guess results from the CPAN

Amethyst

app2 is  parlance the term excludes compilers,   program editors, games, and messaging systems, though a user would   consider all those to be apps.  Oppose {tool}, {operating   system}. 
arc is  [primarily MSDOS] vt. To create a compressed {archive} from a   group of files using SEA ARC, PKWare PKARC, or a compatible   program.  Rapidly becoming obsolete as the ARC compression method   is falling into disuse, having been replaced by ...
arc2 is  feather}, {zip}. 
arc wars is  [primarily MSDOS] n. {holy wars} over which archiving   program one should use.  The first arc war was sparked when System   Enhancement Associates (SEA) sued PKWare for copyright and   trademark infringement on its ARC program.  PKWare'...
arc wars2 is  and speed while largely   retaining compatibility (it introduced a new compression type that   could be disabled for backward-compatibility).  PKWare settled out   of court to avoid enormous legal costs (both SEA and PKWare are   small ...
arc wars3 is  of PKARC was   changed to PKPAK.  The public backlash against SEA for bringing   suit helped to hasten the demise of ARC as a standard when PKWare   and others introduced new, incompatible archivers with better   compression algorithms....
archive is  n. 1. A collection of several files bundled into one file   by a program such as `ar(1)', `tar(1)', `cpio(1)',   or {arc} for shipment or archiving (sense 2).  See also {tar   and feather}.  2. A collection of files or archives (sense 1) ...
archive2 is  {FTP} or an email server. 
arena is  [UNIX] n. 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 semi-mythical `malloc   corrupt arena' message supposedly emitted when some early versions   becam...
arena2 is  {aliasing   bug}, {memory leak}, {smash the stack}. 
arg is  /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   {p...
armor-plated is  n. Syn. for {bulletproof}.
asbestos is  adj. Used as a modifier to anything intended to protect   one from {flame}s.  Important cases of this include {asbestos   longjohns} and {asbestos cork award}, but it is used more   generally.
asbestos cork award is  n. Once, long ago at MIT, there was a {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'.  Pers...
asbestos cork award2 is  application of the cork should consult the   etymology under {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 agreeme...
asbestos longjohns is  n. Notional garments often donned by {USENET}   posters just before emitting a remark they expect will elicit   {flamage}.  This is the most common of the {asbestos} coinages.   Also `asbestos underwear', `asbestos overcoat', e...
attoparsec is  n. `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/{microfortnight}   equal...
attoparsec2 is  be in use   (though probably not very seriously) among hackers in the U.K.  See   {micro-}. 
autobogotiphobia is  /aw'to-boh-got`*-foh'bee-*/ n. See {bogotify}.
automagically is  /aw-toh-maj'i-klee/ or /aw-toh-maj'i-k*l-ee/ 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 ...
automagically2 is  compiler generates C, then automagically   invokes `cc(1)' to produce an executable." 
avatar is  [CMU, Tektronix] n. Syn. {root}, {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 disliked the term `superuser...
avatar2 is  hacker at Tektronix. 
awk is  1. n. [UNIX techspeak] An interpreted language for massaging   text data developed by Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian   Kernighan (the name is from their initials).  It is characterized   by C-like syntax, a declaration-free approach ...
awk2 is  associative arrays, and field-oriented text   processing.  See also {Perl}.  2. n.  Editing term for an   expression awkward to manipulate through normal {regexp}   facilities (for example, one containing a {newline}).  3. vt. To   process d...
awk3 is  security of a system deliberately left   in place by designers or maintainers.  The motivation for this is   not always sinister; some operating systems, for example, come out   of the box with privileged accounts intended for use by field  ...
awk4 is  maintenance programmers.   Historically, back doors have often lurked in systems longer than   anyone expected or planned, and a few have become widely known.   The infamous {RTM} worm of late 1988, for example, used a back door   in the {BS...
awk5 is  1983 Turing Award lecture to the ACM revealed the   existence of a back door in early UNIX versions that may have   qualified as the most fiendishly clever security hack of all time.   The C compiler contained code that would recognize when ...
awk6 is  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 com...
awk7 is  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 rec...
awk8 is  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, leaving his back door in place  ...
awk9 is  The talk that revealed this truly moby hack was published as   "Reflections on Trusting Trust", `Communications of the   ACM 27', 8 (August 1984), pp. 761--763.   Syn. {trap door}; may also be called a `wormhole'.  See also   {iron box}, {cr...
backbone cabal is  n. A group of large-site administrators who pushed   through the {Great Renaming} and reined in the chaos of {USENET}   during most of the 1980s.  The cabal {mailing list} disbanded in   late 1988 after a bitter internal catfight, ...
backbone site is  n. 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 1991 inclu...
backbone site2 is  University, UC Berkeley, DEC's Western   Research Laboratories, Ohio State University, and the University of   Texas.  Compare {rib site}, {leaf site}. 
backgammon is See {bignum}, {moby}, and {pseudoprime}.
background is  n.,adj.,vt.  To do a task `in background' is to do   it whenever {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 ...
background2 is  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 activ...
background3 is  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 {amp off}, {slopsucker}.   Technically, a task running in backgr...
background4 is  was started (and often running at a lower   priority); oppose {foreground}.  Nowadays this term is primarily   associated with {{UNIX}}, but it appears to have been first used   in this sense on OS/360. 
backspace and overstrike is  interj. Whoa!  Back up.  Used to suggest   that someone just said or did something wrong.  Common among   APL programmers.
backward combatability is  /bak'w*rd k*m-bat'*-bil'*-tee/ [from   `backward compatibility'] n. A property of hardware or software   revisions in which previous protocols, formats, and layouts are   discarded in favor of `new and improved' protocols, ...
backward combatability2 is  making the transition between major   releases.  When the change is so drastic that the old formats are   not retained in the new version, it is said to be `backward   combatable'.  See {flag day}. 
BAD is  /B-A-D/ [IBM acronym, `Broken As Designed'] adj.  Said   of a program that is {bogus} because of bad design and misfeatures   rather than because of bugginess.  See {working as designed}.
Bad Thing is  [from the 1930 Sellar & Yeatman parody `1066 And   All That'] n. 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 courier...
Bad Thing2 is  Thing}.  British correspondents confirm   that {Bad Thing} and {Good Thing} (and prob. therefore {Right   Thing} and {Wrong Thing}) come from the book referenced in the   etymology, which discusses rulers who were Good Kings but Bad   ...
Bad Thing3 is  mainstream idiom on the   British side of the pond. 
bag on the side is  n. 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 ...
bag on the side2 is  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." 
bagbiter is  /bag'bit-*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 ...
bagbiter2 is  inadvertently or otherwise, typically by   failing to program the computer properly.  Synonyms {loser},   {cretin}, {chomper}.  3. adj. `bagbiting' Having the   quality of a bagbiter.  "This bagbiting system won't let me   compute the f...
bagbiter3 is  {losing},   {cretinous}, {bletcherous}, `barfucious' (under   {barfulous}) and `chomping' (under {chomp}).  4. `bite   the bag' vi. To fail in some manner.  "The computer keeps crashing   every 5 minutes."  "Yes, the disk controller is ...
bagbiter4 is  of these terms was almost undoubtedly   obscene, possibly referring to the scrotum, but in their current   usage they have become almost completely sanitized.   A program called Lexiphage on the old MIT AI PDP-10 would draw on   a selec...
bagbiter5 is  BAG" in   ornate letters, and then a pair of jaws biting pieces of it off.   This is the first and to date only known example of a program   *intended* to be a bagbiter. 
bamf is  /bamf/ 1. [from old X-Men comics] interj. Notional sound made   by a person or object teleporting in or out of the hearer's   vicinity.  Often used in {virtual reality} (esp. {MUD})   electronic {fora} when a character wishes to make a drama...
bamf2 is  magical transformation, used in virtual   reality {fora} like sense 1.  3. [from `Don Washington's   Survival Guide'] n. Acronym for `Bad-Ass Mother Fucker', used to   refer to one of the handful of nastiest monsters on an LPMUD or   other ...
banana label is  n. The labels often used on the sides of {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.
banana problem is  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   {fencepost error}).  One may say `there is a ...
banana problem2 is  defined or incorrect termination conditions,   or in discussing the evolution of a design that may be succumbing   to featuritis (see also {creeping elegance}, {creeping   featuritis}).  See item 176 under {HAKMEM}, which describe...
banana problem3 is  implementation.bandwidth n. 1. 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,...
banana problem4 is    bandwidth, I guess."  Compare {low-bandwidth}.  2. Attention   span.  3. On {USENET}, a measure of network capacity that is   often wasted by people complaining about how items posted by others   are a waste of bandwidth. 
bang is  1. n. Common spoken name for `!' (ASCII 0100001),   especially when used in pronouncing a {bang path} in spoken   hackish.  In {elder days} this was considered a CMUish usage,   with MIT and Stanford hackers preferring {excl} or {shriek};   ...
bang2 is  it (esp. via the   term {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 p...
bang3 is  exact characters `foo!' one would speak "Eff oh oh   bang".  See {shriek}, {{ASCII}}.  2. interj. An exclamation   signifying roughly "I have achieved enlightenment!", or "The   dynamite has cleared out my brain!"  Often used to acknowledge...
bang4 is  immediately after one has   been called on it. 
bang on is  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 to release."  The term   {pound on} is synonymous.
bang path is  n. An old-style UUCP electronic-mail address specifying   hops to get from some assumed-reachable location to the addressee,   so called because each {hop} is signified by a {bang} sign.   Thus, for example, the path ...!bigsite!foovax!...
bang path2 is  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   b...
bang path3 is  compound bang addresses   using the { } convention (see {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, ih...
bang path4 is  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 {{Inter...
banner is  n. 1. The title page added to printouts by most print   spoolers (see {spool}).  Typically includes user or account ID   information in very large character-graphics capitals.  Also called   a `burst page', because it indicates where to bu...
banner2 is  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 sc...
banner3 is  and/or a copyright notice. 
bar is  /bar/ n. 1. The second metasyntactic variable, after {foo}   and before {baz}.  "Suppose we have two functions FOO and BAR.   FOO calls BAR...."  2. Often appended to {foo} to produce   {foobar}.
bare metal is  n. 1. New computer hardware, unadorned with such   snares and delusions as an {operating system}, an {HLL}, or   even assembler.  Commonly used in the phrase `programming on the   bare metal', which refers to the arduous work of {bit b...
bare metal2 is  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   compil...
bare metal3 is  real   development environment.  2. `Programming on the bare metal' is   also used to describe a style of {hand-hacking} that relies on   bit-level peculiarities of a particular hardware design, esp.   tricks for speed and space optim...
bare metal4 is  overlapping instructions (or, as in the famous case described 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...
bare metal5 is  and machine resources have changed, but is still found in   heavily constrained environments such as industrial embedded systems.   See {real programmer}.   In the world of personal computing, bare metal programming (especially   in s...
bare metal6 is  considered a   {Good Thing}, or at least a necessary thing (because these   machines have often been sufficiently slow and poorly designed   to make it necessary; see {ill-behaved}).  There, the term   usually refers to bypassing the ...
bare metal7 is  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   are held in high regard. 
barf is  /barf/ [from mainstream slang meaning `vomit']   1. interj.  Term of disgust.  This is the closest hackish   equivalent of the Val\-speak "gag me with a spoon". (Like, euwww!)   See {bletch}.  2. vi. To say "Barf!" or emit some similar   exp...
barf2 is  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.  May mean to give an error message.  Examples "The   division operation barfs if you try...
barf3 is  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 o...
barf4 is  Commonwealth hackish,   `barf' is generally replaced by `puke' or `vom'.  {barf}   is sometimes also used as a metasyntactic variable, like {foo} or   {bar}. 
barfulation is  /bar`fyoo-lay'sh*n/ interj. Variation of {barf}   used around the Stanford area.  An exclamation, expressing disgust.   On seeing some particularly bad code one might exclaim,   "Barfulation!  Who wrote this, Quux?"
barfulous is  /bar'fyoo-l*s/ adj. (alt. `barfucious',   /bar-fyoo-sh*s/) Said of something that would make anyone barf,   if only for esthetic reasons.
baroque is  adj. Feature-encrusted; complex; gaudy; verging on   excessive.  Said of hardware or (esp.) software designs, this has   many of the connotations of {elephantine} or {monstrosity} but is   less extreme and not pejorative in itself.  "Meta...
baroque2 is  variations to its letterform output.   Now *that* is baroque!"  See also {rococo}. 
BartleMUD is  /bar'tl-muhd/ n. Any of the MUDs derived from the   original MUD game by Richard Bartle (see {MUD}).  BartleMUDs are   noted for their (usually slightly offbeat) humor, dry but friendly   syntax, and lack of adjectives in object descrip...
BartleMUD2 is  `brand172', for instance (see {brand   brand brand}).  Some MUDders intensely dislike Bartle and this   term, and prefer to speak of `MUD-1'. 
BASIC is  n. A programming language, originally designed for   Dartmouth's experimental timesharing system in the   early 1960s, which has since become the leading cause of   brain-damage in proto-hackers.  This is another case (like   {Pascal}) of t...
BASIC2 is  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 is (a) very   painful, and (b) encourages bad habits tha...
BASIC3 is  hack in a real language.  This wouldn't be so   bad if historical accidents hadn't made BASIC so common on low-end   micros.  As it is, it ruins thousands of potential wizards a year. 
batch is  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 ar...
batch2 is  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 fo...
batch3 is  electricity back on next   week..." 3. 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 ce...
bathtub curve is  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 ...
bathtub curve2 is  `tires out'.  See also {burn-in   period}, {infant mortality}. 
baud is  /bawd/ [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 w...
baud2 is  are aware of these nuances but blithely   ignore them. 
baud barf is  /bawd barf/ n. The garbage one gets on the monitor   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 di...
baud barf2 is  completely {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...
baz is  /baz/ [Stanford corruption of {bar}] n. 1. The third   metasyntactic variable, after {foo} and {bar} and before   {quux} (or, occasionally, `qux'; or local idiosyncracies like   `rag', `zowie', etc.).  "Suppose we have three functions FOO,BAR...
baz2 is  BAZ...."   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   {foo} to produce `foobaz'. 
bboard is  /bee'bord/ [contraction of `bulletin board'] n.   1. Any electronic bulletin board; esp. used of {BBS} systems   running on personal micros, less frequently of a USENET   {newsgroup} (in fact, use of the term for a newsgroup generally   ma...
bboard2 is  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 a old-fashio...
bboard3 is  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, th...
bboard4 is  name alone, as in (at CMU) "Don't   post for-sale ads on general". 
BBS is  /B-B-S/ [acronym, `Bulletin Board System'] n. An electronic   bulletin board system; that is, a message database where people can   log in and leave broadcast messages for others grouped (typically)   into {topic group}s.  Thousands of local ...
BBS2 is  U.S., 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 tend to consider local BBSes  ...
BBS3 is  but they serve a   valuable function by knitting together lots of hackers and users in   the personal-micro world who would otherwise be unable to exchange   code at all. 
beam is  [from Star Trek Classic's "Beam me up, Scotty!"] vt. To   transfer {softcopy} of a file electronically; most often in   combining forms such as `beam me a copy' or `beam that over to   his site'.  Compare {blast}, {snarf}, {BLT}.
beanie key is  [Mac users] n. See {command key}.
beep is  n.,v. Syn. {feep}.  This term seems to be preferred among micro   hobbyists.
beige toaster is  n. A Macintosh. See {toaster}; compare   {Macintrash}, {maggotbox}.
bells and whistles is  [by analogy with the toyboxes on theater   organs] n. Features added to a program or system to make it more   {flavorful} from a hacker's point of view, without necessarily   adding to its utility for its primary function.  Dis...
bells and whistles2 is  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. 
bells, whistles, and gongs is  n. A standard elaborated form of   {bells and whistles}; typically said with a pronounced and ironic   accent on the `gongs'.
benchmark is  [techspeak] n. 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 {h}), the Gab...
benchmark2 is  SPECmark suite, and LINPACK.  See   also {machoflops}, {MIPS}. 
Berkeley Quality Software is  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, ...
Berkeley Quality Software2 is  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 {Berzerkeley}. 
berklix is  /berk'liks/ n.,adj. [contraction of `Berkeley UNIX'] See   {BSD}.  Not used at Berkeley itself.  May be more common among   {suit}s attempting to sound like cognoscenti than among hackers,   who usually just say `BSD'.
berserking is  vi. A {MUD} term meaning to gain points *only*   by killing other players and mobiles (non-player characters).   Hence, a Berserker-Wizard is a player character that has achieved   enough points to become a wizard, but only by killing ...
berserking2 is  frowned upon because of its   inherently antisocial nature, but some MUDs have a `berserker   mode' in which a player becomes *permanently* berserk, can   never flee from a fight, cannot use magic, gets no score for   treasure, but do...
berserking3 is  wizards can seriously damage your elf!" 
Berzerkeley is  /b*r-zer'klee/ [from `berserk', via the name of a   now-deceased record label] n. Humorous distortion of `Berkeley'   used esp. to refer to the practices or products of the   {BSD} UNIX hackers.  See {software bloat}, {Missed'em-five}...
Berzerkeley2 is  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. 
beta is  /bay't*/, /be't*/ or (Commonwealth) /bee't*/ n. 1. In   the {Real World}, software often goes through two stages of   testing Alpha (in-house) and Beta (out-house?).  Software is said   to be `in beta'.  2. Anything that is new and experimen...
beta2 is  means that he is still testing   for compatibility and reserving judgment.  3. Beta software is   notoriously buggy, so `in beta' connotes flakiness.   Historical note More formally, to beta-test is to test a   pre-release (potentially unre...
beta3 is  making it available to 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 co...
beta4 is  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 th...
beta5 is  The C-test   (corresponding to today's beta) was the B-test performed on early   samples of the production design. 
BFI is  /B-F-I/ n. See {brute force and ignorance}.  Also   encountered in the variant `BFMI', `brute force and   *massive* ignorance'.
bible is  n. 1. One of a small number of fundamental source books   such as {Knuth} and {K&R}.  2. The most detailed and   authoritative reference for a particular language, operating   system, or other complex software system.
BiCapitalization is  n. The act said to have been performed on   trademarks (such as NeXT, {NeWS}, VisiCalc, FrameMaker,   TK!solver, EasyWriter) that have been raised above the ruck of   common coinage by nonstandard capitalization.  Too many   {mar...
BiCapitalization2 is  really cute, even   the 2,317th time they do it.  Compare {studlycaps}. 
BIFF is  /bif/ [USENET] n. The most famous {pseudo}, and the   prototypical {newbie}.  Articles from BIFF are characterized by   all uppercase letters sprinkled liberally with bangs, typos,   `cute' misspellings (EVRY BUDY LUVS GOOD OLD BIFF CUZ HE"S...
BIFF2 is  IN CAPITULL LETTRS LIKE   THIS!!!), use (and often misuse) of fragments of {talk mode}   abbreviations, a long {sig block} (sometimes even a {doubled   sig}), and unbounded na"ivet'e.  BIFF posts articles using his elder   brother's VIC-20....
BIFF3 is    appear to come from a variety of sites.  However, {BITNET} seems to   be the most frequent origin.  The theory that BIFF is a denizen of   BITNET is supported by BIFF's (unfortunately invalid) electronic   mail address BIFF@BIT.NET. 
biff is  /bif/ vt. To notify someone of incoming mail.  From the   BSD utility `biff(1)', which was in turn named after the   implementor's dog (it barked whenever the mailman came).  No   relation to {BIFF}.
Big Gray Wall is  n. What faces a {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, multive...
Big Gray Wall2 is  Recent (since VMS version 5) DEC   documentation comes with gray binders; under VMS version 4 the   binders were orange (`big orange wall'), and under version 3   they were blue.  See {VMS}. 
big iron is  n. Large, expensive, ultra-fast computers.  Used generally   of {number-crunching} supercomputers such as Crays, but can include   more conventional big commercial IBMish mainframes.  Term of   approval; compare {heavy metal}, oppose {di...
Big Red Switch is  [IBM] n. The power switch on a computer, esp. the   `Emergency Pull' switch on an IBM {mainframe} or the power switch   on an IBM PC where it really is large and red.  "This !@%$%   {bitty box} is hung again; time to hit the Big Re...
Big Red Switch2 is  tune with the company's passion for   {TLA}s, this is often acronymized as `BRS' (this has also   become established on FidoNet and in the PC {clone} world).  It   is alleged that the emergency pull switch on an IBM 360/91 actuall...
Big Red Switch3 is  power feed; the BRSes on   more recent machines 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 {molly-guard}).  Compare   {powe...
the Big Room is  n. 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 p...
big win is  n. 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 {win big}.
big-endian is  [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] adj. 1. Describes a computer   architecture in which, within a given multi-byte numer...
big-endian2 is  has the lowest address   (the word is stored `big-end-first').  Most processors, including   the IBM 370 family, the {PDP-10}, the Motorola microprocessor   families, and most of the various RISC designs current in mid-1991,   are big...
big-endian3 is  {NUXI   problem}.  2. An {{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.  I...
big-endian4 is  decided to do it the other way round before the Internet domain   standard was established; e.g., me@uk.ac.wigan.cs.  Most gateway   sites have {ad-hockery} in their mailers to handle this, but can   still be confused.  In particular,...
big-endian5 is  (domain uk) or Czechoslovakia (domain cs). 
bignum is  /big'nuhm/ [orig. from MIT MacLISP] n. 1. [techspeak] A   multiple-precision computer representation for very large integers.   More generally, any very large number.  "Have you ever looked at   the United States Budget?  There's bignums f...

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

computer geek2 is  hackers; compare black-on-black usage   of `nigger'.  A computer geek may be either a fundamentally   clueless individual or a proto-hacker in {larval stage}.  Also   called `turbo nerd', `turbo geek'.  See also   {clustergeeking},...
computron is  /kom'pyoo-tron`/ n. 1. 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 machi...
computron2 is  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   {bitty box}, {Get a real computer!}, {toy}, {crank}.   2. A mythi...
computron3 is  quantity of   computation or information, in much the same way that an electron   bears one unit of electric charge (see also {bogon}).  An   elaborate pseudo-scientific theory of computrons has been developed   based on the physical f...
computron4 is  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 ho...
computron5 is  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  ...
computron6 is  other hardware.   (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'.) 
condition out is  vt. To prevent a section of code from being compiled   by surrounding it with a conditional-compilation directive whose   condition is always false.  The {canonical} examples are `#if   0' (or `#ifdef notdef', though some find this ...
condom is  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 {SEX} but has al...
condom2 is  drive mechanisms attempt to access the disk --- and   can even fatally frustrate insertion.  2. The protective cladding   on a {light pipe}. 
connector conspiracy is  [probably came into prominence with the   appearance of the KL-10 (one model of the {PDP-10}), none of   whose connectors matched anything else] n. The tendency of   manufacturers (or, by extension, programmers or purveyors o...
connector conspiracy2 is  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 DEC, which reputedly refused to license   ...
connector conspiracy3 is  parties out of   competition for the lucrative Massbus peripherals market.  This 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   st...
connector conspiracy4 is  drives with low   capacity and high power requirements.   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 ...
cons is  /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 ex...
cons2 is  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 bin...
cons3 is  think   of it as a sort of universal constructor, and that is where the   jargon meanings spring from. 
considered harmful is  adj. 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.  Amusingly, the ACM considered the resulting   a...
considered harmful2 is  policy) no longer   print an article taking so assertive a position against a coding   practice.  In the ensuing decades, a large number of both serious   papers and parodies have borne titles of the form "X   considered Y".  ...
considered harmful3 is    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). 
console is  n. 1. The operator's station of a {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 guarde...
console2 is  just the {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, ...
console3 is  character-only terminals talking   to a serial port).  Typically only the console can do real graphics   or run {X}.  See also {CTY}. 
console jockey is  n. See {terminal junkie}.
content-free is  [by analogy with techspeak `context-free'] adj.   Used of a message that adds nothing to the recipient's knowledge.   Though this adjective is sometimes applied to {flamage}, it more   usually connotes derision for communication styl...
content-free2 is  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...
content-free3 is  "He gave a talk on   the implications of electronic networks for postmodernism and the   fin-de-siecle aesthetic.  It was content-free." 
control-C is  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 br...
control-O is  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 t...
control-O2 is  who is flaming.  Considered silly. 
control-Q is  vi. "Resume."  From the ASCII XON character used to   undo a previous control-S (in fact it is also pronounced   XON /X-on/).
control-S is  vi. "Stop talking for a second."  From the ASCII XOFF   character (this is also pronounced XOFF /X-of/).  Control-S   differs from {control-O} in that the person is asked to stop   talking (perhaps because you are on the phone) but will...
control-S2 is  listen to him --- as opposed to   control-O, which has more of the meaning of "Shut up."  Considered   silly. 
Conway's Law is  prov. The rule that the organization of the software and   the organization of the software team will be congruent; originally   stated as "If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll   get a 4-pass compiler".   This was or...
Conway's Law2 is  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. 
cookbook is  [from amateur electronics and radio] n. A book of small   code segments that the reader can use to do various {magic}   things in programs.  One current example is the `PostScript   Language Tutorial and Cookbook' by Adobe Systems, Inc  ...
cookbook2 is  has recipes for things   like wrapping text around arbitrary curves and making 3D fonts.   Cookbooks, slavishly followed, can lead one into {voodoo   programming}, but are useful for hackers trying to {monkey up}   small programs in unk...
cookbook3 is   of phrasebooks in human languages. 
cookie is  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...
cookie2 is  later transaction to this one (so you get   the same clothes back).  Compare {magic cookie}; see also   {fortune cookie}. 
cookie bear is  n. Syn. {cookie monster}.
cookie file is  n. A collection of {fortune cookie}s in a format   that facilitates retrieval by a fortune program.  There are several   different ones in public distribution, and site admins often   assemble their own from various sources including ...
cookie monster is  [from "Sesame Street"] n. Any of a family of   early (1970s) hacks reported on {{TOPS-10}}, {{ITS}}, {{Multics}},   and elsewhere that would lock up either the victim's terminal (on a   time-sharing machine) or the {{console}} (on ...
cookie monster2 is  "I WANT A COOKIE".  The   required responses ranged in complexity from "COOKIE" through   "HAVE A COOKIE" and upward.  See also {wabbit}. 
copper is  n. Conventional electron-carrying network cable with a   core conductor of copper --- or aluminum!  Opposed to {light   pipe} or, say, a short-range microwave link.
copy protection is  n. A class of clever methods for preventing   incompetent pirates from stealing software and legitimate customers   from using it.  Considered silly.
copybroke is  /ko'pee-brohk/ adj. [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.  {copywronged}.
copyleft is  /kop'ee-left/ [play on `copyright'] n. 1. The   copyright notice (`General Public License') carried by {GNU}   {EMACS} and other Free Software Foundation software, granting reuse   and reproduction rights to all comers (but see also {Gen...
copyleft2 is  copyright notice intended to   achieve similar aims. 
copywronged is  /ko'pee-rongd/ [play on `copyright'] adj. Syn. for   {copybroke}.
core is  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 ...
core2 is  example, means `in memory' (as opposed to `on   disk'), and both {core dump} and the `core image' or `core   file' produced by one are terms in favor.  Commonwealth hackish   prefers {store}. 
core dump is  n. [common {Iron Age} jargon, preserved by UNIX]   1. [techspeak] A copy of the contents of {core}, produced when a   process is aborted by certain kinds of internal error.  2. By   extension, used for humans passing out, vomiting, or r...
core dump2 is  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...
core dump3 is  one   knows about a topic, 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; syn.  {brain   dump}).  See {core}. 
core leak is  n. Syn. {memory leak}.
Core Wars is  n. A game between `assembler' programs in a   simulated machine, where the objective is to kill your opponent's   program by overwriting it.  Popularized by A. K. Dewdney's column   in `Scientific American' magazine, this was actually  ...
Core Wars2 is  and Dennis Ritchie in   the early 1960s (their original game was called `Darwin' and ran on   a PDP-1 at Bell Labs).  See {core}. 
corge is  /korj/ [originally, the name of a cat] n. Yet another   meta-syntactic variable, invented by Mike Gallaher and propagated   by the {GOSMACS} documentation.  See {grault}.
cosmic rays is  n. Notionally, the cause of {bit rot}.  However, this is   a semi-independent usage that may be invoked as a humorous way to   {handwave} away any minor {randomness} that doesn't seem worth the   bother of investigating.  "Hey, Eric -...
cosmic rays2 is  {tube}, where did that come from?"  "Cosmic rays, I   guess."  Compare {sunspots}, {phase of the moon}.  The British seem   to prefer the usage `cosmic showers'; `alpha particles' is also   heard, because stray alpha particles passin...
cosmic rays3 is  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 ran...
cosmic rays4 is  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 r...
cosmic rays5 is    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 emissio...
cosmic rays6 is  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 beca...
cosmic rays7 is  to withstand these hits. 
cough and die is  v. Syn. {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."
cowboy is  [Sun, from William Gibson's {cyberpunk} SF] n. Synonym   for {hacker}.  It is reported that at Sun this word is often   said with reverence.
CP/M is  /C-P-M/ n. [Control Program for Microcomputers] An   early microcomputer {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 ...
CP/M2 is  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   stro...
CP/M3 is  systems such as   {{TOPS-10}}, OS/8, RSTS, and RSX-11.  See {{MS-DOS}},   {operating system}. 
CPU Wars is  /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)....
CPU Wars2 is  many references to {ADVENT} and   the immortal line "Eat flaming death, minicomputer mongrels!"   (uttered, of course, by an IPM stormtrooper).  It is alleged that   the author subsequently received a letter of appreciation on IBM   com...
CPU Wars3 is  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 {eat   flaming death}. 
cracker is  n. One who breaks security on a system.  Coined ca. 1985   by hackers in defense against journalistic misuse of {hacker}   (q.v., sense 8).  An earlier attempt to establish `worm' in this   sense around 1981--82 on USENET was largely a fa...
crank is  [from automotive slang] vt. 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."
crash is  1. n. A sudden, usually drastic failure.  Most often said   of the {system} (q.v., sense 1), sometimes of magnetic disk   drives.  "Three {luser}s lost their files in last night's disk   crash."  A disk crash that involves the read/write he...
crash2 is  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 s...
crash3 is  OS!" See   {down}.  Also used transitively to indicate the cause of the   crash (usually a person or a program, or both).  "Those idiots   playing {SPACEWAR} crashed the system." 3. vi. Sometimes said   of people hitting the sack after a l...
crash and burn is  vi.,n. A spectacular crash, in the mode of the   conclusion of the car-chase scene in the movie "Bullitt" and   many subsequent imitators.  Sun-3 monitors losing the flyback   transformer and lightning strikes on VAX-11/780 backpla...
crash and burn2 is  The construction   `crash-and-burn machine' is reported for a computer used   exclusively for alpha or {beta} testing, or reproducing bugs   (i.e., not for development).  The implication is that it wouldn't   be such a disaster if...
crash and burn3 is  would be inconvenienced. 
crawling horror is  n. Ancient crufty hardware or software that is   kept obstinately alive by forces beyond the control of the hackers   at a site.  Like {dusty deck} or {gonkulator}, but connotes   that the thing described is not just an irritation...
crawling horror2 is  "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   {WOMBAT}. 
cray is  /kray/ n. 1. (properly, capitalized) One of the line of   supercomputers designed by Cray Research.  2. Any supercomputer at   all.  3. The {canonical} {number-crunching} machine.   The term is actually the lowercased last name of Seymour Cr...
cray2 is  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. 
cray instability is  n. A shortcoming of a program or algorithm that   manifests itself only when a large problem is being run on a powerful   machine (see {cray}).  Generally more subtle than bugs that can   be detected in smaller problems running o...
crayola is  /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 {killer micro}.
crayon is  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 backgrou...
crayon2 is  A {computron} (sense 2) that   participates only in {number-crunching}.  3. A unit of   computational power equal to that of a single Cray-1.  There is a   standard joke about this that derives from an old Crayola crayon   promotional gim...
creationism is  n. The (false) belief that large, innovative 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 ...
creationism2 is  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.   Unfortunat...
creationism3 is  planning models   beloved of {management}, they are generally ignored. 
creeping elegance is  n. Describes a tendency for parts of a design to   become {elegant} past the point of diminishing return.  This   often happens at the expense of the less interesting parts of the   design, the schedule, and other things deemed ...
creeping elegance2 is  {creeping featurism}, {second-system   effect}, {tense}. 
creeping featurism is  /kree'ping fee'chr-izm/ n. 1. Describes a   systematic tendency to load more {chrome} and {feature}s onto   systems at the expense of whatever elegance they may have possessed   when originally designed.  See also {feeping crea...
creeping featurism2 is  {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   ...
creeping featurism3 is  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.... ...
creeping featurism4 is    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 redesign...
creeping featuritis is  /kree'ping fee'-chr-i`t*s/ n. Variant of   {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, a...
creeping featuritis2 is  designers' minds.  (After   all, -ism means `condition' or `pursuit of', whereas -itis usually   means `inflammation of'.) 
cretin is  /kret'n/ or /kree'tn/ n. Congenital {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   /kre'tn/ over standard American /kree'tn/...
cretin2 is  insidious phonetic influence of Monty Python's Flying   Circus. 
cretinous is  /kret'n-*s/ or /kreet'n-*s/ adj. Wrong; stupid;   non-functional; very poorly designed.  Also used pejoratively of   people.  See {dread high-bit disease} for an example.   Approximate synonyms {bletcherous}, `bagbiting' (see   {bagbite...
crippleware is  n. 1. Software that has some important functionality   deliberately removed, so as to entice potential users to pay for a   working version.  2. [Cambridge] {Guiltware} that exhorts you to   donate to some charity (compare {careware})...
crippleware2 is  can be upgraded to a more expensive   model by a trivial change (e.g., cutting a jumper). 
critical mass is  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 {epsilon} bugs.  When s...
critical mass2 is  be discarded and rewritten. 
crlf is  /ker'l*f/, sometimes /kru'l*f/ or /C-R-L-F/ n. (often   capitalized as `CRLF') A carriage return (CR) followed by a line   feed (LF).  More loosely, whatever it takes to get you from the   end of one line of text to the beginning of the next...
crlf2 is  {{UNIX}} influence this usage   has become less common (UNIX uses a bare line feed as its `CRLF'). 
crock is  [from the obvious mainstream scatologism] n. 1. An awkward   feature or programming technique that ought to be made cleaner.   Using small integers to represent error codes without the   program interpreting them to the user (as in, for exa...
crock2 is  for a process that dies due   to {segfault}).  2. A technique that works acceptably, but which   is quite prone to failure if disturbed in the least, for example   depending on the machine opcodes having particular bit patterns so   that y...
crock3 is  tightly woven,   almost completely unmodifiable structure.  See {kluge},   {brittle}.  Also in the adjectives `crockish' and   `crocky', and the nouns `crockishness' and `crockitude'. 
cross-post is  [USENET] vi. 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 (this is very bad form).  Gratui...
cross-post2 is  line directing responses to a single followup   group is frowned upon, as it tends to cause {followup} articles   to go to inappropriate newsgroups when people respond to only one   part of the original posting. 
crudware is  /kruhd'weir/ n. Pejorative term for the hundreds of   megabytes of low-quality {freeware} circulated by user's groups   and BBS systems in the micro-hobbyist world.  "Yet *another*   set of disk catalog utilities for {{MS-DOS}}?  What cr...
cruft is  /kruhft/ [back-formation from {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...
cruft2 is  pun on `hand craft'] To   write assembler code for something normally (and better) done by a   compiler (see {hand-hacking}).  4. n. Excess; superfluous junk.   Esp. used of redundant or superseded code. 
cruft together is  vt. (also `cruft up') To throw together   something ugly but temporarily workable.  Like vt. {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 togeth...
cruft together2 is  together}, {hack up}, {kluge up},   {crufty}. 
cruftsmanship is  /kruhfts'm*n-ship / n. [from {cruft}] The   antithesis of craftsmanship.

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

dot file is  [UNIX] n. A file which is not visible 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 whic...
dot file2 is  be optionally recorded; a user can   customize the program's behavior by creating the appropriate file in   the current or home directory.  See also {rc file}. 
double bucky is  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 {space-cadet keyboard} at   MIT.  A...
double bucky2 is  {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 ...
double bucky3 is  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 pe...
double bucky4 is  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 671-21036-...
double bucky5 is  1978, in celebration of the   Stanford keyboard   See also {meta bit}, {cokebottle}, and {quadruple bucky}. 
double DECkers is  n. Used to describe married couples in which both   partners work for Digital Equipment Corporation.
doubled sig is  [USENET] n. A {sig block} that has been included   twice in a {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 ofte...
doubled sig2 is  experience in electronic   communication.  See {BIFF}, {pseudo}. 
down is  1. adj. Not operating.  "The up escalator is down" is   considered a humorous thing to say, 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 computer...
down2 is  mainstream; the extension to other kinds   of machine is still hackish.  2. `go down' vi. To stop   functioning; usually said of the {system}.  The message from the   {console} that every hacker hates to hear from the operator is   "The sys...
down3 is  down',   `bring down' vt. To deactivate purposely, usually for repair work   or {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. sens...
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 ...

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

flap2 is  to unload any   magnetic tape.  See also {macrotape}.  Modern cartridge tapes no   longer actually flap, but the usage has remained. 
flarp is  /flarp/ [Rutgers University] n. Yet another metasyntactic   variable (see {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 discreetl...
flarp2 is  which *do* contain the magic word. 
flat is  adj. 1. Lacking any complex internal structure.  "That   {bitty box} has only a flat filesystem, not a hierarchical   one."  The verb form is {flatten}.  2. Said of a memory   architecture (like that of the VAX or 680x0) that is one big line...
flat2 is  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 ar...
flat-ASCII is  adj. 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   or markup language, and no {meta}-characte...
flat-file is  adj. A {flatten}ed representation of some database or   tree or network structure as a single file from which the   structure could implicitly be rebuilt, esp. one in {flat-ASCII}   form.
flatten is  vt. 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 {flat-ASCII}.  "This code   flattens an expression with parentheses into a...
flavor is  n. 1. Variety, type, kind.  "DDT commands come in two   flavors."  "These lights come in two flavors, big red ones and   small green ones."  See {vanilla}.  2. The attribute that causes   something to be {flavorful}.  Usually used in the p...
flavor2 is  convention yields additional flavor by   allowing one to print text either right-side-up or upside-down."   See {vanilla}.  This usage was certainly reinforced by the   terminology of quantum chromodynamics, in which quarks (the   constit...
flavor3 is  (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.  Tho...
flavor4 is  (notably by the Common LISP CLOS facility), the term `flavor' is   still used as a general synonym for `class' by some LISP hackers. 
flavorful is  adj. Full of {flavor}; esthetically pleasing.  See   {random} and {losing} for antonyms.  See also the entries for   {taste} and {elegant}.
flippy is  /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.
flowchart is  [techspeak] n. 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 {COBOL} programmer...
flowchart2 is  of life.  This is because (from a   hacker's point of view) they 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  ...
flowchart3 is  the code).  See also   {pdl}, sense 3. 
flower key is  [Mac users] n. See {command key}.
flush is  v. 1. 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...
flush2 is  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 ...
flush3 is  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   t...
flush4 is  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 DEC and on Honeywell and IBM machines as far back as 1965).   UNIX/C hackers find th...
Flyspeck 3 is  n. Standard name for any font that is so tiny as to be   unreadable (by analogy with such names as `Helvetica 10' for   10-point Helvetica).  Legal boilerplate is usually printed in   Flyspeck 3.
flytrap is  n. See {firewall machine}.
FOAF is  // [USENET] n. Acronym for `Friend Of A Friend'.  The   source of an unverified, possibly untrue story.  This was not   originated by hackers (it is used in Jan Brunvand's books on urban   folklore), but is much better recognized on USENET a...
FOD is  /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 {MUD}s where the   wizard command `FOD <player>' results in the imme...
FOD2 is  as punishment for obnoxious behavior.   This migrated to other circumstances, such as "I'm going to fod   the process that is burning all the cycles."  Compare {gun}.   In aviation, FOD means Foreign Object Damage, e.g., what happens   when ...
FOD3 is  bird in   flight.  Finger of Death is a distressingly apt description of   what this does to the engine. 
fold case is  v. See {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.
followup is  n. On USENET, a {posting} generated in response to   another posting (as opposed to a {reply}, which goes by email   rather than being broadcast).  Followups include the ID of the   {parent message} in their headers; smart news-readers c...
followup2 is  news in `conversation' sequence   rather than order-of-arrival.  See {thread}. 
foo is  /foo/ 1. interj. Term of disgust.  2. Used very generally   as a sample name for absolutely anything, esp. programs and files   (esp. scratch files).  3. First on the standard list of   metasyntactic variables used in syntax examples.  See al...
foo2 is  {grault},   {garply}, {waldo}, {fred}, {plugh}, {xyzzy},   {thud}.   {foo} is the {canonical} example of a `metasyntactic   variable' --- a name used in examples and understood to stand for   whatever thing is under discussion, or any random...
foo3 is  discussion.  To avoid confusion, hackers never use   `foo' or other words like it as permanent names for anything.  In   filenames, a common convention is that any filename beginning   `foo' is a scratch file that may be deleted at any time....
foo4 is  When used in   connection with `bar' it is generally traced to the WWII-era Army   slang acronym FUBAR (`Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition'), later   bowdlerized to {foobar}.  (See also {FUBAR}).   However, the use of the word `foo' itself ha...
foo5 is  long history in comic strips and cartoons.   The old "Smokey Stover" comic strips by Bill Holman often   included the word `FOO', in particular on license plates of cars;   allegedly, `FOO' and `BAR' also occurred in Walt Kelly's   "Pogo" st...
foo6 is   early version of Daffy Duck holds up a sign saying "SILENCE IS   FOO!"; oddly, this seems to refer to some approving or positive   affirmative use of foo.  It is even possible that hacker usage   actually springs from `FOO, Lampoons and Par...
foo7 is  in September 1958; the byline read   `C. Crumb' but this may well have been a sort-of pseudonym for   noted weird-comix artist Robert Crumb.  The title FOO was featured   in large letters on the front cover.   An old-time member reports that...
foo8 is  Language', compiled at {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 abou...
foo9 is  Almost   the entire AI staff was involved with TMRC, so it is not clear   which group introduced the other to the word FOO.   Very probably, hackish `foo' had no single origin and derives   through all these channels from Yiddish `feh' and/o...
foobar is  n. Another common metasyntactic variable; see {foo}.   Hackers do *not* generally use this to mean {FUBAR} in   either the slang or jargon sense.
fool is  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...
fool2 is  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 {cretin},   {loser}, {fool file, the}. 
fool file, the is  [USENET] n. A notional repository of all the most   dramatically and abysmally stupid utterances ever.  There is a   subgenre of {sig block}s that consists of the header "From the   fool file" followed by some quote the poster wish...
fool file, the2 is  dimwittery; for this 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. 
Foonly is  n. 1. The {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 intention was to   leapfrog from the old DEC timesharing sy...
Foonly2 is  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...
Foonly3 is  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   mach...
Foonly4 is  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...
Foonly5 is  smaller, slower, and much less expensive machines.  Unfortunately,   these ran not the popular {TOPS-20} but a TENEX varient called   Foonex; this seriously limited their market.  Also, the machines   shipped were actually wire-wrapped en...
Foonly6 is  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 c...
Foonly7 is  build another F-1 was eclipsed by the   {Mars}, and the company never quite recovered.  See the   {Mars} entry for the continuation and moral of this story. 
footprint is  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   {toeprint}.
for free is  adj. Said of a capability of a programming language or   hardware equipment 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...
for free2 is  trees for free."  Usually it refers to a   serendipitous feature of doing things a certain way (compare   {big win}), but it may refer to an intentional but secondary   feature. 
for the rest of us is  [from the Mac slogan "The computer for the   rest of us"] adj. 1. Used to describe a {spiffy} product whose   affordability shames other comparable products, or (more often)   used sarcastically to describe {spiffy} but very ov...
for the rest of us2 is  with a limited interface,   deliberately limited capabilities, non-orthogonality, inability to   compose primitives, or any other limitation designed to not   `confuse' a na"ive user.  This places an upper bound on how far tha...
for the rest of us3 is  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...
for the rest of us4 is  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   {WIMP environme...
fora is  pl.n. Plural of {forum}.
foreground is  [UNIX] vt. To foreground a task is to bring it to   the top of one's {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 foregr...
foreground2 is  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 {background}.  Nowadays this term is primarily   associated with {{UNIX}}, but it appears...
foreground3 is  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 {lose}. 
forked is  [UNIX; prob. influenced by a mainstream expletive] adj.   Terminally slow, or dead.  Originated when one system slowed to   incredibly bad speeds because of a process recursively spawning copies   of itself (using the UNIX system call `for...
Fortrash is  /for'trash/ n. Hackerism for the FORTRAN language,   referring to its primitive design, gross and irregular syntax,   limited control constructs, and slippery, exception-filled   semantics.
fortune cookie is  [UNIX] n. 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 {cookie file}.
forum is  n. [USENET, GEnie CI$; pl. `fora' or `forums'] Any   discussion group accessible through a dial-in {BBS}, a   {mailing list}, or a {newsgroup} (see {network, the}).  A   forum functions much like a bulletin board; users submit   {posting}s ...
forum2 is  Contrast   real-time chat via {talk mode} or point-to-point personal   {email}. 
fossil is  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 {C}, ...
fossil2 is  to ASCII and modern byte-addressable   architectures.  See {dusty deck}.  2. More restrictively, a   feature with past but no present utility.  Example the   force-all-caps (LCASE) bits in the V7 and {BSD} UNIX tty driver,   designed for ...
fossil3 is  of the   usual backward-compatibility goal, this functionality has actually   been expanded and renamed in some later {USG UNIX} releases as   the IUCLC and OLCUC bits.  3. The FOSSIL (Fido/Opus/Seadog   Standard Interface Level) driver s...
fossil4 is  replace the {brain-dead} routines in the IBM PC ROMs.   Fossils are used by most MS-DOS {BBS} software in lieu of   programming the {bare metal} of the serial ports, as the ROM   routines do not support interrupt-driven operation or setti...
fossil5 is  specification allows   additional functionality to be hooked in, drivers that use the   {hook} but do not provide serial-port access themselves are named   with a modifier, as in `video fossil'. 
four-color glossies is  1. Literature created by {marketroid}s   that allegedly containing technical specs but which is in fact as   superficial as possible without being totally {content-free}.   "Forget the four-color glossies, give me the tech ref...
four-color glossies2 is  superficiality even when the   material is printed on ordinary paper in black and white.   Four-color-glossy manuals are *never* useful for finding a   problem.  2. [rare] Applied by extension to manual pages that don't   con...
four-color glossies3 is  program doesn't   produce the expected or desired output. 
fragile is  adj. Syn {brittle}.
fred is  n. 1. The personal name most frequently used as a   metasyntactic variable (see {foo}).  Allegedly popular because   it's easy for a non-touch-typist to type on a standard QWERTY   keyboard.  Unlike {J. Random Hacker} or `J. Random Loser',  ...
fred2 is  (but see {Mbogo,   Dr. Fred}).  2. An acronym for `Flipping Ridiculous Electronic   Device'; other F-verbs may be substituted for `flipping'. 
frednet is  /fred'net/ n. Used to refer to some {random} and   uncommon protocol encountered on a network.  "We're implementing   bridging in our router to solve the frednet problem."
freeware is  n. Free software, often written by enthusiasts and   distributed by users' groups, or via electronic mail, local   bulletin boards, {USENET}, or other electronic media.  At one   time, `freeware' was a trademark of Andrew Fluegelman, the...
freeware2 is  program PC-TALK III.  It wasn't   enforced after his mysterious disappearance and presumed death   in 1984.  See {shareware}. 
freeze is  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 ...
freeze2 is  are more specific constructions on this.  A `feature freeze',   for example, locks out modifications intended to introduce new   features; a `code freeze' connotes no more changes at all.   At Sun Microsystems and elsewhere, one may also ...
freeze3 is  an almost-but-not-quite frozen state. 
fried is  adj. 1. Non-working due to hardware failure; burnt out.   Especially used of hardware brought down by a `power glitch' (see   {glitch}), {drop-outs}, a short, or some other electrical   event.  (Sometimes this literally happens to electroni...
fried2 is  burn out and transformers can melt   down, emitting noxious smoke.  However, this term is also used   metaphorically.)  Compare {frotzed}.  2. Of people, exhausted.   Said particularly of those who continue to work in such a state.   Often...
fried3 is  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." 
friode is  /fri'ohd/ [TMRC] n. A reversible (that is, fused or   blown) diode.  Compare {fried}.
fritterware is  n. An excess of capability that serves no productive   end.  The canonical example is font-diddling software on the Mac   (see {macdink}); the term describes anything that eats huge   amounts of time for quite marginal gains in functi...
frob is  /frob/ 1. n. [MIT] The {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.  See {frobnit...
frob2 is  {frobnicate}.  3. [from the {MUD} world]   A command on some MUDs that changes a player's experience level   (this can be used to make wizards); also, to request {wizard}   privileges on the `professional courtesy' grounds that one is a   w...
frobnicate is  /frob'ni-kayt/ vt. [Poss. derived from {frobnitz}, and   usually abbreviated to {frob}, but `frobnicate' is recognized   as the official full form.] To manipulate or adjust, to tweak.   One frequently frobs bits or other 2-state device...
frobnicate2 is  (that is, flip it), but also   "Stop frobbing that clasp; you'll break it".  One also sees the   construction `to frob a frob'.  See {tweak} and {twiddle}.   Usage frob, twiddle, and tweak sometimes connote   points along a continuum....
frobnicate3 is  `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; ...
frobnicate4 is  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. 
frobnitz is  /frob'nits/, pl. `frobnitzem' /frob'nit-zm/ or   `frobni' /frob'ni/ n. An unspecified physical object, a   widget.  Also refers to electronic black boxes.  This rare form is   usually abbreviated to `frotz', or more commonly to {frob}.  ...
frobnitz2 is  `frobule'   (/frob'yool/).  Starting perhaps in 1979, `frobozz'   /fruh-boz'/ (plural `frobbotzim' /fruh-bot'zm/) has also   become very popular, largely through its exposure as a name via   {Zork}.  These can also be applied to nonphys...
frog is  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   {foo}.  3. n. Of things, a crock.  4. n. Of people, somewhere   in between a turkey and a toad.  5. `froggy' adj. S...
frog2 is  milder.  "This froggy   program is taking forever to run!"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 w...
frog3 is  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."  See also {fepped out}.  3. Software that provides   an interface to...
frog4 is  as   user-friendly.  Probably from analogy with hardware front-ends (see   sense 1) that interfaced with mainframes. 
frotz  is  /frots/ 1. n. See {frobnitz}.  2. `mumble frotz' An   interjection of very mild disgust.
frotzed is  /frotst/ adj. {down} because of hardware problems.  Compare   {fried}.  A machine that is merely frotzed may be fixable   without replacing parts, but a fried machine is more seriously   damaged.
frowney is  n. (alt. `frowney face')  See {emoticon}.
fry is  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 {fried},   {magic smoke}.  2. vt. To cause to fail; to {roach}...
fry2 is  Never used of software or humans,   but compare {fried}. 
FTP is  /F-T-P/, *not* /fit'ip/ 1. [techspeak] n. The File   Transfer Protocol for transmitting files between systems on the   Internet.  2. vt. To {beam} a file using the File Transfer   Protocol.  3. Sometimes used as a generic even for file transf...
FTP2 is  `Wuthering   Heights' ftp'd from uunet." 
FUBAR is  n. The Failed UniBus Address Register in a VAX.  A good   example of how jargon can occasionally be snuck past the {suit}s;   see {foobar}.
fuck me harder is  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 "Aiigh...
fuck me harder2 is  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 ...
fuck me harder3 is  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 be...
fuck me harder4 is  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  ...
fuck me harder5 is  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 rec...
FUD is  /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 ide...
FUD2 is  with safe IBM gear rather than with   competitors' equipment.  This was traditionally done by promising   that Good Things would happen to people who stuck with IBM, but   Dark Shadows loomed over the future of competitors' equipment or   so...
FUD wars is  /fuhd worz/ n. [from {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...
fudge is  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 res...
fudge factor is  n. A value or parameter that is varied in an ad hoc way   to produce the desired result.  The terms `tolerance' and   {slop} are also used, though these usually indicate a one-sided   leeway, such as a buffer that is made larger than...
fudge factor2 is  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 `fuz...
fudge factor3 is  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 factor4 is  incorrectly by programmers   who don't fully understand their import.  See also {coefficient   of X}. 
fuel up is  vi. To eat or drink hurriedly in order to get back to   hacking.  "Food-p?"  "Yeah, let's fuel up."  "Time for a   {great-wall}!"  See also {{oriental food}}.
fuggly is  /fuhg'lee/ adj. Emphatic form of {funky}; funky +   ugly).  Unusually for hacker jargon, this may actually derive from   black street-jive.  To say it properly, the first syllable should   be growled rather than spoken.  Usage humorous.  "...
fuggly2 is  that printer driver is   *fuggly*."  See also {wonky}. 
funky is  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...
funky2 is  workarounds are easier, the funkier it is.   {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 ...
funky3 is  try resubmitting it."   "This UART is pretty funky.  The data ready line is active-high in   interrupt mode and active-low in DMA mode."  See {fuggly}. 
funny money is  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).  When your fu...
funny money2 is  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...
funny money3 is  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'. 
fuzzball is  [TCP/IP hackers] n. 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 ...
fuzzball2 is  56KB-line days; a few are still active   on the Internet as of early 1991, doing odd jobs such as network   time service.*G [SI] pref.,suff. See {{quantifiers}}. 
gabriel is  /gay'bree-*l/ [for Dick Gabriel, SAIL LISP hacker and   volleyball fanatic] n. 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 ...
gabriel2 is  tactics.  Also, `pulling a Gabriel',   `Gabriel mode'. 
gag is  vi. Equivalent to {choke}, but connotes more disgust. "Hey,   this is FORTRAN code.  No wonder the C compiler gagged."  See also   {barf}.
gang bang is  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 menti...
gang bang2 is  perpetrated by large   companies trying to meet deadlines and produce enormous buggy   masses of code entirely lacking in {orthogonal}ity.  When   market-driven managers make a list of all the features the   competition has and assign ...
gang bang3 is  miss the importance of maintaining a coherent design.  See   also {firefighting}, {Mongolian Hordes technique},   {Conway's Law}. 
garbage collect is  vi. (also `garbage collection', n.) See {GC}.
garply is  /gar'plee/ [Stanford] n. Another meta-syntactic variable (see   {foo}); once popular among SAIL hackers.
gas is  [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....
gas2 is  something ought to be flushed out of   mercy.  "The system's getting {wedged} every few minutes.   Gas!"  3. vt.  To {flush} (sense 1).  "You should gas that old   crufty software."  4. [IBM] n. Dead space in nonsequentially   organized file...
gas3 is  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 futu...
gaseous is  adj. Deserving of being {gas}sed.  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 s...
gaseous2 is  chamber under Proposition 7 if   convicted of first-degree murder (he was eventually convicted of   manslaughter). 
GC is  /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 {GFR}.  2. vt. To recycle, reclaim, or put to   an...
GC2 is  garbage collector   process.   `Garbage collection' is computer-science jargon for a particular   class of strategies for dynamically reallocating computer memory.   One such strategy involves periodically scanning all the data in   memory an...
GC3 is  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...
GC4 is  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...
GCOS is  /jee'kohs/ n. A {quick-and-dirty} {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...
GCOS2 is  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   ...
GCOS3 is  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 {{Multics}}, and   (2) GECOS/GCOS left on...
GCOS4 is  systems at Bell Labs were 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...
GCOS5 is  information.  GCOS later played a   major role in keeping Honeywell a dismal also-ran in the mainframe   market, and was itself ditched for UNIX in the late 1980s when   Honeywell retired its aging {big iron} designs. 
GECOS is  /jee'kohs/ n. See {{GCOS}}.
gedanken is  /g*-don'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 ...
gedanken2 is  impractical to carry out, but useful   to consider because you can reason about it theoretically.  (A   classic gedanken experiment of relativity theory involves thinking   about a man in an elevator accelerating through space.)  Gedank...
gedanken3 is  but you have to be careful.   It's too easy to idealize away some important aspect of the real world   in contructing your `apparatus'.   Among hackers, accordingly, the word has a pejorative connotation.   It is said of a project, espe...
gedanken4 is  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 dista...
gedanken5 is  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 {AI-complete}, {DWIM}. 
geef is  v. [ostensibly from `gefingerpoken'] vt. Syn. {mung}.  See   also {blinkenlights}.
geek out is  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 something highly   technical and don't have time to explain "Pardon m...
gen is  /jen/ n.,v. Short for {generate}, used frequently in both spoken   and written contexts.
gender mender is  n. A cable connector shell with either two male or two   female connectors on it, used to correct the mismatches that result   when some {loser} didn't understand the RS232C specification and   the distinction between DTE and DCE.  ...
gender mender2 is  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...
gender mender3 is  on both sides (connects two   males). 
General Public Virus is  n. Pejorative name for some versions of the   {GNU} project {copyleft} or General Public License (GPL), which   requires that any tools or {app}s incorporating copylefted code   must be source-distributed on the same counter-...
General Public Virus2 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 c...
General Public Virus3 is  "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   (as in, for example, use of the Bison parser skelet...
General Public Virus4 is  the {copyleft} language   is `boobytrapped' has caused many developers to avoid using GNU   tools and the GPL.  Recent (July 1991) changes in the language of   the version 2.00 language may eliminate this problem. 
generate is  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   {parse}.  This term retains its mechanistic conn...
generate2 is  of human behavior.  "The guy is   rational most of the time, but mention nuclear energy around him   and he'll generate {infinite} flamage." 
gensym is  /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 f...
gensym2 is  represents a number; any LISP hacker would   recognize G0093 (for example) as a gensym.  3. A freshly generated   data structure with a gensymmed name.  These are useful for storing   or uniquely identifying crufties (see {cruft}). 
Get a life! is  imp. Hacker-standard way of suggesting that the person   to whom you are speaking has succumbed to terminal geekdom (see   {computer geek}).  Often heard on {USENET}, esp. as a way of   suggesting that the target is taking some obscur...
Get a life!2 is  exhortation was popularized by   William Shatner on a "Saturday Night Live" episode in a speech that   ended "Get a *life*!", but some respondents believe it to   have been in use before then. 
Get a real computer! is  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 4 megabytes.  This is as of m...
Get a real computer!2 is  computer' rises with time, and it may well   be (for example) that machines with character-only displays will be   generally considered `unreal' in a few years (GLS points out that   they already are in some circles).  See {...
GFR is  /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 redu...
GFR2 is  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 {GFR}ed it."  See also   {prowler}, {reaper}.  Compare {GC}, which discards only   provably worthless ...
gig is  /jig/ or /gig/ [SI] n. See {{quantifiers}}.
giga- is  /ji'ga/ or /gi'ga/ [SI] pref. See {{quantifiers}}.
GIGO is  /gi'goh/ [acronym] 1. `Garbage In, Garbage Out' ---   usually said in response to {luser}s who complain that a program   didn't complain about faulty data.  Also commonly used to describe   failures in human decision making due to faulty, in...
GIGO2 is  In, Gospel Out' this more recent   expansion is a sardonic comment on the tendency human beings have   to put excessive trust in `computerized' data. 
gillion is  /gil'y*n/ or /jil'y*n/ [formed from {giga-} by analogy   with mega/million and tera/trillion] n. 10^9. Same as an   American billion or a British `milliard'.  How one pronounces   this depends on whether one speaks {giga-} with a hard or ...
GIPS is  /gips/ or /jips/ [analogy with {MIPS}] n.   Giga-Instructions per Second (also possibly `Gillions of   Instructions per Second'; see {gillion}).  In 1991, this is used   of only a handful of highly parallel machines, but this is expected   t...
glark is  /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 contain...
glark2 is  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 hackish usage mutated the ve...
glark3 is  established jargon   term.  Compare {grok}, {zen}. 
glass is  [IBM] n. Synonym for {silicon}.
glass tty is  /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 lik...
glass tty2 is  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 {tube}, {tty}.  See appendix A for an   interesting true story...
glassfet is  /glas'fet/ [by analogy with MOSFET, the acronym for   `Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor'] n. Syn.   {firebottle}, a humorous way to refer to a vacuum tube.
glitch is  /glich/ [from German `glitschen' 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...
glitch2 is  This is 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....
glitch3 is    [Stanford] To scroll a display screen, esp. several lines at a   time.  {{WAITS}} terminals used to do this in order to avoid   continuous scrolling, which is distracting to the eye.  4. obs.   Same as {magic cookie}, sense 2.   All the...
glitch4 is  technical   meaning the term has to hardware people.  If the inputs of a   circuit change, and the outputs change to some {random} value for   some very brief time before they settle down to the correct value,   then that is called a glit...
glitch5 is  depending on what the circuit is connected to.  This term is   techspeak, found in electronics texts. 
glob is  /glob/, *not* /glohb/ [UNIX] vt.,n. 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 tha...
glob2 is  English, especially in email or news on   technical topics.  Those commonly encountered include the following     *          wildcard for any string (see also {UN*X})       ?          wildcard for any character (generally read this way only...
glob3 is  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 hi...
glob4 is  "I don't read talk.politics.*" (any of the   talk.politics subgroups on {USENET}).  Other examples are given   under the entry for {X}.  Compare {regexp}.   Historical note The jargon usage derives from `glob', the   name of a subprogram th...
glob5 is  versions of the UNIX shell. 
glork is  /glork/ 1. interj. Term of mild surprise, usually tinged with   outrage, as when one attempts to save the results of 2 hours of   editing and finds that the system has just crashed.  2. Used as a   name for just about anything.  See {foo}. ...
glork2 is  used reflexively.  "My program just glorked   itself."  See also {glark}. 
glue is  n. Generic term for any interface logic or protocol that   connects two component blocks.  For example,  {Blue   Glue} is IBM's SNA protocol, and hardware designers call anything   used to connect large VLSI's or circuit blocks `glue logic'.
gnarly is  /nar'lee/ adj. Both {obscure} and {hairy} in the   sense of complex.  "{Yow}! --- the tuned assembler   implementation of BitBlt is really gnarly!"  From a similar but   less specific usage in surfer slang.
GNU is  /gnoo/, *not* /noo/ 1. [acronym `GNU's Not UNIX!',   see {{recursive acronym}}] A UNIX-workalike development effort of   the Free Software Foundation headed by Richard Stallman   (rms@gnu.ai.mit.edu).  GNU EMACS and the GNU C compiler, two to...
GNU2 is  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 s...
GNU3 is  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 softwa...
GNU4 is  Software Foundation's imprimatur.  See {EMACS},   {copyleft}, {General Public Virus}.  2. Noted UNIX hacker   John Gilmore (gnu@toad.com), founder of USENET's anarchic alt.*   hierarchy. 
GNUMACS is  /gnoo'maks/ [contraction of `GNU EMACS'] Often-heard   abbreviated name for the {GNU} project's flagship tool, {EMACS}.   Used esp. in contrast with {GOSMACS}.
go flatline is  [from cyberpunk SF, refers to flattening of EEG traces   upon brain-death] vi., also adjectival `flatlined'. 1. To die,   terminate, or fail, esp. irreversibly.  In hacker parlance, this is   used of machines only, human death being c...
go flatline2 is  employ jargon-jokes.  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, t...
go flatline3 is  sees is a bright horizontal line   bisecting the screen. 
go root is  [UNIX] vi. To temporarily enter {root mode} in order   to perform a privileged operation.  This use is deprecated in   Australia, where v. `root' refers to animal sex.
go-faster stripes is  [UK] Syn. {chrome}.
gobble is  vt. To consume or to obtain.  The phrase `gobble up' tends to   imply `consume', while `gobble down' tends to imply `obtain'.   "The output spy gobbles characters out of a {tty} output buffer."   "I guess I'll gobble down a copy of the doc...
Godzillagram is  /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 of this is an IP datagram whose   destination IP address is [255.255.255.255]....
Godzillagram2 is  enough to attempt to implement this!  2. A   network packet of maximum size.  An IP Godzillagram has   65,536 octets. 
golden is  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 {platinum-iridium}.
golf-ball printer is  n. The IBM 2741, a slow but letter-quality   printing device and terminal based on the IBM Selectric typewriter.   The `golf ball' was a round object bearing reversed embossed   images of 88 different characters arranged on four...
golf-ball printer2 is  font by swapping in a different 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 ...
golf-ball printer3 is  character displays   gave way to programmable bit-mapped devices with the flexibility to   support other character sets. 
gonk is  /gonk/ vt.,n. 1. To prevaricate or to embellish the truth   beyond any reasonable recognition.  It is alleged that in German   the term is (mythically) `gonken'; in Spanish the verb becomes   `gonkar'.  "You're gonking me.  That story you ju...
gonk2 is  for example, "Du gonkst mir" (You're   pulling my leg).  See also {gonkulator}.  2. [British] To grab some   sleep at an odd time; compare {gronk out}. 
gonkulator is  /gon'kyoo-lay-tr/ [from the old "Hogan's Heroes" TV   series] n. A pretentious piece of equipment that actually serves no   useful purpose.  Usually used to describe one's least favorite   piece of computer hardware.  See {gonk}.
gonzo is  /gon'zoh/ [from Hunter S. Thompson] adj. 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 {moby} and {hairy}, but with...
Good Thing is  n.,adj. Often capitalized; always pronounced as if   capitalized.  1. Self-evidently wonderful to anyone in a position   to notice "The Trailblazer's 19.2Kbaud PEP mode with on-the-fly   Lempel-Ziv compression is a Good Thing for sites...
Good Thing2 is  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 Th...
Good Thing3 is   drastically reduced a programmer's work load.  Oppose {Bad   Thing}. 
gorilla arm is  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 {spiffy} touch-menu   systems failed to notice that humans aren't ...
gorilla arm2 is  their faces making small motions.  After more than   a very few selections, the arm begins to feel sore, cramped, and   oversized; hence `gorilla arm'.  This is now considered a classic   cautionary tale to human-factors designers; "...
gorilla arm3 is  "How is this going to fly in *real*   use?". 
gorp is  /gorp/ [CMU perhaps from the canonical hiker's food, Good   Old Raisins and Peanuts] Another metasyntactic variable, like   {foo} and {bar}.
GOSMACS is  /goz'maks/ [contraction of `Gosling EMACS'] n. The first   {EMACS}-in-C implementation, predating but now largely eclipsed by   {GNUMACS}.  Originally freeware; a commercial version is now   modestly popular as `UniPress EMACS'.  The auth...
Gosperism is  /gos'p*r-izm/ A hack, invention, or saying by   arch-hacker R. William (Bill) Gosper.  This notion merits its own   term because there are so many of them.  Many of the entries in   {HAKMEM} are Gosperisms; see also {life}.
gotcha is  n. A {misfeature} of a system, especially a programming   language or environment, that tends to breed bugs or mistakes because   it behaves in an unexpected way.  For example, a classic gotcha in {C}   is the fact that `if (a=b) {code;}' ...
gotcha2 is  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. 
GPL is  /G-P-L/ n. Abbrev. for `General Public License' in   widespread use; see {copyleft}.
GPV is  /G-P-V/ n. Abbrev. for {General Public Virus} in   widespread use.
grault is  /grawlt/ n. Yet another meta-syntactic variable, invented by   Mike Gallaher and propagated by the {GOSMACS} documentation.  See   {corge}.
gray goo is  n. A hypothetical substance composed of {sagan}s 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...
gray goo2 is  goo.  This is the simplest of the   {{nanotechnology}} disaster scenarios, easily refuted by arguments   from energy requirements and elemental abundances.  Compare {blue   goo}. 
Great Renaming is  n. The {flag day} on which all of the non-local   groups on the {USENET} had their names changed from the net.-   format to the current multiple-hierarchies scheme.
Great Runes is  n. Uppercase-only text or display messages.  Some   archaic operating systems still emit these.  See also {runes},   {smash case}, {fold case}.   Decades ago, back in the days when it was the sole supplier of   long-distance hardcopy ...
Great Runes2 is  Corporation was faced with a major design choice.  To shorten code   lengths and cut complexity in the printing mechanism, it had been   decided that teletypes would use a monocase font, either ALL UPPER   or all lower.  The question...
Great Runes3 is  conducted on readability under various conditions of bad ribbon,   worn print hammers, etc.  Lowercase won; it is less dense and has   more distinctive letterforms, and is thus much easier to read both   under ideal conditions and wh...
Great Runes4 is  obscured.  The results were filtered up through {management}.   The chairman of Teletype killed the proposal because it failed one   incredibly important criterion     "It would be impossible to spell the name of the Deity correctly....
Great Runes5 is  folklore has it) superstition   triumphed over utility.  Teletypes were the major input devices on   most early computers, and terminal manufacturers looking for   corners to cut naturally followed suit until well into the 1970s.   T...
Great Runes6 is  Runes for thirty years. 
great-wall is  [from SF fandom] vi.,n. 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 val...
great-wall2 is  the group, can be inferred from   context (see {N}).  See {{oriental food}}, {ravs},   {stir-fried random}. 
Green Book is  n. 1. One of the three standard PostScript references   `PostScript Language Program Design', bylined `Adobe Systems'   (Addison-Wesley, 1988; QA76.73.P67P66 ISBN; 0-201-14396-8); see   also {Red Book}, {Blue Book}).  2. Informal name ...
Green Book2 is  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'.  ...
Green Book3 is  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 {...
Green Book4 is  Operating Systems Interface standard has been dubbed "The   Ugly Green Book".  5. Any of the 1992 standards which will be   issued by the CCITT's tenth plenary assembly.  Until now, these   have changed color each review cycle (1984 w...
Green Book5 is  is rumored that this convention is   going to be dropped before 1992.  These include, among other   things, the X.400 email standard and the Group 1 through 4 fax   standards.  See also {{book titles}}. 
green bytes is  n. 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) ...
green bytes2 is  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 th...
green bytes3 is  {out-of-band},   {zigamorph}, {fence} (sense 1). 
green card is  n. [after the `IBM System/360 Reference Data'   card] This is used for any summary of an assembly language, even if   the color is not green.  Less frequently used now because of the   decrease in the use of assembly language.  "I'll g...
green card2 is  addressing mode for that instruction."   Some green cards are actually booklets.   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 scen...
green card3 is  room   at Yorktown in 1978.  A 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 ol...
green card4 is  return.  See also {card}. 
green lightning is  [IBM] n. 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 th...
green lightning2 is  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 ...
green lightning3 is  the 88000   architecture `compatibility logic', but I call it green   lightning".  See also {feature}. 
green machine is  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 o...
Green's Theorem is  [TMRC] prov. For any story, in any group of people   there will be at least one person who has not heard the story.   [The name of this theorem is a play on a fundamental theorem in   calculus. --- ESR]
grep is  /grep/ [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 {{UNIX}} `grep(1)'] vt. To rapidly scan a file or f...
grep2 is  pattern.  By extension, to look   for something by pattern.  "Grep the bulletin board for the system   backup schedule, would you?"  See also {vgrep}. 
grind is  vt. 1. [MIT and Berkeley] To format code, especially LISP   code, by indenting lines so that it looks pretty.  This usage was   associated with the MacLISP community and is now rare;   {prettyprint} was and is the generic term for such   op...
grind2 is  version of a   document from the nroff, troff, TeX, or Scribe source.  The BSD   program `vgrind(1)' grinds code for printing on a Versatec   bitmapped printer.  3. To run seemingly interminably, esp. (but   not necessarily) if performing ...
grind3 is  Similar to {crunch} or {grovel}.  Grinding has a   connotation of using a lot of CPU time, but it is possible to grind   a disk, network, etc.  See also {hog}.  4. To make the whole   system slow.  "Troff really grinds a PDP-11."  5. `grin...
grind crank is  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 t...
grind crank2 is  {grind} and {wugga wugga}.   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   `...
grind crank3 is  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 arrang...
grind crank4 is  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. 
gritch is  /grich/ 1. n. A complaint (often caused by a {glitch}).   2. vi. To complain.  Often verb-doubled "Gritch gritch".  3. A   synonym for {glitch} (as verb or noun).
grok is  /grok/, var. /grohk/ [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'] vt. 1. To understand, usually in a global sense.  Co...
grok2 is  Contrast {zen}, similar   supernal understanding as a single brief flash.  See also   {glark}.  2. Used of programs, may connote merely sufficient   understanding.  "Almost all C compilers grok the `void' type   these days." 
gronk is  /gronk/ [popularized by Johnny Hart's comic strip   "B.C." but the word apparently predates that] vt. 1. To   clear the state of a wedged device and restart it.  More severe   than `to {frob}'.  2. [TMRC] To cut, sever, smash, or   similarl...
gronk2 is  diskette   drives.  In particular, the microfloppies on a Commodore Amiga go   "grink, gronk". 
gronk out is  vi. To cease functioning.  Of people, to go home and go   to sleep.  "I guess I'll gronk out now; see you all tomorrow."
gronked is  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!"...
gronked2 is  same as {gronk} used of   hardware, but connotes depression or mental/emotional problems in   people. 
grovel is  vi. 1. To work interminably and without apparent progress.   Often used transitively with `over' or `through'.  "The file   scavenger has been groveling through the file directories for 10   minutes now."  Compare {grind} and {crunch}.  Em...
grovel2 is  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." 
grunge is  /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   {dead code}.
gubbish is  /guhb'*sh/ [a portmanteau of `garbage' and `rubbish'?]   n. Garbage; crap; nonsense.  "What is all this gubbish?"  The   opposite portmanteau `rubbage' is also reported.
guiltware is  /gilt'weir/ n. 1. A piece of {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...
gumby is  /guhm'bee/ [from a class of Monty Python characters, poss.   themselves named after the 1960s claymation character] n. An act of   minor but conspicuous stupidity, often in `gumby maneuver' or   `pull a gumby'.
gun is  [ITS from the `GUN' command] vt. 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."  Compare {can}.
gunch is  /guhnch/ [TMRC] vt. To push, prod, or poke at a device   that has almost produced the desired result.  Implies a threat to   {mung}.
gurfle is  /ger'fl/ interj. An expression of shocked disbelief.  "He   said we have to recode this thing in FORTRAN by next week.   Gurfle!"  Compare {weeble}.
guru is  n. 1. [UNIX] An expert.  Implies not only {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 {source of all good b...
guru2 is  UNIX.  When the system crashes, a   cryptic message "GURU MEDITATION #XXXXXXXX.YYYYYYYY" appears,   indicating what the problem was.  An Amiga guru can figure things   out from the numbers.  Generally a {guru} event must be followed   by a ...
guru3 is  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-inf...
guru4 is  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...
guru5 is  etc.); this is prob. patterning on the original Whetstone (the name   of a laboratory) but influenced by the fannish/counterculture   h infix. 
ha ha only serious is  [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...
ha ha only serious2 is  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 h...
ha ha only serious3 is  ha-ha-only-serious by hackers themselves; to take it   either too lightly or too seriously marks a person as an outsider,   a {wannabee}, or in {larval stage}.  For further   enlightenment on this subject, consult any Zen mast...
hack is  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...
hack2 is  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...
hack3 is  "I   hack solid-state physics."  5. vt. To pull a prank on.  See   sense 2 and {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...
hack4 is  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).  Fo...
hack5 is   See also {neat hack},   {real hack}. 
hack attack is  [poss. by analogy with `Big Mac Attack' from ads   for the McDonald's fast-food chain; the variant `big hack attack'   is reported] n. Nearly synonymous with {hacking run}, though the   latter more strongly implies an all-nighter.
hack mode is  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 co...
hack mode2 is  wizardliness; it is one of the most   important skills learned during {larval stage}.  Sometimes   amplified as `deep hack mode'.   Being yanked out of hack mode (see {priority interrupt}) may be   experienced as a physical shock, and ...
hack mode3 is  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 {cybersp...
hack mode4 is  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)...
hack mode5 is  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   {hack mo...
hack mode6 is  your   head, and you dare not {swap} that context out until you have   reached a good point to pause. See also {juggling eggs}. 
hack on is  vt. To {hack}; implies that the subject is some   pre-existing hunk of code that one is evolving, as opposed to   something one might {hack up}.
hack together is  vt. To throw something together so it will work.   Unlike `kluge together' or {cruft together}, this does not   necessarily have negative connotations.
hack up is  vt. To {hack}, but generally implies that the result is   a hack in sense 1 (a quick hack).  Contrast this with {hack on}.   To `hack up on' implies a {quick-and-dirty} modification to an   existing system.  Contrast {hacked up}; compare ...
hack value is  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, ...
hack value2 is  See {display hack} for one   method of computing hack value, but this cannot really be   explained.  As a great artist once said of jazz "If you hafta ask,   you ain't never goin' to find out." 
hack-and-slay is  v. (also `hack-and-slash') 1. To play a {MUD}   or go mudding, especially with the intention of {berserking} for   pleasure.  2. To undertake an all-night programming/hacking   session, interspersed with stints of mudding as a chang...
hack-and-slay2 is  academic network amongst students   who worked nights and logged onto Essex University's MUDs during   public-access hours (2 A.M. to 7 A.M.).  Usually more   mudding than work was done in these sessions. 
hacked off is  [analogous to `pissed off'] adj. 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, technic...
hacked off2 is  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 y...
hacked up is  adj. Sufficiently patched, kluged, and tweaked that the   surgical scars are beginning to crowd out normal tissue (compare   {critical mass}).  Not all programs that are hacked become   `hacked up'; if modifications are done with some e...
hacked up2 is  maintainability, the software may emerge better for   the experience.  Contrast {hack up}. 
hacker is  [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] n.   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 neces...
hacker2 is  (even obsessively) or who enjoys   programming rather than just theorizing about programming.  3. A   person capable of appreciating {hack value}.  4. A person who is   good at programming quickly.  5. An expert at a particular program,  ...
hacker3 is  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...
hacker4 is  circumventing   limitations.  8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to   discover sensitive information by poking around.  Hence `password   hacker', `network hacker'.  See {cracker}.   It is better to be described as a hacker by ...
hacker5 is  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 ...
hacker6 is  quickly be labeled   {bogus}). 
hacking run is  [analogy with `bombing run' or `speed run'] n. 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 {phase}).
Hacking X for Y is  [ITS] n. The information ITS made publicly   available about each user (the INQUIR record) was a sort of form in   which the user could fill out fields.  On display, two of these   fields were combined into a project description o...
Hacking X for Y2 is  `"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 {plan file}s). 
Hackintosh is  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.
hackish is  /hak'ish/ adj. (also {hackishness} n.) 1. Said of   something that is or involves a hack.  2. Of or pertaining to   hackers or the hacker subculture.  See also {true-hacker}.
hackishness is  n. The quality of being or involving a hack.  This   term is considered mildly silly.  Syn.  {hackitude}.
hackitude is  n. Syn. {hackishness}; this word is considered sillier.
hair is  [back-formation from {hairy}] n. The complications that   make something hairy.  "Decoding {TECO} commands requires a   certain amount of hair."  Often seen in the phrase `infinite   hair', which connotes extreme complexity.  Also in `hairif...
hair2 is  "GNUMACS Elisp encourages lusers   to write complex editing modes."  "Yeah, it's pretty hairiferous   all right." (or just "Hair squared!") 
hairy is  adj. 1. Annoyingly complicated.  "{DWIM} is incredibly   hairy."  2. Incomprehensible.  "{DWIM} is incredibly hairy."   3. Of people, high-powered, authoritative, rare, expert, and/or   incomprehensible.  Hard to explain except in context "...
hairy2 is  nothing to worry about."  See   also {hirsute}. 
HAKMEM is  /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 ...

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

segment is  /seg'ment/ vi. To experience a {segmentation fault}.   Confusingly, this is often pronounced more like the noun `segment'   than like mainstream v. segment; this is because it is actually a   noun shorthand that has been verbed.
segmentation fault is  n. [UNIX] 1. An error in which a running program   attempts to access memory not allocated to it and {core dump}s   with a segmentation violation error.  2. To lose a train of   thought or a line of reasoning.  Also uttered as ...
segv is  /seg'vee/ n.,vi. Yet another synonym for {segmentation   fault} (actually, in this case, `segmentation violation').
self-reference is  n. See {self-reference}.
selvage is  /sel'v*j/ [from sewing] n. See {chad} (sense 1).
semi is  /se'mee/ or /se'mi/ 1. n. Abbreviation for   `semicolon', when speaking.  "Commands to {grind} are   prefixed by semi-semi-star" means that the prefix is `;;*',   not 1/4 of a star.  2. A prefix used with words such as   `immediately' as a q...
semi2 is  "Semi-immediately." (That is, maybe not for an hour.)  "We did   consider that possibility semi-seriously."  See also   {infinite}. 
semi-infinite is  n. See {infinite}.
senior bit is  [IBM] n. Syn. {meta bit}.
server is  n. A kind of {daemon} that performs a service for the   requester and which often runs on a computer other than the one on   which the server runs.  A particularly common term on the Internet,   which is rife with `name servers', `domain s...
SEX is  /seks/ [Sun Users' Group & elsewhere] n. 1. Software   EXchange.  A technique invented by the blue-green algae hundreds of   millions of years ago to speed up their evolution, which had been   terribly slow up until then.  Today, SEX parties ...
SEX2 is  course, these are no longer limited to   exchanges of genetic software).  In general, SEX parties are a   {Good Thing}, but unprotected SEX can propagate a {virus}.   See also {pubic directory}.  2. The rather Freudian mnemonic   often used ...
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 ...

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

spaghetti inheritance is  n. [encountered among users of object-oriented   languages that use inheritance, such as Smalltalk] A convoluted   class-subclass graph, often resulting from carelessly deriving   subclasses from other classes just for the s...
spaghetti inheritance2 is  (successful) attempt to discourage such   practice, through guilt-by-association with {spaghetti code}. 
spam is  [from the {MUD} community] vt. To crash a program by overrunning   a fixed-size buffer with excessively large input data.  See also   {buffer overflow}, {overrun screw}, {smash the stack}.
special-case is  vt. To write unique code to handle input to or   situations arising in program that are somehow distinguished from   normal processing.  This would be used for processing of mode   switches or interrupt characters in an interactive i...
special-case2 is  normal commands), or for processing   of {hidden flag}s in the input of a batch program or {filter}. 
speedometer is  n. A pattern of lights displayed on a linear set of   LEDs (today) or nixie tubes (yesterday, on ancient mainframes).  The   pattern is shifted left every N times the software goes   through its main loop.  A swiftly moving pattern in...
speedometer2 is  speedometer slows down as the system   becomes overloaded.  The speedometer on Sun Microsystems hardware   bounces back and forth like the eyes on one of the Cylons from the   wretched "Battlestar Galactica" TV series.   Historical n...
speedometer3 is  600)   actually had an *analog* speedometer on the front panel,   calibrated in instructions executed per second. 
spell is  n. Syn. {incantation}.
spiffy is  /spi'fee/ adj. 1. Said of programs having a pretty,   clever, or exceptionally well-designed interface. "Have you seen   the spiffy {X} version of {empire} yet?"  2. Said   sarcastically of a program that is perceived to have little more  ...
spiffy2 is  meaning should be   drawn depends delicately on tone of voice and context.  This word   was common mainstream slang during the 1940s, in a sense close to #1. 
spin is  vi. Equivalent to {buzz}.  More common among C and UNIX   programmers.
spl is  /S-P-L/ [abbrev, from Set Priority Level] The way   traditional UNIX kernels implement mutual exclusion by running code   at high interrupt levels.  Used in jargon to describe the act of   tuning in or tuning out ordinary communication.  Clas...
spl2 is  at spl 6 today." would mean   that he is very hard to interrupt.  "Wait till I finish this; I'll   spl down then."  See also {interrupts locked out}. 
splat is  n. 1. Name used in many places (DEC, IBM, and others) for   the asterisk (`*') character (ASCII 0101010).  This may derive   from the `squashed-bug' appearance of the asterisk on many early   line printers.  2. [MIT] Name used by some peopl...
splat2 is  [Rochester Institute of   Technology] The {command key} on a Mac (same as {ALT},   sense 2).  4. [Stanford] Name used by some people for the   Stanford/ITS extended ASCII   circle-x   character.  This character is also called `blobby' and ...
splat3 is  used by mathematicians as a   notation for `tensor product'.  5. [Stanford] Name for the   semi-mythical extended ASCII   circle-plus   character.  6. Canonical name for an output routine that outputs   whatever the local interpretation of...
splat4 is  4--6 are now nearly obsolete.  See   also {{ASCII}}. 
sponge is  [UNIX] n. A special case of a {filter} that reads its   entire input before writing any output; the canonical example is a   sort utility.  Unlike most filters, a sponge can conveniently   overwrite the input file with the output data stre...
sponge2 is  ITS did and VMS does now) the   sponge/filter distinction loses its usefulness, because directing   filter output would just write a new version.  See also {slurp}. 
spooge is  /spooj/ 1. n. Inexplicable or arcane code, or random   and probably incorrect output from a computer program.  2. vi. To   generate spooge (sense 1).
spool is  [from early IBM `Simultaneous Peripheral Operation Off-Line',   but this acronym is widely thought to have been contrived for   effect] vt. To send files to some device or program (a `spooler')   that queues them up and does something usefu...
spool2 is  understood is the `print spooler' controlling   output of jobs to a printer, but the term has been used in   connection with other peripherals (especially plotters and graphics   devices).  See also {demon}. 
stack is  n. A person's stack is the set of things he or she has to do   in the future.  One speaks of the next project to be attacked as   having risen to the top of the stack.  "I'm afraid I've got real   work to do, so this'll have to be pushed wa...
stack2 is  because every time I pop my stack something   new gets pushed."  If you are interrupted several times in the   middle of a conversation, "My stack overflowed" means "I   forget what we were talking about."  The implication is that more   i...
stack3 is  remembered, so the   least recent items were lost.  The usual physical example of a   stack is to be found in a cafeteria a pile of plates or trays   sitting on a spring in a well, so that when you put one on the top   they all sink down, ...
stack4 is  spring up a bit.  See also {push} and {pop}.   At MIT, {pdl} used to be a more common synonym for {stack} in   all these contexts, and this may still be true.  Everywhere else   {stack} seems to be the preferred term.  {Knuth}   (`The Art ...
stack5 is  1,   p. 236) says        Many people who realized the importance of stacks and queues        independently have given other names to these structures        stacks have been called push-down lists, reversion storages,        cellars, nesti...
stack6 is      lists, and even yo-yo lists! 
stack puke is  n. Some processor architectures are said to `puke their   guts onto the stack' to save their internal state during exception   processing.  The Motorola 68020, for example, regurgitates up to   92 bytes on a bus fault.  On a pipelined ...
stale pointer bug is  n. Synonym for {aliasing bug} used esp. among   microcomputer hackers.
state is  n. 1. Condition, situation.  "What's the state of your   latest hack?"  "It's winning away."  "The system tried to read   and write the disk simultaneously and got into a totally wedged   state."  The standard question "What's your state?" ...
state2 is  you about to do?"  Typical   answers are "about to gronk out", or "hungry".  Another   standard question is "What's the state of the world?", meaning   "What's new?" or "What's going on?".  The more terse and   humorous way of asking these...
state3 is  of phrasing the first question under sense 1 would be   "state-p latest hack?".  2. Information being maintained in   non-permanent memory (electronic or human). 
steam-powered is  adj. Old-fashioned or underpowered; archaic.  This   term does not have a strong negative loading and may even be used   semi-affectionately for something that clanks and wheezes a lot   but hangs in there doing the job.
stiffy is  [University of Lowell,  Massachusetts.] n. 3.5-inch   {microfloppies}, so called because their jackets are more firm   than those of the 5.25-inch and the 8-inch floppy.  Elsewhere this might be   called a `firmy'.
stir-fried random is  alt. `stir-fried mumble' n. Term used for the    best dish of many of those hackers who can cook.  Consists of   random fresh veggies and meat wokked with random spices.  Tasty and   economical.  See {random}, {great-wall}, {rav...
stomp on is  vt. To inadvertently overwrite something important, usually   automatically.  "All the work I did this weekend got   stomped on last night by the nightly server script."  Compare   {scribble}, {mangle}, {trash}, {scrog}, {roach}.
Stone Age is  n., adj. 1. In computer folklore, an ill-defined period   from ENIAC (ca. 1943) to the mid-1950s; the great age of   electromechanical {dinosaur}s.  Sometimes used for the entire   period up to 1960--61 (see {Iron Age}); however, it is ...
Stone Age2 is  the latter period in terms of   a `Bronze Age' era of transistor-logic, pre-ferrite-{core}   machines with drum or CRT mass storage (as opposed to just mercury   delay lines and/or relays).  See also {Iron Age}.  2. More   generally, a...
Stone Age3 is  hardware   or software technology.  Note that this is used even by people who   were there for the {Stone Age} (sense 1). 
stoppage is  /sto'p*j/ n. Extreme {lossage} that renders   something (usually something vital) completely unusable.  "The   recent system stoppage was caused by a {fried} transformer."
store is  [prob. from techspeak `main store'] n. Preferred Commonwealth   synonym for {core}.  Thus, `bringing a program into store' means   not that one is returning shrink-wrapped software but that a   program is being {swap}ped in.
stroke is  n. Common name for the slant (`/', ASCII 0101111)   character.  See {ASCII} for other synonyms.
strudel is  n. Common (spoken) name for the circumflex (`', ASCII   1000000) character.  See {ASCII} for other synonyms.
stubroutine is  /stuhb'roo-teen/ [contraction of `stub routine']   n.  Tiny, often vacuous placeholder for a subroutine that is to be   written or fleshed out later.
studlycaps is  /stuhd'lee-kaps/ n. A hackish form of silliness   similar to {BiCapitalization} for trademarks, but applied   randomly and to arbitrary text rather than to trademarks.  ThE   oRigiN and SigNificaNce of thIs pRacTicE iS oBscuRe.
stunning is  adj. Mind-bogglingly stupid.  Usually used in sarcasm.   "You want to code *what* in ADA?  That's ... a stunning   idea!"
stupid-sort is  n. Syn. {bogo-sort}.
subshell is  /suhb'shel/ [UNIX, MS-DOS] n. An OS command interpreter   (see {shell}) spawned from within a program, such that exit from   the command interpreter returns one to the parent program in a   state that allows it to continue execution.  Co...
sucking mud is  [Applied Data Research] adj. (also `pumping   mud') Crashed or wedged.  Usually said of a machine that provides   some service to a network, such as a file server.  This Dallas   regionalism derives from the East Texas oilfield lament...
sucking mud2 is  Often used as a query.  "We   are going to reconfigure the network, are you ready to suck mud?" 
sufficiently small is  adj. Syn. {suitably small}.
suit is  n. 1. Ugly and uncomfortable `business clothing' often worn   by non-hackers.  Invariably worn with a `tie', a strangulation   device that partially cuts off the blood supply to the brain.  It   is thought that this explains much about the b...
suit2 is  2. A person who habitually wears   suits, as distinct from a techie or hacker.  See {loser},   {burble}, {management}, and {brain-damaged}.  English, by the   way, is relatively kind; our Soviet correspondent informs us that   the correspon...
suit3 is  lit.   a tool for grabbing garbage. 
suitable win is  n. See {win}.
suitably small is  [perverted from mathematical jargon] adj. An   expression used ironically to characterize unquantifiable   behavior that differs from expected or required behavior.  For   example, suppose a newly created program came up with a cor...
suitably small2 is  exclaimed "It works!"   Then, if the program dumps core on the first mouse click, one might   add "Well, for suitably small values of `works'."  Compare   the characterization of pi under {{random numbers}}. 
sun-stools is  n. Unflattering hackerism for SunTools, a pre-X   windowing environment notorious in its day for size, slowness, and   misfeatures.  {X}, however, is larger and slower; see   {second-system effect}.
sunspots is  n. 1. Notional cause of an odd error.  "Why did the   program suddenly turn the screen blue?"  "Sunspots, I guess."   2. Also the cause of {bit rot} --- from the myth that sunspots   will increase {cosmic rays}, which can flip single bit...
superprogrammer is  n. A prolific programmer; one who can code   exceedingly well and quickly.  Not all hackers are   superprogrammers, but many are.  (Productivity can vary from one   programmer to another by three orders of magnitude.  For example,...
superprogrammer2 is  average of 3 lines of   working code in one day, while another, with the proper tools,   might be able to write 3,000.  This range is astonishing; it is   matched in very few other areas of human endeavor.)  The term   `superprog...
superprogrammer3 is  places as IBM   than in the hacker community.  It tends to stress na"ive measures   of productivity and to underweight creativity, ingenuity, and   getting the job *done* --- and to sidestep the question of   whether the 3,000 li...
superprogrammer4 is  three lines that do the {Right Thing}.  Hackers tend to prefer   the terms {hacker} and {wizard}. 
superuser is  [UNIX] n. Syn. {root}, {avatar}.  This usage has   spread to non-UNIX environments; the superuser is any account with   all {wheel} bits on.  A more specific term than {wheel}.
support is  n. After-sale handholding; something many software   vendors promise but few deliver.  To hackers, most support people   are useless --- because by the time a hacker calls support he or   she will usually know the relevant manuals better ...
support2 is  *not* a joke or exaggeration).  A   hacker's idea of `support' is a t^ete-`a-t^ete with the   software's designer. 
Suzie COBOL is  /soo'zee koh'bol/ 1. [IBM prob. from Frank Zappa's   `Suzy Creamcheese'] n. A coder straight out of training school who   knows everything except the value of comments in plain English.   Also (fashionable among personkind wishing to ...
Suzie COBOL2 is  or (in some non-IBM circles) `Cobol Charlie'.   2. [proposed] Meta-name for any {code grinder}, analogous to   {J. Random Hacker}. 
swab is  /swob/ [From the mnemonic for the PDP-11 `SWAp Byte'   instruction, as immortalized in the `dd(1)' option `conv=swab'   (see {dd})] 1. vt. To solve the {NUXI problem} by swapping   bytes in a file.  2. n. The program in V7 UNIX used to perfo...
swab2 is  equivalent to it.  See also   {big-endian}, {little-endian}, {middle-endian},   {bytesexual}. 
swap is  vt. 1. [techspeak] To move information from a fast-access   memory to a slow-access memory (`swap out'), or vice versa   (`swap in').  Often refers specifically to the use of disks as   `virtual memory'.  As pieces of data or program are nee...
swap2 is  processing; when they are no longer   needed they may be swapped out again.  2. The jargon use of these   terms analogizes people's short-term memories with core.  Cramming   for an exam might be spoken of as swapping in.  If you temporaril...
swap3 is  it, your excuse is that it   was swapped out.  To `keep something swapped in' means to keep it   fresh in your memory "I reread the TECO manual every few months   to keep it swapped in."  If someone interrupts you just as you got   a good i...
swap4 is  this   out", implying that the piece of paper is your extra-somatic   memory and if you don't swap the info out by writing it down it   will get overwritten and lost as you talk.  Compare {page in},   {page out}. 
swap space is  n. Storage space, especially temporary storage space   used during a move or reconfiguration.  "I'm just using that corner   of the machine room for swap space."
swapped in is  n. See {swap}.  See also {page in}.
swapped out is  n. See {swap}.  See also {page out}.
swizzle is  v. To convert external names, array indices, or references   within a data structure into address pointers when the data   structure is brought into main memory from external storage (also   called `pointer swizzling'); this may be done f...
swizzle2 is  simplify code (e.g., by turning lots of   name lookups into pointer dereferences).  The converse operation is   sometimes termed `unswizzling'.  See also {snap}. 
sync is  /sink/ (var. `synch') n., vi. 1. To synchronize, to   bring into synchronization.  2. [techspeak] To force all pending   I/O to the disk; see {flush}, sense 2.  3. More generally, to   force a number of competing processes or agents to a sta...
sync2 is  to crash; thus, to checkpoint   (in the database-theory sense). 
syntactic sugar is  [coined by Peter Landin] n. Features added to a   language or other formalism to make it `sweeter' for humans,   that do not affect the expressiveness of the formalism (compare   {chrome}).  Used esp. when there is an obvious and ...
syntactic sugar2 is  into other constructs already   present in the notation.  C's `a[i]' notation is syntactic   sugar for `*(a + i)'.  "Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the   semicolon."  --- Alan Perlis   The variant `syntactic saccharine' is also...
syntactic sugar3 is  gratuitous, in that syntactic sugar   serves a purpose (making something more acceptable to humans) but   syntactic saccharine serves no purpose at all. 
sys-frog is  /sis'frog/ [the PLATO system] n. Playful variant of   `sysprog', which is in turn short for `systems programmer'.
sysadmin is  /sis'ad-min/ n. Common contraction of `system   admin'; see {admin}.
sysop is  /sis'op/ n. [esp. in the BBS world] The operator (and   usually the owner) of a bulletin-board system.  A common neophyte   mistake on {FidoNet} is to address a message to `sysop' in an   international {echo}, thus sending it to hundreds of...
system is  n. 1. The supervisor program or OS on a computer.  2. The   entire computer system, including input/output devices, the   supervisor program or OS, and possibly other software.  3. Any   large-scale program.  4. Any method or algorithm.  5...
system2 is  (in senses 1 and 2 only; for   sense 3 one mentions the particular program e.g., `LISP   hacker') 
systems jock is  n. See {jock}, (sense 2).
SysVile is  /sis-vil'/ n. See {Missed'em-five}.
system mangler is  n. Humorous synonym for `system manager', poss.   from the fact that one major IBM OS had a {root} account called   SYSMANGR.  Refers specifically to a systems programmer in charge of   administration, software maintenance, and upd...
system mangler2 is  emphasizes the technical end of the   skills involved.*T /T/ 1. [from LISP terminology for `true] Yes.  Used in   reply to a question (particularly one asked using the `-P   convention).  In LISP, the constant T means `true, among...
system mangler3 is  instead of `Yes and `No   almost reflexively.  This sometimes causes misunderstandings.  When   a waiter or flight attendant asks whether a hacker wants coffee, he   may well respond `T, meaning that he wants coffee; but of course...
system mangler4 is  it happens, most   hackers (particularly those who frequent Chinese restaurants) like   tea at least as well as coffee --- so it is not that big a problem.   2. See {time T} (also {since time T equals minus infinity}).   3. [techs...
system mangler5 is  abbreviation   for the noun `transaction.  4. [Purdue] Alternate spelling of   {tee}. 
tail recursion is  n. If you arent sick of it already, see {tail   recursion}.
talk mode is  n. A feature supported by UNIX, ITS, and some other   OSes that allows two or more logged-in users to set up a real-time   on-line conversation.  It combines the immediacy of talking with   all the precision (and verbosity) that written...
talk mode2 is  communicate inflection, though conventions have   arisen for some of these (see the section on writing style in the   Prependices for details).   Talk mode has a special set of jargon words, used to save typing,   which are not used or...
talk mode3 is  probably derived from) Morse-code jargon used by ham-radio amateurs   since the 1920s.   Most of these are not used at universities or in the UNIX world,   though ROTF and TTFN have gained some currency there and IMHO is   common; conv...
talk mode4 is  unfamiliar with FOO?, BCNU, HELLOP, {NIL}, and {T}.   The {MUD} community uses a mixture of USENET/Internet emoticons, a   few of the more natural of the old-style talk-mode abbrevs, and   some of the `social list above; specifically, ...
talk mode5 is  b4, BTW, WTF, TTFN, and WTH.  The use of   `rehi is also common; in fact, mudders are fond of re- compounds and   will frequently `rehug or `rebonk (see {bonk/oif}) people.  The   word `re by itself is taken as `regreet.  In general, t...
talk mode6 is  typing things out in full rather   than using abbreviations; this may be due to the relative youth of   the MUD cultures, which tend to include many touch typists and   to assume high-speed links.  The following uses specific to MUDs a...
talk mode7 is  variant spelling `d00d)   appear to be passing into wider use among some subgroups of   MUDders.   One final note on talk mode style neophytes, when in talk mode,   often seem to think they must produce letter-perfect prose because   t...
talk mode8 is  not the best   approach.  It can be very frustrating to wait while your partner   pauses to think of a word, or repeatedly makes the same spelling   error and backs up to fix it.  It is usually best just to leave   typographical errors...
talk mode9 is  confusion may result; in that case it is often fastest just to type   "xxx" and start over from before the mistake.   See also {hakspek}, {emoticon}, {bonk/oif}. 
talker system is  n. British hackerism for software that enables   real-time chat or {talk mode}.
tall card is  n. A PC/AT-size expansion card (these can be larger   than IBM PC or XT cards because the AT case is bigger).  See also   {short card}.  When IBM introduced the PS/2 model 30 (its last   gasp at supporting the ISA) they made the case lo...
tall card2 is  wouldnt fit; this was felt to be a   reincarnation of the {connector conspiracy}, done with less   style. 
tanked is  adj. Same as {down}, used primarily by UNIX hackers.  See   also {hosed}.  Popularized as a synonym for `drunk by Steve   Dallas in the late lamented "Bloom County" comic strip.
tar and feather is  [from UNIX `tar(1)] vt. To create a   transportable archive from a group of files by first sticking them   together with `tar(1) (the Tape ARchiver) and then   compressing the result (see {compress}).  The latter action is   dubbe...
tar and feather2 is  an airplane   propeller to decrease wind resistance, or with an oar to reduce   water resistance; smaller files, after all, slip through comm links   more easily. 
taste is  [primarily MIT] n. 1. The quality in a program that tends   to be inversely proportional to the number of features, hacks, and   kluges programmed into it.  Also `tasty, `tasteful,   `tastefulness.  "This feature comes in N tasty flavors." ...
taste2 is  essentially   synonyms, `taste and {flavor} are not.  Taste refers to   sound judgment on the part of the creator; a program or feature   can *exhibit* taste but cannot {have} taste.  On the other   hand, a feature can have {flavor}.  Also...
taste3 is  `kind or `variety not shared by   `taste.  {Flavor} is a more popular word than `taste,   though both are used.  See also {elegant}.  2. Alt. sp. of   {tayste}. 
tayste is  /tayst/ n. Two bits; also as {taste}.  Syn. {crumb},   {quarter}.  Compare {{byte}}, {dynner}, {playte},   {nybble}, {quad}.
TCB is  /T-C-B/ [IBM] n. 1. Trouble Came Back.  An intermittent or   difficult-to-reproduce problem that has failed to respond to   neglect.  Compare {heisenbug}.  Not to be confused with   2. Trusted Computing Base, an `official jargon term from the...
ISO standard cup of tea is  [South Africa] n. 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.   Like many ...
ISO standard cup of tea2 is  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   feelin...
ISO standard cup of tea3 is  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 dont mix very well. 
TechRef is  /tekref/ [MS-DOS] n. The original `IBM PC   Technical Reference Manual, including the BIOS listing and   complete schematics for the PC.  The only PC documentation in the   issue package thats considered serious by real hackers.
TECO is  /teekoh/ obs. 1. vt. Originally, to edit using the TECO   editor in one of its infinite variations (see below).  2. vt.,obs.   To edit even when TECO is *not* the editor being used!  This   usage is rare and now primarily historical.  2. [or...
TECO2 is  and COrrector; later, `Text   Editor and COrrector] n. A text editor developed at MIT and   modified by just about everybody.  With all the dialects included,   TECO might have been the most prolific editor in use before   {EMACS}, to which...
TECO3 is  powerful programming-language-like features and its unspeakably   hairy syntax.  It is literally the case that every string of   characters is a valid TECO program (though probably not a useful   one); one common hacker game used to be ment...
TECO4 is  corresponding to human names did.  As an example   of TECOs obscurity, here is a TECO program that takes a list of   names such as     Loser, J. Random     Quux, The Great     Dick, Moby   sorts them alphabetically according to surname, and...
TECO5 is  comma, to produce the following     Moby Dick     J. Random Loser     The Great Quux   The program is     [1 J^P$L$$     J <.-Z; .,(S,$ -D .)FX1 @F^B $K L I $ G1 L>$$   (where ^B means `Control-B (ASCII 0000010) and $ is actually   an {ALT}...
TECO6 is  fact, this very program was used to produce the second, sorted   list from the first list.  The first hack at it had a {bug} GLS   (the author) had accidentally omitted the `@ in front   of `F^B, which as anyone can see is clearly the {Wron...
TECO7 is  There is no space to describe all the   features of TECO, but it may be of interest that `^P means   `sort and `J<.-Z; ... L> is an idiomatic series of commands   for `do once for every line.   In mid-1991, TECO is pretty much one with the ...
TECO8 is  affections of hackerdom by {EMACS}.   Descendants of an early (and somewhat lobotomized) version adopted   by DEC can still be found lurking on VMS and a couple of crufty   PDP-11 operating systems, however, and ports of the more advanced  ...
TECO9 is  antiquarian interest.  See   also {retrocomputing}, {write-only language}. 
tee is  n.,vt. [Purdue] A carbon copy of an electronic transmission.   "Oh, youre sending him the {bits} to that?  Slap on a tee for   me."  From the UNIX command `tee(1), itself named after a   pipe fitting (see {plumbing}).  Can also mean `save one...
Telerat is  /tel*-rat/ n. Unflattering hackerism for `Teleray, a   line of extremely losing terminals.  See also {terminak},   {sun-stools}, {HP-SUX}.
TELNET is  /telnet/ vt. To communicate with another Internet host   using the {TELNET} program.  TOPS-10 people used the word   IMPCOM, since that was the program name for them.  Sometimes   abbreviated to TN /T-N/.  "I usually TN over to SAIL just t...
ten-finger interface is  n. The interface between two networks that   cannot be directly connected for security reasons; refers to the   practice of placing two terminals side by side and having an   operator read from one and type into the other.
tense is  adj. Of programs, very clever and efficient.  A tense piece   of code often got that way because it was highly {bum}med, but   sometimes it was just based on a great idea.  A comment in a clever   routine by Mike Kazar, once a grad-student ...
tense2 is  will bring tears to your eyes."  A tense   programmer is one who produces tense code. 
tenured graduate student is  n. One who has been in graduate school   for 10 years (the usual maximum is 5 or 6) a `ten-yeared   student (get it?).  Actually, this term may be used of any grad   student beginning in his seventh year.  Students dont r...
tenured graduate student2 is  professors do, but a tenth-year graduate   student has probably been around the university longer than any   untenured professor. 
tera- is  /ter*/ [SI] pref. See {{quantifiers}}.
teraflop club is  /ter*-flop kluhb/ [FLOP = Floating Point   Operation] n. A mythical association of people who consume outrageous   amounts of computer time in order to produce a few simple pictures   of glass balls with intricate ray-tracing techni...
teraflop club2 is  said to have been the founder. 
terminak is  /termi-nak`/ [Caltech, ca. 1979] n. Any malfunctioning   computer terminal.  A common failure mode of Lear-Siegler ADM 3a   terminals caused the `L key to produce the `K code instead;   complaints about this tended to look like "Terminak...
terminak2 is  {sun-stools}, {Telerat},   {HP-SUX}. 
terminal brain death is  n. The extreme form of {terminal illness}   (sense 1).  What someone who has obviously been hacking   continuously for far too long is said to be suffering from.
terminal illness is  n. 1. Syn. {raster burn}.  2. The `burn-in   condition your CRT tends to get if you dont have a screen saver.
terminal junkie is  [UK] n. A {wannabee} or early   {larval stage} hacker who spends most of his or her time wandering   the directory tree and writing {noddy} programs just to get   a fix of computer time.  Variants include `terminal   jockey, `cons...
terminal junkie2 is  `console jockey seems to imply more expertise than the other   three (possibly because of the exalted status of the {{console}}   relative to an ordinary terminal).  See also {twink},   {read-only user}. 
terpri is  /terpree/ [from LISP 1.5 (and later, MacLISP)] vi. To   output a {newline}.  Now rare as jargon, though still used as   techspeak in Common LISP.  It is a contraction of `TERminate PRInt   line, named for the fact that, on early OSes, no c...
terpri2 is  line was formed, so this operation   terminated the line and emitted the output. 
test is  n. 1. Real users bashing on a prototype long enough to get   thoroughly acquainted with it, with careful monitoring and followup   of the results.  2. Some bored random user trying a couple of the   simpler features with a developer looking ...
test2 is  mistakes.  Judging by the quality of most   software, the second definition is far more prevalent.  See also   {demo}. 
TeX is  /tekh/ n. An extremely powerful {macro}-based   text formatter written by Donald E. Knuth, very popular in the   computer-science community (it is good enough to have displaced   UNIX `troff(1), the other favored formatter, even at many   UNI...
TeX2 is  correct (guttural)   pronunciation, and the correct spelling (all caps, squished   together, with the E depressed below the baseline; the   mixed-case `TeX is considered an acceptable kluge on ASCII-only   devices).  Fans like to proliferate...
TeX3 is  TeXnician (TeX user), TeXhacker (TeX   programmer), TeXmaster (competent TeX programmer), TeXhax,   and TeXnique.   Knuth began TeX because he had become annoyed at the declining   quality of the typesetting in volumes I--III of his monument...
TeX4 is  {bible}).  In a   manifestation of the typical hackish urge to solve the problem at   hand once and for all, he began to design his own typesetting   language.  He thought he would finish it on his sabbatical in 1978;   he was wrong by only ...
TeX5 is  frozen around 1985, but volume IV of `The Art of Computer   Programming has yet to appear as of mid-1991.  The impact and   influence of TeXs design has been such that nobody minds this   very much.  Many grand hackish projects have started ...
TeX6 is  something else; Knuths diversion was   simply on a grander scale than most. 
text is  n. 1. [techspeak] Executable code, esp. a `pure code   portion shared between multiple instances of a program running in a   multitasking OS (compare {English}).  2. Textual material in the   mainstream sense; data in ordinary {{ASCII}} or {...
text2 is   "Those are text files;   you can review them using the editor."  These two contradictory   senses confuse hackers, too. 
thanks in advance is  [USENET] Conventional net.politeness ending a   posted request for information or assistance.  Sometimes written   `advTHANKSance or `aTdHvAaNnKcSe or abbreviated `TIA.  See   {net.-}, {netiquette}.
the X that can be Y is not the true X is  Yet another instance of   hackerdoms peculiar attraction to mystical references --- a common   humorous way of making exclusive statements about a class of   things.  The template is from the `Tao te Ching "T...
the X that can be Y is not the true X2 is  true Tao."  The implication   is often that the X is a mystery accessible only to the   enlightened.  See the {trampoline} entry for an example, and   compare {has the X nature}. 
theology is  n. 1. Ironically or humorously used to refer to   {religious issues}.  2. Technical fine points of an abstruse   nature, esp. those where the resolution is of theoretical   interest but is relatively {marginal} with respect to actual use...
theology2 is  software issues with a   heavy AI or language-design component, such as the smart-data vs.   smart-programs dispute in AI. 
theory is  n. The consensus, idea, plan, story, or set of rules that   is currently being used to inform a behavior.  This is a   generalization and abuse of the technical meaning.  "Whats the   theory on fixing this TECO loss?"  "Whats the theory on...
theory2 is  "Whats the current theory   on letting lusers on during the day?"  "The theory behind this   change is to fix the following well-known screw...." 
thinko is  /thingkoh/ [by analogy with `typo] n. A momentary,   correctable glitch in mental processing, especially one involving   recall of information learned by rote; a bubble in the stream of   consciousness.  Syn. {braino}.  Compare {mouso}.
This time, for sure! is  excl. Ritual affirmation frequently uttered   during protracted debugging sessions involving numerous small   obstacles (e.g., attempts to bring up a UUCP connection).  For the   proper effect, this must be uttered in a fruit...
This time, for sure!2 is  heard "Hey, Rocky!  Watch me pull a   rabbit out of my hat!"  The {canonical} response is, of course,   "But that trick *never* works!"  See {{Humor, Hacker}}. 
thrash is  vi. To move wildly or violently, without accomplishing   anything useful.  Paging or swapping systems that are overloaded   waste most of their time moving data into and out of core (rather   than performing useful computation) and are the...
thrash2 is  changing his mind (esp. about what to   work on next) is said to be thrashing.  A person frantically trying   to execute too many tasks at once (and not spending enough time on   any single task) may also be described as thrashing.  Compa...
thread is  n. [USENET, GEnie, CompuServe] Common abbreviation of   `topic thread, a more or less continuous chain of postings on a   single topic.
three-finger salute is  n. Syn. {Vulcan nerve pinch}.
thud is  n. 1. Yet another meta-syntactic variable (see {foo}).   It is reported that at CMU from the mid-1970s the canonical series of   these was `foo, `bar, `thud, `blat.  2. Rare term   for the hash character, `# (ASCII 0100011).  See {ASCII} for...
thunk is  /thuhnk/ n. 1. "A piece of coding which provides an   address", according to P. Z. Ingerman, who invented thunks   in 1961 as a way of binding actual parameters to their formal   definitions in Algol-60 procedure calls.  If a procedure is c...
thunk2 is  formal parameter, the compiler   generates a {thunk} to compute the expression and leave the   address of the result in some standard location.  2. Later   generalized into an expression, frozen together with its   environment, for later e...
thunk3 is  in techspeak is called a `closure).  The process of   unfreezing these thunks is called `forcing.  3. A   {stubroutine}, in an overlay programming environment, that loads   and jumps to the correct overlay.  Compare {trampoline}.   4. Peop...
thunk4 is  manner.  "It   occurred to me the other day that I am rather accurately modeled by   a thunk --- I frequently need to be forced to completion." ---   paraphrased from a {plan file}.   Historical note There are a couple of onomatopoeic myth...
thunk5 is  The most common is that   it is the sound made by data hitting the stack; another holds that   the sound is that of the data hitting an accumulator.  Yet another   holds that it is the sound of the expression being unfrozen at   argument-e...
thunk6 is  inventors, it   was coined after they realized (in the wee hours after hours of   discussion) that the type of an argument in Algol-60 could be   figured out in advance with a little compile-time thought,   simplifying the evaluation machi...
thunk7 is  thought of; thus it was christened a `thunk,   which is "the past tense of `think at two in the morning". 
tick is  n. 1. A {jiffy} (sense 1).  2. In simulations, the   discrete unit of time that passes between iterations of the   simulation mechanism.  In AI applications, this amount of time is   often left unspecified, since the only constraint of inter...
tick2 is  AI simulation is often   pejoratively referred to as `tick-tick-tick simulation,   especially when the issue of simultaneity of events with long,   independent chains of causes is {handwave}d. 3. In the FORTH   language, a single quote char...
tick-list features is  [Acorn Computers] n. Features in software or   hardware that customers insist on but never use (calculators in   desktop TSRs and that sort of thing).  The American equivalent   would be `checklist features, but this jargon sen...
tickle a bug is  vt. To cause a normally hidden bug to manifest   through some known series of inputs or operations.  "You can   tickle the bug in the Paradise VGA cards highlight handling by   trying to set bright yellow reverse video."
tiger team is  [U.S. military jargon] n. A team whose purpose is to   penetrate security, and thus test security measures.  These people   are paid professionals who do hacker-type tricks, e.g., leave   cardboard signs saying "bomb" in critical defen...
tiger team2 is  "Your codebooks have been stolen"   (they usually havent been) inside safes, etc.  After a successful   penetration, some high-ranking security type shows up the next   morning for a `security review and finds the sign, note, etc.,   ...
tiger team3 is  of tiger teams   sometimes lead to early retirement for base commanders and security   officers (see the {patch} entry for an example).   A subset of tiger teams are professional {cracker}s, testing the   security of military computer...
tiger team4 is  via networks or supposedly `secure comm channels.  Some of   their escapades, if declassified, would probably rank among the   greatest hacks of all times.  The term has been adopted in   commercial computer-security circles in this m...
time sink is  [poss. by analogy with `heat sink or `current sink] n.   A project that consumes unbounded amounts of time.
time T is  /tim T/ n. 1. An unspecified but usually well-understood   time, often used in conjunction with a later time T+1.   "Well meet on campus at time T or at Louies at   time T+1" means, in the context of going out for dinner   "We can meet on ...
time T2 is  Louies   itself a bit later."  (Louies is a Chinese restaurant in Palo Alto   that is a favorite with hackers.)  Had the number 30 been used instead   of the number 1, it would have implied that the travel time from   campus to Louies is ...
time T3 is  hasnt been decided on yet), you can meet half an hour later at   Louies than you could on campus and end up eating at the same time.   See also {since time T equals minus infinity}. 
times-or-divided-by is  [by analogy with `plus-or-minus] quant. Term   occasionally used when describing the uncertainty associated with a   scheduling estimate, for either humorous or brutally honest effect.   For a software project, the factor is u...
tinycrud is  /tinee-kruhd/ n. A pejorative used by habitues of older   game-oriented {MUD} versions for TinyMUDs and other   user-extensible {MUD} variants; esp. common among users of the   rather violent and competitive AberMUD and MIST systems.  Th...
tinycrud2 is  how (allegedly)   inconsistent and lacking in genuine atmosphere the scenarios   generated in user extensible MUDs can be.  Other common knocks on   them are that they feature little overall plot, bad game topology,   little competitive...
tinycrud3 is  alleged   horrors of the TinyMUD code itself.  This dispute is one of the MUD   worlds hardiest perennial {holy wars}. 
tip of the ice-cube is  [IBM] n. The visible part of something small and   insignificant.  Used as an ironic comment in situations where `tip   of the iceberg might be appropriate if the subject were actually   nontrivial.
tired iron is  [IBM] n. Hardware that is perfectly functional but   far enough behind the state of the art to have been superseded by new   products, presumably with sufficient improvement in bang-per-buck that   the old stuff is starting to look a b...
tits on a keyboard is  n. Small bumps on certain keycaps to keep   touch-typists registered (usually on the `5 of a numeric keypad,   and on the `F and `J of a QWERTY keyboard).
TLA is  /T-L-A/ [Three-Letter Acronym] n. 1. Self-describing   acronym for a species with which computing terminology is infested.   2. Any confusing acronym.  Examples include MCA, FTP, SNA, CPU,   MMU, SCCS, DMU, FPU, NNTP, TLA.  People who like th...
TLA2 is  three letters, just as not all four-letter   words have four letters.  One also hears of `ETLA (Extended   Three-Letter Acronym, pronounced /ee tee el ay/) being used to   describe four-letter acronyms.  The term `SFLA (Stupid Four-Letter   ...
TLA3 is  {YABA}.   The self-effacing phrase "TDM TLA" (Too Damn Many...) is   often used to bemoan the plethora of TLAs in use.  In 1989, a   random of the journalistic persuasion asked hacker Paul Boutin   "What do you think will be the biggest prob...
TLA4 is  straight-faced response "There are only   17,000 three-letter acronyms." (To be exact, there are 26^3   = 17,576.) 
TMRC is  /tmerk/ n. The Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT, one of   the wellsprings of hacker culture.  The 1959 `Dictionary of   the TMRC Language compiled by Peter Samson included several terms   which became basics of the hackish vocabulary (see esp...
TMRC2 is  legendary layout was already a marvel of   complexity.  The control system alone featured about 1200 relays.   There were {scram switch}es located at numerous places around   the room that could be pressed if something undesirable was about...
TMRC3 is  an obstruction.   Another feature of the system was a digital clock on the dispatch   board.  Normally it ran at some multiple of real time, but if   someone hit a scram switch the clock stopped and the display was   replaced with the word ...
TMRC4 is  the Bibliography), gives a   stimulating account of those early years.  TMRCs Power and Signals   group included most of the early PDP-1 hackers and the people who   later bacame the core of the MIT AI Lab staff.  Thirty years later   that ...
TMRC5 is  lexicon   accordingly includes a number of entries from a recent revision of   the TMRC Dictionary. 
to a first approximation is  1. [techspeak] When one is doing certain   numerical computations, an approximate solution may be computed by   any of several heuristic methods, then refined to a final value.   By using the starting point of a first app...
to a first approximation2 is  algorithm that converges more quickly to the   correct result.  2. In jargon, a preface to any comment that   indicates that the comment is only approximately true.  The remark   "To a first approximation, I feel good" m...
to a first approximation3 is  reveal that not all is perfect (e.g., a   nagging cough still remains after an illness). 
to a zeroth approximation is  [from `to a first approximation] A   *really* sloppy approximation; a wild guess.  Compare   {social science number}.
toast is  1. n. Any completely inoperable system or component, esp.   one that has just crashed and burned "Uh, oh ... I think the   serial board is toast."  2. vt. To cause a system to crash   accidentally, especially in a manner that requires manua...
toast2 is  {firewall machine} again." 
toaster is  n. 1. The archetypal really stupid application for an   embedded microprocessor controller; often used in comments that   imply that a scheme is inappropriate technology (but see   {elevator controller}).  "{DWIM} for an assembler?  Thatd...
toaster2 is  toaster!"  2. A very, very dumb   computer. "You could run this program on any dumb toaster."  See   {bitty box}, {Get a real computer!}, {toy}, {beige toaster}.   3. A Macintosh, esp. the Classic Mac.  Some hold that this is   implied b...
toaster3 is  my box   without toasters, but since then Ive added two boards and a second   disk drive." 
toeprint is  n. A {footprint} of especially small size.
toggle is  vt. To change a {bit} from whatever state it is in to the   other state; to change from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1.  This comes from   `toggle switches, such as standard light switches, though the   word `toggle actually refers to the mechanism...
toggle2 is  which it is flipped rather than to the   fact that the switch has two positions.  There are four things you   can do to a bit set it (force it to be 1), clear (or zero) it,   leave it alone, or toggle it.  (Mathematically, one would say t...
toggle3 is  functions of one boolean   argument, but saying that is much less fun than talking about   toggling bits.) 
tool is  1. n. A program used primarily to create, manipulate, modify,   or analyze other programs, such as a compiler or an editor or a   cross-referencing program.  Oppose {app}, {operating system}.   2. [UNIX] An application program with a simple,...
tool2 is  interface designed specifically to be used   in programmed combination with other tools (see {filter}).   3. [MIT general to students there] vi. To work; to study (connotes   tedium).  The TMRC Dictionary defined this as "to set ones brain ...
tool3 is  A student who   studies too much and hacks too little.  (MITs student humor   magazine rejoices in the name `Tool and Die.) 
toolsmith is  n. The software equivalent of a tool-and-die specialist;   one who specializes in making the {tool}s with which other   programmers create applications.  See also {uninteresting}.
topic drift is  n. Term used on GEnie, USENET and other electronic   fora to describe the tendency of a {thread} to drift away from   the original subject of discussion (and thus, from the Subject   header of the originating message), or the results ...
topic drift2 is  reminders that the discussion has   strayed off any useful track.  "I think we started with a question   about Nivens last book, but weve ended up discussing the sexual   habits of the common marmoset.  Now *thats* topic drift!" 
topic group is  n. Syn. {forum}.
TOPS-10 is  /tops-ten/ n. DECs proprietary OS for the fabled {PDP-10}   machines, long a favorite of hackers but now effectively extinct.   A fountain of hacker folklore; see appendix A.  See also {{ITS}},   {{TOPS-20}}, {{TWENEX}}, {VMS}, {operating...
TOPS-102 is  BOTS-10 (from `bottoms-ten) as a comment on the   inappropriateness of describing it as the top of anything. 
TOPS-20 is  /tops-twentee/ n. See {{TWENEX}}.
toto is  /tohtoh/ n. This is reported to be the default scratch   file name among French-speaking programmers --- in other words, a   francophone {foo}.
tourist is  [ITS] n. A guest on the system, especially one who   generally logs in over a network from a remote location for {comm   mode}, email, games, and other trivial purposes.  One step below   {luser}.  Hackers often spell this {turist}, perha...
tourist2 is  {luser} (this also expresses the   ITS cultures penchant for six-letterisms).  Compare {twink},   {read-only user}. 
tourist information is  n. Information in an on-line display that is   not immediately useful, but contributes to a viewers gestalt of   whats going on with the software or hardware behind it.  Whether a   given piece of info falls in this category d...
tourist information2 is  for at any given time.  The `bytes free   information at the bottom of an MS-DOS `dir display is   tourist information; so (most of the time) is the TIME information   in a UNIX `ps(1) display. 
touristic is  adj. Having the quality of a {tourist}.  Often used   as a pejorative, as in `losing touristic scum.  Often spelled   `turistic or `turistik, so that phrase might be more properly   rendered `lusing turistic scum.
toy is  n. A computer system; always used with qualifiers.   1. `nice toy One that supports the speakers hacking style   adequately.  2. `just a toy A machine that yields   insufficient {computron}s for the speakers preferred uses.  This   is not con...
toy2 is  least be fun.   It is also strongly conditioned by ones expectations; Cray XMP   users sometimes consider the Cray-1 a `toy, and certainly all RISC   boxes and mainframes are toys by their standards.  See also {Get   a real computer!}. 
toy language is  n. A language useful for instructional purposes or   as a proof-of-concept for some aspect of computer-science theory,   but inadequate for general-purpose programming.  {Bad Thing}s   can result when a toy language is promoted as a ...
toy language2 is  (see {bondage-and-discipline   language}); the classic example is {{Pascal}}.  Several moderately   well-known formalisms for conceptual tasks such as programming Turing   machines also qualify as toy languages in a less negative se...
toy problem is  [AI] n. A deliberately oversimplified case of a   challenging problem used to investigate, prototype, or test   algorithms for a real problem.  Sometimes used pejoratively.  See   also {gedanken}, {toy program}.
toy program is  n. 1. One that can be readily comprehended; hence, a   trivial program (compare {noddy}).  2. One for which the effort   of initial coding dominates the costs through its life cycle.   See also {noddy}.
trampoline is  n. An incredibly {hairy} technique, found in some   {HLL} and program-overlay implementations (e.g., on the   Macintosh), that involves on-the-fly generation of small executable   (and, likely as not, self-modifying) code objects to do...
trampoline2 is  pieces of {live data} are called   `trampolines.  Trampolines are notoriously difficult to understand   in action; in fact, it is said by those who use this term that the   trampoline that doesnt bend your brain is not the true   tram...
trap is  1. n. A program interrupt, usually an interrupt caused by   some exceptional situation in the user program.  In most cases, the   OS performs some action, then returns control to the program.   2. vi. To cause a trap.  "These instructions tr...
trap2 is  to indicate the cause of the   trap.  "The monitor traps all input/output instructions."   This term is associated with assembler programming (`interrupt   or `exception is more common among {HLL} programmers) and   appears to be fading int...
trap3 is  assembler continues to shrink.  However, it is still important to   computer architects and systems hackers (see {system},   sense 1), who use it to distinguish deterministically repeatable   exceptions from timing-dependent ones (such as I...
trap door is  alt. `trapdoor n. 1. Syn. {back door}.   2. [techspeak] A `trap-door function is one which is easy to   compute but very difficult to compute the inverse of.  Such   functions have important applications in cryptography, specifically   ...
trash is  vt. To destroy the contents of (said of a data structure).   The most common of the family of near-synonyms including {mung},   {mangle}, and {scribble}.
tree-killer is  [Sun] n. 1. A printer.  2. A person who wastes paper.   This should be interpreted in a broad sense; `wasting paper   includes the production of {spiffy} but {content-free} documents.   Thus, most {suit}s are tree-killers.
trit is  /trit/ [by analogy with `bit] n. One base-3 digit; the   amount of information conveyed by a selection among one of three   equally likely outcomes (see also {bit}).  These arise, for   example, in the context of a {flag} that should actuall...
trit2 is  as yes, no, or unknown.  Trits are   sometimes jokingly called `3-state bits.  A trit may be   semi-seriously referred to as `a bit and a half, although it is   linearly equivalent to 1.5849625 bits (that is,   log2(3)   bits). 
trivial is  adj. 1. Too simple to bother detailing.  2. Not worth the   speakers time.  3. Complex, but solvable by methods so well known   that anyone not utterly {cretinous} would have thought of them   already.  4. Any problem one has already solv...
trivial2 is  evaluates to `Ive seen it before).   Hackers notions of triviality may be quite at variance with those   of non-hackers.  See {nontrivial}, {uninteresting}. 
troglodyte is  [Commodore] n. 1. A hacker who never leaves his   cubicle.  The term `Gnoll (from Dungeons & Dragons) is also   reported.  2. A curmudgeon attached to an obsolescent computing   environment.  The combination `ITS troglodyte was flung a...
troglodyte2 is  wringle-wrangle attending the   2.x.x revision of the Jargon File; at least one of the people it   was intended to describe adopted it with pride. 
troglodyte mode is  [Rice University] n. Programming with the lights   turned off, sunglasses on, and the terminal inverted (black on   white) because youve been up for so many days straight that your   eyes hurt (see {raster burn}).  Loud music blar...
troglodyte mode2 is  optional but recommended.  See {larval   stage}, {hack mode}. 
Trojan horse is  [coined by MIT-hacker-turned-NSA-spook Dan Edwards]   n. A program designed to break security or damage a system that is   disguised as something else benign, such as a directory lister,   archiver, a game, or (in one notorious 1990 ...
Trojan horse2 is  destroy viruses!  See {back door}, {virus},   {worm}. 
true-hacker is  [analogy with `trufan from SF fandom] n. One who   exemplifies the primary values of hacker culture, esp. competence   and helpfulness to other hackers.  A high compliment.  "He spent   6 hours helping me bring up UUCP and netnews on ...
true-hacker2 is  act of a true-hacker."  Compare   {demigod}, oppose {munchkin}. 
tty is  /T-T-Y/ [UNIX], /titee/ [ITS, but some UNIX people say it   this way as well; this pronunciation is not considered to have   sexual undertones] n. 1. A terminal of the teletype variety,   characterized by a noisy mechanical printer, a very li...
tty2 is   Usage antiquated (like the   TTYs themselves).  See also {bit-paired keyboard}.   2. [especially UNIX] Any terminal at all; sometimes used to refer   to the particular terminal controlling a given job. 
tube is  1. n. A CRT terminal.  Never used in the mainstream sense of   TV; real hackers dont watch TV, except for Loony Toons, Rocky &   Bullwinkle, Trek Classic, the Simpsons, and the occasional cheesy   old swashbuckler movie (see appendix B).  2....
tube2 is  someone elses terminal.  "Tube me that   note?" 
tube time is  n. Time spent at a terminal or console.  More inclusive   than hacking time; commonly used in discussions of what parts of   ones environment one uses most heavily.  "I find Im spending too   much of my tube time reading mail since I st...
tunafish is  n. In hackish lore, refers to the mutated punchline of   an age-old joke to be found at the bottom of the manual pages of   `tunefs(8) in the original {BSD} 4.2 distribution.  The   joke was removed in later releases once commercial site...
tunafish2 is  to the `tuning of   file-system parameters for optimum performance, and at the bottom   of a few pages of wizardly inscriptions was a `BUGS section   consisting of the line "You can tune a file system, but you cant   tunafish".  Variant...
tunafish3 is  though it has been excised from some versions by humorless   management {droid}s.  The [nt]roff source for SunOS 4.1.1   contains a comment apparently designed to prevent this "Take this   out and a Unix Demon will dog your steps from n...
tune is  [from automotive or musical usage] vt. To optimize a program   or system for a particular environment, esp. by adjusting numerical   parameters designed as {hook}s for tuning, e.g., by changing   `#define lines in C.  One may `tune for time ...

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

UUCPNET2 is  permutation of ADV (i.e.,   {ADVENT}), used to avoid a particular {admin}'s continual   search-and-destroy sweeps for the game] n. A leisure-time activity   of certain hackers involving the covert exploration of the `secret'   parts of l...
UUCPNET3 is  elevators,   maintenance crawlways, steam tunnels, and the like.  A few go so   far as to learn locksmithing in order to synthesize vadding keys.   The verb is `to vad' (compare {phreaking}).   The most extreme and dangerous form of vadd...
UUCPNET4 is  surfing', a sport played by wrasslin'   down a thousand-pound elevator car with a 3-foot piece of   string, and then exploiting this mastery in various stimulating   ways (such as elevator hopping, shaft exploration, rat-racing, and   th...
UUCPNET5 is  try this at home!    See also {hobbit} (sense 2). 
vanilla is  [from the default flavor of ice cream in the U.S.] adj.   Ordinary {flavor}, standard.  When used of food, very often does   not mean that the food is flavored with vanilla extract!  For   example, `vanilla wonton soup' means ordinary won...
vanilla2 is  soup.  Applied to hardware and   software, as in "Vanilla Version 7 UNIX can't run on a   vanilla 11/34."  Also used to orthogonalize chip nomenclature; for   instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a 7400, as distinct from   a 74LS00, etc...
vanilla3 is  the   latter means `default', whereas vanilla simply means `ordinary'.   For example, when hackers go on a {great-wall}, hot-and-sour   wonton soup is the {canonical} wonton soup to get (because that   is what most of them usually order)...
vannevar is  /van'*-var/ n. A bogus technological prediction or   a foredoomed engineering concept, esp. one that fails by   implicitly assuming that technologies develop linearly,   incrementally, and in isolation from one another when in fact the  ...
vannevar2 is  revolutions are   common, and competition is the rule.  The prototype was Vannevar   Bush's prediction of `electronic brains' the size of the Empire   State Building with a Niagara-Falls-equivalent cooling system for   their tubes and r...
vannevar3 is  effect had   already been demonstrated.  Other famous vannevars have included   magnetic-bubble memory, LISP machines, {videotex}, and a paper from   the late 1970s that computed a purported ultimate limit on areal   density for ICs tha...
vannevar4 is  of 5 years later. 
vaporware is  /vay'pr-weir/ n. Products announced far in advance of   any release (which may or may not actually take place).
var is  /veir/ or /var/ n. Short for `variable'.  Compare {arg},   {param}.
VAX is  /vaks/ n. 1. [from Virtual Address eXtension] The most   successful minicomputer design in industry history, possibly   excepting its immediate ancestor, the PDP-11.  Between its release   in 1978 and its eclipse by {killer micro}s after abou...
VAX2 is  favorite machine of them all, esp.   after the 1982 release of 4.2 BSD UNIX (see {BSD}).  Esp.   noted for its large, assembler-programmer-friendly instruction set   --- an asset that became a liability after the RISC revolution.   2. A majo...
VAX3 is  here because   its alleged sales pitch, "Nothing sucks like a VAX!" became a   sort of battle-cry of RISC partisans.  Ironically, the slogan was   *not* actually used by the Vax vacuum-cleaner people, but was   actually that of a rival brand...
VAX4 is  an...").  It is claimed, however, that DEC actually   entered a cross-licensing deal with the vacuum-Vax people that   allowed them to market VAX computers in the U.K. in return for not   challenging the vacuum cleaner trademark in the U.S. 
VAXectomy is  /vak-sek't*-mee/ [by analogy with `vasectomy'] n. A   VAX removal.  DEC's Microvaxen, especially, are much slower than   newer RISC-based workstations such as the SPARC.  Thus, if one knows   one has a replacement coming, VAX removal ca...
VAXen is  /vak'sn/ [from `oxen', perhaps influenced by `vixen'] n.   (alt. `vaxen') The plural canonically used among hackers for the   DEC VAX computers.  "Our installation has four PDP-10s and twenty   vaxen."  See {boxen}.
vaxherd is  n. /vaks'herd/ [from `oxherd'] A VAX operator.
vaxism is  /vak'sizm/ n. A piece of code that exhibits   {vaxocentrism} in critical areas.  Compare {PC-ism},   {unixism}.
vaxocentrism is  /vak`soh-sen'trizm/ [analogy with   `ethnocentrism'] n. A notional disease said to afflict   C programmers who persist in coding according to certain assumptions that are    valid (esp. under UNIX) on {VAXen} but false elsewhere. Amo...
vaxocentrism2 is  validly be accused of vaxocentrism   even if he or she has never seen a VAX.  Some of these assumptions   (esp. 2--5) were valid on the PDP-11, the original C machine, and   became endemic years before the VAX.  The terms `vaxocentr...
vaxocentrism3 is  have been used synonymously. 
vdiff is  /vee'dif/ v.,n. Visual diff.  The operation of finding   differences between two files by {eyeball search}.  The term   `optical diff' has also been reported.  See {diff}.
veeblefester is  /vee'b*l-fes`tr/ [from the "Born Loser"   comix via Commodore; prob. originally from `Mad' Magazine's   `Veeblefeetzer' parodies ca. 1960] n. Any obnoxious person engaged   in the (alleged) professions of marketing or management.  An...
Venus flytrap is  [after the insect-eating plant] n. See {firewall   machine}.
verbage is  /ver'b*j/ n. A deliberate misspelling and mispronunciation of   {verbiage} that assimilates it to the word `garbage'.  Compare   {content-free}.  More pejorative than `verbiage'.
verbiage is  n. When the context involves a software or hardware   system, this refers to {{documentation}}.  This term borrows the   connotations of mainstream `verbiage' to suggest that the   documentation is of marginal utility and that the motive...
verbiage2 is  with the ostensible subject. 
Version 7 is  alt. V7 /vee' se'vn/ n. The 1978 unsupported release of   {{UNIX}} ancestral to all current commercial versions.  Before   the release of the POSIX/SVID standards, V7's features were often   treated as a UNIX portability baseline.  See ...
Version 72 is  old-timers impatient with commercialization and   kernel bloat still maintain that V7 was the Last True UNIX. 
vgrep is  /vee'grep/ v.,n. Visual grep.  The operation of finding   patterns in a file optically rather than digitally.  See {grep};   compare {vdiff}.
vi is  /V-I/, *not* /vi/ and *never* /siks/ [from   `Visual Interface'] n. A screen editor crufted together by Bill Joy   for an early {BSD} version.  Became the de facto standard UNIX   editor and a nearly undisputed hacker favorite until the rise o...
vi2 is  frustrate new users no end,   as it will neither take commands while expecting input text nor   vice versa, and the default setup provides no indication of which   mode one is in (one correspondent accordingly reports that he has   often hear...
vi3 is  Nevertheless it   is still widely used (about half the respondents in a 1991 USENET   poll preferred it), and even EMACS fans often resort to it as a   mail editor and for small editing jobs (mainly because it starts up   faster than bulky EM...
videotex is  n. obs. An electronic service offering people the   privilege of paying to read the weather on their television screens   instead of having somebody read it to them for free while they   brush their teeth.  The idea bombed everywhere it ...
videotex2 is  time videotex was practical   the installed base of personal computers could hook up to   timesharing services and do the things for which videotex might   have been worthwhile better and cheaper.  Videotex planners badly   overestimate...
videotex3 is    computer and the cost of local intelligence at the user's end.   Like the {gorilla arm} effect, this has been a cautionary tale   to hackers ever since.  See also {vannevar}. 
virgin is  adj. Unused; pristine; in a known initial state.  "Let's   bring up a virgin system and see if it crashes again."  (Esp.   useful after contracting a {virus} through {SEX}.)  Also, by   extension, buffers and the like within a program that...
virtual is  [via the technical term `virtual memory', prob. from the   term `virtual image' in optics] adj. 1. Common alternative to   {logical}.  2. Simulated; performing the functions of something   that isn't really there.  An imaginative child's ...
virtual Friday is  n. The last day before an extended weekend, if   that day is not a `real' Friday.  For example, the U.S. holiday   Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday.  The next day is often also   a holiday or taken as an extra day off, in which...
virtual Friday2 is  Friday (and Thursday is a virtual Saturday,   as is Friday).  There are also `virtual Mondays' that are   actually Tuesdays, after the three-day weekends associated with many   national holidays in the U.S. 
virtual reality is  n. 1. Computer simulations that use 3-D graphics   and devices such as the Dataglove to allow the user to interact   with the simulation.  See {cyberspace}.  2. A form of network   interaction incorporating aspects of role-playing...
virtual reality2 is  comedy, and `true confessions'   magazines.  In a virtual reality forum (such as USENET's   alt.callahans newsgroup or the {MUD} experiments on Internet),   interaction between the participants is written like a shared novel   co...
virtual reality3 is  that may be   personae utterly unlike the people who write them, and common   `background characters' manipulable by all parties.  The one   iron law is that you may not write irreversible changes to a   character without the con...
virtual reality4 is  anything goes.  See {bamf}, {cyberspace}. 
virus is  [from the obvious analogy with biological viruses, via SF]   n. A cracker program that searches out other programs and `infects'   them by embedding a copy of itself in them, so that they become   {Trojan Horse}s.  When these programs are e...
virus2 is  thus propagating the `infection'.  This   normally happens invisibly to the user.  Unlike a {worm}, a   virus cannot infect other computers without assistance.  It is   propagated by vectors such as humans trading programs with their   fri...
virus3 is  propagate   itself and then allow the program to run normally.  Usually,   however, after propagating silently for a while, it starts doing   things like writing cute messages on the terminal or playing   strange tricks with your display (...
virus4 is  Many nasty viruses, written by particularly   perversely minded {cracker}s, do irreversible damage, like   nuking all the user's files.   In the 1990s, viruses have become a serious problem, especially   among IBM PC and Macintosh users (t...
virus5 is  viruses to spread easily, even infecting the   operating system).  The production of special anti-virus software   has become an industry, and a number of exaggerated media reports   have caused outbreaks of near hysteria among users; many...
virus6 is  doesn't work as   they had expected on virus attacks.  Accordingly, this sense of   `virus' has passed not only into techspeak but into also popular   usage (where it is often incorrectly used to denote a {worm} or   even a {Trojan horse})...
visionary is  n. 1. One who hacks vision, in the sense of an   Artificial Intelligence researcher working on the problem of   getting computers to `see' things using TV cameras.  (There isn't   any problem in sending information from a TV camera to a...
visionary2 is  computer be programmed to make use of   the camera information?  See {SMOP}, {AI-complete}.)  2. [IBM]   One who reads the outside literature.  At IBM, apparently, such a   penchant is viewed with awe and wonder. 
VMS is  /V-M-S/ n. DEC's proprietary operating system for its VAX   minicomputer; one of the seven or so environments that loom largest   in hacker folklore.  Many UNIX fans generously concede that VMS   would probably be the hacker's favorite commer...
VMS2 is  this makes VMS fans furious.  One major   hacker gripe with VMS concerns its slowness --- thus the following   limerick        There once was a system called VMS        Of cycles by no means abstemious.             It's chock-full of hacks  ...
VMS3 is  my poor stomach all squeamious.                                         --- The Great Quux   See also {VAX}, {{TOPS-10}}, {{TOPS-20}}, {{UNIX}}, {runic}. 
voice is  vt. To phone someone, as opposed to emailing them or   connecting in talk mode.  "I'm busy now; I'll voice you later."
voice-net is  n. Hackish way of referring to the telephone system,   analogizing it to a digital network.  USENET {sig block}s not   uncommonly include the sender's phone next to a "Voice" or   "Voice-Net" header; common variants of this are "Voicene...
voodoo programming is  [from George Bush's "voodoo economics"] n.   The use by guess or cookbook of an {obscure} or {hairy} system,   feature, or algorithm that one does not truly understand.  The   implication is that the technique may not work, and...
voodoo programming2 is  Almost synonymous with {black magic},   except that black magic typically isn't documented and   *nobody* understands it.  Compare {magic}, {deep magic},   {heavy wizardry}, {rain dance}, {cargo cult programming},   {wave a de...
VR is  // [MUD] n. On-line abbrev for {virtual reality}, as   opposed to {RL}.
Vulcan nerve pinch is  n. [from the old "Star Trek" TV series via   Commodore Amiga hackers] The keyboard combination that forces a   soft-boot or jump to ROM monitor (on machines that support such a   feature).  On many micros this is Ctrl-Alt-Del; ...
Vulcan nerve pinch2 is  <Cmd>-<Power switch>!  Also called   {three-finger salute}.  Compare {quadruple bucky}. 
vulture capitalist is  n. Pejorative hackerism for `venture   capitalist', deriving from the common practice of pushing contracts   that deprive inventors of control over their own innovations and   most of the money they ought to have made from them...
vulture capitalist2 is  Fudd's immortal   line "You wascawwy wabbit!"] n. 1. A legendary early hack   reported on a System/360 at RPI and elsewhere around 1978.  The   program would make two copies of itself every time it was run,   eventually crashi...
vulture capitalist3 is   includes infinite self-replication but is not a {virus} or   {worm}.  See also {cookie monster}. 
WAITS is  /wayts/ n. The mutant cousin of {{TOPS-10}} used on a   handful of systems at {{SAIL}} up to 1990.  There was never an   `official' expansion of WAITS (the name itself having been arrived   at by a rather sideways process), but it was frequ...
WAITS2 is  ITS'.  Though WAITS was less visible   than ITS, there was frequent exchange of people and ideas between   the two communities, and innovations pioneered at WAITS exerted   enormous indirect influence.  The early screen modes of {EMACS},  ...
WAITS3 is  `E' editor --- one   of a family of editors that were the first to do `real-time   editing', in which the editing commands were invisible and where   one typed text at the point of insertion/overwriting.  The modern   style of multi-region...
WAITS4 is  and WAITS alumni at XEROX PARC and elsewhere played major roles in   the developments that led to the XEROX Star, the Macintosh, and the   Sun workstations.  {Bucky bits} were also invented there ---   thus, the ALT key on every IBM PC is ...
WAITS5 is  seldom duplicated elsewhere was a news-wire interface   that allowed WAITS hackers to read, store, and filter AP and UPI   dispatches from their terminals; the system also featured a   still-unusual level of support for what is now called ...
WAITS6 is  and video signals to be switched   to programming terminals. 
waldo is  /wol'doh/ [From Robert A. Heinlein's story "Waldo"]   1. A mechanical agent, such as a gripper arm, controlled by a human   limb.  When these were developed for the nuclear industry in the   mid-1940s they were named after the invention des...
waldo2 is  wrote in 1942.  Now known by the more   generic term `telefactoring', this technology is of intense   interest to NASA for tasks like space station maintenance.  2. At   Harvard (particularly by Tom Cheatham and students), this is used   i...
waldo3 is  and general   nonsense word.  See {foo}, {bar}, {foobar}, {quux}. 
walk is  n.,vt. Traversal of a data structure, especially an array or   linked-list data structure in {core}.  See also {codewalker},   {silly walk}, {clobber}.
walk off the end of is  vt. To run past the end of an array, list, or      medium after stepping through it --- a good way to land in trouble.   Often the result of an {off-by-one error}.  Compare   {clobber}, {roach}, {smash the stack}.
walking drives is  n. An occasional failure mode of magnetic-disk   drives back in the days when they were huge, clunky {washing   machine}s.  Those old {dinosaur} parts carried terrific angular   momentum; the combination of a misaligned spindle or ...
walking drives2 is  with the floor could cause them to   `walk' across a room, lurching alternate corners forward a couple   of millimeters at a time.  There is a legend about a drive that   walked over to the only door to the computer room and jamme...
walking drives3 is  wall in order to get at   it!  Walking could also be induced by certain patterns of drive   access (a fast seek across the whole width of the disk, followed by   a slow seek in the other direction).  Some bands of old-time   hacke...
walking drives4 is  patterns that   would do this to particular drive models and held disk-drive races. 
wall is  [WPI] interj. 1. An indication of confusion, usually spoken   with a quizzical tone  "Wall??"  2. A request for further   explication.  Compare {octal forty}.   It is said that "Wall?" really came from `like talking to a   blank wall'.  It w...
wall2 is  you   had carefully answered a question, the questioner stared at you   blankly, clearly having understood nothing that was explained.  You   would then throw out a "Hello, wall?" to elicit some sort of   response from the questioner.  Late...
wall3 is  themselves. 
wall follower is  n. A person or algorithm that compensates for lack   of sophistication or native stupidity by efficiently following some   simple procedure shown to have been effective in the past.  Used of   an algorithm, this is not necessarily p...
wall follower2 is  the winning robot in an early AI contest   (named, of course, after the cocktail).  Harvey successfully solved   mazes by keeping a `finger' on one wall and running till it came   out the other end.  This was inelegant, but it was ...
wall follower3 is  simply-connected mazes --- and, in fact,   Harvey outperformed more sophisticated robots that tried to   `learn' each maze by building an internal representation of it.   Used of humans, the term *is* pejorative and implies an   un...
wall follower4 is  See also {code   grinder}, {droid}. 
wall time is  n. (also `wall clock time') 1. `Real world' time (what   the clock on the wall shows), as opposed to the system clock's idea   of time.  2. The real running time of a program, as opposed to the   number of {clocks} required to execute i...
wall time2 is  differ, as no one program gets all the   {clocks}, and on multiprocessor systems with good thread support   one may get more processor clocks than real-time clocks). 
wallpaper is  n. 1. A file containing a listing (e.g., assembly   listing) or a transcript, esp. a file containing a transcript of   all or part of a login session.  (The idea was that the paper for   such listings was essentially good only for wallp...
wallpaper2 is  used to cover windows.)  Now rare,   esp. since other systems have developed other terms for it (e.g.,   PHOTO on TWENEX).  However, the UNIX world doesn't have an   equivalent term, so perhaps {wallpaper} will take hold there.   The t...
wallpaper3 is  commands to begin   and end transcript files were `WALBEG' and `WALEND',   with default file `WALL PAPER' (the space was a path   delimiter).  2. The background pattern used on graphical   workstations (this is techspeak under the `Win...
wallpaper4 is  3. `wallpaper file' n. The file that   contains the wallpaper information before it is actually printed on   paper.  (Even if you don't intend ever to produce a real paper copy   of the file, it is still called a wallpaper file.) 
wango is  /wang'goh/ n. Random bit-level {grovel}ling going on in   a system during some unspecified operation.  Often used in   combination with {mumble}.  For example "You start with the `.o'   file, run it through this postprocessor that does mumb...
wango2 is  object-oriented executable." 
wank is  /wangk/ [Columbia University prob. by mutation from   Commonwealth slang v. `wank', to masturbate] n.,v. Used much as   {hack} is elsewhere, as a noun denoting a clever technique or   person or the result of such cleverness.  May describe (n...
wank2 is  sake ("Quit wanking, let's go get   supper!")  or (more positively) a {wizard}.  Adj.  `wanky'   describes something particularly clever (a person, program, or   algorithm).  Conversations can also get wanky when there are too   many wanks ...
wank3 is  by an   overload of the `wankometer' (compare {bogometer}).  When the   wankometer overloads, the conversation's subject must be changed,   or all non-wanks will leave.  Compare `neep-neeping' (under   {neep-neep}).  Usage U.S. only.  In Br...
wank4 is  *extremely* rude and is best avoided unless one   intends to give offense. 
wannabee is  /won'*-bee/ (also, more plausibly, spelled `wannabe')   [from a term recently used to describe Madonna fans who dress,   talk, and act like their idol; prob. originally from biker slang]   n. A would-be {hacker}.  The connotations of thi...
wannabee2 is  and exposure of the subject.  Used of   a person who is in or might be entering {larval stage}, it is   semi-approving; such wannabees can be annoying but most hackers   remember that they, too, were once such creatures.  When used of  ...
wannabee3 is  writer, or {suit}, it is   derogatory, implying that said person is trying to cuddle up to the   hacker mystique but doesn't, fundamentally, have a prayer of   understanding what it is all about.  Overuse of terms from this lexicon   is...
wannabee4 is  Compare   {newbie}.   Historical note The wannabee phenomenon has a slightly different   flavor now (1991) than it did ten or fifteen years ago.  When the   people who are now hackerdom's tribal elders were in {larval   stage}, the proc...
wannabee5 is  unconscious   and unaffected by models known in popular culture --- communities   formed spontaneously around people who, *as individuals*, felt   irresistibly drawn to do hackerly things, and what wannabees   experienced was a fairly p...
wannabee6 is  wizardly.  Those days of innocence are gone forever;   society's adaptation to the advent of the microcomputer after 1980   included the elevation of the hacker as a new kind of folk hero,   and the result is that some people semi-consc...
wannabee7 is  hackish prestige by fitting the   popular image of hackers.  Fortunately, to do this really well, one   has to actually become a wizard.  Nevertheless, old-time hackers   tend to share a poorly articulated disquiet about the change; amo...
wannabee8 is  about the effects of   public compendia of lore like this one. 
warm boot is  n. See {boot}.
wart is  n. A small, {crock}y {feature} that sticks out of an   otherwise {clean} design.  Something conspicuous for localized   ugliness, especially a special-case exception to a general rule.   For example, in some versions of `csh(1)', single quot...
wart2 is  except `!'.  In ANSI C,   the `??' syntax used obtaining ASCII characters in a foreign   environment is a wart.  See also {miswart}. 
washing machine is  n. Old-style 14-inch hard disks in floor-standing   cabinets.  So called because of the size of the cabinet and the   `top-loading' access to the media packs --- and, of course, they   were always set on `spin cycle'.  The washing...
washing machine2 is  it is even used in Russian hacker   jargon.  See also {walking drives}.  The thick channel cables   connecting these were called `bit hoses' (see {hose}). 
water MIPS is  n. (see {MIPS}, sense 2) Large, water-cooled   machines of either today's ECL-supercomputer flavor or yesterday's   traditional {mainframe} type.
wave a dead chicken is  v. To perform a ritual in the direction of   crashed software or hardware that one believes to be futile but   is nevertheless necessary so that others are satisfied that an   appropriate degree of effort has been expended.  "...
wave a dead chicken2 is  code, but I really think we've run into an   OS bug."  Compare {voodoo programming}, {rain dance}. 
weasel is  n. [Cambridge] A na"ive user, one who deliberately or   accidentally does things that are stupid or ill-advised.  Roughly   synonymous with {loser}.
wedged is  [from a common description of recto-cranial inversion] adj.   1. To be stuck, incapable of proceeding without help.  This is   different from having crashed.  If the system has crashed, then it   has become totally non-functioning.  If the...
wedged2 is  something but cannot make progress; it may be capable   of doing a few things, but not be fully operational.  For example,   a process may become wedged if it {deadlock}s with another (but   not all instances of wedging are deadlocks).  B...

( run in 1.229 second using v1.01-cache-2.11-cpan-5b529ec07f3 )