The New Hacker's Dictionary - Eric S. Raymond (e book reader online txt) 📗
- Author: Eric S. Raymond
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Previous:[12090]shell out, Up:[12091]= S =
shift left (or right) logical
[from any of various machines' instruction sets] 1. vi. To move
oneself to the left (right). To move out of the way. 2. imper. "Get
out of that (my) seat! You can shift to that empty one to the left
(right)." Often used without the logical', or asleft shift' instead
of `shift left'. Sometimes heard as LSH /lish/, from the [12092]PDP-10
instruction set. See [12093]Programmer's Cheer.
Node:shim, Next:[12094]shitogram, Previous:[12095]shift left (or
right) logical, Up:[12096]= S =
shim n.
A small piece of data inserted in order to achieve a desired memory
alignment or other addressing property. For example, the PDP-11 Unix
linker, in split I&D (instructions and data) mode, inserts a two-byte
shim at location 0 in data space so that no data object will have an
address of 0 (and be confused with the C null pointer). See also
[12097]loose bytes.
Node:shitogram, Next:[12098]short card, Previous:[12099]shim,
Up:[12100]= S =
shitogram /shit'oh-gram/ n.
A really nasty piece of email. Compare [12101]nastygram, [12102]flame.
Node:short card, Next:[12103]shotgun debugging,
Previous:[12104]shitogram, Up:[12105]= S =
short card n.
A half-length IBM XT expansion card or adapter that will fit in one of
the two short slots located towards the right rear of a standard
chassis (tucked behind the floppy disk drives). See also [12106]tall
card.
Node:shotgun debugging, Next:[12107]shovelware, Previous:[12108]short
card, Up:[12109]= S =
shotgun debugging n.
The software equivalent of [12110]Easter egging; the making of
relatively undirected changes to software in the hope that a bug will
be perturbed out of existence. This almost never works, and usually
introduces more bugs.
Node:shovelware, Next:[12111]showstopper, Previous:[12112]shotgun
debugging, Up:[12113]= S =
shovelware /shuh'v*l-weir`/ n.
Extra software dumped onto a CD-ROM or tape to fill up theremaining space on the medium after the software distribution it's
intended to carry, but not integrated with the distribution. 2. A
slipshod compilation of software dumped onto a CD-ROM without much
care for organization or even usability.
Node:showstopper, Next:[12114]shriek, Previous:[12115]shovelware,
Up:[12116]= S =
showstopper n.
A hardware or (especially) software bug that makes an implementation
effectively unusable; one that absolutely has to be fixed before
development can go on. Opposite in connotation from its original
theatrical use, which refers to something stunningly good.
Node:shriek, Next:[12117]Shub-Internet, Previous:[12118]showstopper,
Up:[12119]= S =
shriek n.
See [12120]excl. Occasional CMU usage, also in common use among APL
fans and mathematicians, especially category theorists.
Node:Shub-Internet, Next:[12121]sidecar, Previous:[12122]shriek,
Up:[12123]= S =
Shub-Internet /shuhb' in't*r-net/ n.
[MUD: from H. P. Lovecraft's evil fictional deity Shub-Niggurath, the
Black Goat with a Thousand Young] The harsh personification of the
Internet: Beast of a Thousand Processes, Eater of Characters, Avatar
of Line Noise, and Imp of Call Waiting; the hideous multi-tendriled
entity formed of all the manifold connections of the net. A sect of
MUDders worships Shub-Internet, sacrificing objects and praying for
good connections. To no avail -- its purpose is malign and evil, and
is the cause of all network slowdown. Often heard as in "Freela casts
a tac nuke at Shub-Internet for slowing her down." (A forged response
often follows along the lines of: "Shub-Internet gulps down the tac
nuke and burps happily.") Also cursed by users of the Web, [12124]FTP
and [12125]TELNET when the system slows down. The dread name of
Shub-Internet is seldom spoken aloud, as it is said that repeating it
three times will cause the being to wake, deep within its lair beneath
the Pentagon. Compare [12126]Random Number God.
[January 1996: It develops that one of the computer administrators in
the basement of the Pentagon read this entry and fell over laughing.
As a result, you too can now poke Shub-Internet by [12127]pinging
shub-internet.ims.disa.mil. See also [12128]kremvax. - ESR]
[April 1999: shub-internet.ims.disa.mil is no more, alas. But
Shub-Internet lives o^$#$*^ - ESR]
Node:sidecar, Next:[12129]SIG, Previous:[12130]Shub-Internet,
Up:[12131]= S =
sidecar n.
Syn. [12132]slap on the side. Esp. used of add-ons for the late andunlamented IBM PCjr. 2. The IBM PC compatibility box that could be
bolted onto the side of an Amiga. Designed and produced by Commodore,
it broke all of the company's own design rules. If it worked with any
other peripherals, it was by [12133]magic. 3. More generally, any of
various devices designed to be connected to the expansion slot on the
left side of the Amiga 500 (and later, 600 & 1200), which included a
hard drive controller, a hard drive, and additional memory.
Node:SIG, Next:[12134]sig block, Previous:[12135]sidecar, Up:[12136]=
S =
SIG /sig/ n.
(also common as a prefix in combining forms) A Special Interest Group,
in one of several technical areas, sponsored by the Association for
Computing Machinery; well-known ones include SIGPLAN (the Special
Interest Group on Programming Languages), SIGARCH (the Special
Interest Group for Computer Architecture) and SIGGRAPH (the Special
Interest Group for Computer Graphics). Hackers, not surprisingly, like
to overextend this naming convention to less formal associations like
SIGBEER (at ACM conferences) and SIGFOOD (at University of Illinois).
Node:sig block, Next:[12137]sig quote, Previous:[12138]SIG,
Up:[12139]= S =
sig block /sig blok/ n.
[Unix; often written .sig' there] Short forsignature', used
specifically to refer to the electronic signature block that most Unix
mail- and news-posting software will [12140]automagically append to
outgoing mail and news. The composition of one's sig can be quite an
art form, including an ASCII logo or one's choice of witty sayings
(see [12141]sig quote, [12142]fool file); but many consider large sigs
a waste of [12143]bandwidth, and it has been observed that the size of
one's sig block is usually inversely proportional to one's longevity
and level of prestige on the net. See also [12144]doubled sig.
Node:sig quote, Next:[12145]sig virus, Previous:[12146]sig block,
Up:[12147]= S =
sig quote /sig kwoht/ n.
[Usenet] A maxim, quote, proverb, joke, or slogan embedded in one's
[12148]sig block and intended to convey something of one's
philosophical stance, pet peeves, or sense of humor. "Calm down, it's
only ones and zeroes."
Node:sig virus, Next:[12149]signal-to-noise ratio, Previous:[12150]sig
quote, Up:[12151]= S =
sig virus n.
A parasitic [12152]meme embedded in a [12153]sig block. There was a
[12154]meme plague or fad for these on Usenet in late 1991. Most were
equivalents of "I am a .sig virus. Please reproduce me in your .sig
block.". Of course, the .sig virus's memetic hook is the giggle value
of going along with the gag; this, however, was a self-limiting
phenomenon as more and more people picked up on the idea. There were
creative variants on it; some people stuck `sig virus antibody' texts
in their sigs, and there was at least one instance of a sig virus
eater.
Node:signal-to-noise ratio, Next:[12155]silicon, Previous:[12156]sig
virus, Up:[12157]= S =
signal-to-noise ratio [from analog electronics] n.
Used by hackers in a generalization of its technical meaning. `Signal'
refers to useful information conveyed by some communications medium,
and `noise' to anything else on that medium. Hence a low ratio implies
that it is not worth paying attention to the medium in question.
Figures for such metaphorical ratios are never given. The term is most
often applied to [12158]Usenet newsgroups during [12159]flame wars.
Compare [12160]bandwidth. See also [12161]coefficient of X,
[12162]lost in the noise.
Node:silicon, Next:[12163]silly walk, Previous:[12164]signal-to-noise
ratio, Up:[12165]= S =
silicon n.
Hardware, esp. ICs or microprocessor-based computer systems (compare
[12166]iron). Contrasted with software. See also [12167]sandbender.
Node:silly walk, Next:[12168]silo, Previous:[12169]silicon,
Up:[12170]= S =
silly walk vi.
[from Monty Python's Flying Circus] 1. A ridiculous procedure required
to accomplish a task. Like [12171]grovel, but more [12172]random and
humorous. "I had to silly-walk through half the /usr directories to
find the maps file." 2. Syn. [12173]fandango on core.
Node:silo, Next:[12174]Silver Book, Previous:[12175]silly walk,
Up:[12176]= S =
silo n.
The FIFO input-character buffer in an RS-232 line card. So called from
[12177]DEC terminology used on DH and DZ line cards for the VAX and
PDP-11, presumably because it was a storage space for fungible stuff
that went in at the top and came out at the bottom.
Node:Silver Book, Next:[12178]since time T equals minus infinity,
Previous:[12179]silo, Up:[12180]= S =
Silver Book n.
Jensen and Wirth's infamous "Pascal User Manual and Report", so called
because of the silver cover of the widely distributed Springer-Verlag
second edition of 1978 (ISBN 0-387-90144-2). See [12181]book titles,
[12182]Pascal.
Node:since time T equals minus infinity, Next:[12183]sitename,
Previous:[12184]Silver Book, Up:[12185]= S =
since time T equals minus infinity adv.
A long time ago; for as long as anyone can remember; at the time that
some particular frob was first designed. Usually the word `time' is
omitted. See also [12186]time T; contrast [12187]epoch.
Node:sitename, Next:[12188]skrog, Previous:[12189]since time T equals
minus infinity, Up:[12190]= S =
sitename /si:t'naym/ n.
[Unix/Internet] The unique electronic name of a computer system, used
to identify it in UUCP mail, Usenet, or other forms of electronic
information interchange. The folklore interest of sitenames stems from
the creativity and humor they often display. Interpreting a sitename
is not unlike interpreting a vanity license plate; one has to mentally
unpack it, allowing for mono-case and length restrictions and the lack
of whitespace. Hacker tradition deprecates dull,
institutional-sounding names in favor of punchy, humorous, and clever
coinages (except that it is considered appropriate for the official
public gateway machine of an organization to bear the organization's
name or acronym). Mythological references, cartoon characters, animal
names, and allusions to SF or fantasy literature are probably the most
popular sources for sitenames (in roughly descending order). The
obligatory comment when discussing these is Harris's Lament: "All the
good ones are taken!" See also [12191]network address.
Node:skrog, Next:[12192]skulker, Previous:[12193]sitename, Up:[12194]=
S =
skrog v.
Syn. [12195]scrog.
Node:skulker, Next:[12196]slab, Previous:[12197]skrog, Up:[12198]= S =
skulker n.
Syn. [12199]prowler.
Node:slab, Next:[12200]slack, Previous:[12201]skulker, Up:[12202]= S =
slab [Apple]
n. A continuous horizontal line of pixels, all with the same color.
vi. To paint a slab on an output device. Apple's QuickDraw, like
most other professional-level graphics systems, renders polygons and
lines not with Bresenham's algorithm, but by calculating `slab points'
for each scan line on the screen in succession, and then slabbing in
the actual image pixels.
Node:slack, Next:[12203]slap on the side, Previous:[12204]slab,
Up:[12205]= S =
slack n.
Space allocated to a disk file but not actually used to storeuseful information. The techspeak equivalent is `internal
fragmentation'. Antonym: [12206]hole. 2. In the theology of the
[12207]Church of the SubGenius, a mystical substance or quality that
is the prerequisite of all human happiness.
Since Unix files are stored compactly, except for the unavoidable
wastage in the last block or fragment, it might be said that "Unix has
no slack". See [12208]ha ha only serious.
Node:slap on the side, Next:[12209]slash, Previous:[12210]slack,
Up:[12211]= S =
slap on the side n.
(also called a [12212]sidecar, or abbreviated `SOTS'.) A type of
external expansion hardware marketed by computer manufacturers (e.g.,
Commodore for the Amiga 500/1000 series and IBM for the hideous
failure called `PCjr'). Various SOTS boxes provided necessities such
as memory, hard drive controllers, and conventional expansion slots.
Node:slash, Next:[12213]slashdot effect, Previous:[12214]slap on the
side, Up:[12215]= S =
slash n.
Common name for the slant (`/', ASCII 0101111) character. See
[12216]ASCII for other synonyms.
Node:slashdot effect, Next:[12217]sleep, Previous:[12218]slash,
Up:[12219]= S =
slashdot effect n.
Also spelled "/. effect"; what is said to have happened when awebsite being virtually unreachable because too many people are
hitting it after the site was mentioned in an interesting article on
the popular [12220]Slashdot news service. The term is quite widely
used by /. readers, including variants like "That site has been
slashdotted again!" 2. In a perhaps inevitable generation, the term is
being used to describe any similar effect from being listed on a
popular site. This would better be described as a [12221]flash crowd.
Node:sleep, Next:[12222]slim, Previous:[12223]slashdot effect,
Up:[12224]= S =
sleep vi.
[techspeak] To relinquish a claim (of a process on a multitaskingsystem) for service; to indicate to the scheduler that a process may
be deactivated until some
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