spike

v. 1. To defeat a selection mechanism by introducing a (sometimes temporary)
device that forces a specific result. The word is used in several
industries; telephone engineers refer to spiking a relay by inserting a pin
to hold the relay in either the closed or open state, and railroaders refer
to spiking a track switch so that it cannot be moved. In programming
environments it normally refers to a temporary change, usually for testing
purposes (as opposed to a permanent change, which would be called hardwired
). 2. [borderline techspeak] A visible peak in an otherwise rather constant
graph (e.g. a sudden surge in line voltage, an unexpected short high on a
logical line in a circuit). Hackers frequently use this for a sudden short
increase in some quantity such as system load or network traffic.

