demoeffect

n. [ demoscene ] 1. What among hackers is called a display hack. Classical
effects include plasma (colorful mess), keftales ( x*x+y*y and other similar
patterns, usually combined with color-cycling), realtime fractals, realtime
3d graphics, etc. Historically, demo effects have cheated as much as
possible to gain more speed and more complexity, using low-precision math
and masses of assembler code and building animation realtime are three
common tricks, but use of special hardware to fake effects is a Good Thing
on the demoscene (though this is becoming less common as platforms like the
Amiga fade away). 2. [Finland] Opposite of dancing frog. The crash that
happens when you demonstrate a perfectly good prototype to a client. Plagues
most often CS students and small businesses, but there is a well-known case
involving Bill Gates demonstrating a brand new version of a major operating
system.

