Amethyst
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Bero Offline Mail => <reply> $who, . URL: ftp://ftp.mandrakesoft.com/pub/bero/offline/BeroOfflineMail-1.0.0.tar.gz
BeroFTPD => <reply> $who, FTP server program based on WU-FTPD. URL: ftp://bero.x5.net/pub/BeroFTPD-1.3.4.tar.bz2
BeroList => <reply> $who, easy-to-use mailing list server with NNTP and WWW gateway. URL: http://www.in-trier.de/~bero/BeroList/
BestCrypt => <reply> $who, Creates and supports encrypted virtual volumes for Linux/Windows/MSDOS.. URL: http://www.jetico.com/linux.html
BET => <reply> $who, Encrypted network talk program. URL: http://www.upl.cs.wisc.edu/~hamblin/BET.html
BetaFTPD => <reply> $who, Single-threaded, small FTP daemon. URL: http://members.xoom.com/sneeze/
Bezerk => <reply> $who, IRC client written with the GTK toolkit. URL: http://www.gtk.org/~trog/
BFRIS Zero Gravity Fighter Combat => <reply> $who, 3-D Accelerated zero-gravity space fighter combat w/ net support. URL: http://www.aegistech.com/
bfs => <reply> $who, UnixWare Boot Filesystem for Linux. URL: http://penguin.cz/~mhi/fs/bfs/
BFS Filesystem for Linux => <reply> $who, read-only BFS modules for Linux. URL: http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA008030/bfs/
bgcheck => <reply> $who, A process monitor used to limit the amount of background processes. URL: http://blue.dhs.org/bgcheck/
BGM => <reply> $who, Background music player / music on-hold source daemon for PBX. URL: http://www.tycho.com/bgm/
BibleReader => <reply> $who, Bible browsing program using Gtk. URL: http://alfenpeg.thewhites.com/Bible/
BibleTime => <reply> $who, A bible study program for KDE. URL: http://www.bibletime.de/
bibtool => <reply> $who, Simple tool to help BibTeX users maintain bibliography files. URL: http://www.aber.ac.uk/~dbt93/Downloads/bibtool/
Bicycle Ride Calorie Calculator => <reply> $who, Calculates thenumber of calories expended on a bicycle ride. URL: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/6434/calcalc.html
bidwatcher => <reply> $who, tool for eBay users - track and snipe auctions. URL: http://www.low-fi.com/bw/bwmain.html
biew => <reply> $who, Binary/Hex/Disasm viewer/editor. URL: http://www.voshod.com/~nick/biew/en/biew.html
biffview => <reply> $who, MS BIFF file viewer. URL: http://www.az.com/~drysdam/projects.html
Big Ben => <reply> $who, Spiffy themed clock. URL: http://ethereal.net/~wampa/
Big Brother => <reply> $who, Highly efficient network monitor. URL: http://bb4.com/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
binutils => <reply> $who, Provides programs to assemble and manipulate binary andobject files.. URL: ftp://ftp.varesearch.com/pub/support/hjl/binutils/beta/binutils-2.9.5.0.3.tar.bz2
bip => <reply> $who, Send messages to pagers using the Internet. URL: http://www.br.ibm.com/~aviram/software/bip/
Birthday => <reply> $who, Birthday reminder. URL: http://user.bene.baynet.de/~mschmid/
bison => <reply> $who, GNU Project parser generator (yacc replacement). URL: http://www.gnu.org/software/bison/bison.html
Bit::Vector => <reply> $who, Provides an efficientimplementation of arbitrarily large bit vectors and sets. URL: http://www.engelschall.com/u/sb/download/
BitchX => <reply> $who, ANSI capable, textmode IRC Client. URL: http://www.bitchx.org
BitGen => <reply> $who, convert strings of 1's and 0's to SPICE voltage sources. URL: http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/cadence/bitgen.html
BitKeeper => <reply> $who, Source control system. URL: http://www.bitmover.com/bitkeeper/
Bizarre 1999 Invitation Intro => <reply> $who, An invitation intro to the bizarre 1999 demo party. URL: http://www.bizarre.nl/
bk2site => <reply> $who, Transforms Netscape bookmark file into yahoo-like website.. URL: http://www.multiagent.com/bk2site/
bkgd => <reply> $who, Sets a random (or specific) background image from the command line. URL: http://www.vis.colostate.edu/~scriven/bkgd.php3
Black Cat Linux => <reply> $who, Custom RedHat-based Ukrainian/Russian Linux distribution. URL: http://www.blackcatlinux.com/index-eng.html
Black Penguin => <reply> $who, Arcade style jump-on-cubes game. URL: http://www.priebs.de/blackpenguin.html
Blackbox => <reply> $who, WindowManager for X11 written in C++. URL: http://blackbox.alug.org/
Blackened => <reply> $who, irc client with many features. URL: http://www.blackened.com/blackened/
Blackjack => <reply> $who, Simple blackjack game for the console. URL: http://www.frogface.grid9.net/linux/software/blackjack.shtml
Blackmail => <reply> $who, Highly configurable SMTP mail filter. URL: http://www.jsm-net.demon.co.uk/blackmail/
BLADE => <reply> $who, Broad Language Aided Document Environment. URL: http://www.thestuff.net/bob/projects/blade/
BladeEnc => <reply> $who, Freeware MP3 Encoder. URL: http://hem.bredband.net/tord/
BladeWrapper => <reply> $who, A wrapper to run BladeEnc in background. URL: http://helllabs.org/~claudio/bladewrapper/bladewrapper.tar.gz
Blender => <reply> $who, Extremely fast and versatile 3D Rendering Package. URL: http://www.blender.nl/
blink => <reply> $who, a perl script that downloads random jpegs and draws them on your X11 display. URL: http://www.techweenie.net/dave/blink.html
Blockade => <reply> $who, An arcade puzzle game. URL: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Zone/5267/
Blow => <reply> $who, Commandline multiple binary file newsgroup poster. URL: http://www.mvrop.org/~akirarat/
blperf => <reply> $who, BusLogic SCSI performance monitor. URL: http://www.enteract.com/~zieg/software/blperf.html
Blue Moon Rendering Tools => <reply> $who, The Blue Moon Rendering Tools (BMRT) are a collection of rendering programs whic. URL: http://www.bmrt.org/
Bluefish => <reply> $who, Gtk based HTML editor. URL: http://bluefish.linuxbox.com/
BlueJ => <reply> $who, Java Development Environment aimed at teaching. URL: http://www.sd.monash.edu.au/bluej/
BlueLava => <reply> $who, A CGI-based x10 interface for home automation, etc. URL: http://shivan.org/bluelava/
Bluetail Mail Robustifier => <reply> $who, Unix clusters specifically for email. URL: http://www.bluetail.com/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
cgiexec => <reply> $who, CGI program to execute an Unix command line from the web. URL: http://www.phystech.com/download/cgiexec.html
CGIGEN => <reply> $who, CGI program generator that produces C programs. URL: http://cgigen.sentuny.com.au/
cgilib => <reply> $who, A simple programming interface to CGI and Cookies.. URL: http://www.infodrom.north.de/cgilib/
CGILua => <reply> $who, CGILua is a tool for developing dynamic Web pages.. URL: http://www.tecgraf.puc-rio.br/cgilua/
CGIProxy => <reply> $who, Anonymizing, filter-bypassing HTTP proxy in a CGI script (in Perl). URL: http://www.jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy/
CGIWrap => <reply> $who, Wrapper for securely allowing all users to use CGI scripts. URL: http://www.unixtools.org/cgiwrap/
CGM Viewer Applet => <reply> $who, Scriptable vector graphics viewer written in Java.. URL: http://www.online.de/home/bdaum/howto.htm
cgvg => <reply> $who, Tools for command-line source browsing.. URL: http://linux.ucla.edu/~uzi/cgvg.html
Chameleon => <reply> $who, X utility to customize desktop colors. URL: ftp://ftp.lagged.net/pub/software/
Chaperon memory access checker => <reply> $who, Checks memory accesses for bad behavior. URL: http://www.BitWagon.com/chaperon.html
chbg => <reply> $who, Desktop background changer and manager. URL: http://www.idata.sk/~ondrej/chbg/
CHC => <reply> $who, Columbia House Play Club Catalog Browser. URL: http://www.dnc.net/users/collver/chc.tar.gz
Chebyshev => <reply> $who, Engine for forwarding email service (w/spam filtering). URL: http://www.jab.org/cheb
check-ps => <reply> $who, Reports or kills processes 'hidden' from the system administrator. URL: http://checkps.alcom.co.uk/
Check.pl => <reply> $who, Filesystem permission auditing tool. URL: http://opop.nols.com/
Checker => <reply> $who, . URL: http://www.gnu.org/software/checker/checker.html
checkhosts.pl => <reply> $who, Tool for verifying your /etc/hosts file to an arbitrary nameserver.. URL: http://www.cs.dal.ca/~stern/
Checklinks => <reply> $who, HTML link checker that supports SSI, many Apache options, and more (in Perl 5). URL: http://www.jmarshall.com/tools/cl/
Checkmail => <reply> $who, A POP3 email checking tcl script.. URL: http://www.icehouse.net/kevinl
checkmails => <reply> $who, Very simple pop3 mail biff with GUI setup. URL: http://www.image.dk/~jessth/checkmail.html
CheckURL => <reply> $who, Sends notification e-mails for changed URLs. URL: http://anders.fix.no/software/#unix
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
dagrab => <reply> $who, Extracts digital audio from CD and stores it in WAV files (incl CDDB). URL: http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/cdrom/dagrab-0.3.3.tar.gz
DailyUpdate => <reply> $who, Grabs dynamic information from the internet and integrates itinto your webpage. URL: http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~dwc3q/code/DailyUpdate/index.html
Dallas DS-1820 Sensor Monitor => <reply> $who, Basic interface to Dallas Semi 1-wire temperature sensors. URL: http://home.att.net/~rongage/
Dallas DS-1820 Temperature Sensor Monitor => <reply> $who, Application and library for talking to Dallas Semi 1-wire devices. URL: http://home.att.net/~rongage/
Dancer => <reply> $who, IRC defense bot, protects your channel and your users. URL: http://www.fts.frontec.se/~dast/dancer/
Dante => <reply> $who, Free socks v4/5 implementation. URL: http://www.inet.no/dante/
DAP (Digital Audio Processor) => <reply> $who, Impressive looking sound editor using xforms. URL: http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~richardk/
Darkbot => <reply> $who, IRC Help Robot. URL: http://www.superchat.org/darkbot/
DarkFire IRCD [Twilight] => <reply> $who, Advanced IRCD. URL: http://www.darkfire.net/
Darwersi => <reply> $who, Othello game (strong genetic AI). URL: http://www-sop.inria.fr/cafe/Olivier.Arsac/darwersi/
Darxite => <reply> $who, Controllable daemon that downloads via FTP in the background. URL: http://darxite.cjb.net/
DashO-Pro => <reply> $who, Java Application Size-Reducer, Optimizer, and Obfuscator. URL: http://www.preemptive.com
Data::Address::Standardize Perl Module => <reply> $who, A Perl module for standardizing U.S. URL: http://www.focusresearch.com/gregor/Data-Address-Standardize-0.001.html
Data::Locations => <reply> $who, A virtual file manager which allows to read/write data to and from virtual files. URL: http://www.engelschall.com/u/sb/download/
DataGate's Connector => <reply> $who, DG Connector is a Web-based Instant Intranet solution.. URL: http://www.datagate.co.uk/products/connector/index.html
Datalink library => <reply> $who, Send data to the Timex DataLink watches. URL: http://datalink.fries.net/
DataManager => <reply> $who, Shared memory ringbuffers client-server library. URL: http://www.anatom.uni-tuebingen.de/~richi/linux/DataManager/datamanager.html
Datasphere => <reply> $who, Non-IRC text-based conferencing package. URL: http://www.wwcn.org/
Datbkr => <reply> $who, Tar based tape backup program with remote SSH support. URL: http://www.psychosis.com/datbkr/
Date::Calc => <reply> $who, Package for all kinds of date calculations based onthe Gregorian calendar. URL: http://www.engelschall.com/u/sb/download/
Date::Pcalc => <reply> $who, All-Perl module for date calculations, based on Date::Calc. URL: http://www.best.com/~nessus/date/pcalc.html
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
gbe => <reply> $who, gbe is a gameboy emulator for X and SVGAlib. URL: http://emu.simplenet.com/gb/gbe/
gbeta => <reply> $who, Advanced OO language. URL: http://www.daimi.au.dk/~eernst/gbeta/
GBlippie => <reply> $who, User interface functionality extension to Gtk/GNOME.. URL: http://GBlippie.mini.dhs.org/
gbox_applet => <reply> $who, mbox watcher. URL: http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~crunchy/linux/gbox_applet.html
GBuffy => <reply> $who, A GTK+ multiple mailbox monitor program. URL: http://www.fiction.net/blong/programs/gbuffy/
gbuild => <reply> $who, build tool to automate cvs update, compilation, and packaging. URL: http://www.cryon.com/gbuild/
GCache => <reply> $who, Generic cache class for Python. URL: ftp://minkirri.apana.org.au/pub/python/GCache-0.1.tar.bz2
gcc => <reply> $who, . URL: http://egcs.cygnus.com/
GCD => <reply> $who, A cd-player with a gtk+ interface. URL: http://www.nostatic.org/grip/
Gcdplay => <reply> $who, GPL'ed CD player with local and server-based cddb support.. URL: http://www.korax.net/~mglisic/gcdplay/index.html
gchbkgrd => <reply> $who, Program to constantly change the desktop's background. URL: http://www.bitdaddy.com/~mono/gchbkgrd/
GChip8 => <reply> $who, An interpreter/emulator for the CHIP8 virtual machine.. URL: http://cerealbox.angel.nu/gchip8.html
GClipper => <reply> $who, A multiple buffer clipboard that automatically fetches new selections.. URL: http://thunderstorms.org/gclipper/gclipper-1.1.tar.gz
GCO => <reply> $who, A database for keeping track of your comic collection.. URL: http://www.daimi.au.dk/~maxx/html/maxximum-linux.html
gcombust => <reply> $who, gtk+ frontend for mkisofs and cdrecord. URL: http://www.iki.fi/jmunsin/gcombust
GCompte => <reply> $who, A program to keep track of your finances. URL: http://www.linux-france.org/prj/gcompte/
GConf => <reply> $who, Configuration storage library, like libproplist or the Windows Registry. URL: ftp://ftp.gnome.org:/pub/GNOME/sources/GConf/GConf-0.1.tar.gz
Gconfig => <reply> $who, A router configuration tool. URL: http://www.employees.org/~stannous/gconfig.html
gd => <reply> $who, A library used to create PNG images. URL: http://www.boutell.com/gd/
GDB => <reply> $who, GDB, The GNU Debugger. URL: http://sourceware.cygnus.com/gdb/
gdbm => <reply> $who, GNU database library for C. URL: http://www.gnu.org/software/gdbm/gdbm.html
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
jMon => <reply> $who, Distributed Resource Monitor. URL: http://www.dsp.sun.ac.za/~jjb/jmon/
JMR 0.7.25 => <reply> $who, Offline Mail Reader for BBS QWK packets. URL: http://www.cs.Helsinki.FI/~jvuokko/jmr/
JMud => <reply> $who, An experimental MUD server written in Java(TM).. URL: http://www.dcc.unicamp.br/~evertonm/jmud/
Job Control System => <reply> $who, A Web-based Helpdesk application. URL: http://members.xoom.com/prozach/
job manager => <reply> $who, Beowulf job manager. URL: http://bond.imm.dtu.dk/jobd/
joe => <reply> $who, A Free ASCII-Text Screen Editor for UNIX. URL: ftp://ftp.std.com/src/editors/
John the Ripper => <reply> $who, Password cracker to detect weak UNIX passwords. URL: http://www.openwall.com/john/
Johnson Keyboard => <reply> $who, Hacker's keyboard layout for X-Windows. URL: http://www.boswa.com/johnson.html
jonama => <reply> $who, SSL proxy. URL: http://www.multimania.com/jonama/
Jons Simple Server => <reply> $who, A TCL interpreter for creating simple server applications. URL: http://uv.net/~jon/
Jooky => <reply> $who, MP3 controller with a foreground curses client, or background client/server.. URL: http://soomka.com/
Journal => <reply> $who, A text-based journal/diary.. URL: http://soapbox.fissure.org/journal/journal.html
journyx Timesheet => <reply> $who, Timesheet software via the web. URL: http://www.journyx.com/
Joy2Key => <reply> $who, Translate joystick movements into keyboard events (X and console). URL: http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~tetron/joy2key/
Joydesk => <reply> $who, Web-based Groupware. URL: http://joydesk.com/
jpilot => <reply> $who, Palm pilot desktop software for Linux. URL: http://jpilot.linuxbox.com/
jPOS => <reply> $who, 100% java ISO-8583/ANSI X9.2 implementation. URL: http://www.cs.com.uy/jPOS/
jProc => <reply> $who, CGI and a Java applet that present some of /proc data in an HTML interface.. URL: http://www.tansodesign.com/sasha/jProc/
jpub => <reply> $who, Integrated platform for intranets with OS like features. URL: http://www.jpub.de
JPython => <reply> $who, Java reimplementation of the Python programming language. URL: http://www.jpython.org/
JRun => <reply> $who, JSP Engine. URL: http://www.allaire.com/products/jrun/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Slashdot Reader => <reply> $who, Slashdot article and comments reader.. URL: http://pike-community.org/sites/slashdot/
slashdot.php3 => <reply> $who, Retrieves the latest slashdot news for a webpage. URL: http://swamp.chl.chalmers.se/backends/
slashem => <reply> $who, variant of the Rogue-like console game Nethack. URL: http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/2458/index.html
slashes.pl => <reply> $who, A Perl/GTK Slashdot news ticker. URL: http://www.op.net/~darxus/slashes/
Slay => <reply> $who, Kills all of a users processes.. URL: ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/admin/idle/Slay.1.2.tar.gz
SldapA => <reply> $who, Simple LDAP Administration. URL: http://www.jeremias.net/projects/sldapa/
SleezeBall => <reply> $who, Make Squid replace known banners with a 1x1 pixel transparent GIF. URL: http://boost.linux.kz/sleezeball/
Sleuth => <reply> $who, A utility for checking DNS zones for bugs. URL: http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~mj/linux.html
SLFFEA => <reply> $who, Free Finite Element Analysis. URL: http://www.slffea.com/
Slice => <reply> $who, Extract out pre-defined slices of an ASCII file. URL: http://www.engelschall.com/sw/slice/
slideshow => <reply> $who, Slideshow on X root window/background. URL: http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~carheden
SLinux => <reply> $who, Security enhancement suite for RedHat. URL: http://www.slinux.cx
Slinux Kernel => <reply> $who, Security Enhanced Linux Kernel. URL: http://www.slinux.cx/
SLiRP => <reply> $who, SLIP/PPP emulator over shell/telnet/ssh/etc.. URL: http://www.glue.umd.edu/~tygris/slirp/
slp => <reply> $who, A syslog parser and formatter script in perl. URL: http://www.ludat.lth.se/~dat99oli/
slram => <reply> $who, Linux kernel patch to use uncacheable RAM as a ramdisk. URL: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~keryan/slram/
SLRN => <reply> $who, An NNTP based newsreader for Unix, VMS, and OS/2 systems. URL: http://space.mit.edu/~davis/slrn.html
slurp => <reply> $who, Watches as any program is installed and turns it into an RPM. URL: http://students.vassar.edu/~jajohnst/slurp/
Slurpie => <reply> $who, Distributed passwd cracker. URL: http://www.jps.net/coati/archives/slurpie.html
slush => <reply> $who, SSL remote shell. URL: http://violet.ibs.com.au/slush/
SLXT => <reply> $who, . URL: http://www2.gol.com/gaijin/Linux
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Stathosts => <reply> $who, Python app to gather network info and display in web page. URL: http://www.nerv-un.net/projects/
Staticky.com DynDNS => <reply> $who, Client for staticky.com's free Dynamic DNS service. URL: http://www.staticky.com/services.html
statnet => <reply> $who, Summary of protocols currently being used on LAN.. URL: http://wilcoxon.org/~sewilco/statnet.html
statusd => <reply> $who, Daemon that allows you to check on your servers from remote hosts. URL: http://devplanet.fastethernet.net/status.html
StatWeb => <reply> $who, CGI program to run most UNIX commands, but meant for X10 and lirc.. URL: http://soomka.com/
Steak (Xsteak) => <reply> $who, Steak is a dictionary for Unix Systems.. URL: http://www.tm.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/~razi/steak/steak.html
sted => <reply> $who, . URL: http://user.tninet.se/~uxm165t/sted.html
StegFS => <reply> $who, Steganographic File System. URL: http://ban.joh.cam.ac.uk/~adm36/StegFS/
steghide => <reply> $who, A steganography tool. URL: http://www.crosswinds.net/~shetzl/steghide/
Stella => <reply> $who, An Atari 2600 VCS Emulator. URL: http://www.classicgaming.com/stella/
Sticker Book => <reply> $who, Place stickers on a background scene. URL: http://users.powernet.co.uk/kienzle/stickers/index.html
sticky_notes => <reply> $who, Postit note application for GTK and/or GNOME. URL: http://crazylands.org/~nevyn/sticky-notes/
STk => <reply> $who, Scheme with TK bindings. URL: http://kaolin.unice.fr/STk/
stk-mysql => <reply> $who, STk interface to MySQL databases.. URL: ftp://cliffs.ucsd.edu/pub/terry/stk-mysql.tar.gz
stock-simulator => <reply> $who, A stock-trading simulator and game. URL: http://members.tripod.com/viralbs/
stoic => <reply> $who, Freeware web server log analysis tool. URL: http://www.censor.com/harrison/code/
StompBoxes => <reply> $who, Realtime guitar audio effects for Linux. URL: http://www.cs.unr.edu/~urtubia/stompboxes/
Stones of Asterind => <reply> $who, Single-player game. URL: http://www.proaxis.com/~mgelhaus/linux/software/stones/stones.html
STonX => <reply> $who, . URL: http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/nino/stonx.html
STPP => <reply> $who, Versatile tool to include tabular-data into TeX/LaTeX documents.. URL: http://www.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/~jahn/tools/stpp/
strace => <reply> $who, System call tracing utility (like trace, truss, etc). URL: http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/~wichert/strace/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
xfsft => <reply> $who, X11 font server with TrueType support and Internationalization. URL: http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jec/programs/xfsft/
Xfstt => <reply> $who, X11 Font Server for TT fonts. URL: ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/fonts/
XGalaga => <reply> $who, . URL: http://www.rumsey.org/xgal.html
xgate => <reply> $who, Client-initiated X11 relay, for displaying X11 through firewalls.. URL: http://verdict.uthscsa.edu/gram/xgate/index.html
Xgfe => <reply> $who, X11 GUI front end to Gnuplot. URL: http://www.bl.physik.uni-muenchen.de/rechner/grafik/xgfe/xgfe.html
XGGI => <reply> $who, X server which uses LibGGI to do hardware independent graphics and input. URL: http://www.stacken.kth.se/~mackan/ggi/xggi/
XgIRC => <reply> $who, Internet Relay Chat client for Linux / X Windows. URL: http://www.inforoute.capway.com/pieraut/
XGlobe => <reply> $who, A toy that displays a globe on your X desktop. URL: http://wwwrzstud.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/~uddn/xglobe/
xgrk => <reply> $who, Support for GREEK keyboard in XWindows. URL: http://www.softlab.ece.ntua.gr/~sivann/xgrk/
Xhack => <reply> $who, . URL: http://www.chronozon.demon.co.uk
xhangglider => <reply> $who, X-based program that makes hanggliders fly in the background of your screen.. URL: http://plaza.harmonix.ne.jp/~redstar/xhang-en.html
xhdbench => <reply> $who, Qt-based X-program for testing the output speed of severaldevices. URL: ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/benchmark/
XHourGas => <reply> $who, An alarm clock that exhibits what can happen with an improper diet. URL: http://qu.dhs.org/xhourgas/xhourgas.html
XHpcd => <reply> $who, A GIMP plugin to read Kodak PhotoCD images. URL: http://studenti.csr.unibo.it/~abaldoni/hpcd.html
XIAS => <reply> $who, Tcl/Tk-based front-end to IAS (N64 backup device transfer tool). URL: http://www.dextrose.com/info/0719xias-1_1_tar.htm
Xicq / KXicq => <reply> $who, An ICQ client for use in both console and X11.. URL: http://www.xtrophy.dk/xicq/
xinetd => <reply> $who, Powerful inetd replacement. URL: http://www.synack.net/xinetd/
Xing MP3 Encoder => <reply> $who, MP3 encoder. URL: http://www.xingtech.com/mp3/encoder/
xipdump => <reply> $who, displays ip packets using the X Window System.. URL: http://www.epita.fr/~lse/xipdump/
xIrc => <reply> $who, . URL: http://www.croftj.net/~xirc/
Xitami => <reply> $who, A fast, portable, and best of all free multi-threaded web server. URL: http://www.xitami.com/
factpacks/Linux.fact view on Meta::CPAN
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
CAFire => <reply> $who, CAFire is a small toy that displays a burning trace after the mouse pointer in X. URL: http://home.zcu.cz/~cimrman3/cafire-latest.tgz
GPPP-Dialer => <reply> $who, GPPP-Dialer runs a connection script and shows the contents of a PPP log, and can run other programs after connecting. URL: http://www.pobox.com/~epg/software/gppp-dialer-0.1.0.tar.gz
Perlmclient => <reply> $who, Perlmclient is a Masqdialler client written in Perl. URL: http://www.vicnet.net.au/~jeremyl/perlmclient/perlmclient-0.2.tar.gz
Address Book => <reply> $who, Address Book is an extremely simple address database with search, edit, insert, drop, etc.. URL: http://ps-ax.com/address/
GTool => <reply> $who, GTool is a program to draw and analyze graphs (as in Graph Theory, not data analysis).. URL: http://erwin.math.lakeheadu.ca/gtool/index.php3?topic=download
gbgrand => <reply> $who, gbgrand is a small shell script that uses a list of directories to select a random background for the GNOME desktop. URL: http://www.chameleon.net/daf/gbgrand.tgz
The Bookexchange => <reply> $who, Bookexchange is a book exchange for the Web, allowing users to search, add, and edit books. URL: http://cs.uiowa.edu/~bdeitte/bookexchange.zip
WMFstatus => <reply> $who, WMFstatus is a general purpose 8x5 LCD screen dockapp for WindowMaker and other managers. URL: http://www.finik.net/files/wmfstatus-0.1.tar.gz
Metapixel => <reply> $who, Metapixel is a program for generating photomosaics. URL: http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/~schani/metapixel/metapixel-0.1.tar.gz
oracledump => <reply> $who, oracledump is a command-line tool that dumps Oracle data and table setup information as SQL. URL: http://www.bennyvision.com/~ddkilzer/projects/oracledump/
GNU Standard C++ Library v3 => <reply> $who, The Standard C++ Library v3, or libstc++-2.90.x, is an ongoing project to implement the ISO 14882 Standard C++ library as described in chapters 17 through 27 and annex D, as a drop-in replacement for the c...
GOOPS => <reply> $who, GOOPS is the object-oriented extension to Guile. URL: ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/guile/guile-oops-0.1.6.tar.gz
PHP*Star => <reply> $who, PHP*Star makes CGI mailto forms and creates PHP scripts.. URL: http://www.xtremegroup.com/phpstar.html
Relayer => <reply> $who, Relayer allows for dynamic sendmail relay authentication.. URL: http://ps-ax.com/Relay/
rlwrap => <reply> $who, rlwrap is a readline wrapper, a small utility that uses the GNU readline library to allow the editing of keyboard input for any other command. URL: http://utopia.knoware.nl/~hlub/uck/rlwrap/rlwrap-0.01.tgz
PlottGUI => <reply> $who, PlottGUI is a program to create worksheets with an HP/GL plotter. URL: http://www.fh-wilhelmshaven.de/~akcaagaa/plottgui/files/dynamic-bin.tar.gz
factpacks/MacErrorCodes.fact view on Meta::CPAN
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**
Mac Error -607 => ( bufferIsSmall ) Buffer is too small **Processes Errors**
Mac Error -608 => ( noOutstandingHLE ) No outstanding high-level event **Processes Errors**
Mac Error -609 => ( connectionInvalid ) Connection is invalid **Processes Errors**
Mac Error -610 => ( noUserInteractionAllowed ) Attempted PostHighLevelEvent from background and no session yet established **Processes Errors**
Mac Error -620 => ( notEnoughMemoryErr ) Insufficient physical memory **Memory Dispatch Errors**
Mac Error -621 => ( notHeldErr ) Specified range of memory is not held **Memory Dispatch Errors**
Mac Error -622 => ( cannotMakeContiguousErr ) Cannot make specified range contiguous **Memory Dispatch Errors**
Mac Error -623 => ( notLockedErr ) Specified range of memory is not locked **Memory Dispatch Errors**
Mac Error -624 => ( interruptsMaskedErr ) Called with interrupts masked **Memory Dispatch Errors**
Mac Error -625 => ( cannotDeferErr ) Unable to defer additional user functions **Memory Dispatch Errors**
Mac Error -800 => ( rcDBNull ) The data item was NULL **DatabaseAccess (Pack 13) Errors**
Mac Error -801 => ( rcDBValue ) Data available or successfully retrieved **DatabaseAccess (Pack 13) Errors**
Mac Error -802 => ( rcDBError ) Error executing function **DatabaseAccess (Pack 13) Errors**
Mac Error -803 => ( rcDBBadType ) Next data item not of requested data type **DatabaseAccess (Pack 13) Errors**
factpacks/dos.fact view on Meta::CPAN
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.
MSBACKUP => External) MSBACKUP [setupfile] [/BW|/LCD|/MDA] Used to backup or restore one or more files from one disk to another.
MSCDEX => (External) MSCDEX /D:driver [/D:driver2. . .] [/E][/K][/S][/V][/L:letter] [/M:number] Used to gain access to CD-ROM drives (new with DOS Version 6).
factpacks/html.fact view on Meta::CPAN
html <AUTHOR> => The author tag defines text that names the author of a document. It is typically displayed just like normal text, but is used by automatic indexers.
example <AUTHOR> => <AUTHOR> text </AUTHOR>
html <B> => <Bold> The bold tag defines text that should be shown in boldface. It can be nested with other idiomatic or typographic tags but some browsers will respect only the innermost tag.
example <B> => <B> text </B>
html <BANNER> => <Banner> The banner element defines an image or block of text that does not scroll with the document and is displayed at the top of the screen as the user scrolls through the document.
example <BANNER> => <BANNER attributes </BANNER> Details of the attributes are not yet available -- use a BANNER attribute in the <LINK> section of the <HEAD>
html <BASE> => <Base> The base tag, which is valid only in the HEAD section, defines the base address of an HTML document, which is used to determine the full address of relative URL's that appear in the document.
example <BASE> => <BASE HREF="base address"> & <BASE TARGET="default target">
html <BASEFONT> => <Base Font> The base font tag defines the base that relative FONT changes are based on. (Default is 3.)
example <BASEFONT> => <BASEFONT SIZE=number>
html <BGSOUND> => <Background Sound> The background sound tag identifies a .wav, .au, or.mid resource that will be played when the page is opened.
example <BGSOUND> => <BGSOUND SRC="URL"> & <BGSOUND SRC="URL"LOOP=n>
html <BGSOUND LOOP> => The optional LOOP attribute will cause the resource to be played n times.
example <BGSOUND LOOP> => <BGSOUND SRC="URL"LOOP=n> LOOP="INFINITE" will cause the resource to be played continuously as long as the page is open.
html <BIG> => <Big Text> The big text tag defines text that should be displayed in a larger font than usual.
example <BIG> => <BIG> text </BIG>
html <BLINK> => The blink tag highlights the text by having it blink on and off.
example <BLINK> => <BLINK> text </BLINK>
html <BLOCKQUOTE> => <BQ> The block quote tag defines text that is quoted from elsewhere. Many browsers (including Netscape) display it in an indented block surrounded by blank lines.
example <BLOCKQUOTE> => <BLOCKQUOTE> text </BLOCKQUOTE> & <BQ> text </BQ> & <BQ CLEAR = attributes> text </BQ> & <BQ NOWRAP> text </BQ>
html <BQ CLEAR> => In HTML 3.0, the CLEAR attribute is used to position a quote after a graphic: it can be LEFT, RIGHT, or ALL and specifies which margin should be clear. <BQ CLEAR = attributes> text </BQ>
html <BQ NOWRAP> => The NOWRAP attribute stops the browser from wrapping except at a BR tag. <BQ NOWRAP> text </BQ>
html <BQ> => See: html <BLOCKQUOTE>
html <BODY> => <Body> The body tag introduces the body of the document. It should appear after the head section and occupy the remainder of the document.
example <BODY> => <BODY> document-body </BODY> & See also: <BODY attributes>
html <BODY attributes> => the syntax use to retrive factoids on the attributes of the <BODY> tag, example: <BODY BACKGROUND>
html <BODY BACKGROUND> => The BACKGROUND attribute specifies an image file to use as the background for the page. <BODY BACKGROUND="URL"> document-body </BODY>
html <BODY BGCOLOR> => The BGCOLOR attribute specify the colours to be used for the background. <BODY BGCOLOR="#rrggbb"> document-body </BODY> & <BODY BGCOLOR="colorname"> document-body </BODY>
html <BODY TEXT> => The TEXT attribute specify the colours to be used for the text. <BODY TEXT="#rrggbb"> document-body </BODY> & <BODY TEXT="colorname"> document-body </BODY>
html <BODY LINK> => The LINK attribute specify the colours to be used for the LINK. (An link is active for the moment the user clicks on it, & changes colour to confirm it has been clicked.) See: example <BODY LINK>
example <BODY LINK> => <BODY LINK="#rrggbb"> document-body </BODY> & <BODY LINK="colorname"> document-body </BODY>
html <BODY ALINK> => The ALINK attribute specify the colours to be used for the ALINK. (An link is active for the moment the user clicks on it, & changes colour to confirm it has been clicked.) See: example <BODY ALINK>
example <BODY ALINK> => <BODY ALINK="#rrggbb"> document-body </BODY> & <BODY ALINK="colorname"> document-body </BODY>
html <BODY VLINK> => The VLINK attribute specify the colours to be used for the VLINK. (An link is active for the moment the user clicks on it, & changes colour to confirm it has been clicked.) See: example <BODY VLINK>
example <BODY VLINK> => <BODY VLINK="#rrggbb"> document-body </BODY> & <BODY VLINK="colorname"> document-body </BODY>
html <BODY LEFTMARGIN> => The LEFTMARGIN attribute set the margin at the left of the document, in pixels. <BODY LEFTMARGIN=margin> document-body </BODY>
html <BODY TOPMARGIN> => The TOPMARGIN attributes set the margin at the top of the document, in pixels. <BODY TOPMARGIN=margin> document-body </BODY>
html <BODY BGPROPERTieS> => The BGPROPERTIES attribute causes the background image (set with the BACKGROUND attribute) to remain fixed as the document scrolls: a watermark effect. See: example <BODY BGPROPERTieS>
example <BODY BGPROPERTieS> => <BODY BGPROPERTieS="FIXED"> document-body</BODY>
html <BR> => <Line Break> The line break tag breaks the current line of text. It's not necessary inside a PRE element. There is no </BR> tag.
example <BR> => <BR> & <BR CLEAR> & <BR CLEAR="type">
html <BR CLEAR> => CLEAR attribute type can be LEFT to break until there is nothing to the left, RIGHT for the right side, all for break until both sides are clear & NONE for a normal break.
html <CAPTION> => <Caption> The caption tag defines the caption of a figure or table. It is valid only within FIG or TABLE tags.
example <CAPTION> => <CAPTION> text </CAPTION> & <CAPTION ALIGN=alignment> text </CAPTION> & <CAPTION VALIGN=vertical-alignment> text </CAPTION>
html <CAPTION ALIGN> => The ALIGN attribute arranges for the caption to be at the TOP or BOTTOM of the table or figure. See: <CAPTION ALIGN> 2
html <CAPTION ALIGN> 2 => The ALIGN attribute sets the alignment of the caption within the table or figure border. It can be LEFT, RIGHT, or CENTER.
example <CAPTION ALIGN> => <CAPTION ALIGN=alignment> text </CAPTION>
html <CAPTION VALIGN> => The VALIGN attribute arranges for the caption to be at the TOP or BOTTOM of the table or figure.
factpacks/html.fact view on Meta::CPAN
example <EM> => <EM> text </EM>
html <EMBED> => The embed element is used to embed a plugin into a document. The OBJECT tag can also be used to embed objects. See also: <EMBED attributes>
html <EMBED attributes> => SCR, HEIGHT, WIDTH, UNITS, NAME, OPTIONAL PARAMETER & PALETTE
example <EMBED> => <EMBED attributes> alternate HTML </EMBED>
html <EMBED SCR> => ( SRC="URL" ) "URL" identifies the location of the object to be embedded.
html <EMBED HEIGHT> => ( HEIGHT=number ) This specifies the height of the object, according to the UNITS attribute.
html <EMBED WIDTH> => ( WIDTH=number ) This specifies the width of the object, according to the UNITS attribute.
html <EMBED UNITS> => ( UNITS=units ) Here units is one of pixels, meaning the width and height are measured in pixels, or en, meaning the width and height are measured in en spaces.
html <EMBED NAME> => ( NAME=text ) This indicates the name used by other objects or elements to refer to this object.
html <EMBED OPTIONAL PARAMETER> => ("OPTIONAL PARAMETER"=value) This specifies any parameters that are specific to the object. Put the name of the parameter in place of "OPTIONAL PARAMETER".
html <EMBED PALETTE> => ( PALETTE=#rgb|#rgb ) Sets the foreground or background color. The first colour is the foreground.
html <FIG> => <Figure> The figure element is an improvement over the inline image used in HTML 2.0 for a variety of reasons. See: <FIG> 2, 3, & 4
html <FIG> 2 => The text used to describe the figure for non-graphical browsers can contain markup tags & a separate credit and caption will be displayed by both graphical and non-graphical browsers
html <FIG> 3 => It also makes imagemaps much easier to code & independent of the server. (See the OBJECT and MAP tags for an alternate to this tag)
html <FIG> 4 => At the moment it isn't clear whether the built-in image maps of FIG or the client-side image maps of IMG with a USEMAP attribute will emerge as the long term alternative to server side image maps.
example <FIG> => <FIG attributes> figure-content </FIG>
html <FIG attributes> => The attributes for the <FIG> tag: SRC, ALIGN, HEIGHT, WIDTH, UNITS, NOFLOW & IMAGEMAP
html <FIG SRC> => ( SRC="URL" ) "URL" identifies the image source, typically a GIF or JPEG file.
html <FIG ALIGN> => (ALIGN="alignment") "alignment" should be one of TOP, MIDDLE, or BOTTOM. This causes the top, middle, or bottom of the image to be aligned with the text on the line containing the IMG tag. See: <FIG ALIGN> 2
html <FIG ALIGN> 2 => For Netscape: "alignment" should be one of LEFT, RIGHT, TOP, TEXTTOP, MIDDLE, ABSMIDDLE, BASELINE, BOTTOM, or ABSBOTTOM.
html <FIG HEIGHT> => ( HEIGHT=number ) This specifies the height of the image, according to the UNITS attribute.
factpacks/html.fact view on Meta::CPAN
example <LISTING> => <LISTING> text </LISTING>
html <MAP> => <Map> The map tag defines a client side image map It gives a name to a collection of AREA tags that are superimposed over an inline image to connect user clicks with URLs.
example <MAP> => <MAP NAME="name"> area tags </MAP>
html <MARQUEE> => <Marquee> The marquee tag defines a moving piece of text, like a movie marquee.
example <MARQUEE> => <MARQUEE> text </MARQUEE> and See: html <MARQUEE attributes>
html <MARQUEE attributes> => ALIGN, BEHAVIOR, BGCOLOR, DIRECTION, HEIGHT, HSPACE, LOOP, SCROLLAMOUNT, SCROLLDELAY, WIDTH, VSPACE, and WIDTH
html <MARQUEE ALIGN> => The ALIGN attribute works like the ALIGN attribute in the IMG tag, setting the location of the surrounding text. "align" can be TOP, BOTTOM, or MIDDLE.
example <MARQUEE ALIGN> => <MARQUEE ALIGN="align"> text </MARQUEE>
html <MARQUEE BEHAVIOR> => The BEHAVIOR attribute defines the way the text moves. SCROLL means that the text slides into the marquee box and out again, then repeats. SLIDE means that the text slides into the marquee box, stops when it is all in, then...
example <MARQUEE BEHAVIOR> => <MARQUEE BEHAVIOR="behavior"> text </MARQUEE>
html <MARQUEE BGCOLOR> => The BGCOLOR attribute specifies the colour to be used for the background. rrggbb is a six digit hexadecimal number with the first two digits specifying the red value, the middle two the green value, and the last two the blue...
example <MARQUEE BGCOLOR> => <MARQUEE BGCOLOR="#rrggbb"> text </MARQUEE> & <MARQUEE BGCOLOR="colorname"> text </MARQUEE>
html <MARQUEE DIRECTION> => The DIRECTION attribute is LEFT or RIGHT and specifies the direction in which the text should move.
example <MARQUEE DIRECTION> => <MARQUEE DIRECTION="direction"> text </MARQUEE>
html <MARQUEE HEIGHT> => The HEIGHT and WIDTH attributes size the marquee box. If n is an absolute number, it is taken to mean pixels; if n is followed by a % sign it is taken to mean a percentage of the width or height (as appropriate) of the screen...
example <MARQUEE HEIGHT> => <MARQUEE HEIGHT=n> text </MARQUEE> & <MARQUEE HEIGHT=n%> text </MARQUEE>
html <MARQUEE HSPACE> => The HSPACE and VSPACE attributes specify a margin to the left and right, or above and below, the marquee box, in pixels.
example <MARQUEE HSPACE> => <MARQUEE HSPACE=n> text </MARQUEE>
html <MARQUEE LOOP> => The LOOP attribute will cause the marquee to scroll n times. LOOP="INFINITE" will cause the marquee to scroll as long as the page is open.
example <MARQUEE LOOP> => <MARQUEE LOOP=n> text </MARQUEE>
html <MARQUEE SCROLLAMOUNT> => The SCROLLAMOUNT attribute specifies, the amount, in pixels, to move the scrolling text by each time it is drawn.
factpacks/html.fact view on Meta::CPAN
html <TAB> => The horizontal tab tag is used to set or jump to a horizontal tab. The INDENT attribute specifies the amount in en spaces to set this indent to. The align attribute can be one of LEFT, RIGHT, CENTER, or DECIMAL and will position the fol...
example <TAB> => <TAB INDENT=number> <TAB TO=tab id ALIGN=align> <TAB DP=character>
html <TABLE> => A table consists of an optional caption (CAPTION) and one or more rows (TR.) ( See also: html <TABLE attributes> )
example <TABLE> => <TABLE attributes> table-content </TABLE>
html <TABLE attributes> => The attributes are: ALIGN, WIDTH, BORDER, CELLPADDING, BGCOLOR, BORDERCOLOR, BORDERCOLORLIGHT, BORDERCOLORDARK, VALIGN, CLEAR, NOFLOW, COLSPEC, UNITS, DP, and NOWRAP
html <TABLE ALIGN> => (ALIGN="alignment") This causes the table to be aligned in one of a variety of ways on the page. Here "alignment" should be one of, LEFT: To the left text margin, CENTER: In the centre of the page (Turns on NOFLOW.) RIGHT: To th...
html <TABLE WIDTH> => (WIDTH=number) The UNITS attribute is used to translate number.
html <TABLE BORDER> => (BORDER) This attribute causes the table to be drawn with a border. (BORDER=number) This attribute draws the table with a border number pixels thick.
html <TABLE CELLPADDING> => (CELLPADDING=number) This separates the cell borders and the text with a padding of number pixels.
html <TABLE CELLSPACING> => (CELLSPACING=number) This separates cells with a gutter of number pixels.
html <TABLE BGCOLOR> => (BGCOLOR="#rrggbb" -or- BGCOLOR="colorname") This attribute sets the background colour for the entire table.
html <TABLE BORDERCOLOR> => (BORDERCOLOR="#rrggbb" -or- BORDERCOLOR="colorname") This attribute sets the border colour for the entire table.
html <TABLE BORDERCOLORLIGHT> => (BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#rrggbb" -or- BORDERCOLORLIGHT="colorname") This attribute sets the border highlight colour for the entire table.
html <TABLE BORDERCOLORDARK> => (BORDERCOLORDARK="#rrggbb" -or- BORDERCOLORDARK="colorname") This attribute sets the border shadow colour for the entire table.
html <TABLE VALIGN> => (VALIGN="valign") This attribute sets the vertical alignment for the entire table. "valign"is TOP or BOTTOM.
html <TABLE CLEAR> => (CLEAR=clear) Here "clear" should be one of LEFT, RIGHT, or ALL and specifies which margin should be clear.
html <TABLE NOFLOW> => (NOFLOW) This attribute prevents text flow around the table and is equivalent to setting the CLEAR attribute on the element after the table.
html <TABLE COLSPEC> => (COLSPEC=colspec) Here colspec is a list of column alignments and widths, separated by spaces. There should be one entry for each column in the table, and each should be an optional capital letter for alignment (one of L (left...
html <TABLE UNITS> => (UNITS=units) This makes sense only if the COLSPEC or WIDTH attributes are being used and specifies the units to be used for the column or table widths. units should be one of, en: widths are in en spaces, proportional to font s...
html <TABLE DP> => (DP="character") Here "character" is the character (the default is ".") to be used in aligning for decimal point alignment.
html <TABLE NOWRAP> => (NOWRAP) This attribute prevents word wrap within table entries.
html <TBODY> => The TBODY tag is used to group together a number of rows within a table, for assigning ID or STYLE values. (CLASS=type) This attribute indicates the class that the element belongs too. (ID=value) This attribute specifies a unique valu...
example <TBODY> => <TBODY> table body </TBODY>
html <TD> => <Table Data> Valid only in a TR, the table data tag defines a table cell. ( See also: html <TD attributes> )
html <TD attributes> => The attributes for this tag are: COLSPAN, ROWSPAN, NOWRAP, ALIGN, VALIGN, BGCOLOR, BORDERCOLOR, BORDERCOLORLIGHT, and BORDERCOLORDARK
html <TD COLSPAN> => (COLSPAN="number") the number of columns this cell occupies.
html <TD ROWSPAN> => (ROWSPAN="number") the number of rows this cell occupies.
html <TD NOWRAP> => (NOWRAP) This attribute prevents word wrap within the cell.
html <TD ALIGN> => (ALIGN="align") governs the alignment of the text within the table cell. "align" can be LEFT, RIGHT or CENTER.
html <TD VALIGN> => (VALIGN="align") governs the alignment of the text within the table cell. "align" can be TOP, MIDDLE, BOTTOM, or BASELINE.
html <TD BGCOLOR> => (BGCOLOR="#rrggbb" -or- BGCOLOR="colorname") This attribute sets the background colour for the table cell.
html <TD BORDERCOLOR> => (BORDERCOLOR="#rrggbb" -or- BORDERCOLOR="colorname") This attribute sets the border colour for the table cell.
html <TD BORDERCOLORLIGHT> => (BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#rrggbb" -or- BORDERCOLORLIGHT="colorname") This attribute sets the border highlight colour for the table cell.
html <TD BORDERCOLORDARK> => (BORDERCOLORDARK="#rrggbb" -or- BORDERCOLORDARK="colorname") This attribute sets the border shadow colour for the table cell.
html <TEXTAREA> => The text area tag specifies a multiple line text area field within the form that contains it. The NAME attribute is a required field and is used to identify the data for the field. The COLS attribute specifies the width in characte...
html <TEXTAREA> 2 => The wrap attribute can have values of OFF, SOFT and HARD. The 3.0 specification adds three new attributes: DISABLED, ERROR, and ALIGN. The DISABLED attribute shows the field but will not allow the user to modify it. The ERROR att...
example <TEXTAREA> => <TEXTAREA NAME=name COLS=# columns ROWS=# rows> content </TEXTAREA> <TEXTAREA NAME=name COLS=# columns ROWS=# rows WRAP=type> content </TEXTAREA>
html <TEXTFLOW> => <Java Applet Textflow> if an APPLET element has no ordinary text and markup in its applet-content, and contains only PARAM tags, comments, and whitespace, you should add a TEXTFLOW tag. This tag will be ignored by Web browsers but ...
html <TFOOT> => Defines the table footer. The footer tag is used to group all footers. (CLASS=type) This attribute indicates the class that the element belongs too. (ID=value) This attribute specifies a unique value for the element over the document....
html <TH> => Valid only in a TR, the table header tag defines a header cell. <Table Header> (See also: html <TH attributes>)
html <TH attributes> => The attributes for this tag are: COLSPAN, ROWSPAN, NOWRAP, ALIGN, VALIGN, BGCOLOR, BORDERCOLOR, BORDERCOLORLIGHT, and BORDERCOLORDARK
html <TH COLSPAN> => (COLSPAN="number") the number of columns this header occupies.
html <TH ROWSPAN> => (ROWSPAN="number") the number of rows this header occupies.
html <TH NOWRAP> => (NOWRAP) This attribute prevents word wrap within the cell.
html <TH ALIGN> => (ALIGN="align") governs the alignment of the text within the table cell. "align" can be LEFT, RIGHT or CENTER. Table Header cells default to centred.
html <TH VALIGN> => (VALIGN="align") governs the alignment of the text within the table cell. "align" can be TOP, MIDDLE, BOTTOM, or BASELINE.
html <TH BGCOLOR> => (BGCOLOR="#rrggbb" -or- BGCOLOR="colorname") This attribute sets the background colour for the header cell.
html <TH BORDERCOLOR> => (BORDERCOLOR="#rrggbb" -or- BORDERCOLOR="colorname") his attribute sets the border colour for the header cell.
html <TH BORDERCOLORLIGHT> => (BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#rrggbb" -or- BORDERCOLORLIGHT="colorname") This attribute sets the border highlight colour for the header cell.
html <TH BORDERCOLORDARK> => (BORDERCOLORDARK="#rrggbb" -or- BORDERCOLORDARK="colorname") This attribute sets the border shadow colour for the header cell.
html <THEAD> => The THEAD tag defines the table heading. The THEAD tag is used to group all headers together. <Table Head> ( See also: html <THEAD attributes> )
html <THEAD attributes> => The attributes for this tag are: ALIGN, CLASS, ID, STYLE, and VALIGN
html <THEAD ALIGN> => (ALIGN=left, center, right, justify) Specifies the alignment of text in the heading, the default is center.
html <THEAD CLASS> => (CLASS=type) This attribute indicates the class that the element belongs too.
html <THEAD ID> => (ID=value) This attribute specifies a unique value for the element over the document.
html <THEAD STYLE> => (STYLE=css1 properties) This attribute specifies style the information
html <THEAD VALIGN> => (VALIGN=middle/top/bottom) This attribute specifies the verticle alignment of text in the heading. The default is middle.
html <TITLE> => The title tag, which is only valid in a HEAD section, defines the title of an HTML document. A title should be chosen that makes sense with no context; for example Introduction is a poor title since it contains no indication of the su...
example <TITLE> => <TITLE> title-text </TITLE>
html <TR> => Valid only in a TABLE, the table row tag defines a row of cells that are defined with TH and TD tags. <Table Row> ( See also: html <TR attributes> )
html <TR attributes> => The attributes for this tag are: ALIGN, VALIGN, BGCOLOR, BORDERCOLOR, BORDERCOLORLIGHT, BORDERCOLORDARK, and CLASS
html <TR ALIGN> => (ALIGN="align") governs the alignment of the text within the table cell. "align" can be LEFT, RIGHT or CENTER.
html <TR VALIGN> => (VALIGN="align") governs the alignment of the text within the table cell. "align" can be TOP, MIDDLE, BOTTOM, or BASELINE.
html <TR BGCOLOR> => (BGCOLOR="#rrggbb" -or- BGCOLOR="colorname") This attribute sets the background colour for the table row.
html <TR BORDERCOLOR> => (BORDERCOLOR="#rrggbb" -or- BORDERCOLOR="colorname") This attribute sets the border colour for the table row.
html <TR BORDERCOLORLIGHT> => (BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#rrggbb" -or- BORDERCOLORLIGHT="colorname") This attribute sets the border highlight colour for the table row.
html <TR BORDERCOLORDARK> => (BORDERCOLORDARK="#rrggbb" -or- BORDERCOLORDARK="colorname") This attribute sets the border shadow colour for the table row.
html <TR CLASS> => (CLASS="class") class is one of Header, Body, or Footer and allows the browser to arrange for header or footer rows to be displayed as the user scrolls through the document.
html <TT> => The teletype tag defines text that should be shown in a fixed width font. It can be nested with other idiomatic or typographic tags but some browsers will respect only the innermost tag. Many browsers use the same font for the KBD, SAMP,...
example <TT> => <TT> text </TT>
html <U> => The underlined tag defines text that should be shown with a line underneath it. It can be nested with other idiomatic or typographic tags but some browsers will respect only the innermost tag. Many browsers, including some versions of Net...
example <U> => <U> text </U>
html <UL> => The unordered list tag introduces an unordered (bulleted) list, which is made up of List Item (LI) tags. <UL> list entries </UL>
html <UL attributes> => The attributes for this tag are: COMPACT, SRC, DINGBAT, PLAIN, WRAP, and TYPE
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
all-elbows2 is also be resident. One particularly common form of rudeness is lock-up due to programs fighting over the keyboard interrupt. See also {mess-dos}.
alpha particles is n. See {bit rot}.
ALT is /awlt/ 1. n. The ALT shift key on an IBM PC or {clone}. 2. [possibly lowercased] n. The `clover' or `Command' key on a Macintosh; use of this term usually reveals that the speaker hacked PCs before coming to the Mac (see also {command k...
ALT2 is reserve `ALT' for the Option key. 3. n.obs. [PDP-10] Alternate name for the ASCII ESC character (ASCII 0011011), after the keycap labeling on some older terminals. Also `ALTMODE' (/awlt'mohd/). This character was almost never pron...
ALT3 is under TOPS-10 --- always ALT, as in "Type ALT ALT to end a TECO command" or "ALT U onto the system" (for "log onto the [ITS] system"). This was probably because ALT is more convenient to say than `escape', especially when followed b...
ALT4 is *and* a character, for that matter).
alt bit is /awlt bit/ [from alternate] adj. See {meta bit}.
Aluminum Book is [MIT] n. `Common LISP The Language', by Guy L. Steele Jr. (Digital Press, first edition 1984, second edition 1990). Note that due to a technical screwup some printings of the second edition are actually of a color the author...
Aluminum Book2 is also {{book titles}}.
amoeba is n. Humorous term for the Commodore Amiga personal computer.
amp off is [Purdue] vt. To run in {background}. From the UNIX shell `&' operator.
amper is n. Common abbreviation for the name of the ampersand (`&', ASCII 0100110) character. See {ASCII} for other synonyms.
angle brackets is n. Either of the characters `<' (ASCII 0111100) and `>' (ASCII 0111110) (ASCII less-than or greater-than signs). The {Real World} angle brackets used by typographers are actually taller than a less-than or greater-than sig...
angry fruit salad is n. A bad visual-interface design that uses too many colors. This derives, of course, from the bizarre day-glo colors found in canned fruit salad. Too often one sees similar affects from interface designers using color wi...
angry fruit salad2 is tendency to create displays that are flashy and attention-getting but uncomfortable for long-term use.
AOS is 1. /aws/ (East Coast), /ay-os/ (West Coast) [based on a PDP-10 increment instruction] vt.,obs. To increase the amount of something. "AOS the campfire." Usage considered silly, and now obsolete. Now largely supplanted by {bump}. See ...
AOS2 is supported at one time by Data General. This was pronounced /A-O-S/ or /A-os/. A spoof of the standard AOS system administrator's manual (`How to load and generate your AOS system') was created, issued a part number, and circulated ...
AOS3 is goad and levitate your chaos system'. 3. Algebraic Operating System, in reference to those calculators which use infix instead of postfix (reverse Polish) notation. Historical note AOS in sense 1 was the name of a {PDP-10} instruc...
AOS4 is computer and added 1 to it; AOS meant `Add One and do not Skip'. Why, you may ask, does the `S' stand for `do not Skip' rather than for `Skip'? Ah, here was a beloved piece of PDP-10 folklore. There were eight such instructions AO...
AOS5 is instruction if the result was Equal to zero; AOSG added 1 and then skipped if the result was Greater than 0; AOSN added 1 and then skipped if the result was Not 0; AOSA added 1 and then skipped Always; and so on. Just plain AOS didn...
AOS6 is For similar reasons, AOJ meant `Add One and do not Jump'. Even more bizarre, SKIP meant `do not SKIP'! If you wanted to skip the next instruction, you had to say `SKIPA'. Likewise, JUMP meant `do not JUMP'; the unconditional form wa...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
awk4 is maintenance programmers. Historically, back doors have often lurked in systems longer than anyone expected or planned, and a few have become widely known. The infamous {RTM} worm of late 1988, for example, used a back door in the {BS...
awk5 is 1983 Turing Award lecture to the ACM revealed the existence of a back door in early UNIX versions that may have qualified as the most fiendishly clever security hack of all time. The C compiler contained code that would recognize when ...
awk6 is insert some code recognizing a password chosen by Thompson, giving him entry to the system whether or not an account had been created for him. Normally such a back door could be removed by removing it from the source code for the com...
awk7 is recompile the compiler, you have to *use* the compiler --- so Thompson also arranged that the compiler would *recognize when it was compiling a version of itself*, and insert into the recompiled compiler the code to insert into the rec...
awk8 is entry --- and, of course, the code to recognize itself and do the whole thing again the next time around! And having done this once, he was then able to recompile the compiler from the original sources, leaving his back door in place ...
awk9 is The talk that revealed this truly moby hack was published as "Reflections on Trusting Trust", `Communications of the ACM 27', 8 (August 1984), pp. 761--763. Syn. {trap door}; may also be called a `wormhole'. See also {iron box}, {cr...
backbone cabal is n. A group of large-site administrators who pushed through the {Great Renaming} and reined in the chaos of {USENET} during most of the 1980s. The cabal {mailing list} disbanded in late 1988 after a bitter internal catfight, ...
backbone site is n. A key USENET and email site; one that processes a large amount of third-party traffic, especially if it is the home site of any of the regional coordinators for the USENET maps. Notable backbone sites as of early 1991 inclu...
backbone site2 is University, UC Berkeley, DEC's Western Research Laboratories, Ohio State University, and the University of Texas. Compare {rib site}, {leaf site}.
backgammon is See {bignum}, {moby}, and {pseudoprime}.
background is n.,adj.,vt. To do a task `in background' is to do it whenever {foreground} matters are not claiming your undivided attention, and `to background' something means to relegate it to a lower priority. "For now, we'll just print a ...
background2 is graph-printing problem in background." Note that this implies ongoing activity but at a reduced level or in spare time, in contrast to mainstream `back burner' (which connotes benign neglect until some future resumption of activ...
background3 is processing that they have queued up for their unconscious minds (a tack that one can often fruitfully take upon encountering an obstacle in creative work). Compare {amp off}, {slopsucker}. Technically, a task running in backgr...
background4 is was started (and often running at a lower priority); oppose {foreground}. Nowadays this term is primarily associated with {{UNIX}}, but it appears to have been first used in this sense on OS/360.
backspace and overstrike is interj. Whoa! Back up. Used to suggest that someone just said or did something wrong. Common among APL programmers.
backward combatability is /bak'w*rd k*m-bat'*-bil'*-tee/ [from `backward compatibility'] n. A property of hardware or software revisions in which previous protocols, formats, and layouts are discarded in favor of `new and improved' protocols, ...
backward combatability2 is making the transition between major releases. When the change is so drastic that the old formats are not retained in the new version, it is said to be `backward combatable'. See {flag day}.
BAD is /B-A-D/ [IBM acronym, `Broken As Designed'] adj. Said of a program that is {bogus} because of bad design and misfeatures rather than because of bugginess. See {working as designed}.
Bad Thing is [from the 1930 Sellar & Yeatman parody `1066 And All That'] n. Something that can't possibly result in improvement of the subject. This term is always capitalized, as in "Replacing all of the 9600-baud modems with bicycle courier...
Bad Thing2 is Thing}. British correspondents confirm that {Bad Thing} and {Good Thing} (and prob. therefore {Right Thing} and {Wrong Thing}) come from the book referenced in the etymology, which discusses rulers who were Good Kings but Bad ...
Bad Thing3 is mainstream idiom on the British side of the pond.
bag on the side is n. An extension to an established hack that is supposed to add some functionality to the original. Usually derogatory, implying that the original was being overextended and should have been thrown away, and the new product ...
bag on the side2 is phrase, `to hang a bag on the side [of]'. "C++? That's just a bag on the side of C ...." "They want me to hang a bag on the side of the accounting system."
bagbiter is /bag'bit-*r/ n. 1. Something, such as a program or a computer, that fails to work, or works in a remarkably clumsy manner. "This text editor won't let me make a file with a line longer than 80 characters! What a bagbiter!" 2. A ...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
bit bashing is n. (alt. `bit diddling' or {bit twiddling}) Term used to describe any of several kinds of low-level programming characterized by manipulation of {bit}, {flag}, {nybble}, and other smaller-than-character-sized pieces of data; the...
bit bashing2 is encryption algorithms, checksum and error-correcting codes, hash functions, some flavors of graphics programming (see {bitblt}), and assembler/compiler code generation. May connote either tedium or a real technical challenge...
bit bashing3 is decoding for the new tape driver looks pretty solid but the bit-bashing for the control registers still has bugs." See also {bit bang}, {mode bit}.
bit bucket is n. 1. The universal data sink (originally, the mythical receptacle used to catch bits when they fall off the end of a register during a shift instruction). Discarded, lost, or destroyed data is said to have `gone to the bit buck...
bit bucket2 is {/dev/null}. Sometimes amplified as `the Great Bit Bucket in the Sky'. 2. The place where all lost mail and news messages eventually go. The selection is performed according to {Finagle's Law}; important mail is much more lik...
bit bucket3 is mail, which has an almost 100% probability of getting delivered. Routing to the bit bucket is automatically performed by mail-transfer agents, news systems, and the lower layers of the network. 3. The ideal location for all un...
bit bucket4 is article to the bit bucket." Such a request is guaranteed to overflow one's mailbox with flames. 4. Excuse for all mail that has not been sent. "I mailed you those figures last week; they must have ended in the bit bucket." Co...
bit bucket5 is in jest. It is based on the fanciful notion that bits are objects that are not destroyed but only misplaced. This appears to have been a mutation of an earlier term `bit box', about which the same legend was current; old-time ...
bit bucket6 is told that when the CPU stored bits into memory it was actually pulling them `out of the bit box'. See also {chad box}. Another variant of this legend has it that, as a consequence of the `parity preservation law', the number ...
bit bucket7 is equal the number of 0 bits. Any imbalance results in bits filling up the bit bucket. A qualified computer technician can empty a full bit bucket as part of scheduled maintenance.
bit decay is n. See {bit rot}. People with a physics background tend to prefer this one for the analogy with particle decay. See also {computron}, {quantum bogodynamics}.
bit rot is n. Also {bit decay}. Hypothetical disease the existence of which has been deduced from the observation that unused programs or features will often stop working after sufficient time has passed, even if `nothing has changed'. The t...
bit rot2 is were radioactive. As time passes, the contents of a file or the code in a program will become increasingly garbled. There actually are physical processes that produce such effects (alpha particles generated by trace radionuclide...
bit rot3 is change the contents of a computer memory unpredictably, and various kinds of subtle media failures can corrupt files in mass storage), but they are quite rare (and computers are built with error-detecting circuitry to compensate ...
bit rot4 is hackers that cosmic rays are among the causes of such events turns out to be a myth; see the {cosmic rays} entry for details. The term {software rot} is almost synonymous. Software rot is the effect, bit rot the notional cause.
bit twiddling is n. 1. (pejorative) An exercise in {tuning} in which incredible amounts of time and effort go to produce little noticeable improvement, often with the result that the code has become incomprehensible. 2. Aimless small modifica...
bit twiddling2 is goal. 3. Approx. syn. for {bit bashing}; esp. used for the act of frobbing the device control register of a peripheral in an attempt to get it back to a known state.
bit-paired keyboard is n. obs. (alt. `bit-shift keyboard') A non-standard keyboard layout that seems to have originated with the Teletype ASR-33 and remained common for several years on early computer equipment. The ASR-33 was a mechanical de...
bit-paired keyboard2 is generate the character codes from keystrokes was by some physical linkage. The design of the ASR-33 assigned each character key a basic pattern that could be modified by flipping bits if the SHIFT or the CTRL key was p...
bit-paired keyboard3 is more of a Rube Goldberg kluge than it already was, the design had to group characters that shared the same basic bit pattern on one key. This is why the characters !"#$%&'() appear where they do on a Teletype (thankfu...
bit-paired keyboard4 is was *not* the weirdest variant of the {QWERTY} layout widely seen, by the way; that prize should probably go to one of several (differing) arrangements on IBM's even clunkier 026 and 029 card punches. When electroni...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
crash3 is OS!" See {down}. Also used transitively to indicate the cause of the crash (usually a person or a program, or both). "Those idiots playing {SPACEWAR} crashed the system." 3. vi. Sometimes said of people hitting the sack after a l...
crash and burn is vi.,n. A spectacular crash, in the mode of the conclusion of the car-chase scene in the movie "Bullitt" and many subsequent imitators. Sun-3 monitors losing the flyback transformer and lightning strikes on VAX-11/780 backpla...
crash and burn2 is The construction `crash-and-burn machine' is reported for a computer used exclusively for alpha or {beta} testing, or reproducing bugs (i.e., not for development). The implication is that it wouldn't be such a disaster if...
crash and burn3 is would be inconvenienced.
crawling horror is n. Ancient crufty hardware or software that is kept obstinately alive by forces beyond the control of the hackers at a site. Like {dusty deck} or {gonkulator}, but connotes that the thing described is not just an irritation...
crawling horror2 is "Mostly we code new stuff in C, but they pay us to maintain one big FORTRAN II application from nineteen-sixty-X that's a real crawling horror...." Compare {WOMBAT}.
cray is /kray/ n. 1. (properly, capitalized) One of the line of supercomputers designed by Cray Research. 2. Any supercomputer at all. 3. The {canonical} {number-crunching} machine. The term is actually the lowercased last name of Seymour Cr...
cray2 is co-founder of the company. Numerous vivid legends surround him, some true and some admittedly invented by Cray Research brass to shape their corporate culture and image.
cray instability is n. A shortcoming of a program or algorithm that manifests itself only when a large problem is being run on a powerful machine (see {cray}). Generally more subtle than bugs that can be detected in smaller problems running o...
crayola is /kray-oh'l*/ n. A super-mini or -micro computer that provides some reasonable percentage of supercomputer performance for an unreasonably low price. Might also be a {killer micro}.
crayon is n. 1. Someone who works on Cray supercomputers. More specifically, it implies a programmer, probably of the CDC ilk, probably male, and almost certainly wearing a tie (irrespective of gender). Systems types who have a UNIX backgrou...
crayon2 is A {computron} (sense 2) that participates only in {number-crunching}. 3. A unit of computational power equal to that of a single Cray-1. There is a standard joke about this that derives from an old Crayola crayon promotional gim...
creationism is n. The (false) belief that large, innovative designs can be completely specified in advance and then painlessly magicked out of the void by the normal efforts of a team of normally talented programmers. In fact, experience has ...
creationism2 is only from evolutionary, exploratory interaction between one (or at most a small handful of) exceptionally able designer(s) and an active user population --- and that the first try at a big new idea is always wrong. Unfortunat...
creationism3 is planning models beloved of {management}, they are generally ignored.
creeping elegance is n. Describes a tendency for parts of a design to become {elegant} past the point of diminishing return. This often happens at the expense of the less interesting parts of the design, the schedule, and other things deemed ...
creeping elegance2 is {creeping featurism}, {second-system effect}, {tense}.
creeping featurism is /kree'ping fee'chr-izm/ n. 1. Describes a systematic tendency to load more {chrome} and {feature}s onto systems at the expense of whatever elegance they may have possessed when originally designed. See also {feeping crea...
creeping featurism2 is {BSD} UNIX has always been creeping featurism." 2. More generally, the tendency for anything complicated to become even more complicated because people keep saying "Gee, it would be even better if it had this feature ...
creeping featurism3 is a patchwork because it grew one ad-hoc step at a time, rather than being planned. Planning is a lot of work, but it's easy to add just one extra little feature to help someone ... and then another ... and another.... ...
creeping featurism4 is like a cancer. Usually this term is used to describe computer programs, but it could also be said of the federal government, the IRS 1040 form, and new cars. A similar phenomenon sometimes afflicts conscious redesign...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
down2 is mainstream; the extension to other kinds of machine is still hackish. 2. `go down' vi. To stop functioning; usually said of the {system}. The message from the {console} that every hacker hates to hear from the operator is "The sys...
down3 is down', `bring down' vt. To deactivate purposely, usually for repair work or {PM}. "I'm taking the system down to work on that bug in the tape drive." Occasionally one hears the word `down' by itself used as a verb in this vt. sens...
download is vt. To transfer data or (esp.) code from a larger `host' system (esp. a {mainframe}) over a digital comm link to a smaller `client' system, esp. a microcomputer or specialized peripheral. Oppose {upload}. However, note that groun...
download2 is rule for this term. Space-to-earth transmission is always download and the reverse upload regardless of the relative size of the computers involved. So far the in-space machines have invariably been smaller; thus the upload/down...
DP is /D-P/ n. 1. Data Processing. Listed here because, according to hackers, use of the term marks one immediately as a {suit}. See {DPer}. 2. Common abbrev for {Dissociated Press}.
DPB is /d*-pib'/ [from the PDP-10 instruction set] vt. To plop something down in the middle. Usage silly. "DPB yourself into that couch there." The connotation would be that the couch is full except for one slot just big enough for you to ...
DPB2 is the name of a PDP-10 instruction that inserts some bits into the middle of some other bits. This usage has been kept alive by the Common LISP function of the same name.
DPer is /dee-pee-er/ n. Data Processor. Hackers are absolutely amazed that {suit}s use this term self-referentially. "*Computers* process data, not people!" See {DP}.
dragon is n. [MIT] A program similar to a {daemon}, except that it is not invoked at all, but is instead used by the system to perform various secondary tasks. A typical example would be an accounting program, which keeps track of who is logg...
dragon2 is etc. Under ITS, many terminals displayed a list of people logged in, where they were, what they were running, etc., along with some random picture (such as a unicorn, Snoopy, or the Enterprise), which was generated by the `name d...
dragon3 is and most other OSes this would be called a `background demon' or {daemon}. The best-known UNIX example of a dragon is `cron(1)'. At SAIL, they called this sort of thing a `phantom'.
Dragon Book is n. The classic text `Compilers Principles, Techniques and Tools', by Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi, and Jeffrey D. Ullman (Addison-Wesley 1986; ISBN 0-201-10088-6), so called because of the cover design featuring a dragon labeled `c...
Dragon Book2 is bearing the lance `LALR parser generator' among his other trappings. This one is more specifically known as the `Red Dragon Book' (1986); an earlier edition, sans Sethi and titled `Principles Of Compiler Design' (Alfred V. A...
Dragon Book3 is ISBN 0-201-00022-9), was the `Green Dragon Book' (1977). (Also `New Dragon Book', `Old Dragon Book'.) The horsed knight and the Green Dragon were warily eying each other at a distance; now the knight is typing (wearing gaun...
Dragon Book4 is representation of the Red Dragon's head while the rest of the beast extends back in normal space. See also {{book titles}}.
drain is [IBM] v. Syn. for {flush} (sense 2). Has a connotation of finality about it; one speaks of draining a device before taking it offline.
dread high-bit disease is n. A condition endemic to PRIME (a.k.a. PR1ME) minicomputers that results in all the characters having their high (0x80) bit ON rather than OFF. This of course makes transporting files to other systems much more diff...
dread high-bit disease2 is devices. It is reported that PRIME adopted the reversed-8-bit convention in order to save 25 cents per serial line per machine. This probably qualifies as one of the most {cretinous} design tradeoffs ever made. Se...
dread high-bit disease3 is (including the Atari 800) have exhibited similar brain damage.
DRECNET is /drek'net/ [from Yiddish/German `dreck', meaning dirt] n. Deliberate distortion of DECNET, a networking protocol used in the {VMS} community. So called because DEC helped write the Ethernet specification and then (either stupidly o...
DRECNET2 is violated that spec in the design of DRECNET in a way that made it incompatible. See also {connector conspiracy}.
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Foonly7 is build another F-1 was eclipsed by the {Mars}, and the company never quite recovered. See the {Mars} entry for the continuation and moral of this story.
footprint is n. 1. The floor or desk area taken up by a piece of hardware. 2. [IBM] The audit trail (if any) left by a crashed program (often in plural, `footprints'). See also {toeprint}.
for free is adj. Said of a capability of a programming language or hardware equipment that is available by its design without needing cleverness to implement "In APL, we get the matrix operations for free." "And owing to the way revisions are...
for free2 is trees for free." Usually it refers to a serendipitous feature of doing things a certain way (compare {big win}), but it may refer to an intentional but secondary feature.
for the rest of us is [from the Mac slogan "The computer for the rest of us"] adj. 1. Used to describe a {spiffy} product whose affordability shames other comparable products, or (more often) used sarcastically to describe {spiffy} but very ov...
for the rest of us2 is with a limited interface, deliberately limited capabilities, non-orthogonality, inability to compose primitives, or any other limitation designed to not `confuse' a na"ive user. This places an upper bound on how far tha...
for the rest of us3 is get in the way of the task instead of helping accomplish it. Used in reference to Macintosh software which doesn't provide obvious capabilities because it is thought that the poor lusers might not be able to handle them...
for the rest of us4 is third-party reference; thus, "Yes, it is an attractive program, but it's designed for The Rest Of Them" means a program that superficially looks neat but has no depth beyond the surface flash. See also {WIMP environme...
fora is pl.n. Plural of {forum}.
foreground is [UNIX] vt. To foreground a task is to bring it to the top of one's {stack} for immediate processing, and hackers often use it in this sense for non-computer tasks. "If your presentation is due next week, I guess I'd better foregr...
foreground2 is Technically, on a time-sharing system, a task executing in foreground is one able to accept input from and return output to the user; oppose {background}. Nowadays this term is primarily associated with {{UNIX}}, but it appears...
foreground3 is OS/360. Normally, there is only one foreground task per terminal (or terminal window); having multiple processes simultaneously reading the keyboard is a good way to {lose}.
forked is [UNIX; prob. influenced by a mainstream expletive] adj. Terminally slow, or dead. Originated when one system slowed to incredibly bad speeds because of a process recursively spawning copies of itself (using the UNIX system call `for...
Fortrash is /for'trash/ n. Hackerism for the FORTRAN language, referring to its primitive design, gross and irregular syntax, limited control constructs, and slippery, exception-filled semantics.
fortune cookie is [UNIX] n. A random quote, item of trivia, joke, or maxim printed to the user's tty at login time or (less commonly) at logout time. Items from this lexicon have often been used as fortune cookies. See {cookie file}.
forum is n. [USENET, GEnie CI$; pl. `fora' or `forums'] Any discussion group accessible through a dial-in {BBS}, a {mailing list}, or a {newsgroup} (see {network, the}). A forum functions much like a bulletin board; users submit {posting}s ...
forum2 is Contrast real-time chat via {talk mode} or point-to-point personal {email}.
fossil is n. 1. In software, a misfeature that becomes understandable only in historical context, as a remnant of times past retained so as not to break compatibility. Example the retention of octal as default base for string escapes in {C}, ...
fossil2 is to ASCII and modern byte-addressable architectures. See {dusty deck}. 2. More restrictively, a feature with past but no present utility. Example the force-all-caps (LCASE) bits in the V7 and {BSD} UNIX tty driver, designed for ...
fossil3 is of the usual backward-compatibility goal, this functionality has actually been expanded and renamed in some later {USG UNIX} releases as the IUCLC and OLCUC bits. 3. The FOSSIL (Fido/Opus/Seadog Standard Interface Level) driver s...
fossil4 is replace the {brain-dead} routines in the IBM PC ROMs. Fossils are used by most MS-DOS {BBS} software in lieu of programming the {bare metal} of the serial ports, as the ROM routines do not support interrupt-driven operation or setti...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
gronk2 is diskette drives. In particular, the microfloppies on a Commodore Amiga go "grink, gronk".
gronk out is vi. To cease functioning. Of people, to go home and go to sleep. "I guess I'll gronk out now; see you all tomorrow."
gronked is adj. 1. Broken. "The teletype scanner was gronked, so we took the system down." 2. Of people, the condition of feeling very tired or (less commonly) sick. "I've been chasing that bug for 17 hours now and I am thoroughly gronked!"...
gronked2 is same as {gronk} used of hardware, but connotes depression or mental/emotional problems in people.
grovel is vi. 1. To work interminably and without apparent progress. Often used transitively with `over' or `through'. "The file scavenger has been groveling through the file directories for 10 minutes now." Compare {grind} and {crunch}. Em...
grovel2 is examine minutely or in complete detail. "The compiler grovels over the entire source program before beginning to translate it." "I grovelled through all the documentation, but I still couldn't find the command I wanted."
grunge is /gruhnj/ n. 1. That which is grungy, or that which makes it so. 2. [Cambridge] Code which is inaccessible due to changes in other parts of the program. The preferred term in North America is {dead code}.
gubbish is /guhb'*sh/ [a portmanteau of `garbage' and `rubbish'?] n. Garbage; crap; nonsense. "What is all this gubbish?" The opposite portmanteau `rubbage' is also reported.
guiltware is /gilt'weir/ n. 1. A piece of {freeware} decorated with a message telling one how long and hard the author worked on it and intimating that one is a no-good freeloader if one does not immediately send the poor suffering martyr gobs...
gumby is /guhm'bee/ [from a class of Monty Python characters, poss. themselves named after the 1960s claymation character] n. An act of minor but conspicuous stupidity, often in `gumby maneuver' or `pull a gumby'.
gun is [ITS from the `GUN' command] vt. To forcibly terminate a program or job (computer, not career). "Some idiot left a background process running soaking up half the cycles, so I gunned it." Compare {can}.
gunch is /guhnch/ [TMRC] vt. To push, prod, or poke at a device that has almost produced the desired result. Implies a threat to {mung}.
gurfle is /ger'fl/ interj. An expression of shocked disbelief. "He said we have to recode this thing in FORTRAN by next week. Gurfle!" Compare {weeble}.
guru is n. 1. [UNIX] An expert. Implies not only {wizard} skill but also a history of being a knowledge resource for others. Less often, used (with a qualifier) for other experts on other systems, as in `VMS guru'. See {source of all good b...
guru2 is UNIX. When the system crashes, a cryptic message "GURU MEDITATION #XXXXXXXX.YYYYYYYY" appears, indicating what the problem was. An Amiga guru can figure things out from the numbers. Generally a {guru} event must be followed by a ...
guru3 is A method of `marking' common words, i.e., calling attention to the fact that they are being used in a nonstandard, ironic, or humorous way. Originated in the fannish catchphrase "Bheer is the One True Ghod!" from decades ago. H-inf...
guru4 is into the 1960s counterculture via underground comix, and into early hackerdom either from the counterculture or from SF fandom (the three overlapped heavily at the time). More recently, the h infix has become an expected feature of...
guru5 is etc.); this is prob. patterning on the original Whetstone (the name of a laboratory) but influenced by the fannish/counterculture h infix.
ha ha only serious is [from SF fandom, orig. as mutation of HHOK, `Ha Ha Only Kidding'] A phrase (often seen abbreviated as HHOS) that aptly captures the flavor of much hacker discourse. Applied especially to parodies, absurdities, and ironic...
ha ha only serious2 is to contain a possibly disquieting amount of truth, or truths that are constructed on in-joke and self-parody. This lexicon contains many examples of ha-ha-only-serious in both form and content. Indeed, the entirety of h...
ha ha only serious3 is ha-ha-only-serious by hackers themselves; to take it either too lightly or too seriously marks a person as an outsider, a {wannabee}, or in {larval stage}. For further enlightenment on this subject, consult any Zen mast...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
lossage is /los'*j/ n. The result of a bug or malfunction. This is a mass or collective noun. "What a loss!" and "What lossage!" are nearly synonymous. The former is slightly more particular to the speaker's present circumstances; the latt...
lossage2 is speaker is currently a victim. Thus (for example) a temporary hardware failure is a loss, but bugs in an important tool (like a compiler) are serious lossage.
lost in the noise is adj. Syn. {lost in the underflow}. This term is from signal processing, where signals of very small amplitude cannot be separated from low-intensity noise in the system. Though popular among hackers, it is not confined t...
lost in the noise2 is astronomers, and statisticians all use it.
lost in the underflow is adj. Too small to be worth considering; more specifically, small beyond the limits of accuracy or measurement. This is a reference to `floating underflow', a condition that can occur when a floating-point arithmetic p...
lost in the underflow2 is than its limit of magnitude. It is also a pun on `undertow' (a kind of fast, cold current that sometimes runs just offshore and can be dangerous to swimmers). "Well, sure, photon pressure from the stadium lights alte...
lost in the underflow3 is effect gets lost in the underflow." See also {overflow bit}.
lots of MIPS but no I/O is adj. Used to describe a person who is technically brilliant but can't seem to communicate with human beings effectively. Technically it describes a machine that has lots of processing power but is bottlenecked on in...
lots of MIPS but no I/O2 is RS/6000, is a notorious recent example).
low-bandwidth is [from communication theory] adj. Used to indicate a talk that, although not {content-free}, was not terribly informative. "That was a low-bandwidth talk, but what can you expect for an audience of {suit}s!" Compare {zero-con...
LPT is /L-P-T/ or /lip'it/ or /lip-it'/ [MIT, via DEC] n. Line printer, of course. Rare under UNIX, commoner in hackers with MS-DOS or CP/M background. The printer device is called `LPT' on those systems that, like ITS, were strongly infl...
lunatic fringe is [IBM] n. Customers who can be relied upon to accept release 1 versions of software.
lurker is n. One of the `silent majority' in a electronic forum; one who posts occasionally or not at all but is known to read the group's postings regularly. This term is not pejorative and indeed is casually used reflexively "Oh, I'm just l...
lurker2 is hypothetical audience for the group's {flamage}-emitting regulars.
luser is /loo'zr/ n. A {user}; esp. one who is also a {loser}. ({luser} and {loser} are pronounced identically.) This word was coined around 1975 at MIT. Under ITS, when you first walked up to a terminal at MIT and typed Control-Z to get the...
luser2 is status information, including how many people were already using the computer; it might print "14 users", for example. Someone thought it would be a great joke to patch the system to print "14 losers" instead. There ensued a grea...
luser3 is particularly want to be called losers to their faces every time they used the computer. For a while several hackers struggled covertly, each changing the message behind the back of the others; any time you logged into the computer ...
luser4 is or "losers". Finally, someone tried the compromise "lusers", and it stuck. Later one of the ITS machines supported `luser' as a request-for-help command. ITS died the death in mid-1990, except as a museum piece; the usage lives ...
luser5 is seen in program comments.*M [SI] pref. (on units) suff. (on numbers) See {{quantifiers}}.
macdink is /mak'dink/ [from the Apple Macintosh, which is said to encourage such behavior] vt. To make many incremental and unnecessary cosmetic changes to a program or file. Often the subject of the macdinking would be better off without the...
macdink2 is was still macdinking the slides for his presentation." See also {fritterware}.
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
slap on the side2 is as memory, hard drive controllers, and conventional expansion slots.
slash is n. Common name for the slant (`/', ASCII 0101111) character. See {ASCII} for other synonyms.
sleep is vi. 1. [techspeak] On a timesharing system, a process that relinquishes its claim on the scheduler until some given event occurs or a specified time delay elapses is said to `go to sleep'. 2. In jargon, used very similarly to v. {blo...
sleep2 is on'. Often used to indicate that the speaker has relinquished a demand for resources until some (possibly unspecified) external event "They can't get the fix I've been asking for into the next release, so I'm going to sleep on it ...
slim is n. A small, derivative change (e.g., to code).
slop is n. 1. A one-sided {fudge factor}, that is, an allowance for error but in only one of two directions. For example, if you need a piece of wire 10 feet long and have to guess when you cut it, you make very sure to cut it too long, by a ...
slop2 is short by even a little bit, because you can always cut off the slop but you can't paste it back on again. When discrete quantities are involved, slop is often introduced to avoid the possibility of being on the losing side of a {fence...
slop3 is code generated by a compiler over the size of equivalent assembler code produced by {hand-hacking}; i.e., the space (or maybe time) you lose because you didn't do it yourself. This number is often used as a measure of the goodness ...
slop4 is 10% is usually acceptable. With modern compiler technology, esp. on RISC machines, the compiler's slop may actually be *negative*; that is, humans may be unable to generate code as good. This is one of the reasons assembler program...
slopsucker is /slop'suhk-r/ n. A lowest-priority task that must wait around until everything else has `had its fill' of machine resources. Only when the machine would otherwise be idle is the task allowed to `suck up the slop'. Also called a...
slopsucker2 is slopsucker hunts for large prime numbers. Compare {background}.
slurp is vt. To read a large data file entirely into {core} before working on it. This may be contrasted with the strategy of reading a small piece at a time, processing it, and then reading the next piece. "This program slurps in a 1K-by-1K...
smart is adj. Said of a program that does the {Right Thing} in a wide variety of complicated circumstances. There is a difference between calling a program smart and calling it intelligent; in particular, there do not exist any intelligent pr...
smart2 is {robust} (smart programs can be {brittle}).
smart terminal is n. A terminal that has enough computing capability to render graphics or to offload some kind of front-end processing from the computer it talks to. The development of workstations and personal computers has made this term a...
smart terminal2 is semi-obsolescent, but one may still hear variants of the phrase `act like a smart terminal' used to describe the behavior of workstations or PCs with respect to programs that execute almost entirely out of a remote {server}'...
smart terminal3 is Compare {glass tty}. There is a classic quote from Rob Pike (inventor of the {blit} terminal) "A smart terminal is not a smart*ass* terminal, but rather a terminal you can educate." This illustrates a common design proble...
smart terminal4 is else) intelligent sometimes results in finicky, rigid `special features' that become just so much dead weight if you try to use the device in any way the designer didn't anticipate. Flexibility and programmability, on the...
smash case is vi. To lose or obliterate the uppercase/lowercase distinction in text input. "MS-DOS will automatically smash case in the names of all the files you create." Compare {fold case}.
smash the stack is [C programming] n. On many C implementations it is possible to corrupt the execution stack by writing past the end of an array declared `auto' in a routine. Code that does this is said to `smash the stack', and can cause re...
smash the stack2 is address. This can produce some of the most insidious data-dependent bugs known to mankind. Variants include `trash' the stack, {scribble} the stack, {mangle} the stack; the term *{mung} the stack is not used, as this is n...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
vi3 is Nevertheless it is still widely used (about half the respondents in a 1991 USENET poll preferred it), and even EMACS fans often resort to it as a mail editor and for small editing jobs (mainly because it starts up faster than bulky EM...
videotex is n. obs. An electronic service offering people the privilege of paying to read the weather on their television screens instead of having somebody read it to them for free while they brush their teeth. The idea bombed everywhere it ...
videotex2 is time videotex was practical the installed base of personal computers could hook up to timesharing services and do the things for which videotex might have been worthwhile better and cheaper. Videotex planners badly overestimate...
videotex3 is computer and the cost of local intelligence at the user's end. Like the {gorilla arm} effect, this has been a cautionary tale to hackers ever since. See also {vannevar}.
virgin is adj. Unused; pristine; in a known initial state. "Let's bring up a virgin system and see if it crashes again." (Esp. useful after contracting a {virus} through {SEX}.) Also, by extension, buffers and the like within a program that...
virtual is [via the technical term `virtual memory', prob. from the term `virtual image' in optics] adj. 1. Common alternative to {logical}. 2. Simulated; performing the functions of something that isn't really there. An imaginative child's ...
virtual Friday is n. The last day before an extended weekend, if that day is not a `real' Friday. For example, the U.S. holiday Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday. The next day is often also a holiday or taken as an extra day off, in which...
virtual Friday2 is Friday (and Thursday is a virtual Saturday, as is Friday). There are also `virtual Mondays' that are actually Tuesdays, after the three-day weekends associated with many national holidays in the U.S.
virtual reality is n. 1. Computer simulations that use 3-D graphics and devices such as the Dataglove to allow the user to interact with the simulation. See {cyberspace}. 2. A form of network interaction incorporating aspects of role-playing...
virtual reality2 is comedy, and `true confessions' magazines. In a virtual reality forum (such as USENET's alt.callahans newsgroup or the {MUD} experiments on Internet), interaction between the participants is written like a shared novel co...
virtual reality3 is that may be personae utterly unlike the people who write them, and common `background characters' manipulable by all parties. The one iron law is that you may not write irreversible changes to a character without the con...
virtual reality4 is anything goes. See {bamf}, {cyberspace}.
virus is [from the obvious analogy with biological viruses, via SF] n. A cracker program that searches out other programs and `infects' them by embedding a copy of itself in them, so that they become {Trojan Horse}s. When these programs are e...
virus2 is thus propagating the `infection'. This normally happens invisibly to the user. Unlike a {worm}, a virus cannot infect other computers without assistance. It is propagated by vectors such as humans trading programs with their fri...
virus3 is propagate itself and then allow the program to run normally. Usually, however, after propagating silently for a while, it starts doing things like writing cute messages on the terminal or playing strange tricks with your display (...
virus4 is Many nasty viruses, written by particularly perversely minded {cracker}s, do irreversible damage, like nuking all the user's files. In the 1990s, viruses have become a serious problem, especially among IBM PC and Macintosh users (t...
virus5 is viruses to spread easily, even infecting the operating system). The production of special anti-virus software has become an industry, and a number of exaggerated media reports have caused outbreaks of near hysteria among users; many...
virus6 is doesn't work as they had expected on virus attacks. Accordingly, this sense of `virus' has passed not only into techspeak but into also popular usage (where it is often incorrectly used to denote a {worm} or even a {Trojan horse})...
visionary is n. 1. One who hacks vision, in the sense of an Artificial Intelligence researcher working on the problem of getting computers to `see' things using TV cameras. (There isn't any problem in sending information from a TV camera to a...
visionary2 is computer be programmed to make use of the camera information? See {SMOP}, {AI-complete}.) 2. [IBM] One who reads the outside literature. At IBM, apparently, such a penchant is viewed with awe and wonder.
VMS is /V-M-S/ n. DEC's proprietary operating system for its VAX minicomputer; one of the seven or so environments that loom largest in hacker folklore. Many UNIX fans generously concede that VMS would probably be the hacker's favorite commer...
factpacks/jargon-split.fact view on Meta::CPAN
wall2 is you had carefully answered a question, the questioner stared at you blankly, clearly having understood nothing that was explained. You would then throw out a "Hello, wall?" to elicit some sort of response from the questioner. Late...
wall3 is themselves.
wall follower is n. A person or algorithm that compensates for lack of sophistication or native stupidity by efficiently following some simple procedure shown to have been effective in the past. Used of an algorithm, this is not necessarily p...
wall follower2 is the winning robot in an early AI contest (named, of course, after the cocktail). Harvey successfully solved mazes by keeping a `finger' on one wall and running till it came out the other end. This was inelegant, but it was ...
wall follower3 is simply-connected mazes --- and, in fact, Harvey outperformed more sophisticated robots that tried to `learn' each maze by building an internal representation of it. Used of humans, the term *is* pejorative and implies an un...
wall follower4 is See also {code grinder}, {droid}.
wall time is n. (also `wall clock time') 1. `Real world' time (what the clock on the wall shows), as opposed to the system clock's idea of time. 2. The real running time of a program, as opposed to the number of {clocks} required to execute i...
wall time2 is differ, as no one program gets all the {clocks}, and on multiprocessor systems with good thread support one may get more processor clocks than real-time clocks).
wallpaper is n. 1. A file containing a listing (e.g., assembly listing) or a transcript, esp. a file containing a transcript of all or part of a login session. (The idea was that the paper for such listings was essentially good only for wallp...
wallpaper2 is used to cover windows.) Now rare, esp. since other systems have developed other terms for it (e.g., PHOTO on TWENEX). However, the UNIX world doesn't have an equivalent term, so perhaps {wallpaper} will take hold there. The t...
wallpaper3 is commands to begin and end transcript files were `WALBEG' and `WALEND', with default file `WALL PAPER' (the space was a path delimiter). 2. The background pattern used on graphical workstations (this is techspeak under the `Win...
wallpaper4 is 3. `wallpaper file' n. The file that contains the wallpaper information before it is actually printed on paper. (Even if you don't intend ever to produce a real paper copy of the file, it is still called a wallpaper file.)
wango is /wang'goh/ n. Random bit-level {grovel}ling going on in a system during some unspecified operation. Often used in combination with {mumble}. For example "You start with the `.o' file, run it through this postprocessor that does mumb...
wango2 is object-oriented executable."
wank is /wangk/ [Columbia University prob. by mutation from Commonwealth slang v. `wank', to masturbate] n.,v. Used much as {hack} is elsewhere, as a noun denoting a clever technique or person or the result of such cleverness. May describe (n...
wank2 is sake ("Quit wanking, let's go get supper!") or (more positively) a {wizard}. Adj. `wanky' describes something particularly clever (a person, program, or algorithm). Conversations can also get wanky when there are too many wanks ...
wank3 is by an overload of the `wankometer' (compare {bogometer}). When the wankometer overloads, the conversation's subject must be changed, or all non-wanks will leave. Compare `neep-neeping' (under {neep-neep}). Usage U.S. only. In Br...
wank4 is *extremely* rude and is best avoided unless one intends to give offense.
wannabee is /won'*-bee/ (also, more plausibly, spelled `wannabe') [from a term recently used to describe Madonna fans who dress, talk, and act like their idol; prob. originally from biker slang] n. A would-be {hacker}. The connotations of thi...
wannabee2 is and exposure of the subject. Used of a person who is in or might be entering {larval stage}, it is semi-approving; such wannabees can be annoying but most hackers remember that they, too, were once such creatures. When used of ...
wannabee3 is writer, or {suit}, it is derogatory, implying that said person is trying to cuddle up to the hacker mystique but doesn't, fundamentally, have a prayer of understanding what it is all about. Overuse of terms from this lexicon is...
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
aliasing bug2 => then referenced through another, which may lead to subtle (and possibly intermittent) lossage depending on the state and the allocation history of the malloc arena. Avoidable by use of allocation strategies that never alias allocated...
aliasing bug3 => higher-level languages, such as LISP, which employ a garbage collector (see GC). Also called a {stale pointer bug}. See also {precedence lossage}, {smash the stack}, {fandango on core}, {memory leak}, {overrun screw}, spam. Historica...
aliasing bug4 => nowadays associated with C programming, it was already in use in a very similar sense in the Algol-60 and FORTRAN communities in the 1960s.
all-elbows => adj. Of a TSR (terminate-and-stay-resident) IBM PC program, such as the N pop-up calendar and calculator utilities that circulate on BBS systems unsociable. Used to describe a program that rudely steals the resources that it needs witho...
alpha particles => n. See {bit rot}.
ALT => /awlt/ 1. n. The ALT shift key on an IBM PC or clone. 2. [possibly lowercased] n. The `clover' or `Command' key on a Macintosh; use of this term usually reveals that the speaker hacked PCs before coming to the Mac (see also {command key}). Som...
alt bit => /awlt bit/ [from alternate] adj. See {meta bit}.
Aluminum Book => [MIT] n. `Common LISP The Language', by Guy L. Steele Jr. (Digital Press, first edition 1984, second edition 1990). Note that due to a technical screwup some printings of the second edition are actually of a color the author describe...
Aluminum Book2 => also {{book titles}}.
amoeba => n. Humorous term for the Commodore Amiga personal computer.
amp off => [Purdue] vt. To run in background. From the UNIX shell `&' operator.
amper => n. Common abbreviation for the name of the ampersand (`&', ASCII 0100110) character. See ASCII for other synonyms.
angle brackets => n. Either of the characters `<' (ASCII 0111100) and `>' (ASCII 0111110) (ASCII less-than or greater-than signs). The {Real World} angle brackets used by typographers are actually taller than a less-than or greater-than sign. See bro...
angry fruit salad => n. A bad visual-interface design that uses too many colors. This derives, of course, from the bizarre day-glo colors found in canned fruit salad. Too often one sees similar affects from interface designers using color window syst...
angry fruit salad2 => tendency to create displays that are flashy and attention-getting but uncomfortable for long-term use.
AOS => 1. /aws/ (East Coast), /ay-os/ (West Coast) [based on a PDP-10 increment instruction] vt.,obs. To increase the amount of something. "AOS the campfire." Usage considered silly, and now obsolete. Now largely supplanted by bump. See SOS. 2. A {Mu...
app => /ap/ n. Short for `application program', as opposed to a systems program. What systems vendors are forever chasing developers to create for their environments so they can sell more boxes. Hackers tend not to think of the things they themselves...
arc => [primarily MSDOS] vt. To create a compressed archive from a group of files using SEA ARC, PKWare PKARC, or a compatible program. Rapidly becoming obsolete as the ARC compression method is falling into disuse, having been replaced by newer comp...
arc wars => [primarily MSDOS] n. {holy wars} over which archiving program one should use. The first arc war was sparked when System Enhancement Associates (SEA) sued PKWare for copyright and trademark infringement on its ARC program. PKWare's PKARC o...
arc wars2 => and speed while largely retaining compatibility (it introduced a new compression type that could be disabled for backward-compatibility). PKWare settled out of court to avoid enormous legal costs (both SEA and PKWare are small companies)...
arc wars3 => of PKARC was changed to PKPAK. The public backlash against SEA for bringing suit helped to hasten the demise of ARC as a standard when PKWare and others introduced new, incompatible archivers with better compression algorithms.
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
asbestos longjohns => n. Notional garments often donned by USENET posters just before emitting a remark they expect will elicit flamage. This is the most common of the asbestos coinages. Also `asbestos underwear', `asbestos overcoat', etc.
attoparsec => n. `atto-' is the standard SI prefix for multiplication by 10^-18. A parsec (parallax-second) is 3.26 light-years; an attoparsec is thus 3.26 * 10^-18 light years, or about 3.1 cm (thus, 1 attoparsec/microfortnight equals about 1 inch/s...
autobogotiphobia => /aw'to-boh-got`*-foh'bee-*/ n. See bogotify.
automagically => /aw-toh-maj'i-klee/ or /aw-toh-maj'i-k*l-ee/ adv. Automatically, but in a way that, for some reason (typically because it is too complicated, or too ugly, or perhaps even too trivial), the speaker doesn't feel like explaining to you....
avatar => [CMU, Tektronix] n. Syn. root, superuser. There are quite a few UNIX machines on which the name of the superuser account is `avatar' rather than `root'. This quirk was originated by a CMU hacker who disliked the term `superuser', and was pr...
awk => 1. n. [UNIX techspeak] An interpreted language for massaging text data developed by Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan (the name is from their initials). It is characterized by C-like syntax, a declaration-free approach to varia...
backbone cabal => n. A group of large-site administrators who pushed through the {Great Renaming} and reined in the chaos of USENET during most of the 1980s. The cabal {mailing list} disbanded in late 1988 after a bitter internal catfight, but the ne...
backbone site => n. A key USENET and email site; one that processes a large amount of third-party traffic, especially if it is the home site of any of the regional coordinators for the USENET maps. Notable backbone sites as of early 1991 include uune...
backbone site2 => University, UC Berkeley, DEC's Western Research Laboratories, Ohio State University, and the University of Texas. Compare {rib site}, {leaf site}.
backgammon => See bignum, moby, and pseudoprime.
background => n.,adj.,vt. To do a task `in background' is to do it whenever foreground matters are not claiming your undivided attention, and `to background' something means to relegate it to a lower priority. "For now, we'll just print a list of nod...
backspace and overstrike => interj. Whoa! Back up. Used to suggest that someone just said or did something wrong. Common among APL programmers.
backward combatability => /bak'w*rd k*m-bat'*-bil'*-tee/ [from `backward compatibility'] n. A property of hardware or software revisions in which previous protocols, formats, and layouts are discarded in favor of `new and improved' protocols, formats...
backward combatability2 => making the transition between major releases. When the change is so drastic that the old formats are not retained in the new version, it is said to be `backward combatable'. See {flag day}.
BAD => /B-A-D/ [IBM acronym, `Broken As Designed'] adj. Said of a program that is bogus because of bad design and misfeatures rather than because of bugginess. See {working as designed}.
Bad Thing => [from the 1930 Sellar & Yeatman parody `1066 And All That'] n. Something that can't possibly result in improvement of the subject. This term is always capitalized, as in "Replacing all of the 9600-baud modems with bicycle couriers would ...
Bad Thing2 => Thing}. British correspondents confirm that {Bad Thing} and {Good Thing} (and prob. therefore {Right Thing} and {Wrong Thing}) come from the book referenced in the etymology, which discusses rulers who were Good Kings but Bad Things. Th...
Bad Thing3 => mainstream idiom on the British side of the pond.
bag on the side => n. An extension to an established hack that is supposed to add some functionality to the original. Usually derogatory, implying that the original was being overextended and should have been thrown away, and the new product is ugly,...
bag on the side2 => phrase, `to hang a bag on the side [of]'. "C++? That's just a bag on the side of C ...." "They want me to hang a bag on the side of the accounting system."
bagbiter => /bag'bit-*r/ n. 1. Something, such as a program or a computer, that fails to work, or works in a remarkably clumsy manner. "This text editor won't let me make a file with a line longer than 80 characters! What a bagbiter!" 2. A person who...
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bit bashing => n. (alt. `bit diddling' or {bit twiddling}) Term used to describe any of several kinds of low-level programming characterized by manipulation of bit, flag, nybble, and other smaller-than-character-sized pieces of data; these include lo...
bit bashing2 => encryption algorithms, checksum and error-correcting codes, hash functions, some flavors of graphics programming (see bitblt), and assembler/compiler code generation. May connote either tedium or a real technical challenge (more usual...
bit bashing3 => decoding for the new tape driver looks pretty solid but the bit-bashing for the control registers still has bugs." See also {bit bang}, {mode bit}.
bit bucket => n. 1. The universal data sink (originally, the mythical receptacle used to catch bits when they fall off the end of a register during a shift instruction). Discarded, lost, or destroyed data is said to have `gone to the bit bucket'. On ...
bit bucket2 => /dev/null. Sometimes amplified as `the Great Bit Bucket in the Sky'. 2. The place where all lost mail and news messages eventually go. The selection is performed according to {Finagle's Law}; important mail is much more likely to end u...
bit bucket3 => mail, which has an almost 100% probability of getting delivered. Routing to the bit bucket is automatically performed by mail-transfer agents, news systems, and the lower layers of the network. 3. The ideal location for all unwanted ma...
bit bucket4 => article to the bit bucket." Such a request is guaranteed to overflow one's mailbox with flames. 4. Excuse for all mail that has not been sent. "I mailed you those figures last week; they must have ended in the bit bucket." Compare {bla...
bit bucket5 => in jest. It is based on the fanciful notion that bits are objects that are not destroyed but only misplaced. This appears to have been a mutation of an earlier term `bit box', about which the same legend was current; old-time hackers a...
bit bucket6 => told that when the CPU stored bits into memory it was actually pulling them `out of the bit box'. See also {chad box}. Another variant of this legend has it that, as a consequence of the `parity preservation law', the number of 1 bits ...
bit bucket7 => equal the number of 0 bits. Any imbalance results in bits filling up the bit bucket. A qualified computer technician can empty a full bit bucket as part of scheduled maintenance.
bit decay => n. See {bit rot}. People with a physics background tend to prefer this one for the analogy with particle decay. See also computron, {quantum bogodynamics}.
bit rot => n. Also {bit decay}. Hypothetical disease the existence of which has been deduced from the observation that unused programs or features will often stop working after sufficient time has passed, even if `nothing has changed'. The theory exp...
bit rot2 => were radioactive. As time passes, the contents of a file or the code in a program will become increasingly garbled. There actually are physical processes that produce such effects (alpha particles generated by trace radionuclides in ceram...
bit rot3 => change the contents of a computer memory unpredictably, and various kinds of subtle media failures can corrupt files in mass storage), but they are quite rare (and computers are built with error-detecting circuitry to compensate for them)...
bit rot4 => hackers that cosmic rays are among the causes of such events turns out to be a myth; see the {cosmic rays} entry for details. The term {software rot} is almost synonymous. Software rot is the effect, bit rot the notional cause.
bit twiddling => n. 1. (pejorative) An exercise in tuning in which incredible amounts of time and effort go to produce little noticeable improvement, often with the result that the code has become incomprehensible. 2. Aimless small modification to a ...
bit twiddling2 => goal. 3. Approx. syn. for {bit bashing}; esp. used for the act of frobbing the device control register of a peripheral in an attempt to get it back to a known state.
bit-paired keyboard => n. obs. (alt. `bit-shift keyboard') A non-standard keyboard layout that seems to have originated with the Teletype ASR-33 and remained common for several years on early computer equipment. The ASR-33 was a mechanical device (se...
bit-paired keyboard2 => generate the character codes from keystrokes was by some physical linkage. The design of the ASR-33 assigned each character key a basic pattern that could be modified by flipping bits if the SHIFT or the CTRL key was pressed. ...
bit-paired keyboard3 => more of a Rube Goldberg kluge than it already was, the design had to group characters that shared the same basic bit pattern on one key. This is why the characters !"#$%&'() appear where they do on a Teletype (thankfully, they...
bit-paired keyboard4 => was *not* the weirdest variant of the QWERTY layout widely seen, by the way; that prize should probably go to one of several (differing) arrangements on IBM's even clunkier 026 and 029 card punches. When electronic terminals b...
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crank => [from automotive slang] vt. Verb used to describe the performance of a machine, especially sustained performance. "This box cranks (or, cranks at) about 6 megaflops, with a burst mode of twice that on vectorized operations."
crash => 1. n. A sudden, usually drastic failure. Most often said of the system (q.v., sense 1), sometimes of magnetic disk drives. "Three lusers lost their files in last night's disk crash." A disk crash that involves the read/write heads dropping o...
crash and burn => vi.,n. A spectacular crash, in the mode of the conclusion of the car-chase scene in the movie "Bullitt" and many subsequent imitators. Sun-3 monitors losing the flyback transformer and lightning strikes on VAX-11/780 backplanes are ...
crash and burn2 => The construction `crash-and-burn machine' is reported for a computer used exclusively for alpha or beta testing, or reproducing bugs (i.e., not for development). The implication is that it wouldn't be such a disaster if that machin...
crash and burn3 => would be inconvenienced.
crawling horror => n. Ancient crufty hardware or software that is kept obstinately alive by forces beyond the control of the hackers at a site. Like {dusty deck} or gonkulator, but connotes that the thing described is not just an irritation but an ac...
crawling horror2 => "Mostly we code new stuff in C, but they pay us to maintain one big FORTRAN II application from nineteen-sixty-X that's a real crawling horror...." Compare WOMBAT.
cray => /kray/ n. 1. (properly, capitalized) One of the line of supercomputers designed by Cray Research. 2. Any supercomputer at all. 3. The canonical number-crunching machine. The term is actually the lowercased last name of Seymour Cray, a noted c...
cray instability => n. A shortcoming of a program or algorithm that manifests itself only when a large problem is being run on a powerful machine (see cray). Generally more subtle than bugs that can be detected in smaller problems running on a workst...
crayola => /kray-oh'l*/ n. A super-mini or -micro computer that provides some reasonable percentage of supercomputer performance for an unreasonably low price. Might also be a {killer micro}.
crayon => n. 1. Someone who works on Cray supercomputers. More specifically, it implies a programmer, probably of the CDC ilk, probably male, and almost certainly wearing a tie (irrespective of gender). Systems types who have a UNIX background tend n...
creationism => n. The (false) belief that large, innovative designs can be completely specified in advance and then painlessly magicked out of the void by the normal efforts of a team of normally talented programmers. In fact, experience has shown re...
creeping elegance => n. Describes a tendency for parts of a design to become elegant past the point of diminishing return. This often happens at the expense of the less interesting parts of the design, the schedule, and other things deemed important ...
creeping elegance2 => {creeping featurism}, {second-system effect}, tense.
creeping featurism => /kree'ping fee'chr-izm/ n. 1. Describes a systematic tendency to load more chrome and features onto systems at the expense of whatever elegance they may have possessed when originally designed. See also {feeping creaturism}. "Yo...
creeping featurism2 => BSD UNIX has always been creeping featurism." 2. More generally, the tendency for anything complicated to become even more complicated because people keep saying "Gee, it would be even better if it had this feature too". (See f...
creeping featurism3 => a patchwork because it grew one ad-hoc step at a time, rather than being planned. Planning is a lot of work, but it's easy to add just one extra little feature to help someone ... and then another ... and another.... When creep...
creeping featurism4 => like a cancer. Usually this term is used to describe computer programs, but it could also be said of the federal government, the IRS 1040 form, and new cars. A similar phenomenon sometimes afflicts conscious redesigns; see {sec...
creeping featuritis => /kree'ping fee'-chr-i`t*s/ n. Variant of {creeping featurism}, with its own spoonerization `feeping creaturitis'. Some people like to reserve this form for the disease as it actually manifests in software or hardware, as oppose...
creeping featuritis2 => designers' minds. (After all, -ism means `condition' or `pursuit of', whereas -itis usually means `inflammation of'.)
cretin => /kret'n/ or /kree'tn/ n. Congenital loser; an obnoxious person; someone who can't do anything right. It has been observed that many American hackers tend to favor the British pronunciation /kre'tn/ over standard American /kree'tn/; it is th...
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double bucky4 => much like playing a full pipe organ. This idea is mentioned in a parody of a very fine song by Jeffrey Moss called "Rubber Duckie", which was published in `The Sesame Street Songbook' (Simon and Schuster 1971, ISBN 671-21036-X). Thes...
double bucky5 => 1978, in celebration of the Stanford keyboard See also {meta bit}, cokebottle, and {quadruple bucky}.
double DECkers => n. Used to describe married couples in which both partners work for Digital Equipment Corporation.
doubled sig => [USENET] n. A {sig block} that has been included twice in a USENET article or, less commonly, in an electronic mail message. An article or message with a doubled sig can be caused by improperly configured software. More often, however,...
doubled sig2 => experience in electronic communication. See BIFF, pseudo.
down => 1. adj. Not operating. "The up escalator is down" is considered a humorous thing to say, and "The elevator is down" always means "The elevator isn't working" and never refers to what floor the elevator is on. With respect to computers, this u...
download => vt. To transfer data or (esp.) code from a larger `host' system (esp. a mainframe) over a digital comm link to a smaller `client' system, esp. a microcomputer or specialized peripheral. Oppose upload. However, note that ground-to-space co...
DP => /D-P/ n. 1. Data Processing. Listed here because, according to hackers, use of the term marks one immediately as a suit. See DPer. 2. Common abbrev for {Dissociated Press}.
DPB => /d*-pib'/ [from the PDP-10 instruction set] vt. To plop something down in the middle. Usage silly. "DPB yourself into that couch there." The connotation would be that the couch is full except for one slot just big enough for you to sit in. DPB...
DPer => /dee-pee-er/ n. Data Processor. Hackers are absolutely amazed that suits use this term self-referentially. "*Computers* process data, not people!" See DP.
dragon => n. [MIT] A program similar to a daemon, except that it is not invoked at all, but is instead used by the system to perform various secondary tasks. A typical example would be an accounting program, which keeps track of who is logged in, acc...
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...
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fool file, the2 => dimwittery; for this to be really effective, the quote has to be so obviously wrong as to be laughable. More than one USENETter has achieved an unwanted notoriety by being quoted in this way.
Foonly => n. 1. The PDP-10 successor that was to have been built by the Super Foonly project at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory along with a new operating system. The intention was to leapfrog from the old DEC timesharing system SAIL ...
footprint => n. 1. The floor or desk area taken up by a piece of hardware. 2. [IBM] The audit trail (if any) left by a crashed program (often in plural, `footprints'). See also toeprint.
for free => adj. Said of a capability of a programming language or hardware equipment that is available by its design without needing cleverness to implement "In APL, we get the matrix operations for free." "And owing to the way revisions are stored ...
for free2 => trees for free." Usually it refers to a serendipitous feature of doing things a certain way (compare {big win}), but it may refer to an intentional but secondary feature.
for the rest of us => [from the Mac slogan "The computer for the rest of us"] adj. 1. Used to describe a spiffy product whose affordability shames other comparable products, or (more often) used sarcastically to describe spiffy but very overpriced pr...
for the rest of us2 => with a limited interface, deliberately limited capabilities, non-orthogonality, inability to compose primitives, or any other limitation designed to not `confuse' a na"ive user. This places an upper bound on how far that user c...
for the rest of us3 => get in the way of the task instead of helping accomplish it. Used in reference to Macintosh software which doesn't provide obvious capabilities because it is thought that the poor lusers might not be able to handle them. Become...
for the rest of us4 => third-party reference; thus, "Yes, it is an attractive program, but it's designed for The Rest Of Them" means a program that superficially looks neat but has no depth beyond the surface flash. See also {WIMP environment}, Macin...
fora => pl.n. Plural of forum.
foreground => [UNIX] vt. To foreground a task is to bring it to the top of one's stack for immediate processing, and hackers often use it in this sense for non-computer tasks. "If your presentation is due next week, I guess I'd better foreground writ...
forked => [UNIX; prob. influenced by a mainstream expletive] adj. Terminally slow, or dead. Originated when one system slowed to incredibly bad speeds because of a process recursively spawning copies of itself (using the UNIX system call `fork(2)') a...
Fortrash => /for'trash/ n. Hackerism for the FORTRAN language, referring to its primitive design, gross and irregular syntax, limited control constructs, and slippery, exception-filled semantics.
fortune cookie => [UNIX] n. A random quote, item of trivia, joke, or maxim printed to the user's tty at login time or (less commonly) at logout time. Items from this lexicon have often been used as fortune cookies. See {cookie file}.
forum => n. [USENET, GEnie CI$; pl. `fora' or `forums'] Any discussion group accessible through a dial-in BBS, a {mailing list}, or a newsgroup (see {network, the}). A forum functions much like a bulletin board; users submit postings for all to read ...
fossil => n. 1. In software, a misfeature that becomes understandable only in historical context, as a remnant of times past retained so as not to break compatibility. Example the retention of octal as default base for string escapes in C, in spite o...
four-color glossies => 1. Literature created by marketroids that allegedly containing technical specs but which is in fact as superficial as possible without being totally content-free. "Forget the four-color glossies, give me the tech ref manuals." ...
four-color glossies2 => superficiality even when the material is printed on ordinary paper in black and white. Four-color-glossy manuals are *never* useful for finding a problem. 2. [rare] Applied by extension to manual pages that don't contain enoug...
four-color glossies3 => program doesn't produce the expected or desired output.
fragile => adj. Syn brittle.
fred => n. 1. The personal name most frequently used as a metasyntactic variable (see foo). Allegedly popular because it's easy for a non-touch-typist to type on a standard QWERTY keyboard. Unlike {J. Random Hacker} or `J. Random Loser', this name ha...
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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...
gumby => /guhm'bee/ [from a class of Monty Python characters, poss. themselves named after the 1960s claymation character] n. An act of minor but conspicuous stupidity, often in `gumby maneuver' or `pull a gumby'.
gun => [ITS from the `GUN' command] vt. To forcibly terminate a program or job (computer, not career). "Some idiot left a background process running soaking up half the cycles, so I gunned it." Compare can.
gunch => /guhnch/ [TMRC] vt. To push, prod, or poke at a device that has almost produced the desired result. Implies a threat to mung.
gurfle => /ger'fl/ interj. An expression of shocked disbelief. "He said we have to recode this thing in FORTRAN by next week. Gurfle!" Compare weeble.
guru => n. 1. [UNIX] An expert. Implies not only wizard skill but also a history of being a knowledge resource for others. Less often, used (with a qualifier) for other experts on other systems, as in `VMS guru'. See {source of all good bits}. 2. Ami...
ha ha only serious => [from SF fandom, orig. as mutation of HHOK, `Ha Ha Only Kidding'] A phrase (often seen abbreviated as HHOS) that aptly captures the flavor of much hacker discourse. Applied especially to parodies, absurdities, and ironic jokes t...
ha ha only serious2 => to contain a possibly disquieting amount of truth, or truths that are constructed on in-joke and self-parody. This lexicon contains many examples of ha-ha-only-serious in both form and content. Indeed, the entirety of hacker cu...
ha ha only serious3 => ha-ha-only-serious by hackers themselves; to take it either too lightly or too seriously marks a person as an outsider, a wannabee, or in {larval stage}. For further enlightenment on this subject, consult any Zen master. See al...
hack => 1. n. Originally, a quick job that produces what is needed, but not well. 2. n. An incredibly good, and perhaps very time-consuming, piece of work that produces exactly what is needed. 3. vt. To bear emotionally or physically. "I can't hack t...
hack attack => [poss. by analogy with `Big Mac Attack' from ads for the McDonald's fast-food chain; the variant `big hack attack' is reported] n. Nearly synonymous with {hacking run}, though the latter more strongly implies an all-nighter.
hack mode => n. 1. What one is in when hacking, of course. 2. More specifically, a Zen-like state of total focus on The Problem that may be achieved when one is hacking (this is why every good hacker is part mystic). Ability to enter such concentrati...
hack mode2 => wizardliness; it is one of the most important skills learned during {larval stage}. Sometimes amplified as `deep hack mode'. Being yanked out of hack mode (see {priority interrupt}) may be experienced as a physical shock, and the sensat...
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loss => n. Something (not a person) that loses; a situation in which something is losing. Emphatic forms include `moby loss', and `total loss', `complete loss'. Common interjections are "What a loss!" and "What a moby loss!" Note that `moby loss' is ...
lossage => /los'*j/ n. The result of a bug or malfunction. This is a mass or collective noun. "What a loss!" and "What lossage!" are nearly synonymous. The former is slightly more particular to the speaker's present circumstances; the latter implies ...
lost in the noise => adj. Syn. {lost in the underflow}. This term is from signal processing, where signals of very small amplitude cannot be separated from low-intensity noise in the system. Though popular among hackers, it is not confined to hackerd...
lost in the noise2 => astronomers, and statisticians all use it.
lost in the underflow => adj. Too small to be worth considering; more specifically, small beyond the limits of accuracy or measurement. This is a reference to `floating underflow', a condition that can occur when a floating-point arithmetic processor...
lost in the underflow2 => than its limit of magnitude. It is also a pun on `undertow' (a kind of fast, cold current that sometimes runs just offshore and can be dangerous to swimmers). "Well, sure, photon pressure from the stadium lights alters the p...
lost in the underflow3 => effect gets lost in the underflow." See also {overflow bit}.
lots of MIPS but no I/O => adj. Used to describe a person who is technically brilliant but can't seem to communicate with human beings effectively. Technically it describes a machine that has lots of processing power but is bottlenecked on input-outp...
lots of MIPS but no I/O2 => RS/6000, is a notorious recent example).
low-bandwidth => [from communication theory] adj. Used to indicate a talk that, although not content-free, was not terribly informative. "That was a low-bandwidth talk, but what can you expect for an audience of suits!" Compare zero-content, bandwidt...
LPT => /L-P-T/ or /lip'it/ or /lip-it'/ [MIT, via DEC] n. Line printer, of course. Rare under UNIX, commoner in hackers with MS-DOS or CP/M background. The printer device is called `LPT' on those systems that, like ITS, were strongly influenced by ea...
lunatic fringe => [IBM] n. Customers who can be relied upon to accept release 1 versions of software.
lurker => n. One of the `silent majority' in a electronic forum; one who posts occasionally or not at all but is known to read the group's postings regularly. This term is not pejorative and indeed is casually used reflexively "Oh, I'm just lurking."...
luser => /loo'zr/ n. A user; esp. one who is also a loser. (luser and loser are pronounced identically.) This word was coined around 1975 at MIT. Under ITS, when you first walked up to a terminal at MIT and typed Control-Z to get the computer's atten...
macdink => /mak'dink/ [from the Apple Macintosh, which is said to encourage such behavior] vt. To make many incremental and unnecessary cosmetic changes to a program or file. Often the subject of the macdinking would be better off without them. "When...
machinable => adj. Machine-readable. Having the softcopy nature.
machoflops => /mach'oh-flops/ [pun on `megaflops', a coinage for `millions of FLoating-point Operations Per Second'] n. Refers to artificially inflated performance figures often quoted by computer manufacturers. Real applications are lucky to get hal...
Macintoy => /mak'in-toy/ n. The Apple Macintosh, considered as a toy. Less pejorative than Macintrash.
Macintrash => /mak'in-trash`/ n. The Apple Macintosh, as described by a hacker who doesn't appreciate being kept away from the *real computer* by the interface. The term maggotbox has been reported in regular use in the Research Triangle area of Nort...
macro => /mak'roh/ [techspeak] n. A name (possibly followed by a formal arg list) that is equated to a text or symbolic expression to which it is to be expanded (possibly with the substitution of actual arguments) by a macro expander. This definition...
macro- => pref. Large. Opposite of micro-. In the mainstream and among other technical cultures (for example, medical people) this competes with the prefix mega-, but hackers tend to restrict the latter to quantification.
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since time T equals minus infinity => adj. A long time ago; for as long as anyone can remember; at the time that some particular frob was first designed. Usually the word `time' is omitted. See also {time T}.
sitename => /sit'naym/ [UNIX/Internet] n. The unique electronic name of a computer system, used to identify it in UUCP mail, USENET, or other forms of electronic information interchange. The folklore interest of sitenames stems from the creativity an...
skrog => v. Syn. scrog.
skulker => n. Syn. prowler.
slap on the side => n. (also called a sidecar, or abbreviated `SOTS'.) A type of external expansion hardware marketed by computer manufacturers (e.g., Commodore for the Amiga 500/1000 series and IBM for the hideous failure called `PCjr'). Various SOT...
slap on the side2 => as memory, hard drive controllers, and conventional expansion slots.
slash => n. Common name for the slant (`/', ASCII 0101111) character. See ASCII for other synonyms.
sleep => vi. 1. [techspeak] On a timesharing system, a process that relinquishes its claim on the scheduler until some given event occurs or a specified time delay elapses is said to `go to sleep'. 2. In jargon, used very similarly to v. block; also ...
slim => n. A small, derivative change (e.g., to code).
slop => n. 1. A one-sided {fudge factor}, that is, an allowance for error but in only one of two directions. For example, if you need a piece of wire 10 feet long and have to guess when you cut it, you make very sure to cut it too long, by a large am...
slopsucker => /slop'suhk-r/ n. A lowest-priority task that must wait around until everything else has `had its fill' of machine resources. Only when the machine would otherwise be idle is the task allowed to `suck up the slop'. Also called a {hungry ...
slurp => vt. To read a large data file entirely into core before working on it. This may be contrasted with the strategy of reading a small piece at a time, processing it, and then reading the next piece. "This program slurps in a 1K-by-1K matrix and...
smart => adj. Said of a program that does the {Right Thing} in a wide variety of complicated circumstances. There is a difference between calling a program smart and calling it intelligent; in particular, there do not exist any intelligent programs (...
smart terminal => n. A terminal that has enough computing capability to render graphics or to offload some kind of front-end processing from the computer it talks to. The development of workstations and personal computers has made this term and the p...
smart terminal2 => semi-obsolescent, but one may still hear variants of the phrase `act like a smart terminal' used to describe the behavior of workstations or PCs with respect to programs that execute almost entirely out of a remote server's storage...
smart terminal3 => Compare {glass tty}. There is a classic quote from Rob Pike (inventor of the blit terminal) "A smart terminal is not a smart*ass* terminal, but rather a terminal you can educate." This illustrates a common design problem The attemp...
smart terminal4 => else) intelligent sometimes results in finicky, rigid `special features' that become just so much dead weight if you try to use the device in any way the designer didn't anticipate. Flexibility and programmability, on the other han...
smash case => vi. To lose or obliterate the uppercase/lowercase distinction in text input. "MS-DOS will automatically smash case in the names of all the files you create." Compare {fold case}.
smash the stack => [C programming] n. On many C implementations it is possible to corrupt the execution stack by writing past the end of an array declared `auto' in a routine. Code that does this is said to `smash the stack', and can cause return fro...
smash the stack2 => address. This can produce some of the most insidious data-dependent bugs known to mankind. Variants include `trash' the stack, scribble the stack, mangle the stack; the term *mung the stack is not used, as this is never done inten...
smash the stack3 => also {aliasing bug}, {fandango on core}, {memory leak}, {precedence lossage}, {overrun screw}.
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
Version 72 => old-timers impatient with commercialization and kernel bloat still maintain that V7 was the Last True UNIX.
vgrep => /vee'grep/ v.,n. Visual grep. The operation of finding patterns in a file optically rather than digitally. See grep; compare vdiff.
vi => /V-I/, *not* /vi/ and *never* /siks/ [from `Visual Interface'] n. A screen editor crufted together by Bill Joy for an early BSD version. Became the de facto standard UNIX editor and a nearly undisputed hacker favorite until the rise of EMACS af...
videotex => n. obs. An electronic service offering people the privilege of paying to read the weather on their television screens instead of having somebody read it to them for free while they brush their teeth. The idea bombed everywhere it wasn't g...
virgin => adj. Unused; pristine; in a known initial state. "Let's bring up a virgin system and see if it crashes again." (Esp. useful after contracting a virus through SEX.) Also, by extension, buffers and the like within a program that have not yet ...
virtual => [via the technical term `virtual memory', prob. from the term `virtual image' in optics] adj. 1. Common alternative to logical. 2. Simulated; performing the functions of something that isn't really there. An imaginative child's doll may be...
virtual Friday => n. The last day before an extended weekend, if that day is not a `real' Friday. For example, the U.S. holiday Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday. The next day is often also a holiday or taken as an extra day off, in which case Wed...
virtual Friday2 => Friday (and Thursday is a virtual Saturday, as is Friday). There are also `virtual Mondays' that are actually Tuesdays, after the three-day weekends associated with many national holidays in the U.S.
virtual reality => n. 1. Computer simulations that use 3-D graphics and devices such as the Dataglove to allow the user to interact with the simulation. See cyberspace. 2. A form of network interaction incorporating aspects of role-playing games, int...
virtual reality2 => comedy, and `true confessions' magazines. In a virtual reality forum (such as USENET's alt.callahans newsgroup or the MUD experiments on Internet), interaction between the participants is written like a shared novel complete with ...
virtual reality3 => that may be personae utterly unlike the people who write them, and common `background characters' manipulable by all parties. The one iron law is that you may not write irreversible changes to a character without the consent of th...
virtual reality4 => anything goes. See bamf, cyberspace.
virus => [from the obvious analogy with biological viruses, via SF] n. A cracker program that searches out other programs and `infects' them by embedding a copy of itself in them, so that they become {Trojan Horse}s. When these programs are executed,...
visionary => n. 1. One who hacks vision, in the sense of an Artificial Intelligence researcher working on the problem of getting computers to `see' things using TV cameras. (There isn't any problem in sending information from a TV camera to a compute...
VMS => /V-M-S/ n. DEC's proprietary operating system for its VAX minicomputer; one of the seven or so environments that loom largest in hacker folklore. Many UNIX fans generously concede that VMS would probably be the hacker's favorite commercial OS ...
voice => vt. To phone someone, as opposed to emailing them or connecting in talk mode. "I'm busy now; I'll voice you later."
voice-net => n. Hackish way of referring to the telephone system, analogizing it to a digital network. USENET {sig block}s not uncommonly include the sender's phone next to a "Voice" or "Voice-Net" header; common variants of this are "Voicenet" and "...
voodoo programming => [from George Bush's "voodoo economics"] n. The use by guess or cookbook of an obscure or hairy system, feature, or algorithm that one does not truly understand. The implication is that the technique may not work, and if it doesn...
voodoo programming2 => Almost synonymous with {black magic}, except that black magic typically isn't documented and *nobody* understands it. Compare magic, {deep magic}, {heavy wizardry}, {rain dance}, {cargo cult programming}, {wave a dead chicken}....
VR => // [MUD] n. On-line abbrev for {virtual reality}, as opposed to RL.
Vulcan nerve pinch => n. [from the old "Star Trek" TV series via Commodore Amiga hackers] The keyboard combination that forces a soft-boot or jump to ROM monitor (on machines that support such a feature). On many micros this is Ctrl-Alt-Del; on Suns,...
factpacks/jargon.fact view on Meta::CPAN
walking drives2 => with the floor could cause them to `walk' across a room, lurching alternate corners forward a couple of millimeters at a time. There is a legend about a drive that walked over to the only door to the computer room and jammed it shu...
walking drives3 => wall in order to get at it! Walking could also be induced by certain patterns of drive access (a fast seek across the whole width of the disk, followed by a slow seek in the other direction). Some bands of old-time hackers figured ...
walking drives4 => patterns that would do this to particular drive models and held disk-drive races.
wall => [WPI] interj. 1. An indication of confusion, usually spoken with a quizzical tone "Wall??" 2. A request for further explication. Compare {octal forty}. It is said that "Wall?" really came from `like talking to a blank wall'. It was initially ...
wall follower => n. A person or algorithm that compensates for lack of sophistication or native stupidity by efficiently following some simple procedure shown to have been effective in the past. Used of an algorithm, this is not necessarily pejorativ...
wall follower2 => the winning robot in an early AI contest (named, of course, after the cocktail). Harvey successfully solved mazes by keeping a `finger' on one wall and running till it came out the other end. This was inelegant, but it was mathemati...
wall follower3 => simply-connected mazes --- and, in fact, Harvey outperformed more sophisticated robots that tried to `learn' each maze by building an internal representation of it. Used of humans, the term *is* pejorative and implies an uncreative,...
wall follower4 => See also {code grinder}, droid.
wall time => n. (also `wall clock time') 1. `Real world' time (what the clock on the wall shows), as opposed to the system clock's idea of time. 2. The real running time of a program, as opposed to the number of clocks required to execute it (on a ti...
wall time2 => differ, as no one program gets all the clocks, and on multiprocessor systems with good thread support one may get more processor clocks than real-time clocks).
wallpaper => n. 1. A file containing a listing (e.g., assembly listing) or a transcript, esp. a file containing a transcript of all or part of a login session. (The idea was that the paper for such listings was essentially good only for wallpaper, as...
wango => /wang'goh/ n. Random bit-level grovelling going on in a system during some unspecified operation. Often used in combination with mumble. For example "You start with the `.o' file, run it through this postprocessor that does mumble-wango --- ...
wank => /wangk/ [Columbia University prob. by mutation from Commonwealth slang v. `wank', to masturbate] n.,v. Used much as hack is elsewhere, as a noun denoting a clever technique or person or the result of such cleverness. May describe (negatively)...
wannabee => /won'*-bee/ (also, more plausibly, spelled `wannabe') [from a term recently used to describe Madonna fans who dress, talk, and act like their idol; prob. originally from biker slang] n. A would-be hacker. The connotations of this term dif...
warm boot => n. See boot.
wart => n. A small, crocky feature that sticks out of an otherwise clean design. Something conspicuous for localized ugliness, especially a special-case exception to a general rule. For example, in some versions of `csh(1)', single quotes literalize ...
washing machine => n. Old-style 14-inch hard disks in floor-standing cabinets. So called because of the size of the cabinet and the `top-loading' access to the media packs --- and, of course, they were always set on `spin cycle'. The washing-machine ...
washing machine2 => it is even used in Russian hacker jargon. See also {walking drives}. The thick channel cables connecting these were called `bit hoses' (see hose).
water MIPS => n. (see MIPS, sense 2) Large, water-cooled machines of either today's ECL-supercomputer flavor or yesterday's traditional mainframe type.
wave a dead chicken => v. To perform a ritual in the direction of crashed software or hardware that one believes to be futile but is nevertheless necessary so that others are satisfied that an appropriate degree of effort has been expended. "I'll wav...
wave a dead chicken2 => code, but I really think we've run into an OS bug." Compare {voodoo programming}, {rain dance}.
factpacks/pTkfunc.fact view on Meta::CPAN
scale => Create and manipulate scale widgets - TkWidget Classes
scrollbar => Create and manipulate scrollbar widgets - TkWidget Classes
text => Create and manipulate text widgets - TkWidget Classes
toplevel => Create and manipulate toplevel widgets - TkWidget Classes
fileevent => Execute a callback when a file becomes readable or writable - PartiallyConverted Methods
send => Execute a command in a different application - PartiallyConverted Methods
Composite => composite widget class - Perl/TkConstructs
ConfigSpec => Defining behaviour of 'configure' for composite widgets. - Perl/TkConstructs
OnDestroy => Arrange for callback when widget is destroyed. - Perl/TkConstructs
Tk => An overview of an Object Oriented Tk4.0 extension for perl5 - Perl/TkConstructs
Tk::Error => Method invoked to process background errors - Perl/TkConstructs
callbacks => Specifying code for Tk to call. - Perl/TkConstructs
Mwm => Communicate with the Motif(tm) window manager. - TixExtensions
Wm => Tix's addition to the standard TK wm command. - TixExtensions
after => Execute a command after a time delay - TkGeneric Methods
appname => Application name for options and send - TkGeneric Methods
bind => Arrange for X events to invoke callbacks - TkGeneric Methods
bindtags => Determine which bindings apply to a window, and order of evaluation - TkGeneric Methods
configure => Change or inquire the attributes of an object. - TkGeneric Methods
destroy => Destroy one or more windows - TkGeneric Methods
exit => Exit the process - TkGeneric Methods
factpacks/pTkfunc.fact view on Meta::CPAN
winfo => Return window-related information - TkGeneric Methods
wm => Communicate with window manager - TkGeneric Methods
grid => Geometry manager that arranges widgets in a grid - TkGeometry Management
lower => Change a window's position in the stacking order - TkGeometry Management
pack => Geometry manager that packs around edges of cavity - TkGeometry Management
place => Geometry manager for fixed or rubber-sheet placement - TkGeometry Management
raise => Change a window's position in the stacking order - TkGeometry Management
bitmap => Images that display two colors - TkImage Classes
image => Create and manipulate images - TkImage Classes
photo => Full-color images - TkImage Classes
Tk_BackgroundError => report Tcl error that occurred in background processing - TkLibrary Procedures
Tk_CanvasPsY => utility procedures for generating Postscript for canvases - TkLibrary Procedures
Tk_CanvasTextInfo => additional information for managing text items in canvases - TkLibrary Procedures
Tk_CanvasTkwin => utility procedures for canvas type managers - TkLibrary Procedures
Tk_ClearSelection => Deselect a selection - TkLibrary Procedures
Tk_ClipboardClear => Manage the clipboard - TkLibrary Procedures
Tk_ConfigureWidget => process configuration options for widgets - TkLibrary Procedures
Tk_ConfigureWindow => change window configuration or attributes - TkLibrary Procedures
Tk_CoordsToWindow => Find window containing a point - TkLibrary Procedures
Tk_CreateBindingTable => invoke scripts in response to X events - TkLibrary Procedures
Tk_CreateErrorHandler => handle X protocol errors - TkLibrary Procedures
factpacks/techdict.fact view on Meta::CPAN
DMA => (Direct Memory Access) PCs have DMA channels that allow certain devices to directly access memory in order to speed up the process.
DMI => (Desktop Management Interface) This interface standard is designed to allow PCs to intelligently broadcast information on their system configurations and support remote management so that they can be managed more easily.
DMTF => (Desktop Management Task Force) This motley crew was assembled to create the DMI standard.
DNS => (Domain Name Service) This service maps TCP/IP numbers such as 123.12.4.245 to a more easily remembered name, such as www.ugeek.com. Thus, when you type www.ugeek.com into your browser, it goes out to the DNS server you specified when you inst...
DNS Entry => The DNS routing tables are filled with DNS entries that map TCP/IP addresses to more easily recognized names. If your browser says it can't find a particular DNS entry, here are some possible reasons: => You may not be able to communicat...
Domain name => Domain names are used to represent more complex TCP/IP addresses. For example, we purchased the UGeek.com domain name so we could use it to represent our server's address. You purchase domain names through the InterNIC. They can be rea...
Domain Name Service => See DNS.
DOS => (Disk Operating System) This OS is what got it all started for PCs.
Dot Matrix Printer => This type of printer prints out little dots that can form graphics or characters. This type of printer was popular a while back because the only other choice was a daisy-wheel printer that didn't print any graphics. These printe...
Dot Pitch => The smaller the better, as it relates to monitors. The dot pitch is a measure of distance between phosphor dots of the same color on a CRT monitor. A high dot pitch generally produces a blurred and unclear picture. Smaller dot pitches pr...
Double Buffering => This shows you that the graphics engine uses two layers, or buffers, to produce an image: one for display and one for rendering. Since the viewer only sees the finished image, this allows for smooth-motion animation. (Again, play ...
DPMA => (Dynamic Power Management Architecture) This architecture allows computers to have a variety of advanced power management features.
DRAM => (Dynamic Random Access Memory) The standard and cheapest memory available. The fastest DRAM is about 60 nanoseconds. This is the most common form of computer memory. It needs to be continually refreshed in order to properly hold data, thus th...
Drive Bay => Usually a 5.25"-wide 1"-tall hole in a computer case, suitable for the installation of some sort of drive. Some are exposed so that a removable drive (e.g., floppy, CD-ROM) can fit. Some are not exposed and are meant for hard drives, tap...
Driver => A driver is software that works to communicate between an operating system and a peripheral. Think of it as a translator. If you use a crappy driver, your OS won't understand your video card and may become unstable and crash. Hardware manuf...
DS-0 => (Digital Signal level 0) This is the signal used to carry a standard analog or digital phone line connection. 24 DS-0 connections can be carried on a T1 line. The speed of the signal is either 64 Kbps, or 56 Kbps if the eighth bit is used for...
DS-1 => (Digital Signal level 1) Synonym for T1.
DS-3 => (Digital Signal level 3) Synonym for T3.
DS-4 => (Digital Signal level 4) Synonym for T4.
DSP => (Digital Signal Processor) A DSP is a microprocessor designed to work with analog signals such as video or audio that have been digitally encoded. The DSP then takes these digital representations and performs operations on them. DSPs are used ...
DSTN => (Double-layer Supertwist Nematic) This is a form of passive matrix LCD screen. It is an improved version of the standard supertwist nematic passive matrix LCD screen where the display is divided into two sections and addressed separately to d...
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