Amethyst
view release on metacpan or search on metacpan
Amethyst/Brain/Infobot/Module/Google.pm view on Meta::CPAN
args => [ $self, $message, $query ],
);
return 1;
}
sub parse_response {
my ($self, $response) = @_;
$self->{_debug} = 10;
print STDERR "Self is $self\n";
# parse the output
my ($HEADER, $HITS, $TRAILER, $POST_NEXT) = (1..10);
my @hits = ();
my $hit = undef;
my $approx_count = -1;
my $state = $HEADER;
my @lines = split(/\n/, $response->content);
foreach (@lines) {
next unless /\S/; # short circuit for blank lines
# print STDERR substr($_, 0, 70) . "\n" if $self->{_debug};
print STDERR $_ . "\n" if $self->{_debug};
if ($state == $HEADER && m/about <b>([\d,]+)<\/b>/) {
$approx_count = $1;
print STDERR "Found Total: $approx_count\n" ;
$state = $HITS;
}
elsif ($state == $HITS &&
m|<p><a href=[^\s]*(http[^&>]*)[^>]*>(.*?)</a>|i) {
my ($url, $title) = ($1, $2);
$hit = new WWW::SearchResult();
push(@hits, $hit);
print STDERR "**Found HIT Line**\n" if ($self->{_debug});
$url =~ s/(>.*)//g;
$hit->add_url(WWW::Search::strip_tags($url));
$title = "No Title" if ($title =~ /^\s+/);
$hit->title(WWW::Search::strip_tags($title));
$state = $HITS;
}
elsif ($state == $HITS && m|Description:</font></span>\s*(.*)<br>|i) {
print STDERR "**Parsing Description Line**\n" if ($self->{_debug});
if ($hit) {
my $desc = $1;
$desc =~ s/<.*?>//g;
$desc =~ s/Category.*//;
$hit->description($desc);
$state = $HITS;
}
else {
print STDERR "ERROR: No hit when parsing description\n";
}
}
elsif ($state == $HITS && m@<div class=nav>@i) {
print STDERR "**Found Last Line**\n" if ($self->{_debug});
# end of hits
$state = $TRAILER;
}
else {
print STDERR "**No match**\n" if ($self->{_debug});
}
}
return @hits;
}
sub handler_response {
my ($kernel, $heap, $session, $pbargs) =
@_[KERNEL, HEAP, SESSION, ARG1];
my ($request, $response, $entry) = @$pbargs;
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
CBB => <reply> $who, Personal check book balancing utility for Unix/X. URL: http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt/cbb/
CBQ.init => <reply> $who, Ethernet shaper init script based on CBQ. URL: ftp://ftp.equinox.gu.net/pub/linux/cbq/
Cbrowser => <reply> $who, Graphical c/c++ source code searching and browsing tool. URL: http://www.ziplink.net/~felaco/cbrowser/
cccd => <reply> $who, A CDDB capable CD player using GTK+. URL: http://home.pages.de/~jst/cccd/
ccd => <reply> $who, cd player designed for use on linux systems.. URL: http://themes.org/~suprax/ccd-0.01.tar.gz
CCF => <reply> $who, Virtual environment for distributed computation. URL: http://ccf.mathcs.emory.edu/ccf/
CCFaudio => <reply> $who, A multi-user Internet conferencing phone. URL: http://ccf.mathcs.emory.edu
CCFlauncher => <reply> $who, Enables remote uses to initiate and join ongoing collaborative sessions. URL: http://ccf.mathcs.emory.edu/ccf/
ccirc => <reply> $who, An irc client written in shell scripts and telnet.. URL: http://cadellin.gwydion.net/ccirc/
CClinux => <reply> $who, Single floppy linux based on 2.2.x kernels with GNU tools. URL: http://www.CosmicChaos.com/CClinux/
ccmalloc => <reply> $who, memory profiling and malloc debugginglibrary for C and C++ programs. URL: http://iseran.ira.uka.de/~armin/ccmalloc/
zlib => <reply> $who, A compression/decompression Library. URL: http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/
ccsh => <reply> $who, C language based scripting language. URL: http://fire.csua.ucla.edu/~dannys/projects/ccsh/
CCVS (Credit Card Verification System) => <reply> $who, Clear credit cards with Linux/Unix. URL: http://www.hks.net
CD Backup Linux => <reply> $who, Backup application,which burns bootable CD-Rs during the time when I'm at work.. URL: http://cdbl.linuxbox.com/
CD builder => <reply> $who, CD cue sheet and subcode generating tool for Linux/UNIX. URL: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/bchafy/cdb/cdb.html
CD Jukebox => <reply> $who, Multi-drive console CD player. URL: ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/cdrom/cdjukebox-0.5.tgz
cd-console => <reply> $who, curses-based cd-player program. URL: http://www.iki.fi/osku/cd-console/
cd-copy shell => <reply> $who, CDROM copying/creation tool.. URL: http://donald-duck.ele.tue.nl/meadow/cdcopy/
CD-Keeper => <reply> $who, Organizes your CD collection. URL: http://www.slaathaug.com/html/cdkeeper.html
CD-ROM Control for Linux => <reply> $who, CD-Rom control panel. URL: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~taperdell/cdrom/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
class.Htpasswd.php3 => <reply> $who, A PHP class for maintaining Apache style htpasswd files.. URL: http://www.thewebmasters.net/php/
class.Logger.php3 => <reply> $who, A PHP class to create and maintain log files within your programs. URL: http://www.thewebmasters.net/php/
class.POP3.php3 => <reply> $who, An RFC 1939 compliant PHP3 class to the POP3 protocol.. URL: http://www.thewebmasters.net/php/
class.Validator.php3 => <reply> $who, A PHP class with common data validation routines.. URL: http://www.thewebmasters.net/php/
ClassyTcl => <reply> $who, Object system, widget set and GUI builder for Tcl. URL: http://rrna.uia.ac.be/classytcl
Claymore Configuration/Administration System => <reply> $who, A powerful, yet intuitive system to configure/administer Linux.. URL: http://www.xnot.com/claymore/
cle => <reply> $who, Command Line Editor. URL: http://kaolin.unice.fr/Cle/
Clean_Mail => <reply> $who, Scripts to help maintain mail spool files on a large system. URL: http://perso.easynet.fr/~jguellec/program/perl/clean_mail/clean_mail_english.htm
Clicq => <reply> $who, Console based ICQ Clone. URL: ftp://walker2-74.reshall.ou.edu/clicq/
clig => <reply> $who, command line interpreter generator. URL: http://wsd.iitb.fhg.de/~kir/clighome/
CLISP => <reply> $who, ANSI Common Lisp interpreter, compiler and debugger. URL: http://clisp.cons.org/
CLN => <reply> $who, Class Library for Numbers (C++). URL: http://clisp.cons.org/~haible/packages-cln.html
Clobberd => <reply> $who, Monitors users. URL: http://www.downunder.net.au/~jsno/
clock => <reply> $who, Sets system time from CMOS clock and vice versa.. URL: http://www.tahallah.demon.co.uk/programming/prog.html
CLPQ => <reply> $who, Console Printer Queue Program. URL: http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/~dpalomo/distr/CLPQ.html
CluClo => <reply> $who, Cluster Cloner, system to create clone one system. URL: http://members.linuxstart.com/~flux/cluclo/
Clustor => <reply> $who, Clustor - software for high performance computing. URL: http://www.activetools.com/
cman => <reply> $who, Rolodex, contact manager, non-gui (ncurses version). URL: http://mama.indstate.edu/users/arc/cman.html
CMatrix => <reply> $who, Ncurses eye-candy demo like. URL: http://www.plattsburgh.edu/faculty/allegrcr/cmatrix/index.html
CMC => <reply> $who, Chaos Mail Checker. URL: http://www.swi.com.br/~chaos/cmc/
CMeister => <reply> $who, A new Java based C Development Tool. URL: http://www.cmeister.com/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
DCC6502 => <reply> $who, Portable disassembler for the 6502 microprocessor, with cycle-counting. URL: http://www.ameth.org/~veilleux/dcc6502.html
dcd => <reply> $who, Simple command-line CD player. URL: http://www.technopagan.org/dcd/
ddclient => <reply> $who, Client for www.dyndns.org's free dynamic DNS service. URL: http://burry.dyndns.org/ddclient/
DDD => <reply> $who, Common graphical user interface for GDB, DBX and XDB. URL: http://www.cs.tu-bs.de/softech/ddd/
ddial => <reply> $who, text based pppd launcher and dialer script. URL: http://www.iki.fi/too/sw/ddial.readme
dds2tar => <reply> $who, Fast access to files on DDS (DAT) tape. URL: http://www.cs.uni-duesseldorf.de/~weule/sfw/eindex.html
DDUP Applet => <reply> $who, DynDns.org UPdate Applet for the Gnome panel. URL: http://tigris.sonicom.net/projects/ddup.html
DDUpdate => <reply> $who, A cross-platform update client for dyndns.org's DynamicDNS Service. URL: http://www.michigannet.com/~rbb/ddupdate/
dea => <reply> $who, Encryption library and utility. URL: http://www.neuss.netsurf.de/~malteuhl/crypt/dea.html
Dead Link Check => <reply> $who, Finds information on validity of HTTP references.. URL: http://www.loria.fr/~michel/DLC/
debauch => <reply> $who, Memory debugging library that doesn't require recompiling executables. URL: http://quorum.tamu.edu/jon/gnu/
Debian GNU/Linux => <reply> $who, The Universal Operating System. URL: http://www.debian.org/
Deception Toolkit => <reply> $who, Gives defenders acouple of orders of magnitude advantage over attackers. URL: http://all.net/dtk/dtk.html
DECnet for Linux => <reply> $who, DECnet socket layer and applications. URL: http://linux.dreamtime.org/decnet/
defcon.epplet => <reply> $who, A system load monitor epplet.. URL: http://infinity.powertie.org/epplet/defcon.shtml
Defendguin => <reply> $who, A Linux-themed Defender clone.. URL: http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/defendguin/
Defkon 17 => <reply> $who, Realtime Strategy game. URL: http://members.xoom.com/p_guehring/dev_neu.019991104.tgz
defrag => <reply> $who, Filesystem defragmenter for Linux filesystems. URL: ftp://linux.dcs.ed.ac.uk/pub/linux/defrag/
Dejafilter => <reply> $who, Content-filtering CGI-based proxy script for Deja.com queries. URL: http://industrialsoftworks.com/dejafilter.php3
DejaSearch => <reply> $who, DejaSearch is a frontend to DejaNews, the leading Usenet archive. URL: http://homemade.hypermart.net/dejasearch/
Delay => <reply> $who, Delay is like sleep, but with a count of time left.. URL: http://onegeek.org/~tom/software/delay/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
egrep-finger => <reply> $who, Extended finger program using extended regular expressions. URL: http://torch.rowan.edu/egrep-finger/
eGTK => <reply> $who, Bindings to GTK+ widget toolkit for Eiffel.. URL: http://www.netlabs.net/hp/richieb/gtk_eiffel.html
EHD => <reply> $who, patch for login to allow encrypted home directories under linux. URL: http://members.home.net/id-est/
EHeadlines => <reply> $who, Root Menu news system.. URL: http://dragon.acadiau.ca/~015940b/escripts/
EiC => <reply> $who, A bytecode C interpreter/compiler. URL: http://www.pobox.com/~eic/
eIRC => <reply> $who, . URL: http://www.castrop-rauxel.netsurf.de/homepages/eko.bono.surprijadi/eirc.html
ejboss => <reply> $who, Enterprise Java Beans application server for Linux. URL: http://www.ejboss.org
eject => <reply> $who, eject removable media. URL: http://www.pobox.com/~tranter/eject.html
Electric => <reply> $who, CAD/EDA tool for multiple levels of design. URL: http://www.electriceditor.com
Electric Ears => <reply> $who, A simple wave player.. URL: http://www.gdev.net/~torello/eears.html
Electric Fence => <reply> $who, malloc() buffer-overrun debugger that uses the VM hardware.. URL: http://perens.com/FreeSoftware/
ElectricEyes => <reply> $who, Lightweight GTK+/GNOME-based image viewer. URL: http://www.labs.redhat.com/ee.shtml
electricsheep => <reply> $who, Collaborative screensaver. URL: http://electricsheep.org/
ELF kickers => <reply> $who, Programs that manipulate ELF files. URL: http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/software/elfkickers.html
elfnote => <reply> $who, A program to manipulate the NOTE sections in ELF binaries.. URL: ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/devel/elfnote-0.0.2.tar.gz
EliteIRCD => <reply> $who, Easy-to-use commercial IRC server. URL: http://www.eliteircd.on.ca/
elknews => <reply> $who, Usenet Newsreader. URL: http://elknews.netpedia.net/index.html
ELKS => <reply> $who, A subset of the Linux kernel that runs in 8086 real mode and 286 protected mode. URL: http://www.elks.ecs.soton.ac.uk/
elm => <reply> $who, One of the most common mail readers for unix.. URL: http://www.instinct.org/elm/
elm2mutt => <reply> $who, Converts email aliases from Elm to Mutt. URL: http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/~jvhemert/elm2mutt/
ELSA => <reply> $who, RTSP/RTP Streaming Media Server. URL: http://streaming.entera.com/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Glacier => <reply> $who, Another e-mail client for Gnome.. URL: http://glacier.linuxbox.com/
Glade => <reply> $who, GTK+ interface builder. URL: http://glade.pn.org/
glade-- => <reply> $who, An extension to glade to create C++ sources. URL: http://home.wtal.de/petig/Gtk/index.html
gladecc => <reply> $who, Generates delphi style C++ source code for Gtk-- from Glade's XML output. URL: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bit/8083/gladecc.htm
gLaptop => <reply> $who, Laptop utility for GNOME. URL: http://www.scs.unr.edu/~scottf/glaptop/
GLE => <reply> $who, GLE Tubing and Extrusion drawing Library. URL: http://linas.org/gle/
GLE (interactive Graphics Language Editor) => <reply> $who, high-quality graphics package for scientists. URL: ftp://ftp.std.com/ftp/vendors/emagic/gle/src/gle-3.3h-src.tar.gz
GLeyes => <reply> $who, A GLUT version of Xeyes. URL: http://eyeworld.helllabs.org/
glFtpD => <reply> $who, FTP Daemon for Linux. URL: http://www.glftpd.org/
GLib => <reply> $who, The GLib library of C routines. URL: http://www.gtk.org/
Glibc and gdb rpms with thread debugging support => <reply> $who, Glibc and gdb with patches for debugging threads. URL: http://odin.appliedtheory.com/
Glide Rasterization Library (SDK) for Linux => <reply> $who, nerijus. URL: http://www.3dfx.com/view_io.asp?ID=109
Glide Voodoo Graphics drivers => <reply> $who, Glide 2.46 for Voodoo Graphics. URL: http://www.3dfxgamers.com/view.asp?IOID=48
Glide Voodoo Rush Drivers => <reply> $who, Glide 2.46 for Voodoo Rush. URL: http://www.3dfxgamers.com/view.asp?IOID=189
Glide Voodoo2 drivers => <reply> $who, Glide 2.53 for Voodoo 2. URL: http://www.3dfxgamers.com/view.asp?IOID=36
Glide Voodoo3/Banshee drivers => <reply> $who, Glide 2.60 for Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo 3. URL: http://www.3dfxgamers.com/view.asp?IOID=31
GlideControl => <reply> $who, GTK-based interface for configuring 3Dfx voodoo cards. URL: http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~oliphant/gc
Glilo => <reply> $who, GTK+ based lilo frontend. URL: http://www.student.hig.se/~nd96pwt/glilo/glilo.html
Glimpse => <reply> $who, Indexing and querying system. URL: http://webglimpse.net/
glitter => <reply> $who, Text mode user interface for RPM. URL: http://www.xs4all.nl/~bvermeul/glitter/
GLload => <reply> $who, OpenGL(r) load meter. URL: http://glload.netpedia.net/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Java Search System => <reply> $who, Javascript based interface for 9 search engines. URL: http://linux.ncc.org.ve
Java Test Driver => <reply> $who, Test driver for Java class libraries. URL: http://www.altisimo.com/java-test-driver/
Java weather => <reply> $who, Access realtime, local weather information from Java code.. URL: http://www.lokitech.com/~sergek/javaweather
Java-Log => <reply> $who, Java logging and tracing class library. URL: http://www.homestead.com/JavaLog/
java2html => <reply> $who, a simple program that converts Java source to syntax-highlighted HTML. URL: http://www.gnu.org/software/java2html/
Javachat => <reply> $who, Small chatserver written in Java 1.1.x. URL: http://www.inlink.com/~naken/compute/java.html
JavaJoystick => <reply> $who, Java class wrapper for the Linux Joystick Driver, version 1.2.x and above.. URL: http://www.kevinsworld.com
JavaLog => <reply> $who, A Prolog interpreter written in Java(tm). URL: http://www.exa.unicen.edu.ar/~azunino/
JavaMapper => <reply> $who, a java-based imagemap editor. URL: http://www.dansteinman.com/javamapper/
JavaORB => <reply> $who, A free Java implementation of CORBA 2.2. URL: http://www.multimania.com/dogweb/
Javascript Debugger => <reply> $who, Fully featured Visual Javascript Debugger. URL: http://developer.netscape.com/software/jsdebug.html
javaShark => <reply> $who, A tcl/tk interface for editing and compiling java source code.. URL: http://geocities.yahoo.com/soho/lofts/1715/
javashout => <reply> $who, A shoutcast shouter written in java. URL: http://rydia.net/javashout/
javawrapper => <reply> $who, Java wrapper for binfmt_misc under Linux. URL: ftp://ftp.larsshack.org/pub/sw/linux/javawrapper.tar.gz
javelin => <reply> $who, Server side javascript-HTML web scripting system. URL: http://javelin.web.ee/
JayGo => <reply> $who, Game engine for any tile/stone based game, specifically written for Go.. URL: http://obsidian.teter.indiana.edu/JayGo-1.32.jar
Jazilla => <reply> $who, A port of Mozilla into Java. URL: http://www.jazilla.org/
jaZip => <reply> $who, A program for maintaining your Iomega Zip and/or Jaz drive(s) anddisks. URL: http://www.scripps.edu/~jsmith/jazip/
jBase => <reply> $who, Application Development and Database Independent Management System. URL: http://www.jbase.com/
jbc => <reply> $who, Displays the time in BCD (Binary Coded Decimal). URL: http://snoopy.net/~jon/jbc
jbofihe => <reply> $who, Parses Lojban text and provides rough English translation. URL: http://www.rrbcurnow.freeserve.co.uk/lojban/
jbpe => <reply> $who, Java back-propagation neural network editor. URL: http://cs.felk.cvut.cz/~koutnij/studium/jbpe.html
JCam => <reply> $who, Java application for downloading images from many popular digital cameras. URL: http://www.jcam.com
JCCSP => <reply> $who, JavaServer Pages 1.0 Engine w/ some JSP 1.1 support.. URL: http://home.earthlink.net/~shemnon/
JCheckLinks => <reply> $who, HTML hyperlink validator, java, multithreaded. URL: http://web.purplefrog.com/~thoth/jchecklinks/
JChemPaint => <reply> $who, A 2D molecular structure editor written in Java. URL: http://www.ice.mpg.de/~stein/projects/JChemPaint/
jCIFS => <reply> $who, Implementation of SMB/CIFS in Java. URL: http://jcifs.samba.org/
jCVS => <reply> $who, Java implementation of client-server CVS (version control for team projects). URL: http://www.ice.com/java/jcvs/
jDBA => <reply> $who, Java Database Administration tool. URL: http://www.techgnosis.org/
jdbtool => <reply> $who, GPL Java Graphical Debugger. URL: http://www.oops.demon.co.uk/jdbtool/
JDDB => <reply> $who, GUI debugger for JDK1.3. URL: http://sdn.sybase.com/sdn/mec/mec_down_jddb.stm
jdfetch => <reply> $who, A set of tools to fetch and format news boxes. URL: http://jdrowell.com/Linux/Projects/jdfetch/
JDHCP => <reply> $who, API for writing Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) applications in Java. URL: http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~jgoldsch/dhcp/
JDK => <reply> $who, Java Development Kit. URL: http://java.sun.com
jdresolve => <reply> $who, Resolves IP addresses into hostnames. URL: http://www.jdrowell.com/Linux/Projects/jdresolve/
jdrinfo => <reply> $who, Implements a hypothetical machine-information retreival protocol. URL: http://jdrowell.com/Linux/Projects/jdrinfo/
JDring => <reply> $who, A cron-like and at-like alarm scheduler. URL: http://webtools.dyade.fr/jdring/
jdtracker => <reply> $who, CGI/Javascript combo to gather remote sites statistics. URL: http://jdrowell.com/Linux/Projects/jdtracker/
jdwhatsnew => <reply> $who, CGI/cron combo to check for updates on sites. URL: http://jdrowell.com/Linux/Projects/jdwhatsnew/
jed => <reply> $who, Powerful editor, terminal and X11 interface. URL: http://space.mit.edu/~davis/jed.html
jEdit => <reply> $who, Powerful text editor. URL: http://www.gjt.org/~sp/jedit.html
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Jetris => <reply> $who, Jetris is a networked battle tetris game (like netris, but has a GUI).. URL: http://www.catseye.com/linux/jetris.html
Jetty => <reply> $who, HTTP/1.1 Servlet server written in Java. URL: http://www.mortbay.com/software/Jetty.html
JFlex => <reply> $who, flex-like scanner generator for Java. URL: http://www.jflex.de/
JFortune => <reply> $who, /usr/games/fortune as an applet. URL: http://www.penguinpowered.com/~jmason/software/index.html
JFreshmeat-NNTP => <reply> $who, Java NNTP-based Freshmeat announcement retriever. URL: http://www.vixen.com/JFreshmeat/JFreshmeat-NNTP.jar
jftpgw => <reply> $who, small ftp proxy. URL: http://www.mcknight.de/jftpgw/
jiffy => <reply> $who, Fast Java RMI-compiler written in C++. URL: http://www.jiffy.de/
Jigsaw => <reply> $who, W3C's leading-edge Web server platform. URL: http://www.w3.org/Jigsaw/
Jik-Dice => <reply> $who, AD&D IRC game play bot. URL: http://web3.foxinternet.net/jik/comp/prog.html
Jikes => <reply> $who, Java compiler that translates Java source into bytecoded instruction sets. URL: http://www.alphaWorks.ibm.com/tech/jikes/
Jikes Debugger => <reply> $who, multi-paneled graphical debugger for remotely executing Java programs. URL: http://www.alphaWorks.ibm.com/
Jiten => <reply> $who, Perl DICT Server. URL: http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~kominek/jiten/
JitterBug => <reply> $who, Web based bug tracking tool. URL: http://samba.anu.edu.au/jitterbug/
jivesyslog => <reply> $who, A silly version of syslog.. URL: ftp://ftp.tummy.com/pub/tummy/jivesyslog/
jlclient => <reply> $who, Utility for updating the dynamic DNS services at http://www.justlinux.com. URL: http://www.justlinux.com/dynamic_dns.html
JLex => <reply> $who, A lexical analyzer generator, written for Java, in Java.. URL: http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~appel/modern/java/JLex/
jlip => <reply> $who, Multi-line SLIP driver for FreeBSD with IP-over-TCP tunnelling and encryption. URL: http://members.tripod.com/~Vasim/
jmake => <reply> $who, jmake is a tool for software developers that like to write code, not makefiles.. URL: http://slug.arlut.utexas.edu/~jmake/
Jmangle => <reply> $who, Java Classfile Symbol Mangler. URL: http://www.access.digex.net/~rrl/
JMap => <reply> $who, Creates HTML image map source. URL: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~poggy/
jmatrix => <reply> $who, Matrix the movie eye candy thingy. URL: http://www.net-link.net/~jettero/matrix/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
kcmbind => <reply> $who, A KDE front-end to configure bind. URL: http://www.100webstreet.com/kcmbind/
kcmdhcpd => <reply> $who, A configure program for the ISC DHCP-Server for the KDE-project.. URL: http://www.100webstreet.com/kcmbind/dhcp.html
Kcmjoy => <reply> $who, Configure your joystick via kcontrol. URL: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/2964/applications.html
kcmlaptop => <reply> $who, Puts battery control in the KDE panel, starts command when low battery.. URL: http://www.taniwha.com/laptop
KCommander => <reply> $who, Windows Commander Clone for KDE. URL: http://www.linuxcoding.de/projektKcom_en.htm
KCron => <reply> $who, KDE Task Scheduler. URL: http://gary.meyer.net/
kcrontab => <reply> $who, Crontab editor for KDE. URL: ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/unstable/apps/admin/
kcyradm => <reply> $who, . URL: ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/unstable/apps/utils/kcyradm-0.1.tar.gz
KDat => <reply> $who, Tar based tape archiver. URL: http://sunsite.auc.dk/qweb/kdat/
kdb => <reply> $who, Built-in Kernel Debugger. URL: http://reality.sgi.com/slurn_engr/
kdbg => <reply> $who, A graphical KDE front end to the GDB debugger. URL: http://members.telecom.at/~johsixt/kdbg.html
kdc2tiff => <reply> $who, Convert from Kodak .kdc file to .tiff or .jpg. URL: http://www.bus.ualberta.ca/cstudhol/unix/software/kdc2tiff/kdc2tiff.tar.gz
kdcpi => <reply> $who, Program to download pictures from a Kodak DC200/DC210 Digital Camera. URL: http://www.berkhirt.com/HomerProductions/products/kdcpi/
KDE => <reply> $who, Powerful graphical desktop environment for Unix workstations.. URL: http://www.kde.org/
kde2wm => <reply> $who, Translate the KDE-style links into links in wmconfig-style. URL: http://www.linux-france.org/prj/kde2wm/index-en.html
kdem => <reply> $who, OpenGL Digital Elevation Model (DEM) viewer for the KDE.. URL: http://home.i1.net/~jamoyers/kdem/
kdepopup => <reply> $who, Send and receive messages via Samba. URL: http://www.franken.de/users/duffy1/rjakob/
KDEStudio => <reply> $who, IDE for Linux. URL: http://www.chat.ru/~kdestudio/index.html
kdesu => <reply> $who, A KDE front end to the UNIX su(1) command.. URL: http://www.stack.nl/~geertj/kde/kdesu.html
KDevelop => <reply> $who, KDevelop is a new C++ development environment for Unix/X11.. URL: http://www.kdevelop.org/
kdf => <reply> $who, KDE frontend to df (status of disks), gives you quick access to all drives.. URL: http://www.edu.uni-klu.ac.at/~mkropfbe/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Linux-Sna => <reply> $who, SNA for Linux. URL: http://www.linux-sna.org/
Linux/Coldfire => <reply> $who, Port of Linux to the Motorola Coldfire processors. URL: http://www.moretonbay.com/coldfire/linux-coldfire.html
Linuxconf => <reply> $who, Sophisticated administrative tool. URL: http://www.solucorp.qc.ca/linuxconf/
LinuxGT => <reply> $who, Formerly OpenShare Linux - LinuxGT Features a GUI Installation. URL: http://www.greysite.com/
LinuxGT Server Edition => <reply> $who, Streamlined (textual install) Linux for use as a robust Server. URL: http://www.greysite.com/
LinuxInfo => <reply> $who, Gives system information about your Linux system. URL: http://www.tahallah.demon.co.uk/programming/prog.html
LinuxTaRT => <reply> $who, Feature-rich email signature generator. URL: http://mvgrafx.penguinpowered.com/~vmark/LT/
LinuxThreads => <reply> $who, An implementation of the Posix 1003.1c thread package for Linux. URL: http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/linuxthreads/
LinWars => <reply> $who, Role Playing Game in Bard's-Tale-Style. URL: http://www-math.math.rwth-aachen.de/~LBFM/klaus/
lirc => <reply> $who, Linux Infra-red Remote Control. URL: http://fsinfo.cs.uni-sb.de/~columbus/lirc/index.html
lisp debug => <reply> $who, Source level lisp debugger. URL: http://bewoner.dma.be/marclisp/intro.html
LiSP2TeX => <reply> $who, . URL: http://www-spi.lip6.fr/~queinnec/WWW//LiSP2TeX.html
LiSt Directory => <reply> $who, lists files & subdirectories recursively in a list format. URL: http://www.ncat.edu/~sully/lsd/
Listar => <reply> $who, Modular Mailing list management software. URL: http://www.listar.org/
Lithium => <reply> $who, Suite of Network/System Admin Tools with a GTK+ GUI. URL: http://jw.themes.org/
Live CD => <reply> $who, Scripts to create Debian Linux System on Live CD - runs w/out HD.. URL: http://www.ocslink.com/~blunier/
LiveMix => <reply> $who, Mixing of live broadcasts of streaming media.. URL: http://livemix.mini.dhs.org/
lizcam => <reply> $who, Easy-to-use webcam program with automatic archiving of pictures.. URL: http://www.syspac.com/~madlather/lizcam.html
LK => <reply> $who, Implementation of the Lin-Kernighan heuristic. URL: http://www.cs.utoronto.ca/~neto/research/lk
LKLib => <reply> $who, A C library that allows your programs to use multiple linked lists. URL: http://www.penguinpowered.com/~a_out/
LLNL XDIR => <reply> $who, . URL: http://www.llnl.gov/ia/xdir_xftp/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
NIL => <reply> $who, A simple Netbus client with a clean interface.. URL: http://hem.fyristorg.com/tuvin/
Nilo => <reply> $who, Network boot Image LOader. URL: http://www.nilo.org/
nini => <reply> $who, Lightweight, secure imap server project. URL: http://snork.capybara.org/~george/nini/
Ninja IRC => <reply> $who, Yet another ircII based client.. URL: http://ninja.pimped.org/
NinjaRMI => <reply> $who, Free implementation of Java Remote Method Invocation. URL: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~mdw/proj/ninja/
nirc => <reply> $who, An extendable IRC client written in perl. URL: http://cupid.suninternet.com/~joeo/nirc.html
Nirvana => <reply> $who, Java Message Orientated Middleware. URL: http://www.pcbsys.com/
nis-utils => <reply> $who, Linux NIS+ Tools. URL: http://www.suse.de/~kukuk/linux/nisplus.html
nis-utils and pam_keylogin => <reply> $who, NIS+ client and server programs. URL: http://www.kernelnotes.org/HOWTO/NIS-HOWTO.html
nist => <reply> $who, Update system time from NIST time server. URL: http://www.zdo.com
nitfol => <reply> $who, Z-machine interpreter and debugger. URL: http://ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXinfocomXinterpretersXnitfol.html
Nitz_2000IRC => <reply> $who, Graphical IRC client of advanced design. URL: http://www.superior.net/~tech/nitz/
nlgrep => <reply> $who, Searches an ifmail-indexed Fidonet nodelist. URL: http://www.drmach.demon.co.uk/vashti/software/#nlgrep
nlog => <reply> $who, nmap 2.x log management and analyzer toolkit. URL: http://nlog.ings.com
nmap => <reply> $who, Full featured, robust port scanner. URL: http://www.insecure.org/nmap/index.html
NmapFE => <reply> $who, GTK+ front end for Nmap.. URL: http://codebox.net/nmapfe.html
nmh => <reply> $who, Enhanced version of the MH electronic mail system.. URL: http://www.mhost.com/nmh/
nmix => <reply> $who, An ncurses mixer for the console.. URL: http://www.sourceforge.net/download.php?fileid=485
nmpg => <reply> $who, Command driven frontend for mpg123. URL: http://zippy.ultrashell.net/~nevyn/soft/nmpg.htm
nmsms => <reply> $who, Newmail to sms announcer. URL: http://lide.pruvodce.cz/~wayne/nmsms-0.04.tgz
NNTP for Gamora => <reply> $who, NNTP services for Gamora applications. URL: ftp://gamora.org/pub/gamora/plugins/nntp4g-0.0.jar
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Perl Web Publisher => <reply> $who, Perl script to synchronize your ftp-only web site at your ISP.. URL: http://www.net-link.net/~jettero/pwebp/index.html
Perl WebStats => <reply> $who, Perl Apache log analyzer/report generator. URL: http://www.gallanttech.com/resources/documentation/webstats/
perl-cfd => <reply> $who, High-stability cfengine server daemon.. URL: http://www.suitenine.com/perl-cfd/
Perl-LZO => <reply> $who, Provides LZO bindings for Perl5. URL: http://wildsau.idv.uni-linz.ac.at/mfx/lzo.html
Perl/Tk Finger => <reply> $who, Perl/Tk Finger Client. URL: http://www.whirlnet.demon.co.uk/linux/ptkfinger.html
Perl/Tk Headline Grabbers => <reply> $who, Headline grabbers for various Linux-related sites. URL: http://jade.netpedia.net/
Perl/Tk NSLookup => <reply> $who, DNS Lookup app written in Perl/Tk. URL: http://www.whirlnet.demon.co.uk/linux/ptknslookup.html
Perl/Tk Time Client => <reply> $who, Compares your system time with another machine. URL: http://www.whirlnet.demon.co.uk/linux/ptktime.html
perlbot => <reply> $who, An IRC bot in Perl written with simplicity in mind. URL: http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~burke/perlbot/
perldap => <reply> $who, Perl C and OO interface to LDAP. URL: http://www.mozilla.org/directory/
perldbgui => <reply> $who, A GUI for the Perl debugger.. URL: http://members.tripod.com/~CurtMcKelvey/perldbgui/
Perlfect Search => <reply> $who, Web site indexer and search engine.. URL: http://perlfect.com/freescripts/search/
Perlfect::Template => <reply> $who, Text/HTML template processing module for Perl.. URL: http://www.perlfect.com/articles/templates.shtml
PerlHoo => <reply> $who, Yahoo-like Web Directory. URL: http://www.webreference.com/perl/
perlitil => <reply> $who, incident control based on itil.. URL: http://www.pacha.nl/perlitil/
perlmoo => <reply> $who, lambdamoo style moo written in perl. URL: http://kitenet.net/programs/perlmoo/
perlonfile => <reply> $who, Process a set of files with any Perl expression.. URL: http://novelidea.com/products/perlonfile/
perlradius => <reply> $who, A drop-in replacement for the livingstonradiusd. URL: http://www.iinet.net.au/~michael/radius.html
PerlSETI => <reply> $who, GUI front end for the SETI@home client, programmed in Perl. URL: http://ude.org/jan/perlseti/
Perro => <reply> $who, This is a set of daemons that log TCP/UDP/ICMP packets.. URL: http://www.grigna.com/diego/linux/perro/
Personal Webspace => <reply> $who, A set of scripts that allows users to maintain their web pages using a browser.. URL: http://zorro.pangea.ca/~mcrewson/pws/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Plexel => <reply> $who, Javascript and Java HTML editor, applications platform, and website manager.. URL: http://www.plexos.com/Download_Plexel.htm
plextor-tool => <reply> $who, tool for querying and setting options of Plextor CD-ROM drives. URL: http://www.technik.sth.ac.at/plextor-tool/
Pliant => <reply> $who, Efficient and extendable programming language. URL: http://pliant.cams.ehess.fr/
pload => <reply> $who, Display ppp statistics in an X window. URL: http://www.engr.utk.edu/~mdsmith/pload/
ploticus => <reply> $who, data display engine. URL: http://www.sgpr.net/
PlRun => <reply> $who, Perl-Run - Emulator compatable run dialog box for X11. URL: http://perl.linuxbox.com/
plsc => <reply> $who, Oracle PL/SQL compliation front-end. URL: http://www.slip.net/~amalec/plsc/
plucker => <reply> $who, Web browser for Palm Pilot with Linux conduit. URL: http://fingerlickin.rubberchicken.org/products/plucker/
PLUG => <reply> $who, A HTML-based frontend to /var/log/messages. URL: http://linux.kub.trollhattan.se/plug/index.html
plugger => <reply> $who, Streaming multimedia plugin for UNIX netscape. URL: http://fredrik.hubbe.net/plugger.html
PM3 => <reply> $who, Modula-3 compiler, debugger, libraries, and applications. URL: http://m3.polymtl.ca/m3/
pmail => <reply> $who, Perl mail program/scripts. URL: http://junior.apk.net/~qc/goodies/
PMan => <reply> $who, FLTK-based Project Manager. URL: http://r10k.webcity.nl/pman/
PMFirewall => <reply> $who, An Ipchains Firewall and Masquerading Configuration Utility.. URL: http://www.pointman.org/
pmpp => <reply> $who, A Poor Man's Pre-Processor. URL: http://www.zip.com.au/~kev/pmpp/
Pmw => <reply> $who, Python GUI-Widget Toolkit based on Tkinter (Tcl/Tk). URL: http://www.dscpl.com.au/pmw/
png2html => <reply> $who, Converts a PNG image into a web page.. URL: http://www.engr.mun.ca/~holden/png2html.html
png2jpg proxy => <reply> $who, HTTP proxy with png to jpg conversion.. URL: http://www.penguin.cz/~martinmv/index_eng.html
pngcrush => <reply> $who, Optimizer for PNG files that can also delete specified chunks. URL: http://www.xnot.com/pmt/pngcrush/
PngEncoder => <reply> $who, A Java class to convert Java images to a byte-array in PNG format. URL: http://www.best.com/~nessus/pngencoder/
PNGgraph.pm => <reply> $who, Chart-plotting perl module. URL: ftp://ftp.mobile.ru/pub/DISTRIB/PNGgraph-1.11.tar.gz
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
pvmpov => <reply> $who, POV-Ray raytracing in a parallel environment. URL: http://www.luga.de/~flierl/pvmpov/
pvmsync => <reply> $who, Extends POSIX-like synchronization mechanisms to a Linux Beowulf cluster. URL: http://torch.rowan.edu/pvmsync/
pwcheck => <reply> $who, MySQL password authentication for the Cyrus IMAP server.. URL: http://earth.alsland.com/anewsome/pwcheck_mysql-0.7.tar.gz
pwcheck_pgsql => <reply> $who, pwcheck_pgsql is a an authentication module for the Cyrus IMAP server.. URL: ftp://ftp.kstu.edu.ru/pub/unix/cyrus/pwcheck_pgsql-0.1.tgz
pxtools => <reply> $who, Collection of tools to convert a Paradox-database. URL: http://www.kneschke.de/projekte/pxtools/
Pybliographer => <reply> $who, tool for bibliographic databases manipulation. URL: http://www.gnome.org/pybliographer/
PyBot => <reply> $who, An IRC bot written in Python.. URL: ftp://205.238.164.201/pub/pybot/pybot-latest.tar.gz
pyCA => <reply> $who, A project to create Certification Authority in Python. URL: http://sites.inka.de/ms/python/pyca/
pyCDAudio => <reply> $who, Python wrapperes for libcdaudio. URL: http://www.michigannet.com/~rbb/pycdaudio/
pyChing => <reply> $who, Cast and interpret I Ching hexagrams. URL: http://www.essemgee.xnot.com/pyching/
pydb => <reply> $who, A modified version of the standard Python debugger. URL: http://daikon.tuc.noao.edu/python/
pyDE => <reply> $who, Programmers editor for Python. URL: http://www.spirito.de/pyde/
pydf => <reply> $who, colourised df(1)-clone. URL: http://melkor.dnp.fmph.uniba.sk/~garabik/pydf/
pyDict => <reply> $who, English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary. URL: http://www.linux.org.tw/~plateau/linux_notes/softwares/
PyGCS => <reply> $who, A very stripped down MUD-like chat-server written entirely in Python.. URL: http://www2.shore.net/~jblaine/book-of-jeff-3.html
Pygmy Linux => <reply> $who, UMSDOS based, internet ready minilinux.. URL: http://www.linuxstart.com/~pygmy/
PyGNOME => <reply> $who, A set of bindings for the GNOME libraries for use with python. URL: ftp://ftp.daa.com.au/pub/james/python/
PyGTK => <reply> $who, A set of bindings for the GTK widget set. URL: http://www.daa.com.au/~james/pygtk/
PyKDE => <reply> $who, Python bindings for QT 1.42 and KDE1.1 Code your KDE applications in python.. URL: http://www.river-bank.demon.co.uk/software/
PyKstat => <reply> $who, Python interface to Solaris kernel statistics. URL: http://www.biostat.wisc.edu/~annis/creations/pykstat.html
Pynche => <reply> $who, Color Editor. URL: http://www.python.org/~bwarsaw/software/pyware.html
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Unlimited Simulator => <reply> $who, General purpose simulator. URL: http://www.hozelhoff.com/~brunobg/
UnLockPRO => <reply> $who, ZZT world lock manipulator. URL: http://www.linuxstart.com/~kvance/sw_byname.html#U
unrar => <reply> $who, extract, test and view RAR archives. URL: ftp://ftp.elf.stuba.sk/pub/pc/pack/
Unreal Tournament demo => <reply> $who, Unreal Tournament demo (client/server). URL: http://www.unrealtournament.com/
UnrealIRCd => <reply> $who, Advanced IRC daemon based off EliteIRCd with numerous of new features. URL: http://toybox.flirt.org/~cmunk/unreal/
unzip => <reply> $who, Unpacks .zip files such as those made by pkzip under DOS. URL: http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/
UOOS => <reply> $who, Ultima Online Game Server Emulator. URL: http://www.uoos.com/
up => <reply> $who, Replacement program for uptime.. URL: http://www.burdell.org/up.php3
uparrow => <reply> $who, tcl command loop. URL: http://www.aist.go.jp/NIBH/~tomh/
upd => <reply> $who, Makes hiscores of your best five uptimes, ready for when showing off!. URL: http://tisprut.n3.net/
UPS => <reply> $who, Light C and C++ debugger under X11.. URL: http://www.concerto.demon.co.uk/UPS/
UPSomatic => <reply> $who, UPS parcel pricing for US sources, all destinations. URL: ftp://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/alan/UPSomatic/
Uptime client => <reply> $who, Keep track of your uptime and compare it with other hosts.. URL: http://uptime.hexon.cx/
Uptime Daemon => <reply> $who, Constantly checks your current uptime against uptime records. URL: http://www.vistasafe.com/ud/
Uptime Record Suite => <reply> $who, Records the record uptime. URL: http://jaeger.festing.org/projects/uptime-record/
Uptimed => <reply> $who, Uptime record daemon keeping track of the highest uptimes the system ever had. URL: http://capsi.cx/?q=code/uptimed
uptimer => <reply> $who, Adds the current uptime to your .sig file. URL: http://212.19.67.58/
uptime_applet => <reply> $who, Gnome applet which will display your system uptime. URL: http://outsole.com/uptime.shtml
UPX => <reply> $who, powerful executable packer. URL: http://wildsau.idv.uni-linz.ac.at/mfx/upx.html
URBAN => <reply> $who, A nice shoot-'em-up game for Linux and DOS, lots of blood and gore.. URL: http://urban.home.dhs.org/
Urchin ASAP => <reply> $who, Web visitor-analysis reporting system (log analyzer). URL: http://www.urchin.com/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
VESA 3.0 Linux Kernel Services => <reply> $who, Provides Linux kernel services to access the VESA 3.0 video bios on newer cards. URL: http://pepsi.visus.com/~jmcc/vesa3/
VeteScan => <reply> $who, Bulk Vulnerability Scanner. URL: http://www.self-evident.com/
vetestcl => <reply> $who, Vulnerability scanners for eggdrop. URL: http://www.self-evident.com
vfsh => <reply> $who, Virtual Fluxating SHell - a randomizing shell to other shells. URL: ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/unix/vfsh/
vftp => <reply> $who, Ncurses based FTP client for the linux console.. URL: http://daneel.tsx.org/
VFU File Manager => <reply> $who, Extensivelyl featured console (text-mode) file manager.. URL: http://www.biscom.net/~cade/vfu/
vgproxy => <reply> $who, Virtual-hosting generic network proxy. URL: http://amphetamine.higherplane.net/vgproxy-0.9.1.tar.gz
VH Graph => <reply> $who, PHP3/PHP4 plotting package.. URL: http://www.vhconsultants.com/
ViaGratt => <reply> $who, A simulator of guitar racks. URL: http://www.epita.fr/~bempel_j/ViaGratt/
VICE => <reply> $who, Versatile Commodore Emulator. URL: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dsladic/vice/vice.html
vidbg => <reply> $who, Curses based front end to command line debuggers.. URL: http://www.tildeslash.org/vidbg.html
Video Server => <reply> $who, indexing, searching and video streaming mpeg data across the network. URL: http://www.ecsl.cs.sunysb.edu/~andrew/VideoServer/videoserver/index/book1.html
Videobase => <reply> $who, Video / Movie database. URL: http://www.stack.nl/~stilgar/videobase/
View Designer X => <reply> $who, User Interface Management System to create UIs with OSF/Motif widgets. URL: http://www.bredex.de/vdx/
viewmd2 => <reply> $who, Quake2 MD2/PCX viewer. URL: http://www.cse.psu.edu/~vance/
Viewmol => <reply> $who, Molecule builder/editor and visualizer for molecular modeling programs. URL: http://server.ccl.net/chemistry/resources/software/SOURCES/C/viewmol/
VigMeUp => <reply> $who, An alarm program for KDE that plays mp3s to wake you up.. URL: http://www.c-nix.com/vigmeup/
ViHP => <reply> $who, A streaming webcam server written in perl. URL: http://tharsis.gi.alaska.edu/vihp/
vile => <reply> $who, Extensible vi-like editor w/ optional X window and win32 support. URL: http://www.clark.net/pub/dickey/vile/vile.html
Vim => <reply> $who, Popular vi clone that features syntax highlighting and an X11 interface. URL: http://www.vim.org/
ViMmail => <reply> $who, A simple and fast mail viewer for Motif. URL: http://www.stud.enst.fr/~vmallet/ViMmail.html
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Websphere Application Server => <reply> $who, Websphere Java Application Server. URL: http://www.software.ibm.com/webservers/
WebSQL for Sybase ASE => <reply> $who, A web based SQL utility.. URL: http://www.penguin.cz/~martinmv/index_eng.html
Websqlbrowse => <reply> $who, web-based SQL database browser. URL: http://www.headricksoftware.com/websqlbrowse.html
WebSubmit => <reply> $who, A web-based utility providing secure access to remote applications. URL: http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/sasg/websubmit/websubmit.html
Websuite => <reply> $who, Suite of CGI applications in C. URL: http://www.anarres.org/c/websuite.html
WebSupport => <reply> $who, Trouble Ticket System. URL: http://why.sigh.org/programs/websupport.php
WebTheme => <reply> $who, Web Theme Library. URL: http://www.thestuff.net/bob/projects/webtheme/
WebTTS => <reply> $who, WWW-based Trouble Ticketing System for ISP's. URL: http://www.gashalot.com/software/webtts/
WebX10 => <reply> $who, Web Based GUI to control X10 Devices. URL: http://www.famewolf.com/webx10/
Weeder => <reply> $who, Binary identification tool. URL: http://members.teleweb.at/erikajo/weeder.htm
weedlog => <reply> $who, A packet logger to help debug network connections.. URL: http://www.firepool.com/weedlog/
WEEDS => <reply> $who, Java application that converts XML files describing plants into an HTML flora. URL: http://www.honeylocust.com/weeds/
WeirdX => <reply> $who, A pure Java X Window System server. URL: http://www.jcraft.com/weirdx/
WEKA => <reply> $who, Data Mining Workbench in Java. URL: http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/ml/weka/
Welcome2L => <reply> $who, Linux ANSI boot logo. URL: http://www.littleigloo.org/
Wforward => <reply> $who, Virtual Web hosting. URL: http://ac2i.dyn.ml.org/wforward.html
Wget-HTML-Interface => <reply> $who, HTML-based Wget-Interface. URL: http://www.provi.de/s.schliesing/wget/
Wget-New-Percentage => <reply> $who, New progress/percentage indicator for WGNU Wget. URL: http://www.biscom.net/~cade/away/
WHAMp => <reply> $who, An mpg123 frontend using the gtk-toolkit. URL: http://www.casema.net/~bosboom/
whatpix => <reply> $who, Duplicate file finder.. URL: http://www.bogus.net/~codex/
whats => <reply> $who, Grab useful info from Netcraft. URL: http://www.luciddesigns.com/chrislea/whats/index.html
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Yams => <reply> $who, An e-commerce package written in Perl and utilizing a MySQL database.. URL: http://yams.screamdesign.com/
yank => <reply> $who, Yet another notekeeper.. URL: http://home.ins.de/~m.hussmann/software/yank/
YAP Prolog System => <reply> $who, Prolog Compiler. URL: http://www.ncc.up.pt/~vsc/Yap/
YIFF Sound Server => <reply> $who, Sound server with multi-client and network-transparent io library.. URL: http://fox.mit.edu/xsw/yiff/
Yiff! for X11 => <reply> $who, A foxy puzzle game. URL: http://www.iki.fi/wwwwolf/games/xyiff.html
yip => <reply> $who, An enhancement kit for aub. URL: http://yip.boners.com
Yodl => <reply> $who, Yet oneOther Document Language. URL: http://www.xs4all.nl/~jantien/yodl/
Yolk => <reply> $who, A perl script and set of modules to implement an eggdrop botnet bot. URL: ftp://ftp.netsplit.com/pub/yolk/
yp-tools => <reply> $who, NIS (YP) clients. URL: http://www.suse.de/~kukuk/linux/nis.html
ypbind-mt => <reply> $who, ypbind-mt is a complete new implementation of a NIS binding daemon. URL: http://www.suse.de/~kukuk/linux/nis.html
YPlayer => <reply> $who, Graphical tool to debug Lex/Bison syntax. URL: http://www.cse.nd.edu/~arodrig6/yplayer/
ypldapd => <reply> $who, LDAP to NIS gateway. URL: http://www.padl.com/ldap-nis_gateway.html
yplot => <reply> $who, A Yorick interface to PLPlot. URL: http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/conrad/yplot.html
ypserv => <reply> $who, Simple network lookupservice consisting of databases and processes. URL: http://www.suse.de/~kukuk/nis/ypserv/
ytalk => <reply> $who, Multi-user replacement for the Unix talk(1) program.. URL: http://www.eleves.ens.fr:8080/home/espel/ytalk/ytalk.html
Ytree => <reply> $who, . URL: http://www.han.de/~werner/ytree.html
yudit => <reply> $who, Unicode text editor for the X Window System. URL: http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/editors/X/
ywho => <reply> $who, Yet Another Who Utility. URL: http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~mj/linux.html
yyyRSA => <reply> $who, A paranoid RSA encryption/decryption program.. URL: http://wwwcip.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/~inf24628/yyyRSA/
ZAngband => <reply> $who, Rogue-like roleplaying game. URL: http://thangorodrim.angband.org/
zarch => <reply> $who, linux remake of the classic game also known as virus. URL: http://www.nbn.com/~thom/software.html
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Stubby => <reply> $who, Stubby is a tool that enables programmers and packagers to add transparent support for optional run-time dynamic linking of shared libraries. URL: http://onegeek.org/~tom/software/stubby/dl/
3dfile => <reply> $who, 3dfile is a simple OpenGL-based file browser. URL:
quietrun => <reply> $who, quietrun is a tiny shell-script for running a command and hiding its output unless the exit code of the command wasn't zero. URL: http://www.new.ox.ac.uk/~adam/computing/quietrun
csnes9x => <reply> $who, csnes9x is a small and quick snes9x front end for the command line console. URL: http://www.mindspring.com/~joelgg/csnes9x-0.9.10.tar.gz
BW whois => <reply> $who, BW whois is a replacement for the original whois program which works properly with the modified whois system that resulted from ICANN's takeover of the root domain system. URL: http://bw.org/whois/whois
remoted => <reply> $who, remoted provides an easy way to associate X10 MouseRemote remote control keypresses to shell commands, and runs on UNIX (tested using Linux). URL: http://www.sourcesurfer.com/misc/release/remoted.1.0.tar.gz
Groovy Java Database => <reply> $who, Groovy Java Database implements an object-oriented database. URL: http://www.linuxstart.com/~groovyjava/Database/Database-0.1.src.zip
apt-proxy => <reply> $who, apt-proxy is a simple script to build up a Debian FTP mirror based on requests which pass through the proxy. URL: ftp://ftp.linuxcare.com.au/pub/apt-proxy/apt-proxy-0.1.tar.bz2
konkhydra => <reply> $who, Konkhydra is a program that lets you control multiple X servers from one keyboard and mouse. URL: http://www.konkers.net/~konkers/konkhydra/konkhydra-0.0.1.tar.gz
Gift => <reply> $who, Gift is a Java platform which allows developers to create custom editors dedicated to any representation language or formalism. URL: http://www.xrce.xerox.com/ats/gift/download/download.html
CodeGuide => <reply> $who, CodeGuide is an IDE that detects errors in your code as you type, offers powerful code completion features, maintains a structured view of your program, has an integrated visual debugger, supports the latest Java technologi...
Koala Complete MUD Server => <reply> $who, Koala is a complete, IPv6-compliant MUD server.. URL: http://sourceforge.net/project/filelist.php?form_grp=312
JIPSY => <reply> $who, Jipsy is a drop-in replacement for parts of the java.net classes that enables Java applications to seamlessly communicate using IPv4 and IPv6. URL: http://www.progsoc.uts.edu.au/~mpf/jipsy/jipsy-0.1.0.tar.gz
Style-print => <reply> $who, Style-print is a small program that prints files with a lot of styles like underline, bold, double width, superindex, etc. URL: http://www.ctv.es/USERS/pbrufal/style-print-0.1.tar.gz
Updee => <reply> $who, Updee is an uptime daemon designed to run on as many UNIX systems as possible. URL: http://www.bigfoot.com/~iretd/updee-current.tar.gz
gShield => <reply> $who, gShield (formerly Godot's Modified Modular Firewall), is an aggressive, modular, ipchains-based firewall script. URL: http://muse.linuxgeek.org/files/gShield-1.0.tgz
tdof => <reply> $who, tdof is an APE-derived C++ framework for use in developing telephony applications with native drivers which lack a pre-existing SDK. URL: ftp://www.voxilla.org/pub/tdof/
gg => <reply> $who, gg is a graphical guestbook for the Web. URL: http://www.earth.li/projectpurple/files/gg-0.0.2.tar.gz
ODBC Socket Server => <reply> $who, ODBC Socket Server is an open source database access toolkit that exposes Windows NT ODBC data sources via an XML-based TCP/IP interface. URL: http://odbc.linuxbox.com/download.html
Conglomerate => <reply> $who, Conglomerate will be a system for authoring, storing, transforming, and generally working with structured information like XML/SGML (yes, it will do DocBook, or any other DTD you care to throw at it). URL: http://www.con...
WebCalendar => <reply> $who, WebCalendar is a PHP/MySQL application used to maintain a calendar for one or more persons.. URL: http://www.radix.net/~cknudsen/webcalendar/files/WebCalendar-0.9.tar.gz
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
MidiShare => <reply> $who, MidiShare is a musical operating system designed for the Macintosh, Windows, Atari, and Linux. URL: ftp://www.grame.fr/pub/MidiShare/Linux/
CDirCase => <reply> $who, cdircase is a program to convert the case of file names and directory names in a directory. URL: http://venus.spaceports.com/~alkatraz/
KSendmail => <reply> $who, KSendmail is a management system for Sendmail. URL: http://devel-home.kde.org/~ksmt/ksendmail-0.7.tar.gz
PuzzleSquare => <reply> $who, PuzzleSquare is an amusment with limited educational value. URL: http://www.shore.net/~cpuffer/PuzzleSquare-0.0.tar.bz2
Mail Modernization Project => <reply> $who, The goal of the Mail Modernization Project is to integrate popular MTA's, delivery agents and retreival daemons with databases for authentication and delivery into the database. URL: http://sendmail.jacked-...
Akkord => <reply> $who, Akkord is the Advanced KDE Commander, similar to Dos Navigator and Norton Commander. URL: http://home.retribution.net/products/akkord/download.php3
TkHeadlines => <reply> $who, TkHeadlines is a headline viewer for some news and software sites. URL: http://loki.dhs.org/~rick/tkheadlines_0.68.tgz
gnome-8ball => <reply> $who, gnome-8ball is a simple magic 8-ball GNOME-panel application.. URL: http://mocat.qpt.com/gnome-8ball/gnome-8ball-0.1.tar.gz
dhcp-conf => <reply> $who, dhcpd-conf helps with creating and maintaning a DHCPd configuration file for small- to medium- sized LANs. URL: http://members.xoom.com/vschade/dhcp-conf/dhcp-conf.tgz
wwsympa => <reply> $who, WWSympa is a Web interface to the Sympa mailling list manager. URL: http://listes.cru.fr/sympa/distribution/contrib/wwsympa/
JSwat => <reply> $who, JSwat is an extensible, standalone, graphical Java debugger front-end. URL: http://home.earthlink.net/~nfiedler/java/jswat/download.html
LUCI => <reply> $who, LUCI is an Universal Configuration Interface. URL: http://www.multimania.com/zubro/luci/luci-0.1.0.tar.gz
Blade-- => <reply> $who, Blade-- is a C++ wrapper/interface to the BLADE web-based environment. URL: http://www.thestuff.net/bob/file/blade/libblade---0.1.0.tar.gz
gendns => <reply> $who, With a site config file, a domain script, and gendns.pl you can create everything you need to manage lots of domains quickly and easily. URL: http://wildgear.com/gendns/gendns.tar.gz
ANTLR => <reply> $who, ANTLR (ANother Tool for Language Recognition) is a language tool that provides a framework for constructing recognizers, compilers, and translators from grammatical descriptions containing C++ or Java actions. URL: http://www.a...
Apprentice => <reply> $who, Apprentice is an HTTP daemon written in Perl, based on HTML::Mason and libwww-perl.. URL: http://www.halyava.ru/do/Apprentice-0.1.tar.gz
XCounter => <reply> $who, XCounter is a X11-based traffic monitoring program for Linux that displays information about IP traffic on a selected interface. URL: http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/romrow/935/XCounter-1.0.1.tar.gz
ttm => <reply> $who, ttm is a simple but flexible command-line based Perl program for managing lists of tasks. URL: http://www.new.ox.ac.uk/~adam/computing/ttm/ttm
EXG => <reply> $who, EXG is an extension to the eiffel-gtk wrapping library which provides almost complete Gdk wrapping (this was a minus of eiffel-gtk), Imlib wrapping, simple wizard support, trivial turtle graphics, and modal dialogs for file selec...
Craft: The Viscious Vikings => <reply> $who, The Viscious Vikings is a Warcraft-style strategy game with Vikings fighting each other for national survival.. URL: http://borneo.gmd.de/AS/janus/craft/craftcc35.html
ec64 => <reply> $who, ec64 (emulated C64) is an emulator for the Commodore 64 written in x86 assembly.. URL: http://mars.wiwi.uni-halle.de/ec64/download/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
HTML2TEXT => <reply> $who, HTML2text converts HTML 3.2 documents into plain ASCII text. URL: http://www.gmrs.de/html2text-1.2.1.tar.gz
ID2 => <reply> $who, ID2 is a small utility which shows information about given users or groups in the system based on passwd and group structures.. URL: ftp://devil.inside.pin.pl/pub/Unix/tools/id2/id2-current.tar.gz
Cawfee CGI SDK => <reply> $who, Cawfee CGI SDK is a CGI library written in C++. URL: http://www.xcheese.org/csoft/cawfeecgi/cawfeecgi-0.1.tar.gz
Blur Scope MAX => <reply> $who, Blur Scope MAX is an offshoot of the Blur Scope that comes with XMMS. URL: http://home1.gte.net/mbardeen/blurscope/blur_scope_max-0.9.1.tar.gz
HPTalx => <reply> $who, HPTalx is a program to transfer files from/to your HP calculator. URL:
libtiff-lzw-compression-kit => <reply> $who, LZW compression has been removed from libtiff. URL: http://www.libtiff.org/libtiff-lzw-compression-kit.tar.gz
XIPM => <reply> $who, XIPM is a package management and system maintenance utility. URL: http://www.multimania.com/xsodax/main.htm#download
PHP4-Beta3 + Japanese libgd patch => <reply> $who, The Japanese libgd patch is a simple patch to PHP4 Beta 3 to enable use of Japanese and other multibyte characters in dynamic images generated with ImagePng and friends. URL: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/l...
X-RAR => <reply> $who, X-RAR is a front-end to the archiving utility 'rar'. URL: http://twakar.fdns.net/xrar-0.2beta.tar.gz
miffmixr => <reply> $who, miffmixr is a Web-based MP3 jukebox. URL: http://9mm.com/philez/miffmixr.tar.gz
MIT Scheme => <reply> $who, MIT Scheme is an implementation of the Scheme programming language, providing an interpreter, compiler, source-code debugger, integrated Emacs-like editor, and a large runtime library. URL: http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/ftpd...
ClanMecha => <reply> $who, ClanMecha is a 2D multiplayer platform game of the mecha genre. URL: http://sourceforge.net/download.php?fileid=1042
gecco => <reply> $who, gecco (GNOME Extensible Configuration COnsole) attempts to provide a common location for system, network and application configuration functions. URL: http://members.tripod.com/veeev/download.html
dupmerge => <reply> $who, Dupmerge reads a list of files from standard input (eg., as produced by "find . URL: http://people.qualcomm.com/karn/code/dupmerge/dupmerge.c
efx => <reply> $who, EFX is a standalone program which will load XMMS effect plugins for use with Esound. URL: http://code.linuxcore.com/download.php3?id=efx&type=tgz
MP3 Player Upload and Download utilities => <reply> $who, The MP3 Player Upload and Download utilities is a collection of programs which provide support for portable MP3 players such the Diamond Rio and the Saehan MpMan under operating systems other ...
cpp1 => <reply> $who, Cpp1 is an experimental chess program written in C++. URL: http://www.keetweej.demon.nl/cpp1.tgz
rdial => <reply> $who, rdial is an extremely simple RPC server for Linux. URL: http://colorfullife.com/~manfreds/rdial/rdial.tar.gz
dclock => <reply> $who, dclock is an X11 desktop clock with a realistic LED-style display of the current time. URL: http://bach.ece.jhu.edu/~tim/programs/archive/dclock.tar.gz
gatO => <reply> $who, gatO is an interface to the UNIX command 'at'.. URL: http://www.arquired.es/users/aldelgado/proy/gato/gato-0.6.2.tgz
g3DSE => <reply> $who, g3DSE is a little tool to set the 3D Stereo Enhancement of your SoundBlaster card (if supported).. URL: http://studwww.rug.ac.be/~fcorneli/g3dse/download/g3dse-0.1.tar.gz
factpacks/MacErrorCodes.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Mac Error 20000 => ( dsShutDownOrRestart ) user choice between ShutDown and Restart **DS Error Table**
Mac Error 20001 => ( dsSwitchOffOrRestart ) user choice between switching off and Restart **DS Error Table**
Mac Error 20002 => ( dsForcedQuit ) allow the user to ExitToShell, return if Cancel **DS Error Table**
Mac Error 32767 => ( dsSysErr ) general system error (catch-all used in DSAT) **DS Error Table**
Mac Error 0 => ( noErr ) 0 for success OR ( smNotTruncated ) No truncation necessary **General System Errors (VBL Mgr, Queue, Etc.)**
Mac Error -1 => ( qErr ) queue element not found during deletion OR ( smTruncErr ) Truncation indicator alone is wider than the specified width **General System Errors (VBL Mgr, Queue, Etc.)**
Mac Error -2 => ( vTypErr ) invalid queue element **General System Errors (VBL Mgr, Queue, Etc.)**
Mac Error -3 => ( corErr ) core routine number out of range **General System Errors (VBL Mgr, Queue, Etc.)**
Mac Error -4 => ( unimpErr ) unimplemented core routine **General System Errors (VBL Mgr, Queue, Etc.)**
Mac Error -5 => ( SlpTypeErr ) invalid queue element **General System Errors (VBL Mgr, Queue, Etc.)**
Mac Error -8 => ( seNoDB ) no debugger installed to handle debugger command **General System Errors (VBL Mgr, Queue, Etc.)**
Mac Error -9 => ( iTabPurgErr ) from Color2Index/ITabMatch **Color Manager Error**
Mac Error -10 => ( noColMatch ) from Color2Index/ITabMatch **Color Manager Error**
Mac Error -11 => ( qAllocErr ) from MakeITable **Color Manager Error**
Mac Error -12 => ( tblAllocErr ) from MakeITable **Color Manager Error**
Mac Error -13 => ( overRun ) from MakeITable **Color Manager Error**
Mac Error -14 => ( noRoomErr ) from MakeITable **Color Manager Error**
Mac Error -15 => ( seOutOfRange ) from SetEntry **Color Manager Error**
Mac Error -16 => ( seProtErr ) from SetEntry **Color Manager Error**
Mac Error -17 => ( i2CRangeErr ) from SetEntry **Color Manager Error** or ( controlErr ) Driver can't respond to Control call **I/O System Error**
Mac Error -18 => ( gdBadDev ) from SetEntry **Color Manager Error** or ( statusErr ) Driver can't respond to Status call **I/O System Error**
factpacks/MacErrorCodes.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Mac Error -471 => ( scsiOverrunErr ) attempted to transfer too many bytes **SCSI Manager Errors**
Mac Error -472 => ( scsiTransferErr ) write flag conflicts with data transfer phase **SCSI Manager Errors**
Mac Error -473 => ( scsiBusTOErr ) bus error during transfer **SCSI Manager Errors**
Mac Error -474 => ( scsiSelectTOErr ) scsiSelTO exceeded (selection failed) **SCSI Manager Errors**
Mac Error -475 => ( scsiTimeOutErr ) scsiReqTO exceeded **SCSI Manager Errors**
Mac Error -476 => ( scsiBusResetErr ) the bus was reset, so your request was aborted **SCSI Manager Errors**
Mac Error -477 => ( scsiBadStatus ) non-zero (not "Good") status returned **SCSI Manager Errors**
Mac Error -478 => ( scsiNoStatusErr ) device did not go through a status phase **SCSI Manager Errors**
Mac Error -479 => ( scsiLinkFailErr ) linked command never executed **SCSI Manager Errors**
Mac Error -489 => ( scsiUnimpVctErr ) unimplemented routine was called **SCSI Manager Errors**
Mac Error -490 => ( userBreak ) user debugger break **SysErrs used instead of inline $A9FF & $ABFF**
Mac Error -491 => ( strUserBreak ) user debugger break - display string on stack **SysErrs used instead of inline $A9FF & $ABFF**
Mac Error -492 => ( exUserBreak ) user debugger break - execute commands on stack **SysErrs used instead of inline $A9FF & $ABFF**
Mac Error -500 => ( rgnTooBigErr ) Bitmap would convert into a region greater than 64 KB **QuickDraw Error**
Mac Error -501 => ( teScrapSizeErr ) scrap item too big for text edit record **Text Edit Error**
Mac Error -502 => ( hwParamrErr ) bad selector for _HWPriv **O/S Error**
Mac Error -600 => ( procNotFound ) No eligible process with specified process serial number **Processes Errors**
Mac Error -601 => ( memFragErr ) Not enough room to launch application with special requirements **Processes Errors**
Mac Error -602 => ( appModeErr ) Memory mode is 32-bit, but application is not 32-bit clean **Processes Errors**
Mac Error -603 => ( protocolErr ) app made module calls in improper order **Processes Errors**
Mac Error -604 => ( hardwareConfigErr ) hardware configuration not correct for call **Processes Errors**
Mac Error -605 => ( appMemFullErr ) Partition size specified in 'SIZE' resource is not big enough for launch **Processes Errors**
Mac Error -606 => ( appIsDaemon ) Application is background-only **Processes Errors**
factpacks/dos.fact view on Meta::CPAN
INCLUDE => (Internal) INCLUDE= blockname Used in the CONFIG.SYS file to allow you to use the commands from one CONFIG.SYS block within another.
INSTALL => (Internal) INSTALL=[d: ][\path]filename [parameters] Used in the CONFIG.SYS file to load memory-resident programs into conventional memory.
INTERLINK => (External) INTERLINK [client[:]=[server][:]] Connects two computers via parallel or serial ports so that the computers can share disks and printer ports.
INTERSVR => (External) INTERSVR [d:][...][/X=d:][...] [/LPT:[n|address]] [/COM:[n|address]][/baud:rate] [/B][/V] INTERSVR /RCOPY Starts the Interlink server.
JOIN => (External) JOIN d: [d:path] JOIN d: [/D] Allows access to the directory structure and files of a drive through a directory on a different drive.
KEYB => (External) KEYB [xx][,][yyy][,][d:][path]filename [/E][/ID:(number)] Loads a program that replaces the support program for U. S. keyboards.
LABEL => (External) LABEL [d:][volume label] Creates or changes or deletes a volume label for a disk.
LASTDRIVE => (Internal) LASTDRIVE=(drive letter) Used in the CONFIG.SYS file to set the maximum number of drives that can be accessed.
LOADFIX => (Internal) LOADFIX [d:][path]filename [parameters] Ensures that a program is loaded above the first 64K of conventional memory, and runs the program.
LOADHIGH => (Internal) LOADHIGH (LH) [d:][path]filename [parameters] Loads memory resident application into reserved area of memory (between 640K-1M).
MEM => (External) MEM [/program|/debug|/classify|/free|/module(name)] [/page] Displays amount of installed and available memory, including extended, expanded, and upper memory.
MEMMAKER => (External) MEMMAKER [/B][/batch][/session][/swap:d] [/T][/undo][/W:size1,size2] Starts the MemMaker program, a program that lets you optimize your computer's memory.
MENUCOLOR => (Internal) MENUCOLOR=textcolor,[background] Used in the CONFIG.SYS file to set the colors that will be used by DOS to display text on the screen.
MENUDEFAULT => (Internal) MENUDEFAULT=blockname, [timeout] Used in the CONFIG.SYS file to set the startup configuration that will be used by DOS if no key is pressed within the specified timeout period.
MENUITEM => (Internal)MENUITEM=blockname, [menutext] Used in the CONFIG.SYS file to create a start-up menu from which you can select a group of CONFIG.SYS commands to be processed upon reboot.
MIRROR => (External) MIRROR [d:]path [d:] path [...] IRROR [d1:][d2:][...] [/T(drive)(files)] [/partn][/U][/1] Saves disk storage information that can be used to recover accidentally erased files.
MKDIR => (MD) (Internal) MKDIR (MD) [d:]path Creates a new subdirectory.
MODE => (External) Sets mode of operation for devices or communications.
MORE => (External) MORE < (filename or command) (name)MORE Sends output to console, one screen at a time.
MOVE => (Internal) MOVE [/Y|/-Y] [d:][path]filename[,[d:][path]filename[...]] destination Moves one or more files to the location you specify. Can also be used to rename directories.
MSAV => (External) MSAV [d:] [/S|/C][/R][/A][/L][/N][/P][/F][/video][/mouse] SAV /video Scans your computer for known viruses.
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
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...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
brain dump is n. The act of telling someone everything one knows about a particular topic or project. Typically used when someone is going to let a new party maintain a piece of code. Conceptually analogous to an operating system {core dump}...
brain dump2 is before an exit. "You'll have to give me a brain dump on FOOBAR before you start your new job at HackerCorp." See {core dump} (sense 4). At Sun, this is also known as `TOI' (transfer of information).
brain-damaged is 1. [generalization of `Honeywell Brain Damage' (HBD), a theoretical disease invented to explain certain utter cretinisms in Honeywell {{Multics}}] adj. Obviously wrong; {cretinous}; {demented}. There is an implication that th...
brain-damaged2 is brain damage, because he should have known better. Calling something brain-damaged is really bad; it also implies it is unusable, and that its failure to work is due to poor design rather than some accident. "Only six mon...
brain-damaged3 is brain-damaged!" 2. [esp. in the Mac world] May refer to free demonstration software that has been deliberately crippled in some way so as not to compete with the commercial product it is intended to sell. Syn. {crippleware...
brain-dead is adj. Brain-damaged in the extreme. It tends to imply terminal design failure rather than malfunction or simple stupidity. "This comm program doesn't know how to send a break --- how brain-dead!"
braino is /bray'no/ n. Syn. for {thinko}.
branch to Fishkill is [IBM from the location of one of the corporation's facilities] n. Any unexpected jump in a program that produces catastrophic or just plain weird results. See {jump off into never-never land}, {hyperspace}.
brand brand brand is n. Humorous catch-phrase from {BartleMUD}s, in which players were described carrying a list of objects, the most common of which would usually be a brand. Often used as a joke in {talk mode} as in "Fred the wizard is here...
brand brand brand2 is kettle broadsword flamethrower". A brand is a torch, of course; one burns up a lot of those exploring dungeons. Prob. influenced by the famous Monty Python "Spam" skit.
break is 1. vt. To cause to be broken (in any sense). "Your latest patch to the editor broke the paragraph commands." 2. v. (of a program) To stop temporarily, so that it may debugged. The place where it stops is a `breakpoint'. 3. [techs...
break2 is of line high) over a serial comm line. 4. [UNIX] vi. To strike whatever key currently causes the tty driver to send SIGINT to the current process. Normally, break (sense 3) or delete does this. 5. `break break' may be said to int...
break3 is verb doubling).
breath-of-life packet is [XEROX PARC] n. An Ethernet packet that contained bootstrap (see {boot}) code, periodically sent out from a working computer to infuse the `breath of life' into any computer on the network that had happened to crash. ...
breath-of-life packet2 is would wait for such a packet after a catastrophic error.
breedle is n. See {feep}.
bring X to its knees is v. To present a machine, operating system, piece of software, or algorithm with a load so extreme or {pathological} that it grinds to a halt. "To bring a MicroVAX to its knees, try twenty users running {vi} --- or four...
brittle is adj. Said of software that is functional but easily broken by changes in operating environment or configuration, or by any minor tweak to the software itself. Also, any system that responds inappropriately and disastrously to expec...
brittle2 is that is usually totally scrambled by a power failure is said to be brittle. This term is often used to describe the results of a research effort that were never intended to be robust, but it can be applied to commercially develope...
brittle3 is more often than it ought to. Oppose {robust}.
broadcast storm is n. An incorrect packet broadcast on a network that causes most hosts to respond all at once, typically with wrong answers that start the process over again. See {network meltdown}.
broken is adj. 1. Not working properly (of programs). 2. Behaving strangely; especially (when used of people) exhibiting extreme depression.
broken arrow is [IBM] n. The error code displayed on line 25 of a 3270 terminal (or a PC emulating a 3270) for various kinds of protocol violations and "unexpected" error conditions (including connection to a {down} computer). On a PC, simula...
broken arrow2 is characters overstruck. In true {luser} fashion, the original documentation of these codes (visible on every 3270 terminal, and necessary for debugging network problems) was confined to an IBM customer engineering manual. N...
broken arrow3 is know that `broken arrow' is also military jargon for an accident involving nuclear weapons....
broket is /broh'k*t/ or /broh'ket`/ [by analogy with `bracket' a `broken bracket'] n. Either of the characters `<' and `>', when used as paired enclosing delimiters. This word originated as a contraction of the phrase `broken bracket', that ...
broket2 is (At MIT, and apparently in the {Real World} as well, these are usually called {angle brackets}.)
Brooks's Law is prov. "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later" --- a result of the fact that the advantage from splitting work among N programmers is O(N) (that is, proportional to N), but the complexity and communications ...
Brooks's Law2 is merging their work is O(N^2) (that is, proportional to the square of N). The quote is from Fred Brooks, a manager of IBM's OS/360 project and author of `The Mythical Man-Month' (Addison-Wesley, 1975, ISBN 0-201-00650-2), an ...
Brooks's Law3 is The myth in question has been most tersely expressed as "Programmer time is fungible" and Brooks established conclusively that it is not. Hackers have never forgotten his advice; too often, {management} does. See also {cr...
BRS is /B-R-S/ n. Syn. {Big Red Switch}. This abbreviation is fairly common on-line.
brute force is adj. Describes a primitive programming style, one in which the programmer relies on the computer's processing power instead of using his or her own intelligence to simplify the problem, often ignoring problems of scale and apply...
brute force2 is directly to large ones. The {canonical} example of a brute-force algorithm is associated with the `traveling salesman problem' (TSP), a classical NP-hard problem Suppose a person is in, say, Boston, and wishes to drive to N o...
brute force3 is visit them in order to minimize the distance travelled? The brute-force method is to simply generate all possible routes and compare the distances; while guaranteed to work and simple to implement, this algorithm is clearly ...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
canonical5 is usage is familiar to Sherlock Holmes fans as well as to literary scholars). `*The* canon' is the body of works in a given field (e.g., works of literature, or of art, or of music) deemed worthwhile for students to study and for ...
canonical6 is non-techspeak academic usages derive ultimately from the historical meaning, specifically the classification of the books of the Bible into two groups by Christian theologians. The `canonical' books were the ones widely accepted...
canonical7 is authority. The `deuterocanonical' books (literally `secondarily canonical'; also known as the `Apochrypha') were held to be of lesser authority --- indeed they have been held in such low esteem that to this day they are omitte...
canonical8 is this term with a playfulness that makes an ironic contrast with its historical meaning. A true story One Bob Sjoberg, new at the MIT AI Lab, expressed some annoyance at the use of jargon. Over his loud objections, GLS and RMS m...
canonical9 is in his presence, and eventually it began to sink in. Finally, in one conversation, he used the word `canonical' in jargon-like fashion without thinking. Steele "Aha! We've finally got you talking jargon too!" Stallman "What...
canonical10 is `canonical' in the canonical way." Of course, canonicality depends on context, but it is implicitly defined as the way *hackers* normally expect things to be. Thus, a hacker may claim with a straight face that `according to ...
card is n. 1. An electronic printed-circuit board (see also {tall card}, {short card}. 2. obs. Syn. {{punched card}}.
card walloper is n. An EDP programmer who grinds out batch programs that do stupid things like print people's paychecks. Compare {code grinder}. See also {{punched card}}, {eighty-column mind}.
careware is /keir'weir/ n. {Shareware} for which either the author suggests that some payment be made to a nominated charity or a levy directed to charity is included on top of the distribution charge. Syn. {charityware}; compare {cripplewa...
cargo cult programming is n. A style of (incompetent) programming dominated by ritual inclusion of code or program structures that serve no real purpose. A cargo cult programmer will usually explain the extra code as a way of working around s...
cargo cult programming2 is neither the bug nor the reason the code apparently avoided the bug was ever fully understood (compare {shotgun debugging}, {voodoo programming}). The term `cargo cult' is a reference to aboriginal religions that gr...
cargo cult programming3 is The practices of these cults center on building elaborate mockups of airplanes and military style landing strips in the hope of bringing the return of the god-like airplanes that brought such marvelous cargo during t...
cargo cult programming4 is Richard Feynman's characterization of certain practices as "cargo cult science" in his book `Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman' (W. W. Norton & Co, New York 1985, ISBN 0-393-01921-7).
case and paste is [from `cut and paste'] n. 1. The addition of a new {feature} to an existing system by selecting the code from an existing feature and pasting it in with minor changes. Common in telephony circles because most operations in a...
case and paste2 is statements. Leads to {software bloat}. In some circles of EMACS users this is called `programming by Meta-W', because Meta-W is the EMACS command for copying a block of text to a kill buffer in preparation to pasting it in ...
case and paste3 is implying that the programmer is acting mindlessly rather than thinking carefully about what is required to integrate the code for two similar cases.
casters-up mode is [IBM] n. Yet another synonym for `broken' or `down'.
casting the runes is n. What a {guru} does when you ask him or her to run a particular program and type at it because it never works for anyone else; esp. used when nobody can ever see what the guru is doing different from what J. Random Luser...
casting the runes2 is {examining the entrails}; also see the AI koan about Tom Knight in appendix A.
cat is [from `catenate' via {{UNIX}} `cat(1)'] vt. 1. [techspeak] To spew an entire file to the screen or some other output sink without pause. 2. By extension, to dump large amounts of data at an unprepared target or with no intention of bro...
cat2 is Rare outside UNIX sites. See also {dd}, {BLT}. Among UNIX fans, `cat(1)' is considered an excellent example of user-interface design, because it outputs the file contents without such verbosity as spacing or headers between the fil...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
chad2 is `keypunch droppings'. Historical note One correspondent believes `chad' (sense 2) derives from the Chadless keypunch (named for its inventor), which cut little u-shaped tabs in the card to make a hole when the tab folded back, rathe...
chad3 is clear that if the Chadless keypunch didn't make them, then the stuff that other keypunches made had to be `chad'.
chad box is n. {Iron Age} card punches contained boxes inside them, about the size of a lunchbox (or in some models a large wastebasket), that held the {chad} (sense 2). You had to open the covers of the card punch periodically and empty the ...
chad box2 is the equivalent device in the CPU enclosure, which was typically across the room in another great gray-and-blue box.
chain is [orig. from BASIC's `CHAIN' statement] vi. To hand off execution to a child or successor without going through the {OS} command interpreter that invoked it. The state of the parent program is lost and there is no returning to it. Th...
chain2 is memory-limited micros and is still widely supported for backward compatibility, the jargon usage is semi-obsolescent; in particular, most UNIX programmers will think of this as an {exec}. Oppose the more modern {subshell}.
char is /keir/ or /char/; rarely, /kar/ n. Shorthand for `character'. Esp. used by C programmers, as `char' is C's typename for character data.
charityware is /char'it-ee-weir`/ n. Syn. {careware}.
chase pointers is 1. vi. To go through multiple levels of indirection, as in traversing a linked list or graph structure. Used esp. by programmers in C, where explicit pointers are a very common data type. This is techspeak, but it remains ja...
chase pointers2 is chasing pointers. Bob said you could tell me who to talk to about...." See {dangling pointer} and {snap}. 2. [Cambridge] `pointer chase' or `pointer hunt' The process of going through a dump (interactively or on a large ...
chase pointers3 is following dynamic data-structures. Used only in a debugging context.
chemist is [Cambridge] n. Someone who wastes computer time on {number-crunching} when you'd far rather the machine were doing something more productive, such as working out anagrams of your name or printing Snoopy calendars or running {life} p...
chemist2 is actually studies chemistry.
Chernobyl chicken is n. See {laser chicken}.
Chernobyl packet is /cher-noh'b*l pak'*t/ n. A network packet that induces {network meltdown} (the result of a {broadcast storm}), in memory of the 1987 nuclear accident at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. The typical case of this is an IP Ethernet d...
Chernobyl packet2 is both source and destination Ether and IP address set as the respective broadcast addresses for the subnetworks being gated between. Compare {Christmas tree packet}.
chicken head is [Commodore] n. The Commodore Business Machines logo, which strongly resembles a poultry part. Rendered in ASCII as `C='. With the arguable exception of the Amiga (see {amoeba}), Commodore's machines are notoriously crocky lit...
chicken head2 is Thus, this usage may owe something to Philip K. Dick's novel `Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' (the basis for the movie `Blade Runner'), in which a `chickenhead' is a mutant with below-average intelligence.
chiclet keyboard is n. A keyboard with small rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or plastic keys that look like pieces of chewing gum. (Chiclets is the brand name of a variety of chewing gum that does in fact resemble the keys of chiclet key...
chiclet keyboard2 is IBM PCjr keyboard. Vendors unanimously liked these because they were cheap, and a lot of early portable and laptop products got launched using them. Customers rejected the idea with almost equal unanimity, and chiclets a...
chine nual is /sheen'yu-*l/ [MIT] n.,obs. The Lisp Machine Manual, so called because the title was wrapped around the cover so only those letters showed on the front.
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
cokebottle2 is commands at MIT. After the demise of the {space-cadet keyboard}, `cokebottle' faded away as serious usage, but was often invoked humorously to describe an (unspecified) weird or non-intuitive keystroke command. It may be due...
cokebottle3 is window manager, `mwm(1)', has a reserved keystroke for switching to the default set of keybindings and behavior. This keystroke is (believe it or not) `control-meta-bang' (see {bang}). Since the exclamation point looks a lot...
cokebottle4 is have begun referring to this keystroke as `cokebottle'. See also {quadruple bucky}.
cold boot is n. See {boot}.
COME FROM is n. A semi-mythical language construct dual to the `go to'; `COME FROM' <label> would cause the referenced label to act as a sort of trapdoor, so that if the program ever reached it control would quietly and {automagically} be tran...
COME FROM2 is FROM'. `COME FROM' was first proposed in a {Datamation} article of December 1973 (reprinted in the April 1984 issue of `Communications of the ACM') that parodied the then-raging `structured programming' {holy wars} (see {consi...
COME FROM3 is the `assigned COME FROM' and the `computed COME FROM' (parodying some nasty control constructs in FORTRAN and some extended BASICs). Of course, multi-tasking (or non-determinism) could be implemented by having more than one `C...
COME FROM4 is label. In some ways the FORTRAN `DO' looks like a `COME FROM' statement. After the terminating statement number/`CONTINUE' is reached, control continues at the statement following the DO. Some generous FORTRANs would allow arb...
COME FROM5 is the statement, leading to examples like DO 10 I=1,LIMIT C imagine many lines of code here, leaving the C original DO statement lost in the spaghetti... WRITE(6,10) I,FROB(I) 10 FORMAT(1X,I5,G10.4) i...
COME FROM6 is statement labeled 10. (This is particularly surprising because the label doesn't appear to have anything to do with the flow of control at all!) While sufficiently astonishing to the unsuspecting reader, this form of `COME FROM...
COME FROM7 is all, control will eventually pass to the following statement. The implementation of the general form was left to Univac FORTRAN, ca. 1975. The statement `AT 100' would perform a `COME FROM 100'. It was intended strictly as a...
COME FROM8 is promised to anyone so deranged as to use it in production code. More horrible things had already been perpetrated in production languages, however; doubters need only contemplate the `ALTER' verb in {COBOL}. `COME FROM' was su...
COME FROM9 is 15 years later, in C-INTERCAL (see {INTERCAL}, {retrocomputing}); knowledgeable observers are still reeling from the shock.
comm mode is /kom mohd/ [ITS from the feature supporting on-line chat; the term may spelled with one or two m's] Syn. for {talk mode}.
command key is [Mac users] n. The Macintosh key with the cloverleaf graphic on its keytop; sometimes referred to as `flower', `pretzel', `clover', `propeller', `beanie' (an apparent reference to the major feature of a propeller beanie), or {...
command key2 is The proliferation of terms for this creature may illustrate one subtle peril of iconic interfaces.
comment out is vt. To surround a section of code with comment delimiters or to prefix every line in the section with a comment marker; this prevents it from being compiled or interpreted. Often done when the code is redundant or obsolete, but...
comment out2 is the intent of the active code clearer; also when the code in that section is broken and you want to bypass it in order to debug some other part of the code. Compare {condition out}, usually the preferred technique in languages...
Commonwealth Hackish is n. Hacker jargon as spoken outside the U.S., esp. in the British Commonwealth. It is reported that Commonwealth speakers are more likely to pronounce truncations like `char' and `soc', etc., as spelled (/char/, /sok/),...
Commonwealth Hackish2 is Dots in {newsgroup} names tend to be pronounced more often (so soc.wibble is /sok dot wib'l/ rather than /sohsh wib'l/). The prefix {meta} may be pronounced /mee't*/; similarly, Greek letter beta is often /bee't*/, ...
Commonwealth Hackish3 is Preferred metasyntactic variables include `eek', `ook', `frodo', and `bilbo'; `wibble', `wobble', and in emergencies `wubble'; `banana', `wombat', `frog', {fish}, and so on and on (see {foo}, sense 4). Alternatives...
Commonwealth Hackish4 is `frenzy' (as in feeding frenzy), and `city' (examples "barf city!" "hack-o-rama!" "core dump frenzy!"). Finally, note that the American terms `parens', `brackets', and `braces' for (), [], and {} are uncommon; Commonw...
Commonwealth Hackish5 is brackets', and `curly brackets'. Also, the use of `pling' for {bang} is common outside the United States. See also {attoparsec}, {calculator}, {chemist}, {console jockey}, {fish}, {go-faster stripes}, {grunge}, {haksp...
Commonwealth Hackish6 is fixer}, {noddy}, {psychedelicware}, {plingnet}, {raster blaster}, {seggie}, {terminal junkie}, {tick-list features}, {weeble}, {weasel}, {YABA}, and notes or definitions under {Bad Thing}, {barf}, {bogus}, {bum}, {ch...
Commonwealth Hackish7 is {crunch}, {dodgy}, {gonk}, {hamster}, {hardwarily}, {mess-dos}, {nybble}, {proglet}, {root}, {SEX}, {tweak}, and {xyzzy}.
compact is adj. Of a design, describes the valuable property that it can all be apprehended at once in one's head. This generally means the thing created from the design can be used with greater facility and fewer errors than an equivalent to...
compact2 is imply triviality or lack of power; for example, C is compact and FORTRAN is not, but C is more powerful than FORTRAN. Designs become non-compact through accreting {feature}s and {cruft} that don't merge cleanly into the overall ...
compact3 is maintain that ANSI C is no longer compact).
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
daemon4 is and may either live forever or be regenerated at intervals. Daemon and {demon} are often used interchangeably, but seem to have distinct connotations. The term `daemon' was introduced to computing by {CTSS} people (who pronounce...
daemon5 is ITS called a {dragon}. Although the meaning and the pronunciation have drifted, we think this glossary reflects current (1991) usage.
dangling pointer is n. A reference that doesn't actually lead anywhere (in C and some other languages, a pointer that doesn't actually point at anything valid). Usually this is because it formerly pointed to something that has moved or disapp...
dangling pointer2 is of its techspeak meaning; for example, a local phone number for a person who has since moved to the other coast is a dangling pointer.
Datamation is /day`t*-may'sh*n/ n. A magazine that many hackers assume all {suit}s read. Used to question an unbelieved quote, as in "Did you read that in `Datamation?'" It used to publish something hackishly funny every once in a while, like...
Datamation2 is but it has since become much more exclusively {suit}-oriented and boring.
day mode is n. See {phase} (sense 1). Used of people only.
dd is /dee-dee/ [UNIX from IBM {JCL}] vt. Equivalent to {cat} or {BLT}. This was originally the name of a UNIX copy command with special options suitable for block-oriented devices. Often used in heavy-handed system maintenance, as in "Let's...
dd2 is the boot PROM to load it back on to a new disk". The UNIX `dd(1)' was designed with a weird, distinctly non-UNIXy keyword option syntax reminiscent of IBM System/360 JCL (which had a similar DD command); though the command filled a n...
dd3 is The jargon usage is now very rare outside UNIX sites and now nearly obsolete even there, as `dd(1)' has been {deprecated} for a long time (though it has no exact replacement). Replaced by {BLT} or simple English `copy'.
DDT is /D-D-T/ n. 1. Generic term for a program that assists in debugging other programs by showing individual machine instructions in a readable symbolic form and letting the user change them. In this sense the term DDT is now archaic, havin...
DDT2 is names of individual programs like `dbx', `adb', `gdb', or `sdb'. 2. [ITS] Under MIT's fabled {{ITS}} operating system, DDT (running under the alias HACTRN) was also used as the {shell} or top level command language used to execute o...
DDT3 is specific DDTs (sense 1) supported on early DEC hardware. The DEC PDP-10 Reference Handbook (1969) contained a footnote on the first page of the documentation for DDT which illuminates the origin of the term Historical footnote DDT...
DDT4 is computer in 1961. At that time DDT stood for "DEC Debugging Tape". Since then, the idea of an on-line debugging program has propagated throughout the computer industry. DDT programs are now available for all DEC computers. Sin...
DDT5 is used, the more descriptive name "Dynamic Debugging Technique" has been adopted, retaining the DDT acronym. Confusion between DDT-10 and another well known pesticide, dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (C14-H9-Cl5) should be minim...
DDT6 is apparently mutually exclusive, class of bugs. Sadly, this quotation was removed from later editions of the handbook after the {suit}s took over and DEC became much more `businesslike'.
de-rezz is /dee-rez'/ [from `de-resolve' via the movie "Tron"] (also `derez') 1. vi. To disappear or dissolve; the image that goes with it is of an object breaking up into raster lines and static and then dissolving. Occasionally used of a pe...
de-rezz2 is mentally rather than physically. Usage extremely silly, also rare. This verb was actually invented as *fictional* hacker jargon, and adopted in a spirit of irony by real hackers years after the fact. 2. vt. On a Macintosh, many ...
de-rezz3 is are managed in small segments of the program file known as `resources'. The standard resource compiler is Rez. The standard resource decompiler is DeRez. Thus, decompiling a resource is `derezzing'. Usage very common.
dead code is n. Routines that can never be accessed because all calls to them have been removed, or code that cannot be reached because it is guarded by a control structure that provably must always transfer control somewhere else. The presen...
dead code2 is errors due to alterations in the program or significant changes in the assumptions and environment of the program (see also {software rot}); a good compiler should report dead code so a maintainer can think about what it means. ...
DEADBEEF is /ded-beef/ n. The hexadecimal word-fill pattern for freshly allocated memory (decimal -21524111) under a number of IBM environments, including the RS/6000. As in "Your program is DEADBEEF" (meaning gone, aborted, flushed from memo...
DEADBEEF2 is boundary, of course, you have BEEFDEAD.
deadlock is n. 1. [techspeak] A situation wherein two or more processes are unable to proceed because each is waiting for one of the others to do something. A common example is a program communicating to a server, which may find itself waitin...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
demo mode2 is they use as a screen saver, or may go through a demo mode on startup (for example, the Microsoft Windows opening screen --- which lets you impress your neighbors without actually having to put up with {Microsloth Windows}).
demon is n. 1. [MIT] A portion of a program that is not invoked explicitly, but that lies dormant waiting for some condition(s) to occur. See {daemon}. The distinction is that demons are usually processes within a program, while daemons are ...
demon2 is system. Demons are particularly common in AI programs. For example, a knowledge-manipulation program might implement inference rules as demons. Whenever a new piece of knowledge was added, various demons would activate (which de...
demon3 is and would create additional pieces of knowledge by applying their respective inference rules to the original piece. These new pieces could in turn activate more demons as the inferences filtered down through chains of logic. Mean...
demon4 is whatever its primary task was. 2. [outside MIT] Often used equivalently to {daemon} --- especially in the {{UNIX}} world, where the latter spelling and pronunciation is considered mildly archaic.
depeditate is /dee-ped'*-tayt/ [by (faulty) analogy with `decapitate'] vt. Humorously, to cut off the feet of. When one is using some computer-aided typesetting tools, careless placement of text blocks within a page or above a rule can resul...
depeditate2 is letters are said to have been depeditated.
deprecated is adj. Said of a program or feature that is considered obsolescent and in the process of being phased out, usually in favor of a specified replacement. Deprecated features can, unfortunately, linger on for many years.
deserves to lose is adj. Said of someone who willfully does the {Wrong Thing}; humorously, if one uses a feature known to be {marginal}. What is meant is that one deserves the consequences of one's {losing} actions. "Boy, anyone who tries to...
deserves to lose2 is ({{ITS}} fans used to say this of {{UNIX}}; many still do.) See also {screw}, {chomp}, {bagbiter}.
desk check is n.,v. To {grovel} over hardcopy of source code, mentally simulating the control flow; a method of catching bugs. No longer common practice in this age of on-screen editing, fast compiles, and sophisticated debuggers --- though so...
desk check2 is Compare {eyeball search}, {vdiff}, {vgrep}.
Devil Book is n. `The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System', by Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J. Karels, and John S. Quarterman (Addison-Wesley Publishers, 1989) --- the standard reference book on ...
Devil Book2 is because the cover has a picture depicting a little devil (a visual play on {daemon}) in sneakers, holding a pitchfork (referring to one of the characteristic features of UNIX, the {fork(2)} system call).
devo is /dee'voh/ [orig. in-house jargon at Symbolics] n. A person in a development group. See also {doco} and {mango}.
dickless workstation is n. Extremely pejorative hackerism for `diskless workstation', a class of botches including the Sun 3/50 and other machines designed exclusively to network with an expensive central disk server. These combine all the di...
dickless workstation2 is disadvantages of distributed personal computers.
dictionary flame is [USENET] n. An attempt to sidetrack a debate away from issues by insisting on meanings for key terms that presuppose a desired conclusion or smuggle in an implicit premise. A common tactic of people who prefer argument over...
diddle is 1. vt. To work with or modify in a not particularly serious manner. "I diddled a copy of {ADVENT} so it didn't double-space all the time." "Let's diddle this piece of code and see if the problem goes away." See {tweak} and {twiddl...
diddle2 is See also {tweak}, {twiddle}, {frob}.
diff is /dif/ n. 1. A change listing, especially giving differences between (and additions to) source code or documents (the term is often used in the plural `diffs'). "Send me your diffs for the Jargon File!" Compare {vdiff}. 2. Specifical...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
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 ...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
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...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
hello, world2 is (and indeed it is the first example program in {K&R}). Environments that generate an unreasonably large executable for this trivial test or which require a {hairy} compiler-linker invocation to generate it are considered to ...
hello, world3 is hacker making an entrance or requesting information from anyone present. "Hello, world! Is the {VAX} back up yet?"
hex is n. 1. Short for {{hexadecimal}}, base 16. 2. A 6-pack of anything (compare {quad}, sense 2). Neither usage has anything to do with {magic} or {black art}, though the pun is appreciated and occasionally used by hackers. True story As ...
hex2 is surplus ICs for sale to be worn as protective amulets against hostile magic. The chips were, of course, hex inverters.
hexadecimal is n. Base 16. Coined in the early 1960s to replace earlier `sexadecimal', which was too racy and amusing for stuffy IBM, and later adopted by the rest of the industry. Actually, neither term is etymologically pure. If we take `b...
hexadecimal2 is etymologically correct term for base 10, for example, is `denary', which comes from `deni' (ten at a time, ten each), a Latin `distributive' number; the corresponding term for base-16 would be something like `sendenary'. `De...
hexadecimal3 is corresponding prefix for 6 would imply something like `sextidecimal'. The `sexa-' prefix is Latin but incorrect in this context, and `hexa-' is Greek. The word `octal' is similarly incorrect; a correct form would be `octaval'...
hexadecimal4 is with binary). If anyone ever implements a base-3 computer, computer scientists will be faced with the unprecedented dilemma of a choice between two *correct* forms; both `ternary' and `trinary' have a claim to this throne.
hexit is /hek'sit/ n. A hexadecimal digit (0--9, and A--F or a--f). Used by people who claim that there are only *ten* digits, dammit; sixteen-fingered human beings are rather rare, despite what some keyboard designs might seem to imply (see {...
hidden flag is [scientific computation] n. An extra option added to a routine without changing the calling sequence. For example, instead of adding an explicit input variable to instruct a routine to give extra diagnostic output, the programm...
hidden flag2 is meaningless feature of the existing inputs, such as a negative mass. Liberal use of hidden flags can make a program very hard to debug and understand.
high bit is [from `high-order bit'] n. 1. The most significant bit in a byte. 2. By extension, the most significant part of something other than a data byte "Spare me the whole {saga}, just give me the high bit." See also {meta bit}, {hobbit...
high bit2 is mainstream slang `bottom line'.
high moby is /hi' mohb'ee/ n. The high half of a 512K {PDP-10}'s physical address space; the other half was of course the low moby. This usage has been generalized in a way that has outlasted the {PDP-10}; for example, at the 1990 Washington ...
high moby2 is (Disclave), when a miscommunication resulted in two separate wakes being held in commemoration of the shutdown of MIT's last {{ITS}} machines, the one on the upper floor was dubbed the `high moby' and the other the `low moby'. A...
highly is [scientific computation] adv. The preferred modifier for overstating an understatement. As in `highly nonoptimal', the worst possible way to do something; `highly nontrivial', either impossible or requiring a major research project;...
highly2 is unpredictable; `highly nontechnical', drivel written for {luser}s, oversimplified to the point of being misleading or incorrect (compare {drool-proof paper}). In other computing cultures, postfixing of {in the extreme} might be p...
hirsute is adj. Occasionally used humorously as a synonym for {hairy}.
HLL is /H-L-L/ n. [High-Level Language (as opposed to assembler)] Found primarily in email and news rather than speech. Rarely, the variants `VHLL' and `MLL' are found. VHLL stands for `Very-High-Level Language' and is used to describe a {bo...
HLL2 is speaker happens to like; Prolog and Backus's FP are often called VHLLs. `MLL' stands for `Medium-Level Language' and is sometimes used half-jokingly to describe {C}, alluding to its `structured-assembler' image. See also {languages o...
hobbit is n. 1. The High Order Bit of a byte; same as the {meta bit} or {high bit}. 2. The non-ITS name of vad@ai.mit.edu (*Hobbit*), master of lasers.
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Nightmare File System3 is pseudo-down machine, and itself becomes pseudo-down. The first machine to discover the down one is now trying both to access the down one and to respond to the pseudo-down one, so it is even harder to reach. This sn...
Nightmare File System4 is network of machines is frozen --- the user can't even abort the file access that started the problem! (ITS partisans are apt to cite this as proof of UNIX's alleged bogosity; ITS had a working NFS-like shared file sy...
Nightmare File System5 is 1970s.) See also {broadcast storm}.
NIL is /nil/ [from LISP terminology for `false'] No. Used in reply to a question, particularly one asked using the `-P' convention. See {T}.
NMI is /N-M-I/ n. Non-Maskable Interrupt. An IRQ 7 on the PDP-11 or 680[01234]0; the NMI line on an 80{88,[1234]}86. In contrast with a {priority interrupt} (which might be ignored, although that is unlikely), an NMI is *never* ignored.
no-op is /noh'op/ alt. NOP /nop/ [no operation] n. 1. (also v.) A machine instruction that does nothing (sometimes used in assembler-level programming as filler for data or patch areas, or to overwrite code to be removed in binaries). See als...
no-op2 is nothing to a project, or has nothing going on upstairs, or both. As in "He's a no-op." 3. Any operation or sequence of operations with no effect, such as circling the block without finding a parking space, or putting money into a ...
no-op3 is into the coin-return box, or asking someone for help and being told to go away. "Oh, well, that was a no-op." Hot-and-sour soup (see {great-wall}) that is insufficiently either is `no-op soup'; so is wonton soup if everybody else...
noddy is /nod'ee/ [UK: from the children's books] adj. 1. Small and un-useful, but demonstrating a point. Noddy programs are often written by people learning a new language or system. The archetypal noddy program is {hello, world}. Noddy co...
noddy2 is bug of a compiler. May be used of real hardware or software to imply that it isn't worth using. "This editor's a bit noddy." 2. A program that is more or less instant to produce. In this use, the term does not necessarily connot...
noddy3 is sufficiently trivial that it can be written and debugged while carrying on (and during the space of) a normal conversation. "I'll just throw together a noddy {awk} script to dump all the first fields." In North America this might...
NOMEX underwear is /noh'meks uhn'-der-weir/ [USENET] n. Syn. {asbestos longjohns}, used mostly in auto-related mailing lists and newsgroups. NOMEX underwear is an actual product available on the racing equipment market, used as a fire resista...
non-optimal solution is n. (also `sub-optimal solution') An astoundingly stupid way to do something. This term is generally used in deadpan sarcasm, as its impact is greatest when the person speaking looks completely serious. Compare {stunni...
nonlinear is adj. [scientific computation] 1. Behaving in an erratic and unpredictable fashion. When used to describe the behavior of a machine or program, it suggests that said machine or program is being forced to run far outside of design ...
nonlinear2 is induced by unreasonable inputs, or may be triggered when a more mundane bug sends the computation far off from its expected course. 2. When describing the behavior of a person, suggests a tantrum or a {flame}. "When you talk to...
nonlinear3 is go nonlinear for hours." In this context, `go nonlinear' connotes `blow up out of proportion' (proportion connotes linearity).
nontrivial is adj. Requiring real thought or significant computing power. Often used as an understated way of saying that a problem is quite difficult or impractical, or even entirely unsolvable ("Proving P=NP is nontrivial"). The preferred ...
nontrivial2 is See {trivial}, {uninteresting}, {interesting}.
notwork is /not'werk/ n. A network, when it is acting {flaky} or is {down}. Compare {nyetwork}. Said at IBM to have orig. referred to a particular period of flakiness on IBM's VNET corporate network, ca. 1988; but there are independent repor...
NP- is /N-P/ pref. Extremely. Used to modify adjectives describing a level or quality of difficulty; the connotation is often `more so than it should be' (NP-complete problems all seem to be very hard, but so far no one has found a good a pri...
NP-2 is this algorithm to perform correctly in every case is NP-annoying." This is generalized from the computer-science terms `NP-hard' and `NP-complete'. NP is the set of Nondeterministic-Polynomial algorithms, those that can be complete...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
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}.
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
prime time is [from TV programming] n. Normal high-usage hours on a timesharing system; the day shift. Avoidance of prime time is a major reason for {night mode} hacking.
priority interrupt is [from the hardware term] n. Describes any stimulus compelling enough to yank one right out of {hack mode}. Classically used to describe being dragged away by an {SO} for immediate sex, but may also refer to more mundane i...
priority interrupt2 is in the near vicinity. Also called an {NMI} (non-maskable interrupt), especially in PC-land.
profile is n. 1. A control file for a program, esp. a text file automatically read from each user's home directory and intended to be easily modified by the user in order to customize the program's behavior. Used to avoid {hardcoded} choices....
profile2 is time spent in each routine of a program, used to find and {tune} away the {hot spot}s in it. This sense is often verbed. Some profiling modes report units other than time (such as call counts) and/or report at granularities other...
proglet is /prog'let/ [UK] n. A short extempore program written to meet an immediate, transient need. Often written in BASIC, rarely more than a dozen lines long, and contains no subroutines. The largest amount of code that can be written off...
proglet2 is any editing, and that runs correctly the first time (this amount varies significantly according to the language one is using). Compare {toy program}, {noddy}, {one-liner wars}.
program is n. 1. A magic spell cast over a computer allowing it to turn one's input into error messages. 2. An exercise in experimental epistemology. 3. A form of art, ostensibly intended for the instruction of computers, which is neverthele...
program2 is programmers can't understand it.
Programmer's Cheer is "Shift to the left! Shift to the right! Pop up, push down! Byte! Byte! Byte!" A joke so old it has hair on it.
programming is n. 1. The art of debugging a blank sheet of paper (or, in these days of on-line editing, the art of debugging an empty file). 2. n. A pastime similar to banging one's head against a wall, but with fewer opportunities for reward...
programming2 is clothes on (although clothes are not mandatory).
propeller head is n. Used by hackers, this is syn. with {computer geek}. Non-hackers sometimes use it to describe all techies. Prob. derives from SF fandom's tradition (originally invented by old-time fan Ray Faraday Nelson) of propeller bean...
propeller head2 is actually wears them except as a joke).
propeller key is [Mac users] n. See {command key}.
proprietary is adj. 1. In {marketroid}-speak, superior; implies a product imbued with exclusive magic by the unmatched brilliance of the company's hardware or software designers. 2. In the language of hackers and users, inferior; implies a pr...
proprietary2 is standards, and thus one that puts the customer at the mercy of a vendor able to gouge freely on service and upgrade charges after the initial sale has locked the customer in (that's assuming it wasn't too expensive in the first...
protocol is n. As used by hackers, this never refers to niceties about the proper form for addressing letters to the Papal Nuncio or the order in which one should use the forks in a Russian-style place setting; hackers don't care about such th...
protocol2 is set of rules that allow different machines or pieces of software to coordinate with each other without ambiguity. So, for example, it does include niceties about the proper form for addressing packets on a network or the order in...
protocol3 is Philosophers Problem. It implies that there is some common message format and an accepted set of primitives or commands that all parties involved understand, and that transactions among them follow predictable logical sequences. ...
provocative maintenance is [common ironic mutation of `preventive maintenance'] n. Actions performed upon a machine at regularly scheduled intervals to ensure that the system remains in a usable state. So called because it is all too often pe...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
RE is /R-E/ n. Common spoken and written shorthand for {regexp}.
read-only user is n. Describes a {luser} who uses computers almost exclusively for reading USENET, bulletin boards, and/or email, rather than writing code or purveying useful information. See {twink}, {terminal junkie}, {lurker}.
README file is n. By convention, the top-level directory of a UNIX source distribution always contains a file named `README' (or READ.ME, or rarely ReadMe or some other variant), which is a hacker's-eye introduction containing a pointer to mor...
README file2 is miscellaneous revision history notes, etc. When asked, hackers invariably relate this to the famous scene in Lewis Carroll's `Alice's Adventures In Wonderland' in which Alice confronts magic munchies labeled "Eat Me" and "Drink...
real estate is n. May be used for any critical resource measured in units of area. Most frequently used of `chip real estate', the area available for logic on the surface of an integrated circuit (see also {nanoacre}). May also be used of fl...
real estate2 is on a crowded desktop (whether physical or electronic).
real hack is n. A {crock}. This is sometimes used affectionately; see {hack}.
real operating system is n. The sort the speaker is used to. People from the academic community are likely to issue comments like "System V? Why don't you use a *real* operating system?", people from the commercial/industrial UNIX sector are...
real operating system2 is a *real* operating system?", and people from IBM object "UNIX? Why don't you use a *real* operating system?" See {holy wars}, {religious issues}, {proprietary}, {Get a real computer!}
real programmer is [indirectly, from the book `Real Men Don't Eat Quiche'] n. A particular sub-variety of hacker one possessed of a flippant attitude toward complexity that is arrogant even when justified by experience. The archetypal `real p...
real programmer2 is metal} and is very good at same, remembers the binary opcodes for every machine he has ever programmed, thinks that HLLs are sissy, and uses a debugger to edit his code because full-screen editors are for wimps. Real Pro...
real programmer3 is been {bum}med into a state of {tense}ness just short of rupture. Real Programmers never use comments or write documentation "If it was hard to write", says the Real Programmer, "it should be hard to understand." Real Pr...
real programmer4 is were never in their spec sheets; in fact, they are seldom really happy unless doing so. A Real Programmer's code can awe with its fiendish brilliance, even as its crockishness appalls. Real Programmers live on junk food a...
real programmer5 is walls, and terrify the crap out of other programmers --- because someday, somebody else might have to try to understand their code in order to change it. Their successors generally consider it a {Good Thing} that there are...
real programmer6 is For a famous (and somewhat more positive) portrait of a Real Programmer, see "The Story of Mel" in appendix A.
Real Soon Now is [orig. from SF's fanzine community, popularized by Jerry Pournelle's column in `BYTE'] adv. 1. Supposed to be available (or fixed, or cheap, or whatever) real soon now according to somebody, but the speaker is quite skeptical....
Real Soon Now2 is commitments permit one to get to it (in other words, don't hold your breath). Often abbreviated RSN.
real time is 1. [techspeak] adj. Describes an application which requires a program to respond to stimuli within some small upper limit of response time (typically milli- or microseconds). Process control at a chemical plant is the classic exa...
real time2 is special operating systems (because everything else must take a back seat to response time) and speed-tuned hardware. 2. adv. In jargon, refers to doing something while people are watching or waiting. "I asked her how to find the...
real time3 is stack and she came up with an algorithm in real time."
real user is n. 1. A commercial user. One who is paying *real* money for his computer usage. 2. A non-hacker. Someone using the system for an explicit purpose (a research project, a course, etc.) other than pure exploration. See {user}. H...
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rococo2 is decoration prevalent during the mid-1700s in Europe. Fred Brooks (the man who coined {second-system effect}) said "Every program eventually becomes rococo, and then rubble."
rogue is [UNIX] n. A Dungeons-and-Dragons-like game using character graphics, written under BSD UNIX and subsequently ported to other UNIX systems. The original BSD `curses(3)' screen-handling package was hacked together by Ken Arnold to supp...
rogue2 is UNIX's most important and heavily used application libraries. Nethack, Omega, Larn, and an entire subgenre of computer dungeon games all took off from the inspiration provided by `rogue(6)'. See {nethack}.
room-temperature IQ is [IBM] quant. 80 or below. Used in describing the expected intelligence range of the {luser}. "Well, but how's this interface going to play with the room-temperature IQ crowd?" See {drool-proof paper}. This is a much ...
root is [UNIX] n. 1. The {superuser} account that ignores permission bits, user number 0 on a UNIX system. This account has the user name `root'. The term {avatar} is also used. 2. The top node of the system directory structure (home directo...
root2 is privileged system-maintenance login on any OS. See {root mode}, {go root}.
root mode is n. Syn. with {wizard mode} or `wheel mode'. Like these, it is often generalized to describe privileged states in systems other than OSes.
rot13 is /rot ther'teen/ [USENET from `rotate alphabet 13 places'] n., v. The simple Caesar-cypher encryption that replaces each English letter with the one 13 places forward or back along the alphabet, so that "The butler did it!" becomes "Gu...
rot132 is and posting programs include a rot13 feature. It is used to enclose the text in a sealed wrapper that the reader must choose to open --- e.g., for posting things that might offend some readers, or answers to puzzles. A major adva...
rot133 is it is self-inverse, so the same code can be used for encoding and decoding.
rotary debugger is [Commodore] n. Essential equipment for those late-night or early-morning debugging sessions. Mainly used as sustenance for the hacker. Comes in many decorator colors, such as Sausage, Pepperoni, and Garbage. See {pizza, A...
RSN is // adj. See {Real Soon Now}.
RTFAQ is /R-T-F-A-Q/ [USENET primarily written, by analogy with {RTFM}] imp. Abbrev. for `Read the FAQ!', an exhortation that the person addressed ought to read the newsgroup's {FAQ list} before posting questions.
RTFM is /R-T-F-M/ [UNIX] imp. Acronym for `Read The Fucking Manual'. 1. Used by {guru}s to brush off questions they consider trivial or annoying. Compare {Don't do that, then!} 2. Used when reporting a problem to indicate that you aren't jus...
RTFM2 is figure out how to interface UNIX to my toaster, and yes, I have RTFM." Unlike sense 1, this use is considered polite. See also {RTFAQ}, {RTM}. The variant RTFS, where S = `Standard', has also been reported. Compare {UTSL}.
RTI is /R-T-I/ interj. The mnemonic for the `return from interrupt' instruction on many computers including the 6502 and 6800. The variant `RETI' is found among former Z80 hackers (almost nobody programs these things in assembler anymore). E...
RTI2 is end a conversational digression. See {pop}; see also {POPJ}.
RTM is /R-T-M/ [USENET acronym for `Read The Manual'] 1. Politer variant of {RTFM}. 2. Robert T. Morris, perpetrator of the great Internet worm of 1988; villain to many, na"ive hacker gone wrong to a few. Morris claimed that the worm that br...
RTM2 is experiment that got out of control as the result of a coding error. After the storm of negative publicity that followed this blunder, Morris's name on ITS was hacked from RTM to {RTFM}.
rude is [WPI] adj. 1. (of a program) Badly written. 2. Functionally poor, e.g., a program that is very difficult to use because of gratuitously poor (random?) design decisions. See {cuspy}.
runes is pl.n. 1. Anything that requires {heavy wizardry} or {black art} to {parse} core dumps, JCL commands, APL, or code in a language you haven't a clue how to read. Compare {casting the runes}, {Great Runes}. 2. Special display character...
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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...
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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...
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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 ...
tune2 is memory use), or `tune for configuration (most efficient use of hardware). See {bum}, {hot spot}, {hand-hacking}.
turbo nerd is n. See {computer geek}.
turist is /toorist/ n. Var. sp. of {tourist}, q.v. Also in adjectival form, `turistic. Poss. influenced by {luser} and `Turing.
tweak is vt. 1. To change slightly, usually in reference to a value. Also used synonymously with {twiddle}. If a program is almost correct, rather than figure out the precise problem you might just keep tweaking it until it works. See {frobn...
tweak2 is debugging}. 2. To {tune} or {bum} a program; preferred usage in the U.K.
TWENEX is /tweneks/ n. The TOPS-20 operating system by DEC --- the second proprietary OS for the PDP-10 --- preferred by most PDP-10 hackers over TOPS-10 (that is, by those who were not {{ITS}} or {{WAITS}} partisans). TOPS-20 began in 1969 a...
TWENEX2 is system using special paging hardware. By the early 1970s, almost all of the systems on the ARPANET ran TENEX. DEC purchased the rights to TENEX from BBN and began work to make it their own. The first in-house code name for the ...
TWENEX3 is Operating System); when customers started asking questions, the name was changed to SNARK so DEC could truthfully deny that there was any project called VIROS. When the name SNARK became known, the name was briefly reversed to be...
TWENEX4 is it was discovered that `krans meant `funeral shroud in Swedish. Ultimately DEC picked TOPS-20 as the name of the operating system, and it was as TOPS-20 that it was marketed. The hacker community, mindful of its origins, quickly d...
TWENEX5 is TENEX), even though by this point very little of the original TENEX code remained (analogously to the differences between AT&T V6 UNIX and BSD). DEC people cringed when they heard "TWENEX", but the term caught on nevertheless (th...
TWENEX6 is TWENEX was successful and very popular; in fact, there was a period in the early 1980s when it commanded as fervent a culture of partisans as UNIX or ITS --- but DECs decision to scrap all the internal rivals to the VAX architecture...
TWENEX7 is DEC-20 and put a sad end to TWENEXs brief day in the sun. DEC attempted to convince TOPS-20 hackers to convert to {VMS}, but instead, by the late 1980s, most of the TOPS-20 hackers had migrated to UNIX.
twiddle is n. 1. Tilde (ASCII 1111110, `~). Also called `squiggle, `sqiggle (sic --- pronounced /skigl/), and `twaddle, but twiddle is the most common term. 2. A small and insignificant change to a program. Usually fixes one bug and gener...
twiddle2 is something in a small way. Bits, for example, are often twiddled. Twiddling a switch or knob implies much less sense of purpose than toggling or tweaking it; see {frobnicate}. To speak of twiddling a bit connotes aimlessness, a...
twiddle3 is the bit; `toggling a bit has a more specific meaning (see {bit twiddling}, {toggle}).
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
You know you've been hacking too long when...4 is early version of this entry said "All but one of these have been reliably reported as hacker traits (some of them quite often). Even hackers may have trouble spotting the ringer." The ringer ...
You know you've been hacking too long when...5 is made up out of whole cloth. Although more respondents picked that one out as fiction than any of the others, I also received multiple independent reports of its actually happening. --- ESR]
Your mileage may vary is cav. [from the standard disclaimer attached to EPA mileage ratings by American car manufacturers] 1. A ritual warning often found in UNIX freeware distributions. Translates roughly as "Hey, I tried to write this porta...
Your mileage may vary2 is system?" 2. A qualifier more generally attached to advice. "I find that sending flowers works well, but your mileage may vary."
Yow! is /yow/ [from "Zippy the Pinhead" comix] interj. A favored hacker expression of humorous surprise or emphasis. "Yow! Check out what happens when you twiddle the foo option on this display hack!" Compare {gurfle}.
yoyo mode is n. The state in which the system is said to be when it rapidly alternates several times between being up and being down. Interestingly (and perhaps not by coincidence), many hardware vendors give out free yoyos at Usenix exhibits....
yoyo mode2 is SIGPLAN '88. Tourists staying at one of Atlanta's most respectable hotels were subsequently treated to the sight of 200 of the country's top computer scientists testing yo-yo algorithms in the lobby.
Yu-Shiang Whole Fish is /yoo-shyang hohl fish/ n. obs. The character gamma (extended SAIL ASCII 0001001), which with a loop in its tail looks like a little fish swimming down the page. The term is actually the name of a Chinese dish in which ...
Yu-Shiang Whole Fish2 is covered with Yu-Shiang (or Yu-Hsiang) sauce. Usage primarily by people on the MIT LISP Machine, which could display this character on the screen. Tends to elicit incredulity from people who hear about it second-hand....
zap is 1. n. Spiciness. 2. vt. To make food spicy. 3. vt. To make someone `suffer' by making his food spicy. (Most hackers love spicy food. Hot-and-sour soup is considered wimpy unless it makes you wipe your nose for the rest of the meal.)...
zap2 is correct; esp. used when the action is performed with a debugger or binary patching tool. Also implies surgical precision. "Zap the debug level to 6 and run it again." In the IBM mainframe world, binary patches are applied to programs...
zap3 is `superzap', whose file name is `IMASPZAP' (I M A SuPerZAP). 5. vt. To erase or reset. 6. To {fry} a chip with static electricity. "Uh oh --- I think that lightning strike may have zapped the disk controller."
zapped is adj. Spicy. This term is used to distinguish between food that is hot (in temperature) and food that is *spicy*-hot. For example, the Chinese appetizer Bon Bon Chicken is a kind of chicken salad that is cold but zapped; by contrast,...
zapped2 is zapped. See also {{oriental food}}, {laser chicken}. See {zap}, senses 1 and 2.
zen is vt. To figure out something by meditation or by a sudden flash of enlightenment. Originally applied to bugs, but occasionally applied to problems of life in general. "How'd you figure out the buffer allocation problem?" "Oh, I zenned...
zen2 is time-extended version of zenning a system. Compare {hack mode}. See also {guru}.
zero is vt. 1. To set to 0. Usually said of small pieces of data, such as bits or words (esp. in the construction `zero out'). 2. To erase; to discard all data from. Said of disks and directories, where `zeroing' need not involve actually w...
zero2 is zeroed. One may speak of something being `logically zeroed' rather than being `physically zeroed'. See {scribble}.
zero-content is adj. Syn. {content-free}.
zeroth is /zee'rohth/ adj. First. Among software designers, comes from C's and LISP's 0-based indexing of arrays. Hardware people also tend to start counting at 0 instead of 1; this is natural since, e.g., the 256 states of 8 bits correspond...
zeroth2 is the digital devices known as `counters' count in this way. Hackers and computer scientists often like to call the first chapter of a publication `chapter 0', especially if it is of an introductory nature (one of the classic instan...
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
BBS => /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 BBS syst...
beam => [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 => [Mac users] n. See {command key}.
beep => n.,v. Syn. feep. This term seems to be preferred among micro hobbyists.
beige toaster => n. A Macintosh. See toaster; compare Macintrash, maggotbox.
bells and whistles => [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. Distinguished...
bells and whistles2 => 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 => n. A standard elaborated form of {bells and whistles}; typically said with a pronounced and ironic accent on the `gongs'.
benchmark => [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 Gabriel LISP b...
Berkeley Quality Software => adj. (often abbreviated `BQS') Term used in a pejorative sense to refer to software that was apparently created by rather spaced-out hackers late at night to solve some unique problem. It usually has nonexistent, incomple...
Berkeley Quality Software2 => 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 => /berk'liks/ n.,adj. [contraction of `Berkeley UNIX'] See BSD. Not used at Berkeley itself. May be more common among suits attempting to sound like cognoscenti than among hackers, who usually just say `BSD'.
berserking => 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 other cha...
Berzerkeley => /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, {Berkeley ...
beta => /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 experimental is in...
BFI => /B-F-I/ n. See {brute force and ignorance}. Also encountered in the variant `BFMI', `brute force and *massive* ignorance'.
bible => 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 => 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 marketroid types...
BIFF => /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 A K00L DOOD...
biff => /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 => 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, multivendor netwo...
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
bozotic => /boh-zoh'tik/ or /boh-zo'tik/ [from the name of a TV clown even more losing than Ronald McDonald] adj. Resembling or having the quality of a bozo; that is, clownish, ludicrously wrong, unintentionally humorous. Compare wonky, demented. Not...
BQS => /B-Q-S/ adj. Syn. {Berkeley Quality Software}.
brain dump => n. The act of telling someone everything one knows about a particular topic or project. Typically used when someone is going to let a new party maintain a piece of code. Conceptually analogous to an operating system {core dump} in that ...
brain dump2 => before an exit. "You'll have to give me a brain dump on FOOBAR before you start your new job at HackerCorp." See {core dump} (sense 4). At Sun, this is also known as `TOI' (transfer of information).
brain-damaged => 1. [generalization of `Honeywell Brain Damage' (HBD), a theoretical disease invented to explain certain utter cretinisms in Honeywell {Multics}] adj. Obviously wrong; cretinous; demented. There is an implication that the person respo...
brain-dead => adj. Brain-damaged in the extreme. It tends to imply terminal design failure rather than malfunction or simple stupidity. "This comm program doesn't know how to send a break --- how brain-dead!"
braino => /bray'no/ n. Syn. for thinko.
branch to Fishkill => [IBM from the location of one of the corporation's facilities] n. Any unexpected jump in a program that produces catastrophic or just plain weird results. See {jump off into never-never land}, hyperspace.
brand brand brand => n. Humorous catch-phrase from BartleMUDs, in which players were described carrying a list of objects, the most common of which would usually be a brand. Often used as a joke in {talk mode} as in "Fred the wizard is here, carrying...
brand brand brand2 => kettle broadsword flamethrower". A brand is a torch, of course; one burns up a lot of those exploring dungeons. Prob. influenced by the famous Monty Python "Spam" skit.
break => 1. vt. To cause to be broken (in any sense). "Your latest patch to the editor broke the paragraph commands." 2. v. (of a program) To stop temporarily, so that it may debugged. The place where it stops is a `breakpoint'. 3. [techspeak] vi. To...
breath-of-life packet => [XEROX PARC] n. An Ethernet packet that contained bootstrap (see boot) code, periodically sent out from a working computer to infuse the `breath of life' into any computer on the network that had happened to crash. The machin...
breath-of-life packet2 => would wait for such a packet after a catastrophic error.
breedle => n. See feep.
bring X to its knees => v. To present a machine, operating system, piece of software, or algorithm with a load so extreme or pathological that it grinds to a halt. "To bring a MicroVAX to its knees, try twenty users running vi --- or four running EMA...
brittle => adj. Said of software that is functional but easily broken by changes in operating environment or configuration, or by any minor tweak to the software itself. Also, any system that responds inappropriately and disastrously to expected exte...
broadcast storm => n. An incorrect packet broadcast on a network that causes most hosts to respond all at once, typically with wrong answers that start the process over again. See {network meltdown}.
broken => adj. 1. Not working properly (of programs). 2. Behaving strangely; especially (when used of people) exhibiting extreme depression.
broken arrow => [IBM] n. The error code displayed on line 25 of a 3270 terminal (or a PC emulating a 3270) for various kinds of protocol violations and "unexpected" error conditions (including connection to a down computer). On a PC, simulated with `...
broken arrow2 => characters overstruck. In true luser fashion, the original documentation of these codes (visible on every 3270 terminal, and necessary for debugging network problems) was confined to an IBM customer engineering manual. Note to apprec...
broken arrow3 => know that `broken arrow' is also military jargon for an accident involving nuclear weapons....
broket => /broh'k*t/ or /broh'ket`/ [by analogy with `bracket' a `broken bracket'] n. Either of the characters `<' and `>', when used as paired enclosing delimiters. This word originated as a contraction of the phrase `broken bracket', that is, a bra...
Brooks's Law => prov. "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later" --- a result of the fact that the advantage from splitting work among N programmers is O(N) (that is, proportional to N), but the complexity and communications cost ass...
Brooks's Law2 => merging their work is O(N^2) (that is, proportional to the square of N). The quote is from Fred Brooks, a manager of IBM's OS/360 project and author of `The Mythical Man-Month' (Addison-Wesley, 1975, ISBN 0-201-00650-2), an excellent...
Brooks's Law3 => The myth in question has been most tersely expressed as "Programmer time is fungible" and Brooks established conclusively that it is not. Hackers have never forgotten his advice; too often, management does. See also creationism, {sec...
BRS => /B-R-S/ n. Syn. {Big Red Switch}. This abbreviation is fairly common on-line.
brute force => adj. Describes a primitive programming style, one in which the programmer relies on the computer's processing power instead of using his or her own intelligence to simplify the problem, often ignoring problems of scale and applying na"...
brute force2 => directly to large ones. The canonical example of a brute-force algorithm is associated with the `traveling salesman problem' (TSP), a classical NP-hard problem Suppose a person is in, say, Boston, and wishes to drive to N other cities...
brute force3 => visit them in order to minimize the distance travelled? The brute-force method is to simply generate all possible routes and compare the distances; while guaranteed to work and simple to implement, this algorithm is clearly very stupi...
brute force4 => obviously absurd routes (like going from Boston to Houston via San Francisco and New York, in that order). For very small N it works well, but it rapidly becomes absurdly inefficient when N increases (for N = 15, there are already 1,3...
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
by hand3 => and bottom of the message in question, deleting the rest of the file, inserting `>' characters on each line, writing the file, leaving the editor, returning to the mailer, reading the file in, and later remembering to delete the file. Com...
byte => /bit/ [techspeak] n. A unit of memory or data equal to the amount used to represent one character; on modern architectures this is usually 8 bits, but may be 9 on 36-bit machines. Some older architectures used `byte' for quantities of 6 or 7 ...
bytesexual => /bit`sek'shu-*l/ adj. Said of hardware, denotes willingness to compute or pass data in either big-endian or little-endian format (depending, presumably, on a {mode bit} somewhere). See also {NUXI problem}.*C n. 1. The third letter of th...
calculator => [Cambridge] n. Syn. for {bitty box}.
can => vt. To abort a job on a time-sharing system. Used esp. when the person doing the deed is an operator, as in "canned from the {console}". Frequently used in an imperative sense, as in "Can that print job, the LPT just popped a sprocket!" Synony...
canonical => [historically, `according to religious law'] adj. The usual or standard state or manner of something. This word has a somewhat more technical meaning in mathematics. Two formulas such as 9 + x and x + 9 are said to be equivalent because ...
card => n. 1. An electronic printed-circuit board (see also {tall card}, {short card}. 2. obs. Syn. {{punched card}}.
card walloper => n. An EDP programmer who grinds out batch programs that do stupid things like print people's paychecks. Compare {code grinder}. See also {{punched card}}, {eighty-column mind}.
careware => /keir'weir/ n. Shareware for which either the author suggests that some payment be made to a nominated charity or a levy directed to charity is included on top of the distribution charge. Syn. charityware; compare crippleware, sense 2.
cargo cult programming => n. A style of (incompetent) programming dominated by ritual inclusion of code or program structures that serve no real purpose. A cargo cult programmer will usually explain the extra code as a way of working around some bug ...
cargo cult programming2 => neither the bug nor the reason the code apparently avoided the bug was ever fully understood (compare {shotgun debugging}, {voodoo programming}). The term `cargo cult' is a reference to aboriginal religions that grew up in ...
cargo cult programming3 => The practices of these cults center on building elaborate mockups of airplanes and military style landing strips in the hope of bringing the return of the god-like airplanes that brought such marvelous cargo during the war....
cargo cult programming4 => Richard Feynman's characterization of certain practices as "cargo cult science" in his book `Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman' (W. W. Norton & Co, New York 1985, ISBN 0-393-01921-7).
case and paste => [from `cut and paste'] n. 1. The addition of a new feature to an existing system by selecting the code from an existing feature and pasting it in with minor changes. Common in telephony circles because most operations in a telephone...
case and paste2 => statements. Leads to {software bloat}. In some circles of EMACS users this is called `programming by Meta-W', because Meta-W is the EMACS command for copying a block of text to a kill buffer in preparation to pasting it in elsewher...
case and paste3 => implying that the programmer is acting mindlessly rather than thinking carefully about what is required to integrate the code for two similar cases.
casters-up mode => [IBM] n. Yet another synonym for `broken' or `down'.
casting the runes => n. What a guru does when you ask him or her to run a particular program and type at it because it never works for anyone else; esp. used when nobody can ever see what the guru is doing different from what J. Random Luser does. Co...
casting the runes2 => {examining the entrails}; also see the AI koan about Tom Knight in appendix A.
cat => [from `catenate' via {UNIX} `cat(1)'] vt. 1. [techspeak] To spew an entire file to the screen or some other output sink without pause. 2. By extension, to dump large amounts of data at an unprepared target or with no intention of browsing it c...
catatonic => adj. Describes a condition of suspended animation in which something is so wedged or hung that it makes no response. If you are typing on a terminal and suddenly the computer doesn't even echo the letters back to the screen as you type, ...
cdr => /ku'dr/ or /kuh'dr/ [from LISP] vt. To skip past the first item from a list of things (generalized from the LISP operation on binary tree structures, which returns a list consisting of all but the first element of its argument). In the form `c...
chad => /chad/ n. 1. The perforated edge strips on printer paper, after they have been separated from the printed portion. Also called selvage and perf. 2. obs. The confetti-like paper bits punched out of cards or paper tape; this was also called `ch...
chad box => n. {Iron Age} card punches contained boxes inside them, about the size of a lunchbox (or in some models a large wastebasket), that held the chad (sense 2). You had to open the covers of the card punch periodically and empty the chad box. ...
chad box2 => the equivalent device in the CPU enclosure, which was typically across the room in another great gray-and-blue box.
chain => [orig. from BASIC's `CHAIN' statement] vi. To hand off execution to a child or successor without going through the OS command interpreter that invoked it. The state of the parent program is lost and there is no returning to it. Though this f...
char => /keir/ or /char/; rarely, /kar/ n. Shorthand for `character'. Esp. used by C programmers, as `char' is C's typename for character data.
charityware => /char'it-ee-weir`/ n. Syn. careware.
chase pointers => 1. vi. To go through multiple levels of indirection, as in traversing a linked list or graph structure. Used esp. by programmers in C, where explicit pointers are a very common data type. This is techspeak, but it remains jargon whe...
chase pointers2 => chasing pointers. Bob said you could tell me who to talk to about...." See {dangling pointer} and snap. 2. [Cambridge] `pointer chase' or `pointer hunt' The process of going through a dump (interactively or on a large piece of pape...
chase pointers3 => following dynamic data-structures. Used only in a debugging context.
chemist => [Cambridge] n. Someone who wastes computer time on number-crunching when you'd far rather the machine were doing something more productive, such as working out anagrams of your name or printing Snoopy calendars or running life patterns. Ma...
Chernobyl chicken => n. See {laser chicken}.
Chernobyl packet => /cher-noh'b*l pak'*t/ n. A network packet that induces {network meltdown} (the result of a {broadcast storm}), in memory of the 1987 nuclear accident at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. The typical case of this is an IP Ethernet datagram...
Chernobyl packet2 => both source and destination Ether and IP address set as the respective broadcast addresses for the subnetworks being gated between. Compare {Christmas tree packet}.
chicken head => [Commodore] n. The Commodore Business Machines logo, which strongly resembles a poultry part. Rendered in ASCII as `C='. With the arguable exception of the Amiga (see amoeba), Commodore's machines are notoriously crocky little {bitty ...
chicken head2 => Thus, this usage may owe something to Philip K. Dick's novel `Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' (the basis for the movie `Blade Runner'), in which a `chickenhead' is a mutant with below-average intelligence.
chiclet keyboard => n. A keyboard with small rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or plastic keys that look like pieces of chewing gum. (Chiclets is the brand name of a variety of chewing gum that does in fact resemble the keys of chiclet keyboards.)...
chiclet keyboard2 => IBM PCjr keyboard. Vendors unanimously liked these because they were cheap, and a lot of early portable and laptop products got launched using them. Customers rejected the idea with almost equal unanimity, and chiclets are not of...
chine nual => /sheen'yu-*l/ [MIT] n.,obs. The Lisp Machine Manual, so called because the title was wrapped around the cover so only those letters showed on the front.
Chinese Army technique => n. Syn. {Mongolian Hordes technique}.
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
coefficient of X6 => bogosity factor'. `Foo index' suggests that foo is a condensation of many quantities, as in the mundane cost-of-living index; `coefficient of foo' suggests that foo is a fundamental quantity, as in a coefficient of friction. The ...
coefficient of X7 => one of personal preference; e.g., some people might feel that bogosity is a fundamental attribute and thus say `coefficient of bogosity', whereas others might feel it is a combination of factors and thus say `bogosity index'.
cokebottle => /kohk'bot-l/ n. Any very unusual character, particularly one you can't type because it it isn't on your keyboard. MIT people used to complain about the `control-meta-cokebottle' commands at SAIL, and SAIL people complained right back ab...
cold boot => n. See boot.
COME FROM => n. A semi-mythical language construct dual to the `go to'; `COME FROM' <label> would cause the referenced label to act as a sort of trapdoor, so that if the program ever reached it control would quietly and automagically be transferred t...
COME FROM2 => FROM'. `COME FROM' was first proposed in a Datamation article of December 1973 (reprinted in the April 1984 issue of `Communications of the ACM') that parodied the then-raging `structured programming' {holy wars} (see {considered harmfu...
COME FROM3 => the `assigned COME FROM' and the `computed COME FROM' (parodying some nasty control constructs in FORTRAN and some extended BASICs). Of course, multi-tasking (or non-determinism) could be implemented by having more than one `COME FROM' ...
COME FROM4 => label. In some ways the FORTRAN `DO' looks like a `COME FROM' statement. After the terminating statement number/`CONTINUE' is reached, control continues at the statement following the DO. Some generous FORTRANs would allow arbitrary sta...
COME FROM5 => the statement, leading to examples like DO 10 I=1,LIMIT C imagine many lines of code here, leaving the C original DO statement lost in the spaghetti... WRITE(6,10) I,FROB(I) 10 FORMAT(1X,I5,G10.4) in which the trapdoor is just after the...
COME FROM6 => statement labeled 10. (This is particularly surprising because the label doesn't appear to have anything to do with the flow of control at all!) While sufficiently astonishing to the unsuspecting reader, this form of `COME FROM' stateme...
COME FROM7 => all, control will eventually pass to the following statement. The implementation of the general form was left to Univac FORTRAN, ca. 1975. The statement `AT 100' would perform a `COME FROM 100'. It was intended strictly as a debugging a...
COME FROM8 => promised to anyone so deranged as to use it in production code. More horrible things had already been perpetrated in production languages, however; doubters need only contemplate the `ALTER' verb in COBOL. `COME FROM' was supported unde...
COME FROM9 => 15 years later, in C-INTERCAL (see INTERCAL, retrocomputing); knowledgeable observers are still reeling from the shock.
comm mode => /kom mohd/ [ITS from the feature supporting on-line chat; the term may spelled with one or two m's] Syn. for {talk mode}.
command key => [Mac users] n. The Macintosh key with the cloverleaf graphic on its keytop; sometimes referred to as `flower', `pretzel', `clover', `propeller', `beanie' (an apparent reference to the major feature of a propeller beanie), or splat. The...
command key2 => The proliferation of terms for this creature may illustrate one subtle peril of iconic interfaces.
comment out => vt. To surround a section of code with comment delimiters or to prefix every line in the section with a comment marker; this prevents it from being compiled or interpreted. Often done when the code is redundant or obsolete, but you wan...
comment out2 => the intent of the active code clearer; also when the code in that section is broken and you want to bypass it in order to debug some other part of the code. Compare {condition out}, usually the preferred technique in languages (such a...
Commonwealth Hackish => n. Hacker jargon as spoken outside the U.S., esp. in the British Commonwealth. It is reported that Commonwealth speakers are more likely to pronounce truncations like `char' and `soc', etc., as spelled (/char/, /sok/), as oppo...
Commonwealth Hackish2 => Dots in newsgroup names tend to be pronounced more often (so soc.wibble is /sok dot wib'l/ rather than /sohsh wib'l/). The prefix meta may be pronounced /mee't*/; similarly, Greek letter beta is often /bee't*/, zeta is often ...
Commonwealth Hackish3 => Preferred metasyntactic variables include `eek', `ook', `frodo', and `bilbo'; `wibble', `wobble', and in emergencies `wubble'; `banana', `wombat', `frog', fish, and so on and on (see foo, sense 4). Alternatives to verb doubli...
Commonwealth Hackish4 => `frenzy' (as in feeding frenzy), and `city' (examples "barf city!" "hack-o-rama!" "core dump frenzy!"). Finally, note that the American terms `parens', `brackets', and `braces' for (), [], and {} are uncommon; Commonwealth ha...
Commonwealth Hackish5 => brackets', and `curly brackets'. Also, the use of `pling' for bang is common outside the United States. See also attoparsec, calculator, chemist, {console jockey}, fish, {go-faster stripes}, grunge, hakspek, {heavy metal}, {l...
Commonwealth Hackish6 => fixer}, noddy, psychedelicware, plingnet, {raster blaster}, seggie, {terminal junkie}, {tick-list features}, weeble, weasel, YABA, and notes or definitions under {Bad Thing}, barf, bogus, bum, {chase pointers}, {cosmic rays},...
Commonwealth Hackish7 => crunch, dodgy, gonk, hamster, hardwarily, mess-dos, nybble, proglet, root, SEX, tweak, and xyzzy.
compact => adj. Of a design, describes the valuable property that it can all be apprehended at once in one's head. This generally means the thing created from the design can be used with greater facility and fewer errors than an equivalent tool that ...
compiler jock => n. See jock (sense 2).
compress => [UNIX] vt. When used without a qualifier, generally refers to crunching of a file using a particular C implementation of Lempel-Ziv compression by James A. Woods et al. and widely circulated via USENET. Use of crunch itself in this sense ...
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
cycle of reincarnation2 => its job, then somebody notices that it is inefficient to support two asymmetrical processors in the architecture and folds the function back into the main CPU, at which point the cycle begins again. Several iterations of th...
cycle of reincarnation3 => graphics-processor design, and at least one or two in communications and floating-point processors. Also known as `the Wheel of Life', `the Wheel of Samsara', and other variations of the basic Hindu/Buddhist theological ide...
cycle server => n. A powerful machine that exists primarily for running large batch jobs. Implies that interactive tasks such as editing are done on other machines on the network, such as workstations.*D.C. Power Lab n. The former site of {SAIL}. Hac...
cycle server2 => funny because the obvious connection to electrical engineering was nonexistent --- the lab was named for a Donald C. Power. Compare {Marginal Hacks}.
daemon => /day'mn/ or /dee'mn/ [from the mythological meaning, later rationalized as the acronym `Disk And Execution MONitor'] n. A program that is not invoked explicitly, but lies dormant waiting for some condition(s) to occur. The idea is that the ...
dangling pointer => n. A reference that doesn't actually lead anywhere (in C and some other languages, a pointer that doesn't actually point at anything valid). Usually this is because it formerly pointed to something that has moved or disappeared. U...
dangling pointer2 => of its techspeak meaning; for example, a local phone number for a person who has since moved to the other coast is a dangling pointer.
Datamation => /day`t*-may'sh*n/ n. A magazine that many hackers assume all suits read. Used to question an unbelieved quote, as in "Did you read that in `Datamation?'" It used to publish something hackishly funny every once in a while, like the origi...
day mode => n. See phase (sense 1). Used of people only.
dd => /dee-dee/ [UNIX from IBM JCL] vt. Equivalent to cat or BLT. This was originally the name of a UNIX copy command with special options suitable for block-oriented devices. Often used in heavy-handed system maintenance, as in "Let's dd the root pa...
DDT => /D-D-T/ n. 1. Generic term for a program that assists in debugging other programs by showing individual machine instructions in a readable symbolic form and letting the user change them. In this sense the term DDT is now archaic, having been w...
de-rezz => /dee-rez'/ [from `de-resolve' via the movie "Tron"] (also `derez') 1. vi. To disappear or dissolve; the image that goes with it is of an object breaking up into raster lines and static and then dissolving. Occasionally used of a person who...
dead code => n. Routines that can never be accessed because all calls to them have been removed, or code that cannot be reached because it is guarded by a control structure that provably must always transfer control somewhere else. The presence of de...
dead code2 => errors due to alterations in the program or significant changes in the assumptions and environment of the program (see also {software rot}); a good compiler should report dead code so a maintainer can think about what it means. Syn. gru...
DEADBEEF => /ded-beef/ n. The hexadecimal word-fill pattern for freshly allocated memory (decimal -21524111) under a number of IBM environments, including the RS/6000. As in "Your program is DEADBEEF" (meaning gone, aborted, flushed from memory); if ...
deadlock => n. 1. [techspeak] A situation wherein two or more processes are unable to proceed because each is waiting for one of the others to do something. A common example is a program communicating to a server, which may find itself waiting for ou...
deadly embrace => n. Same as deadlock, though usually used only when exactly 2 processes are involved. This is the more popular term in Europe, while deadlock predominates in the United States.
Death Star => [from the movie "Star Wars"] 1. The AT&T corporate logo, which appears on computers sold by AT&T and bears an uncanny resemblance to the `Death Star' in the movie. This usage is particularly common among partisans of BSD UNIX, who tend ...
Death Star2 => inferior and AT&T as a bad guy. Copies still circulate of a poster printed by Mt. Xinu showing a starscape with a space fighter labeled 4.2 BSD streaking away from a broken AT&T logo wreathed in flames. 2. AT&T's internal magazine, `Fo...
Death Star3 => incorrectly done AT&T logo in which the inner circle in the top left is dark instead of light --- a frequent result of dark-on-light logo images.
DEC Wars => n. A 1983 USENET posting by Alan Hastings and Steve Tarr spoofing the "Star Wars" movies in hackish terms. Some years later, ESR (disappointed by Hastings and Tarr's failure to exploit a great premise more thoroughly) posted a 3-times-lon...
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
demented => adj. Yet another term of disgust used to describe a program. The connotation in this case is that the program works as designed, but the design is bad. Said, for example, of a program that generates large numbers of meaningless error mess...
demigod => n. A hacker with years of experience, a national reputation, and a major role in the development of at least one design, tool, or game used by or known to more than half of the hacker community. To qualify as a genuine demigod, the person ...
demo => /de'moh/ [short for `demonstration'] 1. v. To demonstrate a product or prototype. A far more effective way of inducing bugs to manifest than any number of test runs, especially when important people are watching. 2. n. The act of demoing.
demo mode => [Sun] n. 1. The state of being {heads down} in order to finish code in time for a demo, usually due yesterday. 2. A mode in which video games sit there by themselves running through a portion of the game, also known as `attract mode'. So...
demo mode2 => they use as a screen saver, or may go through a demo mode on startup (for example, the Microsoft Windows opening screen --- which lets you impress your neighbors without actually having to put up with {Microsloth Windows}).
demon => n. 1. [MIT] A portion of a program that is not invoked explicitly, but that lies dormant waiting for some condition(s) to occur. See daemon. The distinction is that demons are usually processes within a program, while daemons are usually pro...
depeditate => /dee-ped'*-tayt/ [by (faulty) analogy with `decapitate'] vt. Humorously, to cut off the feet of. When one is using some computer-aided typesetting tools, careless placement of text blocks within a page or above a rule can result in chop...
deprecated => adj. Said of a program or feature that is considered obsolescent and in the process of being phased out, usually in favor of a specified replacement. Deprecated features can, unfortunately, linger on for many years.
deserves to lose => adj. Said of someone who willfully does the {Wrong Thing}; humorously, if one uses a feature known to be marginal. What is meant is that one deserves the consequences of one's losing actions. "Boy, anyone who tries to use mess-dos...
deserves to lose2 => ({ITS} fans used to say this of {UNIX}; many still do.) See also screw, chomp, bagbiter.
desk check => n.,v. To grovel over hardcopy of source code, mentally simulating the control flow; a method of catching bugs. No longer common practice in this age of on-screen editing, fast compiles, and sophisticated debuggers --- though some mainta...
desk check2 => Compare {eyeball search}, vdiff, vgrep.
Devil Book => n. `The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD UNIX Operating System', by Samuel J. Leffler, Marshall Kirk McKusick, Michael J. Karels, and John S. Quarterman (Addison-Wesley Publishers, 1989) --- the standard reference book on the int...
Devil Book2 => because the cover has a picture depicting a little devil (a visual play on daemon) in sneakers, holding a pitchfork (referring to one of the characteristic features of UNIX, the fork(2) system call).
devo => /dee'voh/ [orig. in-house jargon at Symbolics] n. A person in a development group. See also doco and mango.
dickless workstation => n. Extremely pejorative hackerism for `diskless workstation', a class of botches including the Sun 3/50 and other machines designed exclusively to network with an expensive central disk server. These combine all the disadvanta...
dickless workstation2 => disadvantages of distributed personal computers.
dictionary flame => [USENET] n. An attempt to sidetrack a debate away from issues by insisting on meanings for key terms that presuppose a desired conclusion or smuggle in an implicit premise. A common tactic of people who prefer argument over defini...
diddle => 1. vt. To work with or modify in a not particularly serious manner. "I diddled a copy of ADVENT so it didn't double-space all the time." "Let's diddle this piece of code and see if the problem goes away." See tweak and twiddle. 2. n. The ac...
diff => /dif/ n. 1. A change listing, especially giving differences between (and additions to) source code or documents (the term is often used in the plural `diffs'). "Send me your diffs for the Jargon File!" Compare vdiff. 2. Specifically, such a l...
digit => n. An employee of Digital Equipment Corporation. See also VAX, VMS, PDP-10, {TOPS-10}, DEChead, {double DECkers}, {field circus}.
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Dragon Book => n. The classic text `Compilers Principles, Techniques and Tools', by Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi, and Jeffrey D. Ullman (Addison-Wesley 1986; ISBN 0-201-10088-6), so called because of the cover design featuring a dragon labeled `complexi...
Dragon Book2 => bearing the lance `LALR parser generator' among his other trappings. This one is more specifically known as the `Red Dragon Book' (1986); an earlier edition, sans Sethi and titled `Principles Of Compiler Design' (Alfred V. Aho and Jef...
Dragon Book3 => ISBN 0-201-00022-9), was the `Green Dragon Book' (1977). (Also `New Dragon Book', `Old Dragon Book'.) The horsed knight and the Green Dragon were warily eying each other at a distance; now the knight is typing (wearing gauntlets!) at ...
Dragon Book4 => representation of the Red Dragon's head while the rest of the beast extends back in normal space. See also {{book titles}}.
drain => [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 => 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 difficult, n...
dread high-bit disease2 => 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. See {meta bit}...
dread high-bit disease3 => (including the Atari 800) have exhibited similar brain damage.
DRECNET => /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 or as a mal...
driver => 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 tape u...
droid => 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 nonsense e...
drool-proof paper => 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 paper'. For e...
drool-proof paper2 => from Apple's LaserWriter manual "Do not expose your LaserWriter to open fire or flame."
drop on the floor => vt. To react to an error condition by silently discarding messages or other valuable data. "The gateway ran out of memory, so it just started dropping packets on the floor." Also frequently used of faulty mail and netnews relay s...
drop on the floor2 => {black hole}, {bit bucket}.
drop-ins => [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. Compare drop-out...
drop-outs => 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 connection to a mod...
drugged => 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 => 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 usually be c...
drunk mouse syndrome2 => and plugging it back again. Another recommended fix for optical mice is to rotate your mouse pad 90 degrees. At Xerox PARC in the 1970s, most people kept a can of copier cleaner (isopropyl alcohol) at their desks. When the st...
drunk mouse syndrome3 => 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 and more fr...
drunk mouse syndrome4 => declared `alcoholic' and sent to the clinic to be dried out in a CFC ultrasonic bath.
dumbass attack => /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 => 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 making it sma...
dump => n. 1. An undigested and voluminous mass of information about a problem or the state of a system, especially one routed to the slowest available output device (compare {core dump}), and most especially one consisting of hex or octal runes desc...
dup killer => /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 => /d[y]oop loop/ (also `dupe loop') [FidoNet] n. An incorrectly configured system or network gateway may propagate duplicate messages on one or more echoes, with different identification information that renders {dup killer}s ineffective. I...
dup loop2 => 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 => 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 scientific and...
dusty deck2 => of which was written in FORTRAN and very poorly documented but is believed to be too expensive to replace. See fossil.
DWIM => /dwim/ [acronym, `Do What I Mean'] 1. adj. Able to guess, sometimes even correctly, the result intended when bogus input was provided. 2. n.,obs. The BBNLISP/INTERLISP function that attempted to accomplish this feat by correcting many of the ...
dynner => /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 the rumor that the...
Easter egg => 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 response to...
Easter egg2 => or keystrokes, intended as a joke or to display program credits. One well-known early Easter egg found in a couple of OSes caused them to respond to the command `make love' with `not war?'. Many personal computers have much more elabor...
Easter egg3 => lists of the developers' names, political exhortations, snatches of music, and (in one case) graphics images of the entire development team.
Easter egging => [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 {shotgun debu...
eat flaming death => 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 somethin...
eat flaming death2 => 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 expressions of h...
EBCDIC => /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 dinosaurs. It exists in at least six mutually incompatible versions, all featuring such delights as ...
echo => [FidoNet] n. A {topic group} on FidoNet's echomail system. Compare newsgroup.
eighty-column mind => [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 old joke)...
eighty-column mind2 => `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 lines of wh...
eighty-column mind3 => 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 and loathing}, {card walloper...
El Camino Bignum => /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. Navigation on ...
El Camino Bignum2 => 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 Spanish wor...
El Camino Bignum3 => /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-point number,...
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green card4 => return. See also card.
green lightning => [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 the user k...
green lightning2 => That, it certainly does. Later microprocessor-driven IBM color graphics displays were actually *programmed* to produce green lightning! 2. [proposed] Any bug perverted into an alleged feature by adroit rationalization or marketing...
green lightning3 => the 88000 architecture `compatibility logic', but I call it green lightning". See also feature.
green machine => n. A computer or peripheral device that has been designed and built to military specifications for field equipment (that is, to withstand mechanical shock, extremes of temperature and humidity, and so forth). Comes from the olive-dra...
Green's Theorem => [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 => /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 file set l...
grind => 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 operations. 2....
grind crank => n. A mythical accessory to a terminal. A crank on the side of a monitor, which when operated makes a zizzing noise and causes the computer to run faster. Usually one does not refer to a grind crank out loud, but merely makes the approp...
grind crank2 => 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 `The Rice Ins...
grind crank3 => as `The Rice University Computer' (TRUC)) had a single-step/free-run switch for use when debugging programs. Since single-stepping through a large program was rather tedious, there was also a crank with a cam and gear arrangement that...
grind crank4 => 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 => /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 => /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. Connotes i...
gronk => /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 similarly disable. 3....
gronk out => vi. To cease functioning. Of people, to go home and go to sleep. "I guess I'll gronk out now; see you all tomorrow."
gronked => adj. 1. Broken. "The teletype scanner was gronked, so we took the system down." 2. Of people, the condition of feeling very tired or (less commonly) sick. "I've been chasing that bug for 17 hours now and I am thoroughly gronked!" Compare b...
grovel => vi. 1. To work interminably and without apparent progress. Often used transitively with `over' or `through'. "The file scavenger has been groveling through the file directories for 10 minutes now." Compare grind and crunch. Emphatic form `g...
grunge => /gruhnj/ n. 1. That which is grungy, or that which makes it so. 2. [Cambridge] Code which is inaccessible due to changes in other parts of the program. The preferred term in North America is {dead code}.
gubbish => /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 => /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 of money...
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
hello, sailor! => interj. Occasional West Coast equivalent of {hello, world}; seems to have originated at SAIL, later associated with the game Zork (which also included "hello, aviator" and "hello, implementor"). Originally from the traditional hooke...
hello, sailor!2 => off the boat, of course.
hello, wall! => excl. See wall.
hello, world => interj. 1. The canonical minimal test message in the C/UNIX universe. 2. Any of the minimal programs that emit this message. Traditionally, the first program a C coder is supposed to write in a new environment is one that just prints ...
hello, world2 => (and indeed it is the first example program in K&R). Environments that generate an unreasonably large executable for this trivial test or which require a hairy compiler-linker invocation to generate it are considered to lose (see X)....
hello, world3 => hacker making an entrance or requesting information from anyone present. "Hello, world! Is the VAX back up yet?"
hex => n. 1. Short for {hexadecimal}, base 16. 2. A 6-pack of anything (compare quad, sense 2). Neither usage has anything to do with magic or {black art}, though the pun is appreciated and occasionally used by hackers. True story As a joke, some hac...
hexadecimal => n. Base 16. Coined in the early 1960s to replace earlier `sexadecimal', which was too racy and amusing for stuffy IBM, and later adopted by the rest of the industry. Actually, neither term is etymologically pure. If we take `binary' to...
hexit => /hek'sit/ n. A hexadecimal digit (0--9, and A--F or a--f). Used by people who claim that there are only *ten* digits, dammit; sixteen-fingered human beings are rather rare, despite what some keyboard designs might seem to imply (see {space-c...
hidden flag => [scientific computation] n. An extra option added to a routine without changing the calling sequence. For example, instead of adding an explicit input variable to instruct a routine to give extra diagnostic output, the programmer might...
hidden flag2 => meaningless feature of the existing inputs, such as a negative mass. Liberal use of hidden flags can make a program very hard to debug and understand.
high bit => [from `high-order bit'] n. 1. The most significant bit in a byte. 2. By extension, the most significant part of something other than a data byte "Spare me the whole saga, just give me the high bit." See also {meta bit}, hobbit, {dread hig...
high bit2 => mainstream slang `bottom line'.
high moby => /hi' mohb'ee/ n. The high half of a 512K PDP-10's physical address space; the other half was of course the low moby. This usage has been generalized in a way that has outlasted the PDP-10; for example, at the 1990 Washington D.C. Area Sc...
high moby2 => (Disclave), when a miscommunication resulted in two separate wakes being held in commemoration of the shutdown of MIT's last {ITS} machines, the one on the upper floor was dubbed the `high moby' and the other the `low moby'. All parties...
highly => [scientific computation] adv. The preferred modifier for overstating an understatement. As in `highly nonoptimal', the worst possible way to do something; `highly nontrivial', either impossible or requiring a major research project; `highly...
hirsute => adj. Occasionally used humorously as a synonym for hairy.
HLL => /H-L-L/ n. [High-Level Language (as opposed to assembler)] Found primarily in email and news rather than speech. Rarely, the variants `VHLL' and `MLL' are found. VHLL stands for `Very-High-Level Language' and is used to describe a {bondage-and...
hobbit => n. 1. The High Order Bit of a byte; same as the {meta bit} or {high bit}. 2. The non-ITS name of vad@ai.mit.edu (*Hobbit*), master of lasers.
hog => n.,vt. 1. Favored term to describe programs or hardware that seem to eat far more than their share of a system's resources, esp. those which noticeably degrade interactive response. *Not* used of programs that are simply extremely large or com...
holy wars => [from USENET, but may predate it] n. {flame war}s over {religious issues}. The paper by Danny Cohen that popularized the terms big-endian and little-endian in connection with the LSB-first/MSB-first controversy was entitled "On Holy Wars...
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nickle => /ni'kl/ [from `nickel', common name for the U.S. 5-cent coin] n. A nybble + 1; 5 bits. Reported among developers for Mattel's GI 1600 (the Intellivision games processor), a chip with 16-bit-wide RAM but 10-bit-wide ROM. See also deckle.
night mode => n. See phase (of people).
Nightmare File System => n. Pejorative hackerism for Sun's Network File System (NFS). In any nontrivial network of Suns where there is a lot of NFS cross-mounting, when one Sun goes down, the others often freeze up. Some machine tries to access the d...
Nightmare File System2 => repeats indefinitely. This causes it to appear dead to some messages (what is actually happening is that it is locked up in what should have been a brief excursion to a higher spl level). Then another machine tries to reach ...
Nightmare File System3 => pseudo-down machine, and itself becomes pseudo-down. The first machine to discover the down one is now trying both to access the down one and to respond to the pseudo-down one, so it is even harder to reach. This snowballs v...
Nightmare File System4 => network of machines is frozen --- the user can't even abort the file access that started the problem! (ITS partisans are apt to cite this as proof of UNIX's alleged bogosity; ITS had a working NFS-like shared file system wit...
Nightmare File System5 => 1970s.) See also {broadcast storm}.
NIL => /nil/ [from LISP terminology for `false'] No. Used in reply to a question, particularly one asked using the `-P' convention. See T.
NMI => /N-M-I/ n. Non-Maskable Interrupt. An IRQ 7 on the PDP-11 or 680[01234]0; the NMI line on an 8088,[1234]86. In contrast with a {priority interrupt} (which might be ignored, although that is unlikely), an NMI is *never* ignored.
no-op => /noh'op/ alt. NOP /nop/ [no operation] n. 1. (also v.) A machine instruction that does nothing (sometimes used in assembler-level programming as filler for data or patch areas, or to overwrite code to be removed in binaries). See also JFCL. ...
noddy => /nod'ee/ [UK: from the children's books] adj. 1. Small and un-useful, but demonstrating a point. Noddy programs are often written by people learning a new language or system. The archetypal noddy program is {hello, world}. Noddy code may be ...
NOMEX underwear => /noh'meks uhn'-der-weir/ [USENET] n. Syn. {asbestos longjohns}, used mostly in auto-related mailing lists and newsgroups. NOMEX underwear is an actual product available on the racing equipment market, used as a fire resistance meas...
non-optimal solution => n. (also `sub-optimal solution') An astoundingly stupid way to do something. This term is generally used in deadpan sarcasm, as its impact is greatest when the person speaking looks completely serious. Compare stunning. See al...
nonlinear => adj. [scientific computation] 1. Behaving in an erratic and unpredictable fashion. When used to describe the behavior of a machine or program, it suggests that said machine or program is being forced to run far outside of design specific...
nontrivial => adj. Requiring real thought or significant computing power. Often used as an understated way of saying that a problem is quite difficult or impractical, or even entirely unsolvable ("Proving P=NP is nontrivial"). The preferred emphatic ...
notwork => /not'werk/ n. A network, when it is acting flaky or is down. Compare nyetwork. Said at IBM to have orig. referred to a particular period of flakiness on IBM's VNET corporate network, ca. 1988; but there are independent reports of the term ...
NP- => /N-P/ pref. Extremely. Used to modify adjectives describing a level or quality of difficulty; the connotation is often `more so than it should be' (NP-complete problems all seem to be very hard, but so far no one has found a good a priori reas...
nuke => vt. 1. To intentionally delete the entire contents of a given directory or storage volume. "On UNIX, `rm -r /usr' will nuke everything in the usr filesystem." Never used for accidental deletion. Oppose {blow away}. 2. Syn. for dike, applied t...
number-crunching => n. Computations of a numerical nature, esp. those that make extensive use of floating-point numbers. The only thing Fortrash is good for. This term is in widespread informal use outside hackerdom and even in mainstream slang, but ...
numbers => [scientific computation] n. Output of a computation that may not be significant results but at least indicate that the program is running. May be used to placate management, grant sponsors, etc. `Making numbers' means running a program bec...
NUXI problem => /nuk'see pro'bl*m/ n. This refers to the problem of transferring data between machines with differing byte-order. The string `UNIX' might look like `NUXI' on a machine with a different `byte sex' (e.g., when transferring data from a l...
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pico- => [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 recognizable to any hacker....
run like a pig => v. To run very slowly on given hardware, said of software. Distinct from hog.
pilot error => [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 not a bug, ...
ping => [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 alivenes...
Pink-Shirt Book => `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 a differ...
Pink-Shirt Book2 => pink shirt. See also {{book titles}}.
PIP => /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 operati...
pistol => [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 => [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 used to...
pizza box2 => 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 => /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}; compare {tea,...
plain-ASCII => /playn-as'kee/ Syn. flat-ASCII.
plan file => [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 location and near...
plan file2 => almost universally to humorous and self-expressive purposes (like a {sig block}). See {Hacking X for Y}.
platinum-iridium => 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 Kilogram...
playpen => [IBM] n. A room where programmers work. Compare {salt mines}.
playte => /playt/ 16 bits, by analogy with nybble and {byte}. Usage rare and extremely silly. See also dynner and crumb.
plingnet => /pling'net/ n. Syn. UUCPNET. Also see {{Commonwealth Hackish}}, which uses `pling' for bang (as in {bang path}).
plokta => /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 the syst...
plonk => [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*") is a form...
plugh => /ploogh/ [from the ADVENT game] v. See xyzzy.
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
pretty pictures => n. [scientific computation] The next step up from numbers. Interesting graphical output from a program that may not have any sensible relationship to the system the program is intended to model. Good for showing to management.
prettyprint => /prit'ee-print/ (alt. `pretty-print') v. 1. To generate `pretty' human-readable output from a hairy internal representation; esp. used for the process of grinding (sense 2) LISP code. 2. To format in some particularly slick and nontriv...
pretzel key => [Mac users] n. See {command key}.
prime time => [from TV programming] n. Normal high-usage hours on a timesharing system; the day shift. Avoidance of prime time is a major reason for {night mode} hacking.
priority interrupt => [from the hardware term] n. Describes any stimulus compelling enough to yank one right out of {hack mode}. Classically used to describe being dragged away by an SO for immediate sex, but may also refer to more mundane interrupti...
priority interrupt2 => in the near vicinity. Also called an NMI (non-maskable interrupt), especially in PC-land.
profile => n. 1. A control file for a program, esp. a text file automatically read from each user's home directory and intended to be easily modified by the user in order to customize the program's behavior. Used to avoid hardcoded choices. 2. [techs...
proglet => /prog'let/ [UK] n. A short extempore program written to meet an immediate, transient need. Often written in BASIC, rarely more than a dozen lines long, and contains no subroutines. The largest amount of code that can be written off the top...
program => n. 1. A magic spell cast over a computer allowing it to turn one's input into error messages. 2. An exercise in experimental epistemology. 3. A form of art, ostensibly intended for the instruction of computers, which is nevertheless almost...
Programmer's Cheer => "Shift to the left! Shift to the right! Pop up, push down! Byte! Byte! Byte!" A joke so old it has hair on it.
programming => n. 1. The art of debugging a blank sheet of paper (or, in these days of on-line editing, the art of debugging an empty file). 2. n. A pastime similar to banging one's head against a wall, but with fewer opportunities for reward. 3. n. ...
propeller head => n. Used by hackers, this is syn. with {computer geek}. Non-hackers sometimes use it to describe all techies. Prob. derives from SF fandom's tradition (originally invented by old-time fan Ray Faraday Nelson) of propeller beanies as f...
propeller head2 => actually wears them except as a joke).
propeller key => [Mac users] n. See {command key}.
proprietary => adj. 1. In marketroid-speak, superior; implies a product imbued with exclusive magic by the unmatched brilliance of the company's hardware or software designers. 2. In the language of hackers and users, inferior; implies a product not ...
protocol => n. As used by hackers, this never refers to niceties about the proper form for addressing letters to the Papal Nuncio or the order in which one should use the forks in a Russian-style place setting; hackers don't care about such things. I...
provocative maintenance => [common ironic mutation of `preventive maintenance'] n. Actions performed upon a machine at regularly scheduled intervals to ensure that the system remains in a usable state. So called because it is all too often performed ...
provocative maintenance2 => know what he is doing; this results in the machine's remaining in an *un*usable state for an indeterminate amount of time. See also {scratch monkey}.
prowler => [UNIX] n. A daemon that is run periodically (typically once a week) to seek out and erase core files, truncate administrative logfiles, nuke `lost+found' directories, and otherwise clean up the cruft that tends to pile up in the corners of...
pseudo => /soo'doh/ [USENET truncation of `pseudonym'] n. 1. An electronic-mail or USENET persona adopted by a human for amusement value or as a means of avoiding negative repercussions of one's net.behavior; a `nom de USENET', often associated with ...
pseudoprime => n. A backgammon prime (six consecutive occupied points) with one point missing. This term is an esoteric pun derived from a mathematical method that, rather than determining precisely whether a number is prime (has no divisors), uses a...
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
RE => /R-E/ n. Common spoken and written shorthand for regexp.
read-only user => n. Describes a luser who uses computers almost exclusively for reading USENET, bulletin boards, and/or email, rather than writing code or purveying useful information. See twink, {terminal junkie}, lurker.
README file => n. By convention, the top-level directory of a UNIX source distribution always contains a file named `README' (or READ.ME, or rarely ReadMe or some other variant), which is a hacker's-eye introduction containing a pointer to more detai...
README file2 => miscellaneous revision history notes, etc. When asked, hackers invariably relate this to the famous scene in Lewis Carroll's `Alice's Adventures In Wonderland' in which Alice confronts magic munchies labeled "Eat Me" and "Drink Me".
real estate => n. May be used for any critical resource measured in units of area. Most frequently used of `chip real estate', the area available for logic on the surface of an integrated circuit (see also nanoacre). May also be used of floor space i...
real estate2 => on a crowded desktop (whether physical or electronic).
real hack => n. A crock. This is sometimes used affectionately; see hack.
real operating system => n. The sort the speaker is used to. People from the academic community are likely to issue comments like "System V? Why don't you use a *real* operating system?", people from the commercial/industrial UNIX sector are known to...
real operating system2 => a *real* operating system?", and people from IBM object "UNIX? Why don't you use a *real* operating system?" See {holy wars}, {religious issues}, proprietary, {Get a real computer!}
real programmer => [indirectly, from the book `Real Men Don't Eat Quiche'] n. A particular sub-variety of hacker one possessed of a flippant attitude toward complexity that is arrogant even when justified by experience. The archetypal `real programme...
real programmer2 => metal} and is very good at same, remembers the binary opcodes for every machine he has ever programmed, thinks that HLLs are sissy, and uses a debugger to edit his code because full-screen editors are for wimps. Real Programmers a...
real programmer3 => been bummed into a state of tenseness just short of rupture. Real Programmers never use comments or write documentation "If it was hard to write", says the Real Programmer, "it should be hard to understand." Real Programmers can m...
real programmer4 => were never in their spec sheets; in fact, they are seldom really happy unless doing so. A Real Programmer's code can awe with its fiendish brilliance, even as its crockishness appalls. Real Programmers live on junk food and coffee...
real programmer5 => walls, and terrify the crap out of other programmers --- because someday, somebody else might have to try to understand their code in order to change it. Their successors generally consider it a {Good Thing} that there aren't many...
real programmer6 => For a famous (and somewhat more positive) portrait of a Real Programmer, see "The Story of Mel" in appendix A.
Real Soon Now => [orig. from SF's fanzine community, popularized by Jerry Pournelle's column in `BYTE'] adv. 1. Supposed to be available (or fixed, or cheap, or whatever) real soon now according to somebody, but the speaker is quite skeptical. 2. Whe...
Real Soon Now2 => commitments permit one to get to it (in other words, don't hold your breath). Often abbreviated RSN.
real time => 1. [techspeak] adj. Describes an application which requires a program to respond to stimuli within some small upper limit of response time (typically milli- or microseconds). Process control at a chemical plant is the classic example. Su...
real time2 => special operating systems (because everything else must take a back seat to response time) and speed-tuned hardware. 2. adv. In jargon, refers to doing something while people are watching or waiting. "I asked her how to find the calling...
real time3 => stack and she came up with an algorithm in real time."
real user => n. 1. A commercial user. One who is paying *real* money for his computer usage. 2. A non-hacker. Someone using the system for an explicit purpose (a research project, a course, etc.) other than pure exploration. See user. Hackers who are...
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Right Thing2 => do when it sees `(mod a 0)'? Should it return `a', or give a divide-by-0 error?" Oppose {Wrong Thing}.
RL => // [MUD community] n. Real Life. "Firiss laughs in RL" means that Firiss's player is laughing. Oppose VR.
roach => [Bell Labs] vt. To destroy, esp. of a data structure. Hardware gets toasted or fried, software gets roached.
robust => adj. Said of a system that has demonstrated an ability to recover gracefully from the whole range of exceptional inputs and situations in a given environment. One step below bulletproof. Carries the additional connotation of elegance in add...
rococo => adj. Baroque in the extreme. Used to imply that a program has become so encrusted with the software equivalent of gold leaf and curlicues that they have completely swamped the underlying design. Called after the later and more extreme forms...
rogue => [UNIX] n. A Dungeons-and-Dragons-like game using character graphics, written under BSD UNIX and subsequently ported to other UNIX systems. The original BSD `curses(3)' screen-handling package was hacked together by Ken Arnold to support `rog...
room-temperature IQ => [IBM] quant. 80 or below. Used in describing the expected intelligence range of the luser. "Well, but how's this interface going to play with the room-temperature IQ crowd?" See {drool-proof paper}. This is a much more insultin...
root => [UNIX] n. 1. The superuser account that ignores permission bits, user number 0 on a UNIX system. This account has the user name `root'. The term avatar is also used. 2. The top node of the system directory structure (home directory of the roo...
root mode => n. Syn. with {wizard mode} or `wheel mode'. Like these, it is often generalized to describe privileged states in systems other than OSes.
rot13 => /rot ther'teen/ [USENET from `rotate alphabet 13 places'] n., v. The simple Caesar-cypher encryption that replaces each English letter with the one 13 places forward or back along the alphabet, so that "The butler did it!" becomes "Gur ohgyr...
rotary debugger => [Commodore] n. Essential equipment for those late-night or early-morning debugging sessions. Mainly used as sustenance for the hacker. Comes in many decorator colors, such as Sausage, Pepperoni, and Garbage. See {pizza, ANSI standa...
RSN => // adj. See {Real Soon Now}.
RTFAQ => /R-T-F-A-Q/ [USENET primarily written, by analogy with RTFM] imp. Abbrev. for `Read the FAQ!', an exhortation that the person addressed ought to read the newsgroup's {FAQ list} before posting questions.
RTFM => /R-T-F-M/ [UNIX] imp. Acronym for `Read The Fucking Manual'. 1. Used by gurus to brush off questions they consider trivial or annoying. Compare {Don't do that, then!} 2. Used when reporting a problem to indicate that you aren't just asking ou...
RTI => /R-T-I/ interj. The mnemonic for the `return from interrupt' instruction on many computers including the 6502 and 6800. The variant `RETI' is found among former Z80 hackers (almost nobody programs these things in assembler anymore). Equivalent...
RTM => /R-T-M/ [USENET acronym for `Read The Manual'] 1. Politer variant of RTFM. 2. Robert T. Morris, perpetrator of the great Internet worm of 1988; villain to many, na"ive hacker gone wrong to a few. Morris claimed that the worm that brought the I...
rude => [WPI] adj. 1. (of a program) Badly written. 2. Functionally poor, e.g., a program that is very difficult to use because of gratuitously poor (random?) design decisions. See cuspy.
runes => pl.n. 1. Anything that requires {heavy wizardry} or {black art} to parse core dumps, JCL commands, APL, or code in a language you haven't a clue how to read. Compare {casting the runes}, {Great Runes}. 2. Special display characters (for exam...
runic => adj. Syn. obscure. VMS fans sometimes refer to UNIX as `Runix'; UNIX fans return the compliment by expanding VMS to `Very Messy Syntax' or `Vachement Mauvais Syst`eme' (French; lit. "Cowlike Bad System", idiomatically "Bitchy Bad System").
rusty iron => n. Syn. {tired iron}. It has been claimed that this is the inevitable fate of {water MIPS}.
rusty memory => n. Mass-storage that uses iron-oxide-based magnetic media (esp. tape and the pre-Winchester removable disk packs used in {washing machine}s). Compare donuts.*S/N ratio // n. (also `s/n ratio', `sn ratio'). Syn. {signal-to-noise ratio}...
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
SEX => /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 are popul...
sex changer => n. Syn. {gender mender}.
shareware => /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 support or funct...
shelfware => /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 => [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 outside world. ...
shell out => [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 => [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 used without ...
shift left logical2 => instead of `shift left'. Sometimes heard as LSH /lish/, from the PDP-10 instruction set. See {Programmer's Cheer}.
shitogram => /shit'oh-gram/ n. A *really* nasty piece of email. Compare nastygram, flame.
short card => 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 => 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 => 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 refers to s...
shriek => n. See excl. Occasional CMU usage, also in common use among APL fans and mathematicians, especially category theorists.
Shub-Internet => /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, Avatar of L...
sidecar => 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 company's own...
sig block => /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 news. The c...
sig block2 => 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 usually inversel...
sig block3 => and level of prestige on the net.
sig quote => /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 => [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. Hence a low...
signal-to-noise ratio2 => 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 of X}, {lost...
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
terpri => /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 characters w...
test => 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 over his...
TeX => /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 UNIX installat...
text => 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 {EBCDIC} repr...
thanks in advance => [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 => 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 "The Tao w...
the X that can be Y => 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 => 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 of a desi...
theory => 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 dinner to...
thinko => /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! => 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 fruity imitat...
This time, for sure!2 => 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 => 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 therefore s...
thread => n. [USENET, GEnie, CompuServe] Common abbreviation of `topic thread, a more or less continuous chain of postings on a single topic.
three-finger salute => n. Syn. {Vulcan nerve pinch}.
thud => 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 other synony...
thunk => /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 called wi...
tick => 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 interest is the ...
tick-list features => [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 sense of th...
tickle a bug => 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 => [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 defense insta...
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Trojan horse => [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 case on...
Trojan horse2 => destroy viruses! See {back door}, virus, worm.
true-hacker => [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 my FOOBAR...
tty => /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 limited c...
tube => 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. [IBM] To...
tube time => 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 started thi...
tunafish => 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 sites started ...
tune => [from automotive or musical usage] vt. To optimize a program or system for a particular environment, esp. by adjusting numerical parameters designed as hooks for tuning, e.g., by changing `#define lines in C. One may `tune for time (fastest e...
turbo nerd => n. See {computer geek}.
turist => /toorist/ n. Var. sp. of tourist, q.v. Also in adjectival form, `turistic. Poss. influenced by luser and `Turing.
tweak => vt. 1. To change slightly, usually in reference to a value. Also used synonymously with twiddle. If a program is almost correct, rather than figure out the precise problem you might just keep tweaking it until it works. See frobnicate and {f...
TWENEX => /tweneks/ n. The TOPS-20 operating system by DEC --- the second proprietary OS for the PDP-10 --- preferred by most PDP-10 hackers over TOPS-10 (that is, by those who were not {ITS} or {WAITS} partisans). TOPS-20 began in 1969 as Bolt, Bera...
twiddle => n. 1. Tilde (ASCII 1111110, `~). Also called `squiggle, `sqiggle (sic --- pronounced /skigl/), and `twaddle, but twiddle is the most common term. 2. A small and insignificant change to a program. Usually fixes one bug and generates several...
twink => /twink/ [UCSC] n. Equivalent to {read-only user}. Also reported on the USENET group soc.motss; may derive from gay slang for a cute young thing with nothing upstairs.
two pi => quant. The number of years it takes to finish ones thesis. Occurs in stories in the following form "He started on his thesis; 2 pi years later..."
two-to-the-N => quant. An amount much larger than N but smaller than infinity. "I have 2-to-the-N things to do before I can go out for lunch" means you probably wont show up.
twonkie => /twonkee/ n. The software equivalent of a Twinkie (a variety of sugar-loaded junk food, or (in gay slang) the male equivalent of `chick); a useless `feature added to look sexy and placate a marketroid (compare {Saturday-night special}). Th...
UN*X => n. Used to refer to the UNIX operating system (a trademark of AT&T) in writing, but avoiding the need for the ugly (TM) typography. Also used to refer to any or all varieties of Unixoid operating systems. Ironically, lawyers now say (1990) th...
undefined external reference => excl. [UNIX] A message from UNIX's linker. Used in speech to flag loose ends or dangling references in an argument or discussion.
under the hood => prep. [hot-rodder talk] 1. Used to introduce the underlying implementation of a product (hardware, software, or idea). Implies that the implementation is not intuitively obvious from the appearance, but the speaker is about to enabl...
under the hood2 => now look under the hood to see how ...." 2. Can also imply that the implementation is much simpler than the appearance would indicate "Under the hood, we are just fork/execing the shell." 3. Inside a chassis, as in "Under the hood,...
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
You know you've been hacking too long when...3 => value than your car. * in your universe, `round numbers' are powers of 2, not 10. * more than once, you have woken up recalling a dream in some programming language. * you realize you have never seen ...
You know you've been hacking too long when...4 => early version of this entry said "All but one of these have been reliably reported as hacker traits (some of them quite often). Even hackers may have trouble spotting the ringer." The ringer was balan...
You know you've been hacking too long when...5 => made up out of whole cloth. Although more respondents picked that one out as fiction than any of the others, I also received multiple independent reports of its actually happening. --- ESR]
Your mileage may vary => cav. [from the standard disclaimer attached to EPA mileage ratings by American car manufacturers] 1. A ritual warning often found in UNIX freeware distributions. Translates roughly as "Hey, I tried to write this portably, but...
Your mileage may vary2 => system?" 2. A qualifier more generally attached to advice. "I find that sending flowers works well, but your mileage may vary."
Yow! => /yow/ [from "Zippy the Pinhead" comix] interj. A favored hacker expression of humorous surprise or emphasis. "Yow! Check out what happens when you twiddle the foo option on this display hack!" Compare gurfle.
yoyo mode => n. The state in which the system is said to be when it rapidly alternates several times between being up and being down. Interestingly (and perhaps not by coincidence), many hardware vendors give out free yoyos at Usenix exhibits. Sun Mi...
yoyo mode2 => SIGPLAN '88. Tourists staying at one of Atlanta's most respectable hotels were subsequently treated to the sight of 200 of the country's top computer scientists testing yo-yo algorithms in the lobby.
Yu-Shiang Whole Fish => /yoo-shyang hohl fish/ n. obs. The character gamma (extended SAIL ASCII 0001001), which with a loop in its tail looks like a little fish swimming down the page. The term is actually the name of a Chinese dish in which a fish i...
Yu-Shiang Whole Fish2 => covered with Yu-Shiang (or Yu-Hsiang) sauce. Usage primarily by people on the MIT LISP Machine, which could display this character on the screen. Tends to elicit incredulity from people who hear about it second-hand.
zap => 1. n. Spiciness. 2. vt. To make food spicy. 3. vt. To make someone `suffer' by making his food spicy. (Most hackers love spicy food. Hot-and-sour soup is considered wimpy unless it makes you wipe your nose for the rest of the meal.) See zapped...
zapped => adj. Spicy. This term is used to distinguish between food that is hot (in temperature) and food that is *spicy*-hot. For example, the Chinese appetizer Bon Bon Chicken is a kind of chicken salad that is cold but zapped; by contrast, vanilla...
zen => vt. To figure out something by meditation or by a sudden flash of enlightenment. Originally applied to bugs, but occasionally applied to problems of life in general. "How'd you figure out the buffer allocation problem?" "Oh, I zenned it." Cont...
zero => vt. 1. To set to 0. Usually said of small pieces of data, such as bits or words (esp. in the construction `zero out'). 2. To erase; to discard all data from. Said of disks and directories, where `zeroing' need not involve actually writing zer...
zero-content => adj. Syn. content-free.
zeroth => /zee'rohth/ adj. First. Among software designers, comes from C's and LISP's 0-based indexing of arrays. Hardware people also tend to start counting at 0 instead of 1; this is natural since, e.g., the 256 states of 8 bits correspond to the b...
zigamorph => /zig'*-morf/ n. Hex FF (11111111) when used as a delimiter or fence character. Usage primarily at IBM shops.
zip => [primarily MS-DOS] vt. To create a compressed archive from a group of files using PKWare's PKZIP or a compatible archiver. Its use is spreading now that portable implementations of the algorithm have been written. Commonly used as follows "I'l...
zipperhead => [IBM] n. A person with a closed mind.
zombie => [UNIX] n. A process that has died but has not yet relinquished its process table slot (because the parent process hasn't executed a `wait(2)' for it yet). These can be seen in `ps(1)' listings occasionally. Compare orphan.
zorch => /zorch/ 1. [TMRC] v. To attack with an inverse heat sink. 2. [TMRC] v. To travel, with v approaching c [that is, with velocity approaching lightspeed --- ESR]. 3. [MIT] v. To propel something very quickly. "The new comm software is very fast...
factpacks/ports.fact view on Meta::CPAN
port 400 => work-sol - Workstation Solutions
port 401 => ups - Uninterruptible Power Supply
port 402 => genie - Genie Protocol
port 403 => decap - decap
port 404 => nced - nced
port 405 => ncld - ncld
port 406 => imsp - Interactive Mail Support Protocol
port 407 => timbuktu - Timbuktu
port 408 => prm-sm - Prospero Resource Manager Sys. Man.
port 409 => prm-nm - Prospero Resource Manager Node Man.
port 410 => decladebug - DECLadebug Remote Debug Protocol
port 411 => rmt - Remote MT Protocol
port 412 => synoptics-trap - Trap Convention Port
port 413 => smsp - SMSP
port 414 => infoseek - InfoSeek
port 415 => bnet - BNet
port 416 => silverplatter - Silverplatter
port 417 => onmux - Onmux
port 418 => hyper-g - Hyper-G
port 419 => ariel1 - Ariel
port 420 => smpte - SMPTE
factpacks/ports.fact view on Meta::CPAN
port 2566 => pcs-pcw - pcs-pcw
port 2567 => clp - Cisco Line Protocol
port 2568 => spamtrap - SPAM TRAP
port 2569 => sonuscallsig - Sonus Call Signal
port 2570 => hs-port - HS Port
port 2571 => cecsvc - CECSVC
port 2572 => ibp - IBP
port 2573 => trustestablish - Trust Establish
port 2574 => blockade-bpsp - Blockade BPSP
port 2575 => hl7 - HL7
port 2576 => tclprodebugger - TCL Pro Debugger
port 2577 => scipticslsrvr - Scriptics Lsrvr
port 2578 => rvs-isdn-dcp - RVS ISDN DCP
port 2579 => mpfoncl - mpfoncl
port 2580 => tributary - Tributary
port 2581 => argis-te - ARGIS TE
port 2582 => argis-ds - ARGIS DS
port 2583 => mon - MON
port 2584 => cyaserv - cyaserv
port 2585 => netx-server - NETX Server
port 2586 => netx-agent - NETX Agent
factpacks/ports.fact view on Meta::CPAN
port 3462 => edm-std-notify - EDM STD Notify
port 3463 => edm-adm-notify - EDM ADM Notify
port 3464 => edm-mgr-sync - EDM MGR Sync
port 3465 => edm-mgr-cntrl - EDM MGR Cntrl
port 3466 => workflow - WORKFLOW
port 3467 => rcst - RCST
port 3468 => ttcmremotectrl - TTCM Remote Controll
port 3469 => pluribus - Pluribus
port 3470 => jt400 - jt400
port 3471 => jt400-ssl - jt400-ssl
port 3563 => watcomdebug - Watcom Debug
port 3672 => harlequinorb - harlequinorb
port 3900 => udt_os - Unidata UDT OS
port 3984 => mapper-nodemgr - MAPPER network node manager
port 3985 => mapper-mapethd - MAPPER TCP/IP server
port 3986 => mapper-ws_ethd - MAPPER workstation server
port 3987 => centerline - Centerline
port 4000 => terabase - Terabase (or ICQ)
port 4001 => newoak - NewOak
port 4002 => pxc-spvr-ft - pxc-spvr-ft
port 4003 => pxc-splr-ft - pxc-splr-ft
factpacks/rfc_index.fact view on Meta::CPAN
rfc 1723 => RIP Version 2 - Carrying Additional Information. G. Malkin. November 1994. (Format: TXT=18597 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1388) (Updates RFC1058) (Status: DRAFT STANDARD)
rfc 1722 => RIP Version 2 Protocol Applicability Statement. G. Malkin. November 1994. (Format: TXT=10236 bytes) (Status: DRAFT STANDARD)
rfc 1721 => RIP Version 2 Protocol Analysis. G. Malkin. November 1994. (Format: TXT=6680 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1387) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1720 => Internet Official Protocol Standards. J. Postel. November 1994. (Format: TXT=89063 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1610) (Obsoleted by RFC1780, STD0001, RFC1880, RFC1920, RFC2200) (Also STD0001) (Status: HISTORIC)
rfc 1719 => A Direction for IPng. P. Gross. December 1994. (Format: TXT=11118 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1718 => The Tao of IETF - A Guide for New Attendees of the Internet Engineering Task Force. The IETF Secretariat & G. Malkin. November 1994. (Format: TXT=50477 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1539) (Also FYI0017) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1717 => The PPP Multilink Protocol (MP). K. Sklower, B. Lloyd, G. McGregor & D. Carr. November 1994. (Format: TXT=46264 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC1990) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)
rfc 1716 => Towards Requirements for IP Routers. P. Almquist, F. Kastenholz. November 1994. (Format: TXT=432330 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC1812) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1715 => The H Ratio for Address Assignment Efficiency. C. Huitema. November 1994. (Format: TXT=7392 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1714 => Referral Whois Protocol (RWhois). S. Williamson & M. Kosters. November 1994. (Format: TXT=85395, PS=204207 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC2167) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1713 => Tools for DNS debugging. A. Romao. November 1994. (Format: TXT=33500 bytes) (Also FYI0027) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1712 => DNS Encoding of Geographical Location. C. Farrell, M. Schulze, S. Pleitner & D. Baldoni. November 1994. (Format: TXT=13237 bytes) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)
rfc 1711 => Classifications in E-mail Routing. J. Houttuin. October 1994. (Format: TXT=47584 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1710 => Simple Internet Protocol Plus White Paper. R. Hinden. October 1994. (Format: TXT=56910 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1709 => K-12 Internetworking Guidelines. J. Gargano, D. Wasley. November 1994. (Format: TXT=66659, PS=662030 bytes) (Also FYI0026) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1708 => NTP PICS PROFORMA - For the Network Time Protocol Version 3. D. Gowin. October 1994. (Format: TXT=26523 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1707 => CATNIP: Common Architecture for the Internet. M. McGovern & R. Ullmann. October 1994. (Format: TXT=37568 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1706 => DNS NSAP Resource Records. B. Manning & R. Colella. October 1994. (Format: TXT=19721 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1637) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1705 => Six Virtual Inches to the Left: The Problem with IPng. R. Carlson & D. Ficarella. October 1994. (Format: TXT=65222 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1704 => On Internet Authentication. N. Haller & R. Atkinson. October 1994. (Format: TXT=42269 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1703 => Principles of Operation for the TPC.INT Subdomain: Radio Paging -- Technical Procedures. M. Rose. October 1994. (Format: TXT=17985 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1569) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
factpacks/rfc_index.fact view on Meta::CPAN
rfc 1157 => Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). J.D. Case, M. Fedor, M.L. Schoffstall, C. Davin. May-01-1990. (Format: TXT=74894 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1098) (Status: STANDARD)
rfc 1156 => Management Information Base for network management of TCP/IP-based internets. K. McCloghrie, M.T. Rose. May-01-1990. (Format: TXT=138781 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1066) (Status: HISTORIC)
rfc 1155 => Structure and identification of management information for TCP/IP-based internets. M.T. Rose, K. McCloghrie. May-01-1990. (Format: TXT=40927 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1065) (Also STD0016) (Status: STANDARD)
rfc 1154 => Encoding header field for internet messages. D. Robinson, R. Ullmann. Apr-01-1990. (Format: TXT=12214 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC1505) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)
rfc 1153 => Digest message format. F.J. Wancho. Apr-01-1990. (Format: TXT=6632 bytes) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)
rfc 1152 => Workshop report: Internet research steering group workshop on very-high-speed networks. C. Partridge. Apr-01-1990. (Format: TXT=64003 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1151 => Version 2 of the Reliable Data Protocol (RDP). C. Partridge, R.M. Hinden. Apr-01-1990. (Format: TXT=8293 bytes) (Updates RFC0908) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)
rfc 1150 => FYI on FYI: Introduction to the FYI Notes. G.S. Malkin, J.K. Reynolds. Mar-01-1990. (Format: TXT=7867 bytes) (Also FYI0001) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1149 => Standard for the transmission of IP datagrams on avian carriers. D. Waitzman. Apr-01-1990. (Format: TXT=3329 bytes) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)
rfc 1148 => Mapping between X.400(1988) / ISO 10021 and RFC 822. S.E. Kille. Mar-01-1990. (Format: TXT=194292 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC1327) (Updates RFC0822, RFC0987, RFC1026, RFC1138) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)
rfc 1147 => FYI on a network management tool catalog: Tools for monitoring and debugging TCP/IP internets and interconnected devices. R.H. Stine. Apr-01-1990. (Format: TXT=336906, PS=555225 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC1470) (Updated by FYI0002) (Also FYI...
rfc 1146 => TCP alternate checksum options. J. Zweig, C. Partridge. Mar-01-1990. (Format: TXT=10955 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1145) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)
rfc 1145 => TCP alternate checksum options. J. Zweig, C. Partridge. Feb-01-1990. (Format: TXT=11052 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC1146) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)
rfc 1144 => Compressing TCP/IP headers for low-speed serial links. V. Jacobson. Feb-01-1990. (Format: TXT=120959, PS=534729 bytes) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)
rfc 1143 => The Q Method of Implementing TELNET Option Negotiation. D.J. Bernstein. Feb-01-1990. (Format: TXT=23331 bytes) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)
rfc 1142 => OSI IS-IS Intra-domain Routing Protocol. D. Oran. Feb-01-1990. (Format: TXT=425379, PS=1204297 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1141 => Incremental updating of the Internet checksum. T. Mallory, A. Kullberg. Jan-01-1990. (Format: TXT=3587 bytes) (Updates RFC1071) (Updated by RFC1624) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
rfc 1140 => IAB official protocol standards. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Internet Activities Board. May-01-1990. (Format: TXT=60501 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1130) (Obsoleted by RFC1200, RFC1250, RFC2200) (Status: HISTORIC)
rfc 1139 => Echo function for ISO 8473. R.A. Hagens. Jan-01-1990. (Format: TXT=14229 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC1574, RFC1575) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)
rfc 1138 => Mapping between X.400(1988) / ISO 10021 and RFC 822. S.E. Kille. Dec-01-1989. (Format: TXT=191029 bytes) (Obsoleted by RFC1327) (Updates RFC0822, RFC0987, RFC1026) (Updated by RFC1148) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)
rfc 1137 => Mapping between full RFC 822 and RFC 822 with restricted encoding. S. Kille. Dec-01-1989. (Format: TXT=6266 bytes) (Updates RFC0976) (Status: HISTORIC)
factpacks/rfc_index.fact view on Meta::CPAN
rfc 696 => Comments on the IMP/Host and Host/IMP Protocol changes. V.G. Cerf. Jul-13-1975. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 695 => Official change in Host-Host Protocol. M. Krilanovich. Jul-05-1975. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 694 => Protocol information. J. Postel. Jun-18-1975. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 692 => Comments on IMP/Host Protocol changes (RFCs 687 and 690). S.M. Wolfe. Jun-20-1975. (Not online) (Updates RFC0690) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 691 => One more try on the FTP. B. Harvey. May-28-1975. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 690 => Comments on the proposed Host/IMP Protocol changes. J. Postel. Jun-06-1975. (Not online) (Updates RFC0687) (Updated by RFC0692) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 689 => Tenex NCP finite state machine for connections. R. Clements. May-23-1975. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 688 => Tentative schedule for the new Telnet implementation for the TIP. D.C. Walden. Jun-04-1975. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 687 => IMP/Host and Host/IMP Protocol changes. D.C. Walden. Jun-02-1975. (Not online) (Obsoleted by RFC0704) (Updated by RFC0690) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 686 => Leaving well enough alone. B. Harvey. May-10-1975. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 685 => Response time in cross network debugging. M. Beeler. Apr-16-1975. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 684 => Commentary on procedure calling as a network protocol. R. Schantz. Apr-15-1975. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 683 => FTPSRV - Tenex extension for paged files. R. Clements. Apr-03-1975. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 681 => Network UNIX. S. Holmgren. Mar-18-1975. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 680 => Message Transmission Protocol. T.H. Myer, D.A. Henderson. Apr-30-1975. (Not online) (Updates RFC0561) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 679 => February, 1975, survey of New-Protocol Telnet servers. D.W. Dodds. Feb-21-1975. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 678 => Standard file formats. J. Postel. Dec-19-1974. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 677 => Maintenance of duplicate databases. P.R. Johnson, R. Thomas. Jan-27-1975. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 675 => Specification of Internet Transmission Control Program. V.G. Cerf, Y.K. Dalal, C.A. Sunshine. Dec-01-1974. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 674 => Procedure call documents: Version 2. J. Postel, J.E. White. Dec-12-1974. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
rfc 672 => Multi-site data collection facility. R. Schantz. Dec-06-1974. (Not online) (Status: UNKNOWN)
factpacks/security.fact view on Meta::CPAN
communication link => the physical means of connecting one location to another for the purpose of transmitting and/or receiving data.
COMSEC => communications security - Measures taken to deny unauthorized persons information derived from telecommunications of the U.S. Government concerning national security, and to ensure the authenticity of such telecommunicatons. Communications...
compartment => (1) A designation applied to a type of sensitive information, indicating the special handling procedures to be used for the information and the general class of people who may have access to the information. It can refer to the designa...
compartmented security mode => See modes of operation.
component => a device or set of devices, consisting of hardware, along with its firmware, and/or software that performs a specific function on a computer communications network. A component is a part of the larger system, and may itself consist of ot...
component reference monitor => an access control concept that refers to an abstract machine that mediates all access to objects within a component by subjects within the component.
compromise => a violation of the security system such that an unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information may have occurred.
compromising emanations => Unintentional data-related or intelligence-bearing signals that, if intercepted and analyzed, disclose the information transmission received, handled, or otherwise processed by any information processing equipment. See TEM...
CSTVRP => Computer Security Technical Vulnerability Reporting Program - A program that focuses on technical vulnerabilities in commercially available hardware, firmware and software products acquired by DoD. CSTVRP provides for the reporting, catalo...
abuse => The misuse, alteration, disruption or destruction of data processing resources. The key aspect is that it is intentional and improper.
architecture => The set of layers and protocols (including formats and standards that different hardware/software must comply with to achieve stated objectives) which define a computer system. Computer architecture features can be available to applic...
cryptography => The use of a crypto-algorithm in a computer, microprocessor, or microcomputer to perform encryption or decryption in order to protect information or to authenticate users, sources, or information.
fraud => Computer-related crimes involving deliberate misrepresentation, alteration or disclosure of data in order to obtain something of value (usually for monetary gain). A computer system must have been involved in the perpetration or coverup of ...
security => Synonymous with automated information systems security.
security subsystem => A device designed to provide limited computer security features in a larger system environment.
concealment system => A method of achieving confidentiality in which sensitive information is hidden by embedding it in irrelevant data.
confidentiality => (1) The assurance that information is not disclosed to inappropriate entities or processes. (2) The property that information is not made available or disclosed to unauthorized entities. (3) The prevention of the unauthorized discl...
configuration => the selection of one of the sets of possible combinations of features of a Target of Evaluation.
configuration control => management of changes made to a system's hardware, software, firmware, and documentation throughout the development and operational life of the system.
configuration management => The management of security features and assurances through control of changes made to a system's hardware, software, firmware, documentation, test, test fixtures and test documentation throughout the development and operat...
confinement => The prevention of the leaking of sensitive data from a program.
factpacks/techdict.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Optical Carrier 12 => (OC-12) This stands for the 622 Mbps ATM protocol. Some large Internet providers are using OC-12 for their backbones.
Optical Carrier 3 => (OC-3) Synonym for the 155 Mbps ATM protocol.
Optical Drive => A storage device that uses light to store data instead of magnetism. To write it (usually) uses a laser to change a tiny portion of an optical disk so that it can be read later by checking the state of that portion.
OS => (Operating System) The program that allows you to access the basic functions of your computer. It is the minimum software required to run a program. The best one by far is the MacOS.
Output => Anything that comes out of a computer or system. As in, "Watch out for that pile of OUTPUT on the sidewalk."
Over-clocking => This is the act of running a chip at a higher clock speed than it was specified for. Very often, chips are capable of running faster than they are specified for, and can be safely over-clocked.
P54C => This is the official part number for the Pentium processor from Intel.
P55C => This is the official part number for the Pentium processor with MMX technology from Intel.
Packet => A collection of information. It's often used to refer to the chunks of information sent over computer networks.
Packet Filter => This is anything that filters out network traffic based on sender's address, receiver's address, and the type of protocol being sent. Some routers support packet filtering, all firewalls do, and some proxy servers will as well.
Packet InterNet Gopher => (PING) Part of the standard TCP/IP suite of protocols that allows you to check your connectivity with other devices, or to check whether your own TCP/IP stack is working properly. Normally, you type in something like "ping 2...
Page Fault => This is not an error. It means that the computer had to resort to using the swap file as memory.
Parallel => Meaning in unison, or many things at the same time. Most commonly refers to a computer with multiple processors that can execute multiple instructions at the same time.
Parallel Port => The parallel port is found on just about all PCs. It's a 25-pin interface cable (DB-25) that is designed for connection to a printer. Normally, it will take up IRQ 7. In addition to printers, you can connect many other devices such a...
Parity => Meaning that there is an equality. Usually for the purpose of safety, so that if one goes bad there is still the other.
Parity Memory => Not quite memory that has a twin, but instead, more like a summary. The parity does not exactly have a copy of the original, but rather enough information to verify the integrity of the original.
Partition => You can partition your hard drive by breaking it up into one or more pieces, or "partitions." Partition
Pascal => This is a programming language that was designed to teach computer science students the concepts of programming. It's almost like C for dummies. In fact, the two languages are very similar, but the stoic brackets of C are changed to happy a...
Passive Matrix => LCD panels that are passive matrix have a duller, dimmer image than those with active matrix screens. Visibility and clarity decrease at greater angles off of central viewing.
Patch cable => This is the common name for any 10BaseT network cable that is used to connect, or "patch," any two network ports.
Patch panel => This is a group of network ports stuck together for easy accessibility. Usually, this panel resides in a wiring closet or server room. Connections are made between this panel and ports on a hub to enable a network connection at a remot...
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