The New Hacker’s Dictionary version 4.2.2 (page 18)

times-or-divided-by quant.

[by analogy with `plus-or-minus’] Term occasionally used when describing the uncertainty associated with a scheduling estimate, for either humorous or brutally honest effect. For a software project, the scheduling uncertainty factor is usually at least 2. _________________________________________________________________
Node:TINC, Next:[13413]Tinkerbell program, Previous:[13414]times-or-divided-by, Up:[13415]= T =
TINC //

[Usenet] Abbreviation: “There Is No Cabal”. See [13416]backbone cabal and [13417]NANA, but note that this abbreviation did not enter use until long after the dispersal of the backbone cabal. _________________________________________________________________
Node:Tinkerbell program, Next:[13418]TINLC, Previous:[13419]TINC, Up:[13420]= T =

Tinkerbell program n.

[Great Britain] A monitoring program used to scan incoming network calls and generate alerts when calls are received from particular sites, or when logins are attempted using certain IDs. Named after `Project Tinkerbell’, an experimental phone-tapping program developed by British Telecom in the early 1980s. _________________________________________________________________
Node:TINLC, Next:[13421]tip of the ice-cube, Previous:[13422]Tinkerbell program, Up:[13423]= T =
TINLC //

Abbreviation: “There Is No Lumber Cartel”. See [13424]Lumber Cartel. TINLC is a takeoff on [13425]TINC.
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Node:tip of the ice-cube, Next:[13426]tired iron, Previous:[13427]TINLC, Up:[13428]= T =
tip of the ice-cube n. //

[IBM] The visible part of something small and insignificant. Used as an ironic comment in situations where `tip of the iceberg’ might be appropriate if the subject were at all important. _________________________________________________________________
Node:tired iron, Next:[13429]tits on a keyboard, Previous:[13430]tip of the ice-cube, Up:[13431]= T =

tired iron n.

[IBM] Hardware that is perfectly functional but far enough behind the state of the art to have been superseded by new products, presumably with sufficient improvement in bang-per-buck that the old stuff is starting to look a bit like a [13432]dinosaur. _________________________________________________________________
Node:tits on a keyboard, Next:[13433]TLA, Previous:[13434]tired iron, Up:[13435]= T =

tits on a keyboard n.

Small bumps on certain keycaps to keep touch-typists registered. Usually on the 5 of a numeric keypad, and on the F and J of a [13436]QWERTY keyboard; but older Macs, perverse as usual, had them on the D and K keys (this changed in 1999). _________________________________________________________________
Node:TLA, Next:[13437](TM), Previous:[13438]tits on a keyboard, Up:[13439]= T =

TLA /T-L-A/ n.

[Three-Letter Acronym] 1. Self-describing abbreviation for a species with which computing terminology is infested. 2. Any confusing acronym. Examples include MCA, FTP, SNA, CPU, MMU, SCCS, DMU, FPU, NNTP, TLA. People who like this looser usage argue that not all TLAs have three letters, just as not all four-letter words have four letters. One also hears of `ETLA’ (Extended Three-Letter Acronym, pronounced /ee tee el ay/) being used to describe four-letter acronyms. The term `SFLA’ (Stupid Four-Letter Acronym) has also been reported. See also [13440]YABA.

The self-effacing phrase “TDM TLA” (Too Damn Many…) is often used to bemoan the plethora of TLAs in use. In 1989, a random of the journalistic persuasion asked hacker Paul Boutin “What do you think will be the biggest problem in computing in the 90s?” Paul’s straight-faced response: “There are only 17,000 three-letter acronyms.” (To be exact, there are 26^3 = 17,576.) There is probably some karmic justice in the fact that Paul Boutin subsequently became a journalist.
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Node:(TM), Next:[13441]TMRC, Previous:[13442]TLA, Up:[13443]= T =
(TM) //

[Usenet] ASCII rendition of the trademark-superscript symbol appended to phrases that the author feels should be recorded for posterity, perhaps in future editions of this lexicon. Sometimes used ironically as a form of protest against the recent spate of software and algorithm patents and `look and feel’ lawsuits. See also [13444]UN*X. _________________________________________________________________
Node:TMRC, Next:[13445]TMRCie, Previous:[13446](TM), Up:[13447]= T =
TMRC /tmerk’/ n.

The Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT, one of the wellsprings of hacker culture. The 1959 “Dictionary of the TMRC Language” compiled by Peter Samson included several terms that became basics of the hackish vocabulary (see esp. [13448]foo, [13449]mung, and [13450]frob).
By 1962, TMRC’s legendary layout was already a marvel of complexity and has grown in the years since. All the features described here were still present when the old layout was decomissioned in 1998 just before the demolition of MIT Building 20, and will almost certainly be retained when the old layout is rebuilt (expected in 2003). The control system alone featured about 1200 relays. There were [13451]scram switches located at numerous places around the room that could be thwacked if something undesirable was about to occur, such as a train going full-bore at an obstruction. Another feature of the system was a digital clock on the dispatch board, which was itself something of a wonder in those bygone days before cheap LEDs and seven-segment displays. When someone hit a scram switch the clock stopped and the display was replaced with the word `FOO’; at TMRC the scram switches are therefore called `foo switches’.
Steven Levy, in his book “Hackers” (see the [13452]Bibliography in Appendix C), gives a stimulating account of those early years. TMRC’s Signals and Power Committee included many of the early PDP-1 hackers and the people who later became the core of the MIT AI Lab staff. Thirty years later that connection is still very much alive, and this lexicon accordingly includes a number of entries from a recent revision of the TMRC dictionary.

TMRC has a web page at [13453]http://web.mit.edu/tmrc/www/. _________________________________________________________________
Node:TMRCie, Next:[13454]TMTOWTDI, Previous:[13455]TMRC, Up:[13456]= T =

TMRCie /tmerk’ee/, n.

[MIT] A denizen of [13457]TMRC.
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Node:TMTOWTDI, Next:[13458]to a first approximation, Previous:[13459]TMRCie, Up:[13460]= T =
TMTOWTDI /tim-toh’-dee/

There’s More Than One Way To Do It. This abbreviation of the official motto of [13461]Perl is frequently used on newsgroups and mailing lists related to that language.
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Node:to a first approximation, Next:[13462]to a zeroth approximation, Previous:[13463]TMTOWTDI, Up:[13464]= T =
to a first approximation adj.

1. [techspeak] When one is doing certain numerical computations, an approximate solution may be computed by any of several heuristic methods, then refined to a final value. By using the starting point of a first approximation of the answer, one can write an algorithm that converges more quickly to the correct result. 2. In jargon, a preface to any comment that indicates that the comment is only approximately true. The remark “To a first approximation, I feel good” might indicate that deeper questioning would reveal that not all is perfect (e.g., a nagging cough still remains after an illness). _________________________________________________________________
Node:to a zeroth approximation, Next:[13465]toad, Previous:[13466]to a first approximation, Up:[13467]= T =

to a zeroth approximation

[from `to a first approximation’] A really sloppy approximation; a wild guess. Compare [13468]social science number. _________________________________________________________________
Node:toad, Next:[13469]toast, Previous:[13470]to a zeroth approximation, Up:[13471]= T =

toad vt. [MUD]

1. Notionally, to change a [13472]MUD player into a toad. 2. To permanently and totally exile a player from the MUD. A very serious action, which can only be done by a MUD [13473]wizard; often involves a lot of debate among the other characters first. See also [13474]frog, [13475]FOD.
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Node:toast, Next:[13476]toaster, Previous:[13477]toad, Up:[13478]= T =
toast 1. n.

Any completely inoperable system or component, esp. one that has just crashed and burned: “Uh, oh … I think the serial board is toast.” 2. vt. To cause a system to crash accidentally, especially in a manner that requires manual rebooting. “Rick just toasted the [13479]firewall machine again.” Compare [13480]fried.
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Node:toaster, Next:[13481]toeprint, Previous:[13482]toast, Up:[13483]= T =

toaster n.

1. The archetypal really stupid application for an embedded microprocessor controller; often used in comments that imply that a scheme is inappropriate technology (but see [13484]elevator controller). “[13485]DWIM for an assembler? That’d be as silly as running Unix on your [13486]toaster!” 2. A very, very dumb computer. “You could run this program on any dumb toaster.” See [13487]bitty box, [13488]Get a real computer!, [13489]toy, [13490]beige toaster. 3. A Macintosh, esp. the Classic Mac. Some hold that this is implied by sense 2. 4. A peripheral device. “I bought my box without toasters, but since then I’ve added two boards and a second disk drive.” 5. A specialized computer used as an appliance. See [13491]web toaster, [13492]video toaster.
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Node:toeprint, Next:[13493]toggle, Previous:[13494]toaster, Up:[13495]= T =

toeprint n.

A [13496]footprint of especially small size. _________________________________________________________________
Node:toggle, Next:[13497]tool, Previous:[13498]toeprint, Up:[13499]= T =

toggle vt.

To change a [13500]bit from whatever state it is in to the other state; to change from 1 to 0 or from 0 to 1. This comes from `toggle switches’, such as standard light switches, though the word `toggle’ actually refers to the mechanism that keeps the switch in the position to which it is flipped rather than to the fact that the switch has two positions. There are four things you can do to a bit: set it (force it to be 1), clear (or zero) it, leave it alone, or toggle it. (Mathematically, one would say that there are four distinct boolean-valued functions of one boolean argument, but saying that is much less fun than talking about toggling bits.) _________________________________________________________________
Node:tool, Next:[13501]toolsmith, Previous:[13502]toggle, Up:[13503]= T =

tool 1. n.

A program used primarily to create, manipulate, modify, or analyze other programs, such as a compiler or an editor or a cross-referencing program. Oppose [13504]app, [13505]operating system. 2. [Unix] An application program with a simple, `transparent’ (typically text-stream) interface designed specifically to be used in programmed combination with other tools (see [13506]filter, [13507]plumbing). 3. [MIT: general to students there] vi. To work; to study (connotes tedium). The TMRC Dictionary defined this as “to set one’s brain to the grindstone”. See [13508]hack. 4. n. [MIT] A student who studies too much and hacks too little. (MIT’s student humor magazine rejoices in the name “Tool and Die”.)
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Node:toolsmith, Next:[13509]toor, Previous:[13510]tool, Up:[13511]= T =

toolsmith n.

The software equivalent of a tool-and-die specialist; one who specializes in making the [13512]tools with which other programmers create applications. Many hackers consider this more fun than applications per se; to understand why, see [13513]uninteresting. Jon Bentley, in the “Bumper-Sticker Computer Science” chapter of his book “More Programming Pearls”, quotes Dick Sites from [13514]DEC as saying “I’d rather write programs to write programs than write programs”. _________________________________________________________________
Node:toor, Next:[13515]topic drift, Previous:[13516]toolsmith, Up:[13517]= T =

toor n.

The Bourne-Again Super-user. An alternate account with UID of 0, created on Unix machines where the root user has an inconvenient choice of shell. Compare [13518]avatar. _________________________________________________________________
Node:topic drift, Next:[13519]topic group, Previous:[13520]toor, Up:[13521]= T =

topic drift n.

Term used on GEnie, Usenet and other electronic fora to describe the tendency of a [13522]thread to drift away from the original subject of discussion (and thus, from the Subject header of the originating message), or the results of that tendency. The header in each post can be changed to keep current with the posts, but usually isn’t due to forgetfulness or laziness. A single post may often result in several posts each responding to a different point in the original. Some subthreads will actually be in response to some off-the-cuff side comment, possibly degenerating into a [13523]flame war, or just as often evolving into a separate discussion. Hence, discussions aren’t really so much threads as they are trees. Except that they don’t really have leaves, or multiple branching roots; usually some lines of discussion will just sort of die off after everyone gets tired of them. This could take anywhere from hours to weeks, or even longer.
The term `topic drift’ is often used in gentle reminders that the discussion has strayed off any useful track. “I think we started with a question about Niven’s last book, but we’ve ended up discussing the sexual habits of the common marmoset. Now that’s topic drift!” _________________________________________________________________
Node:topic group, Next:[13524]TOPS-10, Previous:[13525]topic drift, Up:[13526]= T =

topic group n.

Syn. [13527]forum.
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Node:TOPS-10, Next:[13528]TOPS-20, Previous:[13529]topic group, Up:[13530]= T =

TOPS-10 /tops-ten/ n.

[13531]DEC’s proprietary OS for the fabled [13532]PDP-10 machines, long a favorite of hackers but now effectively extinct. A fountain of hacker folklore; see Appendix A. See also [13533]ITS, [13534]TOPS-20, [13535]TWENEX, [13536]VMS, [13537]operating system. TOPS-10 was sometimes called BOTS-10 (from `bottoms-ten’) as a comment on the inappropriateness of describing it as the top of anything. _________________________________________________________________
Node:TOPS-20, Next:[13538]tourist, Previous:[13539]TOPS-10, Up:[13540]= T =

TOPS-20 /tops-twen’tee/ n.

See [13541]TWENEX.
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Node:tourist, Next:[13542]tourist information, Previous:[13543]TOPS-20, Up:[13544]= T =
tourist n.

1. [ITS] A guest on the system, especially one who generally logs in over a network from a remote location for [13545]comm mode, email, games, and other trivial purposes. One step below [13546]luser. ITS hackers often used to spell this [13547]turist, perhaps by some sort of tenuous analogy with [13548]luser (this usage may also have expressed the ITS culture’s penchant for six-letterisms, and-or been some sort of tribute to Alan Turing). Compare [13549]twink, [13550]lurker, [13551]read-only user. 2. [IRC] An [13552]IRC user who goes from channel to channel without saying anything; see [13553]channel hopping.
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Node:tourist information, Next:[13554]touristic, Previous:[13555]tourist, Up:[13556]= T =
tourist information n.

Information in an on-line display that is not immediately useful, but contributes to a viewer’s gestalt of what’s going on with the software or hardware behind it. Whether a given piece of info falls in this category depends partly on what the user is looking for at any given time. The `bytes free’ information at the bottom of an MS-DOS dir display is tourist information; so (most of the time) is the TIME information in a Unix ps(1) display.
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Node:touristic, Next:[13557]toy, Previous:[13558]tourist information, Up:[13559]= T =

touristic adj.

Having the quality of a [13560]tourist. Often used as a pejorative, as in `losing touristic scum’. Often spelled `turistic’ or `turistik’, so that phrase might be more properly rendered `lusing turistic scum’. _________________________________________________________________
Node:toy, Next:[13561]toy language, Previous:[13562]touristic, Up:[13563]= T =

toy n.

A computer system; always used with qualifiers. 1. `nice toy’: One that supports the speaker’s hacking style adequately. 2. `just a toy’: A machine that yields insufficient [13564]computrons for the speaker’s preferred uses. This is not condemnatory, as is [13565]bitty box; toys can at least be fun. It is also strongly conditioned by one’s expectations; Cray XMP users sometimes consider the Cray-1 a `toy’, and certainly all RISC boxes and mainframes are toys by their standards. See also [13566]Get a real computer!. _________________________________________________________________
Node:toy language, Next:[13567]toy problem, Previous:[13568]toy, Up:[13569]= T =

toy language n.

A language useful for instructional purposes or as a proof-of-concept for some aspect of computer-science theory, but inadequate for general-purpose programming. [13570]Bad Things can result when a toy language is promoted as a general purpose solution for programming (see [13571]bondage-and-discipline language); the classic example is [13572]Pascal. Several moderately well-known formalisms for conceptual tasks such as programming Turing machines also qualify as toy languages in a less negative sense. See also [13573]MFTL. _________________________________________________________________
Node:toy problem, Next:[13574]toy program, Previous:[13575]toy language, Up:[13576]= T =

toy problem n.

[AI] A deliberately oversimplified case of a challenging problem used to investigate, prototype, or test algorithms for a real problem. Sometimes used pejoratively. See also [13577]gedanken, [13578]toy program.
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Node:toy program, Next:[13579]trampoline, Previous:[13580]toy problem, Up:[13581]= T =

toy program n.

1. One that can be readily comprehended; hence, a trivial program (compare [13582]noddy). 2. One for which the effort of initial coding dominates the costs through its life cycle. See also [13583]noddy. _________________________________________________________________
Node:trampoline, Next:[13584]trap, Previous:[13585]toy program, Up:[13586]= T =

trampoline n.

An incredibly [13587]hairy technique, found in some [13588]HLL and program-overlay implementations (e.g., on the Macintosh), that involves on-the-fly generation of small executable (and, likely as not, self-modifying) code objects to do indirection between code sections. Under BSD and possibly in other Unixes, trampoline code is used to transfer control from the kernel back to user mode when a signal (which has had a handler installed) is sent to a process. hese pieces of [13589]live data are called `trampolines’. Trampolines are notoriously difficult to understand in action; in fact, it is said by those who use this term that the trampoline that doesn’t bend your brain is not the true trampoline. See also [13590]snap. _________________________________________________________________
Node:trap, Next:[13591]trap door, Previous:[13592]trampoline, Up:[13593]= T =

trap

1. n. A program interrupt, usually an interrupt caused by some exceptional situation in the user program. In most cases, the OS performs some action, then returns control to the program. 2. vi. To cause a trap. “These instructions trap to the monitor.” Also used transitively to indicate the cause of the trap. “The monitor traps all input/output instructions.”

This term is associated with assembler programming (`interrupt’ or `exception’ is more common among [13594]HLL programmers) and appears to be fading into history among programmers as the role of assembler continues to shrink. However, it is still important to computer architects and systems hackers (see [13595]system, sense 1), who use it to distinguish deterministically repeatable exceptions from timing-dependent ones (such as I/O interrupts). _________________________________________________________________
Node:trap door, Next:[13596]trash, Previous:[13597]trap, Up:[13598]= T =

trap door n.

(alt. `trapdoor’) 1. Syn. [13599]back door — a [13600]Bad Thing. 2. [techspeak] A `trap-door function’ is one which is easy to compute but very difficult to compute the inverse of. Such functions are [13601]Good Things with important applications in cryptography, specifically in the construction of public-key cryptosystems. _________________________________________________________________
Node:trash, Next:[13602]trawl, Previous:[13603]trap door, Up:[13604]= T =

trash vt.

To destroy the contents of (said of a data structure). The most common of the family of near-synonyms including [13605]mung, [13606]mangle, and [13607]scribble.
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Node:trawl, Next:[13608]tree-killer, Previous:[13609]trash, Up:[13610]= T =

trawl v.

To sift through large volumes of data (e.g., Usenet postings, FTP archives, or the Jargon File) looking for something of interest. _________________________________________________________________
Node:tree-killer, Next:[13611]treeware, Previous:[13612]trawl, Up:[13613]= T =

tree-killer n.

[Sun] 1. A printer. 2. A person who wastes paper. This epithet should be interpreted in a broad sense; `wasting paper’ includes the production of [13614]spiffy but [13615]content-free documents. Thus, most [13616]suits are tree-killers. The negative loading of this term may reflect the epithet `tree-killer’ applied by Treebeard the Ent to the Orcs in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” (see also [13617]elvish, [13618]elder days).
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Node:treeware, Next:[13619]trit, Previous:[13620]tree-killer, Up:[13621]= T =

treeware /tree’weir/ n.

Printouts, books, and other information media made from pulped dead trees. Compare [13622]tree-killer, see [13623]documentation. _________________________________________________________________
Node:trit, Next:[13624]trivial, Previous:[13625]treeware, Up:[13626]= T =

trit /trit/ n.

[by analogy with `bit’] One base-3 digit; the amount of information conveyed by a selection among one of three equally likely outcomes (see also [13627]bit). Trits arise, for example, in the context of a [13628]flag that should actually be able to assume three values — such as yes, no, or unknown. Trits are sometimes jokingly called `3-state bits’. A trit may be semi-seriously referred to as `a bit and a half’, although it is linearly equivalent to 1.5849625 bits (that is, log2(3) bits).
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Node:trivial, Next:[13629]troff, Previous:[13630]trit, Up:[13631]= T =
trivial adj.

1. Too simple to bother detailing. 2. Not worth the speaker’s time. 3. Complex, but solvable by methods so well known that anyone not utterly [13632]cretinous would have thought of them already. 4. Any problem one has already solved (some claim that hackish `trivial’ usually evaluates to `I’ve seen it before’). Hackers’ notions of triviality may be quite at variance with those of non-hackers. See [13633]nontrivial, [13634]uninteresting.
The physicist Richard Feynman, who had the hacker nature to an amazing degree (see his essay “Los Alamos From Below” in “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”), defined `trivial theorem’ as “one that has already been proved”.
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Node:troff, Next:[13635]troglodyte, Previous:[13636]trivial, Up:[13637]= T =

troff /T’rof/ or /trof/ n.

[Unix] The gray eminence of Unix text processing; a formatting and phototypesetting program, written originally in PDP-11 assembler and then in barely-structured early C by the late Joseph Ossanna, modeled after the earlier ROFF which was in turn modeled after the [13638]Multics and [13639]CTSS program RUNOFF by Jerome Saltzer (that name came from the expression “to run off a copy”). A companion program, [13640]nroff, formats output for terminals and line printers.
In 1979, Brian Kernighan modified troff so that it could drive phototypesetters other than the Graphic Systems CAT. His paper describing that work (“A Typesetter-independent troff,” AT&T CSTR #97) explains troff’s durability. After discussing the program’s “obvious deficiencies — a rebarbative input syntax, mysterious and undocumented properties in some areas, and a voracious appetite for computer resources” and noting the ugliness and extreme hairiness of the code and internals, Kernighan concludes:
None of these remarks should be taken as denigrating Ossanna’s accomplishment with TROFF. It has proven a remarkably robust tool, taking unbelievable abuse from a variety of preprocessors and being forced into uses that were never conceived of in the original design, all with considerable grace under fire.
The success of [13641]TeX and desktop publishing systems have reduced troff’s relative importance, but this tribute perfectly captures the strengths that secured troff a place in hacker folklore; indeed, it could be taken more generally as an indication of those qualities of good programs that, in the long run, hackers most admire. _________________________________________________________________
Node:troglodyte, Next:[13642]troglodyte mode, Previous:[13643]troff, Up:[13644]= T =

troglodyte n.

[Commodore] 1. A hacker who never leaves his cubicle. The term `gnoll’ (from Dungeons & Dragons) is also reported. 2. A curmudgeon attached to an obsolescent computing environment. The combination `ITS troglodyte’ was flung around some during the Usenet and email wringle-wrangle attending the 2.x.x revision of the Jargon File; at least one of the people it was intended to describe adopted it with pride.
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Node:troglodyte mode, Next:[13645]Trojan horse, Previous:[13646]troglodyte, Up:[13647]= T =
troglodyte mode n.

[Rice University] Programming with the lights turned off, sunglasses on, and the terminal inverted (black on white) because you’ve been up for so many days straight that your eyes hurt (see [13648]raster burn). Loud music blaring from a stereo stacked in the corner is optional but recommended. See [13649]larval stage, [13650]hack mode. _________________________________________________________________
Node:Trojan horse, Next:[13651]troll, Previous:[13652]troglodyte mode, Up:[13653]= T =

Trojan horse n.

[coined by MIT-hacker-turned-NSA-spook Dan Edwards] A malicious, security-breaking program that is disguised as something benign, such as a directory lister, archiver, game, or (in one notorious 1990 case on the Mac) a program to find and destroy viruses! See [13654]back door, [13655]virus, [13656]worm, [13657]phage, [13658]mockingbird. _________________________________________________________________
Node:troll, Next:[13659]Troll-O-Meter, Previous:[13660]Trojan horse, Up:[13661]= T =

troll v.,n.

1. [From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To utter a posting on [13662]Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or [13663]flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase “trolling for [13664]newbies” which in turn comes from mainstream “trolling”, a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll. If you don’t fall for the joke, you get to be in on it. See also [13665]YHBT. 2. An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1; regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by the fact that the have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand – they simply want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming characteristics, and as such, they are recognized as a lower form of life on the net, as in, “Oh, ignore him, he’s just a troll.” 3. [Berkeley] Computer lab monitor. A popular campus job for CS students. Duties include helping newbies and ensuring that lab policies are followed. Probably so-called because it involves lurking in dark cavelike corners.

Some people claim that the troll (sense 1) is properly a narrower category than [13666]flame bait, that a troll is categorized by containing some assertion that is wrong but not overtly controversial. See also [13667]Troll-O-Meter.

The use of `troll’ in either sense is a live metaphor that readily produces elaborations and combining forms. For example, one not infrequently sees the warning “Do not feed the troll” as part of a followup to troll postings.
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Node:Troll-O-Meter, Next:[13668]tron, Previous:[13669]troll, Up:[13670]= T =

Troll-O-Meter n.

Common Usenet jargon for a notional instrument used to measure the quality of a Usenet [13671]troll. “Come on, everyone! If the above doesn’t set off the Troll-O-Meter, we’re going to have to get him to run around with a big blinking sign saying `I am a troll, I’m only in it for the controversy and flames’ and shooting random gobs of Jell-O(tm) at us before the point is proven.” Mentions of the Troll-O-Meter are often accompanied by an ASCII picture of an arrow pointing at a numeric scale. Compare [13672]bogometer. _________________________________________________________________
Node:tron, Next:[13673]true-hacker, Previous:[13674]Troll-O-Meter, Up:[13675]= T =

tron v.

[NRL, CMU; prob. fr. the movie “Tron”] To become inaccessible except via email or talk(1), especially when one is normally available via telephone or in person. Frequently used in the past tense, as in: “Ran seems to have tronned on us this week” or “Gee, Ran, glad you were able to un-tron yourself”. One may also speak of `tron mode’; compare [13676]spod.

Note that many dialects of BASIC have a TRON/TROFF command pair that enables/disables line number tracing; this has no obvious relationship to the slang usage.
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Node:true-hacker, Next:[13677]tty, Previous:[13678]tron, Up:[13679]= T =

true-hacker n.

[analogy with `trufan’ from SF fandom] One who exemplifies the primary values of hacker culture, esp. competence and helpfulness to other hackers. A high compliment. “He spent 6 hours helping me bring up UUCP and netnews on my FOOBAR 4000 last week — manifestly the act of a true-hacker.” Compare [13680]demigod, oppose [13681]munchkin. _________________________________________________________________
Node:tty, Next:[13682]tube, Previous:[13683]true-hacker, Up:[13684]= T =

tty /T-T-Y/, /tit’ee/ n.

The latter pronunciation was primarily ITS, but some Unix people say it this way as well; this pronunciation is not considered to have sexual undertones. 1. A terminal of the teletype variety, characterized by a noisy mechanical printer, a very limited character set, and poor print quality. Usage: antiquated (like the TTYs themselves). See also [13685]bit-paired keyboard. 2. [especially Unix] Any terminal at all; sometimes used to refer to the particular terminal controlling a given job. 3. [Unix] Any serial port, whether or not the device connected to it is a terminal; so called because under Unix such devices have names of the form tty*. Ambiguity between senses 2 and 3 is common but seldom bothersome. _________________________________________________________________
Node:tube, Next:[13686]tube time, Previous:[13687]tty, Up:[13688]= T =
tube

1. n. A CRT terminal. Never used in the mainstream sense of TV; real hackers don’t watch TV, except for Loony Toons, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Trek Classic, the Simpsons, and the occasional cheesy old swashbuckler movie. 2. [IBM] To send a copy of something to someone else’s terminal. “Tube me that note?”
_________________________________________________________________
Node:tube time, Next:[13689]tunafish, Previous:[13690]tube, Up:[13691]= T =

tube time n.

Time spent at a terminal or console. More inclusive than hacking time; commonly used in discussions of what parts of one’s environment one uses most heavily. “I find I’m spending too much of my tube time reading mail since I started this revision.” _________________________________________________________________
Node:tunafish, Next:[13692]tune, Previous:[13693]tube time, Up:[13694]= T =

tunafish n.

In hackish lore, refers to the mutated punchline of an age-old joke to be found at the bottom of the manual pages of tunefs(8) in the original [13695]BSD 4.2 distribution. The joke was removed in later releases once commercial sites started using 4.2, but apparently restored on the 4.4BSD tape and in {Net,Free,Open}BSD. Tunefs relates to the `tuning’ of file-system parameters for optimum performance, and at the bottom of a few pages of wizardly inscriptions was a `BUGS’ section consisting of the line “You can tune a file system, but you can’t tunafish”. Variants of this can be seen in other BSD versions, though it has been excised from some versions by humorless management [13696]droids. The [nt]roff source for SunOS 4.1.1 contains a comment apparently designed to prevent this: “Take this out and a Unix Demon will dog your steps from now until the time_t’s wrap around.”
[It has since been pointed out that indeed you can tunafish. Usually at a canning factory… –ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:tune, Next:[13697]turbo nerd, Previous:[13698]tunafish, Up:[13699]= T =

tune vt.

[from automotive or musical usage] To optimize a program or system for a particular environment, esp. by adjusting numerical parameters designed as [13700]hooks for tuning, e.g., by changing #define lines in C. One may `tune for time’ (fastest execution), `tune for space’ (least memory use), or `tune for configuration’ (most efficient use of hardware). See [13701]bum, [13702]hot spot, [13703]hand-hacking. _________________________________________________________________
Node:turbo nerd, Next:[13704]Turing tar-pit, Previous:[13705]tune, Up:[13706]= T =

turbo nerd n.

See [13707]computer geek.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Turing tar-pit, Next:[13708]turist, Previous:[13709]turbo nerd, Up:[13710]= T =

Turing tar-pit n.

1. A place where anything is possible but nothing of interest is practical. Alan Turing helped lay the foundations of computer science by showing that all machines and languages capable of expressing a certain very primitive set of operations are logically equivalent in the kinds of computations they can carry out, and in principle have capabilities that differ only in speed from those of the most powerful and elegantly designed computers. However, no machine or language exactly matching Turing’s primitive set has ever been built (other than possibly as a classroom exercise), because it would be horribly slow and far too painful to use. A `Turing tar-pit’ is any computer language or other tool that shares this property. That is, it’s theoretically universal — but in practice, the harder you struggle to get any real work done, the deeper its inadequacies suck you in. Compare [13711]bondage-and-discipline language. 2. The perennial [13712]holy wars over whether language A or B is the “most powerful”. _________________________________________________________________
Node:turist, Next:[13713]Tux, Previous:[13714]Turing tar-pit, Up:[13715]= T =

turist /too’rist/ n.

Var. sp. of [13716]tourist, q.v. Also in adjectival form, `turistic’. Poss. influenced by [13717]luser and `Turing’. _________________________________________________________________
Node:Tux, Next:[13718]tweak, Previous:[13719]turist, Up:[13720]= T =
Tux

Tux the Penguin is the official emblem of [13721]Linux, This eventuated after a logo contest in 1996, during which Linus Torvalds endorsed the idea of a penguin logo in a couple of famously funny [13722]postings. Linus explained that he was once bitten by a killer penguin in Australia and has felt a special affinity for the species ever since. (Linus has since admitted that he was also thinking of Feathers McGraw, the evil-genius penguin jewel thief who appeared in a Wallace & Grommit feature cartoon, “The Wrong Trousers”.)
Larry Ewing [13723]designed the official Tux logo. It has proved a wise choice, amenable to hundreds of recognizable variations used as emblems of Linux-related projects, products, and user groups. In fact, Tux has spawned an entire mythology, of which the [13724]Gospel According to Tux and the mock-epic poem “Tuxowolf” are among the best-known examples.

There is a `real’ Tux – a black-footed penguin resident at the Bristol Zoo. Several friends of Linux bought a zoo sponsorship for Linus as a birthday present in 1996.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:tweak, Next:[13725]tweeter, Previous:[13726]Tux, Up:[13727]= T =
tweak vt.

1. To change slightly, usually in reference to a value. Also used synonymously with [13728]twiddle. If a program is almost correct, rather than figure out the precise problem you might just keep tweaking it until it works. See [13729]frobnicate and [13730]fudge factor; also see [13731]shotgun debugging. 2. To [13732]tune or [13733]bum a program; preferred usage in the U.K. _________________________________________________________________
Node:tweeter, Next:[13734]TWENEX, Previous:[13735]tweak, Up:[13736]= T =

tweeter n.

[University of Waterloo] Syn. [13737]perf, [13738]chad (sense 1). This term (like [13739]woofer) has been in use at Waterloo since 1972 but is elsewhere unknown. In audio jargon, the word refers to the treble speaker(s) on a hi-fi.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:TWENEX, Next:[13740]twiddle, Previous:[13741]tweeter, Up:[13742]= T =

TWENEX /twe’neks/ n.

The TOPS-20 operating system by [13743]DEC — the second proprietary OS for the PDP-10 — preferred by most PDP-10 hackers over TOPS-10 (that is, by those who were not [13744]ITS or [13745]WAITS partisans). TOPS-20 began in 1969 as Bolt, Beranek & Newman’s TENEX operating system using special paging hardware. By the early 1970s, almost all of the systems on the ARPANET ran TENEX. DEC purchased the rights to TENEX from BBN and began work to make it their own. The first in-house code name for the operating system was VIROS (VIRtual memory Operating System); when customers started asking questions, the name was changed to SNARK so DEC could truthfully deny that there was any project called VIROS. When the name SNARK became known, the name was briefly reversed to become KRANS; this was quickly abandoned when someone objected that `krans’ meant `funeral wreath’ in Swedish (though some Swedish speakers have since said it means simply `wreath’; this part of the story may be apocryphal). Ultimately DEC picked TOPS-20 as the name of the operating system, and it was as TOPS-20 that it was marketed. The hacker community, mindful of its origins, quickly dubbed it TWENEX (a contraction of `twenty TENEX’), even though by this point very little of the original TENEX code remained (analogously to the differences between AT&T V6 Unix and BSD). DEC people cringed when they heard “TWENEX”, but the term caught on nevertheless (the written abbreviation `20x’ was also used). TWENEX was successful and very popular; in fact, there was a period in the early 1980s when it commanded as fervent a culture of partisans as Unix or ITS — but DEC’s decision to scrap all the internal rivals to the VAX architecture and its relatively stodgy VMS OS killed the DEC-20 and put a sad end to TWENEX’s brief day in the sun. DEC attempted to convince TOPS-20 users to convert to [13746]VMS, but instead, by the late 1980s, most of the TOPS-20 hackers had migrated to Unix. _________________________________________________________________
Node:twiddle, Next:[13747]twilight zone, Previous:[13748]TWENEX, Up:[13749]= T =

twiddle n.

1. Tilde (ASCII 1111110, ~). Also called `squiggle’, `sqiggle’ (sic — pronounced /skig’l/), and `twaddle’, but twiddle is the most common term. 2. A small and insignificant change to a program. Usually fixes one bug and generates several new ones (see also [13750]shotgun debugging). 3. vt. To change something in a small way. Bits, for example, are often twiddled. Twiddling a switch or [13751]knobs implies much less sense of purpose than toggling or tweaking it; see [13752]frobnicate. To speak of twiddling a bit connotes aimlessness, and at best doesn’t specify what you’re doing to the bit; `toggling a bit’ has a more specific meaning (see [13753]bit twiddling, [13754]toggle). 4. Uncommon name for the [13755]twirling baton prompt. _________________________________________________________________
Node:twilight zone, Next:[13756]twink, Previous:[13757]twiddle, Up:[13758]= T =

twilight zone n. //

[IRC] Notionally, the area of cyberspace where [13759]IRC operators live. An [13760]op is said to have a “connection to the twilight zone”.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:twink, Next:[13761]twirling baton, Previous:[13762]twilight zone, Up:[13763]= T =

twink /twink/ n.

1. [Berkeley] A clue-repellant user; the next step beyond a clueless one. 2. [UCSC] A [13764]read-only user. Also reported on the Usenet group soc.motss; may derive from gay slang for a cute young thing with nothing upstairs (compare mainstream `chick’). _________________________________________________________________
Node:twirling baton, Next:[13765]two pi, Previous:[13766]twink, Up:[13767]= T =

twirling baton n.

[PLATO] The overstrike sequence -/|\-/|\- which produces an animated twirling baton. If you output it with a single backspace between characters, the baton spins in place. If you output the sequence BS SP between characters, the baton spins from left to right. If you output BS SP BS BS between characters, the baton spins from right to left. This is also occasionally called a twiddle prompt.
The twirling baton was a popular component of animated signature files on the pioneering PLATO educational timesharing system. The archie Internet service is perhaps the best-known baton program today; it uses the twirling baton as an idler indicating that the program is working on a query. The twirling baton is also used as a boot progress indicator on several BSD variants of Unix; if it stops you’re probably going to have a long and trying day.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:two pi, Next:[13768]two-to-the-N, Previous:[13769]twirling baton, Up:[13770]= T =

two pi quant.

The number of years it takes to finish one’s thesis. Occurs in stories in the following form: “He started on his thesis; 2 pi years later…” _________________________________________________________________
Node:two-to-the-N, Next:[13771]twonkie, Previous:[13772]two pi, Up:[13773]= T =

two-to-the-N quant.

An amount much larger than [13774]N but smaller than [13775]infinity. “I have 2-to-the-N things to do before I can go out for lunch” means you probably won’t show up.
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Node:twonkie, Next:[13776]u-, Previous:[13777]two-to-the-N, Up:[13778]= T =

twonkie /twon’kee/ n.

The software equivalent of a Twinkie (a variety of sugar-loaded junk food, or (in gay slang with a small t) the male equivalent of `chick’); a useless `feature’ added to look sexy and placate a [13779]marketroid (compare [13780]Saturday-night special). The term may also be related to “The Twonky”, title menace of a classic SF short story by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore), first published in the September 1942 “Astounding Science Fiction” and subsequently much anthologized.
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Node:= U =, Next:[13781]= V =, Previous:[13782]= T =, Up:[13783]The Jargon Lexicon

= U =

* [13784]u-:
* [13785]UBD:
* [13786]UBE:
* [13787]UCE:
* [13788]UDP:
* [13789]UN*X:
* [13790]undefined external reference: * [13791]under the hood:
* [13792]undocumented feature:
* [13793]uninteresting:
* [13794]Unix:
* [13795]Unix brain damage:
* [13796]Unix conspiracy:
* [13797]Unix weenie:
* [13798]unixism:
* [13799]unswizzle:
* [13800]unwind the stack:
* [13801]unwind-protect:
* [13802]up:
* [13803]upload:
* [13804]upthread:
* [13805]urchin:
* [13806]URL:
* [13807]Usenet:
* [13808]Usenet Death Penalty:
* [13809]user:
* [13810]user-friendly:
* [13811]user-obsequious:
* [13812]userland:
* [13813]USG Unix:
* [13814]UTSL:
* [13815]UUCPNET:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:u-, Next:[13816]UBD, Previous:[13817]twonkie, Up:[13818]= U =
u- pref.

Written shorthand for [13819]micro-; techspeak when applied to metric units, jargon when used otherwise. Derived from the Greek letter “mu”, the first letter of “micro” (and which letter looks a lot like the English letter “u”).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:UBD, Next:[13820]UBE, Previous:[13821]u-, Up:[13822]= U =
UBD /U-B-D/ n.

[abbreviation for `User Brain Damage’] An abbreviation used to close out trouble reports obviously due to utter cluelessness on the user’s part. Compare [13823]pilot error; oppose [13824]PBD; see also [13825]brain-damaged.
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Node:UBE, Next:[13826]UCE, Previous:[13827]UBD, Up:[13828]= U =
UBE // n.

[abbrev., Unsoliclited Bulk Email] A widespread, more formal term for email [13829]spam. Compare [13830]UCE. The UBE term recognizes that spam is uttered by nonprofit and advocacy groups whose motives are not commercial.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:UCE, Next:[13831]UDP, Previous:[13832]UBE, Up:[13833]= U =
UCE n.

[abbrev., Unsolicited Commercial Email] A widespread, more formal term for email [13834]spam. Compare [13835]UBE, which may be superseding it.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:UDP, Next:[13836]UN*X, Previous:[13837]UCE, Up:[13838]= U =
UDP /U-D-P/ v.,n.

[Usenet] Abbreviation for [13839]Usenet Death Penalty. Common (probably now more so than the full form), and frequently verbed. Compare [13840]IDP.
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Node:UN*X, Next:[13841]undefined external reference, Previous:[13842]UDP, Up:[13843]= U =

UN*X n.

Used to refer to the Unix operating system (a trademark of AT&T, then of Novell, then of SCO, and then of Caldera) in writing, but avoiding the need for the ugly [13844](TM) typography. Also used to refer to any or all varieties of Unixoid operating systems. Ironically, lawyers now say that the requirement for the trademark postfix has no legal force, but the asterisk usage is entrenched anyhow. It has been suggested that there may be a psychological connection to practice in certain religions (especially Judaism) in which the name of the deity is never written out in full, e.g., `YHWH’ or `G-d’ is used. See also [13845]glob and [13846]splat out.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:undefined external reference, Next:[13847]under the hood, Previous:[13848]UN*X, Up:[13849]= U =

undefined external reference excl.
[Unix] A message from Unix’s linker. Used in speech to flag loose ends or dangling references in an argument or discussion. _________________________________________________________________
Node:under the hood, Next:[13850]undocumented feature, Previous:[13851]undefined external reference, Up:[13852]= U =
under the hood adj.

[hot-rodder talk] 1. Used to introduce the underlying implementation of a product (hardware, software, or idea). Implies that the implementation is not intuitively obvious from the appearance, but the speaker is about to enable the listener to [13853]grok it. “Let’s now look under the hood to see how ….” 2. Can also imply that the implementation is much simpler than the appearance would indicate: “Under the hood, we are just fork/execing the shell.” 3. Inside a chassis, as in “Under the hood, this baby has a 40MHz 68030!” _________________________________________________________________
Node:undocumented feature, Next:[13854]uninteresting, Previous:[13855]under the hood, Up:[13856]= U =
undocumented feature n.

See [13857]feature.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:uninteresting, Next:[13858]Unix, Previous:[13859]undocumented feature, Up:[13860]= U =

uninteresting adj.

1. Said of a problem that, although [13861]nontrivial, can be solved simply by throwing sufficient resources at it. 2. Also said of problems for which a solution would neither advance the state of the art nor be fun to design and code.

Hackers regard uninteresting problems as intolerable wastes of time, to be solved (if at all) by lesser mortals. Real hackers (see [13862]toolsmith) generalize uninteresting problems enough to make them interesting and solve them — thus solving the original problem as a special case (and, it must be admitted, occasionally turning a molehill into a mountain, or a mountain into a tectonic plate). See [13863]WOMBAT, [13864]SMOP; compare [13865]toy problem, oppose [13866]interesting.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Unix, Next:[13867]Unix brain damage, Previous:[13868]uninteresting, Up:[13869]= U =
Unix /yoo’niks/ n.

[In the authors’ words, “A weak pun on Multics”; very early on it was `UNICS’] (also `UNIX’) An interactive time-sharing system invented in 1969 by Ken Thompson after Bell Labs left the Multics project, originally so he could play games on his scavenged PDP-7. Dennis Ritchie, the inventor of C, is considered a co-author of the system. The turning point in Unix’s history came when it was reimplemented almost entirely in C during 1972-1974, making it the first source-portable OS. Unix subsequently underwent mutations and expansions at the hands of many different people, resulting in a uniquely flexible and developer-friendly environment. By 1991, Unix had become the most widely used multiuser general-purpose operating system in the world – and since 1996 the variiant called [13870]Linux has been at the cutting edge of the [13871]open source movement. Many people consider the success of Unix the most important victory yet of hackerdom over industry opposition (but see [13872]Unix weenie and [13873]Unix conspiracy for an opposing point of view). See [13874]Version 7, [13875]BSD, [13876]USG Unix, [13877]Linux.
Some people are confused over whether this word is appropriately `UNIX’ or `Unix’; both forms are common, and used interchangeably. Dennis Ritchie says that the `UNIX’ spelling originally happened in CACM’s 1974 paper “The UNIX Time-Sharing System” because “we had a new typesetter and [13878]troff had just been invented and we were intoxicated by being able to produce small caps.” Later, dmr tried to get the spelling changed to `Unix’ in a couple of Bell Labs papers, on the grounds that the word is not acronymic. He failed, and eventually (his words) “wimped out” on the issue. So, while the trademark today is `UNIX’, both capitalizations are grounded in ancient usage; the Jargon File uses `Unix’ in deference to dmr’s wishes. _________________________________________________________________
Node:Unix brain damage, Next:[13879]Unix conspiracy, Previous:[13880]Unix, Up:[13881]= U =

Unix brain damage n.

Something that has to be done to break a network program (typically a mailer) on a non-Unix system so that it will interoperate with Unix systems. The hack may qualify as `Unix brain damage’ if the program conforms to published standards and the Unix program in question does not. Unix brain damage happens because it is much easier for other (minority) systems to change their ways to match non-conforming behavior than it is to change all the hundreds of thousands of Unix systems out there.

An example of Unix brain damage is a [13882]kluge in a mail server to recognize bare line feed (the Unix newline) as an equivalent form to the Internet standard newline, which is a carriage return followed by a line feed. Such things can make even a hardened [13883]jock weep. _________________________________________________________________
Node:Unix conspiracy, Next:[13884]Unix weenie, Previous:[13885]Unix brain damage, Up:[13886]= U =

Unix conspiracy n.

[ITS] According to a conspiracy theory long popular among [13887]ITS and [13888]TOPS-20 fans, Unix’s growth is the result of a plot, hatched during the 1970s at Bell Labs, whose intent was to hobble AT&T’s competitors by making them dependent upon a system whose future evolution was to be under AT&T’s control. This would be accomplished by disseminating an operating system that is apparently inexpensive and easily portable, but also relatively unreliable and insecure (so as to require continuing upgrades from AT&T). This theory was lent a substantial impetus in 1984 by the paper referenced in the [13889]back door entry.

In this view, Unix was designed to be one of the first computer viruses (see [13890]virus) — but a virus spread to computers indirectly by people and market forces, rather than directly through disks and networks. Adherents of this `Unix virus’ theory like to cite the fact that the well-known quotation “Unix is snake oil” was uttered by [13891]DEC president Kenneth Olsen shortly before DEC began actively promoting its own family of Unix workstations. (Olsen now claims to have been misquoted.)

[If there was ever such a conspiracy, it got thoroughly out of the plotters’ control after 1990. AT&T sold its UNIX operation to Novell around the same time [13892]Linux and other free-UNIX distributions were beginning to make noise. –ESR]
_________________________________________________________________
Node:Unix weenie, Next:[13893]unixism, Previous:[13894]Unix conspiracy, Up:[13895]= U =

Unix weenie n.

[ITS] 1. A derogatory play on `Unix wizard’, common among hackers who use Unix by necessity but would prefer alternatives. The implication is that although the person in question may consider mastery of Unix arcana to be a wizardly skill, the only real skill involved is the ability to tolerate (and the bad taste to wallow in) the incoherence and needless complexity that is alleged to infest many Unix programs. “This shell script tries to parse its arguments in 69 bletcherous ways. It must have been written by a real Unix weenie.” 2. A derogatory term for anyone who engages in uncritical praise of Unix. Often appearing in the context “stupid Unix weenie”. See [13896]Weenix, [13897]Unix conspiracy. See also [13898]weenie. _________________________________________________________________
Node:unixism, Next:[13899]unswizzle, Previous:[13900]Unix weenie, Up:[13901]= U =

unixism n.

A piece of code or a coding technique that depends on the protected multi-tasking environment with relatively low process-spawn overhead that exists on virtual-memory Unix systems. Common [13902]unixisms include: gratuitous use of fork(2); the assumption that certain undocumented but well-known features of Unix libraries such as stdio(3) are supported elsewhere; reliance on [13903]obscure side-effects of system calls (use of sleep(2) with a 0 argument to clue the scheduler that you’re willing to give up your time-slice, for example); the assumption that freshly allocated memory is zeroed; and the assumption that fragmentation problems won’t arise from never free()ing memory. Compare [13904]vaxocentrism; see also [13905]New Jersey.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:unswizzle, Next:[13906]unwind the stack, Previous:[13907]unixism, Up:[13908]= U =

unswizzle v.

See [13909]swizzle.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:unwind the stack, Next:[13910]unwind-protect, Previous:[13911]unswizzle, Up:[13912]= U =
unwind the stack vi.

1. [techspeak] During the execution of a procedural language, one is said to `unwind the stack’ from a called procedure up to a caller when one discards the stack frame and any number of frames above it, popping back up to the level of the given caller. In C this is done with longjmp/setjmp, in LISP or C++ with throw/catch. See also [13913]smash the stack. 2. People can unwind the stack as well, by quickly dealing with a bunch of problems: “Oh heck, let’s do lunch. Just a second while I unwind my stack.” _________________________________________________________________
Node:unwind-protect, Next:[13914]up, Previous:[13915]unwind the stack, Up:[13916]= U =

unwind-protect n.

[MIT: from the name of a LISP operator] A task you must remember to perform before you leave a place or finish a project. “I have an unwind-protect to call my advisor.”
_________________________________________________________________
Node:up, Next:[13917]upload, Previous:[13918]unwind-protect, Up:[13919]= U =

up adj.

1. Working, in order. “The down escalator is up.” Oppose [13920]down. 2. `bring up’: vt. To create a working version and start it. “They brought up a down system.” 3. `come up’ vi. To become ready for production use.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:upload, Next:[13921]upthread, Previous:[13922]up, Up:[13923]= U =
upload /uhp’lohd/ v.

1. [techspeak] To transfer programs or data over a digital communications link from a system near you (espercially a smaller or peripheral `client’ system) to one further away from you (especially a larger or central `host’ system). A transfer in the other direction is, of course, called a [13924]download 2. [speculatively] To move the essential patterns and algorithms that make up one’s mind from one’s brain into a computer. Those who are convinced that such patterns and algorithms capture the complete essence of the self view this prospect with pleasant anticipation.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:upthread, Next:[13925]urchin, Previous:[13926]upload, Up:[13927]= U =

upthread adv.

Earlier in the discussion (see [13928]thread), i.e., `above’. “As Joe pointed out upthread, …” See also [13929]followup. _________________________________________________________________
Node:urchin, Next:[13930]URL, Previous:[13931]upthread, Up:[13932]= U =

urchin n.

See [13933]munchkin.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:URL, Next:[13934]Usenet, Previous:[13935]urchin, Up:[13936]= U =
URL /U-R-L/ or /erl/ n.

Uniform Resource Locator, an address widget that identifies a document or resource on the World Wide Web. This entry is here primarily to record the fact that the term is commonly pronounced both /erl/, and /U-R-L/ (the latter predominates in more formal contexts). _________________________________________________________________
Node:Usenet, Next:[13937]Usenet Death Penalty, Previous:[13938]URL, Up:[13939]= U =

Usenet /yoos’net/ or /yooz’net/ n.
[from `Users’ Network’; the original spelling was USENET, but the mixed-case form is now widely preferred] A distributed [13940]bboard (bulletin board) system supported mainly by Unix machines. Originally implemented in 1979-1980 by Steve Bellovin, Jim Ellis, Tom Truscott, and Steve Daniel at Duke University, it has swiftly grown to become international in scope and is now probably the largest decentralized information utility in existence. As of early 1996, it hosts over 10,000 [13941]newsgroups and an average of over 500 megabytes (the equivalent of several thousand paper pages) of new technical articles, news, discussion, chatter, and [13942]flamage every day (and that leaves out the graphics…).

By the year the Internet hit the mainstream (1994) the original UUCP transport for Usenet was fading out of use (see [13943]UUCPNET) – almost all Usenet connections were over Internet links. A lot of newbies and journalists began to refer to “Internet newsgroups” as though Usenet was and always had been just another Internet service. This ignorance greatly annoys experienced Usenetters. _________________________________________________________________
Node:Usenet Death Penalty, Next:[13944]user, Previous:[13945]Usenet, Up:[13946]= U =

Usenet Death Penalty

[Usenet] A sanction against sites that habitually spew Usenet [13947]spam. This can be either passive or active. A passive UDP refers to the dropping of all postings by a particular domain so as to inhibit propagation. An active UDP refers to third-party cancellation of all postings by the UDPed domain. A partial UDP is one which applies only to certain newsgroups or hierarchies in Usenet. Compare [13948]Internet Death Penalty, with which this term is sometimes confused.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:user, Next:[13949]user-friendly, Previous:[13950]Usenet Death Penalty, Up:[13951]= U =

user n.

1. Someone doing `real work’ with the computer, using it as a means rather than an end. Someone who pays to use a computer. See [13952]real user. 2. A programmer who will believe anything you tell him. One who asks silly questions. [GLS observes: This is slightly unfair. It is true that users ask questions (of necessity). Sometimes they are thoughtful or deep. Very often they are annoying or downright stupid, apparently because the user failed to think for two seconds or look in the documentation before bothering the maintainer.] See [13953]luser. 3. Someone who uses a program from the outside, however skillfully, without getting into the internals of the program. One who reports bugs instead of just going ahead and fixing them.
The general theory behind this term is that there are two classes of people who work with a program: there are implementors (hackers) and [13954]lusers. The users are looked down on by hackers to some extent because they don’t understand the full ramifications of the system in all its glory. (The few users who do are known as `real winners’.) The term is a relative one: a skilled hacker may be a user with respect to some program he himself does not hack. A LISP hacker might be one who maintains LISP or one who uses LISP (but with the skill of a hacker). A LISP user is one who uses LISP, whether skillfully or not. Thus there is some overlap between the two terms; the subtle distinctions must be resolved by context.
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Node:user-friendly, Next:[13955]user-obsequious, Previous:[13956]user, Up:[13957]= U =

user-friendly adj.

Programmer-hostile. Generally used by hackers in a critical tone, to describe systems that hold the user’s hand so obsessively that they make it painful for the more experienced and knowledgeable to get any work done. See [13958]menuitis, [13959]drool-proof paper, [13960]Macintrash, [13961]user-obsequious. _________________________________________________________________
Node:user-obsequious, Next:[13962]userland, Previous:[13963]user-friendly, Up:[13964]= U =
user-obsequious adj.

Emphatic form of [13965]user-friendly. Connotes a system so verbose, inflexible, and determinedly simple-minded that it is nearly unusable. “Design a system any fool can use and only a fool will want to use it.” See [13966]WIMP environment, [13967]Macintrash. _________________________________________________________________
Node:userland, Next:[13968]USG Unix, Previous:[13969]user-obsequious, Up:[13970]= U =

userland n.

Anywhere outside the kernel. “That code belongs in userland.” This term has been in common use among [13971]Linux kernel hackers since at leat 1997, and seems to have originated in that community. _________________________________________________________________
Node:USG Unix, Next:[13972]UTSL, Previous:[13973]userland, Up:[13974]= U =

USG Unix /U-S-G yoo’niks/ n.,obs.
Refers to AT&T Unix commercial versions after [13975]Version 7, especially System III and System V releases 1, 2, and 3. So called because during most of the lifespan of those versions AT&T’s support crew was called the `Unix Support Group’, but it is applied to version that pre- and post-dated the USG group but were of the same lineage. This term is now historical. See [13976]BSD, [13977]Unix. _________________________________________________________________
Node:UTSL, Next:[13978]UUCPNET, Previous:[13979]USG Unix, Up:[13980]= U =

UTSL // n.

[Unix] On-line acronym for `Use the Source, Luke’ (a pun on Obi-Wan Kenobi’s “Use the Force, Luke!” in “Star Wars”) — analogous to [13981]RTFS (sense 1), but more polite. This is a common way of suggesting that someone would be better off reading the source code that supports whatever feature is causing confusion, rather than making yet another futile pass through the manuals, or broadcasting questions on Usenet that haven’t attracted [13982]wizards to answer them.

Once upon a time in [13983]elder days, everyone running Unix had source. After 1978, AT&T’s policy tightened up, so this objurgation was in theory appropriately directed only at associates of some outfit with a Unix source license. In practice, bootlegs of Unix source code (made precisely for reference purposes) were so ubiquitous that one could utter it at almost anyone on the network without concern.
Nowadays, free Unix clones have become widely enough distributed that anyone can read source legally. The most widely distributed is certainly Linux, with variants of the NET/2 and 4.4BSD distributions running second. Cheap commercial Unixes with source such as BSD/OS are accelerating this trend.
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Node:UUCPNET, Next:[13984]V7, Previous:[13985]UTSL, Up:[13986]= U =
UUCPNET n. obs.

The store-and-forward network consisting of all the world’s connected Unix machines (and others running some clone of the UUCP (Unix-to-Unix CoPy) software). Any machine reachable only via a [13987]bang path is on UUCPNET. This term has been rendered obsolescent by the spread of cheap Internet connections in the 1990s; the few remaining UUCP links are essentially slow channels to the Internet rather than an autonomous network. See [13988]network address. _________________________________________________________________
Node:= V =, Next:[13989]= W =, Previous:[13990]= U =, Up:[13991]The Jargon Lexicon

= V =

* [13992]V7:
* [13993]vadding:
* [13994]vanilla:
* [13995]vanity domain:
* [13996]vannevar:
* [13997]vaporware:
* [13998]var:
* [13999]vaston:
* [14000]VAX:
* [14001]VAXectomy:
* [14002]VAXen:
* [14003]vaxherd:
* [14004]vaxism:
* [14005]vaxocentrism:
* [14006]vdiff:
* [14007]veeblefester:
* [14008]velveeta:
* [14009]ventilator card:
* [14010]Venus flytrap:
* [14011]verbage:
* [14012]verbiage:
* [14013]Version 7:
* [14014]vgrep:
* [14015]vi:
* [14016]video toaster:
* [14017]videotex:
* [14018]virgin:
* [14019]virtual:
* [14020]virtual beer:
* [14021]virtual Friday:
* [14022]virtual reality:
* [14023]virtual shredder:
* [14024]virus:
* [14025]visionary:
* [14026]VMS:
* [14027]voice:
* [14028]voice-net:
* [14029]voodoo programming:
* [14030]VR:
* [14031]Vulcan nerve pinch:
* [14032]vulture capitalist:
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Node:V7, Next:[14033]vadding, Previous:[14034]UUCPNET, Up:[14035]= V =
V7 /V’sev’en/ n.

See [14036]Version 7.
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Node:vadding, Next:[14037]vanilla, Previous:[14038]V7, Up:[14039]= V =
vadding /vad’ing/ n.

[from VAD, a permutation of ADV (i.e., [14040]ADVENT), used to avoid a particular [14041]admin’s continual search-and-destroy sweeps for the game] A leisure-time activity of certain hackers involving the covert exploration of the `secret’ parts of large buildings — basements, roofs, freight elevators, maintenance crawlways, steam tunnels, and the like. A few go so far as to learn locksmithing in order to synthesize vadding keys. The verb is `to vad’ (compare [14042]phreaking; see also [14043]hack, sense 9). This term dates from the late 1970s, before which such activity was simply called `hacking’; the older usage is still prevalent at MIT.
The most extreme and dangerous form of vadding is `elevator rodeo’, a.k.a. `elevator surfing’, a sport played by wrasslin’ down a thousand-pound elevator car with a 3-foot piece of string, and then exploiting this mastery in various stimulating ways (such as elevator hopping, shaft exploration, rat-racing, and the ever-popular drop experiments). Kids, don’t try this at home! See also [14044]hobbit (sense 2).
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Node:vanilla, Next:[14045]vanity domain, Previous:[14046]vadding, Up:[14047]= V =

vanilla adj.

[from the default flavor of ice cream in the U.S.] Ordinary [14048]flavor, standard. When used of food, very often does not mean that the food is flavored with vanilla extract! For example, `vanilla wonton soup’ means ordinary wonton soup, as opposed to hot-and-sour wonton soup. Applied to hardware and software, as in “Vanilla Version 7 Unix can’t run on a vanilla 11/34.” Also used to orthogonalize chip nomenclature; for instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a 7400, as distinct from a 74LS00, etc. This word differs from [14049]canonical in that the latter means `default’, whereas vanilla simply means `ordinary’. For example, when hackers go on a [14050]great-wall, hot-and-sour soup is the [14051]canonical soup to get (because that is what most of them usually order) even though it isn’t the vanilla (wonton) soup.
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Node:vanity domain, Next:[14052]vannevar, Previous:[14053]vanilla, Up:[14054]= V =

vanity domain n.

[common; from `vanity plate’ as in car license plate] An Internet domain, particularly in the .com or .org top-level domains, apparently created for no reason other than boosting the creator’s ego. _________________________________________________________________
Node:vannevar, Next:[14055]vaporware, Previous:[14056]vanity domain, Up:[14057]= V =

vannevar /van’*-var/ n.

A bogus technological prediction or a foredoomed engineering concept, esp. one that fails by implicitly assuming that technologies develop linearly, incrementally, and in isolation from one another when in fact the learning curve tends to be highly nonlinear, revolutions are common, and competition is the rule. The prototype was Vannevar Bush’s prediction of `electronic brains’ the size of the Empire State Building with a Niagara-Falls-equivalent cooling system for their tubes and relays, a prediction made at a time when the semiconductor effect had already been demonstrated. Other famous vannevars have included magnetic-bubble memory, LISP machines, [14058]videotex, and a paper from the late 1970s that computed a purported ultimate limit on areal density for ICs that was in fact less than the routine densities of 5 years later.
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Node:vaporware, Next:[14059]var, Previous:[14060]vannevar, Up:[14061]= V =

vaporware /vay’pr-weir/ n.

Products announced far in advance of any release (which may or may not actually take place). See also [14062]brochureware. _________________________________________________________________
Node:var, Next:[14063]vaston, Previous:[14064]vaporware, Up:[14065]= V =

var /veir/ or /var/ n.

Short for `variable’. Compare [14066]arg, [14067]param. _________________________________________________________________
Node:vaston, Next:[14068]VAX, Previous:[14069]var, Up:[14070]= V =
vaston n.

[Durham, UK] The unit of `load average’. A measure of how much work a computer is doing. A meter displaying this as a function of time is known as a `vastometer’. First used during a computing practical in December 1996.
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Node:VAX, Next:[14071]VAXectomy, Previous:[14072]vaston, Up:[14073]= V =

VAX /vaks/ n.

1. [from Virtual Address eXtension] The most successful minicomputer design in industry history, possibly excepting its immediate ancestor, the PDP-11. Between its release in 1978 and its eclipse by [14074]killer micros after about 1986, the VAX was probably the hacker’s favorite machine of them all, esp. after the 1982 release of 4.2 BSD Unix (see [14075]BSD). Esp. noted for its large, assembler-programmer-friendly instruction set — an asset that became a liability after the RISC revolution. 2. A major brand of vacuum cleaner in Britain. Cited here because its sales pitch, “Nothing sucks like a VAX!” became a sort of battle-cry of RISC partisans. It is even sometimes claimed that DEC actually entered a cross-licensing deal with the vacuum-Vax people that allowed them to market VAX computers in the U.K. in return for not challenging the vacuum cleaner trademark in the U.S.

A rival brand actually pioneered the slogan: its original form was “Nothing sucks like Electrolux”. It has apparently become a classic example (used in advertising textbooks) of the perils of not knowing the local idiom. But in 1996, the press manager of Electrolux AB, while confirming that the company used this slogan in the late 1960s, also tells us that their marketing people were fully aware of the possible double entendre and intended it to gain attention.
And gain attention it did – the VAX-vacuum-cleaner people thought the slogan a sufficiently good idea to copy it. Several British hackers report that VAX’s promotions used it in 1986-1987, and we have one report from a New Zealander that the infamous slogan surfaced there in TV ads for the product in 1992.
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Node:VAXectomy, Next:[14076]VAXen, Previous:[14077]VAX, Up:[14078]= V =

VAXectomy /vak-sek’t*-mee/ n.

[by analogy with `vasectomy’] A VAX removal. [14079]DEC’s Microvaxen, especially, are much slower than newer RISC-based workstations such as the SPARC. Thus, if one knows one has a replacement coming, VAX removal can be cause for celebration.
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Node:VAXen, Next:[14080]vaxherd, Previous:[14081]VAXectomy, Up:[14082]= V =

VAXen /vak’sn/ n.

[from `oxen’, perhaps influenced by `vixen’] (alt. `vaxen’) The plural canonically used among hackers for the [14083]DEC VAX computers. “Our installation has four PDP-10s and twenty vaxen.” See [14084]boxen. _________________________________________________________________
Node:vaxherd, Next:[14085]vaxism, Previous:[14086]VAXen, Up:[14087]= V =

vaxherd /vaks’herd/ n. obs.

[from `oxherd’] A VAX operator. The image is reinforced because VAXen actually did tend to come in herds, technically known as `clusters’. _________________________________________________________________
Node:vaxism, Next:[14088]vaxocentrism, Previous:[14089]vaxherd, Up:[14090]= V =

vaxism /vak’sizm/ n.

A piece of code that exhibits [14091]vaxocentrism in critical areas. Compare [14092]PC-ism, [14093]unixism. _________________________________________________________________
Node:vaxocentrism, Next:[14094]vdiff, Previous:[14095]vaxism, Up:[14096]= V =

vaxocentrism /vak`soh-sen’trizm/ n.
[analogy with `ethnocentrism’] A notional disease said to afflict C programmers who persist in coding according to certain assumptions that are valid (esp. under Unix) on [14097]VAXen but false elsewhere. Among these are:
1. The assumption that dereferencing a null pointer is safe because it is all bits 0, and location 0 is readable and 0. Problem: this may instead cause an illegal-address trap on non-VAXen, and even on VAXen under OSes other than BSD Unix. Usually this is an implicit assumption of sloppy code (forgetting to check the pointer before using it), rather than deliberate exploitation of a misfeature.
2. The assumption that characters are signed. 3. The assumption that a pointer to any one type can freely be cast into a pointer to any other type. A stronger form of this is the assumption that all pointers are the same size and format, which means you don’t have to worry about getting the casts or types correct in calls. Problem: this fails on word-oriented machines or others with multiple pointer formats. 4. The assumption that the parameters of a routine are stored in memory, on a stack, contiguously, and in strictly ascending or descending order. Problem: this fails on many RISC architectures. 5. The assumption that pointer and integer types are the same size, and that pointers can be stuffed into integer variables (and vice-versa) and drawn back out without being truncated or mangled. Problem: this fails on segmented architectures or word-oriented machines with funny pointer formats. 6. The assumption that a data type of any size may begin at any byte address in memory (for example, that you can freely construct and dereference a pointer to a word- or greater-sized object at an odd char address). Problem: this fails on many (esp. RISC) architectures better optimized for [14098]HLL execution speed, and can cause an illegal address fault or bus error. 7. The (related) assumption that there is no padding at the end of types and that in an array you can thus step right from the last byte of a previous component to the first byte of the next one. This is not only machine- but compiler-dependent. 8. The assumption that memory address space is globally flat and that the array reference foo[-1] is necessarily valid. Problem: this fails at 0, or other places on segment-addressed machines like Intel chips (yes, segmentation is universally considered a [14099]brain-damaged way to design machines (see [14100]moby), but that is a separate issue).
9. The assumption that objects can be arbitrarily large with no special considerations. Problem: this fails on segmented architectures and under non-virtual-addressing environments. 10. The assumption that the stack can be as large as memory. Problem: this fails on segmented architectures or almost anything else without virtual addressing and a paged stack. 11. The assumption that bits and addressable units within an object are ordered in the same way and that this order is a constant of nature. Problem: this fails on [14101]big-endian machines. 12. The assumption that it is meaningful to compare pointers to different objects not located within the same array, or to objects of different types. Problem: the former fails on segmented architectures, the latter on word-oriented machines or others with multiple pointer formats.
13. The assumption that an int is 32 bits, or (nearly equivalently) the assumption that sizeof(int) == sizeof(long). Problem: this fails on PDP-11s, 286-based systems and even on 386 and 68000 systems under some compilers (and on 64-bit systems like the Alpha, of course).
14. The assumption that argv[] is writable. Problem: this fails in many embedded-systems C environments and even under a few flavors of Unix.

Note that a programmer can validly be accused of vaxocentrism even if he or she has never seen a VAX. Some of these assumptions (esp. 2-5) were valid on the PDP-11, the original C machine, and became endemic years before the VAX. The terms `vaxocentricity’ and `all-the-world’s-a-VAX syndrome’ have been used synonymously. _________________________________________________________________
Node:vdiff, Next:[14102]veeblefester, Previous:[14103]vaxocentrism, Up:[14104]= V =

vdiff /vee’dif/ v.,n.

Visual diff. The operation of finding differences between two files by [14105]eyeball search. The term `optical diff’ has also been reported, and is sometimes more specifically used for the act of superimposing two nearly identical printouts on one another and holding them up to a light to spot differences. Though this method is poor for detecting omissions in the `rear’ file, it can also be used with printouts of graphics, a claim few if any diff programs can make. See [14106]diff. _________________________________________________________________
Node:veeblefester, Next:[14107]velveeta, Previous:[14108]vdiff, Up:[14109]= V =

veeblefester /vee’b*l-fes`tr/ n.

[from the “Born Loser” comix via Commodore; prob. originally from “Mad” Magazine’s `Veeblefetzer’ parodies beginning in #15, 1954] Any obnoxious person engaged in the (alleged) professions of marketing or management. Antonym of [14110]hacker. Compare [14111]suit, [14112]marketroid.
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Node:velveeta, Next:[14113]ventilator card, Previous:[14114]veeblefester, Up:[14115]= V =
velveeta n.

[Usenet: by analogy with [14116]spam. The trade name Velveeta is attached in the U.S. to a particularly nasty processed-cheese spread.] Also knows as [14117]ECP; a message that is excessively cross-posted, as opposed to [14118]spam which is too frequently posted. This term is widely recognized but not commonly used; most people refer to both kinds of abuse as spam. Compare [14119]jello. _________________________________________________________________
Node:ventilator card, Next:[14120]Venus flytrap, Previous:[14121]velveeta, Up:[14122]= V =
ventilator card n.

Syn. [14123]lace card.
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Node:Venus flytrap, Next:[14124]verbage, Previous:[14125]ventilator card, Up:[14126]= V =

Venus flytrap n.

[after the insect-eating plant] See [14127]firewall machine. _________________________________________________________________
Node:verbage, Next:[14128]verbiage, Previous:[14129]Venus flytrap, Up:[14130]= V =

verbage /ver’b*j/ n.

A deliberate misspelling and mispronunciation of [14131]verbiage that assimilates it to the word `garbage’. Compare [14132]content-free. More pejorative than `verbiage’.
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Node:verbiage, Next:[14133]Version 7, Previous:[14134]verbage, Up:[14135]= V =

verbiage n.

When the context involves a software or hardware system, this refers to [14136]documentation. This term borrows the connotations of mainstream `verbiage’ to suggest that the documentation is of marginal utility and that the motives behind its production have little to do with the ostensible subject.
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Node:Version 7, Next:[14137]vgrep, Previous:[14138]verbiage, Up:[14139]= V =

Version 7 alt. V7 /vee’ se’vn/ n.
The first widely distributed version of [14140]Unix, released unsupported by Bell Labs in 1978. The term is used adjectivally to describe Unix features and programs that date from that release, and are thus guaranteed to be present and portable in all Unix versions (this was the standard gauge of portability before the POSIX and IEEE 1003 standards). Note that this usage does not derive from the release being the “seventh version of [14141]Unix”; research [14142]Unix at Bell Labs has traditionally been numbered according to the edition of the associated documentation. Indeed, only the widely-distributed Sixth and Seventh Editions are widely known as V[67]; the OS that might today be known as `V10′ is instead known in full as “Tenth Edition Research Unix” or just “Tenth Edition” for short. For this reason, “V7” is often read by cognoscenti as “Seventh Edition”. See [14143]BSD, [14144]USG Unix, [14145]Unix. Some old-timers impatient with commercialization and kernel bloat still maintain that V7 was the Last True Unix.
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Node:vgrep, Next:[14146]vi, Previous:[14147]Version 7, Up:[14148]= V =
vgrep /vee’grep/ v.,n.

Visual grep. The operation of finding patterns in a file optically rather than digitally (also called an `optical grep’). See [14149]grep; compare [14150]vdiff.
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Node:vi, Next:[14151]video toaster, Previous:[14152]vgrep, Up:[14153]= V =

vi /V-I/, not /vi:/ and never /siks/ n.
[from `Visual Interface’] A screen editor crufted together by Bill Joy for an early [14154]BSD release. Became the de facto standard Unix editor and a nearly undisputed hacker favorite outside of MIT until the rise of [14155]EMACS after about 1984. Tends to frustrate new users no end, as it will neither take commands while expecting input text nor vice versa, and the default setup on older versions provides no indication of which mode the editor is in (years ago, a correspondent reported that he has often heard the editor’s name pronounced /vi:l/; there is now a vi clone named `vile’). Nevertheless vi (and variants such as vim and elvis) is still widely used (about half the respondents in a 1991 Usenet poll preferred it), and even EMACS fans often resort to it as a mail editor and for small editing jobs (mainly because it starts up faster than the bulkier versions of EMACS). See [14156]holy wars.
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Node:video toaster, Next:[14157]videotex, Previous:[14158]vi, Up:[14159]= V =

video toaster n.

Historically, an Amiga fitted with a particular line of special video effects hardware from NewTek – long a popular platform at special-effects and video production houses. More generally, any computer system designed specifically for video production and manipulation. Compare [14160]web toaster and see [14161]toaster. _________________________________________________________________
Node:videotex, Next:[14162]virgin, Previous:[14163]video toaster, Up:[14164]= V =

videotex n. obs.

An electronic service offering people the privilege of paying to read the weather on their television screens instead of having somebody read it to them for free while they brush their teeth. The idea bombed everywhere it wasn’t government-subsidized, because by the time videotex was practical the installed base of personal computers could hook up to timesharing services and do the things for which videotex