The Jargon File - Eric S. Raymond (best books for 8th graders .txt) 📗
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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.
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.
Node:warm boot, Next:[14510]wart, Previous:[14511]warlording,
Up:[14512]= W =
warm boot n.
See [14513]boot.
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.
Node:washing machine, Next:[14521]washing software,
Previous:[14522]wart, Up:[14523]= W =
washing machine n.
Old-style 14-inch hard disks in floor-standing cabinets. So calledbecause 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.
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.
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.
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.
Node:wedged, Next:[14565]wedgie, Previous:[14566]web ring, Up:[14567]=
W =
wedged adj.
To be stuck, incapable of proceeding without help. This isdifferent 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.
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.
Refers to development projects or algorithms that have no possiblerelevance 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.
[on BBSes] Any of a species of luser resembling a less amusingversion 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.
[ITS] A derogatory term for [14607]Unix, derived from [14608]Unixweenie. 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.html. Named
independently of the ITS usage.
Node:well-behaved, Next:[14611]well-connected, Previous:[14612]Weenix,
Up:[14613]= W =
well-behaved adj.
[primarily [14614]MS-DOS] Said of software conforming to systeminterface 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
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