17 lines
2.8 KiB
HTML
17 lines
2.8 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>smoke and mirrors</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../S.html" title="S"/><link rel="previous" href="smoke.html" title="smoke"/><link rel="next" href="smoke-test.html" title="smoke test"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">smoke and mirrors</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="smoke.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">S</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="smoke-test.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="smoke-and-mirrors"/><dt xmlns="" id="smoke-and-mirrors"><b>smoke and mirrors</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> Marketing deceptions. The term is mainstream in this general sense.
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Among hackers it's strongly associated with bogus demos and crocked
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<a href="../B/benchmark.html"><i class="glossterm">benchmark</i></a>s (see also <a href="../M/MIPS.html"><i class="glossterm">MIPS</i></a>,
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<a href="../M/machoflops.html"><i class="glossterm">machoflops</i></a>). “<span class="quote">They claim their new box cranks
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50 MIPS for under $5000, but didn't specify the instruction mix —
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sounds like smoke and mirrors to me.</span>” The phrase, popularized by
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newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin c.1975, has been said to derive from
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carnie slang for magic acts and ‘freak show’ displays that
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depend on <span class="foreignphrase"><i class="foreignphrase">trompe l'oeil</i></span> effects, but also
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calls to mind the fierce Aztec god Tezcatlipoca (lit. “<span class="quote">Smoking
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Mirror</span>”) for whom the hearts of huge numbers of human sacrificial
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victims were regularly cut out. Upon hearing about a rigged demo or yet
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another round of fantasy-based marketing promises, hackers often feel
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analogously disheartened. See also <a href="stealth-manager.html"><i class="glossterm">stealth
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manager</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="smoke.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../S.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="smoke-test.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">smoke </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> smoke test</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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