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download is  vt. To transfer data or (esp.) code from a larger `host'   system (esp. a {mainframe}) over a digital comm link to a smaller   `client' system, esp. a microcomputer or specialized peripheral.   Oppose {upload}.   However, note that groun...
download2 is  rule for this term.  Space-to-earth transmission is always download   and the reverse upload regardless of the relative size of the   computers involved.  So far the in-space machines have invariably   been smaller; thus the upload/down...
DP is  /D-P/ n. 1. Data Processing.  Listed here because,   according to hackers, use of the term marks one immediately as a   {suit}.  See {DPer}.  2. Common abbrev for {Dissociated   Press}.
DPB is  /d*-pib'/ [from the PDP-10 instruction set] vt. 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 you to  ...
DPB2 is  the name of a PDP-10   instruction that inserts some bits into the middle of some other   bits.  This usage has been kept alive by the Common LISP function   of the same name. 
DPer is  /dee-pee-er/ n. Data Processor.  Hackers are absolutely   amazed that {suit}s use this term self-referentially.   "*Computers* process data, not people!"  See {DP}.
dragon is  n. [MIT] A program similar to a {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 logg...
dragon2 is  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   d...
dragon3 is  and most other OSes   this would be called a `background demon' or {daemon}.  The   best-known UNIX example of a dragon is `cron(1)'.  At SAIL,   they called this sort of thing a `phantom'. 
Dragon Book is  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 `c...
Dragon Book2 is  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. A...
Dragon Book3 is  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 gaun...
Dragon Book4 is  representation of the Red Dragon's head while the rest   of the beast extends back in normal space.  See also {{book   titles}}. 
drain is  [IBM] v. Syn. for {flush} (sense 2).  Has a connotation   of finality about it; one speaks of draining a device before taking   it offline.
dread high-bit disease is  n. A condition endemic to PRIME (a.k.a.   PR1ME) minicomputers that results in all the characters having   their high (0x80) bit ON rather than OFF.  This of course makes   transporting files to other systems much more diff...
dread high-bit disease2 is  devices.  It is reported that   PRIME adopted the reversed-8-bit convention in order to save   25 cents per serial line per machine.  This probably qualifies as one   of the most {cretinous} design tradeoffs ever made.  Se...
dread high-bit disease3 is  (including the Atari 800) have exhibited   similar brain damage. 
DRECNET is  /drek'net/ [from Yiddish/German `dreck', meaning   dirt] n. Deliberate distortion of DECNET, a networking protocol   used in the {VMS} community.  So called because DEC helped write   the Ethernet specification and then (either stupidly o...
DRECNET2 is  violated that spec in the design   of DRECNET in a way that made it incompatible.  See also   {connector conspiracy}. 
driver is  n. 1. The {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...
driver2 is  `driver' also means a program that translates some   device-independent or other common format to something a real   device can actually understand. 
droid is  n. A person (esp. a low-level bureaucrat or   service-business employee) exhibiting most of the following   characteristics (a) na"ive trust in the wisdom of the parent   organization or `the system'; (b) a propensity to believe   obvious n...
droid2 is  computers!);   blind faith; (c) a rule-governed mentality, one unwilling or unable   to look beyond the `letter of the law' in exceptional   situations; and (d) no interest in fixing that which is broken; an   "It's not my job, man" attitu...
droid3 is  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.  This   become...
droid4 is  properly debugged.   The term `droid mentality' is also used to describe the mindset   behind this behavior. Compare {suit}, {marketroid}; see   {-oid}. 
drool-proof paper is  n. Documentation that has been obsessively {dumbed   down}, to the point where only a {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 pape...
drool-proof paper2 is  from Apple's LaserWriter manual "Do not expose   your LaserWriter to open fire or flame." 
drop on the floor is  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 netnew...
drop on the floor2 is  {black hole}, {bit bucket}. 
drop-ins is  [prob. by analogy with {drop-outs}] n. 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.  Compa...
drop-outs is  n. 1. A variety of `power glitch' (see {glitch});   momentary 0 voltage on the electrical mains.  2. Missing characters   in typed input due to software malfunction or system saturation   (this can happen under UNIX when a bad connectio...
drop-outs2 is  spurious character interrupts).  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 {glitch},   {fried}. 
drugged is  adj. (also `on drugs') 1. Conspicuously stupid,   heading toward {brain-damaged}.  Often accompanied by a   pantomime of toking a joint (but see appendix B).  2. Of hardware,   very slow relative to normal performance.
drunk mouse syndrome is  n. 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 usu...
drunk mouse syndrome2 is  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.  ...
drunk mouse syndrome3 is  up enough {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 a...
drunk mouse syndrome4 is  declared `alcoholic' and sent to the clinic to be   dried out in a CFC ultrasonic bath. 
dumbass attack is  /duhm'as *-tak'/ [Purdue] n. Notional cause of a   novice's mistake made by the experienced, especially one made while   running as root under UNIX, e.g., typing `rm -r *' or   `mkfs' on a mounted file system.  Compare {adger}.
dumbed down is  adj. Simplified, with a strong connotation of   *over*simplified.  Often, a {marketroid} will insist that the   interfaces and documentation of software be dumbed down after the   designer has burned untold gallons of midnight oil mak...
dump is  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 {core dump}), and most   especially one consisting of hex or octal {ru...
dump2 is  memory, mass storage, or some file.  In {elder   days}, debugging was generally done by `groveling over' a dump   (see {grovel}); increasing use of high-level languages and   interactive debuggers has made this uncommon, and the term `dump'...
dump3 is  backup.  This usage is   typical only at large timesharing installations. 
dup killer is  /d[y]oop kill'r/ [FidoNet] n. Software that is   supposed to detect and delete duplicates of a message that may   have reached the FidoNet system via different routes.
dup loop is  /d[y]oop loop/ (also `dupe loop') [FidoNet] n. An   incorrectly configured system or network gateway may propagate   duplicate messages on one or more {echo}es, with different   identification information that renders {dup killer}s   ine...
dup loop2 is  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 {dup loop}. 
dusty deck is  n. Old software (especially applications) which one is   obliged to remain compatible with (or to maintain).  The term   implies that the software in question is a holdover from card-punch   days.  Used esp. when referring to old scien...
dusty deck2 is  of which was written in FORTRAN   and very poorly documented but is believed to be too expensive to   replace.  See {fossil}. 
DWIM is  /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 ...
DWIM2 is  Occasionally, an interjection hurled at a   balky computer, esp. when one senses one might be tripping over   legalisms (see {legalese}).   Warren Teitelman originally wrote DWIM to fix his typos and   spelling errors, so it was somewhat id...
DWIM3 is  make hash of anyone else's typos if they were   stylistically different.  This led a number of victims of DWIM to   claim the acronym stood for `Damn Warren's Infernal Machine!'.   In one notorious incident, Warren added a DWIM feature to t...
DWIM4 is  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 sess...
DWIM5 is  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 {Vulcan nerve   pinch} after only a half dozen ...
DWIM6 is  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 a...
DWIM7 is  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 Thin...
dynner is  /din'r/ 32 bits, by analogy with {nybble} and {{byte}}.  Usage rare and extremely silly.  See also {playte}, {tayste}, {crumb}.*earthquake [IBM] n. The ultimate real-world shock test for   computer hardware.  Hackish sources at IBM deny th...
dynner2 is  initiated by the company to test   quality-assurance procedures at its California plants. 
Easter egg is  n. 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 res...
Easter egg2 is  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 ...
Easter egg3 is  lists of the   developers' names, political exhortations, snatches of music, and   (in one case) graphics images of the entire development team. 
Easter egging is  [IBM] n. The act of replacing unrelated parts more or   less at random in hopes that a malfunction will go away.  Hackers   consider this the normal operating mode of {field circus} techs and   do not love them for it.  Compare {sho...
eat flaming death is  imp. A construction popularized among hackers by   the infamous {CPU Wars} comic; supposed to derive from a famously   turgid line in a WWII-era anti-Nazi propaganda comic that ran   "Eat flaming death, non-Aryan mongrels!" or s...
eat flaming death2 is  reported that the Firesign Theater's   1975 album "In The Next World, You're On Your Own" included the   phrase "Eat flaming death, fascist media pigs"; this may have been   an influence).  Used in humorously overblown expressi...
EBCDIC is  /eb's*-dik/, /eb'see`dik/, or /eb'k*-dik/ [acronym,   Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code] n. An alleged   character set used on IBM {dinosaur}s.  It exists in at least six   mutually incompatible versions, all featuring such de...
EBCDIC2 is  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 {...
EBCDIC3 is  promulgated it   as a customer-control tactic (see {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 ...
EBCDIC4 is  classified top-secret, burn-before-reading.  Hackers blanch at the   very *name* of EBCDIC and consider it a manifestation of   purest {evil}.  See also {fear and loathing}. 
echo is  [FidoNet] n. A {topic group} on {FidoNet}'s echomail   system.  Compare {newsgroup}.
eighty-column mind is  [IBM] n. The sort said to be possessed by   persons for whom the transition from {punched card} to tape was   traumatic (nobody has dared tell them about disks yet).  It is said   that these people, including (according to an o...
eighty-column mind2 is  `face down, 9-edge first' (the 9-edge being   the bottom of the card).  This directive is inscribed on IBM's   1422 and 1602 card readers and is referenced in a famous bit of   doggerel called "The Last Bug", the climactic lin...
eighty-column mind3 is  the console        Of hunger and thirst.        Next day he was buried,        Face down, 9-edge first.   The eighty-column mind is thought by most hackers to dominate IBM's   customer base and its thinking.  See {IBM}, {fear ...
El Camino Bignum is  /el' k*-mee'noh big'nuhm/ n. The road   mundanely called El Camino Real, a road through the San Francisco   peninsula that originally extended all the way down to Mexico City   and many portions of which are still intact.  Naviga...
El Camino Bignum2 is  usually done relative to El Camino Real,   which defines {logical} north and south even though it isn't   really north-south many places.  El Camino Real runs right past   Stanford University and so is familiar to hackers.   The...
El Camino Bignum3 is  /ray-ahl'/)   means `royal'; El Camino Real is `the royal road'.  In the FORTRAN   language, a `real' quantity is a number typically precise to 7   significant digits, and a `double precision' quantity is a larger   floating-poi...
El Camino Bignum4 is  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 ...
El Camino Bignum5 is  told that the road was hundreds of miles long, he renamed it   `El Camino Bignum', and that name has stuck.  (See {bignum}.) 
elder days is  n. The heroic age of hackerdom (roughly, pre-1980); the   era of the {PDP-10}, {TECO}, {{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 ...
elegant is  [from mathematical usage] adj. Combining simplicity, power,   and a certain ineffable grace of design.  Higher praise than   `clever', `winning', or even {cuspy}.
elephantine is  adj. Used of programs or systems that are both   conspicuous {hog}s (owing perhaps to poor design founded on   {brute force and ignorance}) and exceedingly {hairy} in source   form.  An elephantine program may be functional and even f...
elephantine2 is  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...
elephantine3 is  semi-humorous.  Compare   `has the elephant nature' and the somewhat more pejorative   {monstrosity}.  See also {second-system effect} and   {baroque}. 
elevator controller is  n. Another archetypal dumb embedded-systems   application, like {toaster} (which superseded it).  During one   period (1983--84) in the deliberations of ANSI X3J11 (the   C standardization committee) this was the canonical exa...
elevator controller2 is  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 ...
ELIZA effect is  /*-li'z* *-fekt'/ [AI community] n. 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 j...
ELIZA effect2 is  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, which simulated a   Rogerian psychoanalyst by rephrasing many of the patient's  ...
ELIZA effect3 is  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 w...
ELIZA effect4 is  tendency to   attach to words meanings which the computer never put there.  The   ELIZA effect is a {Good Thing} when writing a programming   language, but it can blind you to serious shortcomings when   analyzing an Artificial Inte...
elvish is  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  ...
elvish2 is  both visually and   phonetically elegant) has long fascinated hackers (who tend to be   interested by artificial languages in general).  It is traditional   for graphics printers, plotters, window systems, and the like to   support a Fean...
elvish3 is  also   {elder days}.  2. By extension, any odd or unreadable typeface   produced by a graphics device.  3. The typeface mundanely called   `B"ocklin', an art-decoish display font. 
EMACS is  /ee'maks/ [from Editing MACroS] n. The ne plus ultra of   hacker editors, a program editor with an entire LISP system inside   it.  It was originally written by Richard Stallman in {TECO}   under {{ITS}} at the MIT AI lab, but the most wide...
EMACS2 is  includes facilities to run compilation   subprocesses and send and receive mail; many hackers spend up to   80% of their {tube time} inside it.   Some versions running under window managers iconify as an   overflowing kitchen sink, perhaps...
EMACS3 is  not (yet) include.  Indeed, some hackers find EMACS too   heavyweight and {baroque} for their taste, and expand the name as   `Escape Meta Alt Control Shift' to spoof its heavy reliance on   keystrokes decorated with {bucky bits}.  Other s...
EMACS4 is  Constantly Swapping', `Eventually   `malloc()'s All Computer Storage', and `EMACS Makes A Computer   Slow' (see {{recursive acronym}}).  See also {vi}. 
email is  /ee'mayl/ 1. n. Electronic mail automatically passed   through computer networks and/or via modems over common-carrier   lines.  Contrast {snail-mail}, {paper-net}, {voice-net}.  See   {network address}.  2. vt. To send electronic mail.   O...
email2 is  listed in the OED; it   means "embossed (with a raised pattern) or arranged in a net work".   A use from 1480 is given. The word is derived from French   `emmailleure', network. 
emoticon is  /ee-moh'ti-kon/ n. An ASCII glyph used to indicate an   emotional state in email or news.  Hundreds have been proposed, but   only a few are in common use.  These include   (These may become more comprehensible if you tilt your head   si...
emoticon2 is  by far the most frequently encountered.   Hyphenless forms of them are common on CompuServe, GEnie, and BIX;   see also {bixie}.  On {USENET}, `smiley' is often used as a   generic term synonymous with {emoticon}, as well as specificall...
emoticon3 is  that the emoticon was invented by one Scott Fahlman on   the CMU {bboard} systems around 1980.  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...
emoticon4 is  world's communication channels."  [GLS   confirms that he remembers this original posting].   Note for the {newbie} Overuse of the smiley is a mark of   loserhood!  More than one per paragraph is a fairly sure sign that   you've gone ov...
empire is  n. Any of a family of military simulations derived from a   game written by Peter Langston many years ago.  There are five or six   multi-player variants of varying degrees of sophistication, and one   single-player version implemented for...
empire2 is  available as MS-DOS freeware.  All are notoriously addictive. 
engine is  n. 1. A piece of hardware that encapsulates some function   but can't be used without some kind of {front end}.  Today we   have, especially, `print engine' the guts of a laser printer.   2. An analogous piece of software; notionally, one ...
engine2 is  a `database engine'.   The hackish 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 comple...
engine3 is  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'. 
English is  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 fav...
English2 is  readable as English.  Usage used mostly by   old-time hackers, though recognizable in context.  2. The official   name of the database language used by the Pick Operating System,   actually a sort of crufty interpreted BASIC with delusio...
English3 is  {marketroid}s to say "Yes, and you   can program our computers in English!" to ignorant {suit}s   without quite running afoul of the truth-in-advertising laws. 
enhancement is  n. {Marketroid}-speak for a bug {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 {feature} --- or perhaps save some ...
ENQ is  /enkw/ or /enk/ [from the ASCII mnemonic ENQuire for   0000101] An on-line convention for querying someone's availability.   After opening a {talk mode} connection to someone apparently in   heavy hack mode, one might type `SYN SYN ENQ?' (the...
ENQ2 is  bytes), and expect a return   of {ACK} or {NAK} depending on whether or not the person felt   interruptible.  Compare {ping}, {finger}, and the usage of   `FOO?' listed under {talk mode}. 
EOF is  /E-O-F/ [acronym, `End Of File'] n. 1. [techspeak] Refers   esp. to whatever {out-of-band} value is returned by   C's sequential character-input functions (and their equivalents in   other environments) when end of file has been reached.  Thi...
EOF2 is  V6 UNIX, but was   originally 0.  2. 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 jo...
EOF3 is  had   was a {JCL} manual."  See also {EOL}. 
EOL is  /E-O-L/ [End Of Line] n. Syn. for {newline}, derived   perhaps from the original CDC6600 Pascal.  Now rare, but widely   recognized and occasionally used for brevity.  Used in the   example entry under {BNF}.  See also {EOF}.
EOU is  /E-O-U/ n. The mnemonic of a mythical ASCII control   character (End Of User) that could make an ASR-33 Teletype explode   on receipt.  This parodied the numerous obscure delimiter and   control characters left in ASCII from the days when it ...
EOU2 is  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 a...
EOU3 is  sitting in   front of a {tube} or flatscreen today. 
epoch is  [UNIX prob. from astronomical timekeeping] n. The time and   date corresponding to 0 in an operating system's clock and   timestamp values.  Under most UNIX versions the epoch is 000000   GMT, January 1, 1970.  System time is measured in se...
epoch2 is  problems may ensue when the clock   wraps around (see {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 c...
epoch3 is  2038, assuming word lengths don't increase by then.  See also   {wall time}. 
epsilon is  [see {delta}] 1. n. A small quantity of anything.  "The   cost is epsilon."  2. adj. Very small, negligible; less than   {marginal}.  "We can get this feature for epsilon cost."   3. `within epsilon of' close enough to be indistinguishabl...

factpacks/jargon-split.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

SEX3 is  the   PDP-11 and many other architectures.   DEC's engineers nearly got a PDP-11 assembler that used the   `SEX' mnemonic out the door at one time, but (for once)   marketing wasn't asleep and forced a change.  That wasn't the last   time th...
SEX4 is  8086   Primer', who was one of the original designers of the 8086, noted   that there was originally a `SEX' instruction on that   processor, too.  He says that Intel management got cold feet and   decreed that it be changed, and thus the in...
SEX5 is  (depending on what was being extended).   Amusingly, the Intel 8048 (the microcontroller used in IBM PC   keyboards) is also missing straight `SEX' but has logical-or   and logical-and instructions `ORL' and `ANL'.   The Motorola 6809, used ...
SEX6 is  actually had an official `SEX' instruction; the 6502   in the Apple II it competed with did not.  British hackers thought   this made perfect mythic sense; after all, it was commonly   observed, you could have sex with a dragon, but you can'...
sex changer is  n. Syn. {gender mender}.
shareware is  /sheir'weir/ n. {Freeware} (sense 1) for which the   author requests some payment, usually in the accompanying   documentation files or in an announcement made by the software   itself.  Such payment may or may not buy additional suppor...
shelfware is  /shelfweir/ n. Software purchased on a whim (by an   individual user) or in accordance with policy (by a corporation or   government agency), but not actually required for any particular use.   Therefore, it often ends up on some shelf.
shell is  [orig. {{Multics}} techspeak, widely propagated via UNIX] n.   1. [techspeak] The command interpreter used to pass commands to an   operating system; so called because it is the part of the operating   system that interfaces with the outsid...
shell2 is  program that mediates access to a special resource   or {server} for convenience, efficiency, or security reasons; for   this meaning, the usage is usually `a shell around' whatever.   This sort of program is also called a `wrapper'. 
shell out is  [UNIX] n. To spawn an interactive {subshell} from   within a program (e.g., a mailer or editor).  "Bang foo runs foo in   a subshell, while bang alone shells out."
shift left logical is  [from any of various machines'   instruction sets] 1. vi. To move oneself to the left (right).  To   move out of the way.  2. imper. "Get out of that (my) seat!  You   can shift to that empty one to the left (right)."  Often   ...
shift left logical2 is  instead of   `shift left'.  Sometimes heard as LSH /lish/, from the {PDP-10}   instruction set.  See {Programmer's Cheer}. 
shitogram is  /shit'oh-gram/ n. A *really* nasty piece of email.   Compare {nastygram}, {flame}.
short card is  n. A half-length IBM PC expansion card or adapter that   will fit in one of the two short slots located towards the right   rear of a standard chassis (tucked behind the floppy disk drives).   See also {tall card}.
shotgun debugging is  n. The software equivalent of {Easter egging};   the making of relatively undirected changes to software in the hope   that a bug will be perturbed out of existence.  This almost never   works, and usually introduces more bugs.
showstopper is  n. A hardware or (especially) software bug that makes   an implementation effectively unusable; one that absolutely has to   be fixed before development can go on.  Opposite in connotation   from its original theatrical use, which ref...
shriek is  n. See {excl}.  Occasional CMU usage, also in common use   among APL fans and mathematicians, especially category theorists.
Shub-Internet is  /shuhb in't*r-net/ [MUD from H. P. Lovecraft's   evil fictional deity `Shub-Niggurath', the Black Goat with a   Thousand Young] n.  The harsh personification of the Internet,   Beast of a Thousand Processes, Eater of Characters, Ava...
Shub-Internet2 is  the hideous multi-tendriled entity   formed of all the manifold connections of the net.  A sect of   MUDders worships Shub-Internet, sacrificing objects and praying for   good connections.  To no avail --- its purpose is malign and...
Shub-Internet3 is  slowdown.  Often heard as in   "Freela casts a tac nuke at Shub-Internet for slowing her down."   (A forged response often follows along the lines of "Shub-Internet   gulps down the tac nuke and burps happily.")  Also cursed by use...
Shub-Internet4 is  slows down.  The dread   name of Shub-Internet is seldom spoken aloud, as it is said that   repeating it three times will cause the being to wake, deep within its   lair beneath the Pentagon. 
sidecar is  n. 1. Syn. {slap on the side}.  Esp. used of add-ons   for the late and unlamented IBM PCjr.  2. The IBM PC compatibility   box that could be bolted onto the side of an Amiga.  Designed and   produced by Commodore, it broke all of the com...
sidecar2 is  other peripherals, it was by {magic}. 
sig block is  /sig blok/ [UNIX often written `.sig' there] n.   Short for `signature', used specifically to refer to the   electronic signature block that most UNIX mail- and news-posting   software will {automagically} append to outgoing mail and ne...
sig block2 is  quite an art form, including an   ASCII logo or one's choice of witty sayings (see {sig quote},   {fool file}); but many consider large sigs a waste of   {bandwidth}, and it has been observed that the size of one's sig   block is usual...
sig block3 is  and   level of prestige on the net. 
sig quote is  /sig kwoht/ [USENET] n. A maxim, quote, proverb, joke,   or slogan embedded in one's {sig block} and intended to convey   something of one's philosophical stance, pet peeves, or sense of   humor. "Calm down, it's only ones and zeroes."
signal-to-noise ratio is  [from analog electronics] n. Used by hackers   in a generalization of its technical meaning.  `Signal' refers to   useful information conveyed by some communications medium, and   `noise' to anything else on that medium.  He...
signal-to-noise ratio2 is  paying attention to the medium in question.   Figures for such metaphorical ratios are never given.  The term is   most often applied to {USENET} newsgroups during {flame war}s.   Compare {bandwidth}.  See also {coefficient...
silicon is  n. Hardware, esp. ICs or microprocessor-based computer   systems (compare {iron}).  Contrasted with software.  See also   {sandbender}.
silicon foundry is  n. A company that {fab}s chips to the designs of   others.  As of the late 1980s, the combination of silicon foundries   and good computer-aided design software made it much easier for   hardware-designing startup companies to com...
silicon foundry2 is  silicon foundry is that the distance from the   actual chip-fabrication processes reduces designers' control of detail.   This is somewhat analogous to the use of {HLL}s versus coding in   assembler. 
silly walk is  [from Monty Python's Flying Circus] vi. 1. A ridiculous   procedure required to accomplish a task.  Like {grovel}, but more   {random} and humorous.  "I had to silly-walk through half the   /usr directories to find the maps file."  2. ...
silo is  n. The FIFO input-character buffer in an RS-232 line card.  So   called from DEC terminology used on DH and DZ line cards for the   VAX and PDP-11, presumably because it was a storage space for   fungible stuff that you put in the top and to...
Silver Book is  n. Jensen and Wirth's infamous `Pascal User Manual   and Report', so called because of the silver cover of the   widely distributed Springer-Verlag second edition of 1978 (ISBN   0-387-90144-2).  See {{book titles}}, {Pascal}.
since time T equals minus infinity is  adj. A long time ago; for as   long as anyone can remember; at the time that some particular frob   was first designed.  Usually the word `time' is omitted.  See also   {time T}.
sitename is  /sit'naym/ [UNIX/Internet] n. The unique electronic   name of a computer system, used to identify it in UUCP mail,   USENET, or other forms of electronic information interchange.  The   folklore interest of sitenames stems from the creat...
sitename2 is  Interpreting a sitename is not unlike   interpreting a vanity license plate; one has to mentally unpack it,   allowing for mono-case and length restrictions and the lack of   whitespace.  Hacker tradition deprecates dull,   institutiona...
sitename3 is  and   clever coinages (except that it is considered appropriate for the   official public gateway machine of an organization to bear the   organization's name or acronym).  Mythological references, cartoon   characters, animal names, an...
sitename4 is  probably the most popular sources for sitenames (in roughly   descending order).  The obligatory comment when discussing these is   Harris's Lament "All the good ones are taken!"  See also   {network address}. 
skrog is  v. Syn. {scrog}.
skulker is  n. Syn. {prowler}.
slap on the side is  n. (also called a {sidecar}, or abbreviated   `SOTS'.)  A type of external expansion hardware marketed by   computer manufacturers (e.g., Commodore for the Amiga 500/1000   series and IBM for the hideous failure called `PCjr').  ...
slap on the side2 is  as memory, hard drive   controllers, and conventional expansion slots. 
slash is  n. Common name for the slant (`/', ASCII 0101111)   character.  See {ASCII} for other synonyms.
sleep is  vi. 1. [techspeak] On a timesharing system, a process that   relinquishes its claim on the scheduler until some given event   occurs or a specified time delay elapses is said to `go to   sleep'.  2. In jargon, used very similarly to v. {blo...
sleep2 is  on'.  Often used to   indicate that the speaker has relinquished a demand for resources   until some (possibly unspecified) external event "They can't get   the fix I've been asking for into the next release, so I'm going to   sleep on it ...
slim is  n. A small, derivative change (e.g., to code).
slop is  n. 1. A one-sided {fudge factor}, that is, an allowance for   error but in only one of two directions.  For example, if you need   a piece of wire 10 feet long and have to guess when you cut it,   you make very sure to cut it too long, by a ...
slop2 is  short by even a little bit, because you   can always cut off the slop but you can't paste it back on again.   When discrete quantities are involved, slop is often introduced to   avoid the possibility of being on the losing side of a {fence...
slop3 is  code generated by a compiler   over the size of equivalent assembler code produced by   {hand-hacking}; i.e., the space (or maybe time) you lose because   you didn't do it yourself.  This number is often used as a measure   of the goodness ...
slop4 is   10% is usually acceptable.  With modern compiler technology, esp.   on RISC machines, the compiler's slop may actually be   *negative*; that is, humans may be unable to generate code as   good.  This is one of the reasons assembler program...
slopsucker is  /slop'suhk-r/ n. A lowest-priority task that must   wait around until everything else has `had its fill' of machine   resources.  Only when the machine would otherwise be idle is the   task allowed to `suck up the slop'.  Also called a...
slopsucker2 is  slopsucker hunts for large prime   numbers.  Compare {background}. 
slurp is  vt. To read a large data file entirely into {core} before   working on it.  This may be contrasted with the strategy of reading   a small piece at a time, processing it, and then reading the next   piece.  "This program slurps in a 1K-by-1K...
smart is  adj. Said of a program that does the {Right Thing} in a   wide variety of complicated circumstances.  There is a difference   between calling a program smart and calling it intelligent; in   particular, there do not exist any intelligent pr...
smart2 is  {robust} (smart programs can be   {brittle}). 
smart terminal is  n. A terminal that has enough computing capability   to render graphics or to offload some kind of front-end processing   from the computer it talks to.  The development of workstations and   personal computers has made this term a...
smart terminal2 is  semi-obsolescent, but one may still hear variants of the phrase   `act like a smart terminal' used to describe the behavior of   workstations or PCs with respect to programs that execute almost   entirely out of a remote {server}'...
smart terminal3 is  Compare {glass tty}.   There is a classic quote from Rob Pike (inventor of the {blit}   terminal) "A smart terminal is not a smart*ass* terminal,   but rather a terminal you can educate."  This illustrates a common   design proble...
smart terminal4 is  else)   intelligent sometimes results in finicky, rigid `special   features' that become just so much dead weight if you try to use   the device in any way the designer didn't anticipate.  Flexibility   and programmability, on the...
smash case is  vi. To lose or obliterate the uppercase/lowercase   distinction in text input.  "MS-DOS will automatically smash case   in the names of all the files you create."  Compare {fold case}.
smash the stack is  [C programming] n. On many C implementations it is   possible to corrupt the execution stack by writing past the end of   an array declared `auto' in a routine.  Code that does this is   said to `smash the stack', and can cause re...
smash the stack2 is  address.  This can produce some of the most   insidious data-dependent bugs known to mankind.  Variants include   `trash' the stack, {scribble} the stack, {mangle} the stack;   the term *{mung} the stack is not used, as this is n...
smash the stack3 is  also {aliasing bug},   {fandango on core}, {memory leak}, {precedence lossage},   {overrun screw}. 
smiley is  n. See {emoticon}.
smoke test is  n. 1. A rudimentary form of testing applied to   electronic equipment following repair or reconfiguration, in which   power is applied and the tester checks for sparks, smoke, or other   dramatic signs of fundamental failure.  See {mag...
smoke test2 is  of a piece of software after construction   or a critical change.  See and compare {reality check}.   There is an interesting semi-parallel to this term among   typographers and printers When new typefaces are being punch-cut by   han...
smoke test3 is  smoke, then press   it onto paper) is used to check out new dies. 
smoking clover is  [ITS] n. A {display hack} originally due to   Bill Gosper.  Many convergent lines are drawn on a color monitor in   {AOS} mode (so that every pixel struck has its color   incremented).  The lines all have one endpoint in the middle...
smoking clover2 is  spaced one pixel apart around the   perimeter of a large square.  The color map is then repeatedly   rotated.  This results in a striking, rainbow-hued, shimmering   four-leaf clover.  Gosper joked about keeping it hidden from the...
smoking clover3 is  Administration) lest its   hallucinogenic properties cause it to be banned. 
SMOP is  /S-M-O-P/ [Simple (or Small) Matter of Programming] n.   1. A piece of code, not yet written, whose anticipated length is   significantly greater than its complexity.  Used to refer to a   program that could obviously be written, but is not ...
SMOP2 is  imply that a difficult problem   can be easily solved because a program can be written to do it; the   irony is that it is very clear that writing such a program will be   a great deal of work.  "It's easy to enhance a FORTRAN compiler to  ...
SMOP3 is  Often used   ironically by the intended victim when a suggestion for a program   is made which seems easy to the suggester, but is obviously (to the   victim) a lot of work. 
SNAFU principle is  /sna'foo prin'si-pl/ [from WWII Army acronym   for `Situation Normal, All Fucked Up'] n. "True communication is   possible only between equals, because inferiors are more   consistently rewarded for telling their superiors pleasan...
SNAFU principle2 is  central tenet of   {Discordianism}, often invoked by hackers to explain why   authoritarian hierarchies screw up so reliably and systematically.   The effect of the SNAFU principle is a progressive disconnection of   decision-mak...
snail is  vt. To {snail-mail} something. "Snail me a copy of those   graphics, will you?"
snail-mail is  n. Paper mail, as opposed to electronic.  Sometimes   written as the single word `SnailMail'.  One's postal address is,   correspondingly, a `snail address'.  Derives from earlier coinage   `USnail' (from `U.S. Mail'), for which there ...
snap is  v. To replace a pointer to a pointer with a direct pointer;   to replace an old address with the forwarding address found there.   If you telephone the main number for an institution and ask for a   particular person by name, the operator ma...
snap2 is  connecting you, in the hopes that you will `snap   your pointer' and dial direct next time.  The underlying metaphor   may be that of a rubber band stretched through a number of   intermediate points; if you remove all the thumbtacks in the...
snap3 is  first to last.  See   {chase pointers}.   Often, the behavior of a {trampoline} is to perform an error   check once and then snap the pointer that invoked it so as henceforth   to bypass the trampoline (and its one-shot error check).  In th...
snap4 is  links'.  For example, in a   Lisp implementation, a function interface trampoline might check to   make sure that the caller is passing the correct number of arguments;   if it is, and if the caller and the callee are both compiled, then   ...
snap5 is  to use a direct   procedure-call instruction with no further overhead. 
snarf is  /snarf/ vt. 1. To grab, esp. to grab a large document   or file for the purpose of using it with or without the author's   permission.  See also {BLT}.  2. [in the UNIX community] To   fetch a file or set of files across a network.  See als...
snarf2 is  late 1960s, meaning   `to eat piggishly'.  It may still have this connotation in context.   "He's in the snarfing phase of hacking --- {FTP}ing megs of   stuff a day."  3. To acquire, with little concern for legal forms   or politesse (but...
snarf3 is  away samples, so I snarfed a bunch of them."  4. Syn. for   {slurp}.  "This program starts by snarfing the entire database   into core, then...." 
snarf & barf is  /snarf'n-barf`/ n. Under a {WIMP environment},   the act of grabbing a region of text and then stuffing the contents   of that region into another region (or the same one) to avoid   retyping a command line.  In the late 1960s, this ...
snarf & barf2 is  regret it later' cheap-restaurant   expedition. 
snarf down is  v. To {snarf}, with the connotation of absorbing,   processing, or understanding.  "I'll  snarf down the latest   version of the {nethack} user's guide --- It's been a while   since I played last and I don't know what's changed recentl...
snark is  [Lewis Carroll, via the Michigan Terminal System] n. 1. A   system failure.  When a user's process bombed, the operator would   get the message "Help, Help, Snark in MTS!"  2. More generally,   any kind of unexplained or threatening event o...
snark2 is  boojum).  Often used to refer to an   event or a log file entry that might indicate an attempted security   violation.  See {snivitz}.  3. UUCP name of   snark.thyrsus.com, home site of the Jargon File 2.*.* versions   (i.e., this lexicon)...
sneakernet is  /snee'ker-net/ n. Term used (generally with ironic   intent) for transfer of electronic information by physically   carrying tape, disks, or some other media from one machine to   another.  "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a stati...
sneakernet2 is  filled with CD-ROMs."  Also called   `Tennis-Net', `Armpit-Net', `Floppy-Net'. 
sniff is  v.,n. Synonym for {poll}.
snivitz is  /sniv'itz/ n. A hiccup in hardware or software; a small,   transient problem of unknown origin (less serious than a   {snark}).  Compare {glitch}.
SO is  /S-O/ n. 1. (also `S.O.') Abbrev. for Significant   Other, almost invariably written abbreviated and pronounced   /S-O/ by hackers.  Used to refer to one's primary   relationship, esp. a live-in to whom one is not married.  See   {MOTAS}, {MOT...
SO2 is  character in ASCII (Control-N, 0001110). 
social science number is  [IBM] n. A statistic that is   {content-free}, or nearly so.  A measure derived via methods of   questionable validity from data of a dubious and vague nature.   Predictively, having a social science number in hand is seldom...
social science number2 is  considerably worse.  {Management}   loves them.  See also {numbers}, {math-out}, {pretty   pictures}. 
soft boot is  n. See {boot}.
softcopy is  /soft'ko-pee/ n. [by analogy with `hardcopy'] A   machine-readable form of corresponding hardcopy.  See {bits},   {machinable}.
software bloat is  n. The results of {second-system effect} or   {creeping featuritis}.  Commonly cited examples include   `ls(1)', {X}, {BSD}, {Missed'em-five}, and {OS/2}.
software rot is  n. Term used to describe the tendency of software   that has not been used in a while to {lose}; such failure may be   semi-humorously ascribed to {bit rot}.  More commonly,   `software rot' strikes when a program's assumptions becom...
software rot2 is  insufficiently {robust}, this may   cause it to fail in mysterious ways.   For example, owing to endemic shortsightedness in the design of   COBOL programs, most will succumb to software rot when their   2-digit year counters {wrap ...
software rot3 is  Actually, related lossages often afflict centenarians   who have to deal with computer software designed by unimaginative   clods.  One such incident became the focus of a minor public flap   in 1990, when a gentleman born in 1889 a...
software rot4 is  Raleigh, North Carolina.  The new system   refused to issue the card, probably because with 2-digit years the   ages 101 and 1 cannot be distinguished.   Historical note Software rot in an even funnier sense than the   mythical one ...
software rot5 is  (e.g.,   the R1; see {grind crank}).  If a program that depended on a   peculiar instruction hadn't been run in quite a while, the user   might discover that the opcodes no longer did the same things they   once did.  ("Hey, so-and-...
software rot6 is  We can {snarf} this opcode, right?  No one uses   it.")   Another classic example of this sprang from the time an MIT hacker   found a simple way to double the speed of the unconditional jump   instruction on a PDP-6, so he patched ...
software rot7 is  fragile timing software in a music-playing program,   throwing its output out of tune.  This was fixed by adding a   defensive initialization routine to compare the speed of a timing   loop with the real-time clock; in other words, ...
software rot8 is  day, and corrected appropriately.   Compare {bit rot}. 
softwarily is  /soft-weir'i-lee/ adv. In a way pertaining to software.   "The system is softwarily unreliable."  The adjective   `softwary' is *not* used.  See {hardwarily}.
softy is  [IBM] n. Hardware hackers' term for a software expert who   is largely ignorant of the mysteries of hardware.
some random X is  adj. Used to indicate a member of class X, with the   implication that Xs are interchangeable.  "I think some random   cracker tripped over the guest timeout last night."  See also   {J. Random}.
sorcerer's apprentice mode is  [from the film "Fantasia"] n. A bug in a   protocol where, under some circumstances, the receipt of a message   causes multiple messages to be sent, each of which, when   received, triggers the same bug.  Used esp. of s...
sorcerer's apprentice mode2 is  loops in {email} software.  Compare   {broadcast storm}, {network meltdown}. 
SOS is  n.,obs. /S-O-S/ 1. An infamously {losing} text editor.   Once, back in the 1960s, when a text editor was needed for the   PDP-6, a hacker crufted together a {quick-and-dirty} `stopgap   editor' to be used until a better one was written.  Unfo...
SOS2 is  discarded when new ones (in   particular, {TECO}) came along.  SOS is a descendant (`Son of   Stopgap') of that editor, and many PDP-10 users gained the dubious   pleasure of its acquaintance.  Since then other programs similar in   style to...
SOS3 is  editor BILOS   /bye'lohs/, the Brother-In-Law Of Stopgap (the alternate expansion   `Bastard Issue, Loins of Stopgap' has been proposed).  2. /sos/   n. To decrease; inverse of {AOS}, from the PDP-10 instruction   set. 
source of all good bits is  n. A person from whom (or a place from   which) useful information may be obtained.  If you need to know   about a program, a {guru} might be the source of all good bits.   The title is often applied to a particularly comp...
space-cadet keyboard is  n. The Knight keyboard, a now-legendary device   used on MIT LISP machines, which inspired several still-current   jargon terms and influenced the design of {EMACS}.  It was inspired   by the Stanford keyboard and equipped wi...