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= K =
KAHUNA (k@-hoo'nuh) [IBM, from the Hawaiian title for a shaman] n.
Synonym for WIZARD, GURU (q.v.).
KEN (ken) n. A flaming user. This noun was in use by the Software
Support group at Symbolics because the two greatest flamers in the
user community were both named Ken.
KILL FILE (kill fiel) [USENET] n. Some USENET readers allow users to
set filter patterns against which news messages are compared, then
ignored (not presented by the reader) if the match succeeds. The
file in which these patterns are stored is called the user's kill
file. Thus to "add a person (or subject) to one's kill file" is to
arrange for that person to be ignored by your newsreader in future.
By extension, it may be used for a decision to ignore the person or
subject in other media.
KILLER MICRO (kil'r mi'kroh) [popularized by Eugene Brooks] n. A
microprocessor-based machine that infringes on mini, mainframe or
supercomputer performance turf. Often heard in "No one will survive
the attack of the killer micros!", the battle cry of the
downsizers. Used esp. of RISC (q.v.) architectures.
KLEENE STAR (kleen star) n. See REGULAR EXPRESSIONS.
KLUGE (kloodj) alt. KLUDGE (kluhdj) [from the German "kluge", clever]
(`kloodj' is the original pronunciation, more common in the US;
`kluhdge' is reported more common in England). n. 1. A Rube
Goldberg device in hardware or software. 2. A clever programming
trick intended to solve a particular nasty case in an efficient, if
not clear, manner. Often used to repair bugs. Often verges on
being a crock. 3. Something that works for the wrong reason. 4.
v. To insert a kluge into a program. "I've kluged this routine to
get around that weird bug, but there's probably a better way."
Also KLUGE UP. 5. KLUGE AROUND: To avoid by inserting a kluge. 6.
[WPI] A feature which is implemented in a RUDE manner.
= L =
LACE CARD (lays kard) n. obs. A Hollerith card with all holes punched
(also called a WHOOPEE CARD). Some cardpunches actually jammed on
the amount of CHAD generated by one of these.
LANGUAGE LAWYER (lan'gw@j law'yr) n. A person, usually an experienced
or senior software engineer, who is intimately familiar with many
or most of the numerous syntactic and semantic restrictions (both
useful and esoteric) applicable to one or more computer programming
languages.
LANGUAGES OF CHOICE n. C or LISP. Essentially all hackers know one of
these and most good ones are fluent in both. Smalltalk and Prolog
are popular in small but influential communities. Assembler used
to be a language of choice, but is generally no longer considered
interesting or appropriate for anything but compiler code
generation and a few time-critical uses in systems programs.
LARVAL STAGE (lar'vl stayj) n. Describes a period of monomaniacal
concentration on coding apparently passed through by all fledgeling
hackers. Common symptoms include: the perpetration of more than one
36-hour HACKING RUN in a given week, neglect of all other
activities including usual basics like food and sex, and a chronic
case of advanced bleary-eye. Can last from six months to two years,
with the apparent median being around eighteen months. A few so
afflicted never resume a more `normal' life, but the ordeal seems
to be necessary to produce really wizardly (as opposed to merely
competent) programmers. A less protracted and intense version of
larval stage (typically lasting about a month) may recur when
learning a new OS or programming language.
LASE (layz) vt. To print a given document via a laser printer. "OK,
let's lase that sucker and see if all those graphics-macro calls
did the right things." Compare DIABLO in Appendix B.
LERP (lerp) v.,n. Quasi-acronym for Linear Interpolation, used as as a
verb or noun for the operation. Ex. Bresenham's algorithm lerps
incrementally between the two endpoints of the line.
LEXER (lek'sr) n. Common hacker shorthand for "lexical analyzer", the
input-tokenizing stage in the parser for a language. "Some C lexers
get confused by the old-style compound ops like =-"
LIFE (lief) n. A cellular-automata game invented by John Horton
Conway, and first introduced publicly by Martin Gardner (Scientific
American, October 1970). Many hackers pass through a stage of
fascination with it.
LINE EATER, THE (lien ee'tr, dh@) [USENET] n. A bug in some
now-obsolete versions of the netnews software used to cause the
first lines of articles to be discarded under some circumstances.
This bug was personified into mythical creature called "the line
eater", and postings often included a dummy line of "line eater
food". The practice of "sacrificing to the line eater" continued
for some time after the bug had been nailed to the wall, and is
still humorously referred to.
LINE STARVE (lien stahrv) [MIT] Inverse of `line feed'; a character or
character sequence which causes a printer to back up one line
depth.
LINK FARM (link farm) [UNIX] n. A directory tree that contains many
links to files another, master directory tree of files. Link farms
save space when maintaining several nearly identical copies of the
same source tree, e.g. when the only difference is
architecture-dependent object files. Example use: `Let's freeze
the source and then rebuild the FROBOZZ-3 and FROBOZZ-4 link
farms.' Link farms may also be used to get around restrictions on
the number of -I arguments on older C preprocessors.
LINT (lint) [from UNIX's lint(1)] v. To examine a program closely for
style, language usage, and portability problems, esp. if in C, esp.
if via use of automated analysis tools, most esp. if the UNIX
utility lint(1) is used. This term used to be restricted to use of
lint(1) itself but (judging by references on the USENET) has become
a shorthand for `desk-check' at some non-UNIX shops, even in some
languages other than C.
LION FOOD (lie'@n food) [IBM] n. Middle management or HQ staff (by
extension, administrative drones in general). From an old joke about
two lions who, escaping from the zoo, split up to increase their
chances but agreed to meet after two months. When they do meet, one
is skinny and the other overweight. The thin one says "How did you
manage? I ate a human just once and they turned out a small army to
chase me -- guns, nets, it was terrible. Since then I've been reduced to
eating mice, insects, even grass." The fat one replies "Well, *I* hid
near an IBM office and ate a manager a day. And nobody even noticed!"
LISP (lisp) n. The name of AI's mother tongue, a language based on the
ideas of 1) variable-length lists and trees as fundamental data
types, and 2) the interpretation of code as data and vice-versa.
Invented by John McCarthy at Stanford in the late 1950s, it is
actually older than any other HLL still in use except FORTRAN. The
hands-down favorite of hackers until the early 1980s, it now shares
the throne with C (q.v.). See LANGUAGES OF CHOICE.
LITTLE-ENDIAN (lit'l-end'y@n) adj. Describes a computer architecture
in which, within a given 16- or 32-bit word, lower byte addresses
have lower significance (the word is stored `little-end-first').
The PDP-11 and VAX families of computers and a lot of
communications and networking hardware are little-endian. See
BIG-ENDIAN.
LIVELOCK (liev'lok) n. A situation in which some critical stage of a
task is unable to finish because its clients perpetually create
more work for it to do after they've been serviced but before it
can clear. Differs from DEADLOCK in that the process is not
blocked or waiting for anything, but has a virtually infinite
amount of work to do and accomplishes nothing.
LOGIC BOMB (lo'jik bom) n. Code surreptitiously inserted in an
application or OS which causes it to perform some destructive or
security-compromising activity whenever specified conditions are
met. Compare BACK DOOR.
LOGICAL (lo'ji-kl) [from the technical term "logical device", wherein
a physical device is referred to by an arbitrary name] adj.
Understood to have a meaning not necessarily corresponding to
reality. E.g., if a person who has long held a certain post (e.g.,
Les Earnest at SAIL) left and was replaced, the replacement would
for a while be known as the "logical Les Earnest". The word
VIRTUAL is also used. At SAIL, "logical" compass directions
denoted a coordinate system in which "logical north" is toward San
Francisco, "logical west" is toward the ocean, etc., even though
logical north varies between physical (true) north near San
Franscisco and physical west near San Jose. (The best rule of
thumb here is that El Camino Real by definition always runs logical
north-and-south.)
LORD HIGH FIXER (lord hie fik'sr) [primarily British] n. The person
in an organisation who knows the most about some aspect of a
system. See WIZARD.
LOSE (looz) [from MIT jargon] v. 1. To fail. A program loses when it
encounters an exceptional condition. 2. To be exceptionally
unaesthetic. 3. Of people, to be obnoxious or unusually stupid (as
opposed to ignorant). 4. DESERVE TO LOSE: v. Said of someone who
willfully does the wrong thing; humorously, if one uses a feature
known to be marginal. What is meant is that one deserves the
consequences of one's losing actions. "Boy, anyone who tries to
use MULTICS deserves to lose!" See also SCREW, CHOMP, BAGBITER.
LOSE LOSE - a reply or comment on a situation.
LOSER (loo'zr) n. An unexpectedly bad situation, program, programmer,
or person. Especially "real loser".
LOSS (los) n. Something which loses. WHAT A (MOBY) LOSS!:
interjection.
LOSSAGE (los'@j) n. The result of a bug or malfunction.
LPT (lip'it) [ITS] 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, which like ITS were
strongly influenced by early DEC conventions).
LURKER (ler'ker) n. One of the `silent majority' in a USENET or BBS newsgroup;
one who posts occasionally or not at all but is known to read the
group regularly. Often in `THE LURKERS', the hypothetical audience
for the group's FLAMING regulars.
LUNATIC FRINGE (l[y]oo'na-tik frinj) [IBM] n. Customers
who can be relied upon to accept release 1 versions of software.
LUSER (loo'zr) See USER.
= M =
MACDINK (mak'dink) [from the Apple Macintosh, which is said to
encourage such behavior] v. To make many incremental and
unnecessary cosmetic changes to a program or file. Frequently the
subject of the macdinking would be better off without them. Ex:
"When I left at 11pm last night, he was still macdinking the slides
for his presentation."
MACRO (mak'ro) n. A name (possibly followed by a formal ARG list)
which is equated to a text expression to which it is to be expanded
(possibly with substitution of actual arguments) by a language
translator. This definition can be found in any technical
dictionary; what those won't tell you is how the hackish
connotations of the term have changed over time. The term `macro'
originated in early assemblers, which encouraged use of macros as a
structuring and information-hiding device. During the early 70s
macro assemblers became ubiquitous and sometimes quite as powerful
and expensive as HLLs, only to fall from favor as improving
compiler technology marginalized assembler programming (see
LANGUAGES OF CHOICE). Nowadays the term is most often used in
connection with the C preprocessor, LISP, or one of several
special-purpose languages built around a macro-expansion facility
(such as TEX or UNIX's nroff, troff and pic suite). Indeed, the
meaning has drifted enough that the collective `macros' is now
sometimes used for code in any special-purpose application-control
control language, whether or not the language is actually
translated by text expansion.
MACROLOGY (mak-ro'l@-jee) n. Set of usually complex or crufty macros,
e.g. as part of a large system written in LISP, TECO or (less
commonly) assembler. Sometimes studying the macrology of a system
is not unlike archaeology, hence the sound-alike construction.
Prob. influenced by THEOLOGY (q.v.).
MANGO (mang'go) [orig. in-house slang at Symbolics] n. A manager.
See also DEVO and DOCO.
MACROTAPE (ma'kro-tayp) n. An industry standard reel of tape, as
opposed to a MICROTAPE.
MAGIC (ma'jik) adj. 1. As yet unexplained, or too complicated to
explain. (compare Clarke's Second Law: "Any sufficiently advanced
technology is indistinguishable from magic".) "TTY echoing is
controlled by a large number of magic bits." "This routine
magically computes the parity of an eight-bit byte in three
instructions." 2. [Stanford] A feature not generally publicized
which allows something otherwise impossible, or a feature formerly
in that category but now unveiled. Example: The keyboard commands
which override the screen-hiding features.
MAGIC COOKIE (ma'jik cuk'ee) [UNIX] n. 1. A thing that allows another
thing to do something, usually as part of a crufty hack. A
capability ticket. Especially used of small data objects which
contain data encoded in a strange or intrinsically
machine-dependent way. 2. Blank left on the screen when your
terminal changes modes. Some older terminals would print a blank
when you entered and exited special modes, such as underline or
flash. This was also called a GLITCH.
MAGIC NUMBER (ma'jik nuhm'br) [UNIX/C] n. 1. A MAGIC COOKIE located
at the beginning of a binary data file to indicate its type to a
utility. Under UNIX the system and various applications programs
(especially the linker) distinguish between types of executable by
looking for a magic number. 2. In source code, some non-obvious
constant whose value is significant to the operation of a program
and is inserted inconspicuously in line, rather than expanded in by
a symbol set by a commented #define. Magic numbers in this sense
are bad style.
MAGIC SMOKE (ma'jik smohk) n. A notional substance trapped inside IC
packages that enables them to function. Its existence is
demonstrated by what happens when a chip burns up -- the magic
smoke gets let out, so it doesn't work any more. See SMOKE TEST.
MANGLE (mang'gl) v. Used similarly to MUNG or SCRIBBLE, but more
violent in its connotations; something that is mangled has been
irreversibly and totally trashed.
MARGINAL (mar-j@-nl) adj. 1. Extremely small. "A marginal increase
in core can decrease GC time drastically." 2. Of extremely small
merit. "This proposed new feature seems rather marginal to me."
3. Of extremely small probability of winning. "The power supply
was rather marginal anyway; no wonder it crapped out." 4.
MARGINALLY: adv. Slightly. "The ravs here are only marginally
better than at Small Eating Place."
MARKETROID (mar'k@-troyd) alt. MARKETING SLIME, MARKETING DROID n.
Member of a company's marketing department, esp. one who promises
users that the next version of a product will have features which
are unplanned, extremely difficult to implement, and/or violate the
laws of physics. Derogatory. Used by techies.
MARTIAN (mar'shn) n. A packet sent on a TCP/IP network with a source
address of the test loopback interface (127.0.0.1). As in "The
domain server is getting lots of packets from Mars. Does that
gateway have a Martian filter?"
MASSAGE (m@-sahj') v. Vague term used to describe `smooth'
transformations of a data set into a more useful form, esp.
transformations which do not lose information. Connotes less pain
and more ELEGANCE than MUNCH or CRUNCH (q.v.). "He wrote a program
that massages X bitmap files into GIF format" Compare SLURP.
MEATWARE (meet'weir) n. Synonym for WETWARE (q.v.) Less common.
MEGAPENNY (meg'a-pen'ee) n. $10,000 (1 cent * 10e6). Used
semi-humorously as a unit in comparing computer cost/performance
figures.
MEGO (mego, meego) [Mine Eyes Glazeth Over] Also MEGO FACTOR.
Handwaving intended to confuse the listener and hopefully induce
agreement because the listener does not want to admit to not
understanding what is going on. MEGO is usually directed at senior
management by engineers and contains a high proportion of TLAs
(qv).
MELTDOWN (melt'down) n. See BROADCAST STORM.
MEME (meem) [coined on analogy with `gene' by Richard Dawkins] n. An
idea considered as a REPLICATOR. Used esp. in the prase `meme
complex' denoting a group of mutually supporting memes which form
an organized belief system, such as a religion. This dictionary is
a vector of the "hacker subculture" meme complex; each entry might
be considered a meme. However, "meme" is often misused to mean
"meme complex". Use of the term connotes acceptance of the idea that
in humans (and presumably other tool- and language-using sentients)
cultural evolution by selection of adaptive ideas has superseded
biological evolution by selection of hereditary traits.
MEMETICS (mee-me-tiks) [from MEME] The study of memes. As of 1990,
this is still an extremely informal and speculative endeavor,
though the first steps towards at least statistical rigor have been
made by H. Keith Henson and others. Memetics is a popular topic
among hackers, who like to see themselves as the architects of the
new information ecologies in which memes live and replicate.
MEME PLAGUE n. The spread of a successful but pernicious MEME, esp.
one which `parasitizes' the victims into giving their all to
propagate it. Astrology, BASIC, and the other guy's religion are
often considered to be examples. This usage is given point by the
historical fact that `joiner' ideologies like Naziism or various
forms of millenarian Christianity have exhibited plague-like cycles
of exponential growth followed by collapse to small `reservoir'
populations.
MEMORY LEAK (mem'@-ree leek) [C/UNIX programmers] n. An error in a
program's dynamic-store allocation logic that causes it to fail to
reclaim discarded memory, leading to attempted hogging of main
store and eventual collapse due to memory exhaustion. See ALIASING
SCREW, FANDANGO ON CORE, SMASH THE STACK, PRECEDENCE SCREW, OVERRUN
SCREW.
MENUITIS (men`yoo-i'tis) n. Notional disease suffered by software with
an obsessively simple-minded menu interface and no escape. Hackers
find this intensely irritating and much prefer the flexibility of
command-line or language-style interfaces, especially those
customizable via macros or a special-purpose language in which one
can encode useful hacks.
MESS-DOS (mes-dos) [UNIX hackers] n. Derisory term for MS-DOS. Often
followed by the ritual expurgation "Just Say No!". See MS-DOS. Most
hackers (even many MS-DOS hackers) loathe MS-DOS for its
single-tasking nature, its limits on application size, its nasty
primitive interface, and its ties to IBMness (see FEAR AND
LOATHING). Also "mess-loss", and "mess-dog".
META (mayt'@) [from analytic philosophy] adj. One level of description
up. Thus, a meta-syntactic variable is a variable in notation used
to describe syntax and meta-language is language used to describe
language. This is difficult to explain out of context, but much
hacker humor turns on deliberate confusion between meta-levels.
META BIT (mayt'@) n. Bit 8 of an 8-bit character, on in values
128-255. Also called HIGH BIT or ALT BIT. Some terminals and
consoles (especially those designed for LISP traditions) have a
META-shift key. Others (including, mirabile dictu, keyboards on IBM
PC-class machines) have an ALT key. See also BUCKY BITS.
MICROFLOPPIES (mie'kroh-flo-peez) n. 3-1/2 inch floppies, as opposed to
5-1/4 VANILLA floppies and the now-obsolescent 8-inch variety. This
term may be headed for obsolescence as 5-1/4 inchers pass out of
use, only to be revived if anybody floats a sub-3-inch floppy
standard.
MICROTAPE (mi'kroh-tayp) n. Occasionally used to mean a DECtape, as
opposed to a MACROTAPE.
MISFEATURE (mis-fee'chr) n. A feature which eventually screws
someone, possibly because it is not adequate for a new situation
which has evolved. It is not the same as a bug because fixing it
involves a gross philosophical change to the structure of the
system involved. Often a former feature becomes a misfeature
because a tradeoff was made whose parameters subsequently changed
(possibly only in the judgment of the implementors). "Well, yeah,
it's kind of a misfeature that file names are limited to six
characters, but we're stuck with it for now."
MOBY (moh'bee) [seems to have been in use among model railroad fans
years ago. Derived from Melville's "Moby Dick" (some say from
"Moby Pickle").] 1. adj. Large, immense, or complex. "A moby
frob." 2. n. The maximum address space of a machine (see Appendix
B). 3. A title of address (never of third-person reference),
usually used to show admiration, respect, and/or friendliness to a
competent hacker. "So, moby Knight, how's the CONS machine doing?"
4. adj. In backgammon, doubles on the dice, as in "moby sixes",
"moby ones", etc. MOBY FOO, MOBY WIN, MOBY LOSS: standard emphatic
forms. FOBY MOO: a spoonerism due to Greenblatt. The MOBY
constructions are now relatively rare outside MIT.
MODE (mohd) n. A general state, usually used with an adjective
describing the state. "No time to hack; I'm in thesis mode."
Usage: in its jargon sense, MODE is most often said of people,
though it is sometimes applied to programs and inanimate objects.
"If you're on a TTY, E will switch to non-display mode." In
particular, see HACK MODE, DAY MODE, NIGHT MODE, and YOYO MODE;
also COM MODE, TALK MODE, and GABRIEL MODE.
MODULO (mod'yuh-low) prep. Except for. From mathematical
terminology: one can consider saying that 4=22 "except for the 9's"
(4=22 mod 9). "Well, LISP seems to work okay now, modulo that GC
bug."
MONKEY UP (muhn'kee uhp) v. To hack together hardware for a particular
task, especially a one-shot job. Connotes an extremely CRUFTY and
consciously temporary solution.
MONSTROSITY (mon-stro'si-tee) 1. n. A ridiculously ELEPHANTINE
program or system, esp. one which is buggy or only marginally
functional. 2. The quality of being monstrous (see `Peculiar
nouns' in the discussion of jargonification).
MOORE'S LAW (morz law) [folklore] The observation that the logic
density of silicon integrated circuits has closely followed the
curve (bits per inch ** 2) = 2 ** (n - 1962); that is, the amount
of information storable in one square inch of silicon has roughly
doubled yearly every year since the technology was invented.
MOTAS (moh-tahs) [USENET, Member Of The Appropriate Sex] n. A
potential or (less often) actual sex partner. See MOTOS, MOTSS,
S.O.
MOTOS (moh-tohs) [USENET, Member Of The Other Sex] n. A potential or
(less often) actual sex partner. See MOTAS, MOTSS, S.O. Less common
than MOTSS or MOTAS, which has largely displaced it.
MOTSS (mots) [USENET, Member Of The Same Sex] n. Esp. one considered
as a possible sexual partner, e.g. by a gay or lesbian. The
gay-issues board on USENET is called soc.motss. See MOTOS and
MOTAS, which derive from it. Also see S.O.
MOUNT (mownt) v. 1. To attach a removable storage volume to a machine.
In elder days and on mainframes this verb was used almost
exclusively of tapes; nowadays (especially under UNIX) it is more
likely to refer to a disk volume. 2. By extension, to attach any
removable device such as a sensor, robot arm, or MEATWARE subsystem
(see Appendix A).
MOUSE AROUND (mows ar-ownd') v. To explore public portions of a large
system, esp. a network such as Internet via FTP or TELNET, looking
for interesting stuff to SNARF.
MOUSO (mow'so) n. [by analogy with `typo'] An error in mouse usage
resulting in an inappropriate selection or graphic garbage on the
screen.
MS-DOS (em-es-dahs) n. A clone of CP/M (q.v.) for the 8088 crufted
together in six weeks by hacker Tim Patterson, who is said to have
regretted it ever since. Now the highest-unit-volume OS in
history. See MESS-DOS.
MULTICS (muhl'tiks) n. [from Multi-Tasking Computer System] An early
(late 1960s) timesharing operating system co-designed by a
consortium including Honeywell and Bell Laboratories. All the
members but Honeywell eventually pulled out after determining that
SECOND-SYSTEM SYNDROME had bloated Multics to the point of
practical unusability (though Honeywell did later comercialize it,
it was never very successful). One of the developers left in the
lurch by the project's breakup was Ken Thompson, a circumstance
which led directly to the birth of UNIX (q.v.). For this and other
reasons aspects of the Multics design remain a topic of occasional
debate among hackers. See also BRAIN DAMAGE.
MUMBLAGE (mum'bl@j) n. The topic of one's mumbling (see MUMBLE). "All
that mumblage" is used like "all that stuff" when it is not quite
clear what it is or how it works, or like "all that crap" when
"mumble" is being used as an implicit replacement for obscenities.
MUMBLE (mum'bl) interj. 1. Said when the correct response is either
too complicated to enunciate or the speaker has not thought it out.
Often prefaces a longer answer, or indicates a general reluctance
to get into a big long discussion. "Well, mumble." 2. Sometimes
used as an expression of disagreement. "I think we should buy it."
"Mumble!" Common variant: MUMBLE FROTZ.
MUNCH (muhnch) [often confused with "mung", q.v.] v. To transform information
in a serial fashion, often requiring large amounts of computation.
To trace down a data structure. Related to CRUNCH (q.v.), but
connotes less pain.
MUNCHING SQUARES (muhnch'ing skweirz) n. A DISPLAY HACK dating back to
the PDP-1, which employs a trivial computation (involving XOR'ing
of x-y display coordinates - see HAKMEM items 146-148) to produce
an impressive display of moving, growing, and shrinking squares.
The hack usually has a parameter (usually taken from toggle
switches) which when well-chosen can produce amazing effects. Some
of these, discovered recently on the LISP machine, have been
christened MUNCHING TRIANGLES, MUNCHING W'S, and MUNCHING MAZES.
MUNCHKIN (muhnch'kin) n. A teenage-or-younger micro enthusiast bashing
BASIC or something else equally constricted. A term of mild
derision -- munchkins are annoying but some grow up to be hackers
after passing through a LARVAL STAGE. The term URCHIN is also used.
See also BITTY BOX.
MUNDANE (muhn-dayn') [from SF fandom] n. 1. A person who is not in
science fiction fandom. 2. A person who is not in the computer
industry. In this sense, most often an adjectival modifier as in
"in my mundane life..."
MUNG (muhng) alt. MUNGE (muhnj) [recursive acronym for Mung Until No
Good] v. 1. To make changes to a file, often large-scale, usually
irrevocable. Occasionally accidental. See BLT. 2. To destroy,
usually accidentally, occasionally maliciously. The system only
mungs things maliciously. See SCRIBBLE, MANGLE, TRASH. Reports from
USENET suggest that the prononciation `munj' is now usual in
speech, but `mung' is still common in program comments.
MUSIC (myoo's@k) n. A common extracurricular interest of hackers
(compare SCIENCE-FICTION FANDOM, ORIENTAL FOOD; see also FILK). It
is widely believed among hackers that there is a substantial
correlation between whatever mysterious traits underly hacking
ability (on the one hand) and musical talent and sensitivity (on
the other). It is certainly the case that hackers, as a rule, like
music and often develop musical appreciation in unusual and
interesting directions. Folk music is very big in hacker circles;
so is the sort of elaborate instrumental jazz/rock that used to be
called `progressive' and isn't recorded much any more. Also, the
hacker's musical range tends to be wide; many can listen with equal
appreciation to (say) Talking Heads, Yes, Spirogyra, Scott Joplin,
King Sunny Ade, The Pretenders, or one of Bach's Brandenburg
Concerti. It is also apparently true that hackerdom includes a much
higher concentration of talented amateur musicians than one would
expect from a similar-sized control group of MUNDANES.
MUTTER (muh'tr) v. To quietly enter a command not meant for the ears
of ordinary mortals. Frequently in "mutter an INCANTATION".
= N =
N (en) adj. 1. Some large and indeterminate number of objects; "There
were N bugs in that crock!"; also used in its original sense of a
variable name. 2. An arbitrarily large (and perhaps infinite)
number. 3. A variable whose value is specified by the current
context. "We'd like to order N wonton soups and a family dinner
for N-1." 4. NTH: adj. The ordinal counterpart of N. "Now for the
Nth and last time..." In the specific context "Nth-year grad
student", N is generally assumed to be at least 4, and is usually 5
or more. See also RANDOM NUMBERS.
NAILED TO THE WALL (nayld too dh@ wahl) [like a trophy] adj. Said of a
bug finally eliminated after protracted and even heroic effort.
NANOACRE (nan'o-ay-kr) n. An area of space, or real-estate on a VLSI
chip. The term derives its amusement value from the fact that VLSI
nanoacres have costs in the same range as real acres once one
figures in design and fabrication-setup costs.
NANOBOT (nan'oh-bot) n. A robot of microscopic proportions, presumably
built by means of NANOTECHNOLOGY (q.v.). As yet, only used
informally (and speculatively!). Also sometimes called a
`nanoagent'.
NANOCOMPUTER (nan'oh-k:m-pyoo-tr) a computer whose switching elements
are molecular in size. Designs for mechanical nanocomputers which
use single-molecule sliding rods for their logic have been
proposed. The controller for a NANOBOT would be a nanocomputer.
NANOTECHNOLOGY (nan'-oh-tek-naw`l:-ji) n. A hypothetical fabrication
technology in which objects are designed and built with the
individual specification and placement of each separate atom. The
first unequivocal nano-fabrication experiments are taking place now
(1990), for example with the deposition of individual Xenon atoms
on a nickel substrate to spell the logo of a certain very large
computer company by two of its physicists. Nanotechnology has been
a hot topic in the hacker subculture ever since the term was coined
by K. Eric Drexler in his book "Engines of Creation", where he
predicted that nanotechnology could give rise to replicating
ASSEMBLERs, permitting an exponential growth of productivity and
personal wealth.
NASTYGRAM (nas'tee-gram) n. 1. A protocol packet or item of email that
takes advantage of misfeatures or security holes on the target
system to do untoward things (the latter is also called a
`letterbomb'). 2. Disapproving mail, esp. from a net.god, pursuant
to a violation of NETIQUETTE.
NEOPHILIA (nee-oh-fil'-ee-uh) n. The trait of being excited and
pleased by novelty. Common trait of most hackers, SF fans, and
members of several other connected "leading-edge" subcultures
including the pro-technology "Whole-Earth" wing of the ecology
movement, space activists, theater people, the membership of MENSA,
and the Discordian/neo-pagan underground. All these groups overlap
heavily and (where evidence is available) seem to share
characteristic hacker tropisms for SF, MUSIC and ORIENTAL FOOD.
NET POLICE (net p@-lees') n. Those USENET readers who feel it is
their responsibility to pounce on and FLAME any posting which they
regard as offensive, or in violation of their understanding of
NETIQUETTE. Generally used sarcastically or pejoratively. Also
spelled `net.police'. See also CODE POLICE.
NETHACK (net'hak) n. See HACK, sense #12.
NETIQUETTE (net'ee-ket, net'i-ket) n. Conventions of politeness
recognized on USENET, such as: avoidance of cross-posting to
inappropriate groups, or refraining from commercial pluggery on the
net,
NEEP-NEEP (neep neep) [onomatopoic, from New York SF fandom] n. One
who is fascinated by computers. More general than HACKER, as it
need not imply more skill than is required to boot games on a PC.
The term NEEP-NEEPING applies specifically to the long
conversations about computers that tend to develop in the corners
at most SF-convention parties. Fandom has a related proverb to the
effect that "Hacking is a conversational black hole!" [which, by
coincidence, has been attributed to my SO -- ESR]
NET. (net dot) [USENET] Prefix used to describe people and events
related to USENET. From the pre-GREAT-RENAMING newsgroup names,
e.g. net.singles. Includes net.god(s) (q.v.), net.goddesses
(various charismatic women with circles of on-line admirers),
net.lurkers, (see LURKER), net.parties (a synonym for BOINK sense
#2 (q.v.)) and many similar constructs.
NET.GOD (net god) n. Used to refer to anyone who has satisfies some
combination of the following conditions: has been visible on USENET
for more than five years, ran one of the original backbone sites,
moderated an important newsgroup, wrote news software, or knows
Gene, Mark, Rick, Henry, Chuq, and Greg personally. See DEMIGOD.
NETWORK ADDRESS (netwerk @-dres') n. As used by hackers, means an
address on THE NETWORK (almost always a BANG PATH or INTERNET
ADDRESS). An essential to be taken seriously by hackers; in
particular, persons or organizations claiming to understand, work
with, sell to, or recruit from among hackers that *don't* display
net addresses are quietly presumed to be clueless poseurs and
mentally FLUSHED (sense #3). Hackers often put their net addresses
on their business cards and wear them prominently in contexts where
they expect to meet other hackers face-to-face (see also
SCIENCE-FICTION FANDOM) This is mostly functional, but is also a
connotative signal that one identifies with hackerdom (like lodge
pins among Masons or tie-died T-shirts among Grateful Dead fans).
Net addresses are often used in email text as a more concise
substitute for personal names; indeed, hackers may come to know
each other quite well by network names without ever learning each
others' `legal' monikers.
NETWORK, THE (net'werk, dh@) n. 1. The union of all the major academic
and noncommercial/hacker-oriented networks such as Internet, the
old ARPANET, NSFNet, BITNET and the virtual UUCP and USENET
"networks", plus the corporate in-house networks that gate to them.
A site is generally considered `on the network' if it can be
reached through some compination of Internet-style (@-sign) and
UUCP (bang-path) addresses. See BANG PATH, INTERNET ADDRESS,
NETWORK ADDRESS. 2. A fictional conspiracy of libertarian
hacker-subversives and anti-authoritarian monkeywrenchers described
in Robert Anton Wilson's novel _Schrodinger's_Cat_, to which many
hackers have subsequently decided they belong (this is an example
of HA HA, ONLY SERIOUS).
NEWGRP WARS (n[y]oo'grp wohrz) [USENET] n. Salvoes of duelling
`newgrp' and `rmgroup' messages sometimes exchanged by persons on
opposite sides of a dispute over whether a NEWSGROUP should be
created netwide. These usually settle out within a week or two as
it becomes clear whether the group has a natural constituency
(usually, it doesn't). At times, especially in the completely
anarchicic `alt' hierarchy, the names of newsgroups themselves
become a form of comment or humor; cf. the spinoff of
alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork from alt.tv.muppets in early 1990,
or any number of specialized abuse groups named after particularly
notorious flamers.
NEWSFROUP (n[y]oos'froop) [USENET] n. Silly written-only synonym for
NEWSGROUP, originated as a typo but now in regular use on USENET'S
talk.bizarre and other not-real-tightly-wrapped groups.
NEWSGROUP (n[y]oos'groop) [USENET] n. One of USENET's large collection
of topic groups. Among the best-known are comp.lang.c (the
C-language forum), comp.unix.wizards (for UNIX wizards),
rec.arts.sf-lovers (for science-fiction fans) and
talk.politics.misc (miscellaneous political discussions and
flamage).
NIGHT MODE (niet mohd) n. See PHASE (of people).
NIL (nil) [from LISP terminology for "false"] No. Usage: used in
reply to a question, particularly one asked using the "-P"
convention. See T.
NON-OPTIMAL SOLUTION (non-op'ti-m@l so-lu'shn) n. An astoundingly
stupid way to do something. This term is generally used in deadpan
sarcasm, as its impact is greatest when the person speaking looks
completely serious. Compare STUNNING. See also BAD THING.
NONTRIVIAL (non-tri'vi-@l) adj. Requiring real thought or significant
computing power. Often used as an understated way of saying that a
problem is quite difficult. See TRIVIAL, UNINTERESTING.
NO-OP (noh-op) alt. NOP (nop) [no operation] n. 1. A machine
instruction that does nothing (sometimes used in assembler-level
programming as filler for data areas). 2. A person who contributes
nothing to a project, or has nothing going on upstairs, or both. As
in "he's a no-op."
NP- (en pee) pref. Extremely. Used to modify adjectives describing a
level or quality of difficulty. "Getting this algorithm to perform
correctly in every case is NP-annoying." This is generalized from
the computer science terms "NP-hard" and "NP-easy". NP is the set
of Nondeterministic-Polynomial algorithms, those which can be
completed by a nondeterministic finite state machine in an amount
of time that is a polynomial function of the size of the input.)
NUKE (nook) v. 1. To intentionally delete the entire contents of a given
directory or storage volume. "On UNIX, rm -r /usr will nuke
everything in the usr filesystem." Never used for accidental
deletion. Oppose BLOW AWAY. 2. Syn. for DYKE, applied to smaller
things such as features or code sections.
NUXI PROBLEM, THE (nuk'see pro'blm, dh@) n. This refers to the
problem of transferring data between machines with differing
byte-order. The string "UNIX" might look like "NUXI" on a machine
with a different "byte sex". See also, BIG-ENDIAN, LITTLE-ENDIAN,
SWAB, and BYTESEXUAL.
= O =
OBSCURE (ob'skyoor) adj. Used in an exaggeration of its normal
meaning, to imply a total lack of comprehensibility. "The reason
for that last crash is obscure." "FIND's command syntax is
obscure." MODERATELY OBSCURE implies that it could be figured out
but probably isn't worth the trouble. OBSCURE IN THE EXTREME is a
preferred emphatic form.
OBFUSCATED C CONTEST (ob'fus-cay-ted see kon'test) n. Annual contest
run since 1984 over THE NETWORK by Landon Curt Noll & friends. The
overall winner is he who produces the most unreadable, creative and
bizarre working C program; various other prizes are awarded at the
judges' whim. Given C's terse syntax and macro-preprocessor
facilities, this given contestants a lot of maneuvering room. THe
winning programs often manage to be simultaneously a) funny, b)
breathtaking works of art, and c) Horrible Examples of how *not* to
code in C.
OCTAL FORTY (ok'tl for'tee) n. Hackish way of saying "I'm drawing a
blank" (octal 40 is the ASCII space charater). See WALL.
OFF THE TROLLEY (of dh@ tro'lee) adj. Describes the behavior of a
program which malfunctions but doesn't actually CRASH or get halted
by the operating system. See GLITCH, BUG, DEEP SPACE.
OFFLINE (of'lien) adv. Not now or not here. Example: "Let's take
this discussion offline."
ONE BELL SYSTEM (IT WORKS) This was the output from the old Unix V6
"1" command. The "1" command also contained a random number
generator which gave it a one in ten chance of recursively
executing itself.
ONE-LINER WARS (wuhn-lie'nr worz) n. Popular game among hackers who
code in the language APL. The objective is to see who can code the
most interesting and/or useful routine in one line of operators
chosen from APL's exceedingly HAIRY primitive set. [This is not
*quite* as silly as it sounds; I myself have coded one-line LIFE
programs and once uttered a one-liner that performed lexical
analysis of its input string followed by a dictionary lookup for
good measure -- ESR]
OOBLICK (oo'blik) n. A bizarre semi-liquid sludge made from cornstarch
and water. Enjoyed among hackers who make batches for playtime at
parties for its amusing and extremely non-Newtonian behavior; it
pours and splatters, but resists rapid motion like a solid and will
even crack when hit by a hammer. Often found near lasers.
OPEN (oh'p@n) n. Abbreviation for "open (or left) parenthesis", used
when necessary to eliminate oral ambiguity. To read aloud the LISP
form (DEFUN FOO (X) (PLUS X 1)) one might say: "Open def-fun foo,
open eks close, open, plus ekx one, close close." See CLOSE.
OPEN SWITCH (oh'p@n swich) [IBM] n. An unresolved issue.
OPERATING SYSTEM (ah'per-ay-ting sis'tm) n. (Often abbreviated "OS")
The foundation software of a machine, of course; that which
schedules tasks, allocates storage, and presents a default
interface to the user between applications. The facilities the
operating system provides and its general design philosophy exert
an extremely strong influence on programming style and the
technical culture that grows up around a machine. Hacker folklore
has been shaped primarily by the UNIX, ITS, TOPS-10,
TOPS-20/TWENEX, VMS, CP/M, MS/DOS, and MULTICS operating systems
(most critically by ITS and UNIX). Each of these has its own entry,
which see.
ORANGE BOOK, THE (oh'rnj buk, dh@) n. The U.S. Government's standards
document (Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria, DOD standard
5200.28-STD, December, 1985) characterizing secure computing
architectures, defining levels A1 (least secure) through C3. Stock
UNIXes are roughly C2. See SILVER BOOK, WHITE BOOK, PURPLE BOOK.
ORIENTAL FOOD (oh-ree-en'tl food) n. Hackers display an intense
tropism towards Oriental cuisine, especially Chinese, and
especially of the spicier varieties such as Szechuan and Hunan.
This phenomenon (which has also been observed in subcultures which
overlap heavily with hackerdom, most notably science-fiction
fandom) has never been satisfactorily explained, but is
sufficiently intense that one can assume the target of a hackish
dinner expedition to be the best local Chinese place and be right
at least 3 times out of 4. See also CHINESE RAVS, GREAT-WALL,
STIR-FRIED RANDOM.
ORTHOGONAL (or-tho'guh-nl) [from mathematics] n. Mutually
independent; well-separated; sometimes, irrelevant to. Used to
describe sets of primitives or capabilities which, like a vector
basis in geometry, span the entire `capability space' of the system
and are in some sense non-overlapping or mutually independent. For
example, in architectures such as the MC68000 where all or nearly
all registers can be used interchangeably in any role with respect
to any instruction, the register set is said to be orthogonal. Or,
in logic, the set of operators `not' and `or' is orthogonal, but
the set `and', `or' and `not' is not (because any one of these can
be expressed in terms of the other two via De Morgan's Laws).
OS (oh ess) 1. [Operating System] n. Acronym heavily used in email,
occasionally in speech. 2. obs. n. On ITS, an output spy.
OS/2 (oh ess too) n. The anointed successor to MS-DOS for Intel-286
and 386-based micros; proof that IBM/Microsoft couldn't get it
right the second time, either. Cited here because mentioning it is
always good for a cheap laugh among hackers - the design was so bad
that three years after introduction you could still count the major
APPs shipping for it on the fingers of two hands. See VAPORWARE,
MONSTROSITY, CRETINOUS, SECOND-SYSTEM SYNDROME.
OVERRUN SCREW (oh'v@r-ruhn scroo) [C programming] n. A variety of
FANDANGO ON CORE produced by scribbling past the end of an array (C
has no checks for this). This is relatively benign and easy to
spot if the array is static; if it is auto, the result may be to
SMASH THE STACK. The term OVERRUN SCREW is used esp. of scribbles
beyond the end of arrays allocated with malloc(3); this typically
trashes the allocation header for the next block in the ARENA,
producing massive lossage within malloc and (frequently) a core
dump on the next operation to use stdio or malloc(3) itself. See
also MEMORY LEAK, ALIASING SCREW, PRECEDENCE SCREW, FANDANGO ON
CORE.
= P =
PAGE IN (payj in) [MIT] v. To become aware of one's surroundings again
after having paged out (see PAGE OUT). Usually confined to the
sarcastic comment, "So-and-so pages in. Film at 11." See FILM AT
11.
PAGE OUT (payj owt) [MIT] v. To become unaware of one's surroundings
temporarily, due to daydreaming or preoccupation. "Can you repeat
that? I paged out for a minute." See PAGE IN.
PANIC (pa'nik) [UNIX] v. An action taken by a process or the entire
operating system when an unrecoverable error is discovered. The
action usually consists of: (1) displaying localized information on
the controlling terminal, (2) saving, or preparing for saving, a
memory image of the process or operating system, and (3)
terminating the process or rebooting the system.
PARAM (p@-ram') n. Speeech-only shorthand for "parameter". Compare
ARG, VAR.
PARITY ERRORS (per'@-tee er'@rz) pl.n. Those little lapses of
attention or (in more severe cases) consciousness, usually brought
on by having spent all night and most of the next day hacking. "I
need to go home and crash; I'm starting to get a lot of parity
errors."
PARSE (pars) [from linguistic terminology] v. 1. To determine the
syntactic structure of a sentence or other utterance (close to the
standard English meaning). Example: "That was the one I saw you."
"I can't parse that." 2. More generally, to understand or
comprehend. "It's very simple; you just kretch the glims and then
aos the zotz." "I can't parse that." 3. Of fish, to have to
remove the bones yourself (usually at a Chinese restaurant). "I
object to parsing fish" means "I don't want to get a whole fish,
but a sliced one is okay." A "parsed fish" has been deboned.
There is some controversy over whether "unparsed" should mean
"bony", or also mean "deboned".
PATCH (pach) 1. n. A temporary addition to a piece of code, usually
as a quick-and-dirty remedy to an existing bug or misfeature. A
patch may or may not work, and may or may not eventually be
incorporated permanently into the program. 2. v. To insert a patch
into a piece of code. 3. [in the UNIX world] n. a set of
differences between two versions of code generated with diff(1) and
intended to be mechanically applied using patch(1); often used as a
way of distributing permanent C code upgrades and fixes over
USENET.
PD (pee-dee) adj. Common abbreviation for "public domain", applied to
software distributed over USENET and from Internet archive sites.
Much of this software is not in fact "public domain" in the legal
sense but travels under various copyrights granting reproduction
and use rights to anyone who can SNARF a copy. See COPYLEFT.
PDL (pid'l or pud'l) [acronym for Push Down List] n. 1. A LIFO queue
(stack); more loosely, any priority queue; even more loosely, any
queue. A person's pdl is the set of things he has to do in the
future. One speaks of the next project to be attacked as having
risen to the top of the pdl. "I'm afraid I've got real work to do,
so this'll have to be pushed way down on my pdl." All these
usages are also frequently found with STACK (q.v) itself as the
subject noun. See PUSH and POP. 2. Dave Lebling (PDL@DM).
PDP-10 [Programmable Digital Processor model 10] n. The machine that
made timesharing real. Looms large in hacker folklore due to early
adoption in the mid-70s by many university computing facilities and
research labs including the MIT AI lab, Stanford and CMU. Some
aspects of the instruction set (most notably the bit-field
instructions) are still considered unsurpassed. The '10 was
eventually eclipsed by the PDP-11 and VAX machines and dropped from
DEC's line in the early '80s, and to have cut one's teeth on one is
considered something of a badge of honorable old-timerhood among
hackers. See TOPS-10, ITS, Appendix B.
PERCENT-S (per-sent' es) [From "%s", the formatting sequence in C's
printf() library function used to indicate that an arbitrary string
may be inserted] n. An unspecified person or object. "I was just
talking to some percent-s in administration." Compare RANDOM.
PERF (perf) n. See CHAD (sense #1).
PESSIMAL (pes'i-ml) [Latin-based antonym for "optimal"] adj.
Maximally bad. "This is a pessimal situation."
PESSIMIZING COMPILER (pes'i-miez-ing kuhm-pie'lr) [antonym of
`optimizing compiler'] n. A compiler that produces object code that
is worse than the straightforward or obvious translation.
PHASE (fayz) 1. n. The phase of one's waking-sleeping schedule with
respect to the standard 24-hour cycle. This is a useful concept
among people who often work at night according to no fixed
schedule. It is not uncommon to change one's phase by as much as
six hours/day on a regular basis. "What's your phase?" "I've been
getting in about 8 PM lately, but I'm going to work around to the
day schedule by Friday." A person who is roughly 12 hours out of
phase is sometimes said to be in "night mode". (The term "day
mode" is also used, but less frequently.) 2. CHANGE PHASE THE HARD
WAY: To stay awake for a very long time in order to get into a
different phase. 3. CHANGE PHASE THE EASY WAY: To stay asleep etc.
PHASE OF THE MOON (fayz uhv dh@ moon) n. Used humorously as a random
parameter on which something is said to depend. Sometimes implies
unreliability of whatever is dependent, or that reliability seems
to be dependent on conditions nobody has been able to determine.
"This feature depends on having the channel open in mumble mode,
having the foo switch set, and on the phase of the moon."
PIG, RUN LIKE A (pig, ruhn liek uh) adj. To run very slowly on given
hardware, said of software. Distinct from HOG, q.v.
PING (ping) [from TCP/IP terminology] n.,v. 1. Slang term for a small
network message (ICMP ECHO) sent by a computer to check for the
presence and aliveness of another one. Occasionally used as a
phone greeting. See ACK. 2. To verify the presence of. 3. To get
the attention of. From the Unix command by the same name (an
acronym of "Packet INternet Groper) that sends an ICMP ECHO packet
to another host.
PIPELINE (piep'lien) [UNIX, orig. by Doug McIlroy; now also used under
MS-DOS and elsewhere] n. A chain of FILTER programs connected
"head-to-tail", that is so that the output of one becomes the input
of the next. Under UNIX, user utilities can often be implemented
or at least prototyped by a suitable collection of pipelines and
temp-file grinding encapsulated in a shell script; this is much
less effort than writing C every time, and the capability is
considered one of UNIX's major WINNING features.
PLAYPEN (play'pen) [IBM] n. A room where programmers work. Compare
SALT MINES.
PLUGH (ploogh) [from the ADVENT game] v. A `magic word' sometimes used
as a metasyntactic variable in the style of FOO. See XYZZY.
PM (pee em) 1. [from "preventive maintenence"] v. to bring down a
machine for inspection or test purposes. 2. n. Abbrev. for
"Presentation Manager", an ELEPHANTINE OS/2 GUI.
P.O.D. (pee-oh-dee) Acronym for `Piece Of Data' (as opposed to a code
section). Usage: pedantic and rare.
POINTER ARITHMETIC (poyn'tr @-rith'm-@-tik`) [C programmers] n. The
use of increment and decrement operations on address pointers to
traverse arrays or structure fields. See also BUMP.
POLL (pohl) v.,n. 1. The action of checking the status of an input
line, sensor, or memory location to see if a particular external
event has been registered. 2. To ask. "I'll poll everyone and see
where they want to go for lunch."
POLYGON PUSHER (pol'@-gon pu'shr) n. A chip designer who spends
most of his/her time at the physical layout level (which requires
drawing *lots* of multi-colored polygons).
POM (pee-oh-em) n. Phase of the moon (q.v.). Usage: usually used in
the phrase "POM dependent" which means FLAKEY (q.v.).
POP (pop) [based on the stack operation that removes the top of a stack, and
the fact that procedure return addresses are saved on the stack]
dialect: POPJ (pop-jay), based on the PDP-10 procedure return
instruction. v. To return from a digression. By verb doubling,
"Popj, popj" means roughly, "Now let's see, where were we?"
See RTI.
PRECEDENCE SCREW (pre's@-dens scroo) [C programmers] n. Coding error
in an expression to to unexpected grouping of arithmetic or logical
operators by the compiler. Used esp. of certain common coding
errors in C due to the nonintuitively low precedence levels of &, |
and ^. Can always be avoided by suitable use of parentheses. See
ALIASING SCREW, MEMORY LEAK, SMASH THE STACK, FANDANGO ON CORE,
OVERRUN SCREW.
PRIME TIME (priem tiem) [from TV programming] n. Normal high-usage
hours on a timesharing system, the `day shift'. Avoidance of prime
time is a major reason for NIGHT MODE hacking.
PRIORITY INTERRUPT (prie-or'i-tee in'ter-ruhpt) [from the hardware
term] n. Describes any stimulus compelling enough to yank one right
out of hack mode. Classically used to describe being dragged away
by an SO for immediate sex, but may also refer to more mundane
interruptions such as a fire alarm going off in the near vicinity.
PROPELLER HEAD (proh-pel'r hed) n. Used by hackers, this is syn. with
COMPUTER GEEK. Non-hackers sometimes use it to describe all techies.
PROTOCOL (proh'tuh-kol) n. See DO PROTOCOL.
PROWLER (prow'lr) [UNIX] n. A DEMON that is run periodically
(typically once a week) to seek out and erase core files, truncate
administrative logfiles, nuke lost+found directories, and otherwise
clean up the cruft that tends to pile up in the corners of a file
system.
PSEUDOPRIME (soo'doh-priem) n. A backgammon prime (six consecutive
occupied points) with one point missing.
PUNT (punt) [from the punch line of an old joke: "Drop back 15 yards
and punt"] v. To give up, typically without any intention of
retrying.
PURPLE BOOK, THE (per'pl buk) n. The System V Interface Definition.
The covers of the first editions were an amazingly nauseating shade
of off-lavender. See WHITE BOOK, SILVER BOOK, ORANGE BOOK.
PUSH (push) [based on the stack operation that puts the current
information on a stack, and the fact that procedure call addresses
are saved on the stack] dialect: PUSHJ (push-jay), based on the
PDP-10 procedure call instruction. v. To enter upon a digression,
to save the current discussion for later.
= Q =
QUANTUM BOGODYNAMICS (kwahn'tm boh`goh-die-nam'iks) n. Theory
promulgated by ESR (one of the authors) which characterizes the
universe in terms of bogon sources (such as politicians, used-car
salesmen, TV evangelists, and SUITs in general), bogon sinks (such
as taxpayers and computers), and bogosity potential fields. Bogon
absorption, of course, causes human beings to behave mindlessly and
machines to fail (and may cause them to emit secondary bogons as
well); however, the precise mechanics of the bogon-computron
interaction are not yet understood and remain to be elucidated.
Quantum bogodynamics is most frequently invoked to explain the
sharp increase in hardware and software failures in the presence of
suits; the latter emit bogons which the former absorb. See BOGON,
COMPUTRON, SUIT.
QUES (kwess) 1. n. The question mark character ("?"). 2. interj.
What? Also QUES QUES? See WALL.
QUX (kwuhx) The fourth of the standard metasyntactic variables, after
BAZ and before the QUU*X series. See FOO, BAR, BAZ, QUUX.
QUUX (kwooks) [invented by Steele] Mythically, from the Latin
semi-deponent verb QUUXO, QUUXARE, QUUXANDUM IRI; noun form
variously QUUX (plural QUUCES, Anglicized to QUUXES) and QUUXU
(genitive plural is QUUXUUM, four U's in seven letters).] 1.
Originally, a meta-word like FOO and FOOBAR. Invented by Guy
Steele for precisely this purpose when he was young and naive and
not yet interacting with the real computing community. Many people
invent such words; this one seems simply to have been lucky enough
to have spread a little. 2. interj. See FOO; however, denotes very
little disgust, and is uttered mostly for the sake of the sound of
it. 3. n. Refers to one of three people who went to Boston Latin
School and eventually to MIT:
THE GREAT QUUX: Guy L. Steele Jr.
THE LESSER QUUX: David J. Littleboy
THE MEDIOCRE QUUX: Alan P. Swide
(This taxonomy is said to be similarly applied to three Frankston
brothers at MIT.) QUUX, without qualification, usually refers to
The Great Quux, who is somewhat infamous for light verse and for
the "Crunchly" cartoons. 4. QUUXY: adj. Of or pertaining to a
QUUX. 5. n. The Micro Quux (Sam Lewis).
= R =
RANDOM (ran'dm) adj. 1. Unpredictable (closest to mathematical
definition); weird. "The system's been behaving pretty randomly."
2. Assorted; undistinguished. "Who was at the conference?" "Just
a bunch of random business types." 3. Frivolous; unproductive;
undirected (pejorative). "He's just a random loser." 4.
Incoherent or inelegant; not well organized. "The program has a
random set of misfeatures." "That's a random name for that
function." "Well, all the names were chosen pretty randomly." 5.
Gratuitously wrong, i.e., poorly done and for no good apparent
reason. For example, a program that handles file name defaulting
in a particularly useless way, or an assembler routine that could
easily have been coded using only three ac's, but randomly uses
seven for assorted non-overlapping purposes, so that no one else
can invoke it without first saving four extra ac's. 6. In no
particular order, though deterministic. "The I/O channels are in a
pool, and when a file is opened one is chosen randomly." n. 7. A
random hacker; used particularly of high school students who soak
up computer time and generally get in the way. 8. (occasional MIT
usage) One who lives at Random Hall. J. RANDOM is often prefixed
to a noun to make a "name" out of it (by comparison to common names
such as "J. Fred Muggs"). The most common uses are "J. Random
Loser" and "J. Random Nurd" ("Should J. Random Loser be allowed to
gun down other people?"), but it can be used just as an elaborate
version of RANDOM in any sense. See also SOME RANDOM X.
RANDOM NUMBERS (ran'd@m nuhm'brz) n. When one wishes to specify a
large but random number of things, and the context is inappropriate
for `N' (q.v.), certain numbers are preferred by hacker tradition
(that is, easily recognized as placeholders). These include
17 Long described at MIT as "the least random number". Also see 23.
23 A sacred number of Eris, Goddess of Discord (along with 17 & 5).
42 The Answer to the Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.
69 From the sexual act. This one was favored in MIT's ITS culture.
666 The Number of the Beast.
For further enlightenment, consult the _Principia_Discordia_,
_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_To_The_Galaxy_, any porn movie, and the
Christian Bible's _Book_Of_Revelations_. See also DISCORDIANISM.
RANDOMNESS (ran'dm-nes) n. An unexplainable misfeature; gratuitous
inelegance. Also, a HACK or CROCK which depends on a complex
combination of coincidences (or rather, the combination upon which
the crock depends). "This hack can output characters 40-57 by
putting the character in the accumulator field of an XCT and then
extracting 6 bits -- the low two bits of the XCT opcode are the
right thing." "What randomness!"
RAPE (rayp) v. To (metaphorically) screw someone or something,
violently. Usage: often used in describing file-system damage.
"So-and-so was running a program that did absolute disk I/O and
ended up raping the master directory."
RARE (reir) [UNIX] adj. CBREAK mode (character-by-character with
interrupts enabled). Distinguished from `raw' and `cooked', but
unlike them this term is strictly a creature of folklore, not
found in the manuals. Usage: rare.
RASTER BURN (ras'tr bern) n. Eyestrain brought on by too many hours
of looking at low-res, poorly tuned or glare-ridden monitors, esp.
graphics monitors. See TERMINAL ILLNESS.
RAVE (rayv) [WPI] v. 1. To persist in discussing a specific subject.
2. To speak authoritatively on a subject about which one knows very
little. 3. To complain to a person who is not in a position to
correct the difficulty. 4. To purposely annoy another person
verbally. 5. To evangelize. See FLAME. Also used to describe a
less negative form of blather, such as friendly bullshitting.
RAVE ON! (rayv on) imp. Sarcastic invitation to continue a RAVE,
often by someone who wishes the raver would get a clue but realizes
this is unlikely.
READ-ONLY USER (reed'ohn-lee yoo'zr) n. Describes a LUSER who uses
computers almost exclusively for reading USENET, bulletin boards
and email, as opposed to writing code or purveying useful
information. See TWINK.
REAL SOON NOW (reel soon now) [orig. from SF's fanzine community] adj.
1. Supposed to be available (or fixed, or cheap, or whatever) real
soon now according to somebody, but the speaker is quite skeptical.
2. When the gods/fates/other time commitments permit the speaker to
get to it. Often abbreviated RSN.
REAL TIME (reel tiem) adv. Doing something while people are watching
or waiting. "I asked her how to find the caller's pc on the stack
and she came up with an algorithm in real time."
REAL USER (reel yoo'zr) n. 1. A commercial user. One who is paying
"real" money for his computer usage. 2. A non-hacker. Someone
using the system for an explicit purpose (research project, course,
etc.). See USER.
REAL WORLD, THE (reel werld, dh@) n. 1. In programming, those
institutions at which programming may be used in the same sentence
as FORTRAN, COBOL, RPG, IBM, etc. 2. To programmers, the location
of non-programmers and activities not related to programming. 3. A
universe in which the standard dress is shirt and tie and in which
a person's working hours are defined as 9 to 5. 4. The location of
the status quo. 5. Anywhere outside a university. "Poor fellow,
he's left MIT and gone into the real world." Used pejoratively by
those not in residence there. In conversation, talking of someone
who has entered the real world is not unlike talking about a
deceased person. See also FEAR AND LOATHING and UNINTERESTING.
REINCARNATION, CYCLE OF (ree-in-kar-nay'shn) n. Term used to refer to
a well-known effect whereby function in a computing system family
is migrated out to special purpose peripheral hardware for speed,
then the peripheral evolves towards more computing power as it does
its job, then somebody notices that it's inefficient to support two
asymmetrical processors in the architecture and folds the function
back into the main CPU, at which point the cycle begins again.
Several iterations of this cycle have been observed in graphics
processor design, and at least one or two in communications and
floating-point processors.
REGULAR EXPRESSIONS (reg'yoo-lr ek-spre-shns) [UNIX] The UNIX
conventions for filename and regular-expression wildcarding have
become sufficiently pervasive than many hackers use some of them in
written English, especially in email or news on technical topics.
Those commonly encountered include:
* wildcard for any string (see UN*X, U*IX).
? wildcard for any character (generally only read this
way in the middle of a word.
[] set-of-characters braces.
Some examples: "He said his name was [KC]arl" (expresses ambiguity).
"That got posted to talk.politics.*" (all the talk.politics subgroups
on USENET). Other examples are given under the entry for `X'. The
* wildcard has a name of its own; it's a `Kleene star'.
RELIGIOUS ISSUES (ree-lij'-@s is'yoos) n. Questions which seemingly
cannot be raised without touching off a FLAME WAR, such as "What is
the best editor/language operating system/architecture". See also
THEOLOGY.
RELIGIOUS WAR (ree-lij'@s wor)[from USENET, but may predate it] n.
FLAME WARS over RELIGIOUS ISSUES.
REPLICATOR (rep'l:-kay-t:r) any construct that acts to produce copies
of itself; this could be a living organism, an idea (see MEME), a
program (see WORM, WABBIT and VIRUS), or a robot.
RETROCOMPUTING (ret'-roh-k@m-pyoo'ting) n. Refers to emulations
of way-behind-the state-of-the-art hardware or software, or
implementations of never-was-state-of-the-art; esp. if such
implementations are elaborate practical jokes and/or parodies
of more `serious' designs. Perhaps the most widely distributed
retrocomputing utility was the pnch(6) program on V7 and other
early UNIX versions, which would accept up to 80 characters of
text argument and display the corresponding pattern in Hollerith
card code. Other well-known retrocomputing hacks have included
the language INTERCAL, a jcl-emulating shell for UNIX, and the
card-punch-emulating editor named 029.
RFC (ahr ef see) n. Request For Comment. One of a long-established
series of numbered Internet standards widely followed by commercial
and PD software in the Internet and UNIX communities. Perhaps the
single most influential one has been RFC-822 (the Internet
mail-format standard). The RFCs are unusual in that they are
floated by technical experts acting on their own initiative and
reviewed by the Internet at large, rather than formally promulgated
through an institution such as ANSI.
RICE BOX (ries boks) [from ham radio slang] n. Any Asian-made
commodity computer, esp. an 8086, 80286, 80386 or 80486-based
machine built to IBM PC-compatible ISA or EISA-bus standards.
RIGHT THING, THE (riet thing, dh@) n. That which is "obviously" the
correct or appropriate thing to use, do, say, etc. Use of this
term often implies that in fact reasonable people may disagree.
"Never let your conscience keep you from doing the right thing!"
"What's the right thing for LISP to do when it reads '(.)'?"
Antonym: THE WRONG THING (q.v.).
ROACH (rohch) [Bell Labs] v. To destroy, esp. of a data structure.
Hardware gets TOASTed, software gets roached.
ROBUST (roh'buhst) adj. Said of a system which has demonstrated an
ability to recover gracefully from the whole range of exception
conditions in a given environment. One step below BULLETPROOF.
Compare SMART, oppose BRITTLE.
ROGUE (rohg) [UNIX] n. Graphic Dungeons-And-Dragons-like game written
under BSD UNIX and subsequently ported to other UNIX systems. The
original BSD curses(3) screen-handling package was hacked together
by Ken Arnold to support ROGUE, and has since become one of UNIX's
most important and heavily used application libraries. See HACK.
ROOM-TEMPERATURE IQ (room tem'prat-yoor ie-kyoo) [IBM] 80 or below.
Used in describing expected the intelligence range of the LUSER. As
in "Well, but how's this interface gonna play with the
room-temperature IQ crowd?" See DROOL-PROOF PAPER.
RTFM (ahr-tee-ef-em) [UNIX] Abbrev. for "Read The F**king Manual".
Used by GURUs to brush off questions they consider trivial or
annoying. Compare DON'T DO THAT, THEN.
RTI (ahr-tee-ie) interj. The mnemonic for the `return from interrupt'
instruction on Intel microprocessors. Equivalent to "Now, where was
I?" or used to end a conversational digression. See POP, POPJ.
RUDE (rood) [WPI] adj. 1. (of a program) Badly written. 2.
Functionally poor, e.g. a program which is very difficult to use
because of gratuitously poor (random?) design decisions. See
CUSPY.