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pathological3 is  algorithm in order to come up with   such a crazy example.  3. Also said of an unlikely collection of   circumstances.  "If the network is down and comes up halfway   through the execution of that command by root, the system may   j...
pathological4 is  case."  Often used   to dismiss the case from discussion, with the implication that the   consequences are acceptable since that they will happen so   infrequently (if at all) that there is no justification for   going to extra trou...
payware is  /pay'weir/ n. Commercial software.  Oppose {shareware}   or {freeware}.
PBD is  /P-B-D/ [abbrev. of `Programmer Brain Damage'] n.  Applied   to bug reports revealing places where the program was obviously   broken by an incompetent or short-sighted programmer.  Compare   {UBD}; see also {brain-damaged}.
PC-ism is  /P-C-izm/ n. A piece of code or coding technique that   takes advantage of the unprotected single-tasking environment in   IBM PCs and the like, e.g., by busy-waiting on a hardware register,   direct diddling of screen memory, or using har...
PC-ism2 is  {vaxism}, {unixism}.  Also,   `PC-ware' n., a program full of PC-isms on a machine with a more   capable operating system.  Pejorative. 
PD is  /P-D/ adj. Common abbreviation for `public domain', applied   to software distributed over {USENET} and from Internet archive   sites.  Much of this software is not in fact public domain in   the legal sense but travels under various copyright...
PD2 is  anyone who can {snarf} a copy.  See   {copyleft}. 
pdl is  /pid'l/ or /puhd'l/ [acronym for `Push Down List'] 1. In   ITS days, the preferred MITism for {stack}.  2. Dave Lebling, one   of the co-authors of {Zork}; (his {network address} on the ITS   machines was at one time pdl@dms).  3. `Program De...
pdl2 is  formal and profoundly useless   pseudo-languages in which {management} forces one to design   programs.  {Management} often expects it to be maintained in   parallel with the code.  See also {{flowchart}}.  4. To design   using a program des...
pdl3 is  eyes won't focus beyond 2 feet." 
PDP-10 is  [Programmed Data Processor model 10] n. The machine that   made timesharing real.  It looms large in hacker folklore because   of its adoption in the mid-1970s by many university computing   facilities and research labs, including the MIT ...
PDP-102 is  the instruction set (most notably the   bit-field instructions) are still considered unsurpassed.  The 10   was eventually eclipsed by the VAX machines (descendants of the   PDP-11) when DEC recognized that the 10 and VAX product lines we...
PDP-103 is  concentrate its software   development effort on the more profitable VAX.  The machine was   finally dropped from DEC's line in 1983, following the failure of   the Jupiter Project at DEC to build a viable new model. (Some   attempts by o...
PDP-104 is  nothing; see   {Foonly}) This event spelled the doom of {{ITS}} and the   technical cultures that had spawned the original Jargon File, but   by mid-1991 it had become something of a badge of honorable   old-timerhood among hackers to hav...
PDP-105 is  {{TOPS-10}}, {{ITS}}, {AOS}, {BLT}, {DDT}, {DPB},   {EXCH}, {HAKMEM}, {JFCL}, {LDB}, {pop}, {push},   appendix A. 
PDP-20 is  n. The most famous computer that never was.  {PDP-10}   computers running the {{TOPS-10}} operating system were labeled   `DECsystem-10' as a way of differentiating them from the PDP-11.   Later on, those systems running {TOPS-20} were lab...
PDP-202 is  being the result of a lawsuit   brought against DEC by Singer, which once made a computer called   `system-10'), but contrary to popular lore there was never a   `PDP-20'; the only difference between a 10 and a 20 was the   operating syst...
PDP-203 is  all)   machines sold to run TOPS-10 were painted `Basil Blue', whereas   most TOPS-20 machines were painted `Chinese Red' (often mistakenly   called orange). 
peek is  n.,vt. (and {poke}) The commands in most microcomputer   BASICs for directly accessing memory contents at an absolute   address; often extended to mean the corresponding constructs in any   {HLL} (peek reads memory, poke modifies it).  Much ...
peek2 is  {peek}ing around memory, more   or less at random, to find the location where the system keeps   interesting stuff.  Long (and variably accurate) lists of such   addresses for various computers circulate (see {{interrupt list,   the}}).  Th...
peek3 is  highly   useful, mildly amusing, useless but neat, or (most likely) total   {lossage} (see {killer poke}). 
pencil and paper is  n. An archaic information storage and   transmission device that works by depositing smears of graphite on   bleached wood pulp.  More recent developments in paper-based   technology include improved `write-once' update devices w...
pencil and paper2 is  balls to deposit colored   pigment.  All these devices require an operator skilled at   so-called `handwriting' technique.  These technologies are   ubiquitous outside hackerdom, but nearly forgotten inside it.  Most   hackers h...
pencil and paper3 is  years of   keyboarding tend to have encouraged it to degrade further.  Perhaps   for this reason, hackers deprecate pencil-and-paper technology and   often resist using it in any but the most trivial contexts.  See   also append...
peon is  n. A person with no special ({root} or {wheel})   privileges on a computer system.  "I can't create an account on   *foovax* for you; I'm only a peon there."
percent-S is  /per-sent' es'/ [From the code in C's `printf(3)'   library function used to insert an arbitrary string argument] n. An   unspecified person or object.  "I was just talking to some   percent-s in administration."  Compare {random}.
perf is  /perf/ n. See {chad} (sense 1).  The term `perfory'   /per'f*-ree/ is also heard.
perfect programmer syndrome is  n. Arrogance; the egotistical   conviction that one is above normal human error.  Most frequently   found among programmers of some native ability but relatively   little experience (especially new graduates; their per...
perfect programmer syndrome2 is  excellent performance at solving {toy   problem}s).  "Of course my program is correct, there is no need to   test it."  "Yes, I can see there may be a problem here, but   *I'll* never type `rm -r /' while in {root}." 
Perl is  /perl/ [Practical Extraction and Report Language, a.k.a   Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister] n. An interpreted language   developed by Larry Wall (lwall@jpl.nasa.gov, author of   `patch(1)' and `rn(1)') and distributed over USENET.   Su...
Perl2 is  hairier (see   {awk}).  UNIX sysadmins, who are almost always incorrigible   hackers, increasingly consider it one of the {languages of   choice}.  Perl has been described, in a parody of a famous remark   about `lex(1)', as the "Swiss-Army...
pessimal is  /pes'im-l/ [Latin-based antonym for `optimal'] adj.   Maximally bad.  "This is a pessimal situation."  Also `pessimize'   vt. To make as bad as possible.  These words are the obvious   Latin-based antonyms for `optimal' and `optimize', b...
pessimal2 is  most English dictionaries, although   `pessimize' is listed in the OED. 
pessimizing compiler is  /pes'*-miz`ing k*m-pil'r/ [antonym of   `optimizing compiler'] n. A compiler that produces object code that   is worse than the straightforward or obvious hand translation.  The   implication is that the compiler is actually ...
pessimizing compiler2 is  excessive cleverness is doing the opposite.  A   few pessimizing compilers have been written on purpose, however, as   pranks or burlesques. 
peta- is  /pe't*/ [SI] pref. See {{quantifiers}}.
PETSCII is  /pet'skee/ [abbreviation of PET ASCII] n. The variation   (many would say perversion) of the {{ASCII}} character set used by   the Commodore Business Machines PET series of personal computers   and the later Commodore C64, C16, and C128 m...
PETSCII2 is  and up-arrow (as in old-style ASCII) instead of   underscore and caret, placed the unshifted alphabet at positions   65--90, put the shifted alphabet at positions 193--218, and added   graphics characters. 
phase is  1. n. The phase of one's waking-sleeping schedule with   respect to the standard 24-hour cycle.  This is a useful concept   among people who often work at night and/or according to no fixed   schedule.  It is not uncommon to change one's ph...
phase2 is  regular basis.  "What's your phase?"  "I've   been getting in about 8 P.M. lately, but I'm going to {wrap   around} to the day schedule by Friday."  A person who is roughly   12 hours out of phase is sometimes said to be in `night mode'.  ...
phase3 is  frequently) used, meaning   you're working 9 to 5 (or, more likely, 10 to 6).)  The act of   altering one's cycle is called `changing phase'; `phase   shifting' has also been recently reported from Caltech.   2. `change phase the hard way'...
phase4 is  to get into a different phase.  3. `change phase   the easy way' To stay asleep, etc.  However, some claim that   either staying awake longer or sleeping longer is easy, and that it   is *shortening* your day or night that's hard (see {wra...
phase5 is  travelers who cross many   time-zone boundaries may be attributed to two distinct causes the   strain of travel per se, and the strain of changing phase.  Hackers   who suddenly find that they must change phase drastically in a   short per...
phase6 is  experience   something very like jet lag without traveling. 
phase of the moon is  n. Used humorously as a random parameter on which   something is said to depend.  Sometimes implies unreliability of   whatever is dependent, or that reliability seems to be dependent on   conditions nobody has been able to dete...
phase of the moon2 is  channel open in mumble mode, having the foo   switch set, and on the phase of the moon."   True story Once upon a time there was a bug that really did depend   on the phase of the moon.  There is a little subroutine that had   ...
phase of the moon3 is  MIT to calculate an   approximation to the moon's true phase.  GLS incorporated this   routine into a LISP program that, when it wrote out a file, would   print a timestamp line almost 80 characters long.  Very   occasionally t...
phase of the moon4 is  and   would overflow onto the next line, and when the file was later read   back in the program would {barf}.  The length of the first line   depended on both the precise date and time and the length of the   phase specificatio...
phase of the moon5 is  bug   literally depended on the phase of the moon!   The first paper edition of the Jargon File (Steele-1983) included   an example of one of the timestamp lines that exhibited this bug, but   the typesetter `corrected' it.  Th...
phreaking is  [from `phone phreak'] n. 1. The art and science of   cracking the phone network (so as, for example, to make free   long-distance calls).  2. By extension, security-cracking in any   other context (especially, but not exclusively, on co...
phreaking2 is  phreaking was a semi-respectable activity among   hackers; there was a gentleman's agreement that phreaking as an   intellectual game and a form of exploration was OK, but serious   theft of services was taboo.  There was significant c...
phreaking3 is  hard-core phone phreaks who   ran semi-underground networks of their own through such media as   the legendary `TAP Newsletter'.  This ethos began to break   down in the mid-1980s as wider dissemination of the techniques put   them in ...
phreaking4 is  the same   time, changes in the phone network made old-style technical   ingenuity less effective as a way of hacking it, so phreaking came   to depend more on overtly criminal acts such as stealing phone-card   numbers.  The crimes an...
phreaking5 is  turned that game very ugly.  A few old-time hackers still phreak   casually just to keep their hand in, but most these days have   hardly even heard of `blue boxes' or any of the other   paraphernalia of the great phreaks of yore. 
pico- is  [SI a quantifier   meaning * 10^-12]   pref. Smaller than {nano-}; used in the same rather loose   connotative way as {nano-} and {micro-}.  This usage is not yet   common in the way {nano-} and {micro-} are, but should be   instantly recog...
pico-2 is  {{quantifiers}},   {micro-}. 
run like a pig is  v. To run very slowly on given hardware, said of   software.  Distinct from {hog}.
pilot error is  [Sun from aviation] n. A user's misconfiguration or   misuse of a piece of software, producing apparently buglike results   (compare {UBD}).  "Joe Luser reported a bug in sendmail that   causes it to generate bogus headers."  "That's ...
ping is  [from the TCP/IP acronym `Packet INternet Groper', prob.   originally contrived to match the submariners' term for a sonar   pulse] 1. n.  Slang term for a small network message (ICMP ECHO)   sent by a computer to check for the presence and ...
ping2 is  a phone greeting.  See {ACK},   also {ENQ}.  2. vt. To verify the presence of.  3. vt. To get   the attention of.  From the UNIX command `ping(1)' that sends   an ICMP ECHO packet to another host.  4. vt. To send a message to   all members ...
ping3 is  order   to verify that everybody's addresses are reachable).  "We haven't   heard much of anything from Geoff, but he did respond with an ACK   both times I pinged jargon-friends."   The funniest use of `ping' to date was described in Janua...
ping4 is  comp.sys.next.  He was trying   to isolate a faulty cable segment on a TCP/IP Ethernet hooked up to   a NeXT machine, and got tired of having to run back to his console   after each cabling tweak to see if the ping packets were getting   th...
ping5 is  on the NeXT, then   wrote a script that repeatedly invoked `ping(8)', listened for   an echo, and played back the recording on each returned packet.   Result?  A program that caused the machine to repeat, over and   over, "Ping ... ping ......
ping6 is  turned the volume to maximum, ferreted through   the building with one ear cocked, and found a faulty tee connector   in no time. 
Pink-Shirt Book is  `The Peter Norton Programmer's Guide to the IBM   PC'.  The original cover featured a picture of Peter Norton with a   silly smirk on his face, wearing a pink shirt.  Perhaps in   recognition of this usage, the current edition has...
Pink-Shirt Book2 is  pink shirt.  See also {{book titles}}. 
PIP is  /pip/ [Peripheral Interchange Program] vt.,obs. To copy; from   the program PIP on CP/M, RSX-11, RSTS/E, and OS/8 (derived from a   utility on the PDP-6) that was used for file copying (and in OS/8   and RT-11 for just about every other file ...
PIP2 is  that when the program was originated, during the   development of the PDP-6 in 1963, it was called ATLATL (`Anything,   Lord, to Anything, Lord'). 
pistol is  [IBM] n. A tool that makes it all too easy for you to   shoot yourself in the foot.  "UNIX `rm *' makes such a nice   pistol!"
pizza box is  [Sun] n. The largish thin box housing the electronics   in (especially Sun) desktop workstations, so named because of its   size and shape and the dimpled pattern that looks like air holes.   Two meg single-platter removable disk packs ...
pizza box2 is  they were stuck into was referred to as a pizza   oven.  It's an index of progress that in the old days just the disk   was pizza-sized, while now the entire computer is. 
ANSI standard pizza is  /an'see stan'd*rd peet'z*/ [CMU] Pepperoni   and mushroom pizza.  Coined allegedly because most pizzas ordered   by CMU hackers during some period leading up to mid-1990 were of   that flavor.  See also {rotary debugger}; comp...
plain-ASCII is  /playn-as'kee/ Syn. {flat-ASCII}.
plan file is  [UNIX] n. On systems that support {finger}, the   `.plan' file in a user's home directory is displayed when the user   is fingered.  This feature was originally intended to be used to   keep potential fingerers apprised of one's locatio...
plan file2 is  almost universally to humorous and   self-expressive purposes (like a {sig block}).  See {Hacking X   for Y}. 
platinum-iridium is  adj. Standard, against which all others of the   same category are measured.  Usage silly.  The notion is that one   of whatever it is has actually been cast in platinum-iridium alloy   and placed in the vault beside the Standard...
platinum-iridium2 is  Weights and Measures near Paris.  (From   1889 to 1960, the meter was defined to be the distance between two   scratches in a platinum-iridium bar kept in that vault --- this   replaced an earlier definition as 10^7 times the di...
platinum-iridium3 is  along a meridian through   Paris; unfortunately, this had been based on an inexact value of   the circumference of the Earth.  From 1960 to 1984 it was defined   to be 1650763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red line of krypton-86 ...
platinum-iridium4 is  as the length of the   path traveled by light in a vacuum in the time interval of   1/299,792,458 of a second.  The kilogram is now the only unit of   measure officially defined in terms of a unique artifact.)  "This   garbage-c...
platinum-iridium5 is    platinum-iridium cons cell in Paris."  Compare {golden}. 
playpen is  [IBM] n. A room where programmers work.  Compare {salt   mines}.
playte is  /playt/ 16 bits, by analogy with {nybble} and {{byte}}.  Usage   rare and extremely silly.  See also {dynner} and {crumb}.
plingnet is  /pling'net/ n. Syn. {UUCPNET}.  Also see   {{Commonwealth Hackish}}, which uses `pling' for {bang} (as in   {bang path}).
plokta is  /plok't*/ [Acronym for `Press Lots Of Keys To Abort']   v.  To press random keys in an attempt to get some response from   the system.  One might plokta when the abort procedure for a   program is not known, or when trying to figure out if...
plokta2 is   Plokta can also be used while trying   to figure out any unknown key sequence for a particular operation.   Someone going into `plokta mode' usually places both hands flat   on the keyboard and presses down, hoping for some useful   resp...
plonk is  [USENET possibly influenced by British slang `plonk' for   cheap booze] The sound a {newbie} makes as he falls to the bottom   of a {kill file}.  Used almost exclusively in the {newsgroup}   talk.bizarre, this term (usually written "*plonk*...
plugh is  /ploogh/ [from the {ADVENT} game] v. See {xyzzy}.
plumbing is  [UNIX] n. Term used for {shell} code, so called because   of the prevalence of `pipelines' that feed the output of one   program to the input of another.  Under UNIX, user utilities can   often be implemented or at least prototyped by a ...
plumbing2 is  temp-file grinding encapsulated in a   shell script; this is much less effort than writing C every time,   and the capability is considered one of UNIX's major winning   features.  Esp. used in the construction `hairy plumbing' (see   {...
plumbing3 is  spell-checker out of   `sort(1)', `comm(1)', and `tr(1)' with a little   plumbing." See also {tee}. 
PM  is  /P-M/ 1. v. (from `preventive maintenance') To bring   down a machine for inspection or test purposes; see {scratch   monkey}.  2. n. Abbrev. for `Presentation Manager', an   {elephantine} OS/2 graphical user interface.  See also   {provocati...
pnambic is  /p*-nam'bik/ [Acronym from the scene in the film   version of `The Wizard of Oz' in which true nature of the   wizard is first discovered "Pay no attention to the man behind   the curtain."]  1. A stage of development of a process or func...
pnambic2 is  implementation or to the complexity of   the system, requires human interaction to simulate or replace some   or all of the actions, inputs, or outputs of the process or   function.  2. Of or pertaining to a process or function whose   a...
pnambic3 is  falsified.  3. Requiring   {prestidigitization}.   The ultimate pnambic product was "Dan Bricklin's Demo", a program   which supported flashy user-interface design prototyping.  There is   a related maxim among hackers "Any sufficiently ...
pnambic4 is  a rigged demo."  See   {magic}, sense 1, for illumination of this point. 
pod is  [allegedly from acronym POD for `Prince Of Darkness'] n. A   Diablo 630 (or, latterly, any letter-quality impact printer).  From   the DEC-10 PODTYPE program used to feed formatted text to it.   See also {P.O.D.}
poke is  n.,vt. See {peek}.
poll is  v.,n. 1. [techspeak] The action of checking the status of an   input line, sensor, or memory location to see if a particular   external event has been registered.  2. To repeatedly call or check   with someone "I keep polling him, but he's n...
poll2 is  out."  3. To ask.  "Lunch?  I poll for   a takeout order daily." 
polygon pusher is  n. A chip designer who spends most of his or her time at   the physical layout level (which requires drawing *lots* of   multi-colored polygons).  Also `rectangle slinger'.
POM is  /P-O-M/ n. Common acronym for {phase of the moon}.  Usage   usually in the phrase `POM-dependent', which means {flaky}.
pop is  [from the operation that removes the top of a stack, and the   fact that procedure return addresses are saved on the stack] (also   capitalized `POP' /pop/) 1. vt. To remove something from a   {stack} or {pdl}.  If a person says he/she has po...
pop2 is  he/she has finally finished   working on it and can now remove it from the list of things hanging   overhead.  2. When a discussion gets to too deep a level of detail   so that the main point of the discussion is being lost, someone   will s...
pop3 is  level!"   The shout is frequently accompanied by an upthrust arm with a   finger pointing to the ceiling. 
POPJ is  /pop'J/ [from a {PDP-10} return-from-subroutine   instruction] n.,v. To return from a digression.  By verb doubling,   "Popj, popj" means roughly "Now let's see, where were we?"   See {RTI}.
posing is  n. On a {MUD}, the use of `' or an equivalent   command to announce to other players that one is taking a certain   physical action that has no effect on the game (it may, however,   serve as a social signal or propaganda device that induc...
posing2 is  example, if one's character name   is Firechild, one might type ` looks delighted at the idea and   begins hacking on the nearest terminal' to broadcast a message that   says "Firechild looks delighted at the idea and begins hacking on   ...
post is  v. To send a message to a {mailing list} or {newsgroup}.   Distinguished in context from `mail'; one might ask, for   example "Are you going to post the patch or mail it to known   users?"
posting is  n. Noun corresp. to v. {post} (but note that   {post} can be nouned).  Distinguished from a `letter' or ordinary   {email} message by the fact that it is broadcast rather than   point-to-point.  It is not clear whether messages sent to a ...
posting2 is  perhaps the best dividing line   is that if you don't know the names of all the potential   recipients, it is a posting. 
postmaster is  n. The email contact and maintenance person at a site   connected to the Internet or UUCPNET.  Often, but not always, the   same as the {admin}.  It is conventional for each machine to have   a `postmaster' address that is aliased to t...
pound on is  vt.  Syn. {bang on}.
power cycle is  vt. (also, `cycle power' or just `cycle') To   power off a machine and then power it on immediately, with the   intention of clearing some kind of {hung} or {gronk}ed state.   Syn. {120 reset}; see also {Big Red Switch}.  Compare   {V...
power cycle2 is  see the   AI Koan in appendix A about Tom Knight and the novice. 
PPN is  /P-P-N/, /pip'n/ [from `Project-Programmer Number'] n. A   user-ID under {{TOPS-10}} and its various mutant progeny at SAIL,   BBN, CompuServe, and elsewhere.  Old-time hackers from the PDP-10   era sometimes use this to refer to user IDs on ...
precedence lossage is  /pre's*-dens los'*j/ [C programmers] n. Coding   error in an expression due to unexpected grouping of arithmetic or   logical operators by the compiler.  Used esp. of certain common   coding errors in C due to the nonintuitivel...
precedence lossage2 is  `<<', and `>>' (for this   reason, experienced C programmers deliberately forget the   language's {baroque} precedence hierarchy and parenthesize   defensively).  Can always be avoided by suitable use of   parentheses.  {LISP}...
precedence lossage3 is  happen in *their* favorite language, which eschews precedence   entirely, requiring one to use explicit parentheses everywhere.   See {aliasing bug}, {memory leak}, {smash the stack},   {fandango on core}, {overrun screw}. 
prepend is  /pree`pend'/ [by analogy with `append'] vt. To   prefix.  As with `append' (but not `prefix' or `suffix' as a   verb), the direct object is always the thing being added and not   the original word (or character string, or whatever).  "If ...
prepend2 is  translation routine will pass   it through unaltered." 
prestidigitization is  /pres`t*-di`j*-ti-zay'sh*n/ n. 1. The act   of putting something into digital notation via sleight of hand.   2. Data entry through legerdemain.