Chapter V: Rare: book (12)

:pico-: [SI: a quantifier
meaning * 10^-12]
pref. Smaller than {nano-}; used in the same rather loose
connotative way as {nano-} and {micro-}. This usage is not yet
common in the way {nano-} and {micro-} are, but should be
instantly recognizable to any hacker. See also {{quantifiers}},
{micro-}.

:pig, run like a: v. To run very slowly on given hardware, said of
software. Distinct from {hog}.

:pilot error: [Sun: from aviation] n. A user's misconfiguration or
misuse of a piece of software, producing apparently buglike results
(compare {UBD}). "Joe Luser reported a bug in sendmail that
causes it to generate bogus headers." "That's not a bug, that's
pilot error. His `sendmail.cf' is hosed."

:ping: [from the TCP/IP acronym `Packet INternet Groper', prob.
originally contrived to match the submariners' term for a sonar
pulse] 1. n. Slang term for a small network message (ICMP ECHO)
sent by a computer to check for the presence and aliveness of
another. Occasionally used as a phone greeting. See {ACK},
also {ENQ}. 2. vt. To verify the presence of. 3. vt. To get
the attention of. From the UNIX command `ping(1)' that sends
an ICMP ECHO packet to another host. 4. vt. To send a message to
all members of a {mailing list} requesting an {ACK} (in order
to verify that everybody's addresses are reachable). "We haven't
heard much of anything from Geoff, but he did respond with an ACK
both times I pinged jargon-friends." 5. n. A quantum packet of
happiness. People who are very happy tend to exude pings;
furthermore, one can intentionally create pings and aim them at a
needy party (e.g. a depressed person). This sense of ping may
appear as an exclamation; "Ping!" (I'm happy; I am emitting a
quantum of happiness; I have been struck by a quantum of
happiness). The form "pingfulness", which is used to describe
people who exude pings, also occurs. (In the standard abuse of
language, "pingfulness" can also be used as an exclamation, in
which case it's a much stronger exclamation than just "ping"!).
Oppose {blargh}.

The funniest use of `ping' to date was described in January 1991 by
Steve Hayman on the USENET group comp.sys.next. He was trying
to isolate a faulty cable segment on a TCP/IP Ethernet hooked up to
a NeXT machine, and got tired of having to run back to his console
after each cabling tweak to see if the ping packets were getting
through. So he used the sound-recording feature on the NeXT, then
wrote a script that repeatedly invoked `ping(8)', listened for
an echo, and played back the recording on each returned packet.
Result? A program that caused the machine to repeat, over and
over, "Ping ... ping ... ping ..." as long as the
network was up. He turned the volume to maximum, ferreted through
the building with one ear cocked, and found a faulty tee connector
in no time.

:Pink-Shirt Book: `The Peter Norton Programmer's Guide to the IBM
PC'. The original cover featured a picture of Peter Norton with a
silly smirk on his face, wearing a pink shirt. Perhaps in
recognition of this usage, the current edition has a different
picture of Norton wearing a pink shirt. See also {{book titles}}.

:PIP: /pip/ [Peripheral Interchange Program] vt.,obs. To copy;
from the program PIP on CP/M, RSX-11, RSTS/E, TOPS-10, and OS/8
(derived from a utility on the PDP-6) that was used for file
copying (and in OS/8 and RT-11 for just about every other file
operation you might want to do). It is said that when the program
was originated, during the development of the PDP-6 in 1963, it was
called ATLATL (`Anything, Lord, to Anything, Lord'; this played on
the Nahuatl word `atlatl' for a spear-thrower, with connotations
of utility and primitivity that were no doubt quite intentional).

:pistol: [IBM] n. A tool that makes it all too easy for you to
shoot yourself in the foot. "UNIX `rm *' makes such a nice
pistol!"

:pizza box: [Sun] n. The largish thin box housing the electronics
in (especially Sun) desktop workstations, so named because of its
size and shape and the dimpled pattern that looks like air holes.

Two meg single-platter removable disk packs used to be called
pizzas, and the huge drive they were stuck into was referred to as
a pizza oven. It's an index of progress that in the old days just
the disk was pizza-sized, while now the entire computer is.

:pizza, ANSI standard: /an'see stan'd*rd peet'z*/ [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 {tea, ISO
standard cup of}.

:plaid screen: [XEROX PARC] n. A `special effect' which occurs
when certain kinds of {memory smash}es overwrite the control
blocks or image memory of a bit-mapped display. The term "salt &
pepper" may refer to a different pattern of similar origin.
Though the term as coined at PARC refers to the result of an error,
some of the {X} demos induce plaid-screen effects deliberately
as a {display hack}.

:plain-ASCII: /playn-as'kee/ Syn. {flat-ASCII}.

:plan file: [UNIX] n. On systems that support {finger}, the
`.plan' file in a user's home directory is displayed when the user
is fingered. This feature was originally intended to be used to
keep potential fingerers apprised of one's location and near-future
plans, but has been turned almost universally to humorous and
self-expressive purposes (like a {sig block}). See {Hacking X
for Y}.

:platinum-iridium: adj. Standard, against which all others of the
same category are measured. Usage: silly. The notion is that one
of whatever it is has actually been cast in platinum-iridium alloy
and placed in the vault beside the Standard Kilogram at the
International Bureau of Weights and Measures near Paris. (From
1889 to 1960, the meter was defined to be the distance between two
scratches in a platinum-iridium bar kept in that vault --- this
replaced an earlier definition as 10^(-7) times the distance
between the North Pole and the Equator along a meridian through
Paris; unfortunately, this had been based on an inexact value of
the circumference of the Earth. From 1960 to 1984 it was defined
to be 1650763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red line of krypton-86
propagating in a vacuum. It is now defined as the length of the
path traveled by light in a vacuum in the time interval of
1/299,792,458 of a second. The kilogram is now the only unit of
measure officially defined in terms of a unique artifact.) "This
garbage-collection algorithm has been tested against the
platinum-iridium cons cell in Paris." Compare {golden}.

:playpen: [IBM] n. A room where programmers work. Compare {salt
mines}.

:playte: /playt/ 16 bits, by analogy with {nybble} and
{{byte}}. Usage: rare and extremely silly. See also {dynner}
and {crumb}.

:plingnet: /pling'net/ n. Syn. {UUCPNET}. Also see
{{Commonwealth Hackish}}, which uses `pling' for {bang} (as in
{bang path}).

:plokta: /plok't*/ [Acronym for `Press Lots Of Keys To Abort']
v. To press random keys in an attempt to get some response from
the system. One might plokta when the abort procedure for a
program is not known, or when trying to figure out if the system is
just sluggish or really hung. Plokta can also be used while trying
to figure out any unknown key sequence for a particular operation.
Someone going into `plokta mode' usually places both hands flat
on the keyboard and presses down, hoping for some useful
response.

A slightly more diected form of plokta can often be seen in mail
messages or USENET articles from new users -- the text might end
with

q
quit
:q
^C
end
x
exit
ZZ
^D
?
help

as the user vainly tries to find the right exit sequence, with the
incorrect tries piling up at the end of the message....

:plonk: [USENET: possibly influenced by British slang `plonk' for
cheap booze] The sound a {newbie} makes as he falls to the bottom
of a {kill file}. Used almost exclusively in the {newsgroup}
talk.bizarre, this term (usually written "*plonk*") is a
form of public ridicule.

:plugh: /ploogh/ [from the {ADVENT} game] v. See {xyzzy}.

:plumbing: [UNIX] n. Term used for {shell} code, so called
because of the prevalence of `pipelines' that feed the output of
one program to the input of another. Under UNIX, user utilities
can often be implemented or at least prototyped by a suitable
collection of pipelines and temp-file grinding encapsulated in a
shell script; this is much less effort than writing C every time,
and the capability is considered one of UNIX's major winning
features. A few other OSs such as IBM's VM/CMS support similar
facilities. Esp. used in the construction `hairy plumbing'
(see {hairy}). "You can kluge together a basic spell-checker
out of `sort(1)', `comm(1)', and `tr(1)' with a
little plumbing." See also {tee}.

:PM: /P-M/ 1. v. (from `preventive maintenance') To bring
down a machine for inspection or test purposes; see {scratch
monkey}. 2. n. Abbrev. for `Presentation Manager', an
{elephantine} OS/2 graphical user interface. See also
{provocative maintenance}.

:pnambic: /p*-nam'bik/ [Acronym from the scene in the film
version of `The Wizard of Oz' in which the true nature of the
wizard is first discovered: "Pay no attention to the man behind
the curtain."] 1. A stage of development of a process or function
that, owing to incomplete implementation or to the complexity of
the system, requires human interaction to simulate or replace some
or all of the actions, inputs, or outputs of the process or
function. 2. Of or pertaining to a process or function whose
apparent operations are wholly or partially falsified.
3. Requiring {prestidigitization}.

The ultimate pnambic product was "Dan Bricklin's Demo", a program
which supported flashy user-interface design prototyping. There is
a related maxim among hackers: "Any sufficiently advanced
technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo." See
{magic}, sense 1, for illumination of this point.

:pod: [allegedly from abbreviation POD for `Prince Of Darkness'] n. A
Diablo 630 (or, latterly, any letter-quality impact printer). From
the DEC-10 PODTYPE program used to feed formatted text to it.
See also {P.O.D.}

:point-and-drool interface: n. Parody of the techspeak term
`point-and-shoot interface', describing a windows, icons, and
mice-based interface such as is found on the Macintosh. The
implication, of course, is that such an interface is only suitable
for idiots. See {for the rest of us}, {WIMP environment},
{Macintrash}, {drool-proof paper}. Also `point-and-grunt
interface'.

:poke: n.,vt. See {peek}.

:poll: v.,n. 1. [techspeak] The action of checking the status of an
input line, sensor, or memory location to see if a particular
external event has been registered. 2. To repeatedly call or check
with someone: "I keep polling him, but he's not answering his
phone; he must be swapped out." 3. To ask. "Lunch? I poll for
a takeout order daily."

:polygon pusher: n. A chip designer who spends most of his or her
time at the physical layout level (which requires drawing
*lots* of multi-colored polygons). Also `rectangle
slinger'.

:POM: /P-O-M/ n. Common abbreviation for {phase of the moon}. Usage:
usually in the phrase `POM-dependent', which means {flaky}.

:pop: [from the operation that removes the top of a stack, and the
fact that procedure return addresses are saved on the stack] (also
capitalized `POP' /pop/) 1. vt. To remove something from a
{stack} or {pdl}. If a person says he/she has popped
something from his stack, that means he/she has finally finished
working on it and can now remove it from the list of things hanging
overhead. 2. When a discussion gets to too deep a level of detail
so that the main point of the discussion is being lost, someone
will shout "Pop!", meaning "Get back up to a higher level!"
The shout is frequently accompanied by an upthrust arm with a
finger pointing to the ceiling.

:POPJ: /pop'J/ [from a {PDP-10} return-from-subroutine
instruction] n.,v. To return from a digression. By verb doubling,
"Popj, popj" means roughly "Now let's see, where were we?"
See {RTI}.

:posing: n. On a {MUD}, the use of `:' or an equivalent
command to announce to other players that one is taking a certain
physical action that has no effect on the game (it may, however,
serve as a social signal or propaganda device that induces other
people to take game actions). For example, if one's character name
is Firechild, one might type `: looks delighted at the idea and
begins hacking on the nearest terminal' to broadcast a message that
says "Firechild looks delighted at the idea and begins hacking on
the nearest terminal". See {RL}.

:post: v. To send a message to a {mailing list} or {newsgroup}.
Distinguished in context from `mail'; one might ask, for
example: "Are you going to post the patch or mail it to known
users?"

:postcardware: n. {Shareware} that borders on {freeware}, in that the
author requests only that satisfied users send a postcard of their
home town or something. (This practice, silly as it might seem,
serves to remind users that they are otherwise getting something for
nothing, and may also be psychologically related to real estate
"sales" in which $1 changes hands just to keep the transaction from
being a gift.)

:posting: n. Noun corresp. to v. {post} (but note that
{post} can be nouned). Distinguished from a `letter' or ordinary
{email} message by the fact that it is broadcast rather than
point-to-point. It is not clear whether messages sent to a small
mailing list are postings or email; perhaps the best dividing line
is that if you don't know the names of all the potential
recipients, it is a posting.

:postmaster: n. The email contact and maintenance person at a site
connected to the Internet or UUCPNET. Often, but not always, the
same as the {admin}. The Internet standard for electronic mail
({RFC}822) requires each machine to have a `postmaster' address;
usually it is aliased to this person.

:PostScript: n. A groundbreaking Page Description Language
({PDL}), based on work originally done by John Gaffney at Evans
and Sutherland in 1976, evolving through `JaM' (`John and Martin',
Martin Newell) at {XEROX PARC}, and finally implemented in its
current form by John Warnock et al. after he and Chuck Geschke
founded Adobe Systems Incorporated in 1982. PostScript gets its
leverage by using a full programming language, rather than a series
of low-level escape sequences, to describe an image to be printed
on a laser printer or other output device (in this it parallels
{EMACS}, which exploited a similar insight about editing tasks).
It is also noteworthy for implementing on-the fly rasterization,
from Bezier curve descriptions, of high-quality fonts at low (e.g.
300 dpi) resolution (it was formerly believed that hand-tuned
bitmap fonts were required for this task). Hackers consider
PostScript to be among the most elegant hacks of all time, and the
combination of technical merits and widespread availability has
made PostScript the language of choice for graphical output.

:pound on: vt. Syn. {bang on}.

:power cycle: vt. (also, `cycle power' or just `cycle') To
power off a machine and then power it on immediately, with the
intention of clearing some kind of {hung} or {gronk}ed state.
Syn. {120 reset}; see also {Big Red Switch}. Compare
{Vulcan nerve pinch}, {bounce}, and {boot}, and see the
AI Koan in "{A Selection of AI Koans}" (in
{appendix A}) about Tom Knight and the novice.

:power hit: n. A spike or drop-out in the electricity supplying
your machine; a power {glitch}. These can cause crashes and
even permanent damage to your machine(s).

:PPN: /P-P-N/, /pip'n/ [from `Project-Programmer Number'] n. A
user-ID under {{TOPS-10}} and its various mutant progeny at SAIL,
BBN, CompuServe, and elsewhere. Old-time hackers from the PDP-10
era sometimes use this to refer to user IDs on other systems as
well.

:precedence lossage: /pre's*-dens los'*j/ [C programmers] n.
Coding error in an expression due to unexpected grouping of
arithmetic or logical operators by the compiler. Used esp. of
certain common coding errors in C due to the nonintuitively low
precedence levels of `&', `|', `^', `<<',
and `>>' (for this reason, experienced C programmers
deliberately forget the language's {baroque} precedence
hierarchy and parenthesize defensively). Can always be avoided by
suitable use of parentheses. {LISP} fans enjoy pointing out
that this can't happen in *their* favorite language, which
eschews precedence entirely, requiring one to use explicit
parentheses everywhere. See {aliasing bug}, {memory leak},
{memory smash}, {smash the stack}, {fandango on core},
{overrun screw}.

:prepend: /pree`pend'/ [by analogy with `append'] vt. To
prefix. As with `append' (but not `prefix' or `suffix' as a
verb), the direct object is always the thing being added and not
the original word (or character string, or whatever). "If you
prepend a semicolon to the line, the translation routine will pass
it through unaltered."

:prestidigitization: /pres`t*-di`j*-ti:-zay'sh*n/ n. 1. The act
of putting something into digital notation via sleight of hand.
2. Data entry through legerdemain.

:pretty pictures: n. [scientific computation] The next step up from
{numbers}. Interesting graphical output from a program that may
not have any sensible relationship to the system the program is
intended to model. Good for showing to {management}.

:prettyprint: /prit'ee-print/ (alt. `pretty-print') v. 1. To
generate `pretty' human-readable output from a {hairy} internal
representation; esp. used for the process of {grind}ing (sense 2)
LISP code. 2. To format in some particularly slick and
nontrivial way.

:pretzel key: [Mac users] n. See {feature key}.

:prime time: [from TV programming] n. Normal high-usage hours on a
timesharing system; the day shift. Avoidance of prime time is a
major reason for {night mode} hacking.

:printing discussion: [PARC] n. A protracted, low-level,
time-consuming, generally pointless discussion of something only
peripherally interesting to all.

:priority interrupt: [from the hardware term] n. Describes any
stimulus compelling enough to yank one right out of {hack mode}.
Classically used to describe being dragged away by an {SO} for
immediate sex, but may also refer to more mundane interruptions
such as a fire alarm going off in the near vicinity. Also called
an {NMI} (non-maskable interrupt), especially in PC-land.

:profile: n. 1. A control file for a program, esp. a text file
automatically read from each user's home directory and intended to
be easily modified by the user in order to customize the program's
behavior. Used to avoid {hardcoded} choices. 2. [techspeak] A
report on the amounts of time spent in each routine of a program,
used to find and {tune} away the {hot spot}s in it. This sense
is often verbed. Some profiling modes report units other than time
(such as call counts) and/or report at granularities other than
per-routine, but the idea is similar.

:proglet: /prog'let/ [UK] n. A short extempore program written
to meet an immediate, transient need. Often written in BASIC,
rarely more than a dozen lines long, and contains no subroutines.
The largest amount of code that can be written off the top of one's
head, that does not need any editing, and that runs correctly the
first time (this amount varies significantly according to the
language one is using). Compare {toy program}, {noddy},
{one-liner wars}.

:program: n. 1. A magic spell cast over a computer allowing it to
turn one's input into error messages. 2. An exercise in
experimental epistemology. 3. A form of art, ostensibly intended
for the instruction of computers, which is nevertheless almost
inevitably a failure if other programmers can't understand it.

:Programmer's Cheer: "Shift to the left! Shift to the right! Pop
up, push down! Byte! Byte! Byte!" A joke so old it has hair on
it.

:programming: n. 1. The art of debugging a blank sheet of paper (or,
in these days of on-line editing, the art of debugging an empty
file). 2. n. A pastime similar to banging one's head against a
wall, but with fewer opportunities for reward. 3. n. The most fun
you can have with your clothes on (although clothes are not
mandatory).

:programming fluid: n. 1. Coffee. 2. Cola. 3. Any caffeinacious
stimulant. Many hackers consider these essential for those
all-night hacking runs. See {unleaded}, {wirewater}.

:propeller head: n. Used by hackers, this is syn. with {computer
geek}. Non-hackers sometimes use it to describe all techies.
Prob. derives from SF fandom's tradition (originally invented by
old-time fan Ray Faraday Nelson) of propeller beanies as fannish
insignia (though nobody actually wears them except as a joke).

:propeller key: [Mac users] n. See {feature key}.

:proprietary: adj. 1. In {marketroid}-speak, superior; implies a
product imbued with exclusive magic by the unmatched brilliance of
the company's hardware or software designers. 2. In the language
of hackers and users, inferior; implies a product not conforming to
open-systems standards, and thus one that puts the customer at the
mercy of a vendor able to gouge freely on service and upgrade
charges after the initial sale has locked the customer in (that's
assuming it wasn't too expensive in the first place).

:protocol: n. As used by hackers, this never refers to niceties
about the proper form for addressing letters to the Papal Nuncio or
the order in which one should use the forks in a Russian-style
place setting; hackers don't care about such things. It is used
instead to describe any set of rules that allow different machines
or pieces of software to coordinate with each other without
ambiguity. So, for example, it does include niceties about the
proper form for addressing packets on a network or the order in
which one should use the forks in the Dining Philosophers Problem.
It implies that there is some common message format and an accepted
set of primitives or commands that all parties involved understand,
and that transactions among them follow predictable logical
sequences. See also {handshaking}, {do protocol}.

:provocative maintenance: [common ironic mutation of `preventive
maintenance'] n. Actions performed upon a machine at regularly
scheduled intervals to ensure that the system remains in a usable
state. So called because it is all too often performed by a
{field servoid} who doesn't know what he is doing; this results
in the machine's remaining in an *un*usable state for an
indeterminate amount of time. See also {scratch monkey}.

:prowler: [UNIX] n. A {daemon} that is run periodically (typically
once a week) to seek out and erase {core} files, truncate
administrative logfiles, nuke `lost+found' directories, and
otherwise clean up the {cruft} that tends to pile up in the
corners of a file system. See also {GFR}, {reaper},
{skulker}.

:pseudo: /soo'doh/ [USENET: truncation of `pseudonym'] n. 1. An
electronic-mail or {USENET} persona adopted by a human for
amusement value or as a means of avoiding negative repercussions of
one's net.behavior; a `nom de USENET', often associated with
forged postings designed to conceal message origins. Perhaps the
best-known and funniest hoax of this type is {BIFF}.
2. Notionally, a {flamage}-generating AI program simulating a
USENET user. Many flamers have been accused of actually being such
entities, despite the fact that no AI program of the required
sophistication yet exists. However, in 1989 there was a famous
series of forged postings that used a phrase-frequency-based
travesty generator to simulate the styles of several well-known
flamers; it was based on large samples of their back postings
(compare {Dissociated Press}). A significant number of people
were fooled by the forgeries, and the debate over their
authenticity was settled only when the perpetrator came forward to
publicly admit the hoax.

:pseudoprime: n. A backgammon prime (six consecutive occupied
points) with one point missing. This term is an esoteric pun
derived from a mathematical method that, rather than determining
precisely whether a number is prime (has no divisors), uses a
statistical technique to decide whether the number is `probably'
prime. A number that passes this test is called a pseudoprime.
The hacker backgammon usage stems from the idea that a pseudoprime
is almost as good as a prime: it does the job of a prime until
proven otherwise, and that probably won't happen.

:pseudosuit: /soo'doh-s[y]oot`/ n. A {suit} wannabee; a hacker
who has decided that he wants to be in management or administration
and begins wearing ties, sport coats, and (shudder!) suits
voluntarily. It's his funeral. See also {lobotomy}.

:psychedelicware: /si:`k*-del'-ik-weir/ [UK] n. Syn.
{display hack}. See also {smoking clover}.

:psyton: /si:'ton/ [TMRC] n. The elementary particle carrying the
sinister force. The probability of a process losing is
proportional to the number of psytons falling on it. Psytons are
generated by observers, which is why demos are more likely to fail
when lots of people are watching. [This term appears to have been
largely superseded by {bogon}; see also {quantum bogodynamics}.
--- ESR]

:pubic directory: [NYU] (also `pube directory' /pyoob'
d*-rek't*-ree/) n. The `pub' (public) directory on a machine that
allows {FTP} access. So called because it is the default
location for {SEX} (sense 1). "I'll have the source in the
pube directory by Friday."

:puff: vt. To decompress data that has been crunched by Huffman
coding. At least one widely distributed Huffman decoder program
was actually *named* `PUFF', but these days it is usually
packaged with the encoder. Oppose {huff}.

:punched card:: alt. `punch card' [techspeak] n.obs. The signature
medium of computing's {Stone Age}, now obsolescent outside of
some IBM shops. The punched card actually predated computers
considerably, originating in 1801 as a control device for
mechanical looms. The version patented by Hollerith and used with
mechanical tabulating machines in the 1890 U.S. Census was a piece
of cardboard about 90 mm by 215 mm, designed to fit exactly in the
currency trays used for that era's larger dollar bills.

IBM (which originated as a tabulating-machine manufacturer) married
the punched card to computers, encoding binary information as
patterns of small rectangular holes; one character per column,
80 columns per card. Other coding schemes, sizes of card, and
hole shapes were tried at various times.

The 80-column width of most character terminals is a legacy of the
IBM punched card; so is the size of the quick-reference cards
distributed with many varieties of computers even today. See
{chad}, {chad box}, {eighty-column mind}, {green card},
{dusty deck}, {lace card}, {card walloper}.

:punt: [from the punch line of an old joke referring to American
football: "Drop back 15 yards and punt!"] v. 1. To give up,
typically without any intention of retrying. "Let's punt the
movie tonight." "I was going to hack all night to get this
feature in, but I decided to punt" may mean that you've decided
not to stay up all night, and may also mean you're not ever even
going to put in the feature. 2. More specifically, to give up on
figuring out what the {Right Thing} is and resort to an
inefficient hack. 3. A design decision to defer solving a
problem, typically because one cannot define what is desirable
sufficiently well to frame an algorithmic solution. "No way to
know what the right form to dump the graph in is --- we'll punt
that for now." 4. To hand a tricky implementation problem off
to some other section of the design. "It's too hard to get the
compiler to do that; let's punt to the runtime system."

:Purple Book: n. 1. The `System V Interface Definition'. The
covers of the first editions were an amazingly nauseating shade of
off-lavender. 2. Syn. {Wizard Book}. See also {{book
titles}}.

:purple wire: [IBM] n. Wire installed by Field Engineers to work
around problems discovered during testing or debugging. These are
called `purple wires' even when (as is frequently the case) their
actual physical color is yellow.... Compare {blue wire},
{purple wire}, and {red wire}.

:push: [from the operation that puts the current information on a
stack, and the fact that procedure return addresses are saved on a
stack] Also PUSH /push/ or PUSHJ /push'J/ (the latter based on
the PDP-10 procedure call instruction). 1. To put something onto a
{stack} or {pdl}. If one says that something has been pushed
onto one's stack, it means that the Damoclean list of things
hanging over ones's head has grown longer and heavier yet. This
may also imply that one will deal with it *before* other
pending items; otherwise one might say that the thing was `added
to my queue'. 2. vi. To enter upon a digression, to save the
current discussion for later. Antonym of {pop}; see also
{stack}, {pdl}.

= Q = =====

:Q-line: [IRC] v. To ban a particular {IRC} server from
connecting to one's own; does to it what {K-line} does to an
individual. Since this is applied transitively, it has the effect
of partitioning the IRC network, which is generally a {bad
thing}.

:quad: n. 1. Two bits; syn. for {quarter}, {crumb},
{tayste}. 2. A four-pack of anything (compare {hex}, sense 2).
3. The rectangle or box glyph used in the APL language for various
arcane purposes mostly related to I/O. Former Ivy-Leaguers and
Oxbridge types are said to associate it with nostalgic memories of
dear old University.

:quadruple bucky: n., obs. 1. On an MIT {space-cadet keyboard},
use of all four of the shifting keys (control, meta, hyper, and
super) while typing a character key. 2. On a Stanford or MIT
keyboard in {raw mode}, use of four shift keys while typing a
fifth character, where the four shift keys are the control and meta
keys on *both* sides of the keyboard. This was very difficult
to do! One accepted technique was to press the left-control and
left-meta keys with your left hand, the right-control and
right-meta keys with your right hand, and the fifth key with your
nose.

Quadruple-bucky combinations were very seldom used in practice,
because when one invented a new command one usually assigned it to
some character that was easier to type. If you want to imply that
a program has ridiculously many commands or features, you can say
something like: "Oh, the command that makes it spin the tapes
while whistling Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is
quadruple-bucky-cokebottle." See {double bucky}, {bucky
bits}, {cokebottle}.

:quantifiers:: In techspeak and jargon, the standard metric
prefixes used in the SI (Syst`eme International) conventions for
scientific measurement have dual uses. With units of time or
things that come in powers of 10, such as money, they retain their
usual meanings of multiplication by powers of 1000 = 10^3.
But when used with bytes or other things that naturally come in
powers of 2, they usually denote multiplication by powers of
1024 = 2^(10).

Here are the SI magnifying prefixes, along with the corresponding
binary interpretations in common use:

prefix decimal binary
kilo- 1000^1 1024^1 = 2^10 = 1,024
mega- 1000^2 1024^2 = 2^20 = 1,048,576
giga- 1000^3 1024^3 = 2^30 = 1,073,741,824
tera- 1000^4 1024^4 = 2^40 = 1,099,511,627,776
peta- 1000^5 1024^5 = 2^50 = 1,125,899,906,842,624
exa- 1000^6 1024^6 = 2^60 = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976
zetta- 1000^7 1024^7 = 2^70 = 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424
yotta- 1000^8 1024^8 = 2^80 = 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176

Here are the SI fractional prefixes:

*prefix decimal jargon usage*
milli- 1000^-1 (seldom used in jargon)
micro- 1000^-2 small or human-scale (see {micro-})
nano- 1000^-3 even smaller (see {nano-})
pico- 1000^-4 even smaller yet (see {pico-})
femto- 1000^-5 (not used in jargon---yet)
atto- 1000^-6 (not used in jargon---yet)
zepto- 1000^-7 (not used in jargon---yet)
yocto- 1000^-8 (not used in jargon---yet)

The prefixes zetta-, yotta-, zepto-, and yocto- have been included
in these tables purely for completeness and giggle value; they were
adopted in 1990 by the `19th Conference Generale des Poids et
Mesures'. The binary peta- and exa- loadings, though well
established, are not in jargon use either --- yet. The prefix
milli-, denoting multiplication by 1000^(-1), has always
been rare in jargon (there is, however, a standard joke about the
`millihelen' --- notionally, the amount of beauty required to
launch one ship). See the entries on {micro-}, {pico-}, and
{nano-} for more information on connotative jargon use of these
terms. `Femto' and `atto' (which, interestingly, derive not
from Greek but from Danish) have not yet acquired jargon loadings,
though it is easy to predict what those will be once computing
technology enters the required realms of magnitude (however, see
{attoparsec}).

There are, of course, some standard unit prefixes for powers of
10. In the following table, the `prefix' column is the
international standard suffix for the appropriate power of ten; the
`binary' column lists jargon abbreviations and words for the
corresponding power of 2. The B-suffixed forms are commonly used
for byte quantities; the words `meg' and `gig' are nouns which may
(but do not always) pluralize with `s'.

prefix decimal binary pronunciation
kilo- k K, KB, /kay/
mega- M M, MB, meg /meg/
giga- G G, GB, gig /gig/,/jig/

Confusingly, hackers often use K or M as though they were suffix or
numeric multipliers rather than a prefix; thus "2K dollars", "2M
of disk space". This is also true (though less commonly) of G.

Note that the formal SI metric prefix for 1000 is `k'; some use
this strictly, reserving `K' for multiplication by 1024 (KB is
`kilobytes').

K, M, and G used alone refer to quantities of bytes; thus, 64G is
64 gigabytes and `a K' is a kilobyte (compare mainstream use of
`a G' as short for `a grand', that is, $1000). Whether one
pronounces `gig' with hard or soft `g' depends on what one thinks
the proper pronunciation of `giga-' is.

Confusing 1000 and 1024 (or other powers of 2 and 10 close in
magnitude) --- for example, describing a memory in units of
500K or 524K instead of 512K --- is a sure sign of the
{marketroid}.

:quantum bogodynamics: /kwon'tm boh`goh-di:-nam'iks/ n. A theory
that characterizes the universe in terms of bogon sources (such as
politicians, used-car salesmen, TV evangelists, and {suit}s in
general), bogon sinks (such as taxpayers and computers), and
bogosity potential fields. Bogon absorption, of course, causes
human beings to behave mindlessly and machines to fail (and may
also cause both to emit secondary bogons); however, the precise
mechanics of the bogon-computron interaction are not yet understood
and remain to be elucidated. Quantum bogodynamics is most often
invoked to explain the sharp increase in hardware and software
failures in the presence of suits; the latter emit bogons, which
the former absorb. See {bogon}, {computron}, {suit},
{psyton}.

:quarter: n. Two bits. This in turn comes from the `pieces of
eight' famed in pirate movies --- Spanish silver crowns that could
be broken into eight pie-slice-shaped `bits' to make change.
Early in American history the Spanish coin was considered equal to
a dollar, so each of these `bits' was considered worth
12.5 cents. Syn. {tayste}, {crumb}, {quad}. Usage:
rare. See also {nickle}, {nybble}, {{byte}}, {dynner}.

:ques: /kwes/ 1. n. The question mark character (`?', ASCII
0111111). 2. interj. What? Also frequently verb-doubled as
"Ques ques?" See {wall}.

:quick-and-dirty: adj. Describes a {crock} put together under time
or user pressure. Used esp. when you want to convey that you think
the fast way might lead to trouble further down the road. "I can
have a quick-and-dirty fix in place tonight, but I'll have to
rewrite the whole module to solve the underlying design problem."
See also {kluge}.

:quine: [from the name of the logician Willard V. Quine, via
Douglas Hofstadter] n. A program which generates a copy of its
source text as its complete output. Devising the shortest possible
quine in some given programming language is a common hackish
amusement. Here is one classic quine:

((lambda (x)
(list x (list (quote quote) x)))
(quote
(lambda (x)
(list x (list (quote quote) x)))))

This one works in LISP or Scheme. It's relatively easy to write
quines in other languages such as Postscript which readily handle
programs as data; much harder (and thus more challenging!) in
languages like C which do not. Here is a classic C quine:

char*f="char*f=%c%s%c;main(){printf(f,34,f,34,10);}%c";
main(){printf(f,34,f,34,10);}

For excruciatingly exact quinishness, remove the line break after
the second semicolon. Some infamous {Obfuscated C Contest}
entries have been quines that reproduced in exotic ways.

:quote chapter and verse: [by analogy with the mainstream phrase]
v. To cite a relevant excerpt from an appropriate {bible}. "I
don't care if `rn' gets it wrong; `Followup-To: poster' is
explicitly permitted by RFC-1036. I'll quote chapter and verse if
you don't believe me."

:quotient: n. See {coefficient of X}.

:quux: /kwuhks/ [Mythically, from the Latin semi-deponent verb
quuxo, quuxare, quuxandum iri; noun form variously `quux' (plural
`quuces', anglicized to `quuxes') and `quuxu' (genitive
plural is `quuxuum', for four u-letters out of seven in all,
using up all the `u' letters in Scrabble).] 1. Originally, a
{metasyntactic variable} like {foo} and {foobar}.
Invented by Guy Steele for precisely this purpose when he was young
and na"ive and not yet interacting with the real computing
community. Many people invent such words; this one seems simply to
have been lucky enough to have spread a little. In an eloquent
display of poetic justice, it has returned to the originator in the
form of a nickname. 2. interj. See {foo}; however, denotes very
little disgust, and is uttered mostly for the sake of the sound of
it. 3. Guy Steele in his persona as `The Great Quux', which is
somewhat infamous for light verse and for the `Crunchly' cartoons.
4. In some circles, quux is used as a punning opposite of `crux'.
"Ah, that's the quux of the matter!" implies that the point is
*not* crucial (compare {tip of the ice-cube}). 5. quuxy:
adj. Of or pertaining to a quux.

:qux: /kwuhks/ The fourth of the standard {metasyntactic
variable}, after {baz} and before the quu(u...)x series.
See {foo}, {bar}, {baz}, {quux}. This appears to be a
recent mutation from {quux}, and many versions of the
standard series just run {foo}, {bar}, {baz}, {quux},
....

:QWERTY: /kwer'tee/ [from the keycaps at the upper left] adj.
Pertaining to a standard English-language typewriter keyboard
(sometimes called the Sholes keyboard after its inventor), as
opposed to Dvorak or foreign-language layouts or a {space-cadet
keyboard} or APL keyboard.

Historical note: The QWERTY layout is a fine example of a {fossil}.
It is sometimes said that it was designed to slow down the typist,
but this is wrong; it was designed to allow *faster* typing
--- under a constraint now long obsolete. In early typewriters,
fast typing using nearby type-bars jammed the mechanism. So Sholes
fiddled the layout to separate the letters of many common digraphs
(he did a far from perfect job, though; `th', `tr', `ed', and `er',
for example, each use two nearby keys). Also, putting the letters
of `typewriter' on one line allowed it to be typed with particular
speed and accuracy for {demo}s. The jamming problem was
essentially solved soon afterward by a suitable use of springs, but
the keyboard layout lives on.

= R = =====

:rain dance: n. 1. Any ceremonial action taken to correct a hardware
problem, with the expectation that nothing will be accomplished.
This especially applies to reseating printed circuit boards,
reconnecting cables, etc. "I can't boot up the machine. We'll
have to wait for Greg to do his rain dance." 2. Any arcane
sequence of actions performed with computers or software in order
to achieve some goal; the term is usually restricted to rituals
that include both an {incantation} or two and physical activity
or motion. Compare {magic}, {voodoo programming}, {black
art}.

:rainbow series: n. Any of several series of technical manuals
distinguished by cover color. The original rainbow series was the
NCSC security manuals (see {Orange Book}); the term has also
been commonly applied to the PostScript reference set (see {Red
Book}, {Green Book}, {Blue Book}, {White Book}). Which
books are meant by "`the' rainbow series" unqualified is thus
dependent on one's local technical culture.

:random: adj. 1. Unpredictable (closest to mathematical
definition); weird. "The system's been behaving pretty
randomly." 2. Assorted; undistinguished. "Who was at the
conference?" "Just a bunch of random business types."
3. (pejorative) Frivolous; unproductive; undirected. "He's just a
random loser." 4. Incoherent or inelegant; poorly chosen; not
well organized. "The program has a random set of misfeatures."
"That's a random name for that function." "Well, all the names
were chosen pretty randomly." 5. In no particular order, though
deterministic. "The I/O channels are in a pool, and when a file
is opened one is chosen randomly." 6. Arbitrary. "It generates
a random name for the scratch file." 7. Gratuitously wrong, i.e.,
poorly done and for no good apparent reason. For example, a
program that handles file name defaulting in a particularly useless
way, or an assembler routine that could easily have been coded
using only three registers, but redundantly uses seven for values
with non-overlapping lifetimes, so that no one else can invoke it
without first saving four extra registers. What {randomness}!
8. n. A random hacker; used particularly of high-school students
who soak up computer time and generally get in the way. 9. n.
Anyone who is not a hacker (or, sometimes, anyone not known to the
hacker speaking); the noun form of sense 2. "I went to the talk,
but the audience was full of randoms asking bogus questions".
10. n. (occasional MIT usage) One who lives at Random Hall. See
also {J. Random}, {some random X}.

:random numbers:: n. When one wishes to specify a large but random
number of things, and the context is inappropriate for {N}, certain
numbers are preferred by hacker tradition (that is, easily
recognized as placeholders). These include the following:

17
Long described at MIT as `the least random number'; see 23.
23
Sacred number of Eris, Goddess of Discord (along with 17 and
5).
42
The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and
Everything. (Note that this answer is completely fortuitous.
`:-)')
69
From the sexual act. This one was favored in MIT's ITS
culture.
105
69 hex = 105 decimal, and 69 decimal = 105 octal.
666
The Number of the Beast.

For further enlightenment, study the `Principia Discordia',
`{The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}', `The Joy
of Sex', and the Christian Bible (Revelation 13:8). See also
{Discordianism} or consult your pineal gland. See also {for
values of}.

:randomness: n. 1. An inexplicable misfeature; gratuitous
inelegance. 2. A {hack} or {crock} that depends on a complex
combination of coincidences (or, possibly, the combination upon
which the crock depends for its accidental failure to malfunction).
"This hack can output characters 40--57 by putting the character
in the four-bit accumulator field of an XCT and then extracting
six bits --- the low 2 bits of the XCT opcode are the right
thing." "What randomness!" 3. Of people, synonymous with
`flakiness'. The connotation is that the person so described is
behaving weirdly, incompetently, or inappropriately for reasons
which are (a) too tiresome to bother inquiring into, (b) are
probably as inscrutable as quantum phenomena anyway, and (c) are
likely to pass with time. "Maybe he has a real complaint, or maybe
it's just randomness. See if he calls back."

:rape: vt. 1. To {screw} someone or something, violently; in
particular, to destroy a program or information irrecoverably.
Often used in describing file-system damage. "So-and-so was
running a program that did absolute disk I/O and ended up raping
the master directory." 2. To strip a piece of hardware for parts.
3. [CMU/Pitt] To mass-copy files from an anonymous ftp site.
"Last night I raped Simtel's dskutl directory."

:rare mode: [UNIX] adj. CBREAK mode (character-by-character with
interrupts enabled). Distinguished from {raw mode} and {cooked
mode}; the phrase "a sort of half-cooked (rare?) mode" is used
in the V7/BSD manuals to describe the mode. Usage: rare.

:raster blaster: n. [Cambridge] Specialized hardware for
{bitblt} operations (a {blitter}). Allegedly inspired by
`Rasta Blasta', British slang for the sort of portable stereo
Americans call a `boom box' or `ghetto blaster'.

:raster burn: n. Eyestrain brought on by too many hours of looking at
low-res, poorly tuned, or glare-ridden monitors, esp. graphics
monitors. See {terminal illness}.

:rat belt: n. A cable tie, esp. the sawtoothed, self-locking plastic
kind that you can remove only by cutting (as opposed to a random
twist of wire or a twist tie or one of those humongous metal clip
frobs). Small cable ties are `mouse belts'.

:rave: [WPI] vi. 1. To persist in discussing a specific subject.
2. To speak authoritatively on a subject about which one knows
very little. 3. To complain to a person who is not in a position
to correct the difficulty. 4. To purposely annoy another person
verbally. 5. To evangelize. See {flame}. 6. Also used to
describe a less negative form of blather, such as friendly
bullshitting. `Rave' differs slightly from {flame} in that
`rave' implies that it is the persistence or obliviousness of the
person speaking that is annoying, while {flame} implies somewhat
more strongly that the tone is offensive as well.

:rave on!: imp. Sarcastic invitation to continue a {rave}, often by
someone who wishes the raver would get a clue but realizes this is
unlikely.

:ravs: /ravz/, also `Chinese ravs' n. Jiao-zi (steamed or
boiled) or Guo-tie (pan-fried). A Chinese appetizer, known
variously in the plural as dumplings, pot stickers (the literal
translation of guo-tie), and (around Boston) `Peking Ravioli'. The
term `rav' is short for `ravioli', which among hackers always
means the Chinese kind rather than the Italian kind. Both consist
of a filling in a pasta shell, but the Chinese kind includes no
cheese, uses a thinner pasta, has a pork-vegetable filling (good
ones include Chinese chives), and is cooked differently, either by
steaming or frying. A rav or dumpling can be cooked any way, but a
potsticker is always the fried kind (so called because it sticks to
the frying pot and has to be scraped off). "Let's get
hot-and-sour soup and three orders of ravs." See also
{{oriental food}}.

:raw mode: n. A mode that allows a program to transfer bits
directly to or from an I/O device (or, under {bogus} systems
which make a distinction, a disk file) without any processing,
abstraction, or interpretation by the operating system. Compare
{rare mode}, {cooked mode}. This is techspeak under UNIX,
jargon elsewhere.

:rc file: /R-C fi:l/ [UNIX: from the startup script
`/etc/rc', but this is commonly believed to have been named
after older scripts to `run commands'] n. Script file containing
startup instructions for an application program (or an entire
operating system), usually a text file containing commands of the
sort that might have been invoked manually once the system was
running but are to be executed automatically each time the system
starts up. See also {dot file}.

:RE: /R-E/ n. Common spoken and written shorthand for {regexp}.

:read-only user: n. Describes a {luser} who uses computers almost
exclusively for reading USENET, bulletin boards, and/or email,
rather than writing code or purveying useful information. See
{twink}, {terminal junkie}, {lurker}.

:README file: n. By convention, the top-level directory of a UNIX
source distribution always contains a file named `README' (or
READ.ME, or rarely ReadMe or some other variant), which is a
hacker's-eye introduction containing a pointer to more detailed
documentation, credits, miscellaneous revision history notes, etc.
In the Mac and PC worlds, software is not usually distributed in
source form and a README is more likely to contain user-oriented
material like last-minute documentation changes, error workarounds,
and restrictions. When asked, hackers invariably relate the README
convention to the famous scene in Lewis Carroll's `Alice's
Adventures In Wonderland' in which Alice confronts magic munchies
labeled "Eat Me" and "Drink Me".

:real: adj. Not simulated. Often used as a specific antonym to
{virtual} in any of its jargon senses.

:real estate: n. May be used for any critical resource measured in
units of area. Most frequently used of `chip real estate', the
area available for logic on the surface of an integrated circuit
(see also {nanoacre}). May also be used of floor space in a
{dinosaur pen}, or even space on a crowded desktop (whether
physical or electronic).

:real hack: n. A {crock}. This is sometimes used affectionately;
see {hack}.

:real operating system: n. The sort the speaker is used to. People
from the BSDophilic academic community are likely to issue comments
like "System V? Why don't you use a *real* operating
system?", people from the commercial/industrial UNIX sector are
known to complain "BSD? Why don't you use a *real*
operating system?", and people from IBM object "UNIX? Why don't
you use a *real* operating system?" See {holy wars},
{religious issues}, {proprietary}, {Get a real computer!}

:real programmer: [indirectly, from the book `Real Men Don't
Eat Quiche'] n. A particular sub-variety of hacker: one possessed
of a flippant attitude toward complexity that is arrogant even when
justified by experience. The archetypal `real programmer' likes
to program on the {bare metal} and is very good at same,
remembers the binary opcodes for every machine he has ever
programmed, thinks that HLLs are sissy, and uses a debugger to edit
his code because full-screen editors are for wimps. Real
Programmers aren't satisfied with code that hasn't been {bum}med
into a state of {tense}ness just short of rupture. Real
Programmers never use comments or write documentation: "If it was
hard to write", says the Real Programmer, "it should be hard to
understand." Real Programmers can make machines do things that
were never in their spec sheets; in fact, they are seldom really
happy unless doing so. A Real Programmer's code can awe with its
fiendish brilliance, even as its crockishness appalls. Real
Programmers live on junk food and coffee, hang line-printer art on
their walls, and terrify the crap out of other programmers ---
because someday, somebody else might have to try to understand
their code in order to change it. Their successors generally
consider it a {Good Thing} that there aren't many Real
Programmers around any more. For a famous (and somewhat more
positive) portrait of a Real Programmer, see "{The Story
of Mel, a Real Programmer}" in {appendix A}.

:Real Soon Now: [orig. from SF's fanzine community, popularized by
Jerry Pournelle's column in `BYTE'] adv. 1. Supposed to be
available (or fixed, or cheap, or whatever) real soon now according
to somebody, but the speaker is quite skeptical. 2. When one's
gods, fates, or other time commitments permit one to get to it (in
other words, don't hold your breath). Often abbreviated RSN.

:real time: 1. [techspeak] adj. Describes an application which
requires a program to respond to stimuli within some small upper
limit of response time (typically milli- or microseconds). Process
control at a chemical plant is the classic example. Such
applications often require special operating systems (because
everything else must take a back seat to response time) and
speed-tuned hardware. 2. adv. In jargon, refers to doing something
while people are watching or waiting. "I asked her how to find
the calling procedure's program counter on the stack and she came
up with an algorithm in real time."

:real user: n. 1. A commercial user. One who is paying *real*
money for his computer usage. 2. A non-hacker. Someone using the
system for an explicit purpose (a research project, a course, etc.)
other than pure exploration. See {user}. Hackers who are also
students may also be real users. "I need this fixed so I can do a
problem set. I'm not complaining out of randomness, but as a real
user." See also {luser}.

:Real World: n. 1. Those institutions at which `programming' may
be used in the same sentence as `FORTRAN', `{COBOL}',
`RPG', `{IBM}', `DBASE', etc. Places where programs do such
commercially necessary but intellectually uninspiring things as
generating payroll checks and invoices. 2. The location of
non-programmers and activities not related to programming. 3. A
bizarre dimension in which the standard dress is shirt and tie and
in which a person's working hours are defined as 9 to 5 (see
{code grinder}). 4. Anywhere outside a university. "Poor
fellow, he's left MIT and gone into the Real World." Used
pejoratively by those not in residence there. In conversation,
talking of someone who has entered the Real World is not unlike
speaking of a deceased person. It is also noteworthy that on the
campus of Cambridge University in England, there is a gaily-painted
lamp-post which bears the label `REALITY CHECKPOINT'. It marks the
boundary between university and the Real World; check your notions
of reality before passing. See also {fear and loathing},
{mundane}, and {uninteresting}.

:reality check: n. 1. The simplest kind of test of software or
hardware; doing the equivalent of asking it what 2 + 2 is
and seeing if you get 4. The software equivalent of a
{smoke test}. 2. The act of letting a {real user} try out
prototype software. Compare {sanity check}.

:reaper: n. A {prowler} that {GFR}s files. A file removed in
this way is said to have been `reaped'.

:rectangle slinger: n. See {polygon pusher}.

:recursion: n. See {recursion}. See also {tail recursion}.

:recursive acronym:: pl.n. A hackish (and especially MIT) tradition
is to choose acronyms/abbreviations that refer humorously to
themselves or to other acronyms/abbreviations. The classic
examples were two MIT editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not EMACS")
and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially"). More recently, there is a
Scheme compiler called LIAR (Liar Imitates Apply Recursively), and
{GNU} (q.v., sense 1) stands for "GNU's Not UNIX!" --- and a
company with the name CYGNUS, which expands to "Cygnus, Your GNU
Support". See also {mung}, {EMACS}.