eric@snark.thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond) (11/29/90)
= L = LACE CARD 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 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 n. Describes a period of monomaniacal concentration on coding apparently passed through by all fledgling 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. LEAK n. With qualifier, one of a class of resource-management bugs that occur when resources are not freed properly after operations on them are finished, leading to eventual exhaustion as new allocation requests come in. MEMORY LEAK and FD LEAK have their own entries; one might also refer, say, to a ``window handle leak'' in a window system. LERP (lerp) v.,n. Quasi-acronym for Linear Interpolation, used 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 n. 1. 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. 2. The opposite of USENET. As in ``Get a life!''. LIKE KICKING DEAD WHALES DOWN THE BEACH adj. A slow and disgusting process. First popularized by a famous quote about the difficulty of getting work done under one of IBM's mainframe OSs. ``Well, you *could* write a C compiler in COBOL, but it would be like kicking dead whales down the beach.'' LINE EATER, THE [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 quickly personified as a 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. The bug itself is still (in mid-1990) occasionally reported to be lurking in some mail-to-netnews gateways. LINE STARVE [MIT] Inverse of `line feed'; a character or character sequence which causes a printer to back up one line depth. LINK FARM [UNIX] n. A directory tree that contains many links to files in 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 [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 [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 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. Accordingly, it has undergone considerable adaptive radiation over the years; modern variants (of which Scheme is perhaps the most successful) are quite different in detail from the original LISP 1.5 at Stanford. The hands-down favorite of hackers until the early 1980s, LISP now shares the throne with C (q.v.). See LANGUAGES OF CHOICE. LITTLE-ENDIAN 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 Intel microprocessors and a lot of communications and networking hardware are little-endian. See BIG-ENDIAN, MIDDLE-ENDIAN. LIVELOCK 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. LIVEWARE n. Synonym for WETWARE (q.v.) Less common. LOGIC BOMB 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 [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.) The concept is perpetuated by bay area highways which are almost, but not quite, consistently labelled with logical rather than physical directions. LORD HIGH FIXER [primarily British] n. The person in an organisation who knows the most about some aspect of a system. See WIZARD. LOSE [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. 5. LOSE as a noun refers to something which is losing, especially in the phrases ``That's a lose!'' or ``What a lose!''. LOSER n. An unexpectedly bad situation, program, programmer, or person. Especially ``real loser''. LOSS 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 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 [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.'' MACINTRASH (mak'in-trash) The Apple Macintosh, by someone who doesn't appreciate being kept away from the _real_computer_ by the interface. See also WIMP ENVIRONMENT, DROOL-PROOF PAPER, USER FRIENDLY. 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 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.). MACROTAPE (ma'kro-tayp) n. An industry standard reel of tape, as opposed to a MICROTAPE. MAGIC 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 [UNIX] n. 1. Something passed between routines or programs that enables the receiver to perform some OBSCURE operationl; a capability ticket. Especially used of small data objects which contain data encoded in a strange or intrinsically machine-dependent way. For example, on non-UNIX OSs with a non-byte-stream model of files, the result of ftell(3) may be a `magic cookie' rather than a byte offset; it can be passed to fseek(3) but not operated on in any meaningful way. 2. A 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 [UNIX/C] n. 1. Special data 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 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 v. Used similarly to MUNG or SCRIBBLE, but more violent in its connotations; something that is mangled has been irreversibly and totally trashed. MANGO [orig. in-house slang at Symbolics] n. A manager. See also DEVO and DOCO. MARGINAL 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 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 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 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) [My Eyes Glaze Over, often Mine Eyes Glazeth Over, attributed to the futurologist Herman Kahn] Also MEGO FACTOR. 1. 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 (q.v.). 2. excl. An appropriate response to MEGO tactics. MELTDOWN 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 sophonts) 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 [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. Also (esp. at CMU) called CORE LEAK. See ALIASING BUG, FANDANGO ON CORE, SMASH THE STACK, PRECEDENCE LOSSAGE, 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. See USER-OBSEQUIOUS, DROOL-PROOF PAPER, WIMP ENVIRONMENT. 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'', ``messy-dos'', ``mess-dog'' and various combinations thereof. 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 n. 3-1/2 inch floppies, as opposed to 5-1/4 VANILLA or mini-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 n. Occasionally used to mean a DECtape, as opposed to a MACROTAPE. MIDDLE-ENDIAN adj. Not BIG-ENDIAN or LITTLE-ENDIAN. Used of byte orders like 3-4-1-2 occasionally found in the packed-decimal formats from minicomputer manufacturers who shall remain nameless. MILLILAMPSON (mil'i-lamp-sn) n. How fast people can talk. Most people run about 200 millilampsons. Butler Lampson (a CS theorist highly regarded among hackers) goes at 1000. A few people speak faster. MIPS (mips) [acronym] Formally, ``Millions of Instructions Per Second''; often rendered by hackers as ``Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed''. This joke expresses a nearly universal attitude about the value of BENCHMARK (q.v.) claims, said attitude being one of the great cultural divides between hackers and MARKETROIDS. 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 [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 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 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 v. To hack together hardware for a particular task, especially a one-shot job. Connotes an extremely CRUFTY and consciously temporary solution. MONSTROSITY 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 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 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-das) 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 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 [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 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, (re)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 [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 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 pronunciation `munj' is now usual in speech, but the spelling `mung' is still common in program comments. MUSIC 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 underlie 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 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, TWO-TO-THE-N. NAILED TO THE WALL [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 n. 1. A protocol packet or item of email (the latter is also called a `letterbomb') that takes advantage of misfeatures or security holes on the target system to do untoward things. 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 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 gerund 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 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 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 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 combination 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. Salvos of dueling `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 anarchic `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 [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 n. See PHASE (of people). 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 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 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.''. 3. Any operation or sequence of operations with no effect, such as circling the block without finding a parking space, or putting money into a vending machine and having it fall immediately into the coin-return box, or asking someone for help and being told to go away. ``Oh well, that was 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 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. 3. Used of processes as well as files; frequently an alias for ``kill -9'' on UNIX. 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'' (i.e. when transferring data from a little-endian to a big endian or vice-versa). See also, BIG-ENDIAN, LITTLE-ENDIAN, SWAB, and BYTESEXUAL. = O = OB (ob) pref. Obligatory. A piece of NETIQUETTE that acknowledges the author has been straying from the group's charter. For example, if a posting in alt.sex has nothing particularly to do with sex, the author may append ``ObSex'' (or ``Obsex'') and tell a dirty joke. OBSCURE 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 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 gives 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-BY-ONE ERROR n. Exceedingly common error induced in many ways, usually by starting at 0 when you should have started at 1 or vice versa. Also applied to giving an object to the person next to the one who should have gotten it. Often confused with FENCEPOST ERROR, which is properly a particular subtype of it. OFF THE TROLLEY 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 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 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) [allegedly from one of the Dr. Seuss books] 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 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 [IBM] n. An unresolved issue. OPERATING SYSTEM 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 importantly by ITS and UNIX). Each of these has its own entry, which see. ORANGE BOOK, THE 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 (most secure) through C3 (least). Stock UNIXes are roughly C2. See SILVER BOOK, WHITE BOOK, PURPLE BOOK. ORIENTAL 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 [from mathematics] adj. 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). Also used in comment on human discourse; ``This may be orthogonal to the discussion, but...''. 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 (allegedly) 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 [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 BUG, PRECEDENCE LOSSAGE, FANDANGO ON CORE.