Random Jargon

Random Glossary Definition for Wednesday, January 7, 2009

2009-01-07T00:00:00Z

tumbler: n.

1. [Originally from the Xanadu hypertext project] A tumbler is a magic cookie generated as part of a record or message to give it a unique identity. Usually a tumbler includes an encoded form of its creation date, but if a software system has more than one concurrent process that could generate tumblers it must also include an encoding of the process ID. If tumblers will be shared across multiple network hosts, they must also include the host name or network address. Tumblers often include a hash of the rest of the message or record content so that it is possible to verify the correctness of the data the tumbler is attached to.

2. Variant text added to spam instances (often in the Subject line) to make them unique. This kind of tumbler is used to defeat schemes that check an exact hash of an incoming message against known spam signatures; it also compromises some kinds of statistical spam recognition.

Random Glossary Definition for Tuesday, January 6, 2009

2009-01-06T00:00:00Z

spl: /S·P·L/

[abbrev, from Set Priority Level] The way traditional Unix kernels implement mutual exclusion by running code at high interrupt levels. Used in jargon to describe the act of tuning in or tuning out ordinary communication. Classically, spl levels run from 1 to 7; “Fred's at spl 6 today” would mean that he is very hard to interrupt. “Wait till I finish this; I'll spl down then.” See also interrupts locked out.

Random Glossary Definition for Monday, January 5, 2009

2009-01-05T00:00:00Z

Lintel: n.

The emerging Linux/Intel alliance. This term began to be used in early 1999 after it became clear that the Wintel alliance was under increasing strain and Intel started taking stakes in Linux companies.

Random Glossary Definition for Sunday, January 4, 2009

2009-01-04T00:00:00Z

plan file: n.

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

A recent innovation in plan files has been the introduction of “scrolling plan files” which are one-dimensional animations made using only the printable ASCII character set, carriage return and line feed, avoiding terminal specific escape sequences, since the finger command will (for security reasons; see letterbomb) not pass the escape character.

Scrolling .plan files have become art forms in miniature, and some sites have started competitions to find who can create the longest running, funniest, and most original animations. Various animation characters include:

Centipede:	mmmmme
Lorry/Truck:	oo-oP
Andalusian Video Snail:	_@/

and a compiler (ASP) is available on Usenet for producing them. See also twirling baton.

Random Glossary Definition for Saturday, January 3, 2009

2009-01-03T00:00:00Z

scruffies: n.

See neats vs. scruffies.

Random Glossary Definition for Friday, January 2, 2009

2009-01-02T00:00:00Z

grind: vt.

1. [MIT and Berkeley; now rare] To prettify hardcopy of code, especially LISP code, by reindenting lines, printing keywords and comments in distinct fonts (if available), etc. This usage was associated with the MacLISP community and is now rare; prettyprint was and is the generic term for such operations.

2. [Unix] To generate the formatted version of a document from the troff, TeX, or Scribe source.

3. [common] To run seemingly interminably, esp. (but not necessarily) if performing some tedious and inherently useless task. Similar to crunch or grovel. Grinding has a connotation of using a lot of CPU time, but it is possible to grind a disk, network, etc. See also hog.

4. To make the whole system slow. “Troff really grinds a PDP-11.”

5. grind grind excl. Roughly, “Isn't the machine slow today!”

Random Glossary Definition for Thursday, January 1, 2009

2009-01-01T00:00:00Z

monty: /mon´tee/, n.

1. [US Geological Survey] A program with a ludicrously complex user interface written to perform extremely trivial tasks. An example would be a menu-driven, button clicking, pulldown, pop-up windows program for listing directories. The original monty was an infamous weather-reporting program, Monty the Amazing Weather Man, written at the USGS. Monty had a widget-packed X-window interface with over 200 buttons; and all monty actually did was files off the network.

2. [Great Britain; commonly capitalized as Monty or as the Full Monty] 16 megabytes of memory, when fitted to an IBM-PC or compatible. A standard PC-compatible using the AT- or ISA-bus with a normal BIOS cannot access more than 16 megabytes of RAM. Generally used of a PC, Unix workstation, etc. to mean fully populated with memory, disk-space or some other desirable resource. See the World Wide Words article “The Full Monty” for discussion of the rather complex etymology that may lie behind this phrase. Compare American moby.