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@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Free Documentation License".
* Generated
This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 10:27AM UTC
This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 12:29PM UTC
* Glossary
** (
@ -422,7 +422,7 @@ Literally, De-Militarized Zone. Figuratively, the portion of a private network t
2. Common abbrev for Dissociated Press.
*** DPer
/deepeeer/ , n. Data Processor. Hackers are absolutely amazed that suit s use this term self-referentially. Computers process data, not people! See DP. Prev Up Next DP Home Dr.
/deepeeer/ , n. Data Processor. Hackers are absolutely amazed that suits use this term self-referentially. Computers process data, not people! See DP. Prev Up Next DP Home Dr.
*** DRECNET
/dreknet/ , n. [from Yiddish/German dreck , meaning filth] Deliberate distortion of DECNET, a networking protocol used in the VMS community. So called because DEC helped write the Ethernet specification and then (either stupidly or as a malignant customer-control tactic) violated that spec in the design of DRECNET in a way that made it incompatible. See also connector conspiracy.
@ -3011,7 +3011,7 @@ n. [probably came into prominence with the appearance of the KL-10 (one model of
/konz/ , /kons/ [from LISP] 1. vt. To add a new element to a specified list, esp. at the top. OK, cons picking a replacement for the console TTY onto the agenda. 2.
*** considered harmful
adj. [very common] Edsger W. Dijkstra's note in the March 1968 Communications of the ACM , Goto Statement Considered Harmful , fired the first salvo in the structured programming wars (text at http://www.acm.org/classics/ ). As it turns out , the title under which the letter appeared was actually supplied by CACM's editor, Niklaus Wirth. Amusingly, the ACM considered the resulting acrimony sufficiently harmful that it will (by policy) no longer print an article taking so assertive a position against a coding practice. (Years afterwards, a contrary view was uttered in a CACM letter called, inevitably, Goto considered harmful considered harmful' '. In the ensuing decades, a large number of both serious papers and parodies have borne titles of the form X considered Y. The structured-programming wars eventually blew over with the realization that both sides were wrong, but use of such titles has remained as a persistent minor in-joke (the considered silly found at various places in this lexicon is related).
adj. [very common] Edsger W. Dijkstra's note in the March 1968 Communications of the ACM, Goto Statement Considered Harmful, fired the first salvo in the structured programming wars (text at http://www.acm.org/classics). As it turns out, the title under which the letter appeared was actually supplied by CACM's editor, Niklaus Wirth. Amusingly, the ACM considered the resulting acrimony sufficiently harmful that it will (by policy) no longer print an article taking so assertive a position against a coding practice. (Years afterwards, a contrary view was uttered in a CACM letter called, inevitably, Goto considered harmful considered harmful. In the ensuing decades, a large number of both serious papers and parodies have borne titles of the form X considered Y. The structured-programming wars eventually blew over with the realization that both sides were wrong, but use of such titles has remained as a persistent minor in-joke (the considered silly found at various places in this lexicon is related).
*** console
1. The operator's station of a mainframe. In times past, this was a privileged location that conveyed godlike powers to anyone with fingers on its keys. Under Unix and other modern timesharing OSes, such privileges are guarded by passwords instead, and the console is just the tty the system was booted from. Some of the mystique remains, however, and it is traditional for sysadmins to post urgent messages to all users from the console (on Unix, /dev/console).
@ -3074,7 +3074,7 @@ n. Conventional electron-carrying network cable with a core conductor of copper
n. A class of methods for preventing incompetent pirates from stealing software and legitimate customers from using it. Considered silly.
*** copybroke
1. [play on copyright ] Used to describe an instance of a copy-protected program that has been broken ; that is, a copy with the copy-protection scheme disabled. Syn. copywronged.
1. [play on copyright ] Used to describe an instance of a copy-protected program that has been broken/cracked; that is, a copy with the copy-protection scheme disabled. Syn. copywronged.
2. Copy-protected software which is unusable because of some bit-rot or bug that has confused the anti-piracy check. See also copy protection.
@ -3146,6 +3146,9 @@ n. One who breaks security on a system. Coined ca. 1985 by hackers in defense ag
*** cracking
n. [very common] The act of breaking into a computer system; what a cracker does. Contrary to widespread myth, this does not usually involve some mysterious leap of hackerly brilliance, but rather persistence and the dogged repetition of a handful of fairly well-known tricks that exploit common weaknesses in the security of target systems. Accordingly, most crackers are incompetent as hackers. This entry used to say 'mediocre', but the spread of rootkit and other automated cracking has depressed the average level of skill among crackers.
*** cracktro
Combination of "crack" and "intro". An introduction image or animation inserted at the startup of cracked proprietary software. Cracktros typically gave a shout out to the nicknames or the crackers or the cracking group, similar to graffiti tags in meatspace. The cracktros of the late 1980s on systems such as Atari ST and Commodore Amiga gave birth to the demoscene of artistic computer animation demos, and was originally a particularly European phenomena.
*** crank
vt. [from automotive slang] Verb used to describe the performance of a machine, especially sustained performance. This box cranks (or, cranks at) about 6 megaflops, with a burst mode of twice that on vectorized operations.
@ -3272,7 +3275,7 @@ n. Two binary digits; a quad. Larger than a bit , smaller than a nybble. Conside
/kripee/ , n. A cryptographer. One who hacks or implements cryptographic software or hardware.
*** cthulhic
/kthoolhik/ , adj. Having the nature of a Cthulhu, the horrific tentacled green monstrosity from H.P. Lovecraft's seminal horror fiction. Cthulhu sends dreams that drive men mad, feeds on the flesh of screaming victims rent limb from limb, and is served by a cult of degenerates. Hackers think this describes large proprietary systems such as traditional mainframe s, installations of SAP and Oracle, or rooms full of Windows servers remarkably well, and the adjective is used casually. Compare Shub-Internet and crawling horror.
/kthoolhik/ , adj. Having the nature of a Cthulhu, the horrific tentacled green monstrosity from H.P. Lovecraft's seminal horror fiction. Cthulhu sends dreams that drive men mad, feeds on the flesh of screaming victims rent limb from limb, and is served by a cult of degenerates. Hackers think this describes large proprietary systems such as traditional mainframes, installations of SAP and Oracle, or rooms full of Windows servers remarkably well, and the adjective is used casually. Compare Shub-Internet and crawling horror.
*** cube
1. [short for cubicle ] A module in the open-plan offices used at many programming shops. I've got the manuals in my cube.
@ -3345,6 +3348,15 @@ n. [common] A reference that doesn't actually lead anywhere (in C and some other
*** dark-side hacker
n. A criminal or malicious hacker; a cracker. From George Lucas's Darth Vader, seduced by the dark side of the Force. The implication that hackers form a sort of elite of technological Jedi Knights is intended. Oppose samurai.
*** data controller
In the language of data protection laws the "data controller" (DC) is the entity which stores and/or processes Personally Identifiable Information (PII) about "data subjects".
*** data protection
A system of laws intended to protect personal data from misuse by individuals or organizations. The first data protection laws were passed in the 1980s, and there have been various updates since. One of the best known data protection laws is the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into action in 2018. The effectiveness of data protection laws, though perhaps well-intended, has always been questionable and enforcement has been negligible or entirely absent despite conspicuous violations. Attempts to lawyer your way out of the problem of data misuse are less effective than using technical measures, such as client side encryption.
*** data subject
Within data protection laws the "data subject" is typically the person whose Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is being stored or processed by an organization of some type, known as the "data controller".
*** day mode
n. See phase (sense 1). Used of people only.
@ -3372,9 +3384,6 @@ n. Routines that can never be accessed because all calls to them have been remov
*** dead tree version
A paper version of a digital document. Made from dead trees.
*** dead-tree version
A paper version of an on-line document; one printed on dead trees. In this context, dead trees always refers to paper. See also tree-killer.
*** deadlock
1. [techspeak] A situation wherein two or more processes are unable to proceed because each is waiting for one of the others to do something. A common example is a program communicating to a server, which may find itself waiting for output from the server before sending anything more to it, while the server is similarly waiting for more input from the controlling program before outputting anything. (It is reported that this particular flavor of deadlock is sometimes called a starvation deadlock , though the term starvation is more properly used for situations where a program can never run simply because it never gets high enough priority. Another common flavor is constipation , in which each process is trying to send stuff to the other but all buffers are full because nobody is reading anything.) See deadly embrace.
@ -3598,7 +3607,7 @@ n. The multiple kilograms of macerated, pounded, steamed, bleached, and pressed
adj. Syn. with flaky. Preferred outside the U.S.
*** dogcow
/dogkow/ , n. See Moof. The dogcow is a semi-legendary creature that lurks in the depths of the Macintosh Technical Notes Hypercard stack V3.1. The full story of the dogcow is told in technical note #31 (the particular dogcow illustrated is properly named Clarus ). Option-shift-click will cause it to emit a characteristic Moof! or !fooM sound. Getting to tech note 31 is the hard part; to discover how to do that, one must needs examine the stack script with a hackerly eye. Clue: rot13 is involved. A dogcow also appears if you choose Page Setup... with a LaserWriter selected and click on the Options button. It also lurks in other Mac printer drivers, notably those for the now-discontinued Style Writers. See http://developer.apple.com/products/techsupport/dogcow/tn31.html.
/dogkow/ , n. See Moof. The dogcow is a semi-legendary creature that lurks in the depths of the Macintosh Technical Notes Hypercard stack V3.1. Option-shift-click will cause it to emit a characteristic Moof! or !fooM sound. Getting to tech note 31 is the hard part; to discover how to do that, one must needs examine the stack script with a hackerly eye. Clue: rot13 is involved. A dogcow also appears if you choose Page Setup... with a LaserWriter selected and click on the Options button. It also lurks in other Mac printer drivers, notably those for the now-discontinued Style Writers.
*** dogfood
n. [Microsoft, Netscape] Interim software used internally for testing. To eat one's own dogfood (from which the slang noun derives) means to use the software one is developing, as part of one's everyday development environment (the phrase is used outside Microsoft and Netscape). The practice is normal in the Linux community and elsewhere, but the term dogfood is seldom used as open-source betas tend to be quite tasty and nourishing. The idea is that developers who are using their own software will quickly learn what's missing or broken. Dogfood is typically not even of beta quality.
@ -3607,7 +3616,7 @@ n. [Microsoft, Netscape] Interim software used internally for testing. To eat on
v. [Usenet: prob. fr. mainstream puppy pile ] When many people post unfriendly responses in short order to a single posting, they are sometimes said to dogpile or dogpile on the person to whom they're responding. For example, when a religious missionary posts a simplistic appeal to alt.atheism , he can expect to be dogpiled. It has been suggested that this derives from U.S. football slang for a tackle involving three or more people; among hackers, it seems at least as likely to derive from an autobiographical Bugs Bunny cartoon in which a gang of attacking canines actually yells Dogpile on the rabbit!.
*** dogwash
/dogwosh/ [From a quip in the urgency field of a very optional software change request, ca.: 1982. It was something like Urgency: Wash your dog first. ] 1. n. A project of minimal priority, undertaken as an escape from more serious work. 2. v. To engage in such a project. Many games and much freeware get written this way.
/dogwosh/ [From a quip in the urgency field of a very optional software change request, ca.: 1982. It was something like Urgency: Wash your dog first. ] 1. n. A project of minimal priority, undertaken as an escape from more serious work. 2. v. To engage in such a project. Many games and small Free Software projects get written this way.
*** dongle
1. [now obs.] A security or copy protection device for proprietary software consisting of a serialized EPROM and some drivers in a D-25 connector shell, which must be connected to an I/O port of the computer while the program is run. Programs that use a dongle query the port at startup and at programmed intervals thereafter, and terminate if it does not respond with the dongle's programmed validation code. Thus, users can make as many copies of the program as they want but must pay for each dongle. The first sighting of a dongle was in 1984, associated with a software product called PaperClip. The idea was clever, but it was initially a failure, as users disliked tying up a serial port this way. By 1993, dongles would typically pass data through the port and monitor for magic codes (and combinations of status lines) with minimal if any interference with devices further down the line this innovation was necessary to allow daisy-chained dongles for multiple pieces of software. These devices have become rare as the industry has moved away from copy-protection schemes in general.
@ -3617,7 +3626,7 @@ v. [Usenet: prob. fr. mainstream puppy pile ] When many people post unfriendly r
3. An adaptor cable mating a special edge-type connector on a PCMCIA or on-board Ethernet card to a standard 8p8c Ethernet jack. This usage seems to have surfaced in 1999 and is now dominant. Laptop owners curse these things because they're notoriously easy to lose and the vendors commonly charge extortionate prices for replacements. [Note: in early 1992, advertising copy from Rainbow Technologies (a manufacturer of dongles) included a claim that the word derived from Don Gall , allegedly the inventor of the device. The company's receptionist will cheerfully tell you that the story is a myth invented for the ad copy. Nevertheless, I expect it to haunt my life as a lexicographer for at least the next ten years.
*** dongle-disk
/dongl disk/ , n. A special floppy disk that is required in order to perform some task. Some contain special coding that allows an application to identify it uniquely, others are special code that does something that normally-resident programs don't or can't. (For example, AT T's Unix PC would only come up in root mode with a special boot disk.) Also called a key disk. See dongle.
/dongl disk/ , n. A special floppy disk that is required in order to perform some task. Some contain special coding that allows an application to identify it uniquely, others are special code that does something that normally-resident programs don't or can't. (For example, AT&T's Unix PC would only come up in root mode with a special boot disk.) Also called a key disk. See dongle.
*** doorstop
n. Used to describe equipment that is non-functional and halfway expected to remain so, especially obsolete equipment kept around for political reasons or ostensibly as a backup. Compare boat anchor.
@ -3626,7 +3635,7 @@ n. Used to describe equipment that is non-functional and halfway expected to rem
n. A file that is not visible by default to normal directory-browsing tools (on Unix, files named with a leading dot are, by convention, not normally presented in directory listings). Many programs define one or more dot files in which startup or configuration information may be optionally recorded; a user can customize the program's behavior by creating the appropriate file in the current or home directory. (Therefore, dot files tend to creep with every nontrivial application program defining at least one, a user's home directory can be filled with scores of dot files, of course without the user's really being aware of it.) See also profile (sense 1), rc file.
*** double bucky
adj. Using both the CTRL and META keys. The command to burn all LEDs is double bucky F. This term originated on the Stanford extended-ASCII keyboard, and was later taken up by users of the space-cadet keyboard at MIT. A typical MIT comment was that the Stanford bucky bits (control and meta shifting keys) were nice, but there weren't enough of them; you could type only 512 different characters on a Stanford keyboard. An obvious way to address this was simply to add more shifting keys, and this was eventually done; but a keyboard with that many shifting keys is hard on touch-typists, who don't like to move their hands away from the home position on the keyboard. It was half-seriously suggested that the extra shifting keys be implemented as pedals; typing on such a keyboard would be very much like playing a full pipe organ. This idea is mentioned in a parody of a very fine song by Jeffrey Moss called Rubber Duckie , which was published in The Sesame Street Songbook (Simon and Schuster 1971, ISBN 0-671-21036-X). These lyrics were written on May 27, 1978, in celebration of the Stanford keyboard: DoubleBucky Doublebucky,you'retheone! Youmakemykeyboardlotsoffun. Doublebucky,anadditionalbitortwo: (Vo-vo-de-o!) Controlandmeta,sidebyside, AugmentedASCII,ninebitswide! Doublebucky!Halfathousandglyphs,plusafew! Oh, IsurewishthatI Hadacoupleof Bitsmore! Perhapsa Setofpedalsto Makethenumberof Bitsfour: Doubledoublebucky! Doublebucky,leftandright OR'dtogether,outtasight! Doublebucky,I'dlikeawholewordof Doublebucky,I'mhappyIheardof Doublebucky,I'dlikeawholewordofyou! TheGreatQuux(withapologiestoJeffreyMoss) [This, by the way, is an excellent example of computer filk ESR] See also meta bit , cokebottle , and quadruple bucky.
adj. Using both the CTRL and META keys. The command to burn all LEDs is double bucky F. This term originated on the Stanford extended-ASCII keyboard, and was later taken up by users of the space-cadet keyboard at MIT. A typical MIT comment was that the Stanford bucky bits (control and meta shifting keys) were nice, but there weren't enough of them; you could type only 512 different characters on a Stanford keyboard. An obvious way to address this was simply to add more shifting keys, and this was eventually done; but a keyboard with that many shifting keys is hard on touch-typists, who don't like to move their hands away from the home position on the keyboard. It was half-seriously suggested that the extra shifting keys be implemented as pedals; typing on such a keyboard would be very much like playing a full pipe organ. This idea is mentioned in a parody of a very fine song by Jeffrey Moss called Rubber Duckie , which was published in The Sesame Street Songbook (Simon and Schuster 1971, ISBN 0-671-21036-X). These lyrics were written on May 27, 1978, in celebration of the Stanford keyboard: DoubleBucky Doublebucky,you'retheone! Youmakemykeyboardlotsoffun. Doublebucky,anadditionalbitortwo: (Vo-vo-de-o!) Controlandmeta,sidebyside, AugmentedASCII,ninebitswide! Doublebucky!Halfathousandglyphs,plusafew! Oh, IsurewishthatI Hadacoupleof Bitsmore! Perhapsa Setofpedalsto Makethenumberof Bitsfour: Doubledoublebucky! Doublebucky,leftandright OR'dtogether,outtasight! Doublebucky,I'dlikeawholewordof Doublebucky,I'mhappyIheardof Doublebucky,I'dlikeawholewordofyou! TheGreatQuux(withapologiestoJeffreyMoss) See also meta bit, cokebottle, and quadruple bucky.
*** doubled sig
n. A sig block that has been included twice in a Usenet article or, less commonly, in an electronic mail message. An article or message with a doubled sig can be caused by improperly configured software. More often, however, it reveals the author's lack of experience in electronic communication. See B1FF , pseudo.
@ -6374,6 +6383,9 @@ A system which permits a single human user to manage and control multiple semi-a
*** personal surveillance device
Alternative name for a mobile phone, due to their extensive personal data collection and exfiltration capabilities.
*** personally identifiable information
Within data protection laws Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is the data about people which is being stored or processed by an organization.
*** pessimal
/pesiml/ , adj. [Latin-based antonym for optimal ] Maximally bad. This is a pessimal situation. Also pessimize vt. To make as bad as possible. These words are the obvious Latin-based antonyms for optimal and optimize , but for some reason they do not appear in most English dictionaries, although pessimize is listed in the OED.

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@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Free Documentation License".
</p>
<H2>Generated</H2>
<p>
This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 10:27AM UTC
This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 12:29PM UTC
</p>
<H2>Glossary</H2>
@ -523,7 +523,7 @@ This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 10:27AM UTC
<p>2. Common abbrev for Dissociated Press.</p>
<H4>DPer</H4>
<p>
/deepeeer/ , n. Data Processor. Hackers are absolutely amazed that suit s use this term self-referentially. Computers process data, not people! See DP. Prev Up Next DP Home Dr.
/deepeeer/ , n. Data Processor. Hackers are absolutely amazed that suits use this term self-referentially. Computers process data, not people! See DP. Prev Up Next DP Home Dr.
</p>
<H4>DRECNET</H4>
<p>
@ -3591,7 +3591,7 @@ This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 10:27AM UTC
</p>
<H4>considered harmful</H4>
<p>
adj. [very common] Edsger W. Dijkstra's note in the March 1968 Communications of the ACM , Goto Statement Considered Harmful , fired the first salvo in the structured programming wars (text at http://www.acm.org/classics/ ). As it turns out , the title under which the letter appeared was actually supplied by CACM's editor, Niklaus Wirth. Amusingly, the ACM considered the resulting acrimony sufficiently harmful that it will (by policy) no longer print an article taking so assertive a position against a coding practice. (Years afterwards, a contrary view was uttered in a CACM letter called, inevitably, Goto considered harmful considered harmful' '. In the ensuing decades, a large number of both serious papers and parodies have borne titles of the form X considered Y. The structured-programming wars eventually blew over with the realization that both sides were wrong, but use of such titles has remained as a persistent minor in-joke (the considered silly found at various places in this lexicon is related).
adj. [very common] Edsger W. Dijkstra's note in the March 1968 Communications of the ACM, Goto Statement Considered Harmful, fired the first salvo in the structured programming wars (text at http://www.acm.org/classics). As it turns out, the title under which the letter appeared was actually supplied by CACM's editor, Niklaus Wirth. Amusingly, the ACM considered the resulting acrimony sufficiently harmful that it will (by policy) no longer print an article taking so assertive a position against a coding practice. (Years afterwards, a contrary view was uttered in a CACM letter called, inevitably, Goto considered harmful considered harmful. In the ensuing decades, a large number of both serious papers and parodies have borne titles of the form X considered Y. The structured-programming wars eventually blew over with the realization that both sides were wrong, but use of such titles has remained as a persistent minor in-joke (the considered silly found at various places in this lexicon is related).
</p>
<H4>console</H4>
<p>1. The operator's station of a mainframe. In times past, this was a privileged location that conveyed godlike powers to anyone with fingers on its keys. Under Unix and other modern timesharing OSes, such privileges are guarded by passwords instead, and the console is just the tty the system was booted from. Some of the mystique remains, however, and it is traditional for sysadmins to post urgent messages to all users from the console (on Unix, /dev/console). </p>
@ -3666,7 +3666,7 @@ This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 10:27AM UTC
n. A class of methods for preventing incompetent pirates from stealing software and legitimate customers from using it. Considered silly.
</p>
<H4>copybroke</H4>
<p>1. [play on copyright ] Used to describe an instance of a copy-protected program that has been broken ; that is, a copy with the copy-protection scheme disabled. Syn. copywronged. </p>
<p>1. [play on copyright ] Used to describe an instance of a copy-protected program that has been broken/cracked; that is, a copy with the copy-protection scheme disabled. Syn. copywronged. </p>
<p>2. Copy-protected software which is unusable because of some bit-rot or bug that has confused the anti-piracy check. See also copy protection.</p>
<H4>copycenter</H4>
@ -3749,6 +3749,10 @@ This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 10:27AM UTC
<p>
n. [very common] The act of breaking into a computer system; what a cracker does. Contrary to widespread myth, this does not usually involve some mysterious leap of hackerly brilliance, but rather persistence and the dogged repetition of a handful of fairly well-known tricks that exploit common weaknesses in the security of target systems. Accordingly, most crackers are incompetent as hackers. This entry used to say 'mediocre', but the spread of rootkit and other automated cracking has depressed the average level of skill among crackers.
</p>
<H4>cracktro</H4>
<p>
Combination of "crack" and "intro". An introduction image or animation inserted at the startup of cracked proprietary software. Cracktros typically gave a shout out to the nicknames or the crackers or the cracking group, similar to graffiti tags in meatspace. The cracktros of the late 1980s on systems such as Atari ST and Commodore Amiga gave birth to the demoscene of artistic computer animation demos, and was originally a particularly European phenomena.
</p>
<H4>crank</H4>
<p>
vt. [from automotive slang] Verb used to describe the performance of a machine, especially sustained performance. This box cranks (or, cranks at) about 6 megaflops, with a burst mode of twice that on vectorized operations.
@ -3889,7 +3893,7 @@ This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 10:27AM UTC
</p>
<H4>cthulhic</H4>
<p>
/kthoolhik/ , adj. Having the nature of a Cthulhu, the horrific tentacled green monstrosity from H.P. Lovecraft's seminal horror fiction. Cthulhu sends dreams that drive men mad, feeds on the flesh of screaming victims rent limb from limb, and is served by a cult of degenerates. Hackers think this describes large proprietary systems such as traditional mainframe s, installations of SAP and Oracle, or rooms full of Windows servers remarkably well, and the adjective is used casually. Compare Shub-Internet and crawling horror.
/kthoolhik/ , adj. Having the nature of a Cthulhu, the horrific tentacled green monstrosity from H.P. Lovecraft's seminal horror fiction. Cthulhu sends dreams that drive men mad, feeds on the flesh of screaming victims rent limb from limb, and is served by a cult of degenerates. Hackers think this describes large proprietary systems such as traditional mainframes, installations of SAP and Oracle, or rooms full of Windows servers remarkably well, and the adjective is used casually. Compare Shub-Internet and crawling horror.
</p>
<H4>cube</H4>
<p>1. [short for cubicle ] A module in the open-plan offices used at many programming shops. I've got the manuals in my cube. </p>
@ -3970,6 +3974,18 @@ This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 10:27AM UTC
<p>
n. A criminal or malicious hacker; a cracker. From George Lucas's Darth Vader, seduced by the dark side of the Force. The implication that hackers form a sort of elite of technological Jedi Knights is intended. Oppose samurai.
</p>
<H4>data controller</H4>
<p>
In the language of data protection laws the "data controller" (DC) is the entity which stores and/or processes Personally Identifiable Information (PII) about "data subjects".
</p>
<H4>data protection</H4>
<p>
A system of laws intended to protect personal data from misuse by individuals or organizations. The first data protection laws were passed in the 1980s, and there have been various updates since. One of the best known data protection laws is the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into action in 2018. The effectiveness of data protection laws, though perhaps well-intended, has always been questionable and enforcement has been negligible or entirely absent despite conspicuous violations. Attempts to lawyer your way out of the problem of data misuse are less effective than using technical measures, such as client side encryption.
</p>
<H4>data subject</H4>
<p>
Within data protection laws the "data subject" is typically the person whose Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is being stored or processed by an organization of some type, known as the "data controller".
</p>
<H4>day mode</H4>
<p>
n. See phase (sense 1). Used of people only.
@ -4000,10 +4016,6 @@ This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 10:27AM UTC
<p>
A paper version of a digital document. Made from dead trees.
</p>
<H4>dead-tree version</H4>
<p>
A paper version of an on-line document; one printed on dead trees. In this context, dead trees always refers to paper. See also tree-killer.
</p>
<H4>deadlock</H4>
<p>1. [techspeak] A situation wherein two or more processes are unable to proceed because each is waiting for one of the others to do something. A common example is a program communicating to a server, which may find itself waiting for output from the server before sending anything more to it, while the server is similarly waiting for more input from the controlling program before outputting anything. (It is reported that this particular flavor of deadlock is sometimes called a starvation deadlock , though the term starvation is more properly used for situations where a program can never run simply because it never gets high enough priority. Another common flavor is constipation , in which each process is trying to send stuff to the other but all buffers are full because nobody is reading anything.) See deadly embrace. </p>
@ -4262,7 +4274,7 @@ This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 10:27AM UTC
</p>
<H4>dogcow</H4>
<p>
/dogkow/ , n. See Moof. The dogcow is a semi-legendary creature that lurks in the depths of the Macintosh Technical Notes Hypercard stack V3.1. The full story of the dogcow is told in technical note #31 (the particular dogcow illustrated is properly named Clarus ). Option-shift-click will cause it to emit a characteristic Moof! or !fooM sound. Getting to tech note 31 is the hard part; to discover how to do that, one must needs examine the stack script with a hackerly eye. Clue: rot13 is involved. A dogcow also appears if you choose Page Setup... with a LaserWriter selected and click on the Options button. It also lurks in other Mac printer drivers, notably those for the now-discontinued Style Writers. See http://developer.apple.com/products/techsupport/dogcow/tn31.html.
/dogkow/ , n. See Moof. The dogcow is a semi-legendary creature that lurks in the depths of the Macintosh Technical Notes Hypercard stack V3.1. Option-shift-click will cause it to emit a characteristic Moof! or !fooM sound. Getting to tech note 31 is the hard part; to discover how to do that, one must needs examine the stack script with a hackerly eye. Clue: rot13 is involved. A dogcow also appears if you choose Page Setup... with a LaserWriter selected and click on the Options button. It also lurks in other Mac printer drivers, notably those for the now-discontinued Style Writers.
</p>
<H4>dogfood</H4>
<p>
@ -4274,7 +4286,7 @@ This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 10:27AM UTC
</p>
<H4>dogwash</H4>
<p>
/dogwosh/ [From a quip in the urgency field of a very optional software change request, ca.: 1982. It was something like Urgency: Wash your dog first. ] 1. n. A project of minimal priority, undertaken as an escape from more serious work. 2. v. To engage in such a project. Many games and much freeware get written this way.
/dogwosh/ [From a quip in the urgency field of a very optional software change request, ca.: 1982. It was something like Urgency: Wash your dog first. ] 1. n. A project of minimal priority, undertaken as an escape from more serious work. 2. v. To engage in such a project. Many games and small Free Software projects get written this way.
</p>
<H4>dongle</H4>
<p>1. [now obs.] A security or copy protection device for proprietary software consisting of a serialized EPROM and some drivers in a D-25 connector shell, which must be connected to an I/O port of the computer while the program is run. Programs that use a dongle query the port at startup and at programmed intervals thereafter, and terminate if it does not respond with the dongle's programmed validation code. Thus, users can make as many copies of the program as they want but must pay for each dongle. The first sighting of a dongle was in 1984, associated with a software product called PaperClip. The idea was clever, but it was initially a failure, as users disliked tying up a serial port this way. By 1993, dongles would typically pass data through the port and monitor for magic codes (and combinations of status lines) with minimal if any interference with devices further down the line this innovation was necessary to allow daisy-chained dongles for multiple pieces of software. These devices have become rare as the industry has moved away from copy-protection schemes in general. </p>
@ -4284,7 +4296,7 @@ This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 10:27AM UTC
<p>3. An adaptor cable mating a special edge-type connector on a PCMCIA or on-board Ethernet card to a standard 8p8c Ethernet jack. This usage seems to have surfaced in 1999 and is now dominant. Laptop owners curse these things because they're notoriously easy to lose and the vendors commonly charge extortionate prices for replacements. [Note: in early 1992, advertising copy from Rainbow Technologies (a manufacturer of dongles) included a claim that the word derived from Don Gall , allegedly the inventor of the device. The company's receptionist will cheerfully tell you that the story is a myth invented for the ad copy. Nevertheless, I expect it to haunt my life as a lexicographer for at least the next ten years.</p>
<H4>dongle-disk</H4>
<p>
/dongl disk/ , n. A special floppy disk that is required in order to perform some task. Some contain special coding that allows an application to identify it uniquely, others are special code that does something that normally-resident programs don't or can't. (For example, AT T's Unix PC would only come up in root mode with a special boot disk.) Also called a key disk. See dongle.
/dongl disk/ , n. A special floppy disk that is required in order to perform some task. Some contain special coding that allows an application to identify it uniquely, others are special code that does something that normally-resident programs don't or can't. (For example, AT&T's Unix PC would only come up in root mode with a special boot disk.) Also called a key disk. See dongle.
</p>
<H4>doorstop</H4>
<p>
@ -4296,7 +4308,7 @@ This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 10:27AM UTC
</p>
<H4>double bucky</H4>
<p>
adj. Using both the CTRL and META keys. The command to burn all LEDs is double bucky F. This term originated on the Stanford extended-ASCII keyboard, and was later taken up by users of the space-cadet keyboard at MIT. A typical MIT comment was that the Stanford bucky bits (control and meta shifting keys) were nice, but there weren't enough of them; you could type only 512 different characters on a Stanford keyboard. An obvious way to address this was simply to add more shifting keys, and this was eventually done; but a keyboard with that many shifting keys is hard on touch-typists, who don't like to move their hands away from the home position on the keyboard. It was half-seriously suggested that the extra shifting keys be implemented as pedals; typing on such a keyboard would be very much like playing a full pipe organ. This idea is mentioned in a parody of a very fine song by Jeffrey Moss called Rubber Duckie , which was published in The Sesame Street Songbook (Simon and Schuster 1971, ISBN 0-671-21036-X). These lyrics were written on May 27, 1978, in celebration of the Stanford keyboard: DoubleBucky Doublebucky,you'retheone! Youmakemykeyboardlotsoffun. Doublebucky,anadditionalbitortwo: (Vo-vo-de-o!) Controlandmeta,sidebyside, AugmentedASCII,ninebitswide! Doublebucky!Halfathousandglyphs,plusafew! Oh, IsurewishthatI Hadacoupleof Bitsmore! Perhapsa Setofpedalsto Makethenumberof Bitsfour: Doubledoublebucky! Doublebucky,leftandright OR'dtogether,outtasight! Doublebucky,I'dlikeawholewordof Doublebucky,I'mhappyIheardof Doublebucky,I'dlikeawholewordofyou! TheGreatQuux(withapologiestoJeffreyMoss) [This, by the way, is an excellent example of computer filk ESR] See also meta bit , cokebottle , and quadruple bucky.
adj. Using both the CTRL and META keys. The command to burn all LEDs is double bucky F. This term originated on the Stanford extended-ASCII keyboard, and was later taken up by users of the space-cadet keyboard at MIT. A typical MIT comment was that the Stanford bucky bits (control and meta shifting keys) were nice, but there weren't enough of them; you could type only 512 different characters on a Stanford keyboard. An obvious way to address this was simply to add more shifting keys, and this was eventually done; but a keyboard with that many shifting keys is hard on touch-typists, who don't like to move their hands away from the home position on the keyboard. It was half-seriously suggested that the extra shifting keys be implemented as pedals; typing on such a keyboard would be very much like playing a full pipe organ. This idea is mentioned in a parody of a very fine song by Jeffrey Moss called Rubber Duckie , which was published in The Sesame Street Songbook (Simon and Schuster 1971, ISBN 0-671-21036-X). These lyrics were written on May 27, 1978, in celebration of the Stanford keyboard: DoubleBucky Doublebucky,you'retheone! Youmakemykeyboardlotsoffun. Doublebucky,anadditionalbitortwo: (Vo-vo-de-o!) Controlandmeta,sidebyside, AugmentedASCII,ninebitswide! Doublebucky!Halfathousandglyphs,plusafew! Oh, IsurewishthatI Hadacoupleof Bitsmore! Perhapsa Setofpedalsto Makethenumberof Bitsfour: Doubledoublebucky! Doublebucky,leftandright OR'dtogether,outtasight! Doublebucky,I'dlikeawholewordof Doublebucky,I'mhappyIheardof Doublebucky,I'dlikeawholewordofyou! TheGreatQuux(withapologiestoJeffreyMoss) See also meta bit, cokebottle, and quadruple bucky.
</p>
<H4>doubled sig</H4>
<p>
@ -7464,6 +7476,10 @@ This file last generated Monday, 15 October 2018 10:27AM UTC
<p>
Alternative name for a mobile phone, due to their extensive personal data collection and exfiltration capabilities.
</p>
<H4>personally identifiable information</H4>
<p>
Within data protection laws Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is the data about people which is being stored or processed by an organization.
</p>
<H4>pessimal</H4>
<p>
/pesiml/ , adj. [Latin-based antonym for optimal ] Maximally bad. This is a pessimal situation. Also pessimize vt. To make as bad as possible. These words are the obvious Latin-based antonyms for optimal and optimize , but for some reason they do not appear in most English dictionaries, although pessimize is listed in the OED.