a linear edge of
very shallow or steep slope) is rendered on a pixel device (as opposed
to a vector display).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Java, Next:[7415]JCL, Previous:[7416]jaggies, Up:[7417]= J =
Java
An object-oriented language originally developed at Sun by James
Gosling (and known by the name "Oak") with the intention of being the
successor to [7418]C++ (the project was however originally sold to Sun
as an embedded language for use in set-top boxes). After the great
Internet explosion of 1993-1994, Java was hacked into a
byte-interpreted language and became the focus of a relentless hype
campaign by Sun, which touted it as the new language of choice for
distributed applications.
Java is indeed a stronger and cleaner design than C++ and has been
embraced by many in the hacker community - but it has been a
considerable source of frustration to many others, for reasons ranging
from uneven support on different Web browser platforms, performance
issues, and some notorious deficiencies of some of the standard
toolkits (AWT in particular). [7419]Microsoft's determined attempts to
corrupt the language (which it rightly sees as a threat to its OS
monopoly) have not helped. As of 1999, these issues are still in the
process of being resolved.
Despite many attractive features and a good design, it is difficult to
find people willing to praise Java who have tried to implement a
complex, real-world system with it (but to be fair it is early days
yet, and no other language has ever been forced to spend its childhood
under the limelight the way Java has). On the other hand, Java has
already been a big [7420]win in academic circles, where it has taken
the place of [7421]Pascal as the preferred tool for teaching the
basics of good programming to the next generation of hackers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:JCL, Next:[7422]JEDR, Previous:[7423]Java, Up:[7424]= J =
JCL /J-C-L/ n.
1. IBM's supremely [7425]rude Job Control Language. JCL is the script
language used to control the execution of programs in IBM's batch
systems. JCL has a very [7426]fascist syntax, and some versions will,
for example, [7427]barf if two spaces appear where it expects one.
Most programmers confronted with JCL simply copy a working file (or
card deck), changing the file names. Someone who actually understands
and generates unique JCL is regarded with the mixed respect one gives
to someone who memorizes the phone book. It is reported that hackers
at IBM itself sometimes sing "Who's the breeder of the crud that
mangles you and me? I-B-M, J-C-L, M-o-u-s-e" to the tune of the
"Mickey Mouse Club" theme to express their opinion of the beast. 2. A
comparative for any very [7428]rude software that a hacker is expected
to use. "That's as bad as JCL." As with [7429]COBOL, JCL is often used
as an archetype of ugliness even by those who haven't experienced it.
See also [7430]IBM, [7431]fear and loathing.
A (poorly documented, naturally) shell simulating JCL syntax is
available at the Retrocomputing Museum
[7432]http://www.ccil.org/retro.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:JEDR, Next:[7433]Jeff K., Previous:[7434]JCL, Up:[7435]= J =
JEDR // n.
Synonymous with [7436]IYFEG. At one time, people in the Usenet
newsgroup rec.humor.funny tended to use `JEDR' instead of [7437]IYFEG
or `<ethnic>'; this stemmed from a public attempt to suppress the
group once made by a loser with initials JEDR after he was offended by
an ethnic joke posted there. (The practice was [7438]retconned by the
expanding these initials as `Joke Ethnic/Denomination/Race'.) After
much sound and fury JEDR faded away; this term appears to be doing
likewise. JEDR's only permanent effect on the net.culture was to
discredit `sensitivity' arguments for censorship so thoroughly that
more recent attempts to raise them have met with immediate and
near-universal rejection.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Jeff K., Next:[7439]jello, Previous:[7440]JEDR, Up:[7441]= J =
Jeff K.
The spiritual successor to [7442]B1FF and the archetype of
[7443]script kiddies. Jeff K. is a sixteen-year-old suburbanite who
fancies himself a "l33t haX0r", although his knowledge of computers
seems to be limited to the procedure for getting Quake up and running.
His Web page [7444]http://www.somethingawful.com/jeffk features a
number of hopelessly naive articles, essays, and rants, all filled
with the kind of misspellings, [7445]studlycaps, and number-for-letter
substitutions endemic to the script kiddie and [7446]warez d00dz
communities. Jeff's offerings, among other things, include hardware
advice (such as "AMD VERSIS PENTIUM" and "HOW TO OVARCLOAK YOUR
COMPUTAR"), his own Quake clan (Clan 40 OUNSCE), and his own comic
strip (Wacky Fun Computar Comic Jokes).
Like B1FF, Jeff K. is (fortunately) a hoax. Jeff K. was created by
internet game journalist Richard "Lowtax" Kyanka, whose web site
Something Awful (http://www.somethingawful.com) highlights
unintentionally humorous news items and Web sites, as a parody of the
kind of teenage [7447]luser who infests Quake servers, chat rooms, and
other places where computer enthusiasts congregate. He is
well-recognized in the PC game community and his influence has spread
to hacker [7448]fora like Slashdot as well.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:jello, Next:[7449]jiffy, Previous:[7450]Jeff K., Up:[7451]= J =
jello n.
[Usenet: by analogy with [7452]spam] A message that is both
excessively cross-posted and too frequently posted, as opposed to
[7453]spam (which is merely too frequently posted) or [7454]velveeta
(which is merely excessively cross-posted). This term is widely
recognized but not commonly used; most people refer to both kinds of
abuse or their combination as spam.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:jiffy, Next:[7455]job security, Previous:[7456]jello, Up:[7457]=
J =
jiffy n.
1. The duration of one tick of the system clock on your computer (see
[7458]tick). Often one AC cycle time (1/60 second in the U.S. and
Canada, 1/50 most other places), but more recently 1/100 sec has
become common. "The swapper runs every 6 jiffies" means that the
virtual memory management routine is executed once for every 6 ticks
of the clock, or about ten times a second. 2. Confusingly, the term is
sometimes also used for a 1-millisecond [7459]wall time interval. 3.
Even more confusingly, physicists semi-jokingly use `jiffy' to mean
the time required for light to travel one foot in a vacuum, which
turns out to be close to one nanosecond. 4. Indeterminate time from a
few seconds to forever. "I'll do it in a jiffy" means certainly not
now and possibly never. This is a bit contrary to the more widespread
use of the word. Oppose [7460]nano. See also [7461]Real Soon Now.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:job security, Next:[7462]jock, Previous:[7463]jiffy, Up:[7464]= J
=
job security n.
When some piece of code is written in a particularly [7465]obscure
fashion, and no good reason (such as time or space optimization) can
be discovered, it is often said that the programmer was attempting to
increase his job security (i.e., by making himself indispensable for
maintenance). This sour joke seldom has to be said in full; if two
hackers are looking over some code together and one points at a
section and says "job security", the other one may just nod.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:jock, Next:[7466]joe code, Previous:[7467]job security,
Up:[7468]= J =
jock n.
1. A programmer who is characterized by large and somewhat brute-force
programs. See [7469]brute force. 2. When modified by another noun,
describes a specialist in some particular computing area. The
compounds `compiler jock' and `systems jock' seem to be the
best-established examples.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:joe code, Next:[7470]jolix, Previous:[7471]jock, Up:[7472]= J =
joe code /joh' kohd`/ n.
1. Code that is overly [7473]tense and unmaintainable. "[7474]Perl may
be a handy program, but if you look at the source, it's complete joe
code." 2. Badly written, possibly buggy code.
Correspondents wishing to remain anonymous have fingered a particular
Joe at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and observed that usage has
drifted slightly; the original sobriquet `Joe code' was intended in
sense 1.
1994 update: This term has now generalized to `<name> code', used to
designate code with distinct characteristics traceable to its author.
"This section doesn't check for a NULL return from malloc()! Oh. No
wonder! It's Ed code!". Used most often with a programmer who has left
the shop and thus is a convenient scapegoat for anything that is wrong
with the project.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:jolix, Next:[7475]juggling eggs, Previous:[7476]joe code,
Up:[7477]= J =
jolix /joh'liks/ n.,adj.
386BSD, the freeware port of the BSD Net/2 release to the Intel i386
architecture by Bill Jolitz, Lynne Greer Jolitz, and friends. Used to
differentiate from BSDI's port based on the same source tape, which
used to be called BSD/386 and is now BSD/OS. See [7478]BSD.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:juggling eggs, Next:[7479]jump off into never-never land,
Previous:[7480]jolix, Up:[7481]= J =
juggling eggs vi.
Keeping a lot of [7482]state in your head while modifying a program.
"Don't bother me now, I'm juggling eggs", means that an interrupt is
likely to result in the program's being scrambled. In the classic 1975
first-contact SF novel "The Mote in God's Eye", by Larry Niven and
Jerry Pournelle, an alien describes a very difficult task by saying
"We juggle priceless eggs in variable gravity." See also [7483]hack
mode and [7484]on the gripping hand.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:jump off into never-never land, Next:[7485]jupiter,
Previous:[7486]juggling eggs, Up:[7487]= J =
jump off into never-never land v.
[from J. M. Barrie's "Peter Pan"] Same as [7488]branch to Fishkill,
but more common in technical cultures associated with non-IBM
computers that use the term `jump' rather than `branch'. Compare
[7489]hyperspace.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:jupiter, Next:[7490]K, Previous:[7491]jump off into never-never
land, Up:[7492]= J =
jupiter vt.
[IRC] To kill an [7493]IRC [7494]bot or user and then take its place
by adopting its [7495]nick so that it cannot reconnect. Named after a
particular IRC user who did this to NickServ, the robot in charge of
preventing people from inadvertently using a nick claimed by another
user. Now commonly shortened to `jupe'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:= K =, Next:[7496]= L =, Previous:[7497]= J =, Up:[7498]The
Jargon Lexicon
= K =
* [7499]K:
* [7500]K&R:
* [7501]k-:
* [7502]kahuna:
* [7503]kamikaze packet:
* [7504]kangaroo code:
* [7505]ken:
* [7506]kernel-of-the-week club:
* [7507]kgbvax:
* [7508]KIBO:
* [7509]kiboze:
* [7510]kibozo:
* [7511]kick:
* [7512]kill file:
* [7513]killer app:
* [7514]killer micro:
* [7515]killer poke:
* [7516]kilo-:
* [7517]KIPS:
* [7518]KISS Principle:
* [7519]kit:
* [7520]klone:
* [7521]kludge:
* [7522]kluge:
* [7523]kluge around:
* [7524]kluge up:
* [7525]Knights of the Lambda Calculus:
* [7526]knobs:
* [7527]Knuth:
* [7528]koan:
* [7529]kremvax:
* [7530]kyrka:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:K, Next:[7531]K&R, Previous:[7532]jupiter, Up:[7533]= K =
K /K/ n.
[from [7534]kilo-] A kilobyte. Used both as a spoken word and a
written suffix (like [7535]meg and [7536]gig for megabyte and
gigabyte). See [7537]quantifiers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:K&R, Next:[7538]k-, Previous:[7539]K, Up:[7540]= K =
K&R [Kernighan and Ritchie] n.
Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie's book "The C Programming
Language", esp. the classic and influential first edition
(Prentice-Hall 1978; ISBN 0-13-110163-3). Syn. [7541]White Book,
[7542]Old Testament. See also [7543]New Testament.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:k-, Next:[7544]kahuna, Previous:[7545]K&R, Up:[7546]= K =
k- pref.
[rare; poss fr. `kilo-' prefix] Extremely. Rare among hackers, but
quite common among crackers and [7547]warez d00dz in compounds such as
`k-kool' /K'kool'/, `k-rad' /K'rad'/, and `k-awesome' /K'aw`sm/. Also
used to intensify negatives; thus, `k-evil', `k-lame', `k-screwed',
and `k-annoying'. Overuse of this prefix, or use in more formal or
technical contexts, is considered an indicator of [7548]lamer status.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kahuna, Next:[7549]kamikaze packet, Previous:[7550]k-, Up:[7551]=
K =
kahuna /k*-hoo'n*/ n.
[IBM: from the Hawaiian title for a shaman] Synonym for [7552]wizard,
[7553]guru.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kamikaze packet, Next:[7554]kangaroo code, Previous:[7555]kahuna,
Up:[7556]= K =
kamikaze packet n.
The `official' jargon for what is more commonly called a
[7557]Christmas tree packet. [7558]RFC-1025, "TCP and IP Bake Off"
says:
10 points for correctly being able to process a "Kamikaze" packet
(AKA nastygram, christmas tree packet, lamp test segment, et al.).
That is, correctly handle a segment with the maximum combination of
features at once (e.g., a SYN URG PUSH FIN segment with options and
data).
See also [7559]Chernobyl packet.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kangaroo code, Next:[7560]ken, Previous:[7561]kamikaze packet,
Up:[7562]= K =
kangaroo code n.
Syn. [7563]spaghetti code.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:ken, Next:[7564]kernel-of-the-week club, Previous:[7565]kangaroo
code, Up:[7566]= K =
ken /ken/ n.
1. [Unix] Ken Thompson, principal inventor of Unix. In the early days
he used to hand-cut distribution tapes, often with a note that read
"Love, ken". Old-timers still use his first name (sometimes
uncapitalized, because it's a login name and mail address) in
third-person reference; it is widely understood (on Usenet, in
particular) that without a last name `Ken' refers only to Ken
Thompson. Similarly, Dennis without last name means Dennis Ritchie
(and he is often known as dmr). See also [7567]demigod, [7568]Unix. 2.
A flaming user. This was originated by the Software Support group at
Symbolics because the two greatest flamers in the user community were
both named Ken.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kernel-of-the-week club, Next:[7569]kgbvax, Previous:[7570]ken,
Up:[7571]= K =
kernel-of-the-week club
The fictional society that [7572]BSD [7573]bigots claim [Linux] users
belong to, alluding to the release-early-release-often style preferred
by the kernel maintainers. See [7574]bazaar. This was almost certainly
inspired by the earlier [7575]bug-of-the-month club.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kgbvax, Next:[7576]KIBO, Previous:[7577]kernel-of-the-week club,
Up:[7578]= K =
kgbvax /K-G-B'vaks/ n.
See [7579]kremvax.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:KIBO, Next:[7580]kiboze, Previous:[7581]kgbvax, Up:[7582]= K =
KIBO /ki:'boh/
1. [acronym] Knowledge In, Bullshit Out. A summary of what happens
whenever valid data is passed through an organization (or person) that
deliberately or accidentally disregards or ignores its significance.
Consider, for example, what an advertising campaign can do with a
product's actual specifications. Compare [7583]GIGO; see also
[7584]SNAFU principle. 2. James Parry <kibo@world.std.com>, a
Usenetter infamous for various surrealist net.pranks and an uncanny,
machine-assisted knack for joining any thread in which his nom de
guerre is mentioned. He has a website at [7585]http://www.kibo.com/.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kiboze, Next:[7586]kibozo, Previous:[7587]KIBO, Up:[7588]= K =
kiboze v.
[Usenet] To [7589]grep the Usenet news for a string, especially with
the intention of posting a follow-up. This activity was popularised by
Kibo (see [7590]KIBO, sense 2).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kibozo, Next:[7591]kick, Previous:[7592]kiboze, Up:[7593]= K =
kibozo /ki:-boh'zoh/ n.
[Usenet] One who [7594]kibozes but is not Kibo (see [7595]KIBO, sense
2).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kick, Next:[7596]kill file, Previous:[7597]kibozo, Up:[7598]= K =
kick v.
1. [IRC] To cause somebody to be removed from a [7599]IRC channel, an
option only available to channel ops. This is an extreme measure,
often used to combat extreme [7600]flamage or [7601]flooding, but
sometimes used at the [7602]CHOP's whim. Compare [7603]gun. 2. To
reboot a machine or kill a running process. "The server's down, let me
go kick it."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kill file, Next:[7604]killer app, Previous:[7605]kick, Up:[7606]=
K =
kill file n.
[Usenet; very common] (alt. `KILL file') Per-user file(s) used by some
[7607]Usenet reading programs (originally Larry Wall's rn(1)) to
discard summarily (without presenting for reading) articles matching
some particularly uninteresting (or unwanted) patterns of subject,
author, or other header lines. Thus to add a person (or subject) to
one's kill file is to arrange for that person to be ignored by one's
newsreader in future. By extension, it may be used for a decision to
ignore the person or subject in other media. See also [7608]plonk.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:killer app, Next:[7609]killer micro, Previous:[7610]kill file,
Up:[7611]= K =
killer app
The application that actually makes a sustaining market for a
promising but under-utilized technology. First used in the mid-1980s
to describe Lotus 1-2-3 once it became evident that demand for that
product had been the major driver of the early business market for IBM
PCs. The term was then restrospectively applied to VisiCalc, which had
played a similar role in the success of the Apple II. After 1994 it
became commonplace to describe the World Wide Web as the Internet's
killer app. One of the standard questions asked about each new
personal-computer technology as it emerges has become "what's the
killer app?"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:killer micro, Next:[7612]killer poke, Previous:[7613]killer app,
Up:[7614]= K =
killer micro n.
[popularized by Eugene Brooks] A microprocessor-based machine that
infringes on mini, mainframe, or supercomputer performance turf. Often
heard in "No one will survive the attack of the killer micros!", the
battle cry of the downsizers. Used esp. of RISC architectures.
The popularity of the phrase `attack of the killer micros' is
doubtless reinforced by the title of the movie "Attack Of The Killer
Tomatoes" (one of the [7615]canonical examples of
so-bad-it's-wonderful among hackers). This has even more [7616]flavor
now that killer micros have gone on the offensive not just
individually (in workstations) but in hordes (within massively
parallel computers).
[1996 update: Eugene Brooks was right. Since this term first entered
the Jargon File in 1990, the minicomputer has effectively vanished,
the [7617]mainframe sector is in deep and apparently terminal decline
(with IBM but a shadow of its former self), and even the supercomputer
business has contracted into a smaller niche. It's networked killer
micros as far as the eye can see. --ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:killer poke, Next:[7618]kilo-, Previous:[7619]killer micro,
Up:[7620]= K =
killer poke n.
A recipe for inducing hardware damage on a machine via insertion of
invalid values (see [7621]poke) into a memory-mapped control register;
used esp. of various fairly well-known tricks on [7622]bitty boxes
without hardware memory management (such as the IBM PC and Commodore
PET) that can overload and trash analog electronics in the monitor.
See also [7623]HCF.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kilo-, Next:[7624]KIPS, Previous:[7625]killer poke, Up:[7626]= K
=
kilo- pref.
[SI] See [7627]quantifiers.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:KIPS, Next:[7628]KISS Principle, Previous:[7629]kilo-, Up:[7630]=
K =
KIPS /kips/ n.
[abbreviation, by analogy with [7631]MIPS using [7632]K] Thousands
(not 1024s) of Instructions Per Second. Usage: rare.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:KISS Principle, Next:[7633]kit, Previous:[7634]KIPS, Up:[7635]= K
=
KISS Principle /kis' prin'si-pl/ n.
"Keep It Simple, Stupid". A maxim often invoked when discussing design
to fend off [7636]creeping featurism and control development
complexity. Possibly related to the [7637]marketroid maxim on sales
presentations, "Keep It Short and Simple".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kit, Next:[7638]klone, Previous:[7639]KISS Principle, Up:[7640]=
K =
kit n.
[Usenet; poss. fr. [7641]DEC slang for a full software distribution,
as opposed to a patch or upgrade] A source software distribution that
has been packaged in such a way that it can (theoretically) be
unpacked and installed according to a series of steps using only
standard Unix tools, and entirely documented by some reasonable chain
of references from the top-level [7642]README file. The more general
term [7643]distribution may imply that special tools or more stringent
conditions on the host environment are required.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:klone, Next:[7644]kludge, Previous:[7645]kit, Up:[7646]= K =
klone /klohn/ n.
See [7647]clone, sense 4.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kludge, Next:[7648]kluge, Previous:[7649]klone, Up:[7650]= K =
kludge 1. /klooj/ n.
Incorrect (though regrettably common) spelling of [7651]kluge (US).
These two words have been confused in American usage since the early
1960s, and widely confounded in Great Britain since the end of World
War II. 2. [TMRC] A [7652]crock that works. (A long-ago "Datamation"
article by Jackson Granholme similarly said: "An ill-assorted
collection of poorly matching parts, forming a distressing whole.") 3.
v. To use a kludge to get around a problem. "I've kludged around it
for now, but I'll fix it up properly later."
This word appears to have derived from Scots `kludge' or `kludgie' for
a common toilet, via British military slang. It apparently became
confused with U.S. [7653]kluge during or after World War II; some
Britons from that era use both words in definably different ways, but
[7654]kluge is now uncommon in Great Britain. `Kludge' in Commonwealth
hackish differs in meaning from `kluge' in that it lacks the positive
senses; a kludge is something no Commonwealth hacker wants to be
associated too closely with. Also, `kludge' is more widely known in
British mainstream slang than `kluge' is in the U.S.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kluge, Next:[7655]kluge around, Previous:[7656]kludge, Up:[7657]=
K =
kluge /klooj/
[from the German `klug', clever; poss. related to Polish `klucz' (a
key, a hint, a main point)] 1. n. A Rube Goldberg (or Heath Robinson)
device, whether in hardware or software. 2. n. A clever programming
trick intended to solve a particular nasty case in an expedient, if
not clear, manner. Often used to repair bugs. Often involves
[7658]ad-hockery and verges on being a [7659]crock. 3. n. Something
that works for the wrong reason. 4. vt. To insert a kluge into a
program. "I've kluged this routine to get around that weird bug, but
there's probably a better way." 5. [WPI] n. A feature that is
implemented in a [7660]rude manner.
Nowadays this term is often encountered in the variant spelling
`kludge'. Reports from [7661]old farts are consistent that `kluge' was
the original spelling, reported around computers as far back as the
mid-1950s and, at that time, used exclusively of hardware kluges. In
1947, the "New York Folklore Quarterly" reported a classic shaggy-dog
story `Murgatroyd the Kluge Maker' then current in the Armed Forces,
in which a `kluge' was a complex and puzzling artifact with a trivial
function. Other sources report that `kluge' was common Navy slang in
the WWII era for any piece of electronics that worked well on shore
but consistently failed at sea.
However, there is reason to believe this slang use may be a decade
older. Several respondents have connected it to the brand name of a
device called a "Kluge paper feeder", an adjunct to mechanical
printing presses. Legend has it that the Kluge feeder was designed
before small, cheap electric motors and control electronics; it relied
on a fiendishly complex assortment of cams, belts, and linkages to
both power and synchronize all its operations from one motive
driveshaft. It was accordingly temperamental, subject to frequent
breakdowns, and devilishly difficult to repair -- but oh, so clever!
People who tell this story also aver that `Kluge' was the name of a
design engineer.
There is in fact a Brandtjen & Kluge Inc., an old family business that
manufactures printing equipment - interestingly, their name is
pronounced /kloo'gee/! Henry Brandtjen, president of the firm, told me
(ESR, 1994) that his company was co-founded by his father and an
engineer named Kluge /kloo'gee/, who built and co-designed the
original Kluge automatic feeder in 1919. Mr. Brandtjen claims,
however, that this was a simple device (with only four cams); he says
he has no idea how the myth of its complexity took hold.
[7662]TMRC and the MIT hacker culture of the early '60s seems to have
developed in a milieu that remembered and still used some WWII
military slang (see also [7663]foobar). It seems likely that `kluge'
came to MIT via alumni of the many military electronics projects that
had been located in Cambridge (many in MIT's venerable Building 20, in
which [7664]TMRC is also located) during the war.
The variant `kludge' was apparently popularized by the
[7665]Datamation article mentioned above; it was titled "How to Design
a Kludge" (February 1962, pp. 30, 31). This spelling was probably
imported from Great Britain, where [7666]kludge has an independent
history (though this fact was largely unknown to hackers on either
side of the Atlantic before a mid-1993 debate in the Usenet group
alt.folklore.computers over the First and Second Edition versions of
this entry; everybody used to think [7667]kludge was just a mutation
of [7668]kluge). It now appears that the British, having forgotten the
etymology of their own `kludge' when `kluge' crossed the Atlantic,
repaid the U.S. by lobbing the `kludge' orthography in the other
direction and confusing their American cousins' spelling!
The result of this history is a tangle. Many younger U.S. hackers
pronounce the word as /klooj/ but spell it, incorrectly for its
meaning and pronunciation, as `kludge'. (Phonetically, consider huge,
refuge, centrifuge, and deluge as opposed to sludge, judge, budge, and
fudge. Whatever its failings in other areas, English spelling is
perfectly consistent about this distinction.) British hackers mostly
learned /kluhj/ orally, use it in a restricted negative sense and are
at least consistent. European hackers have mostly learned the word
from written American sources and tend to pronounce it /kluhj/ but use
the wider American meaning!
Some observers consider this mess appropriate in view of the word's
meaning.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kluge around, Next:[7669]kluge up, Previous:[7670]kluge,
Up:[7671]= K =
kluge around vt.
To avoid a bug or difficult condition by inserting a [7672]kluge.
Compare [7673]workaround.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kluge up, Next:[7674]Knights of the Lambda Calculus,
Previous:[7675]kluge around, Up:[7676]= K =
kluge up vt.
To lash together a quick hack to perform a task; this is milder than
[7677]cruft together and has some of the connotations of [7678]hack up
(note, however, that the construction `kluge on' corresponding to
[7679]hack on is never used). "I've kluged up this routine to dump the
buffer contents to a safe place."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Knights of the Lambda Calculus, Next:[7680]knobs,
Previous:[7681]kluge up, Up:[7682]= K =
Knights of the Lambda Calculus n.
A semi-mythical organization of wizardly LISP and Scheme hackers. The
name refers to a mathematical formalism invented by Alonzo Church,
with which LISP is intimately connected. There is no enrollment list
and the criteria for induction are unclear, but one well-known LISPer
has been known to give out buttons and, in general, the members know
who they are....
_________________________________________________________________
Node:knobs, Next:[7683]Knuth, Previous:[7684]Knights of the Lambda
Calculus, Up:[7685]= K =
knobs pl.n.
Configurable options, even in software and even those you can't adjust
in real time. Anything you can [7686]twiddle is a knob. "Has this PNG
viewer got an alpha knob?" Software may be described as having "knobs
and switches" or occasionally "knobs and lights".
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Knuth, Next:[7687]koan, Previous:[7688]knobs, Up:[7689]= K =
Knuth /ka-nooth'/ n.
[Donald E. Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming"] Mythically, the
reference that answers all questions about data structures or
algorithms. A safe answer when you do not know: "I think you can find
that in Knuth." Contrast [7690]the literature. See also [7691]bible.
There is a Donald Knuth home page at
[7692]http://www-cs-faculty.Stanford.EDU/~knuth.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:koan, Next:[7693]kremvax, Previous:[7694]Knuth, Up:[7695]= K =
koan /koh'an/ n.
A Zen teaching riddle. Classically, koans are attractive paradoxes to
be meditated on; their purpose is to help one to enlightenment by
temporarily jamming normal cognitive processing so that something more
interesting can happen (this practice is associated with Rinzei Zen
Buddhism). Hackers are very fond of the koan form and compose their
own koans for humororous and/or enlightening effect. See [7696]Some AI
Koans, [7697]has the X nature, [7698]hacker humor.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kremvax, Next:[7699]kyrka, Previous:[7700]koan, Up:[7701]= K =
kremvax /krem-vaks/ n.
[from the then large number of [7702]Usenet [7703]VAXen with names of
the form foovax] Originally, a fictitious Usenet site at the Kremlin,
announced on April 1, 1984 in a posting ostensibly originated there by
Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko. The posting was actually forged by
Piet Beertema as an April Fool's joke. Other fictitious sites
mentioned in the hoax were moskvax and [7704]kgbvax. This was probably
the funniest of the many April Fool's forgeries perpetrated on Usenet
(which has negligible security against them), because the notion that
Usenet might ever penetrate the Iron Curtain seemed so totally absurd
at the time.
In fact, it was only six years later that the first genuine site in
Moscow, demos.su, joined Usenet. Some readers needed convincing that
the postings from it weren't just another prank. Vadim Antonov, senior
programmer at Demos and the major poster from there up to mid-1991,
was quite aware of all this, referred to it frequently in his own
postings, and at one point twitted some credulous readers by blandly
asserting that he was a hoax!
Eventually he even arranged to have the domain's gateway site named
kremvax, thus neatly turning fiction into fact and demonstrating that
the hackish sense of humor transcends cultural barriers. [Mr. Antonov
also contributed the Russian-language material for this lexicon.
--ESR]
In an even more ironic historical footnote, kremvax became an
electronic center of the anti-communist resistance during the bungled
hard-line coup of August 1991. During those three days the Soviet UUCP
network centered on kremvax became the only trustworthy news source
for many places within the USSR. Though the sysops were concentrating
on internal communications, cross-border postings included immediate
transliterations of Boris Yeltsin's decrees condemning the coup and
eyewitness reports of the demonstrations in Moscow's streets. In those
hours, years of speculation that totalitarianism would prove unable to
maintain its grip on politically-loaded information in the age of
computer networking were proved devastatingly accurate -- and the
original kremvax joke became a reality as Yeltsin and the new Russian
revolutionaries of `glasnost' and `perestroika' made kremvax one of
the timeliest means of their outreach to the West.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:kyrka, Next:[7705]lace card, Previous:[7706]kremvax, Up:[7707]= K
=
kyrka /chur'ka/ n.
[Swedish] See [7708]feature key.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:= L =, Next:[7709]= M =, Previous:[7710]= K =, Up:[7711]The
Jargon Lexicon
= L =
* [7712]lace card:
* [7713]lag:
* [7714]lamer:
* [7715]language lawyer:
* [7716]languages of choice:
* [7717]LART:
* [7718]larval stage:
* [7719]lase:
* [7720]laser chicken:
* [7721]lasherism:
* [7722]laundromat:
* [7723]LDB:
* [7724]leaf site:
* [7725]leak:
* [7726]leaky heap:
* [7727]leapfrog attack:
* [7728]leech:
* [7729]leech mode:
* [7730]legal:
* [7731]legalese:
* [7732]LER:
* [7733]LERP:
* [7734]let the smoke out:
* [7735]letterbomb:
* [7736]lexer:
* [7737]lexiphage:
* [7738]life:
* [7739]Life is hard:
* [7740]light pipe:
* [7741]lightweight:
* [7742]like kicking dead whales down the beach:
* [7743]like nailing jelly to a tree:
* [7744]line 666:
* [7745]line eater the:
* [7746]line noise:
* [7747]line starve:
* [7748]linearithmic:
* [7749]link farm:
* [7750]link rot:
* [7751]link-dead:
* [7752]lint:
* [7753]Lintel:
* [7754]Linus:
* [7755]Linux:
* [7756]lion food:
* [7757]Lions Book:
* [7758]LISP:
* [7759]list-bomb:
* [7760]lithium lick:
* [7761]little-endian:
* [7762]live:
* [7763]live data:
* [7764]Live Free Or Die!:
* [7765]livelock:
* [7766]liveware:
* [7767]lobotomy:
* [7768]locals the:
* [7769]locked and loaded:
* [7770]locked up:
* [7771]logic bomb:
* [7772]logical:
* [7773]loop through:
* [7774]loose bytes:
* [7775]lord high fixer:
* [7776]lose:
* [7777]lose lose:
* [7778]loser:
* [7779]losing:
* [7780]loss:
* [7781]lossage:
* [7782]lost in the noise:
* [7783]lost in the underflow:
* [7784]lots of MIPS but no I/O:
* [7785]low-bandwidth:
* [7786]LPT:
* [7787]Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology:
* [7788]Lumber Cartel:
* [7789]lunatic fringe:
* [7790]lurker:
* [7791]luser:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:lace card, Next:[7792]lag, Previous:[7793]kyrka, Up:[7794]= L =
lace card n. obs.
A [7795]punched card with all holes punched (also called a `whoopee
card' or `ventilator card'). Card readers tended to jam when they got
to one of these, as the resulting card had too little structural
strength to avoid buckling inside the mechanism. Card punches could
also jam trying to produce these things owing to power-supply
problems. When some practical joker fed a lace card through the
reader, you needed to clear the jam with a `card knife' -- which you
used on the joker first.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:lag, Next:[7796]lamer, Previous:[7797]lace card, Up:[7798]= L =
lag n.
[MUD, IRC; very common] When used without qualification this is
synomous with [7799]netlag. Curiously, people will often complain "I'm
really lagged" when in fact it is their server or network connection
that is lagging.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:lamer, Next:[7800]language lawyer, Previous:[7801]lag, Up:[7802]=
L =
lamer n.
[prob. originated in skateboarder slang] 1. Synonym for [7803]luser,
not used much by hackers but common among [7804]warez d00dz, crackers,
and [7805]phreakers. A person who downloads much, but who never
uploads. (Also known as `leecher'). Oppose [7806]elite. Has the same
connotations of self-conscious elitism that use of [7807]luser does
among hackers. 2. Someone who tries to crack a BBS. 3. Someone who
annoys the sysop or other BBS users - for instance, by posting lots of
silly messages, uploading virus-ridden software, frequently dropping
carrier, etc.
Crackers also use it to refer to cracker [7808]wannabees. In phreak
culture, a lamer is one who scams codes off others rather than doing
cracks or really understanding the fundamental concepts. In
[7809]warez d00dz culture, where the ability to wave around cracked
commercial software within days of (or before) release to the
commercial market is much esteemed, the lamer might try to upload
garbage or shareware or something incredibly old (old in this context
is read as a few years to anything older than 3 days).
`Lamer' is also much used in the IRC world in a similar sense to the
above.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:language lawyer, Next:[7810]languages of choice,
Previous:[7811]lamer, Up:[7812]= L =
language lawyer n.
A person, usually an experienced or senior software engineer, who is
intimately familiar with many or most of the numerous restrictions and
features (both useful and esoteric) applicable to one or more computer
programming languages. A language lawyer is distinguished by the
ability to show you the five sentences scattered through a
200-plus-page manual that together imply the answer to your question
"if only you had thought to look there". Compare [7813]wizard,
[7814]legal, [7815]legalese.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:languages of choice, Next:[7816]LART, Previous:[7817]language
lawyer, Up:[7818]= L =
languages of choice n.
[7819]C, [7820]C++, [7821]LISP, and [7822]Perl. Nearly every hacker
knows one of C or LISP, and most good ones are fluent in both. C++,
despite some serious drawbacks, is generally preferred to other
object-oriented languages (though in 1999 it looks as though
[7823]Java has displaced it in the affections of hackers, if not
everywhere). Since around 1990 Perl has rapidly been gaining favor,
especially as a tool for systems-administration utilities and rapid
prototyping. [7824]Python, Smalltalk and Prolog are also popular in
small but influential communities.
There is also a rapidly dwindling category of older hackers with
FORTRAN, or even assembler, as their language of choice. They often
prefer to be known as [7825]Real Programmers, and other hackers
consider them a bit odd (see "[7826]The Story of Mel" in Appendix A).
Assembler is generally no longer considered interesting or appropriate
for anything but [7827]HLL implementation, [7828]glue, and a few
time-critical and hardware-specific uses in systems programs. FORTRAN
occupies a shrinking niche in scientific programming.
Most hackers tend to frown on languages like [7829]Pascal and
[7830]Ada, which don't give them the near-total freedom considered
necessary for hacking (see [7831]bondage-and-discipline language), and
to regard everything even remotely connected with [7832]COBOL or other
traditional [7833]card walloper languages as a total and unmitigated
[7834]loss.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:LART, Next:[7835]larval stage, Previous:[7836]languages of
choice, Up:[7837]= L =
LART //
Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool. 1. n. In the collective mythos of
[7838]scary devil monastery, this is an essential item in the toolkit
of every [7839]BOFH. The LART classic is a 2x4 or other large billet
of wood usable as a club, to be applied upside the head of spammers
and other people who cause sysadmins more grief than just naturally
goes with the job. Perennial debates rage on alt.sysadmin.recovery
over what constitutes the truly effective LART; knobkerries,
semiautomatic weapons, flamethrowers, and tactical nukes all have
their partisans. Compare [7840]clue-by-four. 2. v. To use a LART. Some
would add "in malice", but some sysadmins do prefer to gently lart
their users as a first (and sometimes final) warning. 3. interj.
Calling for one's LART, much as a surgeon might call "Scalpel!". 4.
interj. [rare] Used in [7841]flames as a rebuke. "LART! LART! LART!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:larval stage, Next:[7842]lase, Previous:[7843]LART, Up:[7844]= L
=
larval stage n.
Describes a period of monomaniacal concentration on coding apparently
passed through by all fledgling hackers. Common symptoms include the
perpetration of more than one 36-hour [7845]hacking run in a given
week; neglect of all other activities including usual basics like
food, sleep, and personal hygiene; and a chronic case of advanced
bleary-eye. Can last from 6 months to 2 years, the apparent median
being around 18 months. A few so afflicted never resume a more
`normal' life, but the ordeal seems to be necessary to produce really
wizardly (as opposed to merely competent) programmers. See also
[7846]wannabee. A less protracted and intense version of larval stage
(typically lasting about a month) may recur when one is learning a new
[7847]OS or programming language.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:lase, Next:[7848]laser chicken, Previous:[7849]larval stage,
Up:[7850]= L =
lase /layz/ vt.
To print a given document via a laser printer. "OK, let's lase that
sucker and see if all those graphics-macro calls did the right
things."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:laser chicken, Next:[7851]lasherism, Previous:[7852]lase,
Up:[7853]= L =
laser chicken n.
Kung Pao Chicken, a standard Chinese dish containing chicken, peanuts,
and hot red peppers in a spicy pepper-oil sauce. Many hackers call it
`laser chicken' for two reasons: It can [7854]zap you just like a
laser, and the sauce has a red color reminiscent of some laser beams.
The dish has also been called `gunpowder chicken'.
In a variation on this theme, it is reported that some Australian
hackers have redesignated the common dish `lemon chicken' as
`Chernobyl Chicken'. The name is derived from the color of the sauce,
which is considered bright enough to glow in the dark (as, mythically,
do some of the inhabitants of Chernobyl).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:lasherism, Next:[7855]laundromat, Previous:[7856]laser chicken,
Up:[7857]= L =
lasherism n.
[Harvard] A program that solves a standard problem (such as the Eight
Queens puzzle or implementing the [7858]life algorithm) in a
deliberately nonstandard way. Distinguished from a [7859]crock or
[7860]kluge by the fact that the programmer did it on purpose as a
mental exercise. Such constructions are quite popular in exercises
such as the [7861]Obfuscated C Contest, and occasionally in
[7862]retrocomputing. Lew Lasher was a student at Harvard around 1980
who became notorious for such behavior.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:laundromat, Next:[7863]LDB, Previous:[7864]lasherism, Up:[7865]=
L =
laundromat n.
Syn. [7866]disk farm; see [7867]washing machine.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:LDB, Next:[7868]leaf site, Previous:[7869]laundromat, Up:[7870]=
L =
LDB /l*'d*b/ vt.
[from the PDP-10 instruction set] To extract from the middle. "LDB me
a slice of cake, please." This usage has been kept alive by Common
LISP's function of the same name. Considered silly. See also
[7871]DPB.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:leaf site, Next:[7872]leak, Previous:[7873]LDB, Up:[7874]= L =
leaf site n.,obs.
Before pervasive TCP/IP, this term was used of a machine that merely
originated and read Usenet news or mail, and did not relay any
third-party traffic. It was often uttered in a critical tone; when the
ratio of leaf sites to backbone, rib, and other relay sites got too
high, the network tended to develop bottlenecks. Compare
[7875]backbone site, [7876]rib site. Now that traffic patterns depend
more on the distribution of routers than of host machines this term
has largely fallen out of use.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:leak, Next:[7877]leaky heap, Previous:[7878]leaf site, Up:[7879]=
L =
leak n.
With qualifier, one of a class of resource-management bugs that occur
when resources are not freed properly after operations on them are
finished, so they effectively disappear (leak out). This leads to
eventual exhaustion as new allocation requests come in. [7880]memory
leak and [7881]fd leak have their own entries; one might also refer,
to, say, a `window handle leak' in a window system.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:leaky heap, Next:[7882]leapfrog attack, Previous:[7883]leak,
Up:[7884]= L =
leaky heap n.
[Cambridge] An [7885]arena with a [7886]memory leak.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:leapfrog attack, Next:[7887]leech, Previous:[7888]leaky heap,
Up:[7889]= L =
leapfrog attack n.
Use of userid and password information obtained illicitly from one
host (e.g., downloading a file of account IDs and passwords, tapping
TELNET, etc.) to compromise another host. Also, the act of TELNETting
through one or more hosts in order to confuse a trace (a standard
cracker procedure).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:leech, Next:[7890]leech mode, Previous:[7891]leapfrog attack,
Up:[7892]= L =
leech
1. n. (Also `leecher'.) Among BBS types, crackers and [7893]warez
d00dz, one who consumes knowledge without generating new software,
cracks, or techniques. BBS culture specifically defines a leech as
someone who downloads files with few or no uploads in return, and who
does not contribute to the message section. Cracker culture extends
this definition to someone (a [7894]lamer, usually) who constantly
presses informed sources for information and/or assistance, but has
nothing to contribute. 2. v. [common, Toronto area] To instantly fetch
a file (other than a mail attachment) whether by FTP or IRC file req
or any other method. Seems to be a holdover from the early 1990s when
Toronto had a very active BBS and warez scene.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:leech mode, Next:[7895]legal, Previous:[7896]leech, Up:[7897]= L
=
leech mode n.
[warez d00dz] "Leech mode" or "leech access" or (simply "leech" as in
"You get leech") is the access mode on a FTP site where one can
download as many files as one wants, without having to upload. Leech
mode is often promised on banner sites, but rarely obtained. See
[7898]ratio site, [7899]banner site.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:legal, Next:[7900]legalese, Previous:[7901]leech mode, Up:[7902]=
L =
legal adj.
Loosely used to mean `in accordance with all the relevant rules', esp.
in connection with some set of constraints defined by software. "The
older =+ alternate for += is no longer legal syntax in ANSI C." "This
parser processes each line of legal input the moment it sees the
trailing linefeed." Hackers often model their work as a sort of game
played with the environment in which the objective is to maneuver
through the thicket of `natural laws' to achieve a desired objective.
Their use of `legal' is flavored as much by this game-playing sense as
by the more conventional one having to do with courts and lawyers.
Compare [7903]language lawyer, [7904]legalese.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:legalese, Next:[7905]LER, Previous:[7906]legal, Up:[7907]= L =
legalese n.
Dense, pedantic verbiage in a language description, product
specification, or interface standard; text that seems designed to
obfuscate and requires a [7908]language lawyer to [7909]parse it.
Though hackers are not afraid of high information density and
complexity in language (indeed, they rather enjoy both), they share a
deep and abiding loathing for legalese; they associate it with
deception, [7910]suits, and situations in which hackers generally get
the short end of the stick.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:LER, Next:[7911]LERP, Previous:[7912]legalese, Up:[7913]= L =
LER /L-E-R/
n. 1. [TMRC, from `Light-Emitting Diode'] A light-emitting resistor
(that is, one in the process of burning up). Ohm's law was broken. See
also [7914]SED. 2. An incandescent light bulb (the filament emits
light because it's resistively heated).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:LERP, Next:[7915]let the smoke out, Previous:[7916]LER,
Up:[7917]= L =
LERP /lerp/ vi.,n.
Quasi-acronym for Linear Interpolation, used as a verb or noun for the
operation. "Bresenham's algorithm lerps incrementally between the two
endpoints of the line."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:let the smoke out, Next:[7918]letterbomb, Previous:[7919]LERP,
Up:[7920]= L =
let the smoke out v.
To fry hardware (see [7921]fried). See [7922]magic smoke for a
discussion of the underlying mythology.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:letterbomb, Next:[7923]lexer, Previous:[7924]let the smoke out,
Up:[7925]= L =
letterbomb
1. n. A piece of [7926]email containing [7927]live data intended to do
nefarious things to the recipient's machine or terminal. It used to be
possible, for example, to send letterbombs that would lock up some
specific kinds of terminals when they are viewed, so thoroughly that
the user must cycle power (see [7928]cycle, sense 3) to unwedge them.
Under Unix, a letterbomb can also try to get part of its contents
interpreted as a shell command to the mailer. The results of this
could range from silly to tragic; fortunately it has been some years
since any of the standard Unix/Internet mail software was vulnerable
to such an attack (though, as the Melissa virus attack demonstrated in
early 1999, Microsoft systems can have serious problems). See also
[7929]Trojan horse; compare [7930]nastygram. 2. Loosely, a
[7931]mailbomb.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:lexer, Next:[7932]lexiphage, Previous:[7933]letterbomb,
Up:[7934]= L =
lexer /lek'sr/ n.
Common hacker shorthand for `lexical analyzer', the input-tokenizing
stage in the parser for a language (the part that breaks it into
word-like pieces). "Some C lexers get confused by the old-style
compound ops like =-."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:lexiphage, Next:[7935]life, Previous:[7936]lexer, Up:[7937]= L =
lexiphage /lek'si-fayj`/ n.
A notorious word [7938]chomper on ITS. See [7939]bagbiter. This
program would draw on a selected victim's bitmapped terminal the words
"THE BAG" in ornate letters, followed a pair of jaws biting pieces of
it off.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:life, Next:[7940]Life is hard, Previous:[7941]lexiphage,
Up:[7942]= L =
life n.
1. A cellular-automata game invented by John Horton Conway and first
introduced publicly by Martin Gardner ("Scientific American", October
1970); the game's popularity had to wait a few years for computers on
which it could reasonably be played, as it's no fun to simulate the
cells by hand. Many hackers pass through a stage of fascination with
it, and hackers at various places contributed heavily to the
mathematical analysis of this game (most notably Bill Gosper at MIT,
who even implemented life in [7943]TECO!; see [7944]Gosperism). When a
hacker mentions `life', he is much more likely to mean this game than
the magazine, the breakfast cereal, or the human state of existence.
2. The opposite of [7945]Usenet. As in "[7946]Get a life!"
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Life is hard, Next:[7947]light pipe, Previous:[7948]life,
Up:[7949]= L =
Life is hard prov.
[XEROX PARC] This phrase has two possible interpretations: (1) "While
your suggestion may have some merit, I will behave as though I hadn't
heard it." (2) "While your suggestion has obvious merit, equally
obvious circumstances prevent it from being seriously considered." The
charm of the phrase lies precisely in this subtle but important
ambiguity.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:light pipe, Next:[7950]lightweight, Previous:[7951]Life is hard,
Up:[7952]= L =
light pipe n.
Fiber optic cable. Oppose [7953]copper.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:lightweight, Next:[7954]like kicking dead whales down the beach,
Previous:[7955]light pipe, Up:[7956]= L =
lightweight adj.
Opposite of [7957]heavyweight; usually found in combining forms such
as `lightweight process'.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:like kicking dead whales down the beach, Next:[7958]like nailing
jelly to a tree, Previous:[7959]lightweight, Up:[7960]= L =
like kicking dead whales down the beach adj.
Describes a slow, difficult, and disgusting process. First popularized
by a famous quote about the difficulty of getting work done under one
of IBM's mainframe OSes. "Well, you could write a C compiler in COBOL,
but it would be like kicking dead whales down the beach." See also
[7961]fear and loathing.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:like nailing jelly to a tree, Next:[7962]line 666,
Previous:[7963]like kicking dead whales down the beach, Up:[7964]= L =
like nailing jelly to a tree adj.
Used to describe a task thought to be impossible, esp. one in which
the difficulty arises from poor specification or inherent slipperiness
in the problem domain. "Trying to display the `prettiest' arrangement
of nodes and arcs that diagrams a given graph is like nailing jelly to
a tree, because nobody's sure what `prettiest' means algorithmically."
Hacker use of this term may recall mainstream slang originated early
in the 20th century by President Theodore Roosevelt. There is a legend
that, weary of inconclusive talks with Colombia over the right to dig
a canal through its then-province Panama, he remarked, "Negotiating
with those pirates is like trying to nail currant jelly to the wall."
Roosevelt's government subsequently encouraged the anti-Colombian
insurgency that created the nation of Panama.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:line 666, Next:[7965]line eater the, Previous:[7966]like nailing
jelly to a tree, Up:[7967]= L =
line 666 [from Christian eschatological myth] n.
The notional line of source at which a program fails for obscure
reasons, implying either that somebody is out to get it (when you are
the programmer), or that it richly deserves to be so gotten (when you
are not). "It works when I trace through it, but seems to crash on
line 666 when I run it." "What happens is that whenever a large batch
comes through, mmdf dies on the Line of the Beast. Probably some twit
hardcoded a buffer size."
_________________________________________________________________
Node:line eater the, Next:[7968]line noise, Previous:[7969]line 666,
Up:[7970]= L =
line eater, the n. obs.
[Usenet] 1. A bug in some now-obsolete versions of the netnews
software that used to eat up to BUFSIZ bytes of the article text. The
bug was triggered by having the text of the article start with a space
or tab. This bug was quickly personified as a mythical creature called
the `line eater', and postings often included a dummy line of `line
eater food'. Ironically, line eater `food' not beginning with a space
or tab wasn't actually eaten, since the bug was avoided; but if there
was a space or tab before it, then the line eater would eat the food
and the beginning of the text it was supposed to be protecting. The
practice of `sacrificing to the line eater' continued for some time
after the bug had been [7971]nailed to the wall, and is still
humorously referred to. The bug itself was still occasionally reported
to be lurking in some mail-to-netnews gateways as late as 1991. 2. See
[7972]NSA line eater.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:line noise, Next:[7973]line starve, Previous:[7974]line eater
the, Up:[7975]= L =
line noise n.
1. [techspeak] Spurious characters due to electrical noise in a
communications link, especially an RS-232 serial connection. Line
noise may be induced by poor connections, interference or crosstalk
from other circuits, electrical storms, [7976]cosmic rays, or
(notionally) birds crapping on the phone wires. 2. Any chunk of data
in a file or elsewhere that looks like the results of line noise in
sense 1. 3. Text that is theoretically a readable text or program
source but employs syntax so bizarre that it looks like line noise in
senses 1 or 2. Yes, there are languages this ugly. The canonical
example is [7977]TECO; it is often claimed that "TECO's input syntax
is indistinguishable from line noise." Other non-[7978]WYSIWYG
editors, such as Multics qed and Unix ed, in the hands of a real
hacker, also qualify easily, as do deliberately obfuscated languages
such as [7979]INTERCAL.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:line starve, Next:[7980]linearithmic, Previous:[7981]line noise,
Up:[7982]= L =
line starve
[MIT] 1. vi. To feed paper through a printer the wrong way by one line
(most printers can't do this). On a display terminal, to move the
cursor up to the previous line of the screen. "To print `X squared',
you just output `X', line starve, `2', line feed." (The line starve
causes the `2' to appear on the line above the `X', and the line feed
gets back to the original line.) 2. n. A character (or character
sequence) that causes a terminal to perform this action. ASCII
0011010, also called SUB or control-Z, was one common line-starve
character in the days before microcomputers and the X3.64 terminal
standard. Today, the term might be used for the ISO reverse line feed
character 0x8D. Unlike `line feed', `line starve' is not standard
[7983]ASCII terminology. Even among hackers it is considered a bit
silly. 3. [proposed] A sequence such as \c (used in System V echo, as
well as [7984]nroff and [7985]troff) that suppresses a [7986]newline
or other character(s) that would normally be emitted.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:linearithmic, Next:[7987]link farm, Previous:[7988]line starve,
Up:[7989]= L =
linearithmic adj.
Of an algorithm, having running time that is O(N log N). Coined as a
portmanteau of `linear' and `logarithmic' in "Algorithms In C" by
Robert Sedgewick (Addison-Wesley 1990, ISBN 0-201-51425-7).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:link farm, Next:[7990]link rot, Previous:[7991]linearithmic,
Up:[7992]= L =
link farm n.
[Unix] A directory tree that contains many links to files in a master
directory tree of files. Link farms save space when one is maintaining
several nearly identical copies of the same source tree -- for
example, when the only difference is architecture-dependent object
files. "Let's freeze the source and then rebuild the FROBOZZ-3 and
FROBOZZ-4 link farms." Link farms may also be used to get around
restrictions on the number of -I (include-file directory) arguments on
older C preprocessors. However, they can also get completely out of
hand, becoming the filesystem equivalent of [7993]spaghetti code.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:link rot, Next:[7994]link-dead, Previous:[7995]link farm,
Up:[7996]= L =
link rot n.
The natural decay of web links as the sites they're connected to
change or die. Compare [7997]bit rot.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:link-dead, Next:[7998]lint, Previous:[7999]link rot, Up:[8000]= L
=
link-dead adj.
[MUD] The state a player is in when they kill their connection to a
[8001]MUD without leaving it properly. The player is then commonly
left as a statue in the game, and is only removed after a certain
period of time (an hour on most MUDs). Used on [8002]IRC as well,
although it is inappropriate in that context. Compare [8003]netdead.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:lint, Next:[8004]Lintel, Previous:[8005]link-dead, Up:[8006]= L =
lint
[from Unix's lint(1), named for the bits of fluff it supposedly picks
from programs] 1. vt. To examine a program closely for style, language
usage, and portability problems, esp. if in C, esp. if via use of
automated analysis tools, most esp. if the Unix utility lint(1) is
used. This term used to be restricted to use of lint(1) itself, but
(judging by references on Usenet) it has become a shorthand for
[8007]desk check at some non-Unix shops, even in languages other than
C. Also as v. [8008]delint. 2. n. Excess verbiage in a document, as in
"This draft has too much lint".
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Lintel n.
The emerging [8012]Linux/Intel alliance. This term began to be used in
early 1999 after it became clear that the [8013]Wintel alliance was
under increasing strain and Intel started taking stakes in Linux
companies.
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Linus /leen'us'/ or /lin'us'/, not /li:'nus/
Linus Torvalds, the author of [8017]Linux. Nobody in the hacker
culture has been as readily recognized by first name alone since Ken
(Thompson).
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Linux /lee'nuhks/ or /li'nuks/, not /li:'nuhks/ n.
The free Unix workalike created by Linus Torvalds and friends starting
about 1991. The pronunciation /lee'nuhks/ is preferred because the
name `Linus' has an /ee/ sound in Swedish (Linus's family is part of
Finland's 6% ethnic-Swedish minority). This may be the most remarkable
hacker project in history -- an entire clone of Unix for 386, 486 and
Pentium micros, distributed for free with sources over the net (ports
to Alpha and Sparc and many other machines are also in use).
Linux is what [8021]GNU aimed to be, and it relies on the GNU toolset.
But the Free Software Foundation didn't produc