raveling@isi.edu (Paul Raveling) (11/07/89)
In article <oZJ8pWK00Xoe80YkUr@andrew.cmu.edu>, pc2d+@andrew.cmu.edu (Philip Edward Cutone, III) writes: > If I recall, there is also another type of black box. Phone hackers > have various devices that allow them to illegally make calls ... "Black box" originally referred to any system whose functional (external) behavior is known or specified, but whose internal workings are utterly unknown. This usage tends to crop up most often in connection with with testing or analyzing a system -- it need not be avionics. As often used by news media, this became any sort of system a reporter didn't understand, basically a widget. "Black box" may join "hacker" as a term whose public usage will change its original meaning. And now, in the not-so-general public (yet) we have a SPECIFIC meaning for "widget". I can no longer say "widget" to safely refer to some sort of black box. This note should probably go to newsgroup sci.isn't-it-a-miracle-that-we-communicate-at-all. ---------------- Paul Raveling Raveling@isi.edu
dgh@unify.UUCP (David Harrington) (11/11/89)
In article <10417@venera.isi.edu> raveling@isi.edu (Paul Raveling) writes: >In article <oZJ8pWK00Xoe80YkUr@andrew.cmu.edu>, pc2d+@andrew.cmu.edu >(Philip Edward Cutone, III) writes: >> If I recall, there is also another type of black box. Phone hackers >> have various devices that allow them to illegally make calls ... > I believe this was known as the "Blue Box".