2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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off the trolley
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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adj. Describes the behavior of a program that malfunctions and goes
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catatonic, but doesn't actually crash or abort. See glitch , bug , deep
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space , wedged. This term is much older than computing, and is (uncommon)
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slang elsewhere. A trolley is the small wheel that trolls, or runs against,
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the heavy wire that carries the current to run a streetcar. It's at the end
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of the long pole (the trolley pole) that reaches from the roof of the
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streetcar to the overhead line. When the trolley stops making contact with
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the wire (from passing through a switch, going over bumpy track, or
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whatever), the streetcar comes to a halt, (usually) without crashing. The
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streetcar is then said to be off the trolley, or off the wire. Later on,
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trolley came to mean the streetcar itself. Since streetcars became common in
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the 1890s, the term is more than 100 years old. Nowadays, trolleys are only
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seen on historic streetcars, since modern streetcars use pantographs to
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contact the wire.
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