Jargon file v2.1.5 28 NOV 1990 -- part 3 of 6

[Eric S. Raymond]

			= F =

FALL OVER [IBM] v. Yet another synonym for CRASH or LOSE.  `Fall over
   hard' equates to CRASH AND BURN.

FANDANGO ON CORE [UNIX/C hackers, from the Mexican dance] n. In C, a
   wild pointer that runs out of bounds causing a CORE DUMP, or
   corrupts the malloc(3) ARENA in such a way as to cause mysterious
   failures later on, is sometimes said to have `done a fandango on
   core'. On low-end personal machines without an MMU this can corrupt
   the OS itself, causing massive lossage. Other third-world dances
   such as the rhumba, cha-cha or watusi may be substituted. See
   ALIASING BUG, PRECEDENCE LOSSAGE, SMASH THE STACK, MEMORY LEAK,
   OVERRUN SCREW.

FASCISTIC adj. Said of a computer system with excessive or annoying
   security barriers, usage limits or access policies. The implication
   is that said policies are preventing hackers from getting
   interesting work done.

FAULTY adj. Same denotation as ``bagbiting'', ``bletcherous'',
   ``losing'', q.v., but the connotation is much milder.

FD LEAK (ef dee leek) n. A kind of programming bug analogous to a CORE
   LEAK, in which a program fails to close file descriptors (``fd''s)
   after file operations are completed, and thus eventually runs out.
   See LEAK.

FEAR AND LOATHING [from Hunter Thompson] n. State inspired by the
   prospect of dealing with certain REAL WORLD systems and standards
   which are totally BRAIN DAMAGED but ubiquitous -- Intel 8086s, or
   COBOL, or any IBM machine except the Rios (aka the RS/6000). ``Ack.
   They want PCs to be able to talk to the AI machine. Fear and
   loathing time!'' See also IBM.

FEATURE n. 1. A surprising property of a program.  Occasionally
   documented.  To call a property a feature sometimes means the
   author of the program did not consider the particular case, and the
   program makes an unexpected, although not strictly speaking an
   incorrect response.  See BUG.  ``That's not a bug, that's a
   feature!''  A bug can be changed to a feature by documenting it.
   2. A well-known and beloved property; a facility.  Sometimes
   features are planned, but are called crocks by others.

FEATURECTOMY (fee`ch at r-ek'to-mee) n. The act of removing a feature
   from a program.  Featurectomies generally come in two varieties,
   the RIGHTEOUS and the RELUCTANT. Righteous featurectomies are
   performed because the remover believes the program would be more
   elegant without the feature, or there is already an equivalent and
   ``better'' way to achieve the same end.  (This is not quite the
   same thing as removing a MISFEATURE.)  Reluctant featurectomies are
   performed to satisfy some external constraint such as code size or
   execution speed.

FEEP (feep) 1. n. The soft bell of a display terminal (except for a
   VT-52!); a beep.  2. v. To cause the display to make a feep sound.
   TTY's do not have feeps.  Alternate forms: BEEP, BLEEP, or just
   about anything suitably onomatopoeic.  The term BREEDLE was
   sometimes heard at SAIL, where the terminal bleepers are not
   particularly ``soft'' (they sound more like the musical equivalent
   of sticking out one's tongue).  The ``feeper'' on a VT-52 has been
   compared to the sound of a '52 Chevy stripping its gears. See also
   DING.

FEEPING CREATURITIS (fee'ping kree`ch at r-ie'tis) n. Deliberate
   spoonerization of CREEPING FEATURITIS, meant to imply that the
   system or program in question has become a misshapen creature of
   hacks.

FENCEPOST ERROR n. 1. The discrete equivalent of a boundary condition.
   Often exhibited in programs by iterative loops.  From the following
   problem: ``If you build a fence 100 feet long with posts ten feet
   apart, how many posts do you need?''  (Either 9 or 11 is a better
   answer than the obvious 10.)  2.  Occasionally, an error induced by
   unexpectedly regular spacing of inputs, which can (for instance)
   screw up your hash table. See also OFF-BY-ONE ERROR.

FIELD CIRCUS n.  The field service organization of any hardware
   manufacturer, but especially DEC.  There is an entire genre of
   jokes about DEC field circus engineers:

	Q: How can you recognize a DEC field circus engineer with a flat
	    tire?
	A: He's swapping tires to see which one is flat.

	Q: How can you recognize a DEC field circus engineer who is out
	    of gas?
	A: He's swapping tires to see which one is flat.

FILK (filk) [from SF fandom, where a typo for ``folk'' was adopted as
   a new word] n.,v. A ``filk'' is a popular or folk song with lyrics
   revised or completely new lyrics, intended for humorous effect when
   read and/or to be sung late at night at SF conventions. There is a
   flourishing subgenre of these called ``computer filks'', written by
   hackers and often containing technical humor of quite sophisticated
   nature.

FILM AT 11 [MIT, in parody of TV newscasters], interj.  Used in
   conversation to announce ordinary events, with a sarcastic
   implication that these events are earth-shattering. This is hard to
   describe.  Examples: ``ITS crashes; film at 11.'' ``Bug found in
   scheduler; film at 11.''

FILTER [orig. UNIX, now also in MS-DOS] n. A program which processes
   an input text stream into an output text stream in some
   well-defined way, and does no I/O to anywhere else except possibly
   on error conditions; one designed to be used as a stage in a
   PIPELINE (q.v.).

FINE [WPI] adj. Good, but not good enough to be CUSPY.  [The word FINE
   is used elsewhere, of course, but without the implicit comparison
   to the higher level implied by CUSPY.]

FINGER [BSD UNIX] 1. n. A program that displays a particular user or
   all users logged on the system or a remote system.  Typically shows
   full name, last login time, idle time, terminal line and terminal
   location. May also display a ``plan file'' left by the user. 2. v.
   To apply finger to a username. 3. v. By extension, to check a
   human's current state by any means.  ``Foodp?''  ``T!''  ``OK,
   finger Lisa and see if she's idle''.

FIREBOTTLE n. A large, primitive, power-hungry active electrical
   device, similar to an FET constructed out of glass, metal, and
   vacuum.  Characterized by high cost, low density, low reliability,
   high-temperature operation, and high power dissipation.  Sometimes
   mistakenly called a ``tube'' in the U.S. or a ``valve'' in England.

FIREWALL MACHINE n. A dedicated gateway machine with special security
   precautions on it, used to service outside network/mail/news
   connections and/or accept remote logins for (read only)
   shared-file-system access via FTP. The idea is to protect a cluster
   of more loosely administered machines `hidden' behind it from
   crackers. The typical `firewall' is an inexpensive micro-based UNIX
   box kept clean of critical data, with a bunch of modems and public
   network ports on it but just one carefully watched connection back
   to the rest of the cluster. The special precautions may include
   threat monitoring, callback, and even a complete IRON BOX keyable
   to particular incoming IDs or activity patterns. Syn.  FLYTRAP,
   VENUS FLYTRAP.

FIRMWARE n. Software installed into a computer-based piece of
   equipment on ROM. So-called because it's harder to change than
   software but easier than hardware.

FLAG DAY [from a bit of Multics history involving a change in the
   ASCII character set originally scheduled for June 14, 1966] n. A
   software change which is neither forward nor backward compatible,
   and which is costly to make and costly to revert.  ``Can we install
   that without causing a flag day for all users?''

FLAKEY adj. Subject to frequent lossages.  See LOSSAGE.

FLAMAGE (flay'm at j) n. High-noise, low-signal postings to USENET or
   other electronic fora. Often in the phrase ``the usual flamage''.

FLAME 1. v. To speak incessantly and/or rabidly on some relatively
   uninteresting subject or with a patently ridiculous attitude.  2.
   To post an email message intended to insult and provoke.  FLAME ON:
   v. To continue to flame.  See RAVE, BURBLE.  The punning reference
   to Marvel comics' Human Torch has been lost as recent usage
   completes the circle: ``Flame on'' now usually means ``beginning of
   flame''.

FLAME WAR n. Acrimonious dispute, especially when conducted on a
   public electronic forum such as USENET.

FLAMER v. One who habitually flames others. Said of obnoxious USENET
   personalities.

FLAP v. To unload a DECtape (so it goes flap, flap, flap...).  Old
   hackers at MIT tell of the days when the disk was device 0 and
   microtapes were 1, 2,... and attempting to flap device 0 would
   instead start a motor banging inside a cabinet near the disk!

FLAVOR n. 1. Variety, type, kind.  ``DDT commands come in two
   flavors.''  2. The attribute of causing something to be FLAVORFUL.
   ``This convention yields additional flavor by allowing one to...''
   See VANILLA.

FLAVORFUL adj. Aesthetically pleasing.  See RANDOM and LOSING for
   antonyms.  See also the entries for TASTE and ELEGANT.

FLIPPY (flip'ee) n. A single-side floppy disk altered for double-sided
   use by addition of a second write-notch, so called because it must
   be flipped over for the second side to be accessible. No longer
   common.

FLUSH v. 1. To delete something, usually superfluous.  ``All that
   nonsense has been flushed.''  Standard ITS terminology for aborting
   an output operation.  2. To leave at the end of a day's work (as
   opposed to leaving for a meal).  ``I'm going to flush now.''
   ``Time to flush.''  3. To exclude someone from an activity.  4.
   [UNIX/C] To force buffered I/O to disk, as with an fflush(3) call.
   UNIX hackers find the ITS usage confusing and vice versa.

FLYTRAP n. See FIREWALL.

FOO (foo) 1. [from Yiddish ``feh'' or the Anglo-Saxon ``fooey!'']
   interj.  Term of disgust.  2. [from FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All
   Recognition), from WWII, often seen as FOOBAR] Name used for
   temporary programs, or samples of three-letter names.  Other
   similar words are BAR, BAZ (Stanford corruption of BAR), and rarely
   RAG.  These have been used in Pogo as well.  3. Used very generally
   as a sample name for absolutely anything.  The old `Smokey Stover'
   comic strips often included the word FOO, in particular on license
   plates of cars.  4. First on the standard list of metasyntactic
   variables used in syntax examples. See also: BAR, BAZ, QUX, QUUX,
   QUUUX, CORGE, GRAULT, GARPLY, WALDO, FRED, PLUGH, XYZZY.  MOBY FOO:
   See MOBY.  [It is possible that hacker usage of FOO actually
   springs from the title ``FOO, Lampoons and Parody'' of a comic book
   first issued in September 1958; the byline read ``C. Crumb'' but my
   source believes this was a sort-of pseudonym for noted weird-comix
   artist Robert Crumb.  The title FOO was featured in large letters
   on the front cover -- ESR]

FOOL n. As used by hackers, specifically describes a person who
   habitually reasons from obviously or demonstrably incorrect
   premises and cannot be persuaded to do otherwise by evidence; it is
   not generally used in its other senses, i.e. to describe a person
   with a native incapacity to reason correctly, or a clown.  Indeed,
   in hackish experience many fools are capable of reasoning all too
   effectively in executing their errors. See also CRETIN, LOSER.

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').

FOREGROUND [UNIX] adj.v. On a time-sharing system, a task executing in
   foreground is one running at normal priority and able to accept
   input from and return output to the user; oppose BACKGROUND. There
   may be only one forground task per terminal (or terminal window).
   By extension, ``to foreground'' a task is to bring it to the top of
   one's PDL or STACK for immediate processing, and in this sense
   hackers often use it for non-computer tasks.

FORTUNE COOKIE [UNIX] n. A random quote, item of trivia, joke or maxim
   printed to the user's tty at login time or (more rarely) at logout
   time. Items from this jargon file have often been used as fortune
   cookies.

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 of the better match
   of hexadecimal to modern byte-addressible architectures. See DUSTY
   DECKS. 2. More restrictively, a feature with past but no present
   utility. Example: the force-all-caps (IUCLC/OLCUC) bits in the UNIX
   tty driver, designed for use with monocase terminals.

FRED n. The personal name most frequently used as a metasyntactic
   variable (see FOO). Allegedly popular because it's easy to type on
   a standard QWERTY keyboard.

FREEWARE n. Free software, often written by enthusiasts and usually
   distributed by electronic mail, local bulletin boards, USENET, or
   other electronic media. See SHAREWARE.

FRIED adj. 1. Non-working due to hardware failure; burnt out.
   Especially used of hardware brought doen by a power glitch, short,
   or other electrical event.  2. Of people, exhausted.  Said
   particularly of those who continue to work in such a state.  Often
   used as an explanation or excuse.  ``Yeah, I know that fix
   destroyed the file system, but I was fried when I put it in.''

FROB (frob) 1. n. [MIT] The official Tech Model Railroad Club
   definition is ``FROB = protruding arm or trunnion'', and by
   metaphoric extension any somewhat small thing.  See FROBNITZ.  2.
   v. Abbreviated form of FROBNICATE.

FROBNICATE (frob'ni-kayt) v. To manipulate or adjust, to tweak.
   Derived from FROBNITZ (q.v.).  Usually abbreviated to FROB.  Thus
   one has the saying ``to frob a frob''.  See TWEAK and TWIDDLE.
   Usage: FROB, TWIDDLE, and TWEAK sometimes connote points along a
   continuum.  FROB connotes aimless manipulation; TWIDDLE connotes
   gross manipulation, often a coarse search for a proper setting;
   TWEAK connotes fine-tuning.  If someone is turning a knob on an
   oscilloscope, then if he's carefully adjusting it he is probably
   tweaking it; if he is just turning it but looking at the screen he
   is probably twiddling it; but if he's just doing it because turning
   a knob is fun, he's frobbing it.

FROBNITZ (frob'nits), pl. FROBNITZEM (frob'nitsm) n. An unspecified
   physical object, a widget.  Also refers to electronic black boxes.
   This rare form is usually abbreviated to FROTZ, or more commonly to
   FROB.  Also used are FROBNULE and FROBULE.  Starting perhaps in
   1979, FROBOZZ (fruh-bahz') has also become very popular.  These can
   also be applied to nonphysical objects, such as data structures.

FROG alt. PHROG 1. interj. Term of disgust (we seem to have a lot of
   them).  2. Used as a name for just about anything.  See FOO.  3. n.
   Of things, a crock.  Of people, somewhere inbetween a turkey and a
   toad.  4. FROGGY: adj. Similar to BAGBITING (q.v.), but milder.
   ``This froggy program is taking forever to run!''

FRONT END n. 1. A subsidiary computer that doesn't do much. 2. What
   you're talking to when you have a conversation with someone who is
   making replies without paying attention. ``Look at the dancing
   elephants!''  ``Uh-huh'' ``Do you know what I just said?''
   ``Sorry, you were talking to the front end''.

FROTZ (frotz) 1. n. See FROBNITZ.  2. MUMBLE FROTZ: An interjection of
   very mild disgust.

FROTZED (frotzt) DOWN due to hardware problems.

FRY v. 1. To fail.  Said especially of smoke-producing hardware
   failures.  2. More generally, to become non-working.  Usage: never
   said of software, only of hardware and humans.  See FRIED, MAGIC
   SMOKE.

FTP (ef-tee-pee, NOT ``fittip'') 1. n. The File Transfer Protocol for
   transmitting files between systems on the Internet.  2.  v. To
   transfer a file using the File Transfer Protocol. 3. Sometimes used
   as a generic even for file transfers not using FTP. ``Lemme get
   this copy of Wuthering Heights FTP'd from uunet.''

FUCK ME HARDER excl. Sometimes uttered in response to egregious
   misbehavior, esp. in software, and esp. of those which seem
   unfairly persistent (as though designed in by the imp of the
   perverse). Often theatrically elaborated: ``Aiighhh! Fuck me with a
   piledriver and sixteen feet of curare-tipped wrought-iron fence and
   no lubricants!''

FUD WARS (fud worz) n. [from `Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt'] Political
   posturing engaged in by hardware and software vendors ostensibly
   committed to standardization but actually willing to fragment the
   market to protect their own share. The OSF vs. UNIX International
   conflict, for example.

FUDGE 1. v. To perform in an incomplete but marginally acceptable way,
   particularly with respect to the writing of a program.  ``I didn't
   feel like going through that pain and suffering, so I fudged it.''
   2. n. The resulting code.

FUDGE FACTOR n. A value or parameter that is varied in an ad hoc way
   to produce the desired result.  The terms ``tolerance'' and
   ``slop'' are also used, though these usually indicate a one-sided
   leeway, such as a buffer which is made larger than necessary
   because one isn't sure exactly how large it needs to be, and it is
   better to waste a little space than to lose completely for not
   having enough.  A fudge factor, on the other hand, can often be
   tweaked in more than one direction.  An example might be the
   coefficients of an equation, where the coefficients are varied in
   an attempt to make the equation fit certain criteria.

FUEL UP v. To eat or drink hurriedly in order to get back to hacking.
   ``Food-p?'' ``Yeah, let's fuel up.'' ``Time for a GREAT-WALL!''.
   See also ORIENTAL FOOD.

FUGGLY (fuhg'lee) adj. Emphatic form of FUNKY; funky + ugly. Unusually
   for hacker slang, this may actually derive from black street-jive.
   To say it properly, the first syllable should be growled rather
   than spoken. Usage: humorous. ``Man, the ASCII-to-EBCDIC code in
   that printer driver is *fuggly*.'' See also WONKY.

FUNKY adj. Said of something which functions, but in a slightly
   strange, klugey way.  It does the job and would be difficult to
   change, so its obvious non-optimality is left alone.  Often used to
   describe interfaces. The more bugs something has that nobody has
   bothered to fix because workarounds are easier, the funkier it is.
   TECO and UUCP are funky.  The Intel i860's exception handling is
   extraordinarily funky.  Most standards acquire funkiness as they
   age.  ``The new mailer is installed, but is still somewhat funky;
   if it bounces your mail for no reason, try resubmitting it.''
   ``This UART is pretty funky.  The data ready line is active-high in
   interrupt mode, and active-low in DMA mode.'' See FUGGLY.

FUZZ n. In floating-point arithmetic, the maximum difference allowed
   between two quantities for them to compare equal. Has to be set
   properly relative to the FPU's precision limits.

FUZZBALL [TCP/IP hackers] n. A DEC LSI-11 running a particular suite
   of homebrewed software by Dave Mills and assorted co-conspirators,
   used in the early 80's for Internet protocol testbedding and
   experimentation. These were used as NSFnet backbone sites in its
   early 56KB-line days; a few of these are still active on the
   Internet as of early 1990, doing odd jobs such as network time
   service.

			= G =

GABRIEL (gay'bree- at l) [for Dick Gabriel, SAIL volleyball fanatic] n.
   An unnecessary (in the opinion of the opponent) stalling tactic,
   e.g., tying one's shoelaces or hair repeatedly, asking the time,
   etc.  Also used to refer to the perpetrator of such tactics.  Also,
   ``pulling a Gabriel'', ``Gabriel mode''.

GAG vi. Equivalent to CHOKE, but connotes more disgust. ``Hey, this is
   Fortran code.  No wonder the C compiler gagged.'' See also BARF.

GARBAGE COLLECT v., GARBAGE COLLECTION n. See GC.

GARPLY (gar'plee) n. [Stanford] Another meta-word popular among SAIL
   hackers.

GAS [as in ``gas chamber''] interj. 1. A term of disgust and hatred,
   implying that gas should be dispensed in generous quantities,
   thereby exterminating the source of irritation.  ``Some loser just
   reloaded the system for no reason!  Gas!''  2. A term suggesting
   that someone or something ought to be flushed out of mercy.  ``The
   system's wedging every few minutes.  Gas!''  3. v.  FLUSH (q.v.).
   ``You should gas that old crufty software.''  4.  GASEOUS adj.
   Deserving of being gassed.  Usage: primarily used by Geoff
   Goodfellow at SRI, but spreading; became particularly popular after
   the Moscone/Milk murders in San Francisco, when it was learned that
   Dan White (who supported Proposition 7) would get the gas chamber
   under 7 if convicted.

GC (jee-see) [from LISP terminology] 1. v. To clean up and throw away
   useless things.  ``I think I'll GC the top of my desk today.''  2.
   v.  To recycle, reclaim, or put to another use.  3. n. An
   instantiation of the GC process.

GEDANKEN (g at -dahn'kn) [from Einstein's term ``gedanken-experimenten'',
   such as the standard proof that E=mc^2] adj. An AI project which is
   written up in grand detail without ever being implemented to any
   great extent.  Usually perpetrated by people who aren't very good
   hackers or find programming distasteful or are just in a hurry.  A
   gedanken thesis is usually marked by an obvious lack of intuition
   about what is programmable and what is not and about what does and
   does not constitute a clear specification of a program-related
   concept such as an algorithm.

GEEK OUT v. To temporarily enter techno-nerd mode while in a
   non-hackish context, for example at parties held near computer
   equipment.  Especially used when you need to do something highly
   technical and don't have time to explain: ``Pardon me while I geek
   out for a moment.''

GENDER MENDER n. (also GENDER BENDER) A cable connector shell with
   either two male or two female connectors on it, used for mating
   like-sexed cables. Used esp. for RS-232C parts in either the
   original D-25 or the IBM PC's bogus D-9 format.

GENERATE v. To produce something according to an algorithm or program
   or set of rules, or as a (possibly unintended) side effect of the
   execution of an algorithm or program. The opposite of PARSE. This
   term retains its mechanistic connotations (though often humorously)
   when used of human behavior.

GET A REAL COMPUTER imp. Typical hacker response to news that somebody
   is having trouble getting work done on a system that is a)
   single-tasking, b) has no Winchester, or c) has less than 4
   megabytes of DRAM. This is as of 1990; note that the threshold for
   `real computer' rises with time, and it may well be (for example)
   that machines with character-only displays will be considered
   `unreal' in a few years. See BITTY BOX and TOY.

GFR (jee eff ar) v. [acronym, ITS] From ``Grim File Reaper'', an ITS
   utility. To remove a file or files according to some
   program-automated or semi-automatic manual procedure, especially
   one designed to reclaim mass storage space or reduce namespace
   clutter. Often generalized to pieces of data below file level.  ``I
   used to have his phone number but I guess I GFRed it.'' See also
   PROWLER.

GIGO (gie'goh) [acronym] garbage in, garbage out.  Usually said in
   response to lusers who complain that a program didn't complain
   about faulty data. Also commonly used to describe failures in human
   decision making due to faulty, incomplete or imprecise data.

GLARK (glark) v. To figure something out from context, taken from an
   old Scientific American ``Mathematical Games'' column, where the
   phrase ``glark the meaning from context'' was used as an
   example...of glarking something from context. ``The System III
   manuals are pretty poor, but you can generally glark the meaning
   from context''.

GLASS [IBM] n. Synonym for SILICON.

GLASS TTY (glas tee-tee-wie, glas ti-tee) n. A terminal which has a
   display screen but which, because of hardware or software
   limitations, behaves like a teletype or other printing terminal.
   An example is the ADM-3 (without cursor control).  A glass tty
   can't do neat DISPLAY HACKs, and you can't save the output either.
   See TUBE, TTY.

GLITCH (glich) [from the Yiddish ``glitshen'', to slide] 1. n. A
   sudden interruption in electric service, sanity, or program
   function.  Sometimes recoverable.  2. v. To commit a glitch.  See
   GRITCH.  3.  v. [Stanford] To scroll a display screen several lines
   at a time.  4. (obs.) Same as MAGIC COOKIE, sense #2.

GLOB [UNIX, from ``glob'', the name of a subprogram that translated
   wildcards in archaic Bourne Shell versions] n.,v.  The UNIX
   conventions for filename wildcarding have become sufficiently
   pervasive that 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'. GLOB as a noun refers to the act of expanding a
   string using these conventions. It is also used as a verb.

GLORK (glork) 1. interj. Term of mild surprise, usually tinged with
   outrage, as when one attempts to save the results of two hours of
   editing and finds that the system has just crashed.  2. Used as a
   name for just about anything.  See FOO.  3. v. Similar to GLITCH
   (q.v.), but usually used reflexively.  ``My program just glorked
   itself.''

GNARLY adj. Both OBSCURE and HAIRY in the sense of complex.  ``Yeech
   -- the tuned assembler implementation of BitBlt is really gnarly!''
   From a similar but less specific usage in surfer slang.

GNU (gnoo, NOT ``noo'') 1. [acronym for ``GNU's Not UNIX!''] A
   UNIX-workalike development effort of the Free Software Foundation
   headed by Richard Stallman (aka RMS). GNU EMACS and the GNU C
   compiler, two tools designed for this project, have become very
   popular in hackerdom.  See EMACS, COPYLEFT.  2. Noted UNIX hacker
   John Gilmore (gnu at hoptoad.com), ironically enough one of the
   best-known and most vocal opponents of the ``information should not
   be property'' philosophy behind GNU. See RMS.

GNUMACS (gnoo'maks) [contraction of ``Gnu Emacs''] Often-heard
   abbreviated name for the GNU project's flagship tool, EMACS.  Used
   esp. in contrast with GOSMACS.

GO FLATLINE [from cyberpunk SF, refers to flattening of EEG traces
   upon brain-death] v., also adjectival FLATLINED. 1. To die,
   terminate, or fail, esp. irreversibly. In hacker parlance this is
   used of machines only, human death being considered somewhat too
   serious a matter to employ jargon-jokes about. 2. To go completely
   quiescent; said of machines undergoing controlled shutdown. ``You
   can suffer file damage if you shut down UNIX but power off before
   the system has gone flatline.'' 3. A particular failure mode of
   video tubes in which vertical scan is lost, so all one sees is a
   bright horizontal line bisecting the screen.

GOBBLE v. To consume or to obtain.  GOBBLE UP tends to imply
   ``consume'', while GOBBLE DOWN tends to imply ``obtain''.  ``The
   output spy gobbles characters out of a TTY output buffer.''  ``I
   guess I'll gobble down a copy of the documentation tomorrow.''  See
   SNARF.

GONK (gonk) v.,n. To prevaricate or to embellish the truth beyond any
   reasonable recognition.  In German the term is (fictively)
   ``GONKEN'', in spanish the verb becomes ``GONKAR.''  ``You're
   gonking me. That story you just told me is a bunch of gonk.'' In
   German, ``Du Gonkst mir.''  (You're pulling my leg.) See also
   GONKULATOR.

GONKULATOR (gon'kyoo-lay-tr) [from the old ``Hogan's Heroes'' TV
   series] n. A pretentious piece of equipment that actually serves no
   useful purpose.  Usually used to describe one's least favorite
   piece of computer hardware. See GONK.

GONZO (gon'zo) [from Hunter S. Thompson] adj. Overwhelming; very
   large, esp.  used of collections of source code, source files or
   individual functions.  Has some of the connotations of MOBY and
   HAIRY, q.v.

GOOD THING adj. Always capitalized. 1. Self-evidently wonderful to
   anyone in a position to notice: ``The Trailblazer's 19.2Kbaud PEP
   mode with on-the-fly Lempel-Ziv compression is a Good Thing for
   sites relaying netnews.'' 2. Something which can't possibly have
   any ill side effects and may save considerable grief later:
   ``Removing the self-modifying code from that shared library would
   be a Good Thing.'' 3. When said of software tools or libraries, as
   in ``YACC is a Good Thing'', specifically connotes that the thing
   has drastically reduced a programmer's work load.  Oppose BAD
   THING.

GORP (gorp) [CMU, perhaps from a brand of dried hiker's food?]
   Another metasyntactic variable, like FOO and BAR.

GOSMACS (goz'maks) [contraction of ``Gosling Emacs''] n. The first
   EMACS-in-C implementation, predating but now largely eclipsed by
   GNUMACS (q.v.). Originally freeware; a commercial version is now
   modestly popular as ``UniPress Emacs''.

GORILLA ARM n. The side-effect that destroyed touch-screens as a
   mainstream input technology despite a promising start in the early
   eighties. It seems the designers of all those SPIFFY touch-menu
   systems failed to notice that humans aren't designed to hold their
   arms in front of their faces making small motions. After more than
   a very few selects the arm begins to feel sore, cramped, and
   oversized, hence ``gorilla arm''. This is now considered a classic
   Horrible Example and cautionary tale to human-factors designers;
   ``remember the gorilla arm'' is shorthand for ``how's this gonna
   fly in *real* use?''

GREAT RENAMING n. The FLAG DAY on which all of the groups on the
   USENET had their names changed from the net.* format to the current
   7 hierarchies scheme.

GREAT-WALL [from SF fandom] v.,n. a mass expedition to an oriental
   restaurant. See ORIENTAL FOOD, CHINESE RAVS, STIR-FRIED RANDOM.

GREEN BOOK n. 1. The X/Open Compatibility Guide. Defines an
   international standard UNIX environment that is a proper superset
   of POSIX/SVID; also includes descriptions of a standard utility
   toolkit, systems administrations features, and the like.  This
   grimoire is taken with particular seriousness in Europe. See PURPLE
   BOOK. 2. One of the three standard PostScript references (see also
   RED BOOK, BLUE BOOK). 3. The P1003.1 POSIX Utilities standard has
   been dubbed THE UGLY GREEN BOOK.

GREEN LIGHTNING [IBM] n. Apparently random flashing streaks on the
   face of 3278-9 terminals while a programmable symbol set is being
   loaded. This hardware bug was left deliberately unfixed, as some
   bright spark suggested that this would let the user know that
   `something is happening'. It certainly does. 2.  [generalization of
   #1 proposed by ESR] Any bug perverted into an alleged feature by
   adroit rationalization or marketing. E.g.  ``Motorola calls the
   CISC cruft in the 8800 architecture `compatibility logic', but I
   call it green lightning''.

GRAULT (grawlt) n. Yet another meta-syntactic variable, invented by
   Mike Gallaher and propagated by the GOSMACS documentation. See
   CORGE.

GRAY GOO n. A hypothetical substance composed of billions of
   sub-micron-sized Von Neumann machines (self-replicating robots)
   programmed to make copies of themselves out of whatever is
   available. The image that goes with the term is one of the entire
   biosphere of Earth being eventually converted to robot goo. This is
   the most naive and easiest to refute of the NANOTECHNOLOGY (q.v.)
   disaster scenarios.

GREP (grep) [from the UNIX grep tool] v. To rapidly scan a file or
   file set looking for a particular string or pattern. By extension,
   to look for something by pattern. ``Grep the bulletin board for the
   system backup schedule, would you?''

GRIND v. 1. [MIT and Berkeley] To format code, especially LISP code,
   by indenting lines so that it looks pretty.  Hence, PRETTY PRINT,
   the generic term for such operations.  2. [UNIX] To generate the
   formatted version of a document from the nroff, troff, TEX or
   Scribe source. 3. To run seemingly interminably, performing some
   tedious and inherently useless task. Similar to CRUNCH, GROVEL.

GRIND CRANK n. A mythical accessory to a terminal.  A crank on the
   side of a monitor, which when operated makes a zizzing noise and
   causes the computer to run faster.  Usually one does not refer to a
   grind crank out loud, but merely makes the appropriate gesture and
   noise. See GRIND, CHUNGA CHUNGA CHUNGA and WUGGA WUGGA.

GRITCH (grich) 1. n. A complaint (often caused by a GLITCH (q.v.)).
   2. v. To complain.  Often verb-doubled: ``Gritch gritch''.  3.
   Glitch.

GROK (grok) [from the novel ``Stranger in a Strange Land'', by Robert
   Heinlein, where it is a Martian verb meaning literally ``to drink''
   and metaphorically ``to be one with''] v. To understand, usually in
   a global sense. Connotes intimate and exhaustive knowledge.
   Contrast ZEN, similar supernal understanding as a single brief
   flash.

GRONK (gronk) [popularized by the cartoon strip ``B.C.'' by Johnny
   Hart, but the word apparently predates that] v. 1. To clear the
   state of a wedged device and restart it.  More severe than ``to
   frob'' (q.v.).  2. To break.  ``The teletype scanner was gronked,
   so we took the system down.''  3. GRONKED: adj. Of people, the
   condition of feeling very tired or sick.  4. GRONK OUT: v. To cease
   functioning.  Of people, to go home and go to sleep.  ``I guess
   I'll gronk out now; see you all tomorrow.''

GROVEL v. To work interminably and without apparent progress.  Often
   used with ``over''.  ``The compiler grovelled over my code.''
   Compare GRIND and CRUNCH.  Emphatic form: GROVEL OBSCENELY.

GRUNGY (gruhn'jee) adj. Incredibly dirty or grubby.  Anything which
   has been washed within the last year is not really grungy.  Also
   used metaphorically; hence some programs (especially crocks) can be
   described as grungy. Now (1990) also common in mainstream slang.

GUBBISH (guh'bish) [a portmanteau of ``garbage'' and ``rubbish''?] n.
   Garbage; crap; nonsense.  ``What is all this gubbish?''

GUILTWARE n. FREEWARE decorated with a message telling one how long
   and hard the author worked on this program and intimating that one
   is a no-good shit if one does not immediately send the poor
   suffering martyr gobs of money.

GUMBY (guhm'bee) [from a class of Monty Python characters] n. An act
   of minor but conspicuous stupidity, often in GUMBY MANEUVER or PULL
   A GUMBY.

GUN [from the GUN command on ITS] v. 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.

GURFLE (ger'fl) interj. An expression of shocked disbelief. ``He said
   we have to recode this thing in FORTRAN by next week. Gurfle!''

GURU n. 1. A UNIX expert. Implies not only WIZARD skill but 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''.
   2. Amiga equivalent of ``panic'' in 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
   VULCAN NERVE PINCH.

			= H =

H INFIX [from SF fandom] A method of ``marking'' common words in the
   linguist's sense, i.e. calling attention to the fact that they are
   being used in a nonstandard, ironic or humorous way.  Orig. in the
   fannish catchphrase ``Bheer is the One True Ghod'' from decades
   ago.  H-infix marking of ``Ghod'' and other words spread into the
   Sixties counterculture via underground comix, and into early
   hackerdom either from the counterculture or SF fandom (all three
   overlapped heavily at the time). More recently, the h infix has
   become an expected feature of benchmark names, i.e.  Whetstone,
   Dhrystone, Rhealstone, etc; this is prob. patterning on the
   original Whetstone name but influenced by the
   fannish/counterculture H infix.

HA HA ONLY SERIOUS [from SF fandom] A phrase that aptly captures the
   flavor of much hacker discourse (sometimes seen abbreviated as
   HHOS). Applied especially to parodies, absurdities and ironic jokes
   that are both intended and perceived to contain a possibly
   disquieting amount of truth, or truths which are constructed on
   in-joke and self-parody. The jargon file contains many examples of
   ha-ha-only-serious in both form and content. Indeed, the entirety
   of hacker culture is often perceived as ha-ha-only-serious by
   hackers themselves; to take it either too lightly or too seriously
   marks a person as an outsider or one in LARVAL STAGE. For further
   enlightenment on this subject, consult any Zen master. See also
   HUMOR, HACKER.

HACK n. 1. Originally a quick job that produces what is needed, but
   not well.  2. The result of that job.  3. NEAT HACK: A clever
   technique.  Also, a brilliant practical joke, where neatness is
   correlated with cleverness, harmlessness, and surprise value.
   Example: the Caltech Rose Bowl card display switch circa 1961.  4.
   REAL HACK: A crock (occasionally affectionate).  v. 5. With
   ``together'', to throw something together so it will work.  6. To
   bear emotionally or physically.  ``I can't hack this heat!'' 7.  To
   work on something (typically a program).  In specific sense: ``What
   are you doing?''  ``I'm hacking TECO.''  In general sense: ``What
   do you do around here?''  ``I hack TECO.''  (The former is
   time-immediate, the latter time-extended.)  More generally, ``I
   hack x'' is roughly equivalent to ``x is my bag''.  ``I hack
   solid-state physics.''  8. To pull a prank on.  See definition 3
   and HACKER (def #6).  9. v.i. To waste time (as opposed to TOOL).
   ``Watcha up to?''  ``Oh, just hacking.''  10. HACK UP (ON): To
   hack, but generally implies that the result is meanings 1-2.  11.
   HACK VALUE: Term used as the reason or motivation for expending
   effort toward a seemingly useless goal, the point being that the
   accomplished goal is a hack.  For example, MacLISP has features for
   reading and printing roman numerals, which was installed purely for
   hack value. 12. [UNIX] A dungeon game similar to ROGUE (q.v.) but
   more elaborate, distributed in C source over USENET and very
   popular at UNIX sites and on PC-class machines. Recent versions are
   called `nethack'.  HAPPY HACKING: A farewell.  HOW'S HACKING?: A
   friendly greeting among hackers.  HACK HACK: A somewhat pointless
   but friendly comment, often used as a temporary farewell.

HACKER [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] n. 1. A
   person who enjoys learning the details of programming systems and
   how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users who
   prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.  2. One who programs
   enthusiastically, or who enjoys programming rather than just
   theorizing about programming.  3. A person capable of appreciating
   HACK VALUE (q.v.).  4. A person who is good at programming quickly.
   Not everything a hacker produces is a hack.  5. An expert at a
   particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on
   it; example: ``A UNIX hacker''.  (Definitions 1 to 5 are
   correlated, and people who fit them congregate.)  6.  (deprecated)
   A malicious or inquisitive meddler who tries to discover
   information by poking around.  Hence ``password hacker'', ``network
   hacker''. See CRACKER.

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 which
   may be achieved when one is hacking. Ability to enter such
   concentration at will correlates strongly with 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 an almost
   physical shock, and the sensation of being in it is more than a
   little habituating. The intensity of this experience is probably by
   itself sufficient explanation for the existence of hackers, and
   explains why many resist being promoted out of positions where they
   can do code.

HACKING RUN [analogy with `bombing run' or `speed run'] n. A hack
   session extended long outside `normal' working times, especially
   one longer than 12 hours. May cause you to CHANGE PHASE THE HARD
   WAY (see PHASE).

HACKISH (hak'ish) adj. (also HACKISHNESS n.) 1. Being or involving a
   hack. 2. Of or pertaining to hackers or the hacker subculture.  See
   also TRUE-HACKER.

HAIR n. The complications which make something hairy.  ``Decoding TECO
   commands requires a certain amount of hair.''  Often seen in the
   phrase INFINITE HAIR, which connotes extreme complexity. Also in
   HAIRIFEROUS (tending to promote hair growth): ``GNU elisp
   encourages lusers to write complex editing modes.''  ``Yeah, it's
   pretty hairiferous all right.''

HAIRY adj. 1. Overly complicated.  ``DWIM is incredibly hairy.''  2.
   Incomprehensible.  ``DWIM is incredibly hairy.''  3.  Of people,
   high-powered, authoritative, rare, expert, and/or incomprehensible.
   Hard to explain except in context: ``He knows this hairy lawyer who
   says there's nothing to worry about.''

HAKMEM (hak'mem) n. MIT AI Memo 239 (February 1972).  A legendary
   collection of neat mathematical and programming hacks contributed
   by many people at MIT and elsewhere.

HAND-HACKING n. The practice of translating HOT SPOTS from an HLL into
   custom hand-optimized assembler, as opposed to trying to coerce the
   compiler into generating better code. Both the term and the
   practice are becoming uncommon. See TUNE, BUM. 2. More generally,
   manual construction or patching of data sets that would normally be
   ground out by a translation utility and interpreted by another
   program, and aren't really designed to be read or modified by
   humans.

HANDWAVE 1. v. To gloss over a complex point; to distract a listener;
   to support a (possibly actually valid) point with blatantly faulty
   logic.  2. n. The act of handwaving.  ``Boy, what a handwave!''
   The use of this word is often accompanied by gestures: both hands
   up, palms forward, swinging the hands in a vertical plane pivoting
   at the elbows and/or shoulders (depending on the magnitude of the
   handwave); alternatively, holding the forearms still while rotating
   the hands at the wrist to make them flutter.  In context, the
   gestures alone can suffice as a remark.

HANLON'S RAZOR n. A ``murphyism'' parallel to Occam's Razor that reads
   ``Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained
   by stupidity''. Quoted here because it seems to be a particular
   favorite of hackers, often showing up in FORTUNE COOKIE files and
   the login banners of BBS systems and commercial networks.  This
   probably reflects the hacker's daily experience of environments
   created by the well-intentioned but shortsighted.

HARDWARILY (hard-weir'i-lee) adv. In a way pertaining to hardware.
   ``The system is hardwarily unreliable.''  The adjective
   ``hardwary'' is NOT used.  See SOFTWARILY.

HAS THE X NATURE [seems to derive from Zen Buddhist koans of the form
   ``Does an X have the Buddha-nature?'']  adj. Common hacker
   construction for `is an X', used for humorous emphasis. Ex:
   ``Anyone who can't even use a program with on-screen help embedded
   in it truly has the LOSER nature!''

HASH COLLISION [from the technical usage] n. When used of people,
   signifies a confusion in associative memory or imagination,
   especially a persistent one (see THINKO). True story: one of us
   (ESR) was once on the phone with a friend about to move out to
   Berkeley. When asked what he expected Berkeley to be like, the
   friend replied ``Well, I have this mental picture of naked women
   throwing Molotov cocktails, but I think that's just a collision in
   my hash tables.''

HCF (aych-see-eff) n. Mnemonic for ``Halt and Catch Fire'', any of
   several undocumented and semi-mythical machine instructions with
   destructive side-effects, supposedly included for test purposes on
   several well-known architectures going as far back as the IBM 360.
   The MC68000 microprocessor was the first for which the HCF opcode
   became widely known. The 68000 HCF causes the processor to toggle a
   subset of the bus lines as rapidly as it can; in some
   configurations this can actually cause lines to burn up.

HEARTBEAT n. 1. The master clock signal propagated across an Ethernet;
   by extension, the time-baseline synchronization signal at the
   physical level of any network. 2. The `natural' oscillation
   frequency of a computer's clock crystal, before frequency division
   down to the machine's CLOCK RATE.

HEISENBUG (hie'sen-buhg) [from quantum physics] n. A bug which
   disappears or alters its behavior when one attempts to probe or
   isolate it. Antonym of BOHR BUG (q.v.). In C, 9 out of 10
   heisenbugs result from either FANDANGO ON CORE phenomena (esp.
   lossage related to corruption of the malloc ARENA) or errors which
   SMASH THE STACK.

HELLO SAILOR! interj. Occasional West Coast equivalent of `Hello,
   world!'. See HELLO WORLD.

HELLO WALL See WALL.

HELLO WORLD! interj. 1. The canonical minimal test message in the
   C/UNIX universe. In folklore, the first program a C coder is
   supposed to write in a new environment is one that just prints
   ``Hello, world!'' to his standard output. Environments that
   generate an unreasonably large executable for this trivial test or
   which require a HAIRY compiler-linker invocation to generate it are
   considered to LOSE. 2. Greeting uttered by a hacker making an
   entrance or requesting information from anyone present. ``Hello,
   world! Is the VAX back up yet?''

HIGH BIT n. 1. See META BIT. Also meaning most significant part of
   something other than a data byte, e.g. ``Spare me the whole saga,
   just give me the high bit.''

HIRSUTE adj. Occasionally used humorously as a synonym for HAIRY.

HLL (aych-el-el) n. [High-Level Language (as opposed to assembler)]
   Found primarily in email and news rather than speech. Rarely, the
   variants `VHLL' and `MLL' are found. VHLL = `Very-High-Level
   Language' and is used to describe a BONDAGE-AND-DISCIPLINE LANGUAGE
   that the speaker happens to like; Prolog and Backus's FP are often
   called VHLLs. `MLL' = `Medium-Level Language' and is sometimes used
   half-jokingly to describe C, alluding to its `structured-assembler'
   image. See also LANGUAGES OF CHOICE.

HOG n.,v. Favored term to describe programs which seem to eat far more
   than their share of a system's resources, esp. those which
   noticeably degrade general timesharing response. *Not* used of
   programs which are simply extremely large or complex or which are
   merely painfully slow themselves (see PIG, RUN LIKE A). More often
   than not encountered in qualified forms, e.g. MEMORY HOG, CORE HOG,
   HOG THE PROCESSOR, HOG THE DISK.

HOOK n. An extraneous piece of software or hardware included in order
   to simplify later additions or debug options.  For instance, a
   program might execute a location that is normally a JFCL, but by
   changing the JFCL to a PUSHJ one can insert a debugging routine at
   that point.

HOME BOX n. A hacker's personal machine, especially one he owns.
   ``Yeah?  Well, *my* home box runs a full 4.2BSD, so there!''

HOSE 1. v. To make non-functional or greatly degraded in performance,
   as in ``That big ray-tracing program really hoses the system.'' See
   HOSED. 2. n. A narrow channel through which data flows under
   pressure.  Generally denotes data paths in a system that represent
   performance bottlenecks.  3.  Cabling, especially thick Ethernet
   cable.  Sometimes ``bit hose''.

HOSED adj. Same as DOWN. Used primarily by UNIX hackers.  Humorous:
   also implies a condition thought to be relatively easy to reverse.
   Probably a back-formation from the Canadian slang `hoser'
   popularized by the Bob and Doug skits on SCTV. See HOSE.

HOT SPOTS [primarily C/UNIX programmers, but spreading] n.  In most
   programs, less than 10% of the code eats 90% of the execution time;
   if one were to graph instruction visits versus code addresses, one
   would typically see a few huge spikes amidst a lot of low-level
   noise. Such spikes are called hot spots and are good candidates for
   HAND-HACKING. The term is especially used of tight loops and
   recursions in the code's central algorithm, as opposed to (say)
   initial set-up costs or large but infrequent I/O operations.  See
   TUNE, BUM, HAND-HACKING.

HOUSE WIZARD [prob. from ad-agency lingo, cf. `house freak'] n. A lone
   hacker occupying a technical-specialist, R&D or systems position at
   a commercial shop. A really effective house wizard can have
   influence out of all proportion to his/her ostensible rank and
   still not have to wear a suit. Used esp. of UNIX experts. The term
   HOUSE GURU is equivalent.

HP-SUX (aych pee suhx) n. Unflattering hackerism for HP-UX,
   Hewlett-Packard's UNIX port. Features some truly unique bogosities
   in the filesystem internals and elsewhere that occasionally create
   portability problems. See also TELERAT, SUN-STOOLS, TERMINAK.

HUMONGOUS (hyoo-mohng'gus) alt. HUMUNGOUS (hyoo-muhng'gus) See HUNGUS.

HUMOR, HACKER n. A distinctive style of shared intellectual humor
   found among hackers, having the following marked characteristics:

   1) Fascination with form-vs.-content jokes, paradoxes, and humor
   having to do with confusion of metalevels (see META). One way to
   make a hacker laugh: hold an index card in front of him/her with
   ``THIS IS GREEN'' written on it in bold red ink, or vice-versa
   (note, however, that this is only funny the first time).

   2) Elaborate deadpan parodies of large intellectual constructs such
   as standards documents, language descriptions (see INTERCAL) and
   even entire scientific theories (see QUANTUM BOGODYNAMICS,
   COMPUTRON).

   3) Jokes which involve screwily precise reasoning from bizarre,
   ludicrous or just grossly counter-intuitive premises.

   4) Fascination with puns and wordplay.

   5) A fondness for apparently mindless humor with subversive
   currents of intelligence in it, for example: old Warner Brothers
   and Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons, Charlie Chaplin movies, the B-52s,
   and Monty Python's Flying Circus. Humor which combines this trait
   with elements of high camp and slapstick is especially favored.

   6) References to the symbol-object antinomies and associated ideas
   in Zen Buddhism and (less often) Taoism. See HAS THE X NATURE,
   DISCORDIANISM, ZEN, HA HA ONLY SERIOUS.

   See also FILK, COMPUTER; RETROCOMPUTING; and Appendix C. If you
   have an itchy feeling that all six of these traits are really
   aspects of one thing that is incredibly difficult to talk about
   exactly, you are a) correct and b) responding like a hacker. These
   traits are also recognizable (though in a less marked form)
   throughout SCIENCE-FICTION FANDOM.

HUNG [from ``hung up''] adj. Equivalent to WEDGED, q.v. but more
   common at UNIX/C sites. Not used of people.

HUNGUS (hung'ghis) [perhaps related to current slang ``humongous'';
   which one came first (if either) is unclear] adj. Large, unwieldy,
   usually unmanageable.  ``TCP is a hungus piece of code.''  ``This
   is a hungus set of modifications.''

HYPERSPACE (hie'per-spays) n. A memory location within a virtual
   memory machine that is many, many megabytes (or gigabytes) away
   from where the program counter should be pointing. ``Another core
   dump...looks like the program jumped off to hyperspace somehow.''

			= I =

IBM (ie bee em) Inferior But Marketable; It's Better Manually;
   Insidious Black Magic; Incontinent Bowel Movement; and a
   near-INFINITE number of many even less complimentary expansions,
   including ``International Business Machines''. See TLA. These
   abbreviations illustrate the considerable antipathy most hackers
   have long felt for the ``industry leader'' (see FEAR AND LOATHING).
   What galls hackers about most IBM machines above the PC level isn't
   so much that they're underpowered and overpriced (though that
   counts against them) but that the designs are incredibly archaic,
   crufty and ELEPHANTINE and you can't *fix* them -- source is locked
   up tight and programming tools are expensive, hard to find, and a
   bitch to use once you've found them. With the release of the
   UNIX-based RIOS family this may have begun to change -- but then,
   we thought that when the PC-RT came out, too.  In the spirit of
   universal peace and brotherhood the jargon list now includes a
   number of entries marked `IBM'; these derive from a rampantly
   unofficial jargon list circulated among IBM's own beleaguered
   hacker underground.

ICE [from William Gibson's cyberpunk SF: notionally, ``Intrusion
   Countermeasure Electronics''] Security software. Also, ICEBREAKER:
   a program designed for cracking security on a system. Neither term
   is in serious use yet as of 1990, but many hackers find the
   metaphor attractive and they may be in the near future.

ILL BEHAVED adj. Software which bypasses the defined OS interfaces to
   do things (like screen, keyboard and disk I/O) itself, often in a
   way that depends on the hardware of the machine it is running on or
   which is nonportable or incompatible with other pieces of software.
   In the IBM PC/MS-DOS world, where this term originated, there is a
   folk theorem to the effect that (due to gross inadequacies and
   performance penalties in the OS interface) all interesting
   applications are ill-behaved. Oppose WELL-BEHAVED. See MESS-DOS.

IMHO [from SF fandom via USENET] Written acronym for In My Humble
   Opinion.  Example: ``IMHO, mixed-case C names should be avoided, as
   mistyping something in the wrong case can cause hard-to-detect
   errors -- and they look too Pascalish anyhow.''

INCANTATION n. Any particularly arbitrary or obscure command that must
   be muttered at a system to attain a desired result. Not used of
   passwords or other explicit security features.  Especially used of
   tricks that are so poorly documented they must be learned from a
   WIZARD. E.g. ``This compiler normally locates initialized data in
   the data segment, but if you mutter the right incantation they will
   be forced into text space''. See MUTTER.

INFINITE adj. Consisting of a large number of objects; extreme.  Used
   very loosely as in: ``This program produces infinite garbage.''

INFANT MORTALITY n. It is common lore among hackers that the chances
   of sudden hardware failure drop off exponentially with a machine's
   time since power-up (that is until the relatively distant time at
   which mechanical wear in I/O devices and thermal-cycling stress in
   components has accumulated enough for the machine to start going
   senile). Up to half of all chip-and-wire failures happen within a
   new system's first few weeks; such failures are often referred to
   as ``infant mortality'' problems.

INTERCAL (in'tr-kal) [said by the authors to stand for ``Compiler
   Language With No Pronounceable Acronym''] n. The language has been
   recently re-implemented as C-INTERCAL and is consequently enjoying
   an unprecedented level of unpopularity.

INTERNET ADDRESS n. An `absolute' network address of the form
   foo at bar.baz, where foo is a user name, bar is a site name, and baz
   is a `domain' name, possibly including periods itself. Contrasts
   with BANG PATH, q.v.; see also NETWORK. All Internet machines and
   most UUCP sites can now resolve these addresses, thanks to a large
   amount of behind-the-scenes magic and PD software written since
   1980 or so. See also BANG PATH.

INTERRUPTS LOCKED OUT When someone is ignoring you. In a restaurant,
   after several fruitless attempts to get the waitress's attention, a
   hacker might well observe that ``She must have interrupts locked
   out.'' Variations of this abound; ``to have one's interrupt mask
   bit set'' is also heard.

IRON n. Hardware, especially older/larger hardware of mainframe class
   with big metal cabinets relatively low-density electronics (but
   also used of modern supercomputers). Often in the phrase BIG IRON.
   Oppose SILICON. See also DINOSAUR.

IRON BOX [UNIX/Internet] n. A special environment set up to trap a
   CRACKER logging in over remote or network connections long enough
   so he can be traced. May include a specially-gimmicked SHELL
   restricting the hacker's movements in unobvious ways, and `bait'
   files designed to keep him interested and logged on. See also BACK
   DOOR.

IRONMONGER [IBM] n. A hardware specialist. Derogatory.  Compare
   SANDBENDER, POLYGON PUSHER.

ITS (ie-tee-ess) n. Incompatible Time-Sharing System, an influential
   but highly idiosyncratic operating system written for PDP-10s at
   MIT and long used at the MIT AI lab; much AI-hacker slang derives
   from ITS folklore. After about 1982 most actual work was shifted to
   newer machines, with the remaining ITS boxes run essentially as a
   hobby and service to the hacker community.  The shutdown of the
   lab's last ITS machine in May 1990 marked the end of an era and
   sent old-time hackers into mourning nationwide. See Appendix B.

IWBNI [acronym] It Would Be Nice If.  No pronunciation, as this is
   never spoken, only written. Compare WIBNI.

IYFEG [USENET] Abbreviation for ``Insert Your Favourite Ethnic
   Group''.  Used as a meta-name when telling racist jokes in email to
   avoid offending anyone.

			= J =

JAGGIES (jag'eez) n. The `stairstep' effect observable when an edge
   (esp. a linear edge of slope far from 45 degrees) is rendered on a
   pixel device (as opposed to a vector display).

JIFFY n. 1. Interval of CPU time, commonly 1/60 second or 1
   millisecond (see TICK).  2. Indeterminate time from a few seconds
   to forever. ``I'll do it in a jiffy'' means certainly not now and
   possibly never.

JOCK n. 1. Programmer who is characterized by large and somewhat brute
   force programs. 2. When modified by another noun, describes a
   specialist in some particular computing area. The compounds
   `compiler jock' and `systems jock' seem to be the best established
   examples of this.

JOE CODE (joh kohd) [said to commemmorate a notoriously bad coder
   named Joe at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory] n. Badly written,
   possibly buggy source code.  ``Perl may be a handy program, but if
   you look at the source, it's complete joe code.'' Correspondents
   wishing to remain anonymous have fingered a particular Joe and
   observed that usage has drifted slightly; they described his code
   as ``overly TENSE and unmaintainable''.
	
J. RANDOM HACKER (jay rand'm hak'r) n. A mythical figure like the
   Unknown Soldier; the archetypal hacker nerd. See RANDOM.

			= K =

KAHUNA (k at -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 [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 [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 architectures.

KILLER POKE n. A recipe for inducing hardware damage on a machine via
   insertion of invalid values in a memory-mapped control register;
   used esp. of various fairly well-known tricks on MMU-less BITTY
   BOXES like the IBM PC and Commodore PET that can overload and trash
   analog electronics in the monitor. See also HCF.

KLUGE (kloodj) alt. KLUDGE (kluhdj) [from the German ``klug'', 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.

KNIGHTS OF THE LAMBDA CALCULUS n. A semi-mythical organization of
   wizardly LISP and Scheme hackers. There is no enrollment list and
   the criteria for induction are unclear, but one well-known LISPer
   has been known to give out buttons and, in general, the *members*
   know who they are...