might have been worthwhile better and cheaper. Videotex planners badly overestimated both the appeal of getting information from a computer and the cost of local intelligence at the user’s end. Like the [14165]gorilla arm effect, this has been a cautionary tale to hackers ever since. See also [14166]vannevar.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:virgin, Next:[14167]virtual, Previous:[14168]videotex, Up:[14169]= V =
virgin adj.
Unused; pristine; in a known initial state. “Let’s bring up a virgin system and see if it crashes again.” (Esp. useful after contracting a [14170]virus through [14171]SEX.) Also, by extension, buffers and the like within a program that have not yet been used. _________________________________________________________________
Node:virtual, Next:[14172]virtual beer, Previous:[14173]virgin, Up:[14174]= V =
virtual adj.
[via the technical term `virtual memory’, prob. from the term `virtual image’ in optics] 1. Common alternative to [14175]logical; often used to refer to the artificial objects (like addressable virtual memory larger than physical memory) simulated by a computer system as a convenient way to manage access to shared resources. 2. Simulated; performing the functions of something that isn’t really there. An imaginative child’s doll may be a virtual playmate. Oppose [14176]real.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:virtual beer, Next:[14177]virtual Friday, Previous:[14178]virtual, Up:[14179]= V =
virtual beer n.
Praise or thanks. Used universally in the Linux community. Originally this term signified cash, after a famous incident in which some some Britishers who wanted to buy Linus a beer and sent him money to Finland to do so.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:virtual Friday, Next:[14180]virtual reality, Previous:[14181]virtual beer, Up:[14182]= V =
virtual Friday n.
(also `logical Friday’) The last day before an extended weekend, if that day is not a `real’ Friday. For example, the U.S. holiday Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday. The next day is often also a holiday or taken as an extra day off, in which case Wednesday of that week is a virtual Friday (and Thursday is a virtual Saturday, as is Friday). There are also `virtual Mondays’ that are actually Tuesdays, after the three-day weekends associated with many national holidays in the U.S.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:virtual reality, Next:[14183]virtual shredder, Previous:[14184]virtual Friday, Up:[14185]= V =
virtual reality n.
1. Computer simulations that use 3-D graphics and devices such as the Dataglove to allow the user to interact with the simulation. See [14186]cyberspace. 2. A form of network interaction incorporating aspects of role-playing games, interactive theater, improvisational comedy, and `true confessions’ magazines. In a virtual reality forum (such as Usenet’s alt.callahans newsgroup or the [14187]MUD experiments on Internet), interaction between the participants is written like a shared novel complete with scenery, `foreground characters’ that may be personae utterly unlike the people who write them, and common `background characters’ manipulable by all parties. The one iron law is that you may not write irreversible changes to a character without the consent of the person who `owns’ it. Otherwise anything goes. See [14188]bamf, [14189]cyberspace, [14190]teledildonics.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:virtual shredder, Next:[14191]virus, Previous:[14192]virtual reality, Up:[14193]= V =
virtual shredder n.
The jargonic equivalent of the [14194]bit bucket at shops using IBM’s VM/CMS operating system. VM/CMS officially supports a whole bestiary of virtual card readers, virtual printers, and other phantom devices; these are used to supply some of the same capabilities Unix gets from pipes and I/O redirection.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:virus, Next:[14195]visionary, Previous:[14196]virtual shredder, Up:[14197]= V =
virus n.
[from the obvious analogy with biological viruses, via SF] A cracker program that searches out other programs and `infects’ them by embedding a copy of itself in them, so that they become [14198]Trojan horses. When these programs are executed, the embedded virus is executed too, thus propagating the `infection’. This normally happens invisibly to the user. Unlike a [14199]worm, a virus cannot infect other computers without assistance. It is propagated by vectors such as humans trading programs with their friends (see [14200]SEX). The virus may do nothing but propagate itself and then allow the program to run normally. Usually, however, after propagating silently for a while, it starts doing things like writing cute messages on the terminal or playing strange tricks with the display (some viruses include nice [14201]display hacks). Many nasty viruses, written by particularly perversely minded [14202]crackers, do irreversible damage, like nuking all the user’s files.
In the 1990s, viruses became a serious problem, especially among Windows users; the lack of security on these machines enables viruses to spread easily, even infecting the operating system (Unix machines, by contrast, are immune to such attacks). The production of special anti-virus software has become an industry, and a number of exaggerated media reports have caused outbreaks of near hysteria among users; many [14203]lusers tend to blame everything that doesn’t work as they had expected on virus attacks. Accordingly, this sense of `virus’ has passed not only into techspeak but into also popular usage (where it is often incorrectly used to denote a [14204]worm or even a [14205]Trojan horse). See [14206]phage; compare [14207]back door; see also [14208]Unix conspiracy.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:visionary, Next:[14209]VMS, Previous:[14210]virus, Up:[14211]= V =
visionary n.
1. One who hacks vision, in the sense of an Artificial Intelligence researcher working on the problem of getting computers to `see’ things using TV cameras. (There isn’t any problem in sending information from a TV camera to a computer. The problem is, how can the computer be programmed to make use of the camera information? See [14212]SMOP, [14213]AI-complete.) 2. [IBM] One who reads the outside literature. At IBM, apparently, such a penchant is viewed with awe and wonder. _________________________________________________________________
Node:VMS, Next:[14214]voice, Previous:[14215]visionary, Up:[14216]= V =
VMS /V-M-S/ n.
[14217]DEC’s proprietary operating system for its VAX minicomputer; one of the seven or so environments that loom largest in hacker folklore. Many Unix fans generously concede that VMS would probably be the hacker’s favorite commercial OS if Unix didn’t exist; though true, this makes VMS fans furious. One major hacker gripe with VMS concerns its slowness — thus the following limerick: There once was a system called VMS
Of cycles by no means abstemious. It’s chock-full of hacks
And runs on a VAX
And makes my poor stomach all squeamious. — The Great Quux
See also [14218]VAX, [14219]TOPS-10, [14220]TOPS-20, [14221]Unix, [14222]runic.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:voice, Next:[14223]voice-net, Previous:[14224]VMS, Up:[14225]= V =
voice vt.
To phone someone, as opposed to emailing them or connecting in [14226]talk mode. “I’m busy now; I’ll voice you later.” _________________________________________________________________
Node:voice-net, Next:[14227]voodoo programming, Previous:[14228]voice, Up:[14229]= V =
voice-net n.
Hackish way of referring to the telephone system, analogizing it to a digital network. Usenet [14230]sig blocks not uncommonly include the sender’s phone next to a “Voice:” or “Voice-Net:” header; common variants of this are “Voicenet” and “V-Net”. Compare [14231]paper-net, [14232]snail-mail.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:voodoo programming, Next:[14233]VR, Previous:[14234]voice-net, Up:[14235]= V =
voodoo programming n.
[from George Bush’s “voodoo economics”] 1. The use by guess or cookbook of an [14236]obscure or [14237]hairy system, feature, or algorithm that one does not truly understand. The implication is that the technique may not work, and if it doesn’t, one will never know why. Almost synonymous with [14238]black magic, except that black magic typically isn’t documented and nobody understands it. Compare [14239]magic, [14240]deep magic, [14241]heavy wizardry, [14242]rain dance, [14243]cargo cult programming, [14244]wave a dead chicken. 2. Things programmers do that they know shouldn’t work but they try anyway, and which sometimes actually work, such as recompiling everything.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:VR, Next:[14245]Vulcan nerve pinch, Previous:[14246]voodoo programming, Up:[14247]= V =
VR // [MUD] n.
On-line abbrev for [14248]virtual reality, as opposed to [14249]RL. _________________________________________________________________
Node:Vulcan nerve pinch, Next:[14250]vulture capitalist, Previous:[14251]VR, Up:[14252]= V =
Vulcan nerve pinch n.
[from the old “Star Trek” TV series via Commodore Amiga hackers] The keyboard combination that forces a soft-boot or jump to ROM monitor (on machines that support such a feature). On PC clones this is Ctrl-Alt-Del; on Suns, L1-A; on Macintoshes, it is
salute. Compare [14254]quadruple bucky. _________________________________________________________________
Node:vulture capitalist, Next:[14255]W2K bug, Previous:[14256]Vulcan nerve pinch, Up:[14257]= V =
vulture capitalist n.
Pejorative hackerism for `venture capitalist’, deriving from the common practice of pushing contracts that deprive inventors of control over their own innovations and most of the money they ought to have made from them.
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Node:= W =, Next:[14258]= X =, Previous:[14259]= V =, Up:[14260]The Jargon Lexicon
= W =
* [14261]W2K bug:
* [14262]wabbit:
* [14263]WAITS:
* [14264]waldo:
* [14265]walk:
* [14266]walk off the end of:
* [14267]walking drives:
* [14268]wall:
* [14269]wall follower:
* [14270]wall time:
* [14271]wall wart:
* [14272]wallpaper:
* [14273]wango:
* [14274]wank:
* [14275]wannabee:
* [14276]war dialer:
* [14277]-ware:
* [14278]warez:
* [14279]warez d00dz:
* [14280]warez kiddies:
* [14281]warlording:
* [14282]warm boot:
* [14283]wart:
* [14284]washing machine:
* [14285]washing software:
* [14286]water MIPS:
* [14287]wave a dead chicken:
* [14288]weasel:
* [14289]web pointer:
* [14290]web toaster:
* [14291]webify:
* [14292]webmaster:
* [14293]web ring:
* [14294]wedged:
* [14295]wedgie:
* [14296]wedgitude:
* [14297]weeble:
* [14298]weeds:
* [14299]weenie:
* [14300]Weenix:
* [14301]well-behaved:
* [14302]well-connected:
* [14303]wetware:
* [14304]whack:
* [14305]whack-a-mole:
* [14306]whacker:
* [14307]whales:
* [14308]whalesong:
* [14309]What’s a spline?:
* [14310]wheel:
* [14311]wheel bit:
* [14312]wheel of reincarnation: * [14313]wheel wars:
* [14314]White Book:
* [14315]whitelist:
* [14316]whizzy:
* [14317]wibble:
* [14318]WIBNI:
* [14319]widget:
* [14320]wiggles:
* [14321]WIMP environment:
* [14322]win:
* [14323]win big:
* [14324]win win:
* [14325]Winchester:
* [14326]windoid:
* [14327]window shopping:
* [14328]Windoze:
* [14329]winged comments:
* [14330]winkey:
* [14331]winnage:
* [14332]winner:
* [14333]winnitude:
* [14334]Wintel:
* [14335]wired:
* [14336]wirehead:
* [14337]wirewater:
* [14338]wish list:
* [14339]within delta of:
* [14340]within epsilon of:
* [14341]wizard:
* [14342]Wizard Book:
* [14343]wizard hat:
* [14344]wizard mode:
* [14345]wizardly:
* [14346]wok-on-the-wall:
* [14347]womb box:
* [14348]WOMBAT:
* [14349]womble:
* [14350]wonky:
* [14351]woofer:
* [14352]workaround:
* [14353]working as designed:
* [14354]worm:
* [14355]wormhole:
* [14356]wound around the axle:
* [14357]wrap around:
* [14358]write-only code:
* [14359]write-only language:
* [14360]write-only memory:
* [14361]Wrong Thing:
* [14362]wugga wugga:
* [14363]wumpus:
* [14364]WYSIAYG:
* [14365]WYSIWYG:
_________________________________________________________________
Node:W2K bug, Next:[14366]wabbit, Previous:[14367]vulture capitalist, Up:[14368]= W =
W2K bug
[from `Y2K bug’ for the Year 2000 problem] The upcoming deployment of Microsoft’s Windows 2000 operating system, which hackers generally expect will be among the worst train wrecks in the history of software engineering. Such is the power of Microsoft marketing, however, that it is also expected this will not become obvious until it has incurred hundreds of millions of dollars in downtime and lost opportunity costs.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:wabbit, Next:[14369]WAITS, Previous:[14370]W2K bug, Up:[14371]= W =
wabbit /wab’it/ n.
[almost certainly from Elmer Fudd’s immortal line “You wascawwy wabbit!”] 1. A legendary early hack reported on a System/360 at RPI and elsewhere around 1978; this may have descended (if only by inspiration) from a hack called RABBITS reported from 1969 on a Burroughs 5500 at the University of Washington Computer Center. The program would make two copies of itself every time it was run, eventually crashing the system. 2. By extension, any hack that includes infinite self-replication but is not a [14372]virus or [14373]worm. See [14374]fork bomb and [14375]rabbit job, see also [14376]cookie monster.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:WAITS, Next:[14377]waldo, Previous:[14378]wabbit, Up:[14379]= W =
WAITS /wayts/ n.
The mutant cousin of [14380]TOPS-10 used on a handful of systems at [14381]SAIL up to 1990. There was never an `official’ expansion of WAITS (the name itself having been arrived at by a rather sideways process), but it was frequently glossed as `West-coast Alternative to ITS’. Though WAITS was less visible than ITS, there was frequent exchange of people and ideas between the two communities, and innovations pioneered at WAITS exerted enormous indirect influence. The early screen modes of [14382]EMACS, for example, were directly inspired by WAITS’s `E’ editor — one of a family of editors that were the first to do `real-time editing’, in which the editing commands were invisible and where one typed text at the point of insertion/overwriting. The modern style of multi-region windowing is said to have originated there, and WAITS alumni at XEROX PARC and elsewhere played major roles in the developments that led to the XEROX Star, the Macintosh, and the Sun workstations. Also invented there were [14383]bucky bits — thus, the ALT key on every IBM PC is a WAITS legacy. One WAITS feature very notable in pre-Web days was a news-wire interface that allowed WAITS hackers to read, store, and filter AP and UPI dispatches from their terminals; the system also featured a still-unusual level of support for what is now called `multimedia’ computing, allowing analog audio and video signals to be switched to programming terminals.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:waldo, Next:[14384]walk, Previous:[14385]WAITS, Up:[14386]= W =
waldo /wol’doh/ n.
[From Robert A. Heinlein’s story “Waldo”] 1. A mechanical agent, such as a gripper arm, controlled by a human limb. When these were developed for the nuclear industry in the mid-1940s they were named after the invention described by Heinlein in the story, which he wrote in 1942. Now known by the more generic term `telefactoring’, this technology is of intense interest to NASA for tasks like space station maintenance. 2. At Harvard (particularly by Tom Cheatham and students), this is used instead of [14387]foobar as a metasyntactic variable and general nonsense word. See [14388]foo, [14389]bar, [14390]foobar, [14391]quux.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:walk, Next:[14392]walk off the end of, Previous:[14393]waldo, Up:[14394]= W =
walk n.,vt.
Traversal of a data structure, especially an array or linked-list data structure in [14395]core. See also [14396]codewalker, [14397]silly walk, [14398]clobber.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:walk off the end of, Next:[14399]walking drives, Previous:[14400]walk, Up:[14401]= W =
walk off the end of vt.
To run past the end of an array, list, or medium after stepping through it — a good way to land in trouble. Often the result of an [14402]off-by-one error. Compare [14403]clobber, [14404]roach, [14405]smash the stack.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:walking drives, Next:[14406]wall, Previous:[14407]walk off the end of, Up:[14408]= W =
walking drives n.
An occasional failure mode of magnetic-disk drives back in the days when they were huge, clunky [14409]washing machines. Those old [14410]dinosaur parts carried terrific angular momentum; the combination of a misaligned spindle or worn bearings and stick-slip interactions with the floor could cause them to `walk’ across a room, lurching alternate corners forward a couple of millimeters at a time. There is a legend about a drive that walked over to the only door to the computer room and jammed it shut; the staff had to cut a hole in the wall in order to get at it! Walking could also be induced by certain patterns of drive access (a fast seek across the whole width of the disk, followed by a slow seek in the other direction). Some bands of old-time hackers figured out how to induce disk-accessing patterns that would do this to particular drive models and held disk-drive races.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:wall, Next:[14411]wall follower, Previous:[14412]walking drives, Up:[14413]= W =
wall interj.
[WPI] 1. An indication of confusion, usually spoken with a quizzical tone: “Wall??” 2. A request for further explication. Compare [14414]octal forty. 3. [Unix, from `write all’] v. To send a message to everyone currently logged in, esp. with the wall(8) utility.
It is said that sense 1 came from the idiom `like talking to a blank wall’. It was originally used in situations where, after you had carefully answered a question, the questioner stared at you blankly, clearly having understood nothing that was explained. You would then throw out a “Hello, wall?” to elicit some sort of response from the questioner. Later, confused questioners began voicing “Wall?” themselves.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:wall follower, Next:[14415]wall time, Previous:[14416]wall, Up:[14417]= W =
wall follower n.
A person or algorithm that compensates for lack of sophistication or native stupidity by efficiently following some simple procedure shown to have been effective in the past. Used of an algorithm, this is not necessarily pejorative; it recalls `Harvey Wallbanger’, the winning robot in an early AI contest (named, of course, after the cocktail). Harvey successfully solved mazes by keeping a `finger’ on one wall and running till it came out the other end. This was inelegant, but it was mathematically guaranteed to work on simply-connected mazes — and, in fact, Harvey outperformed more sophisticated robots that tried to `learn’ each maze by building an internal representation of it. Used of humans, the term is pejorative and implies an uncreative, bureaucratic, by-the-book mentality. See also [14418]code grinder; compare [14419]droid.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:wall time, Next:[14420]wall wart, Previous:[14421]wall follower, Up:[14422]= W =
wall time n.
(also `wall clock time’) 1. `Real world’ time (what the clock on the wall shows), as opposed to the system clock’s idea of time. 2. The real running time of a program, as opposed to the number of [14423]ticks required to execute it (on a timesharing system these always differ, as no one program gets all the ticks, and on multiprocessor systems with good thread support one may get more processor time than real time).
_________________________________________________________________
Node:wall wart, Next:[14424]wallpaper, Previous:[14425]wall time, Up:[14426]= W =
wall wart n.
A small power-supply brick with integral male plug, designed to plug directly into a wall outlet; called a `wart’ because when installed on a power strip it tends to block up at least one more socket than it uses.. These are frequently associated with modems and other small electronic devices which would become unacceptably bulky or hot if they had power supplies on board (there are other reasons as well having to do with the cost of UL certification). _________________________________________________________________
Node:wallpaper, Next:[14427]wango, Previous:[14428]wall wart, Up:[14429]= W =
wallpaper n.
1. A file containing a listing (e.g., assembly listing) or a transcript, esp. a file containing a transcript of all or part of a login session. (The idea was that the paper for such listings was essentially good only for wallpaper, as evidenced at Stanford, where it was used to cover windows.) Now rare, esp. since other systems have developed other terms for it (e.g., PHOTO on TWENEX). However, the Unix world doesn’t have an equivalent term, so perhaps [14430]wallpaper will take hold there. The term probably originated on ITS, where the commands to begin and end transcript files were :WALBEG and :WALEND, with default file WALL PAPER (the space was a path delimiter). 2. The background pattern used on graphical workstations (this is techspeak under the `Windows’ graphical user interface to MS-DOS). 3. `wallpaper file’ n. The file that contains the wallpaper information before it is actually printed on paper. (Even if you don’t intend ever to produce a real paper copy of the file, it is still called a wallpaper file.)
_________________________________________________________________
Node:wango, Next:[14431]wank, Previous:[14432]wallpaper, Up:[14433]= W =
wango /wang’goh/ n.
Random bit-level [14434]grovelling going on in a system during some unspecified operation. Often used in combination with [14435]mumble. For example: “You start with the `.o’ file, run it through this postprocessor that does mumble-wango — and it comes out a snazzy object-oriented executable.”
_________________________________________________________________
Node:wank, Next:[14436]wannabee, Previous:[14437]wango, Up:[14438]= W =
wank /wangk/ n.,v.,adj.
[Columbia University: prob. by mutation from Commonwealth slang v. `wank’, to masturbate] Used much as [14439]hack is elsewhere, as a noun denoting a clever technique or person or the result of such cleverness. May describe (negatively) the act of hacking for hacking’s sake (“Quit wanking, let’s go get supper!”) or (more positively) a [14440]wizard. Adj. `wanky’ describes something particularly clever (a person, program, or algorithm). Conversations can also get wanky when there are too many wanks involved. This excess wankiness is signalled by an overload of the `wankometer’ (compare [14441]bogometer). When the wankometer overloads, the conversation’s subject must be changed, or all non-wanks will leave. Compare `neep-neeping’ (under [14442]neep-neep). Usage: U.S. only. In Britain and the Commonwealth this word is extremely rude and is best avoided unless one intends to give offense. Adjectival `wanky’ is less offensive and simply means `stupid’ or `broken’ (this is mainstream in Great Britain). _________________________________________________________________
Node:wannabee, Next:[14443]war dialer, Previous:[14444]wank, Up:[14445]= W =
wannabee /won’*-bee/ n.
(also, more plausibly, spelled `wannabe’) [from a term recently used to describe Madonna fans who dress, talk, and act like their idol; prob. originally from biker slang] A would-be [14446]hacker. The connotations of this term differ sharply depending on the age and exposure of the subject. Used of a person who is in or might be entering [14447]larval stage, it is semi-approving; such wannabees can be annoying but most hackers remember that they, too, were once such creatures. When used of any professional programmer, CS academic, writer, or [14448]suit, it is derogatory, implying that said person is trying to cuddle up to the hacker mystique but doesn’t, fundamentally, have a prayer of understanding what it is all about. Overuse of terms from this lexicon is often an indication of the [14449]wannabee nature. Compare [14450]newbie.
Historical note: The wannabee phenomenon has a slightly different flavor now (1993) than it did ten or fifteen years ago. When the people who are now hackerdom’s tribal elders were in [14451]larval stage, the process of becoming a hacker was largely unconscious and unaffected by models known in popular culture — communities formed spontaneously around people who, as individuals, felt irresistibly drawn to do hackerly things, and what wannabees experienced was a fairly pure, skill-focused desire to become similarly wizardly. Those days of innocence are gone forever; society’s adaptation to the advent of the microcomputer after 1980 included the elevation of the hacker as a new kind of folk hero, and the result is that some people semi-consciously set out to be hackers and borrow hackish prestige by fitting the popular image of hackers. Fortunately, to do this really well, one has to actually become a wizard. Nevertheless, old-time hackers tend to share a poorly articulated disquiet about the change; among other things, it gives them mixed feelings about the effects of public compendia of lore like this one. _________________________________________________________________
Node:war dialer, Next:[14452]-ware, Previous:[14453]wannabee, Up:[14454]= W =
war dialer n.
A cracking tool, a program that calls a given list or range of phone numbers and records those which answer with handshake tones (and so might be entry points to computer or telecommunications systems). Some of these programs have become quite sophisticated, and can now detect modem, fax, or PBX tones and log each one separately. The war dialer is one of the most important tools in the [14455]phreaker’s kit. These programs evolved from early [14456]demon dialers. _________________________________________________________________
Node:-ware, Next:[14457]warez, Previous:[14458]war dialer, Up:[14459]= W =
-ware suff.
[from `software’] Commonly used to form jargon terms for classes of software. For examples, see [14460]annoyware, [14461]careware, [14462]crippleware, [14463]crudware, [14464]freeware, [14465]fritterware, [14466]guiltware, [14467]liveware, [14468]meatware, [14469]payware, [14470]psychedelicware, [14471]shareware, [14472]shelfware, [14473]vaporware, [14474]wetware. _________________________________________________________________
Node:warez, Next:[14475]warez d00dz, Previous:[14476]-ware, Up:[14477]= W =
warez /weirz/ n.
Widely used in [14478]cracker subcultures to denote cracked version of commercial software, that is versions from which copy-protection has been stripped. Hackers recognize this term but don’t use it themselves. See [14479]warez d00dz, [14480]courier, [14481]leech, [14482]elite.
_________________________________________________________________
Node:warez d00dz, Next:[14483]warez kiddies, Previous:[14484]warez, Up:[14485]= W =
warez d00dz /weirz doodz/ n.
A substantial subculture of [14486]crackers refer to themselves as `warez d00dz’; there is evidently some connection with [14487]B1FF here. As `Ozone Pilot’, one former warez d00d, wrote:
Warez d00dz get illegal copies of copyrighted software. If it has copy protection on it, they break the protection so the software can be copied. Then they distribute it around the world via several gateways. Warez d00dz form badass group names like RAZOR and the like. They put up boards that distribute the latest ware, or pirate program. The whole point of the Warez sub-culture is to get the pirate program released and distributed before any other group. I know, I know. But don’t ask, and it won’t hurt as much. This is how they prove their poweress [sic]. It gives them the right to say, “I released King’s Quest IVXIX before you so obviously my testicles are larger.” Again don’t ask…
The studly thing to do if one is a warez d00d, it appears, is emit `0-day warez’, that is copies of commercial software copied and cracked on the same day as its retail release. Warez d00ds also hoard software in a big way, collecting untold megabytes of arcade-style games, pornographic JPGs, and applications they’ll never use onto their hard disks. As Ozone Pilot acutely observes:
[BELONG] is the only word you will need to know. Warez d00dz want to belong. They have been shunned by everyone, and thus turn to cyberspace for acceptance. That is why they always start groups like TGW, FLT, USA and the like. Structure makes them happy. […] Warez d00dz will never have a handle like “Pink Daisy” because warez d00dz are insecure. Only someone who is very secure with a good dose of self-esteem can stand up to the cries of fag and girlie-man. More likely you will find warez d00dz with handles like: Doctor Death, Deranged Lunatic, Hellraiser, Mad Prince, Dreamdevil, The Unknown, Renegade Chemist, Terminator, and Twin Turbo. They like to sound badass when they can hide behind their terminals. More likely, if you were given a sample of 100 people, the person whose handle is Hellraiser is the last person you’d associate with the name.
The contrast with Internet hackers is stark and instructive. See [14488]cracker, [14489]wannabee, [14490]handle, [14491]elite, [14492]courier, [14493]leech; compare [14494]weenie, [14495]spod. _________________________________________________________________
Node:warez kiddies, Next:[14496]warlording, Previous:[14497]warez d00dz, Up:[14498]= W =
warez kiddies n.
Even more derogatory way of referring to [14499]warez d00dz; refers to the fact that most warez d00dz are around the age of puberty. Compare [14500]script kiddies.
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Node:warlording, Next:[14501]warm boot, Previous:[14502]warez kiddies, Up:[14503]= W =
warlording v.
[from the Usenet group alt.fan.warlord] The act of excoriating a bloated, ugly, or derivative [14504]sig block. Common grounds for warlording include the presence of a signature rendered in a [14505]BUAF, over-used or cliched [14506]sig quotes, ugly [14507]ASCII art, or simply excessive size. The original `Warlord’ was a [14508]B1FF-like [14509]newbie c.1991 who featured in his sig a particularly large and obnoxious ASCII graphic resembling the sword of Conan the Barbarian in the 1981 John Milius movie; the group name alt.fan.warlord was sarcasm, and the characteristic mode of warlording is devastatingly sarcastic praise.
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Node:warm boot, Next:[14510]wart, Previous:[14511]warlording, Up:[14512]= W =
warm boot n.
See [14513]boot.
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Node:wart, Next:[14514]washing machine, Previous:[14515]warm boot, Up:[14516]= W =
wart n.
A small, [14517]crocky [14518]feature that sticks out of an otherwise [14519]clean design. Something conspicuous for localized ugliness, especially a special-case exception to a general rule. For example, in some versions of csh(1), single quotes literalize every character inside them except !. In ANSI C, the ?? syntax used for obtaining ASCII characters in a foreign environment is a wart. See also [14520]miswart.
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Node:washing machine, Next:[14521]washing software, Previous:[14522]wart, Up:[14523]= W =
washing machine n.
1. Old-style 14-inch hard disks in floor-standing cabinets. So called because of the size of the cabinet and the `top-loading’ access to the media packs — and, of course, they were always set on `spin cycle’. The washing-machine idiom transcends language barriers; it is even used in Russian hacker jargon. See also [14524]walking drives. The thick channel cables connecting these were called `bit hoses’ (see [14525]hose, sense 3). 2. [CMU] A machine used exclusively for [14526]washing software. CMU has clusters of these. _________________________________________________________________
Node:washing software, Next:[14527]water MIPS, Previous:[14528]washing machine, Up:[14529]= W =
washing software n.
The process of recompiling a software distribution (used more often when the recompilation is occuring from scratch) to pick up and merge together all of the various changes that have been made to the source. _________________________________________________________________
Node:water MIPS, Next:[14530]wave a dead chicken, Previous:[14531]washing software, Up:[14532]= W =
water MIPS n.
(see [14533]MIPS, sense 2) Large, water-cooled machines of either today’s ECL-supercomputer flavor or yesterday’s traditional [14534]mainframe type.
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Node:wave a dead chicken, Next:[14535]weasel, Previous:[14536]water MIPS, Up:[14537]= W =
wave a dead chicken v.
To perform a ritual in the direction of crashed software or hardware that one believes to be futile but is nevertheless necessary so that others are satisfied that an appropriate degree of effort has been expended. “I’ll wave a dead chicken over the source code, but I really think we’ve run into an OS bug.” Compare [14538]voodoo programming, [14539]rain dance; see also [14540]casting the runes. _________________________________________________________________
Node:weasel, Next:[14541]web pointer, Previous:[14542]wave a dead chicken, Up:[14543]= W =
weasel n.
[Cambridge] A naive user, one who deliberately or accidentally does things that are stupid or ill-advised. Roughly synonymous with [14544]loser.
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Node:web pointer, Next:[14545]web toaster, Previous:[14546]weasel, Up:[14547]= W =
web pointer n.
A World Wide Web [14548]URL. See also [14549]hotlink, which has slightly different connotations.
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Node:web toaster, Next:[14550]webify, Previous:[14551]web pointer, Up:[14552]= W =
web toaster n.
A small specialized computer, shipped with no monitor or keyboard or any other external peripherals, pre-configured to be controlled through an Ethernet port and function as a WWW server. Products of this kind (for example the Cobalt Qube) are often about the size of a toaster. See [14553]toaster; compare [14554]video toaster. _________________________________________________________________
Node:webify, Next:[14555]webmaster, Previous:[14556]web toaster, Up:[14557]= W =
webify n.
To put a piece of (possibly already existing) material on the WWW. Frequently used for papers (“Why don’t you webify all your publications?”) or for demos (“They webified their 6.866 final project”). This term seems to have been (rather logically) independently invented multiple times in the early 1990s. _________________________________________________________________
Node:webmaster, Next:[14558]web ring, Previous:[14559]webify, Up:[14560]= W =
webmaster n.
[WWW: from [14561]postmaster] The person at a site providing World Wide Web information who is responsible for maintaining the public pages and keeping the Web server running and properly configured. _________________________________________________________________
Node:web ring, Next:[14562]wedged, Previous:[14563]webmaster, Up:[14564]= W =
web ring n.
Two or more web sites connected by prominent links between sites sharing a common interest or theme. Usually such cliques have the topology of a ring, in order to make it easy for visitors to navigate through all of them.
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Node:wedged, Next:[14565]wedgie, Previous:[14566]web ring, Up:[14567]= W =
wedged adj.
1. To be stuck, incapable of proceeding without help. This is different from having crashed. If the system has crashed, it has become totally non-functioning. If the system is wedged, it is trying to do something but cannot make progress; it may be capable of doing a few things, but not be fully operational. For example, a process may become wedged if it [14568]deadlocks with another (but not all instances of wedging are deadlocks). See also [14569]gronk, [14570]locked up, [14571]hosed, [14572]hung (wedged is more severe than [14573]hung). 2. Often refers to humans suffering misconceptions. “He’s totally wedged — he’s convinced that he can levitate through meditation.” 3. [Unix] Specifically used to describe the state of a TTY left in a losing state by abort of a screen-oriented program or one that has messed with the line discipline in some obscure way.
There is some dispute over the origin of this term. It is usually thought to derive from a common description of recto-cranial inversion; however, it may actually have originated with older `hot-press’ printing technology in which physical type elements were locked into type frames with wedges driven in by mallets. Once this had been done, no changes in the typesetting for that page could be made.
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Node:wedgie, Next:[14574]wedgitude, Previous:[14575]wedged, Up:[14576]= W =
wedgie n.
[Fairchild] A bug. Prob. related to [14577]wedged. _________________________________________________________________
Node:wedgitude, Next:[14578]weeble, Previous:[14579]wedgie, Up:[14580]= W =
wedgitude /wedj’i-t[y]ood/ n.
The quality or state of being [14581]wedged. _________________________________________________________________
Node:weeble, Next:[14582]weeds, Previous:[14583]wedgitude, Up:[14584]= W =
weeble /weeb’l/ interj.
[Cambridge] Used to denote frustration, usually at amazing stupidity. “I stuck the disk in upside down.” “Weeble….” Compare [14585]gurfle. _________________________________________________________________
Node:weeds, Next:[14586]weenie, Previous:[14587]weeble, Up:[14588]= W =
weeds n.
1. Refers to development projects or algorithms that have no possible relevance or practical application. Comes from `off in the weeds’. Used in phrases like “lexical analysis for microcode is serious weeds….” 2. At CDC/ETA before its demise, the phrase `go off in the weeds’ was equivalent to IBM’s [14589]branch to Fishkill and mainstream hackerdom’s [14590]jump off into never-never land. _________________________________________________________________
Node:weenie, Next:[14591]Weenix, Previous:[14592]weeds, Up:[14593]= W =
weenie n.
1. [on BBSes] Any of a species of luser resembling a less amusing version of [14594]B1FF that infests many [14595]BBS systems. The typical weenie is a teenage boy with poor social skills travelling under a grandiose [14596]handle derived from fantasy or heavy-metal rock lyrics. Among sysops, `the weenie problem’ refers to the marginally literate and profanity-laden [14597]flamage weenies tend to spew all over a newly-discovered BBS. Compare [14598]spod, [14599]computer geek, [14600]terminal junkie, [14601]warez d00dz. 2. [Among hackers] When used with a qualifier (for example, as in [14602]Unix weenie, VMS weenie, IBM weenie) this can be either an insult or a term of praise, depending on context, tone of voice, and whether or not it is applied by a person who considers him or herself to be the same sort of weenie. Implies that the weenie has put a major investment of time, effort, and concentration into the area indicated; whether this is good or bad depends on the hearer’s judgment of how the speaker feels about that area. See also [14603]bigot. 3. The semicolon character, ; (ASCII 0111011). _________________________________________________________________
Node:Weenix, Next:[14604]well-behaved, Previous:[14605]weenie, Up:[14606]= W =
Weenix /wee’niks/ n.
1. [ITS] A derogatory term for [14607]Unix, derived from [14608]Unix weenie. According to one noted ex-ITSer, it is “the operating system preferred by Unix Weenies: typified by poor modularity, poor reliability, hard file deletion, no file version numbers, case sensitivity everywhere, and users who believe that these are all advantages”. (Some ITS fans behave as though they believe Unix stole a future that rightfully belonged to them. See [14609]ITS, sense 2.) 2. [Brown University] A Unix-like OS developed for tutorial purposes at Brown University. See
[14610]http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs167/weenix.php. Named independently of the ITS usage.
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Node:well-behaved, Next:[14611]well-connected, Previous:[14612]Weenix, Up:[14613]= W =
well-behaved adj.
1. [primarily [14614]MS-DOS] Said of software conforming to system interface guidelines and standards. Well-behaved software uses the operating system to do chores such as keyboard input, allocating memory and drawing graphics. Oppose [14615]ill-behaved. 2. Software that does its job quietly and without counterintuitive effects. Esp. said of software having an interface spec sufficiently simple and well-defined that it can be used as a [14616]tool by other software. See [14617]cat. 3. Said of an algorithm that doesn’t [14618]crash or [14619]blow up, even when given [14620]pathological input. Implies that the stability of the algorithm is intrinsic, which makes this somewhat different from [14621]bulletproof. _________________________________________________________________
Node:well-connected, Next:[14622]wetware, Previous:[14623]well-behaved, Up:[14624]= W =
well-connected adj.
Said of a computer installation, asserts that it has reliable email links with the network and/or that it relays a large fraction of available [14625]Usenet newsgroups. `Well-known’ can be almost synonymous, but also implies that the site’s name is familiar to many (due perhaps to an archive service or active Usenet users). _________________________________________________________________
Node:wetware, Next:[14626]whack, Previous:[14627]well-connected, Up:[14628]= W =
wetware /wet’weir/ n.
[prob. from the novels of Rudy Rucker] 1. The human nervous system, as opposed to computer hardware or software. “Wetware has 7 plus or minus 2 temporary registers.” 2. Human beings (programmers, operators, administrators) attached to a computer system, as opposed to the system’s hardware or software. See [14629]liveware, [14630]meatware. _________________________________________________________________
Node:whack, Next:[14631]whack-a-mole, Previous:[14632]wetware, Up:[14633]= W =
whack v.
According to arch-hacker James Gosling (designer of [14634]NeWS, [14635]GOSMACS and Java), to “…modify a program with no idea whatsoever how it works.” (See [14636]whacker.) It is actually possible to do this in nontrivial circumstances if the change is small and well-defined and you are very good at [14637]glarking things from context. As a trivial example, it is relatively easy to change all stderr writes to stdout writes in a piece of C filter code which remains otherwise mysterious.
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Node:whack-a-mole, Next:[14638]whacker, Previous:[14639]whack, Up:[14640]= W =
whack-a-mole n.
[from the carnival game which involves quickly and repeatedly hitting the heads of mechanical moles with a mallet as they pop up from their holes.] 1. The practice of repeatedly causing spammers’ [14641]throwaway accounts and drop boxes to be terminated. 2. After sense 1 became established in the mid-1990s the term passed into more generalized use, and now is commonly found in such combinations as `whack-a-mole windows’; the obnoxious pop-ip advertisement windows spawned in flocks when you surg to sites like Geocities or Tripod. _________________________________________________________________
Node:whacker, Next:[14642]whales, Previous:[14643]whack-a-mole, Up:[14644]= W =
whacker n.
[University of Maryland: from [14645]hacker] 1. A person, similar to a [14646]hacker, who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities. Whereas a hacker tends to produce great hacks, a whacker only ends up whacking the system or program in question. Whackers are often quite egotistical and eager to claim [14647]wizard status, regardless of the views of their peers. 2. A person who is good at programming quickly, though rather poorly and ineptly.
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Node:whales, Next:[14648]whalesong, Previous:[14649]whacker, Up:[14650]= W =
whales n.
See [14651]like kicking dead whales down the beach. _________________________________________________________________
Node:whalesong, Next:[14652]What’s a spline?, Previous:[14653]whales, Up:[14654]= W =
whalesong n.
The peculiar clicking and whooshing sounds made by a PEP modem such as the Telebit Trailblazer as it tries to synchronize with another PEP modem for their special high-speed mode. This sound isn’t anything like the normal two-tone handshake between conventional V-series modems and is instantly recognizable to anyone who has heard it more than once. It sounds, in fact, very much like whale songs. This noise is also called “the moose call” or “moose tones”. _________________________________________________________________
Node:What’s a spline?, Next:[14655]wheel, Previous:[14656]whalesong, Up:[14657]= W =
What’s a spline?
[XEROX PARC] This phrase expands to: “You have just used a term that I’ve heard for a year and a half, and I feel I should know, but don’t. My curiosity has finally overcome my guilt.” The PARC lexicon adds “Moral: don’t hesitate to ask questions, even if they seem obvious.” _________________________________________________________________
Node:wheel, Next:[14658]wheel bit, Previous:[14659]What’s a spline?, Up:[14660]= W =
wheel n.
[from slang `big wheel’ for a powerful person] A person who has an active [14661]wheel bit. “We need to find a wheel to unwedge the hung tape drives.” (See [14662]wedged, sense 1.) The traditional name of security group zero in [14663]BSD (to which the major system-internal users like [14664]root belong) is `wheel’. Some vendors have expanded on this usage, modifying Unix so that only members of group `wheel’ can [14665]go root.
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Node:wheel bit, Next:[14666]wheel of reincarnation, Previous:[14667]wheel, Up:[14668]= W =
wheel bit n.
A privilege bit that allows the possessor to perform some restricted operation on a timesharing system, such as read or write any file on the system regardless of protections, change or look at any address in the running monitor, crash or reload the system, and kill or create jobs and user accounts. The term was invented on the TENEX operating system, and carried over to TOPS-20, XEROX-IFS, and others. The state of being in a privileged logon is sometimes called `wheel mode’. This term entered the Unix culture from TWENEX in the mid-1980s and has been gaining popularity there (esp. at university sites). See also [14669]root.
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Node:wheel of reincarnation, Next:[14670]wheel wars, Previous:[14671]wheel bit, Up:[14672]= W =
wheel of reincarnation
[coined in a paper by T. H. Myer and I.E. Sutherland “On the Design of Display Processors”, Comm. ACM, Vol. 11, no. 6, June 1968)] Term used to refer to a well-known effect whereby function in a computing system family is migrated out to special-purpose peripheral hardware for speed, then the peripheral evolves toward more computing power as it does its job, then somebody notices that it is inefficient to support two asymmetrical processors in the architecture and folds the function back into the main CPU, at which point the cycle begins again.
Several iterations of this cycle have been observed in graphics-processor design, and at least one or two in communications and floating-point processors. Also known as `the Wheel of Life’, `the Wheel of Samsara’, and other variations of the basic Hindu/Buddhist theological idea. See also [14673]blitter, [14674]bit bang. _________________________________________________________________
Node:wheel wars, Next:[14675]White Book, Previous:[14676]wheel of reincarnation, Up:[14677]= W =
wheel wars n.
[Stanford University] A period in [14678]larval stage during which student hackers hassle each other by attempting to log each other out of the system, delete each other’s files, and otherwise wreak havoc, usually at the expense of the lesser users. _________________________________________________________________
Node:White Book, Next:[14679]whitelist, Previous:[14680]wheel wars, Up:[14681]= W =
White Book n.
1. Syn. [14682]K&R. 2. Adobe’s fourth book in the PostScript series, describing the previously-secret format of Type 1 fonts; “Adobe Type 1 Font Format, version 1.1”, (Addison-Wesley, 1990, ISBN 0-201-57044-0). See also [14683]Red Book, [14684]Green Book, [14685]Blue Book. _________________________________________________________________
Node:whitelist, Next:[14686]whizzy, Previous:[14687]White Book, Up:[14688]= W =
whitelist n.
The opposite of a blacklist. That is, instead of being an explicit list of people who are banned, it’s an explicit list of people who are to be admitted. Hackers use this especially of lists of email addresses that are explicitly enabled to get past strict anti-spam filters.
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Node:whizzy, Next:[14689]wibble, Previous:[14690]whitelist, Up:[14691]= W =
whizzy adj.
(alt. `wizzy’) [Sun] Describes a [14692]cuspy program; one that is feature-rich and well presented.
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Node:wibble, Next:[14693]WIBNI, Previous:[14694]whizzy, Up:[14695]= W =
wibble
[UK, perh. originally from the first “Roger Irrelevant” strip in “VIZ” comics, spread via “Your Sinclair magazine in the 1980s and early 1990s”] 1. n.,v. Commonly used to describe chatter, content-free remarks or other essentially meaningless contributions to threads in newsgroups. “Oh, rspence is wibbling again”. 2. [UK IRC] An explicit on-line no-op equivalent to [14696]humma. 3. One of the preferred [14697]metasyntactic variables in the UK, forming a series with wobble, wubble, and flob (attributed to the hilarious historical comedy “Blackadder”). 4. A pronounciation of the letters “www”, as seen in URLs; i.e., www.[14698]foo.com may be pronounced “wibble dot foo dot com” (compare [14699]dub dub dub).
The ancestral sense of this word is reported to have been “My brain is packing it in now. I give up. Tilt! Tilt! Tilt!” _________________________________________________________________
Node:WIBNI, Next:[14700]widget, Previous:[14701]wibble, Up:[14702]= W =
WIBNI // n.
[Bell Labs: Wouldn’t It Be Nice If] What most requirements documents and specifications consist entirely of. Compare [14703]IWBNI. _________________________________________________________________
Node:widget, Next:[14704]wiggles, Previous:[14705]WIBNI, Up:[14706]= W =
widget n.
1. A meta-thing. Used to stand for a real object in didactic examples (especially database tutorials). Legend has it that the original widgets were holders for buggy whips. “But suppose the parts list for a widget has 52 entries….” 2. [poss. evoking `window gadget’] A user interface object in [14707]X graphical user interfaces. _________________________________________________________________
Node:wiggles, Next:[14708]WIMP environment, Previous:[14709]widget, Up:[14710]= W =
wiggles n.
[scientific computation] In solving partial differential equations by finite difference and similar methods, wiggles are sawtooth (up-down-up-down) oscillations at the shortest wavelength representable on the grid. If an algorithm is unstable, this is often the most unstable waveform, so it grows to dominate the solution. Alternatively, stable (though inaccurate) wiggles can be generated near a discontinuity by a Gibbs phenomenon. _________________________________________________________________
Node:WIMP environment, Next:[14711]win, Previous:[14712]wiggles, Up:[14713]= W =
WIMP environment n.
[acronym: `Window, Icon, Menu, Pointing device (or Pull-down menu)’] A graphical-user-interface environment such as [14714]X or the Macintosh interface, esp. as described by a hacker who prefers command-line interfaces for their superior flexibility and extensibility. However, it is also used without negative connotations; one must pay attention to voice tone and other signals to interpret correctly. See [14715]menuitis, [14716]user-obsequious. _________________________________________________________________
Node:win, Next:[14717]win big, Previous:[14718]WIMP environment, Up:[14719]= W =
win
[MIT; now common everywhere] 1. vi. To succeed. A program wins if no unexpected conditions arise, or (especially) if it sufficiently [14720]robust to take exceptions in stride. 2. n. Success, or a specific instance thereof. A pleasing outcome. “So it turned out I could use a [14721]lexer generator instead of hand-coding my own pattern recognizer. What a win!” Emphatic forms: `moby win’, `super win’, `hyper-win’ (often used interjectively as a reply). For some reason `suitable win’ is also common at MIT, usually in reference to a satisfactory solution to a problem. Oppose [14722]lose; see also [14723]big win, which isn’t quite just an intensification of `win’. _________________________________________________________________
Node:win big, Next:[14724]win win, Previous:[14725]win, Up:[14726]= W =
win big vi.
To experience serendipity. “I went shopping and won big; there was a 2-for-1 sale.” See [14727]big win.
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Node:win win, Next:[14728]Winchester, Previous:[14729]win big, Up:[14730]= W =
win win excl.
Expresses pleasure at a [14731]win. _________________________________________________________________
Node:Winchester, Next:[14732]windoid, Previous:[14733]win win, Up:[14734]= W =
Winchester n.
Informal generic term for sealed-enclosure magnetic-disk drives in which the read-write head planes over the disk surface on an air cushion. There is a legend that the name arose because the original 1973 engineering prototype for what later became the IBM 3340 featured two 30-megabyte volumes; 30-30 became `Winchester’ when somebody noticed the similarity to the common term for a famous Winchester rifle (in the latter, the first 30 referred to caliber and the second to the grain weight of the charge). (It is sometimes incorrectly claimed that Winchester was the laboratory in which the technology was developed.)
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Node:windoid, Next:[14735]window shopping, Previous:[14736]Winchester, Up:[14737]= W =
windoid n.
In the Macintosh world, a style of window with much less adornment (smaller or missing title bar, zoom box, etc, etc) than a standard window.
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Node:window shopping, Next:[14738]Windoze, Previous:[14739]windoid, Up:[14740]= W =
window shopping n.
[US Geological Survey] Among users of [14741]WIMP environments like [14742]X or the Macintosh, extended experimentation with new window colors, fonts, and icon shapes. This activity can take up hours of what might otherwise have been productive working time. “I spent the afternoon window shopping until I found the coolest shade of green for my active window borders — now they perfectly match my medium slate blue background.” Serious window shoppers will spend their days with bitmap editors, creating new and different icons and background patterns for all to see. Also: `window dressing’, the act of applying new fonts, colors, etc. See [14743]fritterware, compare [14744]macdink.
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Node:Windoze, Next:[14745]winged comments, Previous:[14746]window shopping, Up:[14747]= W =
Windoze /win’dohz/ n.
See [14748]Microsloth Windows.
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Node:winged comments, Next:[14749]winkey, Previous:[14750]Windoze, Up:[14751]= W =
winged comments n.
Comments set on the same line as code, as opposed to [14752]boxed comments. In C, for example:
d = sqrt(x*x + y*y); /* distance from origin */
Generally these refer only to the action(s) taken on that line. _________________________________________________________________
Node:winkey, Next:[14753]winnage, Previous:[14754]winged comments, Up:[14755]= W =
winkey n.
(alt. `winkey face’) See [14756]emoticon. _________________________________________________________________
Node:winnage, Next:[14757]winner, Previous:[14758]winkey, Up:[14759]= W =
winnage /win’*j/ n.
The situation when a lossage is corrected, or when something is winning.
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Node:winner, Next:[14760]winnitude, Previous:[14761]winnage, Up:[14762]= W =
winner
1. n. An unexpectedly good situation, program, programmer, or person. 2. `real winner’: Often sarcastic, but also used as high praise (see also the note under [14763]user). “He’s a real winner — never reports a bug till he can duplicate it and send in an example.” _________________________________________________________________
Node:winnitude, Next:[14764]Wintel, Previous:[14765]winner, Up:[14766]= W =
winnitude /win’*-t[y]ood/ n.
The quality of winning (as opposed to [14767]winnage, which is the result of winning). “Guess what? They tweaked the microcode and now the LISP interpreter runs twice as fast as it used to.” “That’s really great! Boy, what winnitude!” “Yup. I’ll probably get a half-hour’s winnage on the next run of my program.” Perhaps curiously, the obvious antonym `lossitude’ is rare.
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Node:Wintel, Next:[14768]wired, Previous:[14769]winnitude, Up:[14770]= W =
Wintel n.
Microsoft Windows plus Intel – the tacit alliance that dominated desktop computing in the 1990s. Now (1999) possibly on the verge of breaking up under pressure from [14771]Linux; see [14772]Lintel. _________________________________________________________________
Node:wired, Next:[14773]wirehead, Previous:[14774]Wintel, Up:[14775]= W =
wired n.
See [14776]hardwired.
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Node:wirehead, Next:[14777]wirewater, Previous:[14778]wired, Up:[14779]= W =
wirehead /wi:r’hed/ n.
[prob. from SF slang for an electrical-brain-stimulation addict] 1. A hardware hacker, especially one who concentrates on communications hardware. 2. An expert in local-area networks. A wirehead can be a network software wizard too, but will always have the ability to deal with network hardware, down to the smallest component. Wireheads are known for their ability to lash up an Ethernet terminator from spare resistors, for example.
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Node:wirewater, Next:[14780]wish list, Previous:[14781]wirehead, Up:[14782]= W =
wirewater n.
Syn. [14783]programming fluid. This melds the mainstream slang adjective `wired’ (stimulated, up, hyperactive) with `firewater’; however, it refers to caffeinacious rather than alcoholic beverages. _________________________________________________________________
Node:wish list, Next:[14784]within delta of, Previous:[14785]wirewater, Up:[14786]= W =
wish list n.
A list of desired features or bug fixes that probably won’t get done for a long time, usually because the person responsible for the code is too busy or can’t think of a clean way to do it. “OK, I’ll add automatic filename completion to the wish list for the new interface.” Compare [14787]tick-list features.
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Node:within delta of, Next:[14788]within epsilon of, Previous:[14789]wish list, Up:[14790]= W =
within delta of adj.
See [14791]delta.
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Node:within epsilon of, Next:[14792]wizard, Previous:[14793]within delta of, Up:[14794]= W =
within epsilon of adj.
See [14795]epsilon.
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Node:wizard, Next:[14796]Wizard Book, Previous:[14797]within epsilon of, Up:[14798]= W =
wizard n.
1. Transitively, a person who knows how a complex piece of software or hardware works (that is, who [14799]groks it); esp. someone who can find and fix bugs quickly in an emergency. Someone is a [14800]hacker if he or she has general hacking ability, but is a wizard with respect to something only if he or she has specific detailed knowledge of that thing. A good hacker could become a wizard for something given the time to study it. 2. The term `wizard’ is also used intransitively of someone who has extremely high-level hacking or problem-solving ability. 3. A person who is permitted to do things forbidden to ordinary people; one who has [14801]wheel privileges on a system. 4. A Unix expert, esp. a Unix systems programmer. This usage is well enough established that `Unix Wizard’ is a recognized job title at some corporations and to most headhunters. See [14802]guru, [14803]lord high fixer. See also [14804]deep magic, [14805]heavy wizardry, [14806]incantation, [14807]magic, [14808]mutter, [14809]rain dance, [14810]voodoo programming, [14811]wave a dead chicken. _________________________________________________________________
Node:Wizard Book, Next:[14812]wizard hat, Previous:[14813]wizard, Up:[14814]= W =
Wizard Book n.
“Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs” (Hal Abelson, Jerry Sussman and Julie Sussman; MIT Press, 1984, 1996; ISBN 0-262-01153-0), an excellent computer science text used in introductory courses at MIT. So called because of the wizard on the jacket. One of the [14815]bibles of the LISP/Scheme world. Also, less commonly, known as the [14816]Purple Book. _________________________________________________________________
Node:wizard hat, Next:[14817]wizard mode, Previous:[14818]Wizard Book, Up:[14819]= W =
wizard hat n.
[also, after Terry Pratchett, `pointy hat’] Notional headgear worn by whoever is the [14820]wizard in a particular context. The implication is that it’s a transferable role. “Talk to Alice, she’s wearing the TCP/IP wizard hat while Bob is on vacation.” This metaphor is sufficiently live that one may actually see hackers miming the act of putting on, taking off, or transferring a phantom hat. Compare [14821]patch pumpkin.
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Node:wizard mode, Next:[14822]wizardly, Previous:[14823]wizard hat, Up:[14824]= W =
wizard mode n.
[from [14825]rogue] A special access mode of a program or system, usually passworded, that permits some users godlike privileges. Generally not used for operating systems themselves (`root mode’ or `wheel mode’ would be used instead). This term is often used with respect to games that have editable state. _________________________________________________________________
Node:wizardly, Next:[14826]wok-on-the-wall, Previous:[14827]wizard mode, Up:[14828]= W =
wizardly adj.
Pertaining to wizards. A wizardly [14829]feature is one that only a wizard could understand or use properly. _________________________________________________________________
Node:wok-on-the-wall, Next:[14830]womb box, Previous:[14831]wizardly, Up:[14832]= W =
wok-on-the-wall n.
A small microwave dish antenna used for cross-campus private network circuits, from the obvious resemblance between a microwave dish and the Chinese culinary utensil.
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Node:womb box, Next:[14833]WOMBAT, Previous:[14834]wok-on-the-wall, Up:[14835]= W =
womb box n.
1. [TMRC] Storage space for equipment. 2. [proposed] A variety of hard-shell equipment case with heavy interior padding and/or shaped carrier cutouts in a foam-rubber matrix; mundanely called a `flight case’. Used for delicate test equipment, electronics, and musical instruments.
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Node:WOMBAT, Next:[14836]womble, Previous:[14837]womb box, Up:[14838]= W =
WOMBAT /wom’bat/ adj.
[acronym: Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time] Applied to problems which are both profoundly [14839]uninteresting in themselves and unlikely to benefit anyone interesting even if solved. Often used in fanciful constructions such as `wrestling with a wombat’. See also [14840]crawling horror, [14841]SMOP. Also note the rather different usage as a metasyntactic variable in [14842]Commonwealth Hackish.
Users of the PDP-11 database program DATATRIEVE adopted the wombat as their notional mascot; the program’s help file responded to “HELP WOMBAT” with factual information about Real World wombats. _________________________________________________________________
Node:womble, Next:[14843]wonky, Previous:[14844]WOMBAT, Up:[14845]= W =
womble n.
[Unisys UK: from British animated characters] A user who has great difficulty in communicating their requirements and/or in using the resulting software. Extreme case of [14846]luser. An especially senior or high-ranking womble is referred to as Great-Uncle Bulgaria. _________________________________________________________________
Node:wonky, Next:[14847]woofer, Previous:[14848]womble, Up:[14849]= W =
wonky /wong’kee/ adj.
[from Australian slang] Yet another approximate synonym for [14850]broken. Specifically connotes a malfunction that produces behavior seen as crazy, humorous, or amusingly perverse. “That was the day the printer’s font logic went wonky and everybody’s listings came out in Tengwar.” Also in `wonked out’. See [14851]funky, [14852]demented, [14853]bozotic.
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Node:woofer, Next:[14854]workaround, Previous:[14855]wonky, Up:[14856]= W =
woofer n.
[University of Waterloo] Some varieties of wide paper for printers have a perforation 8.5 inches from the left margin that allows the excess on the right-hand side to be torn off when the print format is 80 columns or less wide. The right-hand excess may be called `woofer’. This term (like [14857]tweeter) has been in use at Waterloo since 1972, but is elsewhere unknown. In audio jargon, the word refers to the bass speaker(s) on a hi-fi.
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Node:workaround, Next:[14858]working as designed, Previous:[14859]woofer, Up:[14860]= W =
workaround n.
1. A temporary [14861]kluge used to bypass, mask, or otherwise avoid a [14862]bug or [14863]misfeature in some system. Theoretically, workarounds are always replaced by [14864]fixes; in practice, customers often find themselves living with workarounds for long periods of time. “The code died on NUL characters in the input, so I fixed it to interpret them as spaces.” “That’s not a fix, that’s a workaround!” 2. A procedure to be employed by the user in order to do what some currently non-working feature should do. Hypothetical example: “Using META-F7 [14865]crashes the 4.43 build of Weemax, but as a workaround you can type CTRL-R, then SHIFT-F5, and delete the remaining [14866]cruft by hand.”
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Node:working as designed, Next:[14867]worm, Previous:[14868]workaround, Up:[14869]= W =
working as designed adj.
[IBM] 1. In conformance to a wrong or inappropriate specification; useful, but misdesigned. 2. Frequently used as a sardonic comment on a program’s utility. 3. Unfortunately also used as a bogus reason for not accepting a criticism or suggestion. At [14870]IBM, this sense is used in official documents! See [14871]BAD. _________________________________________________________________
Node:worm, Next:[14872]wormhole, Previous:[14873]working as designed, Up:[14874]= W =
worm n.
[from `tapeworm’ in John Brunner’s novel “The Shockwave Rider”, via XEROX PARC] A program that propagates itself over a network, reproducing itself as it goes. Compare [14875]virus. Nowadays the term has negative connotations, as it is assumed that only [14876]crackers write worms. Perhaps the best-known example was Robert T. Morris’s [14877]Great Worm of 1988, a `benign’ one that got out of control and hogged hundreds of Suns and VAXen across the U.S. See also [14878]cracker, [14879]RTM, [14880]Trojan horse, [14881]ice. _________________________________________________________________
Node:wormhole, Next:[14882]wound around the axle, Previous:[14883]worm, Up:[14884]= W =
wormhole /werm’hohl/ n.
[from the `wormhole’ singularities hypothesized in some versions of General Relativity theory] 1. [n.,obs.] A location in a monitor which contains the address of a routine, with the specific intent of making it easy to substitute a different routine. This term is now obsolescent; modern operating systems use clusters of wormholes extensively (for modularization of I/O handling in particular, as in the Unix device-driver organization) but the preferred techspeak for these clusters is `device tables’, `jump tables’ or `capability tables’. 2. [Amateur Packet Radio] A network path using a commercial satellite link to join two or more amateur VHF networks. So called because traffic routed through a wormhole leaves and re-enters the amateur network over great distances with usually little clue in the message routing header as to how it got from one relay to the other. Compare [14885]gopher hole (sense 2).
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Node:wound around the axle, Next:[14886]wrap around, Previous:[14887]wormhole, Up:[14888]= W =
wound around the axle adj.
In an infinite loop. Often used by older computer types. _________________________________________________________________
Node:wrap around, Next:[14889]write-only code, Previous:[14890]wound around the axle, Up:[14891]= W =
wrap around vi.
(also n. `wraparound’ and v. shorthand `wrap’) 1. [techspeak] The action of a counter that starts over at zero or at `minus infinity’ (see [14892]infinity) after its maximum value has been reached, and continues incrementing, either because it is programmed to do so or because of an overflow (as when a car’s odometer starts over at 0). 2. To change [14893]phase gradually and continuously by maintaining a steady wake-sleep cycle somewhat longer than 24 hours, e.g., living six long (28-hour) days in a week (or, equivalently, sleeping at the rate of 10 microhertz). This sense is also called [14894]phase-wrapping.
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Node:write-only code, Next:[14895]write-only language, Previous:[14896]wrap around, Up:[14897]= W =
write-only code n.
[a play on `read-only memory’] Code so arcane, complex, or ill-structured that it cannot be modified or even comprehended by anyone but its author, and possibly not even by him/her. A [14898]Bad Thing.
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Node:write-only language, Next:[14899]write-only memory, Previous:[14900]write-only code, Up:[14901]= W =
write-only language n.
A language with syntax (or semantics) sufficiently dense and bizarre that any routine of significant size is automatically [14902]write-only code. A sobriquet applied occasionally to C and often to APL, though [14903]INTERCAL and [14904]TECO certainly deserve it more. See also [14905]Befunge.
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Node:write-only memory, Next:[14906]Wrong Thing, Previous:[14907]write-only language, Up:[14908]= W =
write-only memory n.
The obvious antonym to `read-only memory’. Out of frustration with the long and seemingly useless chain of approvals required of component specifications, during which no actual checking seemed to occur, an engineer at Signetics once created a specification for a write-only memory and included it with a bunch of other specifications to be approved. This inclusion came to the attention of Signetics [14909]management only when regular customers started calling and asking for pricing information. Signetics published a corrected edition of the data book and requested the return of the `erroneous’ ones. Later, in 1972, Signetics bought a double-page spread in “Electronics” magazine’s April issue and used the spec as an April Fools’ Day joke. Instead of the more conventional characteristic curves, the 25120 “fully encoded, 9046 x N, Random Access, write-only-memory” data sheet included diagrams of “bit capacity vs. Temp.”, “Iff vs. Vff”, “Number of pins remaining vs. number of socket insertions”, and “AQL vs. selling price”. The 25120 required a 6.3 VAC VFF supply, a +10V VCC, and VDD of 0V, +/- 2%. _________________________________________________________________
Node:Wrong Thing, Next:[14910]wugga wugga, Previous:[14911]write-only memory, Up:[14912]= W =
Wrong Thing n.
A design, action, or decision that is clearly incorrect or inappropriate. Often capitalized; always emphasized in speech as if capitalized. The opposite of the [14913]Right Thing; more generally, anything that is not the Right Thing. In cases where `the good is the enemy of the best’, the merely good — although good — is nevertheless the Wrong Thing. “In C, the default is for module-level declarations to be visible everywhere, rather than just within the module. This is clearly the Wrong Thing.” _________________________________________________________________
Node:wugga wugga, Next:[14914]wumpus, Previous:[14915]Wrong Thing, Up:[14916]= W =
wugga wugga /wuh’g* wuh’g*/ n.
Imaginary sound that a computer program makes as it labors with a tedious or difficult task.[14917]grind (sense 4). _________________________________________________________________
Node:wumpus, Next:[14918]WYSIAYG, Previous:[14919]wugga wugga, Up:[14920]= W =
wumpus /wuhm’p*s/ n.
The central monster (and, in many versions, the name) of a famous family of very early computer games called “Hunt The Wumpus’. The original was invented in 1970 (several years before [14921]ADVENT) by Gregory Yob. The wumpus lived somewhere in a cave with the topology of an dodecahedron’s edge/vertex graph (later versions supported other topologies, including an icosahedron and Möbius strip). The player started somewhere at random in the cave with five `crooked arrows’; these could be shot through up to three connected rooms, and would kill the wumpus on a hit (later versions introduced the wounded wumpus, which got very angry). Unfortunately for players, the movement necessary to map the maze was made hazardous not merely by the wumpus (which would eat you if you stepped on him) but also by bottomless pits and colonies of super bats that would pick you up and drop you at a random location (later versions added `anaerobic termites’ that ate arrows, bat migrations, and earthquakes that randomly changed pit locations).
This game appears to have been the first to use a non-random graph-structured map (as opposed to a rectangular grid like the even older Star Trek games). In this respect, as in the dungeon-like setting and its terse, amusing messages, it prefigured [14922]ADVENT and [14923]Zork and was directly ancestral to the latter (Zork acknowledged this heritage by including a super-bat colony). A C emulation of the original Basic game is available at the Retrocomputing Museum, [14924]http://www.ccil.org/retro. _________________________________________________________________
Node:WYSIAYG, Next:[14925]WYSIWYG, Previous:[14926]wumpus, Up:[14927]= W =
WYSIAYG /wiz’ee-ayg/ adj.
Describes a user interface under which “What You See Is All You Get”; an unhappy variant of [14928]WYSIWYG. Visual, `point-and-shoot’-style interfaces tend to have easy initial learning curves, but also to lack depth; they often frustrate advanced users who would be better served by a command-style interface. When this happens, the frustrated user has a WYSIAYG problem. This term is most often used of editors, word processors, and document formatting programs. WYSIWYG `desktop publishing’ programs, for example, are a clear win for creating small documents with lots of fonts and graphics in them, especially things like newsletters and presentation slides. When typesetting book-length manuscripts, on the other hand, scale changes the nature of the task; one quickly runs into WYSIAYG limitations, and the increased power and flexibility of a command-driven formatter like [14929]TeX or Unix’s [14930]troff becomes not just desirable but a necessity. Compare [14931]YAFIYGI.
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Node:WYSIWYG, Next:[14932]X, Previous:[14933]WYSIAYG, Up:[14934]= W =
WYSIWYG /wiz’ee-wig/ adj.
[Traced to Flip Wilson’s “Geraldine” character c.1970] Describes a user interface under which “What You See Is What You Get”, as opposed to one that uses more-or-less obscure commands that do not result in immediate visual feedback. True WYSIWYG in environments supporting multiple fonts or graphics is a a rarely-attained ideal; there are variants of this term to express real-world manifestations including WYSIAWYG (What You See Is Almost What You Get) and WYSIMOLWYG (What You See Is More or Less What You Get). All these can be mildly derogatory, as they are often used to refer to dumbed-down [14935]user-friendly interfaces targeted at non-programmers; a hacker has no fear of obscure commands (compare [14936]WYSIAYG). On the other hand, [14937]EMACS was one of the very first WYSIWYG editors, replacing (actually, at first overlaying) the extremely obscure, command-based [14938]TECO. See also [14939]WIMP environment. [Oddly enough, WYSIWYG has already made it into the OED, in lower case yet. –ESR]
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Node:= X =, Next:[14940]= Y =, Previous:[14941]= W =, Up:[14942]The Jargon Lexicon
= X =
* [14943]X:
* [14944]XEROX PARC:
* [14945]XOFF:
* [14946]XON:
* [14947]xor:
* [14948]xref:
* [14949]XXX:
* [14950]xyzzy:
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Node:X, Next:[14951]XEROX PARC, Previous:[14952]WYSIWYG, Up:[14953]= X =
X /X/ n.
1. Used in various speech and writing contexts (also in lowercase) in roughly its algebraic sense of `unknown within a set defined by context’ (compare [14954]N). Thus, the abbreviation 680×0 stands for 68000, 68010, 68020, 68030, or 68040, and 80×86 stands for 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486, 80586 or 80686 (note that a Unix hacker might write these as 680[0-6]0 and 80[1-6]86 or 680?0 and 80?86 respectively; see [14955]glob). 2. [after the name of an earlier window system called `W’] An over-sized, over-featured, over-engineered and incredibly over-complicated window system developed at MIT and widely used on Unix systems. _________________________________________________________________
Node:XEROX PARC, Next:[14956]XOFF, Previous:[14957]X, Up:[14958]= X =
XEROX PARC /zee’roks park’/ n.
The famed Palo Alto Research Center. For more than a decade, from the early 1970s into the mid-1980s, PARC yielded an astonishing volume of groundbreaking hardware and software innovations. The modern mice, windows, and icons style of software interface was invented there. So was the laser printer and the local-area network; and PARC’s series of D machines anticipated the powerful personal computers of the 1980s by a decade. Sadly, the prophets at PARC were without honor in their own company, so much so that it became a standard joke to describe PARC as a place that specialized in developing brilliant ideas for everyone else.
The stunning shortsightedness and obtusity of XEROX’s top-level [14959]suits has been well anatomized in “Fumbling The Future: How XEROX Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer” by Douglas K. Smith and Robert C. Alexander (William Morrow & Co., 1988, ISBN 0-688-09511-9).
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Node:XOFF, Next:[14960]XON, Previous:[14961]XEROX PARC, Up:[14962]= X =
XOFF /X-of/ n.
Syn. [14963]control-S.
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Node:XON, Next:[14964]xor, Previous:[14965]XOFF, Up:[14966]= X =
XON /X-on/ n.
Syn. [14967]control-Q.
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Node:xor, Next:[14968]xref, Previous:[14969]XON, Up:[14970]= X =
xor /X’or/, /kzor/ conj.
Exclusive or. `A xor B’ means `A or B, but not both’. “I want to get cherry pie xor a banana split.” This derives from the technical use of the term as a function on truth-values that is true if exactly one of its two arguments is true.
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Node:xref, Next:[14971]XXX, Previous:[14972]xor, Up:[14973]= X =
xref /X’ref/ v.,n.
Hackish standard abbreviation for `cross-reference’. _________________________________________________________________
Node:XXX, Next:[14974]xyzzy, Previous:[14975]xref, Up:[14976]= X =
XXX /X-X-X/ n.
A marker that attention is needed. Commonly used in program comments to indicate areas that are kluged up or need to be. Some hackers liken `XXX’ to the notional heavy-porn movie rating. Compare [14977]FIXME. _________________________________________________________________
Node:xyzzy, Next:[14978]YA-, Previous:[14979]XXX, Up:[14980]= X =
xyzzy /X-Y-Z-Z-Y/, /X-Y-ziz’ee/, /ziz’ee/, or /ik-ziz’ee/ adj.
[from the ADVENT game] The [14981]canonical `magic word’. This comes from [14982]ADVENT, in which the idea is to explore an underground cave with many rooms and to collect the treasures you find there. If you type `xyzzy’ at the appropriate time, you can move instantly between two otherwise distant points. If, therefore, you encounter some bit of [14983]magic, you might remark on this quite succinctly by saying simply “Xyzzy!” “Ordinarily you can’t look at someone else’s screen if he has protected it, but if you type quadruple-bucky-clear the system will let you do it anyway.” “Xyzzy!” It’s traditional for xyzzy to be an [14984]Easter egg in games with text interfaces.
Xyzzy has actually been implemented as an undocumented no-op command on several OSes; in Data General’s AOS/VS, for example, it would typically respond “Nothing happens”, just as [14985]ADVENT did if the magic was invoked at the wrong spot or before a player had performed the action that enabled the word. In more recent 32-bit versions, by the way, AOS/VS responds “Twice as much happens”.
Early versions of the popular `minesweeper’ game under Microsoft Windows had a cheat mode triggered by the command `xyzzy
The following passage from “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum, suggesting a possible pre-ADVENT origin, has recently come to light:
“Ziz-zy, zuz-zy, zik!” said Dorothy, who was now standing on both feet. This ended the saying of the charm, and they heard a great chattering and flapping of wings, as the band of Winged Monkeys flew up to them.
The text can be viewed at
[14986]ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext93/wizoz10. txt.
Another possible pre-ADVENT porigin is discussed at