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entries/(TM).txt

@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
 (TM)
 
-// [Usenet] ASCII rendition of the appended to phrases that the author feels should be recorded for posterity, perhaps in future editions of this lexicon. Sometimes used ironically as a form of protest against the recent spate of software and algorithm patents and look and feel lawsuits. See also UN*X.
+// [Usenet] ASCII rendition of the appended to phrases that the author feels
+should be recorded for posterity, perhaps in future editions of this
+lexicon. Sometimes used ironically as a form of protest against the recent
+spate of software and algorithm patents and look and feel lawsuits. See also
+UN*X.
+

entries/-dev-null.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 /dev/null
 
-/devnuhl/ , n. [from the Unix null device, used as a data sink] A notional black hole in any information space being discussed, used, or referred to. A controversial posting, for example, might end Kudos to rasputin@kremlin.org, flames to /dev/null. See bit bucket.
+/devnuhl/ , n. [from the Unix null device, used as a data sink] A notional
+black hole in any information space being discussed, used, or referred to. A
+controversial posting, for example, might end Kudos to rasputin@kremlin.org,
+flames to /dev/null. See bit bucket.
+

entries/-fu.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
 -fu
 
-Combining form denoting expert practice of a skill. That's going to take some serious code-fu. First sighted in connection with the GIMP's remote-scripting facility, script-fu, in 1998.
+Combining form denoting expert practice of a skill. That's going to take
+some serious code-fu. First sighted in connection with the GIMP's
+remote-scripting facility, script-fu, in 1998.
+

entries/-me.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 /me
 
-// [IRC; common] Under most IRC, /me is the pose command; if you are logged on as Foonly and type /me laughs , others watching the channel will see * Joe Foonly laughs. This usage has been carried over to mail and news, where the reader is expected to perform the same expansion in his or her head.
+// [IRC; common] Under most IRC, /me is the pose command; if you are logged
+on as Foonly and type /me laughs , others watching the channel will see *
+Joe Foonly laughs. This usage has been carried over to mail and news, where
+the reader is expected to perform the same expansion in his or her head.
+

entries/-oid.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,21 @@
 -oid
 
-suff. [from Greek suffix -oid = in the image of ] 1. Used as in mainstream slang English to indicate a poor imitation, a counterfeit, or some otherwise slightly bogus resemblance. Hackers will happily use it with all sorts of non-Greco/Latin stem words that wouldn't keep company with it in mainstream English. For example, He's a nerdoid means that he superficially resembles a nerd but can't make the grade; a modemoid might be a 300-baud box (Real Modems run at 28.8 or up); a computeroid might be any bitty box. The word keyboid could be used to describe a chiclet keyboard , but would have to be written; spoken, it would confuse the listener as to the speaker's city of origin. 2. More specifically, an indicator for resembling an android which in the past has been confined to science-fiction fans and hackers. It too has recently (in 1991) started to go mainstream (most notably in the term trendoid for victims of terminal hipness). This is probably traceable to the popularization of the term droid in Star Wars and its sequels. (See also windoid. ) Coinages in both forms have been common in science fiction for at least fifty years, and hackers (who are often SF fans) have probably been making -oid jargon for almost that long [though GLS and I can personally confirm only that they were already common in the mid-1970s ESR].
+suff. [from Greek suffix -oid = in the image of ] 1. Used as in mainstream
+slang English to indicate a poor imitation, a counterfeit, or some otherwise
+slightly bogus resemblance. Hackers will happily use it with all sorts of
+non-Greco/Latin stem words that wouldn't keep company with it in mainstream
+English. For example, He's a nerdoid means that he superficially resembles a
+nerd but can't make the grade; a modemoid might be a 300-baud box (Real
+Modems run at 28.8 or up); a computeroid might be any bitty box. The word
+keyboid could be used to describe a chiclet keyboard , but would have to be
+written; spoken, it would confuse the listener as to the speaker's city of
+origin. 2. More specifically, an indicator for resembling an android which
+in the past has been confined to science-fiction fans and hackers. It too
+has recently (in 1991) started to go mainstream (most notably in the term
+trendoid for victims of terminal hipness). This is probably traceable to the
+popularization of the term droid in Star Wars and its sequels. (See also
+windoid. ) Coinages in both forms have been common in science fiction for at
+least fifty years, and hackers (who are often SF fans) have probably been
+making -oid jargon for almost that long [though GLS and I can personally
+confirm only that they were already common in the mid-1970s ESR].
+

entries/-ware.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
 -ware
 
-suff. [from software ] Commonly used to form jargon terms for classes of software. For examples, see annoyware , careware , crippleware , crudware , freeware , fritterware , guiltware , liveware , meatware , payware , psychedelicware , shareware , shelfware , vaporware , wetware , spyware , adware.
+suff. [from software ] Commonly used to form jargon terms for classes of
+software. For examples, see annoyware , careware , crippleware , crudware ,
+freeware , fritterware , guiltware , liveware , meatware , payware ,
+psychedelicware , shareware , shelfware , vaporware , wetware , spyware ,
+adware.
+

entries/1TBS.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 1TBS
 
 // , n. The One True Brace Style ; see indent style.
+

entries/404 compliant.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
 404 compliant
 
-adj. The status of a website which has been completely removed, usually by the administrators of the hosting site as a result of net abuse by the website operators. The term is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the standard 301 compliant Murkowski Bill disclaimer used by spammers. See also: spam , spamvertize.
+adj. The status of a website which has been completely removed, usually by
+the administrators of the hosting site as a result of net abuse by the
+website operators. The term is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the standard
+301 compliant Murkowski Bill disclaimer used by spammers. See also: spam ,
+spamvertize.
+

entries/404.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
 404
 
-// , n. [from the HTTP error file not found on server ] Extended to humans to convey that the subject has no idea or no clue -- sapience not found. May be used reflexively; Uh, I'm 404ing means I'm drawing a blank.
+// , n. [from the HTTP error file not found on server ] Extended to humans
+to convey that the subject has no idea or no clue -- sapience not found. May
+be used reflexively; Uh, I'm 404ing means I'm drawing a blank.
+

entries/@-party.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,18 @@
 @-party
 
-/atpar`tee/ , n. [from the @-sign in an Internet address] (alt.: @-sign party /atsi:n par`tee/ ) A semi-closed party thrown for hackers at a science-fiction convention (esp. the annual World Science Fiction Convention or Worldcon ); one must have a network address to get in, or at least be in company with someone who does. One of the most reliable opportunities for hackers to meet face to face with people who might otherwise be represented by mere phosphor dots on their screens. Compare boink. The first recorded @-party was held at the Westercon (a U.S. western regional SF convention) over the July 4th weekend in 1980. It is not clear exactly when the canonical @-party venue shifted to the Worldcon but it had certainly become established by Constellation in 1983. Sadly, the @-party tradition has been in decline since about 1996, mainly because having an @-address no longer functions as an effective lodge pin. We are informed, however, that rec.skydiving members have maintained a tradition of formation jumps in the shape of an @.
+/atpar`tee/ , n. [from the @-sign in an Internet address] (alt.: @-sign
+party /atsi:n par`tee/ ) A semi-closed party thrown for hackers at a
+science-fiction convention (esp. the annual World Science Fiction Convention
+or Worldcon ); one must have a network address to get in, or at least be in
+company with someone who does. One of the most reliable opportunities for
+hackers to meet face to face with people who might otherwise be represented
+by mere phosphor dots on their screens. Compare boink. The first recorded
+@-party was held at the Westercon (a U.S. western regional SF convention)
+over the July 4th weekend in 1980. It is not clear exactly when the
+canonical @-party venue shifted to the Worldcon but it had certainly become
+established by Constellation in 1983. Sadly, the @-party tradition has been
+in decline since about 1996, mainly because having an @-address no longer
+functions as an effective lodge pin. We are informed, however, that
+rec.skydiving members have maintained a tradition of formation jumps in the
+shape of an @.
+

entries/A Story About ‘Magic'.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,52 @@
 A Story About ‘Magic'
 
-Some years ago, I (GLS) was snooping around in the cabinets that housed the MIT AI Lab's PDP-10, and noticed a little switch glued to the frame of one cabinet. It was obviously a homebrew job, added by one of the lab's hardware hackers (no one knows who). You don't touch an unknown switch on a computer without knowing what it does, because you might crash the computer. The switch was labeled in a most unhelpful way. It had two positions, and scrawled in pencil on the metal switch body were the words magic' and more magic'. The switch was in the more magic' position. I called another hacker over to look at it. He had never seen the switch before either. Closer examination revealed that the switch had only one wire running to it! The other end of the wire did disappear into the maze of wires inside the computer, but it's a basic fact of electricity that a switch can't do anything unless there are two wires connected to it. This switch had a wire connected on one side and no wire on its other side. It was clear that this switch was someone's idea of a silly joke. Convinced by our reasoning that the switch was inoperative, we flipped it. The computer instantly crashed. Imagine our utter astonishment. We wrote it off as coincidence, but nevertheless restored the switch to the more magic position before reviving the computer. A year later, I told this story to yet another hacker, David Moon as I recall. He clearly doubted my sanity, or suspected me of a supernatural belief in the power of this switch, or perhaps thought I was fooling him with a bogus saga. To prove it to him, I showed him the very switch, still glued to the cabinet frame with only one wire connected to it, still in the more magic position. We scrutinized the switch and its lone connection, and found that the other end of the wire, though connected to the computer wiring, was connected to a ground pin. That clearly made the switch doubly useless: not only was it electrically nonoperative, but it was connected to a place that couldn't affect anything anyway. So we flipped the switch. The computer promptly crashed. This time we ran for Richard Greenblatt, a long-time MIT hacker, who was close at hand. He had never noticed the switch before, either. He inspected it, concluded it was useless, got some diagonal cutters and dike d it out. We then revived the computer and it has run fine ever since. We still don't know how the switch crashed the machine. There is a theory that some circuit near the ground pin was marginal, and flipping the switch changed the electrical capacitance enough to upset the circuit as millionth-of-a-second pulses went through it. But we'll never know for sure; all we can really say is that the switch was magic. I still have that switch in my basement. Maybe I'm silly, but I usually keep it set on more magic. 1994: Another explanation of this story has since been offered. Note that the switch body was metal. Suppose that the non-connected side of the switch was connected to the switch body (usually the body is connected to a separate earth lug, but there are exceptions). The body is connected to the computer case, which is, presumably, grounded. Now the circuit ground within the machine isn't necessarily at the same potential as the case ground, so flipping the switch connected the circuit ground to the case ground, causing a voltage drop/jump which reset the machine. This was probably discovered by someone who found out the hard way that there was a potential difference between the two, and who then wired in the switch as a joke.
+Some years ago, I (GLS) was snooping around in the cabinets that housed the
+MIT AI Lab's PDP-10, and noticed a little switch glued to the frame of one
+cabinet. It was obviously a homebrew job, added by one of the lab's hardware
+hackers (no one knows who). You don't touch an unknown switch on a computer
+without knowing what it does, because you might crash the computer. The
+switch was labeled in a most unhelpful way. It had two positions, and
+scrawled in pencil on the metal switch body were the words magic' and more
+magic'. The switch was in the more magic' position. I called another hacker
+over to look at it. He had never seen the switch before either. Closer
+examination revealed that the switch had only one wire running to it! The
+other end of the wire did disappear into the maze of wires inside the
+computer, but it's a basic fact of electricity that a switch can't do
+anything unless there are two wires connected to it. This switch had a wire
+connected on one side and no wire on its other side. It was clear that this
+switch was someone's idea of a silly joke. Convinced by our reasoning that
+the switch was inoperative, we flipped it. The computer instantly crashed.
+Imagine our utter astonishment. We wrote it off as coincidence, but
+nevertheless restored the switch to the more magic position before reviving
+the computer. A year later, I told this story to yet another hacker, David
+Moon as I recall. He clearly doubted my sanity, or suspected me of a
+supernatural belief in the power of this switch, or perhaps thought I was
+fooling him with a bogus saga. To prove it to him, I showed him the very
+switch, still glued to the cabinet frame with only one wire connected to it,
+still in the more magic position. We scrutinized the switch and its lone
+connection, and found that the other end of the wire, though connected to
+the computer wiring, was connected to a ground pin. That clearly made the
+switch doubly useless: not only was it electrically nonoperative, but it was
+connected to a place that couldn't affect anything anyway. So we flipped the
+switch. The computer promptly crashed. This time we ran for Richard
+Greenblatt, a long-time MIT hacker, who was close at hand. He had never
+noticed the switch before, either. He inspected it, concluded it was
+useless, got some diagonal cutters and dike d it out. We then revived the
+computer and it has run fine ever since. We still don't know how the switch
+crashed the machine. There is a theory that some circuit near the ground pin
+was marginal, and flipping the switch changed the electrical capacitance
+enough to upset the circuit as millionth-of-a-second pulses went through it.
+But we'll never know for sure; all we can really say is that the switch was
+magic. I still have that switch in my basement. Maybe I'm silly, but I
+usually keep it set on more magic. 1994: Another explanation of this story
+has since been offered. Note that the switch body was metal. Suppose that
+the non-connected side of the switch was connected to the switch body
+(usually the body is connected to a separate earth lug, but there are
+exceptions). The body is connected to the computer case, which is,
+presumably, grounded. Now the circuit ground within the machine isn't
+necessarily at the same potential as the case ground, so flipping the switch
+connected the circuit ground to the case ground, causing a voltage drop/jump
+which reset the machine. This was probably discovered by someone who found
+out the hard way that there was a potential difference between the two, and
+who then wired in the switch as a joke.
+

entries/ABEND.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,15 @@
 ABEND
 
-/abend/ , /@bend/ , n. [ABnormal END] 1. Abnormal termination (of software); crash ; lossage. Derives from an error message on the IBM 360; used jokingly by hackers but seriously mainly by code grinder s. Usually capitalized, but may appear as abend. Hackers will try to persuade you that ABEND is called abend because it is what system operators do to the machine late on Friday when they want to call it a day, and hence is from the German Abend = Evening. 2. [ alt.callahans ] Absent By Enforced Net Deprivation used in the subject lines of postings warning friends of an imminent loss of Internet access. (This can be because of computer downtime, loss of provider, moving or illness.) Variants of this also appear: ABVND = Absent By Voluntary Net Deprivation and ABSEND = Absent By Self-Enforced Net Deprivation have been sighted.
+/abend/ , /@bend/ , n. [ABnormal END] 1. Abnormal termination (of software);
+crash ; lossage. Derives from an error message on the IBM 360; used jokingly
+by hackers but seriously mainly by code grinder s. Usually capitalized, but
+may appear as abend. Hackers will try to persuade you that ABEND is called
+abend because it is what system operators do to the machine late on Friday
+when they want to call it a day, and hence is from the German Abend =
+Evening. 2. [ alt.callahans ] Absent By Enforced Net Deprivation used in the
+subject lines of postings warning friends of an imminent loss of Internet
+access. (This can be because of computer downtime, loss of provider, moving
+or illness.) Variants of this also appear: ABVND = Absent By Voluntary Net
+Deprivation and ABSEND = Absent By Self-Enforced Net Deprivation have been
+sighted.
+

entries/ACK.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,16 @@
 ACK
 
-/ak/ , interj. 1. [common; from the ASCII mnemonic for 0000110] Acknowledge. Used to register one's presence (compare mainstream Yo! ). An appropriate response to ping or ENQ. 2. [from the comic strip Bloom County ] An exclamation of surprised disgust, esp. in Ack pffft! Semi-humorous. Generally this sense is not spelled in caps (ACK) and is distinguished by a following exclamation point. 3. Used to politely interrupt someone to tell them you understand their point (see NAK ). Thus, for example, you might cut off an overly long explanation with Ack. Ack. Ack. I get it now. 4. An affirmative. Think we ought to ditch that damn NT server for a Linux box? ACK! There is also a usage ACK? (from sense 1) meaning Are you there? , often used in email when earlier mail has produced no reply, or during a lull in talk mode to see if the person has gone away (the standard humorous response is of course NAK , i.e., I'm not here ).
+/ak/ , interj. 1. [common; from the ASCII mnemonic for 0000110] Acknowledge.
+Used to register one's presence (compare mainstream Yo! ). An appropriate
+response to ping or ENQ. 2. [from the comic strip Bloom County ] An
+exclamation of surprised disgust, esp. in Ack pffft! Semi-humorous.
+Generally this sense is not spelled in caps (ACK) and is distinguished by a
+following exclamation point. 3. Used to politely interrupt someone to tell
+them you understand their point (see NAK ). Thus, for example, you might cut
+off an overly long explanation with Ack. Ack. Ack. I get it now. 4. An
+affirmative. Think we ought to ditch that damn NT server for a Linux box?
+ACK! There is also a usage ACK? (from sense 1) meaning Are you there? ,
+often used in email when earlier mail has produced no reply, or during a
+lull in talk mode to see if the person has gone away (the standard humorous
+response is of course NAK , i.e., I'm not here ).
+

entries/ADVENT.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,35 @@
 ADVENT
 
-/advent/ , n. The prototypical computer adventure game, first designed by Will Crowther on the PDP-10 in the mid-1970s as an attempt at computer-refereed fantasy gaming, and expanded into a puzzle-oriented game by Don Woods at Stanford in 1976. (Woods had been one of the authors of INTERCAL. ) Now better known as Adventure or Colossal Cave Adventure, but the TOPS-10 operating system permitted only six-letter filenames in uppercase. See also vadding , Zork , and Infocom. Figure1.Screen shot of the original ADVENT game Orange River Chamber You are in a splendid chamber thirty feet high. The walls are frozen rivers of orange stone. An awkward canyon and a good passage exit from east and west sidesof the chamber. A cheerful little bird is sitting here singing. drop rod Dropped. take bird You catch the bird in the wicker cage. take rod Taken. w At Top of Small Pit At your feet is a small pit breathing traces of white mist. A west passage ends here except for a small crack leading on.  Rough stone steps lead down the pit. down In Hall of Mists You are at one end of a vast hall stretching forward out of sight to the west. There are openings to either side. Nearby, a wide stone staircase leads downward. The hall is filled with wisps of white mist swaying to and fro almost as if alive. A cold wind blows up the staircase. There is a passage at the top of a dome behind you. Rough stone steps lead up the dome. This game defined the terse, dryly humorous style since expected in text adventure games, and popularized several tag lines that have become fixtures of hacker-speak: A huge green fierce snake bars the way! I see no X here (for some noun X). You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. You are in a little maze of twisty passages, all different. The magic words xyzzy and plugh also derive from this game. Crowther, by the way, participated in the exploration of the Mammoth Flint Ridge cave system; it actually has a Colossal Cave and a Bedquilt as in the game, and the Y2 that also turns up is cavers' jargon for a map reference to a secondary entrance. ADVENT sources are available for FTP at ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/doc/misc/if-archive/games/source/advent.tar.Z. You can also play it as a Java applet. There is a good page of resources at the Colossal Cave Adventure Page.
+/advent/ , n. The prototypical computer adventure game, first designed by
+Will Crowther on the PDP-10 in the mid-1970s as an attempt at
+computer-refereed fantasy gaming, and expanded into a puzzle-oriented game
+by Don Woods at Stanford in 1976. (Woods had been one of the authors of
+INTERCAL. ) Now better known as Adventure or Colossal Cave Adventure, but
+the TOPS-10 operating system permitted only six-letter filenames in
+uppercase. See also vadding , Zork , and Infocom. Figure1.Screen shot of the
+original ADVENT game Orange River Chamber You are in a splendid chamber
+thirty feet high. The walls are frozen rivers of orange stone. An awkward
+canyon and a good passage exit from east and west sidesof the chamber. A
+cheerful little bird is sitting here singing. drop rod Dropped. take bird
+You catch the bird in the wicker cage. take rod Taken. w At Top of Small Pit
+At your feet is a small pit breathing traces of white mist. A west passage
+ends here except for a small crack leading on.  Rough stone steps lead down
+the pit. down In Hall of Mists You are at one end of a vast hall stretching
+forward out of sight to the west. There are openings to either side. Nearby,
+a wide stone staircase leads downward. The hall is filled with wisps of
+white mist swaying to and fro almost as if alive. A cold wind blows up the
+staircase. There is a passage at the top of a dome behind you. Rough stone
+steps lead up the dome. This game defined the terse, dryly humorous style
+since expected in text adventure games, and popularized several tag lines
+that have become fixtures of hacker-speak: A huge green fierce snake bars
+the way! I see no X here (for some noun X). You are in a maze of twisty
+little passages, all alike. You are in a little maze of twisty passages, all
+different. The magic words xyzzy and plugh also derive from this game.
+Crowther, by the way, participated in the exploration of the Mammoth Flint
+Ridge cave system; it actually has a Colossal Cave and a Bedquilt as in the
+game, and the Y2 that also turns up is cavers' jargon for a map reference to
+a secondary entrance. ADVENT sources are available for FTP at
+ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/doc/misc/if-archive/games/source/advent.tar.Z. You can
+also play it as a Java applet. There is a good page of resources at the
+Colossal Cave Adventure Page.
+

entries/AFAIK.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
 AFAIK
 
-// , n. [Usenet; common] Abbrev. for As Far As I Know. There is a variant AFAICT As Far As I Can Tell ; where AFAIK suggests that the writer knows his knowledge is limited, AFAICT suggests that he feels his knowledge is as complete as anybody else's but that the best available knowledge does not support firm conclusions.
+// , n. [Usenet; common] Abbrev. for As Far As I Know. There is a variant
+AFAICT As Far As I Can Tell ; where AFAIK suggests that the writer knows his
+knowledge is limited, AFAICT suggests that he feels his knowledge is as
+complete as anybody else's but that the best available knowledge does not
+support firm conclusions.
+

entries/AFJ.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
 AFJ
 
-// , n. Written-only abbreviation for April Fool's Joke. Elaborate April Fool's hoaxes are a long-established tradition on Usenet and Internet; see kremvax for an example. In fact, April Fool's Day is the only seasonal holiday consistently marked by customary observances on Internet and other hacker networks.
+// , n. Written-only abbreviation for April Fool's Joke. Elaborate April
+Fool's hoaxes are a long-established tradition on Usenet and Internet; see
+kremvax for an example. In fact, April Fool's Day is the only seasonal
+holiday consistently marked by customary observances on Internet and other
+hacker networks.
+

entries/AFK.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
 AFK
 
-Abbrev. for Away From Keyboard. Used to notify others that you will be momentarily unavailable online. eg. Let's not go kill that frost giant yet, I need to go AFK to make a phone call. Often MUDs will have a command to politely inform others of your absence when they try to talk with you. The term is not restricted to MUDs, however, and has become common in many chat situations, from IRC to Unix talk.
+Abbrev. for Away From Keyboard. Used to notify others that you will be
+momentarily unavailable online. eg. Let's not go kill that frost giant yet,
+I need to go AFK to make a phone call. Often MUDs will have a command to
+politely inform others of your absence when they try to talk with you. The
+term is not restricted to MUDs, however, and has become common in many chat
+situations, from IRC to Unix talk.
+

entries/AI-complete.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,14 @@
 AI-complete
 
-/AI k@mpleet'/ , adj. [MIT, Stanford: by analogy with NP-complete (see NP- )] Used to describe problems or subproblems in AI, to indicate that the solution presupposes a solution to the strong AI problem (that is, the synthesis of a human-level intelligence). A problem that is AI-complete is, in other words, just too hard. Examples of AI-complete problems are The Vision Problem (building a system that can see as well as a human) and The Natural Language Problem (building a system that can understand and speak a natural language as well as a human). These may appear to be modular, but all attempts so far (2003) to solve them have foundered on the amount of context information and intelligence they seem to require. See also gedanken.
+/AI k@mpleet'/ , adj. [MIT, Stanford: by analogy with NP-complete (see NP-
+)] Used to describe problems or subproblems in AI, to indicate that the
+solution presupposes a solution to the strong AI problem (that is, the
+synthesis of a human-level intelligence). A problem that is AI-complete is,
+in other words, just too hard. Examples of AI-complete problems are The
+Vision Problem (building a system that can see as well as a human) and The
+Natural Language Problem (building a system that can understand and speak a
+natural language as well as a human). These may appear to be modular, but
+all attempts so far (2003) to solve them have foundered on the amount of
+context information and intelligence they seem to require. See also
+gedanken.
+

entries/AI.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
 AI
 
-/AI/ , n. Abbreviation for Artificial Intelligence , so common that the full form is almost never written or spoken among hackers.
+/AI/ , n. Abbreviation for Artificial Intelligence , so common that the full
+form is almost never written or spoken among hackers.
+

entries/ANSI standard pizza.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 ANSI standard pizza
 
-/ansee stand@rd peetz@/ [CMU] Pepperoni and mushroom pizza. Coined allegedly because most pizzas ordered by CMU hackers during some period leading up to mid-1990 were of that flavor. See also rotary debugger ; compare ISO standard cup of tea.
+/ansee stand@rd peetz@/ [CMU] Pepperoni and mushroom pizza. Coined allegedly
+because most pizzas ordered by CMU hackers during some period leading up to
+mid-1990 were of that flavor. See also rotary debugger ; compare ISO
+standard cup of tea.
+

entries/ANSI standard.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
 ANSI standard
 
-/ansee stand@rd/ The ANSI standard usage of ANSI standard refers to any practice which is typical or broadly done. It's most appropriately applied to things that everyone does that are not quite regulation. For example: ANSI standard shaking of a laser printer cartridge to get extra life from it, or the ANSI standard word tripling in names of usenet alt groups. This usage derives from the American National Standards Institute. ANSI, along with the International Organization for Standards (ISO), standardized the C programming language (see K R , Classic C ), and promulgates many other important software standards.
+/ansee stand@rd/ The ANSI standard usage of ANSI standard refers to any
+practice which is typical or broadly done. It's most appropriately applied
+to things that everyone does that are not quite regulation. For example:
+ANSI standard shaking of a laser printer cartridge to get extra life from
+it, or the ANSI standard word tripling in names of usenet alt groups. This
+usage derives from the American National Standards Institute. ANSI, along
+with the International Organization for Standards (ISO), standardized the C
+programming language (see K R , Classic C ), and promulgates many other
+important software standards.
+

entries/AOL!.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
 AOL!
 
-n. [Usenet] Common synonym for Me, too! alluding to the legendary propensity of America Online users to utter contentless Me, too! postings. The number of exclamation points following varies from zero to five or so. The pseudo-HTML AOL Me, too! /AOL is also frequently seen. See also September that never ended.
+n. [Usenet] Common synonym for Me, too! alluding to the legendary propensity
+of America Online users to utter contentless Me, too! postings. The number
+of exclamation points following varies from zero to five or so. The
+pseudo-HTML AOL Me, too! /AOL is also frequently seen. See also September
+that never ended.
+

entries/ARMM.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,23 @@
 ARMM
 
-n. [acronym, Automated Retroactive Minimal Moderation ] A Usenet cancelbot created by Dick Depew of Munroe Falls, Ohio. ARMM was intended to automatically cancel posts from anonymous-posting sites. Unfortunately, the robot's recognizer for anonymous postings triggered on its own automatically-generated control messages! Transformed by this stroke of programming ineptitude into a monster of Frankensteinian proportions, it broke loose on the night of March 30, 1993 and proceeded to spam news.admin.policy with a recursive explosion of over 200 messages. ARMM's bug produced a recursive cascade of messages each of which mechanically added text to the ID and Subject and some other headers of its parent. This produced a flood of messages in which each header took up several screens and each message ID and subject line got longer and longer and longer. Reactions varied from amusement to outrage. The pathological messages crashed at least one mail system, and upset people paying line charges for their Usenet feeds. One poster described the ARMM debacle as instant Usenet history (also establishing the term despew ), and it has since been widely cited as a cautionary example of the havoc the combination of good intentions and incompetence can wreak on a network. The Usenet thread on the subject is archived here. Compare Great Worm ; sorcerer's apprentice mode. See also software laser , network meltdown.
+n. [acronym, Automated Retroactive Minimal Moderation ] A Usenet cancelbot
+created by Dick Depew of Munroe Falls, Ohio. ARMM was intended to
+automatically cancel posts from anonymous-posting sites. Unfortunately, the
+robot's recognizer for anonymous postings triggered on its own
+automatically-generated control messages! Transformed by this stroke of
+programming ineptitude into a monster of Frankensteinian proportions, it
+broke loose on the night of March 30, 1993 and proceeded to spam
+news.admin.policy with a recursive explosion of over 200 messages. ARMM's
+bug produced a recursive cascade of messages each of which mechanically
+added text to the ID and Subject and some other headers of its parent. This
+produced a flood of messages in which each header took up several screens
+and each message ID and subject line got longer and longer and longer.
+Reactions varied from amusement to outrage. The pathological messages
+crashed at least one mail system, and upset people paying line charges for
+their Usenet feeds. One poster described the ARMM debacle as instant Usenet
+history (also establishing the term despew ), and it has since been widely
+cited as a cautionary example of the havoc the combination of good
+intentions and incompetence can wreak on a network. The Usenet thread on the
+subject is archived here. Compare Great Worm ; sorcerer's apprentice mode.
+See also software laser , network meltdown.
+

entries/ASCII art.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,46 @@
 ASCII art
 
-n. The fine art of drawing diagrams using the ASCII character set (mainly | , - , / , \ , and + ). Also known as character graphics or ASCII graphics ; see also boxology. Here is a serious example: o----)||(--+--| ----+ +---------o + D O L )||( | | | C U A I )||( +-- |-+ | +-\/\/-+--o - T C N )||( | | | | P E )||( +-- |-+--)---+--|(--+-o U )||( | | | GND T o----)||(--+--| ----+----------+  A power supply consisting of a full wave rectifier circuit feeding a capacitor input filter circuit And here are some very silly examples: |\/\/\/| ____/| ___ |\_/| ___ | | \ o.O| ACK! / \_ |` '| _/ \ | | =(_)= THPHTH! / \/ \/ \ | (o)(o) U / \ C _) (__) \/\/\/\ _____ /\/\/\/ | ,___| (oo) \/ \/ | / \/-------\ U (__) /____\ || | \ /---V `v'- oo ) / \ ||---W|| * * |--| || |`. |_/\  //-o-\\ ____---=======---____ ====___\ /... .\ /___==== Klingons rule OK! // ---\__O__/--- \\ \_\ /_/ There is an important subgenre of ASCII art that puns on the standard character names in the fashion of a rebus. +--------------------------------------------------------+ | ^^^^^^^^^^^^  | | ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ | | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | | ^^^^^^^ B ^^^^^^^^^ | | ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | +--------------------------------------------------------+ A Bee in the Carrot Patch Within humorous ASCII art, there is for some reason an entire flourishing subgenre of pictures of silly cows. Four of these are reproduced in the examples above, here are three more: (__) (__) (__) (\/) ($$) (**) /-------\/ /-------\/ /-------\/ / | 666 || / |=====|| / | || * ||----|| * ||----|| * ||----|| ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ Satanic cow This cow is a Yuppie Cow in love Finally, here's a magnificent example of ASCII art depicting an Edwardian train station in Dunedin, New Zealand:. -.  /___\  |___|  |]_[|  / I \  JL/ | \JL . -. i () | () i . -. |_|. ^. /_\ LJ=======LJ /_\ . ^. |_|. _/___\._./___\_._._._._.L_J_/.-.. -.\_L_J._._._._._/___\._./___\._._._ . , |-,-|. , L_J |_| [I] |_| L_J. , |-,-|. ,. ,  JL |-O-| JL L_J%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%L_J JL |-O-| JL JL IIIIII_HH_'-'-'_HH_IIIIII|_|=======H=======|_|IIIIII_HH_'-'-'_HH_IIIIII_HH_ -------[]-------[]-------[_]----\.=I=./----[_]-------[]-------[]--------[]- _/\_ ||\\_I_//|| _/\_ [_] []_/_L_J_\_[] [_] _/\_ ||\\_I_//|| _/\_ ||\ |__| ||=/_|_\=|| |__|_|_| _L_L_J_J_ |_|_|__| ||=/_|_\=|| |__| ||- |__| |||__|__||| |__[___]__--__===__--__[___]__| |||__|__||| |__| ||| IIIIIII[_]IIIII[_]IIIIIL___J__II__|_|__II__L___JIIIII[_]IIIII[_]IIIIIIII[_] \_I_/ [_]\_I_/[_] \_I_[_]\II/[]\_\I/_/[]\II/[_]\_I_/ [_]\_I_/[_] \_I_/ [_]. / \.L_J/ \L_J./ L_JI I[]/ \[]I IL_J \.L_J/ \L_J./ \.L_J | |L_J| |L_J| L_J| |[]| |[]| |L_J |L_J| |L_J| |L_J |_____JL_JL___JL_JL____|-|| |[]| |[]| ||-|_____JL_JL___JL_JL_____JL_J The next step beyond static tableaux in ASCII art is ASCII animation. There are not many large examples of this; perhaps the best known is the ASCII animation of the original Star Wars movie at http://www.asciimation.co.nz/. There is a newsgroup, alt.ascii-art , devoted to this genre; however, see also warlording.
+n. The fine art of drawing diagrams using the ASCII character set (mainly |
+, - , / , \ , and + ). Also known as character graphics or ASCII graphics ;
+see also boxology. Here is a serious example: o----)||(--+--| ----+
++---------o + D O L )||( | | | C U A I )||( +-- |-+ | +-\/\/-+--o - T C N
+)||( | | | | P E )||( +-- |-+--)---+--|(--+-o U )||( | | | GND T
+o----)||(--+--| ----+----------+  A power supply consisting of a full wave
+rectifier circuit feeding a capacitor input filter circuit And here are some
+very silly examples: |\/\/\/| ____/| ___ |\_/| ___ | | \ o.O| ACK! / \_ |`
+'| _/ \ | | =(_)= THPHTH! / \/ \/ \ | (o)(o) U / \ C _) (__) \/\/\/\ _____
+/\/\/\/ | ,___| (oo) \/ \/ | / \/-------\ U (__) /____\ || | \ /---V `v'- oo
+) / \ ||---W|| * * |--| || |`. |_/\  //-o-\\ ____---=======---____ ====___\
+/... .\ /___==== Klingons rule OK! // ---\__O__/--- \\ \_\ /_/ There is an
+important subgenre of ASCII art that puns on the standard character names in
+the fashion of a rebus.
++--------------------------------------------------------+ | ^^^^^^^^^^^^  |
+| ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ | | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | | ^^^^^^^ B
+^^^^^^^^^ | | ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |
++--------------------------------------------------------+ A Bee in the
+Carrot Patch Within humorous ASCII art, there is for some reason an entire
+flourishing subgenre of pictures of silly cows. Four of these are reproduced
+in the examples above, here are three more: (__) (__) (__) (\/) ($$) (**)
+/-------\/ /-------\/ /-------\/ / | 666 || / |=====|| / | || * ||----|| *
+||----|| * ||----|| ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ Satanic cow This cow is a Yuppie Cow
+in love Finally, here's a magnificent example of ASCII art depicting an
+Edwardian train station in Dunedin, New Zealand:. -.  /___\  |___|  |]_[|  /
+I \  JL/ | \JL . -. i () | () i . -. |_|. ^. /_\ LJ=======LJ /_\ . ^. |_|.
+_/___\._./___\_._._._._.L_J_/.-.. -.\_L_J._._._._._/___\._./___\._._._ . ,
+|-,-|. , L_J |_| [I] |_| L_J. , |-,-|. ,. ,  JL |-O-| JL
+L_J%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%L_J JL |-O-| JL JL
+IIIIII_HH_'-'-'_HH_IIIIII|_|=======H=======|_|IIIIII_HH_'-'-'_HH_IIIIII_HH_
+-------[]-------[]-------[_]----\.=I=./----[_]-------[]-------[]--------[]-
+_/\_ ||\\_I_//|| _/\_ [_] []_/_L_J_\_[] [_] _/\_ ||\\_I_//|| _/\_ ||\ |__|
+||=/_|_\=|| |__|_|_| _L_L_J_J_ |_|_|__| ||=/_|_\=|| |__| ||- |__|
+|||__|__||| |__[___]__--__===__--__[___]__| |||__|__||| |__| |||
+IIIIIII[_]IIIII[_]IIIIIL___J__II__|_|__II__L___JIIIII[_]IIIII[_]IIIIIIII[_]
+\_I_/ [_]\_I_/[_] \_I_[_]\II/[]\_\I/_/[]\II/[_]\_I_/ [_]\_I_/[_] \_I_/ [_].
+/ \.L_J/ \L_J./ L_JI I[]/ \[]I IL_J \.L_J/ \L_J./ \.L_J | |L_J| |L_J| L_J|
+|[]| |[]| |L_J |L_J| |L_J| |L_J |_____JL_JL___JL_JL____|-|| |[]| |[]|
+||-|_____JL_JL___JL_JL_____JL_J The next step beyond static tableaux in
+ASCII art is ASCII animation. There are not many large examples of this;
+perhaps the best known is the ASCII animation of the original Star Wars
+movie at http://www.asciimation.co.nz/. There is a newsgroup, alt.ascii-art
+, devoted to this genre; however, see also warlording.
+

entries/ASCII.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,54 @@
 ASCII
 
-/askee/ , n. [originally an acronym (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) but now merely conventional] The predominant character set encoding of present-day computers. The standard version uses 7 bits for each character, whereas most earlier codes (including early drafts of ASCII prior to June 1961) used fewer. This change allowed the inclusion of lowercase letters a major win but it did not provide for accented letters or any other letterforms not used in English (such as the German sharp-S . or the ae-ligature  which is a letter in, for example, Norwegian). It could be worse, though. It could be much worse. See EBCDIC to understand how. A history of ASCII and its ancestors is at http://www.wps.com/texts/codes/index.html. Computers are much pickier and less flexible about spelling than humans; thus, hackers need to be very precise when talking about characters, and have developed a considerable amount of verbal shorthand for them. Every character has one or more names some formal, some concise, some silly. Common jargon names for ASCII characters are collected here. See also individual entries for bang , excl , open , ques , semi , shriek , splat , twiddle , and Yu-Shiang Whole Fish. This list derives from revision 2.3 of the Usenet ASCII pronunciation guide. Single characters are listed in ASCII order; character pairs are sorted in by first member. For each character, common names are given in rough order of popularity, followed by names that are reported but rarely seen; official ANSI/CCITT names are surrounded by brokets:. Square brackets mark the particularly silly names introduced by INTERCAL. The abbreviations l/r and o/c stand for left/right and open/close respectively. Ordinary parentheticals provide some usage information. ! Common: bang ; pling; excl; not; shriek; ball-bat; exclamation mark. Rare:  factorial; exclam; smash; cuss; boing; yell; wow; hey; wham; eureka;  [spark-spot]; soldier, control. Common: double quote; quote. Rare: literal mark;  double-glitch; snakebite; quotation marks ; dieresis ;  dirk; [rabbit-ears]; double prime. # Common: number sign; pound; pound sign; hash; sharp; crunch ; hex; [mesh]. Rare: grid; crosshatch; octothorpe;  flash; square , pig-pen; tictactoe; scratchmark;  thud; thump; splat. $ Common: dollar; dollar sign. Rare: currency symbol;  buck; cash; bling; string (from BASIC); escape (when used as the echo of  ASCII ESC); ding; cache; [big money]. % Common: percent; percent sign ; mod; grapes. Rare:  [double-oh-seven]. Common: ampersand ; amp; amper; and, and sign. Rare:  address (from C); reference (from C++); andpersand; bitand;  background (from sh (1) ); pretzel. [INTERCAL called this ampersand ; what could be sillier?] ' Common: single quote; quote; apostrophe. Rare: prime;  glitch; tick; irk; pop; [spark]; closing single quotation  mark ; acute accent. ( ) Common: l/r paren; l/r parenthesis; left/right;  open/close; paren/thesis; o/c paren;  o/c parenthesis; l/r parenthesis; l/r  banana. Rare: so/already; lparen/rparen; opening/closing parenthesis ; o/c round bracket, l/r round  bracket, [wax/wane];  parenthisey/unparenthisey;  l/r ear. * Common: star; [ splat ]; asterisk. Rare: wildcard; gear; dingle; mult; spider;  aster; times; twinkle; glob (see glob ); Nathan Hale. + Common: plus ; add. Rare: cross;  [intersection]. , Common: comma. Rare: cedilla ; [tail]. - Common: dash; hyphen ; minus. Rare: [worm];  option; dak; bithorpe.. Common: dot; point; period ; decimal point.  Rare: radix point; full stop; [spot]. / Common: slash; stroke; slant ; forward slash. Rare:  diagonal; solidus; over; slak; virgule; [slat].
+/askee/ , n. [originally an acronym (American Standard Code for Information
+Interchange) but now merely conventional] The predominant character set
+encoding of present-day computers. The standard version uses 7 bits for each
+character, whereas most earlier codes (including early drafts of ASCII prior
+to June 1961) used fewer. This change allowed the inclusion of lowercase
+letters a major win but it did not provide for accented letters or any other
+letterforms not used in English (such as the German sharp-S . or the
+ae-ligature  which is a letter in, for example, Norwegian). It could be
+worse, though. It could be much worse. See EBCDIC to understand how. A
+history of ASCII and its ancestors is at
+http://www.wps.com/texts/codes/index.html. Computers are much pickier and
+less flexible about spelling than humans; thus, hackers need to be very
+precise when talking about characters, and have developed a considerable
+amount of verbal shorthand for them. Every character has one or more names
+some formal, some concise, some silly. Common jargon names for ASCII
+characters are collected here. See also individual entries for bang , excl ,
+open , ques , semi , shriek , splat , twiddle , and Yu-Shiang Whole Fish.
+This list derives from revision 2.3 of the Usenet ASCII pronunciation guide.
+Single characters are listed in ASCII order; character pairs are sorted in
+by first member. For each character, common names are given in rough order
+of popularity, followed by names that are reported but rarely seen; official
+ANSI/CCITT names are surrounded by brokets:. Square brackets mark the
+particularly silly names introduced by INTERCAL. The abbreviations l/r and
+o/c stand for left/right and open/close respectively. Ordinary
+parentheticals provide some usage information. ! Common: bang ; pling; excl;
+not; shriek; ball-bat; exclamation mark. Rare:  factorial; exclam; smash;
+cuss; boing; yell; wow; hey; wham; eureka;  [spark-spot]; soldier, control.
+Common: double quote; quote. Rare: literal mark;  double-glitch; snakebite;
+quotation marks ; dieresis ;  dirk; [rabbit-ears]; double prime. # Common:
+number sign; pound; pound sign; hash; sharp; crunch ; hex; [mesh]. Rare:
+grid; crosshatch; octothorpe;  flash; square , pig-pen; tictactoe;
+scratchmark;  thud; thump; splat. $ Common: dollar; dollar sign. Rare:
+currency symbol;  buck; cash; bling; string (from BASIC); escape (when used
+as the echo of  ASCII ESC); ding; cache; [big money]. % Common: percent;
+percent sign ; mod; grapes. Rare:  [double-oh-seven]. Common: ampersand ;
+amp; amper; and, and sign. Rare:  address (from C); reference (from C++);
+andpersand; bitand;  background (from sh (1) ); pretzel. [INTERCAL called
+this ampersand ; what could be sillier?] ' Common: single quote; quote;
+apostrophe. Rare: prime;  glitch; tick; irk; pop; [spark]; closing single
+quotation  mark ; acute accent. ( ) Common: l/r paren; l/r parenthesis;
+left/right;  open/close; paren/thesis; o/c paren;  o/c parenthesis; l/r
+parenthesis; l/r  banana. Rare: so/already; lparen/rparen; opening/closing
+parenthesis ; o/c round bracket, l/r round  bracket, [wax/wane]; 
+parenthisey/unparenthisey;  l/r ear. * Common: star; [ splat ]; asterisk.
+Rare: wildcard; gear; dingle; mult; spider;  aster; times; twinkle; glob
+(see glob ); Nathan Hale. + Common: plus ; add. Rare: cross; 
+[intersection]. , Common: comma. Rare: cedilla ; [tail]. - Common: dash;
+hyphen ; minus. Rare: [worm];  option; dak; bithorpe.. Common: dot; point;
+period ; decimal point.  Rare: radix point; full stop; [spot]. / Common:
+slash; stroke; slant ; forward slash. Rare:  diagonal; solidus; over; slak;
+virgule; [slat].
+

entries/ASCIIbetical order.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 ASCIIbetical order
 
-/askeebe't@kl ordr/ , adj.,n. Used to indicate that data is sorted in ASCII collated order rather than alphabetical order. This lexicon is sorted in something close to ASCIIbetical order, but with case ignored and entries beginning with non-alphabetic characters moved to the beginning.
+/askeebe't@kl ordr/ , adj.,n. Used to indicate that data is sorted in ASCII
+collated order rather than alphabetical order. This lexicon is sorted in
+something close to ASCIIbetical order, but with case ignored and entries
+beginning with non-alphabetic characters moved to the beginning.
+

entries/AUP.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
 AUP
 
-/AUP/ Abbreviation, Acceptable Use Policy. The policy of a given ISP which sets out what the ISP considers to be (un)acceptable uses of its Internet resources.
+/AUP/ Abbreviation, Acceptable Use Policy. The policy of a given ISP which
+sets out what the ISP considers to be (un)acceptable uses of its Internet
+resources.
+

entries/Acme.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,22 @@
 Acme
 
-n. [from Greek akme highest point of perfection or achievement] The canonical supplier of bizarre, elaborate, and non-functional gadgetry where Rube Goldberg and Heath Robinson (two cartoonists who specialized in elaborate contraptions) shop. The name has been humorously expanded as A (or American) Company Making Everything. (In fact, Acme was a real brand sold from Sears Roebuck catalogs in the early 1900s.) Describing some X as an Acme X either means This is insanely great , or, more likely, This looks insanely great on paper, but in practice it's really easy to shoot yourself in the foot with it. Compare pistol. This term, specially cherished by American hackers and explained here for the benefit of our overseas brethren, comes from the Warner Brothers' series of Road-runner cartoons. In these cartoons, the famished Wile E. Coyote was forever attempting to catch up with, trap, and eat the Road-runner. His attempts usually involved one or more high-technology Rube Goldberg devices rocket jetpacks, catapults, magnetic traps, high-powered slingshots, etc. These were usually delivered in large wooden crates labeled prominently with the Acme name which, probably not by coincidence, was the trade name of a peg bar system for superimposing animation cels used by cartoonists since forever. Acme devices invariably malfunctioned in improbable and violent ways.
+n. [from Greek akme highest point of perfection or achievement] The
+canonical supplier of bizarre, elaborate, and non-functional gadgetry where
+Rube Goldberg and Heath Robinson (two cartoonists who specialized in
+elaborate contraptions) shop. The name has been humorously expanded as A (or
+American) Company Making Everything. (In fact, Acme was a real brand sold
+from Sears Roebuck catalogs in the early 1900s.) Describing some X as an
+Acme X either means This is insanely great , or, more likely, This looks
+insanely great on paper, but in practice it's really easy to shoot yourself
+in the foot with it. Compare pistol. This term, specially cherished by
+American hackers and explained here for the benefit of our overseas
+brethren, comes from the Warner Brothers' series of Road-runner cartoons. In
+these cartoons, the famished Wile E. Coyote was forever attempting to catch
+up with, trap, and eat the Road-runner. His attempts usually involved one or
+more high-technology Rube Goldberg devices rocket jetpacks, catapults,
+magnetic traps, high-powered slingshots, etc. These were usually delivered
+in large wooden crates labeled prominently with the Acme name which,
+probably not by coincidence, was the trade name of a peg bar system for
+superimposing animation cels used by cartoonists since forever. Acme devices
+invariably malfunctioned in improbable and violent ways.
+

entries/Alderson loop.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
 Alderson loop
 
-n. [Intel] A special version of an infinite loop where there is an exit condition available, but inaccessible in the current implementation of the code. Typically this is created while debugging user interface code. An example would be when there is a menu stating, Select 1-3 or 9 to quit and 9 is not allowed by the function that takes the selection from the user. This term received its name from a programmer who had coded a modal message box in MSAccess with no Ok or Cancel buttons, thereby disabling the entire program whenever the box came up. The message box had the proper code for dismissal and even was set up so that when the non-existent Ok button was pressed the proper code would be called.
+n. [Intel] A special version of an infinite loop where there is an exit
+condition available, but inaccessible in the current implementation of the
+code. Typically this is created while debugging user interface code. An
+example would be when there is a menu stating, Select 1-3 or 9 to quit and 9
+is not allowed by the function that takes the selection from the user. This
+term received its name from a programmer who had coded a modal message box
+in MSAccess with no Ok or Cancel buttons, thereby disabling the entire
+program whenever the box came up. The message box had the proper code for
+dismissal and even was set up so that when the non-existent Ok button was
+pressed the proper code would be called.
+

entries/Alice and Bob.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,24 @@
 Alice and Bob
 
-n. The archetypal individuals used as examples in discussions of cryptographic protocols. Originally, theorists would say something like: A communicates with someone who claims to be B, So to be sure, A tests that B knows a secret number K. So A sends to B a random number X. B then forms Y by encrypting X under key K and sends Y back to A Because this sort of thing is quite hard to follow, theorists stopped using the unadorned letters A and B to represent the main players and started calling them Alice and Bob. So now we say Alice communicates with someone claiming to be Bob, and to be sure, Alice tests that Bob knows a secret number K. Alice sends to Bob a random number X. Bob then forms Y by encrypting X under key K and sends Y back to Alice. A whole mythology rapidly grew up around the metasyntactic names; see http://www.conceptlabs.co.uk/alicebob.html. In Bruce Schneier's definitive introductory text Applied Cryptography (2nd ed., 1996, John Wiley Sons, ISBN 0-471-11709-9) he introduced a table of dramatis personae headed by Alice and Bob. Others include Carol (a participant in three- and four-party protocols), Dave (a participant in four-party protocols), Eve (an eavesdropper), Mallory (a malicious active attacker), Trent (a trusted arbitrator), Walter (a warden), Peggy (a prover) and Victor (a verifier). These names for roles are either already standard or, given the wide popularity of the book, may be expected to quickly become so. Prev  Up  Next aliasing bug Home All hardware sucks, all software sucks.
+n. The archetypal individuals used as examples in discussions of
+cryptographic protocols. Originally, theorists would say something like: A
+communicates with someone who claims to be B, So to be sure, A tests that B
+knows a secret number K. So A sends to B a random number X. B then forms Y
+by encrypting X under key K and sends Y back to A Because this sort of thing
+is quite hard to follow, theorists stopped using the unadorned letters A and
+B to represent the main players and started calling them Alice and Bob. So
+now we say Alice communicates with someone claiming to be Bob, and to be
+sure, Alice tests that Bob knows a secret number K. Alice sends to Bob a
+random number X. Bob then forms Y by encrypting X under key K and sends Y
+back to Alice. A whole mythology rapidly grew up around the metasyntactic
+names; see http://www.conceptlabs.co.uk/alicebob.html. In Bruce Schneier's
+definitive introductory text Applied Cryptography (2nd ed., 1996, John Wiley
+Sons, ISBN 0-471-11709-9) he introduced a table of dramatis personae headed
+by Alice and Bob. Others include Carol (a participant in three- and
+four-party protocols), Dave (a participant in four-party protocols), Eve (an
+eavesdropper), Mallory (a malicious active attacker), Trent (a trusted
+arbitrator), Walter (a warden), Peggy (a prover) and Victor (a verifier).
+These names for roles are either already standard or, given the wide
+popularity of the book, may be expected to quickly become so. Prev  Up  Next
+aliasing bug Home All hardware sucks, all software sucks.
+

entries/All hardware sucks, all software sucks..txt

@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
 All hardware sucks, all software sucks.
 
-prov. [from scary devil monastery ] A general recognition of the fallibility of any computer system, ritually intoned as an attempt to quell incipient holy wars. It is a common response to any sort of bigot. When discussing Wintel systems, however, it is often snidely appended with, but some suck more than others.
+prov. [from scary devil monastery ] A general recognition of the fallibility
+of any computer system, ritually intoned as an attempt to quell incipient
+holy wars. It is a common response to any sort of bigot. When discussing
+Wintel systems, however, it is often snidely appended with, but some suck
+more than others.
+

entries/Aluminum Book.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 Aluminum Book
 
-n. [MIT] Common LISP: The Language , by Guy L. Steele Jr. (Digital Press, first edition 1984, second edition 1990). Note that due to a technical screwup some printings of the second edition are actually of a color the author describes succinctly as yucky green. See also book titles.
+n. [MIT] Common LISP: The Language , by Guy L. Steele Jr. (Digital Press,
+first edition 1984, second edition 1990). Note that due to a technical
+screwup some printings of the second edition are actually of a color the
+author describes succinctly as yucky green. See also book titles.
+

entries/Amiga Persecution Complex.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,14 @@
 Amiga Persecution Complex
 
-n. The disorder suffered by a particularly egregious variety of bigot , those who believe that the marginality of their preferred machine is the result of some kind of industry-wide conspiracy (for without a conspiracy of some kind, the eminent superiority of their beloved shining jewel of a platform would obviously win over all, market pressures be damned!) Those afflicted are prone to engaging in flame war s and calling for boycotts and mailbombings. Amiga Persecution Complex is by no means limited to Amiga users; NeXT, NeWS , OS/2 , Macintosh, LISP , and GNU users are also common victims. Linux users used to display symptoms very frequently before Linux started winning; some still do. See also newbie , troll , holy wars , weenie , Get a life!.
+n. The disorder suffered by a particularly egregious variety of bigot ,
+those who believe that the marginality of their preferred machine is the
+result of some kind of industry-wide conspiracy (for without a conspiracy of
+some kind, the eminent superiority of their beloved shining jewel of a
+platform would obviously win over all, market pressures be damned!) Those
+afflicted are prone to engaging in flame war s and calling for boycotts and
+mailbombings. Amiga Persecution Complex is by no means limited to Amiga
+users; NeXT, NeWS , OS/2 , Macintosh, LISP , and GNU users are also common
+victims. Linux users used to display symptoms very frequently before Linux
+started winning; some still do. See also newbie , troll , holy wars , weenie
+, Get a life!.
+

entries/Amiga.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,21 @@
 Amiga
 
-n A series of personal computer models originally sold by Commodore, based on 680x0 processors, custom support chips and an operating system that combined some of the best features of Macintosh and Unix with compatibility with neither. The Amiga was released just as the personal computing world standardized on IBM-PC clones. This prevented it from gaining serious market share, despite the fact that the first Amigas had a substantial technological lead on the IBM XTs of the time. Instead, it acquired a small but zealous population of enthusiastic hackers who dreamt of one day unseating the clones (see Amiga Persecution Complex ). The traits of this culture are both spoofed and illuminated in The BLAZE Humor Viewer. The strength of the Amiga platform seeded a small industry of companies building software and hardware for the platform, especially in graphics and video applications (see video toaster ). Due to spectacular mismanagement, Commodore did hardly any R D, allowing the competition to close Amiga's technological lead. After Commodore went bankrupt in 1994 the technology passed through several hands, none of whom did much with it. However, the Amiga is still being produced in Europe under license and has a substantial number of fans, which will probably extend the platform's life considerably.
+n A series of personal computer models originally sold by Commodore, based
+on 680x0 processors, custom support chips and an operating system that
+combined some of the best features of Macintosh and Unix with compatibility
+with neither. The Amiga was released just as the personal computing world
+standardized on IBM-PC clones. This prevented it from gaining serious market
+share, despite the fact that the first Amigas had a substantial
+technological lead on the IBM XTs of the time. Instead, it acquired a small
+but zealous population of enthusiastic hackers who dreamt of one day
+unseating the clones (see Amiga Persecution Complex ). The traits of this
+culture are both spoofed and illuminated in The BLAZE Humor Viewer. The
+strength of the Amiga platform seeded a small industry of companies building
+software and hardware for the platform, especially in graphics and video
+applications (see video toaster ). Due to spectacular mismanagement,
+Commodore did hardly any R D, allowing the competition to close Amiga's
+technological lead. After Commodore went bankrupt in 1994 the technology
+passed through several hands, none of whom did much with it. However, the
+Amiga is still being produced in Europe under license and has a substantial
+number of fans, which will probably extend the platform's life considerably.
+

entries/Angband.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,20 @@
 Angband
 
-n. , /angband/ Like nethack , moria , and rogue , one of the large freely distributed Dungeons-and-Dragons-like simulation games, available for a wide range of machines and operating systems. The name is from Tolkien's Pits of Angband (compare elder days , elvish ). Has been described as Moria on steroids ; but, unlike Moria, many aspects of the game are customizable. This leads many hackers and would-be hackers into fooling with these instead of doing productive work. There are many Angband variants, of which the most notorious is probably the rather whimsical Zangband. In this game, when a key that does not correspond to a command is pressed, the game will display Type ? for help 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time, random error messages including An error has occurred because an error of type 42 has occurred and Windows 95 uninstalled successfully will be displayed. Zangband also allows the player to kill Santa Claus (who has some really good stuff, but also has a lot of friends), Bull Gates , and Barney the Dinosaur (but be watchful; Barney has a nasty case of halitosis). There is an official angband home page at http://thangorodrim.angband.org/ and a zangband one at http://www.zangband.org/. See also Random Number God.
+n. , /angband/ Like nethack , moria , and rogue , one of the large freely
+distributed Dungeons-and-Dragons-like simulation games, available for a wide
+range of machines and operating systems. The name is from Tolkien's Pits of
+Angband (compare elder days , elvish ). Has been described as Moria on
+steroids ; but, unlike Moria, many aspects of the game are customizable.
+This leads many hackers and would-be hackers into fooling with these instead
+of doing productive work. There are many Angband variants, of which the most
+notorious is probably the rather whimsical Zangband. In this game, when a
+key that does not correspond to a command is pressed, the game will display
+Type ? for help 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time, random error
+messages including An error has occurred because an error of type 42 has
+occurred and Windows 95 uninstalled successfully will be displayed. Zangband
+also allows the player to kill Santa Claus (who has some really good stuff,
+but also has a lot of friends), Bull Gates , and Barney the Dinosaur (but be
+watchful; Barney has a nasty case of halitosis). There is an official
+angband home page at http://thangorodrim.angband.org/ and a zangband one at
+http://www.zangband.org/. See also Random Number God.
+

entries/Anthropomorphization.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,71 @@
 Anthropomorphization
 
-Semantically, one rich source of jargon constructions is the hackish tendency to anthropomorphize hardware and software. English purists and academic computer scientists frequently look down on others for anthropomorphizing hardware and software, considering this sort of behavior to be characteristic of naive misunderstanding. But most hackers anthropomorphize freely, frequently describing program behavior in terms of wants and desires. Thus it is common to hear hardware or software talked about as though it has homunculi talking to each other inside it, with intentions and desires. Thus, one hears  The protocol handler got confused , or that programs  are trying  to do things, or one may say of a routine that  its goal in life is to X . Or:  You can't run those two cards on the same bus; they fight over interrupt 9.  One even hears explanations like ... and its poor little brain couldn't understand X, and it died. Sometimes modelling things this way actually seems to make them easier to understand, perhaps because it's instinctively natural to think of anything with a really complex behavioral repertoire as like a person rather than like a thing. At first glance, to anyone who understands how these programs actually work, this seems like an absurdity. As hackers are among the people who know best how these phenomena work, it seems odd that they would use language that seems to ascribe consciousness to them. The mind-set behind this tendency thus demands examination. The key to understanding this kind of usage is that it isn't done in a naive way; hackers don't personalize their stuff in the sense of feeling empathy with it, nor do they mystically believe that the things they work on every day are alive. To the contrary: hackers who anthropomorphize are expressing not a vitalistic view of program behavior but a mechanistic view of human behavior. Almost all hackers subscribe to the mechanistic, materialistic ontology of science (this is in practice true even of most of the minority with contrary religious theories). In this view, people are biological machines  consciousness is an interesting and valuable epiphenomenon, but mind is implemented in machinery which is not fundamentally different in information-processing capacity from computers. Hackers tend to take this a step further and argue that the difference between a substrate of CHON atoms and water and a substrate of silicon and metal is a relatively unimportant one; what matters, what makes a thing alive, is information and richness of pattern. This is animism from the flip side; it implies that humans and computers and dolphins and rocks are all machines exhibiting a continuum of modes of consciousness according to their information-processing capacity. Because hackers accept that a human machine can have intentions, it is therefore easy for them to ascribe consciousness and intention to other complex patterned systems such as computers. If consciousness is mechanical, it is neither more or less absurd to say that  The program wants to go into an infinite loop  than it is to say that  I want to go eat some chocolate   and even defensible to say that  The stone, once dropped, wants to move towards the center of the earth . This viewpoint has respectable company in academic philosophy. Daniel Dennett organizes explanations of behavior using three stances: the  physical stance  (thing-to-be-explained as a physical object), the  design stance  (thing-to-be-explained as an artifact), and the  intentional stance  (thing-to-be-explained as an agent with desires and intentions). Which stances are appropriate is a matter not of abstract truth but of utility. Hackers typically view simple programs from the design stance, but more complex ones are often modelled using the intentional stance. It has also been argued that the anthropomorphization of software and hardware reflects a blurring of the boundary between the programmer and his artifacts  the human qualities belong to the programmer and the code merely expresses these qualities as his/her proxy. On this view, a hacker saying a piece of code got confused is really saying that he (or she) was confused about exactly what he wanted the computer to do, the code naturally incorporated this confusion, and the code expressed the programmer's confusion when executed by crashing or otherwise misbehaving. Note that by displacing from  I got confused  to  It got confused , the programmer is not avoiding responsibility, but rather getting some analytical distance in order to be able to consider the bug dispassionately. It has also been suggested that anthropomorphizing complex systems is actually an expression of humility, a way of acknowleging that simple rules we do understand (or that we invented) can lead to emergent behavioral complexities that we don't completely understand. All three explanations accurately model hacker psychology, and should be considered complementary rather than competing.
+Semantically, one rich source of jargon constructions is the hackish
+tendency to anthropomorphize hardware and software. English purists and
+academic computer scientists frequently look down on others for
+anthropomorphizing hardware and software, considering this sort of behavior
+to be characteristic of naive misunderstanding. But most hackers
+anthropomorphize freely, frequently describing program behavior in terms of
+wants and desires. Thus it is common to hear hardware or software talked
+about as though it has homunculi talking to each other inside it, with
+intentions and desires. Thus, one hears  The protocol handler got confused ,
+or that programs  are trying  to do things, or one may say of a routine that
+its goal in life is to X . Or:  You can't run those two cards on the same
+bus; they fight over interrupt 9.  One even hears explanations like ... and
+its poor little brain couldn't understand X, and it died. Sometimes
+modelling things this way actually seems to make them easier to understand,
+perhaps because it's instinctively natural to think of anything with a
+really complex behavioral repertoire as like a person rather than like a
+thing. At first glance, to anyone who understands how these programs
+actually work, this seems like an absurdity. As hackers are among the people
+who know best how these phenomena work, it seems odd that they would use
+language that seems to ascribe consciousness to them. The mind-set behind
+this tendency thus demands examination. The key to understanding this kind
+of usage is that it isn't done in a naive way; hackers don't personalize
+their stuff in the sense of feeling empathy with it, nor do they mystically
+believe that the things they work on every day are alive. To the contrary:
+hackers who anthropomorphize are expressing not a vitalistic view of program
+behavior but a mechanistic view of human behavior. Almost all hackers
+subscribe to the mechanistic, materialistic ontology of science (this is in
+practice true even of most of the minority with contrary religious
+theories). In this view, people are biological machines  consciousness is an
+interesting and valuable epiphenomenon, but mind is implemented in machinery
+which is not fundamentally different in information-processing capacity from
+computers. Hackers tend to take this a step further and argue that the
+difference between a substrate of CHON atoms and water and a substrate of
+silicon and metal is a relatively unimportant one; what matters, what makes
+a thing alive, is information and richness of pattern. This is animism from
+the flip side; it implies that humans and computers and dolphins and rocks
+are all machines exhibiting a continuum of modes of consciousness according
+to their information-processing capacity. Because hackers accept that a
+human machine can have intentions, it is therefore easy for them to ascribe
+consciousness and intention to other complex patterned systems such as
+computers. If consciousness is mechanical, it is neither more or less absurd
+to say that  The program wants to go into an infinite loop  than it is to
+say that  I want to go eat some chocolate   and even defensible to say that 
+The stone, once dropped, wants to move towards the center of the earth .
+This viewpoint has respectable company in academic philosophy. Daniel
+Dennett organizes explanations of behavior using three stances: the 
+physical stance  (thing-to-be-explained as a physical object), the  design
+stance  (thing-to-be-explained as an artifact), and the  intentional stance 
+(thing-to-be-explained as an agent with desires and intentions). Which
+stances are appropriate is a matter not of abstract truth but of utility.
+Hackers typically view simple programs from the design stance, but more
+complex ones are often modelled using the intentional stance. It has also
+been argued that the anthropomorphization of software and hardware reflects
+a blurring of the boundary between the programmer and his artifacts  the
+human qualities belong to the programmer and the code merely expresses these
+qualities as his/her proxy. On this view, a hacker saying a piece of code
+got confused is really saying that he (or she) was confused about exactly
+what he wanted the computer to do, the code naturally incorporated this
+confusion, and the code expressed the programmer's confusion when executed
+by crashing or otherwise misbehaving. Note that by displacing from  I got
+confused  to  It got confused , the programmer is not avoiding
+responsibility, but rather getting some analytical distance in order to be
+able to consider the bug dispassionately. It has also been suggested that
+anthropomorphizing complex systems is actually an expression of humility, a
+way of acknowleging that simple rules we do understand (or that we invented)
+can lead to emergent behavioral complexities that we don't completely
+understand. All three explanations accurately model hacker psychology, and
+should be considered complementary rather than competing.
+

entries/Archimedes.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
 Archimedes
 
-The world's first RISC microcomputer, available only in the British Commonwealth and europe. Built in 1987 in Great Britain by Acorn Computers, it was legendary for its use of the ARM-2 microprocessor as a CPU. Many a novice hacker in the Commonwealth first learnt his or her skills on the  , since it was specifically designed for use in schools and educational institutions. Owners of  machines are often still treated with awe and reverence. Familiarly, archi.
+The world's first RISC microcomputer, available only in the British
+Commonwealth and europe. Built in 1987 in Great Britain by Acorn Computers,
+it was legendary for its use of the ARM-2 microprocessor as a CPU. Many a
+novice hacker in the Commonwealth first learnt his or her skills on the  ,
+since it was specifically designed for use in schools and educational
+institutions. Owners of  machines are often still treated with awe and
+reverence. Familiarly, archi.
+

entries/Aunt Tillie.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 Aunt Tillie
 
-n. [linux-kernel mailing list] The archetypal non-technical user, one's elderly and scatterbrained maiden aunt. Invoked in discussions of usability for people who are not hackers and geeks; one sees references to the Aunt Tillie test.
+n. [linux-kernel mailing list] The archetypal non-technical user, one's
+elderly and scatterbrained maiden aunt. Invoked in discussions of usability
+for people who are not hackers and geeks; one sees references to the Aunt
+Tillie test.
+

entries/B1FF.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,18 @@
 B1FF
 
-/bif/ , BIFF , n. The most famous pseudo , and the prototypical newbie. Articles from B1FF feature all uppercase letters sprinkled liberally with bangs, typos, cute misspellings (EVRY BUDY LUVS GOOD OLD BIFF CUZ KL DOOD AN HE RITES REEL AWESUM THINGZ IN CAPITULL LETTRS LIKE THIS!!!), use (and often misuse) of fragments of talk mode abbreviations, a long sig block (sometimes even a doubled sig ), and unbounded naivete. B1FF posts articles using his elder brother's VIC-20. B1FF's location is a mystery, as his articles appear to come from a variety of sites. However, BITNET seems to be the most frequent origin. The theory that B1FF is a denizen of BITNET is supported by B1FF's (unfortunately invalid) electronic mail address: B1FF@BIT.NET. [1993: Now It Can Be Told! My spies inform me that B1FF was originally created by Joe Talmadge jat@cup.hp.com , also the author of the infamous and much-plagiarized Flamer's Bible. The BIFF filter he wrote was later passed to Richard Sexton, who posted BIFFisms much more widely. Versions have since been posted for the amusement of the net at large. See also Jeff K.
+/bif/ , BIFF , n. The most famous pseudo , and the prototypical newbie.
+Articles from B1FF feature all uppercase letters sprinkled liberally with
+bangs, typos, cute misspellings (EVRY BUDY LUVS GOOD OLD BIFF CUZ KL DOOD AN
+HE RITES REEL AWESUM THINGZ IN CAPITULL LETTRS LIKE THIS!!!), use (and often
+misuse) of fragments of talk mode abbreviations, a long sig block (sometimes
+even a doubled sig ), and unbounded naivete. B1FF posts articles using his
+elder brother's VIC-20. B1FF's location is a mystery, as his articles appear
+to come from a variety of sites. However, BITNET seems to be the most
+frequent origin. The theory that B1FF is a denizen of BITNET is supported by
+B1FF's (unfortunately invalid) electronic mail address: B1FF@BIT.NET. [1993:
+Now It Can Be Told! My spies inform me that B1FF was originally created by
+Joe Talmadge jat@cup.hp.com , also the author of the infamous and
+much-plagiarized Flamer's Bible. The BIFF filter he wrote was later passed
+to Richard Sexton, who posted BIFFisms much more widely. Versions have since
+been posted for the amusement of the net at large. See also Jeff K.
+

entries/B5.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
 B5
 
-// [common] Abbreviation for Babylon 5 , a science-fiction TV series as revered among hackers as was the original Star Trek.
+// [common] Abbreviation for Babylon 5 , a science-fiction TV series as
+revered among hackers as was the original Star Trek.
+

entries/BAD.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
 BAD
 
-/BAD/ , adj. [IBM: acronym, Broken As Designed ] Said of a program that is bogus because of bad design and misfeatures rather than because of bugginess. See working as designed.
+/BAD/ , adj. [IBM: acronym, Broken As Designed ] Said of a program that is
+bogus because of bad design and misfeatures rather than because of
+bugginess. See working as designed.
+

entries/BASIC.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,22 @@
 BASIC
 
-/bay'sic/ , n. A programming language, originally designed for Dartmouth's experimental timesharing system in the early 1960s, which for many years was the leading cause of brain damage in proto-hackers. Edsger W. Dijkstra observed in Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective that It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students that have had prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. This is another case (like Pascal ) of the cascading lossage that happens when a language deliberately designed as an educational toy gets taken too seriously. A novice can write short BASIC programs (on the order of 10-20 lines) very easily; writing anything longer (a) is very painful, and (b) encourages bad habits that will make it harder to use more powerful languages well. This wouldn't be so bad if historical accidents hadn't made BASIC so common on low-end micros in the 1980s. As it is, it probably ruined tens of thousands of potential wizards. [1995: Some languages called BASIC aren't quite this nasty any more, having acquired Pascal- and C-like procedures and control structures and shed their line numbers. ESR] BASIC stands for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. Earlier versions of this entry claiming this was a later backronym were incorrect.
+/bay'sic/ , n. A programming language, originally designed for Dartmouth's
+experimental timesharing system in the early 1960s, which for many years was
+the leading cause of brain damage in proto-hackers. Edsger W. Dijkstra
+observed in Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective that It
+is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students that
+have had prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally
+mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. This is another case (like Pascal )
+of the cascading lossage that happens when a language deliberately designed
+as an educational toy gets taken too seriously. A novice can write short
+BASIC programs (on the order of 10-20 lines) very easily; writing anything
+longer (a) is very painful, and (b) encourages bad habits that will make it
+harder to use more powerful languages well. This wouldn't be so bad if
+historical accidents hadn't made BASIC so common on low-end micros in the
+1980s. As it is, it probably ruined tens of thousands of potential wizards.
+[1995: Some languages called BASIC aren't quite this nasty any more, having
+acquired Pascal- and C-like procedures and control structures and shed their
+line numbers. ESR] BASIC stands for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic
+Instruction Code. Earlier versions of this entry claiming this was a later
+backronym were incorrect.
+

entries/BBS.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,17 @@
 BBS
 
-/BBS/ , n. [common; abbreviation, Bulletin Board System ] An electronic bulletin board system; that is, a message database where people can log in and leave broadcast messages for others grouped (typically) into topic group s. The term was especially applied to the thousands of local BBS systems that operated during the pre-Internet microcomputer era of roughly 1980 to 1995, typically run by amateurs for fun out of their homes on MS-DOS boxes with a single modem line each. Fans of Usenet and Internet or the big commercial timesharing bboards such as CompuServe and GEnie tended to consider local BBSes the low-rent district of the hacker culture, but they served a valuable function by knitting together lots of hackers and users in the personal-micro world who would otherwise have been unable to exchange code at all. Post-Internet, BBSs are likely to be local newsgroups on an ISP; efficiency has increased but a certain flavor has been lost. See also bboard.
+/BBS/ , n. [common; abbreviation, Bulletin Board System ] An electronic
+bulletin board system; that is, a message database where people can log in
+and leave broadcast messages for others grouped (typically) into topic group
+s. The term was especially applied to the thousands of local BBS systems
+that operated during the pre-Internet microcomputer era of roughly 1980 to
+1995, typically run by amateurs for fun out of their homes on MS-DOS boxes
+with a single modem line each. Fans of Usenet and Internet or the big
+commercial timesharing bboards such as CompuServe and GEnie tended to
+consider local BBSes the low-rent district of the hacker culture, but they
+served a valuable function by knitting together lots of hackers and users in
+the personal-micro world who would otherwise have been unable to exchange
+code at all. Post-Internet, BBSs are likely to be local newsgroups on an
+ISP; efficiency has increased but a certain flavor has been lost. See also
+bboard.
+

entries/BCPL.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
 BCPL
 
-// , n. [abbreviation, Basic Combined Programming Language ) A programming language developed by Martin Richards in Cambridge in 1967. It is remarkable for its rich syntax, small size of compiler (it can be run in 16k) and extreme portability. It reached break-even point at a very early stage, and was the language in which the original hello world program was written. It has been ported to so many different systems that its creator confesses to having lost count. It has only one data type (a machine word) which can be used as an integer, a character, a floating point number, a pointer, or almost anything else, depending on context. BCPL was a precursor of C, which inherited some of its features.
+// , n. [abbreviation, Basic Combined Programming Language ) A programming
+language developed by Martin Richards in Cambridge in 1967. It is remarkable
+for its rich syntax, small size of compiler (it can be run in 16k) and
+extreme portability. It reached break-even point at a very early stage, and
+was the language in which the original hello world program was written. It
+has been ported to so many different systems that its creator confesses to
+having lost count. It has only one data type (a machine word) which can be
+used as an integer, a character, a floating point number, a pointer, or
+almost anything else, depending on context. BCPL was a precursor of C, which
+inherited some of its features.
+

entries/BDFL.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
 BDFL
 
-Benevolent Dictator For Life. Guido , considered in his role as the project leader of Python. People who are feeling temporarily cheesed off by one of his decisions sometimes leave off the B. The mental image that goes with this, of a cigar-chomping caudillo in gold braid and sunglasses, is extremely funny to anyone who has ever met Guido in person.
+Benevolent Dictator For Life. Guido , considered in his role as the project
+leader of Python. People who are feeling temporarily cheesed off by one of
+his decisions sometimes leave off the B. The mental image that goes with
+this, of a cigar-chomping caudillo in gold braid and sunglasses, is
+extremely funny to anyone who has ever met Guido in person.
+

entries/BFI.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
 BFI
 
-/BFI/ , n. See brute force and ignorance. Also encountered in the variants BFMI , brute force and massive ignorance and BFBI brute force and bloody ignorance. In some parts of the U.S. this abbreviation was probably reinforced by a company called Browning-Ferris Industries in the waste-management business; a large BFI logo in white-on-blue could be seen on the sides of garbage trucks.
+/BFI/ , n. See brute force and ignorance. Also encountered in the variants
+BFMI , brute force and massive ignorance and BFBI brute force and bloody
+ignorance. In some parts of the U.S. this abbreviation was probably
+reinforced by a company called Browning-Ferris Industries in the
+waste-management business; a large BFI logo in white-on-blue could be seen
+on the sides of garbage trucks.
+

entries/BI.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 BI
 
 // Common written abbreviation for Breidbart Index.
+

entries/BLOB.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
 BLOB
 
-Used by database people to refer to any random large block of bits that needs to be stored in a database, such as a picture or sound file. The essential point about a BLOB is that it's an object that cannot be interpreted within the database itself. 2. v. To mailbomb someone by sending a BLOB to him/her; esp. used as a mild threat. If that program crashes again, I'm going to BLOB the core dump to you.
+Used by database people to refer to any random large block of bits that
+needs to be stored in a database, such as a picture or sound file. The
+essential point about a BLOB is that it's an object that cannot be
+interpreted within the database itself. 2. v. To mailbomb someone by sending
+a BLOB to him/her; esp. used as a mild threat. If that program crashes
+again, I'm going to BLOB the core dump to you.
+

entries/BLT.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
 BLT
 
-/BLT/ , /bl@t/ , /belt/ , n.,vt. Synonym for blit. This is the original form of blit and the ancestor of bitblt. It referred to any large bit-field copy or move operation (one resource-intensive memory-shuffling operation done on pre-paged versions of ITS, WAITS, and TOPS-10 was sardonically referred to as The Big BLT ). The jargon usage has outlasted the PDP-10 BLock Transfer instruction from which BLT derives; nowadays, the assembler mnemonic BLT almost always means Branch if Less Than zero.
+/BLT/ , /bl@t/ , /belt/ , n.,vt. Synonym for blit. This is the original form
+of blit and the ancestor of bitblt. It referred to any large bit-field copy
+or move operation (one resource-intensive memory-shuffling operation done on
+pre-paged versions of ITS, WAITS, and TOPS-10 was sardonically referred to
+as The Big BLT ). The jargon usage has outlasted the PDP-10 BLock Transfer
+instruction from which BLT derives; nowadays, the assembler mnemonic BLT
+almost always means Branch if Less Than zero.
+

entries/BNF.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,34 @@
 BNF
 
-/BNF/ , n. 1. [techspeak] Acronym for Backus Normal Form (later retronymed to Backus-Naur Form because BNF was not in fact a normal form), a metasyntactic notation used to specify the syntax of programming languages, command sets, and the like. Widely used for language descriptions but seldom documented anywhere, so that it must usually be learned by osmosis from other hackers. Consider this BNF for a U.S. postal address:  postal-address ::= name-part  street-address  zip-part  personal-part ::= name | initial .  name-part ::= personal-part  last-name [ jr-part ] EOL | personal-part  name-part  street-address ::=[ apt ] house-num  street-name  EOL  zip-part ::= town-name  ,  state-code  ZIP-code  EOL This translates into English as: A postal-address consists of a name-part, followed by a street-address part, followed by a zip-code part. A personal-part consists of either a first name or an initial followed by a dot. A name-part consists of either: a personal-part followed by a last name followed by an optional jr-part (Jr., Sr., or dynastic number) and end-of-line, or a personal part followed by a name part (this rule illustrates the use of recursion in BNFs, covering the case of people who use multiple first and middle names and/or initials). A street address consists of an optional apartment specifier, followed by a street number, followed by a street name. A zip-part consists of a town-name, followed by a comma, followed by a state code, followed by a ZIP-code followed by an end-of-line. Note that many things (such as the format of a personal-part, apartment specifier, or ZIP-code) are left unspecified. These are presumed to be obvious from context or detailed somewhere nearby. See also parse. 2. Any of a number of variants and extensions of BNF proper, possibly containing some or all of the regexp wildcards such as * or +. In fact the example above isn't the pure form invented for the Algol-60 report; it uses [] , which was introduced a few years later in IBM's PL/I definition but is now universally recognized. 3. In science-fiction fandom , a Big-Name Fan (someone famous or notorious). Years ago a fan started handing out black-on-green BNF buttons at SF conventions; this confused the hacker contingent terribly.
+/BNF/ , n. 1. [techspeak] Acronym for Backus Normal Form (later retronymed
+to Backus-Naur Form because BNF was not in fact a normal form), a
+metasyntactic notation used to specify the syntax of programming languages,
+command sets, and the like. Widely used for language descriptions but seldom
+documented anywhere, so that it must usually be learned by osmosis from
+other hackers. Consider this BNF for a U.S. postal address:  postal-address
+::= name-part  street-address  zip-part  personal-part ::= name | initial . 
+name-part ::= personal-part  last-name [ jr-part ] EOL | personal-part 
+name-part  street-address ::=[ apt ] house-num  street-name  EOL  zip-part
+::= town-name  ,  state-code  ZIP-code  EOL This translates into English as:
+A postal-address consists of a name-part, followed by a street-address part,
+followed by a zip-code part. A personal-part consists of either a first name
+or an initial followed by a dot. A name-part consists of either: a
+personal-part followed by a last name followed by an optional jr-part (Jr.,
+Sr., or dynastic number) and end-of-line, or a personal part followed by a
+name part (this rule illustrates the use of recursion in BNFs, covering the
+case of people who use multiple first and middle names and/or initials). A
+street address consists of an optional apartment specifier, followed by a
+street number, followed by a street name. A zip-part consists of a
+town-name, followed by a comma, followed by a state code, followed by a
+ZIP-code followed by an end-of-line. Note that many things (such as the
+format of a personal-part, apartment specifier, or ZIP-code) are left
+unspecified. These are presumed to be obvious from context or detailed
+somewhere nearby. See also parse. 2. Any of a number of variants and
+extensions of BNF proper, possibly containing some or all of the regexp
+wildcards such as * or +. In fact the example above isn't the pure form
+invented for the Algol-60 report; it uses [] , which was introduced a few
+years later in IBM's PL/I definition but is now universally recognized. 3.
+In science-fiction fandom , a Big-Name Fan (someone famous or notorious).
+Years ago a fan started handing out black-on-green BNF buttons at SF
+conventions; this confused the hacker contingent terribly.
+

entries/BOF.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
 BOF
 
-/BOF/ , /bof/ , n. 1. [common] Abbreviation for the phrase Birds Of a Feather (flocking together), an informal discussion group and/or bull session scheduled on a conference program. It is not clear where or when this term originated, but it is now associated with the USENIX conferences for Unix techies and was already established there by 1984. It was used earlier than that at DECUS conferences and is reported to have been common at SHARE meetings as far back as the early 1960s. 2. Acronym, Beginning of File.
+/BOF/ , /bof/ , n. 1. [common] Abbreviation for the phrase Birds Of a
+Feather (flocking together), an informal discussion group and/or bull
+session scheduled on a conference program. It is not clear where or when
+this term originated, but it is now associated with the USENIX conferences
+for Unix techies and was already established there by 1984. It was used
+earlier than that at DECUS conferences and is reported to have been common
+at SHARE meetings as far back as the early 1960s. 2. Acronym, Beginning of
+File.
+

entries/BOFH.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
 BOFH
 
-// , n. [common] Acronym, Bastard Operator From Hell. A system administrator with absolutely no tolerance for luser s. You say you need more filespace? massive-global-delete Seems to me you have plenty left... Many BOFHs (and others who would be BOFHs if they could get away with it) hang out in the newsgroup alt.sysadmin.recovery , although there has also been created a top-level newsgroup hierarchy ( bofh.* ) of their own. Several people have written stories about BOFHs. The set usually considered canonical is by Simon Travaglia and may be found at the Bastard Home Page. BOFHs and BOFH wannabes hang out on scary devil monastery and wield LART s.
+// , n. [common] Acronym, Bastard Operator From Hell. A system administrator
+with absolutely no tolerance for luser s. You say you need more filespace?
+massive-global-delete Seems to me you have plenty left... Many BOFHs (and
+others who would be BOFHs if they could get away with it) hang out in the
+newsgroup alt.sysadmin.recovery , although there has also been created a
+top-level newsgroup hierarchy ( bofh.* ) of their own. Several people have
+written stories about BOFHs. The set usually considered canonical is by
+Simon Travaglia and may be found at the Bastard Home Page. BOFHs and BOFH
+wannabes hang out on scary devil monastery and wield LART s.
+

entries/BRS.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 BRS
 
 /BRS/ , n. Syn. Big Red Switch. This abbreviation is fairly common on-line.
+

entries/BSD.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
 BSD
 
-/BSD/ , n. [abbreviation for Berkeley Software Distribution ] a family of Unix versions for the DEC VAX and PDP-11 developed by Bill Joy and others at Berzerkeley starting around 1977, incorporating paged virtual memory, TCP/IP networking enhancements, and many other features. The BSD versions (4.1, 4.2, and 4.3) and the commercial versions derived from them (SunOS, ULTRIX, and Mt. Xinu) held the technical lead in the Unix world until AT T's successful standardization efforts after about 1986; descendants including Free/Open/NetBSD, BSD/OS and MacOS X are still widely popular. Note that BSD versions going back to 2.9 are often referred to by their version numbers alone, without the BSD prefix. See also Unix.
+/BSD/ , n. [abbreviation for Berkeley Software Distribution ] a family of
+Unix versions for the DEC VAX and PDP-11 developed by Bill Joy and others at
+Berzerkeley starting around 1977, incorporating paged virtual memory, TCP/IP
+networking enhancements, and many other features. The BSD versions (4.1,
+4.2, and 4.3) and the commercial versions derived from them (SunOS, ULTRIX,
+and Mt. Xinu) held the technical lead in the Unix world until AT T's
+successful standardization efforts after about 1986; descendants including
+Free/Open/NetBSD, BSD/OS and MacOS X are still widely popular. Note that BSD
+versions going back to 2.9 are often referred to by their version numbers
+alone, without the BSD prefix. See also Unix.
+

entries/BSOD.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
 BSOD
 
-/BSOD/ Very common abbreviation for Blue Screen of Death. Both spoken and written.
+/BSOD/ Very common abbreviation for Blue Screen of Death. Both spoken and
+written.
+

entries/BUAF.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
 BUAF
 
-// , n. [abbreviation, from alt.fan.warlord ] Big Ugly ASCII Font a special form of ASCII art. Various programs exist for rendering text strings into block, bloob, and pseudo-script fonts in cells between four and six character cells on a side; this is smaller than the letters generated by older banner (sense 2) programs. These are sometimes used to render one's name in a sig block , and are critically referred to as BUAF s. See warlording.
+// , n. [abbreviation, from alt.fan.warlord ] Big Ugly ASCII Font a special
+form of ASCII art. Various programs exist for rendering text strings into
+block, bloob, and pseudo-script fonts in cells between four and six
+character cells on a side; this is smaller than the letters generated by
+older banner (sense 2) programs. These are sometimes used to render one's
+name in a sig block , and are critically referred to as BUAF s. See
+warlording.
+

entries/BUAG.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 BUAG
 
-// , n. [abbreviation, from alt.fan.warlord ] Big Ugly ASCII Graphic. Pejorative term for ugly ASCII art , especially as found in sig block s. For some reason, mutations of the head of Bart Simpson are particularly common in the least imaginative sig block s. See warlording.
+// , n. [abbreviation, from alt.fan.warlord ] Big Ugly ASCII Graphic.
+Pejorative term for ugly ASCII art , especially as found in sig block s. For
+some reason, mutations of the head of Bart Simpson are particularly common
+in the least imaginative sig block s. See warlording.
+

entries/BWQ.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
 BWQ
 
-/BWQ/ , n. [IBM: abbreviation, `Buzz Word Quotient'] The percentage of buzzwords in a speech or documents. Usually roughly proportional to bogosity. See TLA.
+/BWQ/ , n. [IBM: abbreviation, `Buzz Word Quotient'] The percentage of
+buzzwords in a speech or documents. Usually roughly proportional to
+bogosity. See TLA.
+

entries/Bad Thing.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,14 @@
 Bad Thing
 
-n. [very common; always pronounced as if capitalized. Orig. fr. the 1930 Sellar Yeatman parody of British history 1066 And All That , but well-established among hackers in the U.S. as well.] Something that can't possibly result in improvement of the subject. This term is always capitalized, as in Replacing all of the DSL links with bicycle couriers would be a Bad Thing. Oppose Good Thing. British correspondents confirm that Bad Thing and Good Thing (and prob. therefore Right Thing and Wrong Thing ) come from the book referenced in the  etymology, which discusses rulers who were Good Kings but Bad Things. This has apparently created a mainstream idiom on the British side of the pond. It is very common among American hackers, but not in mainstream usage in the U.S. Compare Bad and Wrong.
+n. [very common; always pronounced as if capitalized. Orig. fr. the 1930
+Sellar Yeatman parody of British history 1066 And All That , but
+well-established among hackers in the U.S. as well.] Something that can't
+possibly result in improvement of the subject. This term is always
+capitalized, as in Replacing all of the DSL links with bicycle couriers
+would be a Bad Thing. Oppose Good Thing. British correspondents confirm that
+Bad Thing and Good Thing (and prob. therefore Right Thing and Wrong Thing )
+come from the book referenced in the  etymology, which discusses rulers who
+were Good Kings but Bad Things. This has apparently created a mainstream
+idiom on the British side of the pond. It is very common among American
+hackers, but not in mainstream usage in the U.S. Compare Bad and Wrong.
+

entries/Bad and Wrong.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,14 @@
 Bad and Wrong
 
-adj. [Durham, UK] Said of something that is both badly designed and wrongly executed. This common term is the prototype of, and is used by contrast with, three less common terms Bad and Right (a kludge, something ugly but functional); Good and Wrong (an overblown GUI or other attractive nuisance); and (rare praise) Good and Right. These terms entered common use at Durham c.1994 and may have been imported from elsewhere; they are also in use at Oxford, and the emphatic form Evil and Bad and Wrong (abbreviated EBW) is reported from there. There are standard abbreviations: they start with B R, a typo for Bad and Wrong. Consequently, B W is actually Bad and Right , G R = Good and Wrong , and G W = Good and Right. Compare evil and rude , Good Thing , Bad Thing.
+adj. [Durham, UK] Said of something that is both badly designed and wrongly
+executed. This common term is the prototype of, and is used by contrast
+with, three less common terms Bad and Right (a kludge, something ugly but
+functional); Good and Wrong (an overblown GUI or other attractive nuisance);
+and (rare praise) Good and Right. These terms entered common use at Durham
+c.1994 and may have been imported from elsewhere; they are also in use at
+Oxford, and the emphatic form Evil and Bad and Wrong (abbreviated EBW) is
+reported from there. There are standard abbreviations: they start with B R,
+a typo for Bad and Wrong. Consequently, B W is actually Bad and Right , G R
+= Good and Wrong , and G W = Good and Right. Compare evil and rude , Good
+Thing , Bad Thing.
+

entries/Batman factor.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
 Batman factor
 
-n. 1. An integer number representing the number of items hanging from a batbelt. In most settings, a Batman factor of more than 3 is not acceptable without odd stares and whispering. This encourages the hacker in question to choose items for the batbelt carefully to avoid awkward social situations, usually amongst non-hackers. 2. A somewhat more vaguely defined index of contribution to sense 1. Devices that are especially obtrusive, such as large, older model cell phones, Pocket PC devices and walkie talkies are said to have a high batman factor. Sleeker devices such as a later-model Palm or StarTac phone are prized for their low batman factor and lessened obtrusiveness and weight.
+n. 1. An integer number representing the number of items hanging from a
+batbelt. In most settings, a Batman factor of more than 3 is not acceptable
+without odd stares and whispering. This encourages the hacker in question to
+choose items for the batbelt carefully to avoid awkward social situations,
+usually amongst non-hackers. 2. A somewhat more vaguely defined index of
+contribution to sense 1. Devices that are especially obtrusive, such as
+large, older model cell phones, Pocket PC devices and walkie talkies are
+said to have a high batman factor. Sleeker devices such as a later-model
+Palm or StarTac phone are prized for their low batman factor and lessened
+obtrusiveness and weight.
+

entries/Befunge.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 Befunge
 
-n. A worthy companion to INTERCAL ; a computer language family which escapes the quotidian limitation of linear control flow and embraces program counters flying through multiple dimensions with exotic topologies. The Befunge home page is at http://www.catseye.mb.ca/esoteric/befunge/.
+n. A worthy companion to INTERCAL ; a computer language family which escapes
+the quotidian limitation of linear control flow and embraces program
+counters flying through multiple dimensions with exotic topologies. The
+Befunge home page is at http://www.catseye.mb.ca/esoteric/befunge/.
+

entries/Berkeley Quality Software.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
 Berkeley Quality Software
 
-adj. (often abbreviated BQS ) Term used in a pejorative sense to refer to software that was apparently created by rather spaced-out hackers late at night to solve some unique problem. It usually has nonexistent, incomplete, or incorrect documentation, has been tested on at least two examples, and core dumps when anyone else attempts to use it. This term was frequently applied to early versions of the dbx (1) debugger. See also Berzerkeley. Note to British and Commonwealth readers: that's /berklee/ , not /barklee/ as in British Received Pronunciation.
+adj. (often abbreviated BQS ) Term used in a pejorative sense to refer to
+software that was apparently created by rather spaced-out hackers late at
+night to solve some unique problem. It usually has nonexistent, incomplete,
+or incorrect documentation, has been tested on at least two examples, and
+core dumps when anyone else attempts to use it. This term was frequently
+applied to early versions of the dbx (1) debugger. See also Berzerkeley.
+Note to British and Commonwealth readers: that's /berklee/ , not /barklee/
+as in British Received Pronunciation.
+

entries/Berzerkeley.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
 Berzerkeley
 
-/b@rzerklee/ , n. [from berserk , via the name of a now-deceased record label; poss. originated by famed columnist Herb Caen] Humorous distortion of Berkeley used esp. to refer to the practices or products of the BSD Unix hackers. See software bloat , Berkeley Quality Software. Mainstream use of this term in reference to the cultural and political peculiarities of UC Berkeley as a whole has been reported from as far back as the 1960s.
+/b@rzerklee/ , n. [from berserk , via the name of a now-deceased record
+label; poss. originated by famed columnist Herb Caen] Humorous distortion of
+Berkeley used esp. to refer to the practices or products of the BSD Unix
+hackers. See software bloat , Berkeley Quality Software. Mainstream use of
+this term in reference to the cultural and political peculiarities of UC
+Berkeley as a whole has been reported from as far back as the 1960s.
+

entries/BiCapitalization.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
 BiCapitalization
 
-n. The act said to have been performed on trademarks (such as PostScript , NeXT, NeWS , VisiCalc, FrameMaker, TK!solver, EasyWriter) that have been raised above the ruck of common coinage by nonstandard capitalization. Too many marketroid types think this sort of thing is really cute, even the 2,317th time they do it. Compare studlycaps , InterCaps.
+n. The act said to have been performed on trademarks (such as PostScript ,
+NeXT, NeWS , VisiCalc, FrameMaker, TK!solver, EasyWriter) that have been
+raised above the ruck of common coinage by nonstandard capitalization. Too
+many marketroid types think this sort of thing is really cute, even the
+2,317th time they do it. Compare studlycaps , InterCaps.
+

entries/Big Red Switch.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,14 @@
 Big Red Switch
 
-n. [IBM] The power switch on a computer, esp. the Emergency Pull switch on an IBM mainframe or the power switch on an IBM PC where it really is large and red. This !@%$% bitty box is hung again; time to hit the Big Red Switch. Sources at IBM report that, in tune with the company's passion for TLA s, this is often abbreviated as BRS (this has also become established on FidoNet and in the PC clone world). It is alleged that the emergency pull switch on an IBM 360/91 actually fired a non-conducting bolt into the main power feed; the BRSes on more recent mainframes physically drop a block into place so that they can't be pushed back in. People get fired for pulling them, especially inappropriately (see also molly-guard ). Compare power cycle , three-finger salute ; see also scram switch.
+n. [IBM] The power switch on a computer, esp. the Emergency Pull switch on
+an IBM mainframe or the power switch on an IBM PC where it really is large
+and red. This !@%$% bitty box is hung again; time to hit the Big Red Switch.
+Sources at IBM report that, in tune with the company's passion for TLA s,
+this is often abbreviated as BRS (this has also become established on
+FidoNet and in the PC clone world). It is alleged that the emergency pull
+switch on an IBM 360/91 actually fired a non-conducting bolt into the main
+power feed; the BRSes on more recent mainframes physically drop a block into
+place so that they can't be pushed back in. People get fired for pulling
+them, especially inappropriately (see also molly-guard ). Compare power
+cycle , three-finger salute ; see also scram switch.
+

entries/Big Room.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 Big Room
 
-n. (Also Big Blue Room ) The extremely large room with the blue ceiling and intensely bright light (during the day) or black ceiling with lots of tiny night-lights (during the night) found outside all computer installations. He can't come to the phone right now, he's somewhere out in the Big Room.
+n. (Also Big Blue Room ) The extremely large room with the blue ceiling and
+intensely bright light (during the day) or black ceiling with lots of tiny
+night-lights (during the night) found outside all computer installations. He
+can't come to the phone right now, he's somewhere out in the Big Room.
+

entries/Black Screen of Death.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
 Black Screen of Death
 
-[prob.: related to the Floating Head of Death in a famous Far Side cartoon.] A failure mode of Microsloth Windows. On an attempt to launch a DOS box, a networked Windows system not uncommonly blanks the screen and locks up the PC so hard that it requires a cold boot to recover. This unhappy phenomenon is known as The Black Screen of Death. See also Blue Screen of Death , which has become rather more common.
+[prob.: related to the Floating Head of Death in a famous Far Side cartoon.]
+A failure mode of Microsloth Windows. On an attempt to launch a DOS box, a
+networked Windows system not uncommonly blanks the screen and locks up the
+PC so hard that it requires a cold boot to recover. This unhappy phenomenon
+is known as The Black Screen of Death. See also Blue Screen of Death , which
+has become rather more common.
+

entries/Bloggs Family.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
 Bloggs Family
 
-n. An imaginary family consisting of Fred and Mary Bloggs and their children. Used as a standard example in knowledge representation to show the difference between extensional and intensional objects. For example, every occurrence of Fred Bloggs is the same unique person, whereas occurrences of person may refer to different people. Members of the Bloggs family have been known to pop up in bizarre places such as the old DEC Telephone Directory. Compare Dr. Fred Mbogo ; J. Random Hacker ; Fred Foobar.
+n. An imaginary family consisting of Fred and Mary Bloggs and their
+children. Used as a standard example in knowledge representation to show the
+difference between extensional and intensional objects. For example, every
+occurrence of Fred Bloggs is the same unique person, whereas occurrences of
+person may refer to different people. Members of the Bloggs family have been
+known to pop up in bizarre places such as the old DEC Telephone Directory.
+Compare Dr. Fred Mbogo ; J. Random Hacker ; Fred Foobar.
+

entries/Blue Glue.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,14 @@
 Blue Glue
 
-n. [IBM; obs.] IBM's SNA (Systems Network Architecture), an incredibly losing and bletcherous communications protocol once widely favored at commercial shops that didn't know any better (like other proprietary networking protocols, it became obsolete and effectively disappeared after the Internet explosion c.1994). The official IBM definition is that which binds blue boxes together. See fear and loathing. It may not be irrelevant that Blue Glue is the trade name of a 3M product that is commonly used to hold down the carpet squares to the removable panel floors common in dinosaur pen s. A correspondent at U. Minn. reports that the CS department there has about 80 bottles of the stuff hanging about, so they often refer to any messy work to be done as using the blue glue.
+n. [IBM; obs.] IBM's SNA (Systems Network Architecture), an incredibly
+losing and bletcherous communications protocol once widely favored at
+commercial shops that didn't know any better (like other proprietary
+networking protocols, it became obsolete and effectively disappeared after
+the Internet explosion c.1994). The official IBM definition is that which
+binds blue boxes together. See fear and loathing. It may not be irrelevant
+that Blue Glue is the trade name of a 3M product that is commonly used to
+hold down the carpet squares to the removable panel floors common in
+dinosaur pen s. A correspondent at U. Minn. reports that the CS department
+there has about 80 bottles of the stuff hanging about, so they often refer
+to any messy work to be done as using the blue glue.
+

entries/Blue Screen of Death.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
 Blue Screen of Death
 
-n. [common] This term is closely related to the older Black Screen of Death but much more common (many non-hackers have picked it up). Due to the extreme fragility and bugginess of Microsoft Windows, misbehaving applications can readily crash the OS (and the OS sometimes crashes itself spontaneously). The Blue Screen of Death, sometimes decorated with hex error codes, is what you get when this happens. (Commonly abbreviated BSOD. ) The following entry from the Salon Haiku Contest , seems to have predated popular use of the term: WindowsNTcrashed. IamtheBlueScreenofDeath Noonehearsyourscreams.
+n. [common] This term is closely related to the older Black Screen of Death
+but much more common (many non-hackers have picked it up). Due to the
+extreme fragility and bugginess of Microsoft Windows, misbehaving
+applications can readily crash the OS (and the OS sometimes crashes itself
+spontaneously). The Blue Screen of Death, sometimes decorated with hex error
+codes, is what you get when this happens. (Commonly abbreviated BSOD. ) The
+following entry from the Salon Haiku Contest , seems to have predated
+popular use of the term: WindowsNTcrashed. IamtheBlueScreenofDeath
+Noonehearsyourscreams.
+

entries/BogoMIPS.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
 BogoMIPS
 
-/bogomips/ , n. The number of million times a second a processor can do absolutely nothing. The Linux OS measures BogoMIPS at startup in order to calibrate some soft timing loops that will be used later on; details at the BogoMIPS mini-HOWTO. The name Linus chose, of course, is an ironic comment on the uselessness of all other MIPS figures.
+/bogomips/ , n. The number of million times a second a processor can do
+absolutely nothing. The Linux OS measures BogoMIPS at startup in order to
+calibrate some soft timing loops that will be used later on; details at the
+BogoMIPS mini-HOWTO. The name Linus chose, of course, is an ironic comment
+on the uselessness of all other MIPS figures.
+

entries/Bohr bug.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
 Bohr bug
 
-/bohr buhg/ , n. [from quantum physics] A repeatable bug ; one that manifests reliably under a possibly unknown but well-defined set of conditions. Antonym of heisenbug ; see also mandelbug , schroedinbug.
+/bohr buhg/ , n. [from quantum physics] A repeatable bug ; one that
+manifests reliably under a possibly unknown but well-defined set of
+conditions. Antonym of heisenbug ; see also mandelbug , schroedinbug.
+

entries/Borg.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,18 @@
 Borg
 
-n. In Star Trek: The Next Generation the Borg is a species of cyborg that ruthlessly seeks to incorporate all sentient life into itself; their slogan is You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. In hacker parlance, the Borg is usually Microsoft , which is thought to be trying just as ruthlessly to assimilate all computers and the entire Internet to itself (there is a widely circulated image of Bill Gates as a Borg). Being forced to use Windows or NT is often referred to as being Borged. Interestingly, the Halloween Documents reveal that this jargon is live within Microsoft itself. See also Evil Empire , Internet Exploiter. Other companies, notably Intel and UUNet, have also occasionally been equated to the Borg. In IETF circles, where direct pressure from Microsoft is not a daily reality, the Borg is sometimes Cisco. This usage commemorates their tendency to pay any price to hire talent away from their competitors. In fact, at the Spring 1997 IETF, a large number of ex-Cisco employees, all former members of Routing Geeks, showed up with t-shirts printed with Recovering Borg.
+n. In Star Trek: The Next Generation the Borg is a species of cyborg that
+ruthlessly seeks to incorporate all sentient life into itself; their slogan
+is You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. In hacker parlance, the
+Borg is usually Microsoft , which is thought to be trying just as ruthlessly
+to assimilate all computers and the entire Internet to itself (there is a
+widely circulated image of Bill Gates as a Borg). Being forced to use
+Windows or NT is often referred to as being Borged. Interestingly, the
+Halloween Documents reveal that this jargon is live within Microsoft itself.
+See also Evil Empire , Internet Exploiter. Other companies, notably Intel
+and UUNet, have also occasionally been equated to the Borg. In IETF circles,
+where direct pressure from Microsoft is not a daily reality, the Borg is
+sometimes Cisco. This usage commemorates their tendency to pay any price to
+hire talent away from their competitors. In fact, at the Spring 1997 IETF, a
+large number of ex-Cisco employees, all former members of Routing Geeks,
+showed up with t-shirts printed with Recovering Borg.
+

entries/Breidbart Index.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,20 @@
 Breidbart Index
 
-/bri:dbart ind@ks/ A measurement of the severity of spam invented by long-time hacker Seth Breidbart, used for programming cancelbots. The Breidbart Index takes into account the fact that excessive multi-posting EMP is worse than excessive cross-posting ECP. The Breidbart Index is computed as follows: For each article in a spam, take the square-root of the number of newsgroups to which the article is posted. The Breidbart Index is the sum of the square roots of all of the posts in the spam. For example, one article posted to nine newsgroups and again to sixteen would have BI = sqrt(9) + sqrt(16) = 7. It is generally agreed that a spam is cancelable if the Breidbart Index exceeds 20. The Breidbart Index accumulates over a 45-day window. Ten articles yesterday and ten articles today and ten articles tomorrow add up to a 30-article spam. Spam fighters will often reset the count if you can convince them that the spam was accidental and/or you have seen the error of your ways and won't repeat it. Breidbart Index can accumulate over multiple authors. For example, the Make Money Fast pyramid scheme exceeded a BI of 20 a long time ago, and is now considered cancel on sight.
+/bri:dbart ind@ks/ A measurement of the severity of spam invented by
+long-time hacker Seth Breidbart, used for programming cancelbots. The
+Breidbart Index takes into account the fact that excessive multi-posting EMP
+is worse than excessive cross-posting ECP. The Breidbart Index is computed
+as follows: For each article in a spam, take the square-root of the number
+of newsgroups to which the article is posted. The Breidbart Index is the sum
+of the square roots of all of the posts in the spam. For example, one
+article posted to nine newsgroups and again to sixteen would have BI =
+sqrt(9) + sqrt(16) = 7. It is generally agreed that a spam is cancelable if
+the Breidbart Index exceeds 20. The Breidbart Index accumulates over a
+45-day window. Ten articles yesterday and ten articles today and ten
+articles tomorrow add up to a 30-article spam. Spam fighters will often
+reset the count if you can convince them that the spam was accidental and/or
+you have seen the error of your ways and won't repeat it. Breidbart Index
+can accumulate over multiple authors. For example, the Make Money Fast
+pyramid scheme exceeded a BI of 20 a long time ago, and is now considered
+cancel on sight.
+

entries/BrokenWindows.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
 BrokenWindows
 
-n. Abusive hackerism for the crufty and elephantine X environment on Sun machines; properly called OpenWindows.
+n. Abusive hackerism for the crufty and elephantine X environment on Sun
+machines; properly called OpenWindows.
+

entries/Brooks's Law.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,15 @@
 Brooks's Law
 
-prov. Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later a result of the fact that the expected advantage from splitting development work among N programmers is O(N) (that is, proportional to N ), but the complexity and communications cost associated with coordinating and then merging their work is O(N^2) (that is, proportional to the square of N ). The quote is from Fred Brooks, a manager of IBM's OS/360 project and author of The Mythical Man-Month (Addison-Wesley, 1975, ISBN 0-201-00650-2), an excellent early book on software engineering. The myth in question has been most tersely expressed as Programmer time is fungible and Brooks established conclusively that it is not. Hackers have never forgotten his advice (though it's not the whole story; see bazaar ); too often, management still does. See also creationism , second-system effect , optimism.
+prov. Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later a result of
+the fact that the expected advantage from splitting development work among N
+programmers is O(N) (that is, proportional to N ), but the complexity and
+communications cost associated with coordinating and then merging their work
+is O(N^2) (that is, proportional to the square of N ). The quote is from
+Fred Brooks, a manager of IBM's OS/360 project and author of The Mythical
+Man-Month (Addison-Wesley, 1975, ISBN 0-201-00650-2), an excellent early
+book on software engineering. The myth in question has been most tersely
+expressed as Programmer time is fungible and Brooks established conclusively
+that it is not. Hackers have never forgotten his advice (though it's not the
+whole story; see bazaar ); too often, management still does. See also
+creationism , second-system effect , optimism.
+

entries/Bzzzt! Wrong..txt

@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
 Bzzzt! Wrong.
 
-/bzt rong/ , excl. [common; Usenet/Internet; punctuation varies] From a Robin Williams routine in the movie Dead Poets Society spoofing radio or TV quiz programs, such as Truth or Consequences , where an incorrect answer earns one a blast from the buzzer and condolences from the interlocutor. A way of expressing mock-rude disagreement, usually immediately following an included quote from another poster. The less abbreviated *Bzzzzt*, wrong, but thank you for playing is also common; capitalization and emphasis of the buzzer sound varies.
+/bzt rong/ , excl. [common; Usenet/Internet; punctuation varies] From a
+Robin Williams routine in the movie Dead Poets Society spoofing radio or TV
+quiz programs, such as Truth or Consequences , where an incorrect answer
+earns one a blast from the buzzer and condolences from the interlocutor. A
+way of expressing mock-rude disagreement, usually immediately following an
+included quote from another poster. The less abbreviated *Bzzzzt*, wrong,
+but thank you for playing is also common; capitalization and emphasis of the
+buzzer sound varies.
+

entries/C Programmer's Disease.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,15 @@
 C Programmer's Disease
 
-n. The tendency of the undisciplined C programmer to set arbitrary but supposedly generous static limits on table sizes (defined, if you're lucky, by constants in header files) rather than taking the trouble to do proper dynamic storage allocation. If an application user later needs to put 68 elements into a table of size 50, the afflicted programmer reasons that he or she can easily reset the table size to 68 (or even as much as 70, to allow for future expansion) and recompile. This gives the programmer the comfortable feeling of having made the effort to satisfy the user's (unreasonable) demands, and often affords the user multiple opportunities to explore the marvelous consequences of fandango on core. In severe cases of the disease, the programmer cannot comprehend why each fix of this kind seems only to further disgruntle the user.
+n. The tendency of the undisciplined C programmer to set arbitrary but
+supposedly generous static limits on table sizes (defined, if you're lucky,
+by constants in header files) rather than taking the trouble to do proper
+dynamic storage allocation. If an application user later needs to put 68
+elements into a table of size 50, the afflicted programmer reasons that he
+or she can easily reset the table size to 68 (or even as much as 70, to
+allow for future expansion) and recompile. This gives the programmer the
+comfortable feeling of having made the effort to satisfy the user's
+(unreasonable) demands, and often affords the user multiple opportunities to
+explore the marvelous consequences of fandango on core. In severe cases of
+the disease, the programmer cannot comprehend why each fix of this kind
+seems only to further disgruntle the user.
+

entries/C++.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,15 @@
 C++
 
-/C'pluhspluhs/ , n. Designed by Bjarne Stroustrup of AT T Bell Labs as a successor to C. Now one of the languages of choice , although many hackers still grumble that it is the successor to either Algol 68 or Ada (depending on generation), and a prime example of second-system effect. Almost anything that can be done in any language can be done in C++, but it requires a language lawyer to know what is and what is not legal the design is almost too large to hold in even hackers' heads. Much of the cruft results from C++'s attempt to be backward compatible with C. Stroustrup himself has said in his retrospective book The Design and Evolution of C++ (p. 207), Within C++, there is a much smaller and cleaner language struggling to get out. [Many hackers would now add Yes, and it's called Java ESR] Nowadays we say this of C++.
+/C'pluhspluhs/ , n. Designed by Bjarne Stroustrup of AT T Bell Labs as a
+successor to C. Now one of the languages of choice , although many hackers
+still grumble that it is the successor to either Algol 68 or Ada (depending
+on generation), and a prime example of second-system effect. Almost anything
+that can be done in any language can be done in C++, but it requires a
+language lawyer to know what is and what is not legal the design is almost
+too large to hold in even hackers' heads. Much of the cruft results from
+C++'s attempt to be backward compatible with C. Stroustrup himself has said
+in his retrospective book The Design and Evolution of C++ (p. 207), Within
+C++, there is a much smaller and cleaner language struggling to get out.
+[Many hackers would now add Yes, and it's called Java ESR] Nowadays we say
+this of C++.
+

entries/CDA.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,22 @@
 CDA
 
-/CDA/ The Communications Decency Act , passed as section 502 of a major telecommunications reform bill on February 8th, 1996 ( Black Thursday ). The CDA made it a federal crime in the USA to send a communication which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person. It also threatened with imprisonment anyone who knowingly makes accessible to minors any message that describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards, sexual or excretory activities or organs. While the CDA was sold as a measure to protect minors from the putative evils of pornography, the repressive political aims of the bill were laid bare by the Hyde amendment, which intended to outlaw discussion of abortion on the Internet. To say that this direct attack on First Amendment free-speech rights was not well received on the Internet would be putting it mildly. A firestorm of protest followed, including a February 29th 1996 mass demonstration by thousands of netters who turned their home page s black for 48 hours. Several civil-rights groups and computing/telecommunications companies mounted a constitutional challenge. The CDA was demolished by a strongly-worded decision handed down in 8th-circuit Federal court and subsequently affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court on 26 June 1997 ( White Thursday ). See also Exon.
+/CDA/ The Communications Decency Act , passed as section 502 of a major
+telecommunications reform bill on February 8th, 1996 ( Black Thursday ). The
+CDA made it a federal crime in the USA to send a communication which is
+obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse,
+threaten, or harass another person. It also threatened with imprisonment
+anyone who knowingly makes accessible to minors any message that describes,
+in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards,
+sexual or excretory activities or organs. While the CDA was sold as a
+measure to protect minors from the putative evils of pornography, the
+repressive political aims of the bill were laid bare by the Hyde amendment,
+which intended to outlaw discussion of abortion on the Internet. To say that
+this direct attack on First Amendment free-speech rights was not well
+received on the Internet would be putting it mildly. A firestorm of protest
+followed, including a February 29th 1996 mass demonstration by thousands of
+netters who turned their home page s black for 48 hours. Several
+civil-rights groups and computing/telecommunications companies mounted a
+constitutional challenge. The CDA was demolished by a strongly-worded
+decision handed down in 8th-circuit Federal court and subsequently affirmed
+by the U.S. Supreme Court on 26 June 1997 ( White Thursday ). See also Exon.
+

entries/CHOP.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 CHOP
 
 /chop/ , n. [IRC] See channel op.
+

entries/CI$.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
 CI$
 
-// , n. Hackerism for CIS , CompuServe Information Service. The dollar sign refers to CompuServe's rather steep line charges. Often used in sig block s just before a CompuServe address. Syn. Compu$erve.
+// , n. Hackerism for CIS , CompuServe Information Service. The dollar sign
+refers to CompuServe's rather steep line charges. Often used in sig block s
+just before a CompuServe address. Syn. Compu$erve.
+

entries/CLM.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 CLM
 
-/CLM/ [Sun: Career Limiting Move ] 1. n. An action endangering one's future prospects of getting plum projects and raises, and possibly one's job: His Halloween costume was a parody of his manager. He won the prize for best CLM. 2. adj.
+/CLM/ [Sun: Career Limiting Move ] 1. n. An action endangering one's future
+prospects of getting plum projects and raises, and possibly one's job: His
+Halloween costume was a parody of his manager. He won the prize for best
+CLM. 2. adj.
+

entries/COBOL fingers.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 COBOL fingers
 
-/kohbol finggrz/ , n. Reported from Sweden, a (hypothetical) disease one might get from coding in COBOL. The language requires code verbose beyond all reason (see candygrammar ); thus it is alleged that programming too much in COBOL causes one's fingers to wear down to stubs by the endless typing.
+/kohbol finggrz/ , n. Reported from Sweden, a (hypothetical) disease one
+might get from coding in COBOL. The language requires code verbose beyond
+all reason (see candygrammar ); thus it is alleged that programming too much
+in COBOL causes one's fingers to wear down to stubs by the endless typing.
+

entries/COBOL.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
 COBOL
 
-/kohbol/ , n. [COmmon Business-Oriented Language] (Synonymous with evil. ) A weak, verbose, and flabby language used by code grinder s to do boring mindless things on dinosaur mainframes. Hackers believe that all COBOL programmers are suit s or code grinder s, and no self-respecting hacker will ever admit to having learned the language. Its very name is seldom uttered without ritual expressions of disgust or horror. One popular one is Edsger W. Dijkstra's famous observation that The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense. (from Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective ) See also fear and loathing , software rot.
+/kohbol/ , n. [COmmon Business-Oriented Language] (Synonymous with evil. ) A
+weak, verbose, and flabby language used by code grinder s to do boring
+mindless things on dinosaur mainframes. Hackers believe that all COBOL
+programmers are suit s or code grinder s, and no self-respecting hacker will
+ever admit to having learned the language. Its very name is seldom uttered
+without ritual expressions of disgust or horror. One popular one is Edsger
+W. Dijkstra's famous observation that The use of COBOL cripples the mind;
+its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense. (from
+Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective ) See also fear and
+loathing , software rot.
+

entries/COME FROM.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,36 @@
 COME FROM
 
-n. A semi-mythical language construct dual to the go to ; COME FROM label would cause the referenced label to act as a sort of trapdoor, so that if the program ever reached it control would quietly and automagically be transferred to the statement following the COME FROM. COME FROM was first proposed in R. Lawrence Clark's A Linguistic Contribution to GOTO-less programming , which appeared in a 1973 Datamation issue (and was reprinted in the April 1984 issue of Communications of the ACM ). This parodied the then-raging structured programming holy wars (see considered harmful ). Mythically, some variants are the assigned COME FROM and the computed COME FROM (parodying some nasty control constructs in FORTRAN and some extended BASICs). Of course, multi-tasking (or non-determinism) could be implemented by having more than one COME FROM statement coming from the same label. In some ways the FORTRAN DO looks like a COME FROM statement. After the terminating statement number/ CONTINUE is reached, control continues at the statement following the DO. Some generous FORTRANs would allow arbitrary statements (other than CONTINUE ) for the statement, leading to examples like: DO 10 I=1,LIMIT C imagine many lines of code here, leaving the C original DO statement lost in the spaghetti... WRITE(6,10) I,FROB(I) 10 FORMAT(1X,I5,G10.4) in which the trapdoor is just after the statement labeled 10. (This is particularly surprising because the label doesn't appear to have anything to do with the flow of control at all!) While sufficiently astonishing to the unsuspecting reader, this form of COME FROM statement isn't completely general. After all, control will eventually pass to the following statement. The implementation of the general form was left to Univac FORTRAN, ca. 1975 (though a roughly similar feature existed on the IBM 7040 ten years earlier). The statement AT 100 would perform a COME FROM 100. It was intended strictly as a debugging aid, with dire consequences promised to anyone so deranged as to use it in production code. More horrible things had already been perpetrated in production languages, however; doubters need only contemplate the ALTER verb in COBOL. COME FROM was supported under its own name for the first time 15 years later, in C-INTERCAL (see INTERCAL , retrocomputing ); knowledgeable observers are still reeling from the shock.
+n. A semi-mythical language construct dual to the go to ; COME FROM label
+would cause the referenced label to act as a sort of trapdoor, so that if
+the program ever reached it control would quietly and automagically be
+transferred to the statement following the COME FROM. COME FROM was first
+proposed in R. Lawrence Clark's A Linguistic Contribution to GOTO-less
+programming , which appeared in a 1973 Datamation issue (and was reprinted
+in the April 1984 issue of Communications of the ACM ). This parodied the
+then-raging structured programming holy wars (see considered harmful ).
+Mythically, some variants are the assigned COME FROM and the computed COME
+FROM (parodying some nasty control constructs in FORTRAN and some extended
+BASICs). Of course, multi-tasking (or non-determinism) could be implemented
+by having more than one COME FROM statement coming from the same label. In
+some ways the FORTRAN DO looks like a COME FROM statement. After the
+terminating statement number/ CONTINUE is reached, control continues at the
+statement following the DO. Some generous FORTRANs would allow arbitrary
+statements (other than CONTINUE ) for the statement, leading to examples
+like: DO 10 I=1,LIMIT C imagine many lines of code here, leaving the C
+original DO statement lost in the spaghetti... WRITE(6,10) I,FROB(I) 10
+FORMAT(1X,I5,G10.4) in which the trapdoor is just after the statement
+labeled 10. (This is particularly surprising because the label doesn't
+appear to have anything to do with the flow of control at all!) While
+sufficiently astonishing to the unsuspecting reader, this form of COME FROM
+statement isn't completely general. After all, control will eventually pass
+to the following statement. The implementation of the general form was left
+to Univac FORTRAN, ca. 1975 (though a roughly similar feature existed on the
+IBM 7040 ten years earlier). The statement AT 100 would perform a COME FROM
+100. It was intended strictly as a debugging aid, with dire consequences
+promised to anyone so deranged as to use it in production code. More
+horrible things had already been perpetrated in production languages,
+however; doubters need only contemplate the ALTER verb in COBOL. COME FROM
+was supported under its own name for the first time 15 years later, in
+C-INTERCAL (see INTERCAL , retrocomputing ); knowledgeable observers are
+still reeling from the shock.
+

entries/CP-M.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,15 @@
 CP/M
 
-/CPM/ , n. [Control Program/Monitor; later retcon ned to Control Program for Microcomputers] An early microcomputer OS written by hacker Gary Kildall for 8080- and Z80-based machines, very popular in the late 1970s but virtually wiped out by MS-DOS after the release of the IBM PC in 1981. Legend has it that Kildall's company blew its chance to write the OS for the IBM PC because Kildall decided to spend a day IBM's reps wanted to meet with him enjoying the perfect flying weather in his private plane (another variant has it that Gary's wife was much more interested in packing her suitcases for an upcoming vacation than in clinching a deal with IBM). Many of CP/M's features and conventions strongly resemble those of early DEC operating systems such as TOPS-10 , OS/8, RSTS, and RSX-11. See MS-DOS , operating system.
+/CPM/ , n. [Control Program/Monitor; later retcon ned to Control Program for
+Microcomputers] An early microcomputer OS written by hacker Gary Kildall for
+8080- and Z80-based machines, very popular in the late 1970s but virtually
+wiped out by MS-DOS after the release of the IBM PC in 1981. Legend has it
+that Kildall's company blew its chance to write the OS for the IBM PC
+because Kildall decided to spend a day IBM's reps wanted to meet with him
+enjoying the perfect flying weather in his private plane (another variant
+has it that Gary's wife was much more interested in packing her suitcases
+for an upcoming vacation than in clinching a deal with IBM). Many of CP/M's
+features and conventions strongly resemble those of early DEC operating
+systems such as TOPS-10 , OS/8, RSTS, and RSX-11. See MS-DOS , operating
+system.
+

entries/CPU Wars.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,14 @@
 CPU Wars
 
-/CPU worz/ , n. A 1979 large-format comic by Chas Andres chronicling the attempts of the brainwashed androids of IPM (Impossible to Program Machines) to conquer and destroy the peaceful denizens of HEC (Human Engineered Computers). This rather transparent allegory featured many references to ADVENT and the immortal line Eat flaming death, minicomputer mongrels! (uttered, of course, by an IPM stormtrooper). The whole shebang is now available on the Web. It is alleged that the author subsequently received a letter of appreciation on IBM company stationery from the head of IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Laboratories (at that time one of the few islands of true hackerdom in the IBM archipelago). The lower loop of the B in the IBM logo, it is said, had been carefully whited out. See eat flaming death.
+/CPU worz/ , n. A 1979 large-format comic by Chas Andres chronicling the
+attempts of the brainwashed androids of IPM (Impossible to Program Machines)
+to conquer and destroy the peaceful denizens of HEC (Human Engineered
+Computers). This rather transparent allegory featured many references to
+ADVENT and the immortal line Eat flaming death, minicomputer mongrels!
+(uttered, of course, by an IPM stormtrooper). The whole shebang is now
+available on the Web. It is alleged that the author subsequently received a
+letter of appreciation on IBM company stationery from the head of IBM's
+Thomas J. Watson Research Laboratories (at that time one of the few islands
+of true hackerdom in the IBM archipelago). The lower loop of the B in the
+IBM logo, it is said, had been carefully whited out. See eat flaming death.
+

entries/CRC handbook.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,15 @@
 CRC handbook
 
-Any of the editions of the Chemical Rubber Company Handbook of Chemistry and Physics ; there are other CRC handbooks, such as the CRC Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulae , but the  is the chemistry and physics reference. It is massive tome full of mathematical tables, physical constants of thousands of alloys and chemical compounds, dielectric strengths, vapor pressure, resistivity, and the like. Hackers have remarkably little actual use for these sorts of arcana, but are such information junkies that a large percentage of them acquire copies anyway and would feel vaguely bereft if they couldn't look up the magnetic susceptibility of potassium permanganate at a moment's notice. On hackers' bookshelves, the  is rather likely to keep company with an unabridged Oxford English Dictionary and a good atlas.
+Any of the editions of the Chemical Rubber Company Handbook of Chemistry and
+Physics ; there are other CRC handbooks, such as the CRC Standard
+Mathematical Tables and Formulae , but the  is the chemistry and physics
+reference. It is massive tome full of mathematical tables, physical
+constants of thousands of alloys and chemical compounds, dielectric
+strengths, vapor pressure, resistivity, and the like. Hackers have
+remarkably little actual use for these sorts of arcana, but are such
+information junkies that a large percentage of them acquire copies anyway
+and would feel vaguely bereft if they couldn't look up the magnetic
+susceptibility of potassium permanganate at a moment's notice. On hackers'
+bookshelves, the  is rather likely to keep company with an unabridged Oxford
+English Dictionary and a good atlas.
+

entries/CTSS.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
 CTSS
 
-/CTSS/ , n. Compatible Time-Sharing System. An early (1963) experiment in the design of interactive timesharing operating systems, ancestral to Multics , Unix , and ITS. The name ITS (Incompatible Time-sharing System) was a hack on CTSS, meant both as a joke and to express some basic differences in philosophy about the way I/O services should be presented to user programs.
+/CTSS/ , n. Compatible Time-Sharing System. An early (1963) experiment in
+the design of interactive timesharing operating systems, ancestral to
+Multics , Unix , and ITS. The name ITS (Incompatible Time-sharing System)
+was a hack on CTSS, meant both as a joke and to express some basic
+differences in philosophy about the way I/O services should be presented to
+user programs.
+

entries/Camel Book.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
 Camel Book
 
-n. Universally recognized nickname for the book Programming Perl , by Larry Wall and Randal L. Schwartz, O'Reilly and Associates 1991, ISBN 0-937175-64-1 (second edition 1996, ISBN 1-56592-149-6; third edition 2000, 0-596-00027-8, adding as authors Tom Christiansen and Jon Orwant but dropping Randal Schwartz). The definitive reference on Perl.
+n. Universally recognized nickname for the book Programming Perl , by Larry
+Wall and Randal L. Schwartz, O'Reilly and Associates 1991, ISBN
+0-937175-64-1 (second edition 1996, ISBN 1-56592-149-6; third edition 2000,
+0-596-00027-8, adding as authors Tom Christiansen and Jon Orwant but
+dropping Randal Schwartz). The definitive reference on Perl.
+

entries/Cancelmoose[tm].txt

@@ -1,3 +1,18 @@
 Cancelmoose[tm]
 
-/kanselmoos/ [Usenet] The archetype and model of all good spam -fighters. Once upon a time, the 'Moose would send out spam-cancels and then post notice anonymously to news.admin.policy , news.admin.misc , and alt.current-events.net-abuse. The 'Moose stepped to the fore on its own initiative, at a time (mid-1994) when spam-cancels were irregular and disorganized, and behaved altogether admirably fair, even-handed, and quick to respond to comments and criticism, all without self-aggrandizement or martyrdom. Cancelmoose[tm] quickly gained near-unanimous support from the readership of all three above-mentioned groups. Nobody knows who Cancelmoose[tm] really is, and there aren't even any good rumors. However, the 'Moose now has an e-mail address ( moose@cm.org ) and a web site ( http://www.cm.org/. ) By early 1995, others had stepped into the spam-cancel business, and appeared to be comporting themselves well, after the 'Moose's manner. The 'Moose has now gotten out of the business, and is more interested in ending spam (and cancels) entirely.
+/kanselmoos/ [Usenet] The archetype and model of all good spam -fighters.
+Once upon a time, the 'Moose would send out spam-cancels and then post
+notice anonymously to news.admin.policy , news.admin.misc , and
+alt.current-events.net-abuse. The 'Moose stepped to the fore on its own
+initiative, at a time (mid-1994) when spam-cancels were irregular and
+disorganized, and behaved altogether admirably fair, even-handed, and quick
+to respond to comments and criticism, all without self-aggrandizement or
+martyrdom. Cancelmoose[tm] quickly gained near-unanimous support from the
+readership of all three above-mentioned groups. Nobody knows who
+Cancelmoose[tm] really is, and there aren't even any good rumors. However,
+the 'Moose now has an e-mail address ( moose@cm.org ) and a web site (
+http://www.cm.org/. ) By early 1995, others had stepped into the spam-cancel
+business, and appeared to be comporting themselves well, after the 'Moose's
+manner. The 'Moose has now gotten out of the business, and is more
+interested in ending spam (and cancels) entirely.
+

entries/Ceremonial Chemicals.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
 Ceremonial Chemicals
 
-Most hackers don't smoke tobacco, and use alcohol in moderation if at all. However, there has been something of a trend towards exotic beers since about 1995, especially among younger Linux hackers apparently influenced by Linus Torvalds's fondness for Guinness. Limited use of non-addictive psychedelic drugs, such as cannabis, LSD, psilocybin, nitrous oxide, etc., used to be relatively common and is still regarded with more tolerance than in the mainstream culture. Use of downers and opiates, on the other hand, appears to be particularly rare; hackers seem in general to dislike drugs that make them stupid. But on the gripping hand , many hackers regularly wire up on caffeine and/or sugar for all-night hacking runs.
+Most hackers don't smoke tobacco, and use alcohol in moderation if at all.
+However, there has been something of a trend towards exotic beers since
+about 1995, especially among younger Linux hackers apparently influenced by
+Linus Torvalds's fondness for Guinness. Limited use of non-addictive
+psychedelic drugs, such as cannabis, LSD, psilocybin, nitrous oxide, etc.,
+used to be relatively common and is still regarded with more tolerance than
+in the mainstream culture. Use of downers and opiates, on the other hand,
+appears to be particularly rare; hackers seem in general to dislike drugs
+that make them stupid. But on the gripping hand , many hackers regularly
+wire up on caffeine and/or sugar for all-night hacking runs.
+

entries/Chernobyl chicken.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 Chernobyl chicken
 
 n. See laser chicken.
+

entries/Chernobyl packet.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
 Chernobyl packet
 
-/chernohb@l pak'@t/ , n. A network packet that induces a broadcast storm and/or network meltdown , in memory of the April 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine. The typical scenario involves an IP Ethernet datagram that passes through a gateway with both source and destination Ether and IP address set as the respective broadcast addresses for the subnetworks being gated between. Compare Christmas tree packet.
+/chernohb@l pak'@t/ , n. A network packet that induces a broadcast storm
+and/or network meltdown , in memory of the April 1986 nuclear accident at
+Chernobyl in Ukraine. The typical scenario involves an IP Ethernet datagram
+that passes through a gateway with both source and destination Ether and IP
+address set as the respective broadcast addresses for the subnetworks being
+gated between. Compare Christmas tree packet.
+

entries/Chinese Army technique.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 Chinese Army technique
 
 n. Syn. Mongolian Hordes technique.
+

entries/Christmas tree packet.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 Christmas tree packet
 
-n. A packet with every single option set for whatever protocol is in use. See kamikaze packet , Chernobyl packet. (The term doubtless derives from a fanciful image of each little option bit being represented by a different-colored light bulb, all turned on.) Compare Godzillagram.
+n. A packet with every single option set for whatever protocol is in use.
+See kamikaze packet , Chernobyl packet. (The term doubtless derives from a
+fanciful image of each little option bit being represented by a
+different-colored light bulb, all turned on.) Compare Godzillagram.
+

entries/Christmas tree.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
 Christmas tree
 
-n. A kind of RS-232 line tester or breakout box featuring rows of blinking red and green LEDs suggestive of Christmas lights.
+n. A kind of RS-232 line tester or breakout box featuring rows of blinking
+red and green LEDs suggestive of Christmas lights.
+

entries/Church of the SubGenius.txt

@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
 Church of the SubGenius
 
-n. A mutant offshoot of Discordianism launched in 1981 as a spoof of fundamentalist Christianity by the Reverend Ivan Stang, a brilliant satirist with a gift for promotion. Popular among hackers as a rich source of bizarre imagery and references such as Bob the divine drilling-equipment salesman, the Benevolent Space Xists, and the Stark Fist of Removal. Much SubGenius theory is concerned with the acquisition of the mystical substance or quality of slack. There is a home page at http://www.subgenius.com/.
+n. A mutant offshoot of Discordianism launched in 1981 as a spoof of
+fundamentalist Christianity by the Reverend Ivan Stang, a brilliant satirist
+with a gift for promotion. Popular among hackers as a rich source of bizarre
+imagery and references such as Bob the divine drilling-equipment salesman,
+the Benevolent Space Xists, and the Stark Fist of Removal. Much SubGenius
+theory is concerned with the acquisition of the mystical substance or
+quality of slack. There is a home page at http://www.subgenius.com/.
+