JargonFile/entries/cybercrud.txt
2014-04-26 15:52:28 +01:00

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cybercrud
/si:berkruhd/ , n. 1. [coined by Ted Nelson] Obfuscatory tech-talk. Verbiage with a high MEGO factor. The computer equivalent of bureaucratese. 2. Incomprehensible stuff embedded in email. First there were the Received headers that show how mail flows through systems, then MIME (Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions) headers and part boundaries, and now huge blocks of radix-64 for PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail) or PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) digital signatures and certificates of authenticity. This stuff all serves a purpose and good user interfaces should hide it, but all too often users are forced to wade through it.