Part 26
Typical hacker response to news that somebody is having trouble getting work done on a system that (a) is single-tasking, (b) has no hard disk, or (c) has an address space smaller than 16 megabytes. This is as of early 1996; note that the threshold for `real computer' rises with time. See bitty box and toy.
Node:GFR, Next:gib, Previous:Get a real computer!, Up:= G =
GFR /G-F-R/ vt.
[ITS: from `Grim File Reaper', an ITS and LISP Machine utility] To remove a file or files according to some program-automated or semi-automatic manual procedure, especially one designed to reclaim mass storage space or reduce name-space clutter (the original GFR actually moved files to tape). Often generalized to pieces of data below file level. "I used to have his phone number, but I guess I GFRed it." See also prowler, reaper. Compare GC, which discards only provably worthless stuff.
Node:gib, Next:GIFs at 11, Previous:GFR, Up:= G =
gib /jib/
1. vi. To destroy utterly. Like frag, but much more violent and final. "There's no trace left. You definitely gibbed that bug". 2. n. Remnants after total obliteration.
Originated first by id software in the game Quake. It's short for giblets (thus pronounced "jib"), and referred to the bloody remains of slain opponents. Eventually the word was verbed, and leaked into general usage afterward.
Node:GIFs at 11, Next:gig, Previous:gib, Up:= G =
GIFs at 11
[Fidonet] Fidonet alternative to film at 11, especially in echoes (Fidonet topic areas) where uuencoded GIFs are permitted. Other formats, especially JPEG and MPEG, may be referenced instead.
Node:gig, Next:giga-, Previous:GIFs at 11, Up:= G =
gig /jig/ or /gig/ n.
[SI] See quantifiers.
Node:giga-, Next:GIGO, Previous:gig, Up:= G =
giga- /ji'ga/ or /gi'ga/ pref.
[SI] See quantifiers.
Node:GIGO, Next:gilley, Previous:giga-, Up:= G =
GIGO /gi:'goh/ [acronym]
1. `Garbage In, Garbage Out' -- usually said in response to lusers who complain that a program didn't "do the right thing" when given imperfect input or otherwise mistreated in some way. Also commonly used to describe failures in human decision making due to faulty, incomplete, or imprecise data. 2. `Garbage In, Gospel Out': this more recent expansion is a sardonic comment on the tendency human beings have to put excessive trust in `computerized' data.
Node:gilley, Next:gillion, Previous:GIGO, Up:= G =
gilley n.
[Usenet] The unit of analogical bogosity. According to its originator, the standard for one gilley was "the act of bogotoficiously comparing the shutting down of 1000 machines for a day with the killing of one person". The milligilley has been found to suffice for most normal conversational exchanges.
Node:gillion, Next:ginger, Previous:gilley, Up:= G =
gillion /gil'y*n/ or /jil'y*n/ n.
[formed from giga- by analogy with mega/million and tera/trillion] 10^9. Same as an American billion or a British `milliard'. How one pronounces this depends on whether one speaks giga- with a hard or soft `g'.
Node:ginger, Next:GIPS, Previous:gillion, Up:= G =
ginger n.
See saga.
Node:GIPS, Next:glark, Previous:ginger, Up:= G =
GIPS /gips/ or /jips/ n.
[analogy with MIPS] Giga-Instructions per Second (also possibly `Gillions of Instructions per Second'; see gillion). In 1991, this is used of only a handful of highly parallel machines, but this is expected to change. Compare KIPS.
Node:glark, Next:glass, Previous:GIPS, Up:= G =
glark /glark/ vt.
To figure something out from context. "The System III manuals are pretty poor, but you can generally glark the meaning from context." Interestingly, the word was originally `glork'; the context was "This gubblick contains many nonsklarkish English flutzpahs, but the overall pluggandisp can be glorked [sic] from context" (David Moser, quoted by Douglas Hofstadter in his "Metamagical Themas" column in the January 1981 "Scientific American"). It is conjectured that hacker usage mutated the verb to `glark' because glork was already an established jargon term (some hackers do report using the original term). Compare grok, zen.
Node:glass, Next:glass tty, Previous:glark, Up:= G =
glass n.
[IBM] Synonym for silicon.
Node:glass tty, Next:glassfet, Previous:glass, Up:= G =
glass tty /glas T-T-Y/ or /glas ti'tee/ n.
A terminal that has a display screen but which, because of hardware or software limitations, behaves like a teletype or some other printing terminal, thereby combining the disadvantages of both: like a printing terminal, it can't do fancy display hacks, and like a display terminal, it doesn't produce hard copy. An example is the early `dumb' version of Lear-Siegler ADM 3 (without cursor control). See tube, tty; compare dumb terminal, smart terminal. See "TV Typewriters" (Appendix A) for an interesting true story about a glass tty.
Node:glassfet, Next:glitch, Previous:glass tty, Up:= G =
glassfet /glas'fet/ n.
[by analogy with MOSFET, the acronym for `Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor'] Syn. firebottle, a humorous way to refer to a vacuum tube.
Node:glitch, Next:glob, Previous:glassfet, Up:= G =
glitch /glich/
[very common; from German `glitschig' to slip, via Yiddish `glitshen', to slide or skid] 1. n. A sudden interruption in electric service, sanity, continuity, or program function. Sometimes recoverable. An interruption in electric service is specifically called a `power glitch' (also power hit), of grave concern because it usually crashes all the computers. In jargon, though, a hacker who got to the middle of a sentence and then forgot how he or she intended to complete it might say, "Sorry, I just glitched". 2. vi. To commit a glitch. See gritch. 3. vt. [Stanford] To scroll a display screen, esp. several lines at a time. WAITS terminals used to do this in order to avoid continuous scrolling, which is distracting to the eye. 4. obs. Same as magic cookie, sense 2.
All these uses of `glitch' derive from the specific technical meaning the term has in the electronic hardware world, where it is now techspeak. A glitch can occur when the inputs of a circuit change, and the outputs change to some random value for some very brief time before they settle down to the correct value. If another circuit inspects the output at just the wrong time, reading the random value, the results can be very wrong and very hard to debug (a glitch is one of many causes of electronic heisenbugs).
Node:glob, Next:glork, Previous:glitch, Up:= G =
glob /glob/, not /glohb/ v.,n.
[Unix; common] To expand special characters in a wildcarded name, or the act of so doing (the action is also called `globbing'). The Unix conventions for filename wildcarding have become sufficiently pervasive that many hackers use some of them in written English, especially in email or news on technical topics. Those commonly encountered include the following:
*
wildcard for any string (see also UN*X)
?
wildcard for any single character (generally read this way only at the beginning or in the middle of a word)
[]
delimits a wildcard matching any of the enclosed characters
{}
alternation of comma-separated alternatives; thus, `foo{baz,qux}' would be read as `foobaz' or `fooqux'
Some examples: "He said his name was [KC]arl" (expresses ambiguity). "I don't read talk.politics.*" (any of the talk.politics subgroups on Usenet). Other examples are given under the entry for X. Note that glob patterns are similar, but not identical, to those used in regexps.
Historical note: The jargon usage derives from glob, the name of a subprogram that expanded wildcards in archaic pre-Bourne versions of the Unix shell.
Node:glork, Next:glue, Previous:glob, Up:= G =
glork /glork/
1. interj. Term of mild surprise, usually tinged with outrage, as when one attempts to save the results of two hours of editing and finds that the system has just crashed. 2. Used as a name for just about anything. See foo. 3. vt. Similar to glitch, but usually used reflexively. "My program just glorked itself." 4. Syn. for glark, which see.
Node:glue, Next:gnarly, Previous:glork, Up:= G =
glue n.
Generic term for any interface logic or protocol that connects two component blocks. For example, Blue Glue is IBM's SNA protocol, and hardware designers call anything used to connect large VLSI's or circuit blocks `glue logic'.
Node:gnarly, Next:GNU, Previous:glue, Up:= G =
gnarly /nar'lee/ adj.
Both obscure and hairy (sense 1). "Yow! -- the tuned assembler implementation of BitBlt is really gnarly!" From a similar but less specific usage in surfer slang.
Node:GNU, Next:gnubie, Previous:gnarly, Up:= G =
GNU /gnoo/, not /noo/
1. [acronym: `GNU's Not Unix!', see recursive acronym] A Unix-workalike development effort of the Free Software Foundation headed by Richard Stallman. GNU EMACS and the GNU C compiler, two tools designed for this project, have become very popular in hackerdom and elsewhere. The GNU project was designed partly to proselytize for RMS's position that information is community property and all software source should be shared. One of its slogans is "Help stamp out software hoarding!" Though this remains controversial (because it implicitly denies any right of designers to own, assign, and sell the results of their labors), many hackers who disagree with RMS have nevertheless cooperated to produce large amounts of high-quality software for free redistribution under the Free Software Foundation's imprimatur. The GNU project has a web page at http://www.gnu.org. See EMACS, copyleft, General Public Virus, Linux. 2. Noted Unix hacker John Gilmore, founder of Usenet's anarchic alt.* hierarchy.
Node:gnubie, Next:GNUMACS, Previous:GNU, Up:= G =
gnubie /noo'bee/ n.
Written-only variant of newbie in common use on IRC channels, which implies specifically someone who is new to the Linux/open source/free software world.
Node:GNUMACS, Next:go flatline, Previous:gnubie, Up:= G =
GNUMACS /gnoo'maks/ n.
[contraction of `GNU EMACS'] Often-heard abbreviated name for the GNU project's flagship tool, EMACS. Used esp. in contrast with GOSMACS.
Node:go flatline, Next:go root, Previous:GNUMACS, Up:= G =
go flatline v.
[from cyberpunk SF, refers to flattening of EEG traces upon brain-death] (also adjectival `flatlined'). 1. To die, terminate, or fail, esp. irreversibly. In hacker parlance, this is used of machines only, human death being considered somewhat too serious a matter to employ jargon-jokes about. 2. To go completely quiescent; said of machines undergoing controlled shutdown. "You can suffer file damage if you shut down Unix but power off before the system has gone flatline." 3. Of a video tube, to fail by losing vertical scan, so all one sees is a bright horizontal line bisecting the screen.
Node:go root, Next:go-faster stripes, Previous:go flatline, Up:= G =
go root vi.
[Unix; common] To temporarily enter root mode in order to perform a privileged operation. This use is deprecated in Australia, where v. `root' is a synonym for "fuck".
Node:go-faster stripes, Next:GoAT, Previous:go root, Up:= G =
go-faster stripes n.
[UK] Syn. chrome. Mainstream in some parts of UK.
Node:GoAT, Next:gobble, Previous:go-faster stripes, Up:= G =
GoAT //
[Usenet] Abbreviation: "Go Away, Troll". See troll.
Node:gobble, Next:Godwin's Law, Previous:GoAT, Up:= G =
gobble vt.
1. To consume, usu. used with `up'. "The output spy gobbles characters out of a tty output buffer." 2. To obtain, usu. used with `down'. "I guess I'll gobble down a copy of the documentation tomorrow." See also snarf.
Node:Godwin's Law, Next:Godzillagram, Previous:gobble, Up:= G =
Godwin's Law prov.
[Usenet] "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." There is a tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, that thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups. However there is also a widely- recognized codicil that any intentional triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful.
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Godzillagram /god-zil'*-gram/ n.
[from Japan's national hero] 1. A network packet that in theory is a broadcast to every machine in the universe. The typical case is an IP datagram whose destination IP address is [255.255.255.255]. Fortunately, few gateways are foolish enough to attempt to implement this case! 2. A network packet of maximum size. An IP Godzillagram has 65,536 octets. Compare super source quench, Christmas tree packet, martian.
Node:golden, Next:golf-ball printer, Previous:Godzillagram, Up:= G =
golden adj.
[prob. from folklore's `golden egg'] When used to describe a magnetic medium (e.g., `golden disk', `golden tape'), describes one containing a tested, up-to-spec, ready-to-ship software version. Compare platinum-iridium.
Node:golf-ball printer, Next:gonk, Previous:golden, Up:= G =
golf-ball printer n. obs.
The IBM 2741, a slow but letter-quality printing device and terminal based on the IBM Selectric typewriter. The `golf ball' was a little spherical frob bearing reversed embossed images of 88 different characters arranged on four parallels of latitude; one could change the font by swapping in a different golf ball. The print element spun and jerked alarmingly in action and when in motion was sometimes described as an `infuriated golf ball'. This was the technology that enabled APL to use a non-EBCDIC, non-ASCII, and in fact completely non-standard character set. This put it 10 years ahead of its time -- where it stayed, firmly rooted, for the next 20, until character displays gave way to programmable bit-mapped devices with the flexibility to support other character sets.
Node:gonk, Next:gonkulator, Previous:golf-ball printer, Up:= G =
gonk /gonk/ vi.,n.
1. To prevaricate or to embellish the truth beyond any reasonable recognition. In German the term is (mythically) `gonken'; in Spanish the verb becomes `gonkar'. "You're gonking me. That story you just told me is a bunch of gonk." In German, for example, "Du gonkst mich" (You're pulling my leg). See also gonkulator. 2. [British] To grab some sleep at an odd time; compare gronk out.
Node:gonkulator, Next:gonzo, Previous:gonk, Up:= G =
gonkulator /gon'kyoo-lay-tr/ n.
[common; from the 1960s "Hogan's Heroes" TV series] A pretentious piece of equipment that actually serves no useful purpose. Usually used to describe one's least favorite piece of computer hardware. See gonk.
Node:gonzo, Next:Good Thing, Previous:gonkulator, Up:= G =
gonzo /gon'zoh/ adj.
[from Hunter S. Thompson] 1. With total commitment, total concentration, and a mad sort of panache. (Thompson's original sense.) 2. More loosely: Overwhelming; outrageous; over the top; very large, esp. used of collections of source code, source files, or individual functions. Has some of the connotations of moby and hairy, but without the implication of obscurity or complexity.
Node:Good Thing, Next:gopher, Previous:gonzo, Up:= G =
Good Thing n.,adj.
[very common; often capitalized; always pronounced as if capitalized.] 1. Self-evidently wonderful to anyone in a position to notice: "A language that manages dynamic memory automatically for you is a Good Thing." 2. Something that can't possibly have any ill side-effects and may save considerable grief later: "Removing the self-modifying code from that shared library would be a Good Thing." 3. When said of software tools or libraries, as in "YACC is a Good Thing", specifically connotes that the thing has drastically reduced a programmer's work load. Oppose Bad Thing.
Node:gopher, Next:gopher hole, Previous:Good Thing, Up:= G =
gopher n.
A type of Internet service first floated around 1991 and obsolesced around 1995 by the World Wide Web. Gopher presents a menuing interface to a tree or graph of links; the links can be to documents, runnable programs, or other gopher menus arbitrarily far across the net.
Some claim that the gopher software, which was originally developed at the University of Minnesota, was named after the Minnesota Gophers (a sports team). Others claim the word derives from American slang `gofer' (from "go for", dialectal "go fer"), one whose job is to run and fetch things. Finally, observe that gophers dig long tunnels, and the idea of tunneling through the net to find information was a defining metaphor for the developers. Probably all three things were true, but with the first two coming first and the gopher-tunnel metaphor serendipitously adding flavor and impetus to the project as it developed out of its concept stage.
Node:gopher hole, Next:gorets, Previous:gopher, Up:= G =
gopher hole n.
1. Any access to a gopher. 2. [Amateur Packet Radio] The terrestrial analog of a wormhole (sense 2), from which this term was coined. A gopher hole links two amateur packet relays through some non-ham radio medium.
Node:gorets, Next:gorilla arm, Previous:gopher hole, Up:= G =
gorets /gor'ets/ n.
The unknown ur-noun, fill in your own meaning. Found esp. on the Usenet newsgroup _alt.gorets_, which seems to be a running contest to redefine the word by implication in the funniest and most peculiar way, with the understanding that no definition is ever final. [A correspondent from the Former Soviet Union informs me that `gorets' is Russian for `mountain dweller'. Another from France informs me that `goret' is archaic French for a young pig --ESR] Compare frink.
Node:gorilla arm, Next:gorp, Previous:gorets, Up:= G =
gorilla arm n.
The side-effect that destroyed touch-screens as a mainstream input technology despite a promising start in the early 1980s. It seems the designers of all those spiffy touch-menu systems failed to notice that humans aren't designed to hold their arms in front of their faces making small motions. After more than a very few selections, the arm begins to feel sore, cramped, and oversized -- the operator looks like a gorilla while using the touch screen and feels like one afterwards. This is now considered a classic cautionary tale to human-factors designers; "Remember the gorilla arm!" is shorthand for "How is this going to fly in real use?".
Node:gorp, Next:GOSMACS, Previous:gorilla arm, Up:= G =
gorp /gorp/ n.
[CMU: perhaps from the canonical hiker's food, Good Old Raisins and Peanuts] Another metasyntactic variable, like foo and bar.
Node:GOSMACS, Next:Gosperism, Previous:gorp, Up:= G =
GOSMACS /goz'maks/ n.
[contraction of `Gosling EMACS'] The first EMACS-in-C implementation, predating but now largely eclipsed by GNUMACS. Originally freeware; a commercial version was modestly popular as `UniPress EMACS' during the 1980s. The author, James Gosling, went on to invent NeWS and the programming language Java; the latter earned him demigod status.
Node:Gosperism, Next:gotcha, Previous:GOSMACS, Up:= G =
Gosperism /gos'p*r-izm/ n.
A hack, invention, or saying due to elder days arch-hacker R. William (Bill) Gosper. This notion merits its own term because there are so many of them. Many of the entries in HAKMEM are Gosperisms; see also life.
Node:gotcha, Next:GPL, Previous:Gosperism, Up:= G =
gotcha n.
A misfeature of a system, especially a programming language or environment, that tends to breed bugs or mistakes because it both enticingly easy to invoke and completely unexpected and/or unreasonable in its outcome. For example, a classic gotcha in C is the fact that if (a=b) {code;} is syntactically valid and sometimes even correct. It puts the value of b into a and then executes code if a is non-zero. What the programmer probably meant was if (a==b) {code;}, which executes code if a and b are equal.
Node:GPL, Next:GPV, Previous:gotcha, Up:= G =
GPL /G-P-L/ n.
Abbreviation for `General Public License' in widespread use; see copyleft, General Public Virus. Often mis-expanded as `GNU Public License'.
Node:GPV, Next:grault, Previous:GPL, Up:= G =
GPV /G-P-V/ n.
Abbrev. for General Public Virus in widespread use.
Node:grault, Next:gray goo, Previous:GPV, Up:= G =
grault /grawlt/ n.
Yet another metasyntactic variable, invented by Mike Gallaher and propagated by the GOSMACS documentation. See corge.
Node:gray goo, Next:Great Renaming, Previous:grault, Up:= G =
gray goo n.
A hypothetical substance composed of sagans of sub-micron-sized self-replicating robots programmed to make copies of themselves out of whatever is available. The image that goes with the term is one of the entire biosphere of Earth being eventually converted to robot goo. This is the simplest of the nanotechnology disaster scenarios, easily refuted by arguments from energy requirements and elemental abundances. Compare blue goo.
Node:Great Renaming, Next:Great Runes, Previous:gray goo, Up:= G =
Great Renaming n.
The flag day in 1987 on which all of the non-local groups on the Usenet had their names changed from the net.- format to the current multiple-hierarchies scheme. Used esp. in discussing the history of newsgroup names. "The oldest sources group is _comp.sources.misc_; before the Great Renaming, it was _net.sources_." There is a Great Renaming FAQ on the Web.
Node:Great Runes, Next:Great Worm, Previous:Great Renaming, Up:= G =
Great Runes n.
Uppercase-only text or display messages. Some archaic operating systems still emit these. See also runes, smash case, fold case.
There is a widespread legend (repeated by earlier versions of this entry, though tagged as folklore) that the uppercase-only support of various old character codes and I/O equipment was chosen by a religious person in a position of power at the Teletype Company because supporting both upper and lower cases was too expensive and supporting lower case only would have made it impossible to spell `God' correctly. Not true; the upper-case interpretation of teleprinter codes was well established by 1870, long before Teletype was even founded.
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Great Worm n.
The 1988 Internet worm perpetrated by RTM. This is a play on Tolkien (compare elvish, elder days). In the fantasy history of his Middle Earth books, there were dragons powerful enough to lay waste to entire regions; two of these (Scatha and Glaurung) were known as "the Great Worms". This usage expresses the connotation that the RTM crack was a sort of devastating watershed event in hacker history; certainly it did more to make non-hackers nervous about the Internet than anything before or since.
Node:great-wall, Next:Green Book, Previous:Great Worm, Up:= G =
great-wall vi.,n.
[from SF fandom] A mass expedition to an oriental restaurant, esp. one where food is served family-style and shared. There is a common heuristic about the amount of food to order, expressed as "Get N - 1 entrees"; the value of N, which is the number of people in the group, can be inferred from context (see N). See oriental food, ravs, stir-fried random.
Node:Green Book, Next:green bytes, Previous:great-wall, Up:= G =
Green Book n.
1. One of the three standard PostScript references: "PostScript Language Program Design", bylined `Adobe Systems' (Addison-Wesley, 1988; QA76.73.P67P66 ISBN 0-201-14396-8); see also Red Book, Blue Book, and the White Book (sense 2). 2. Informal name for one of the three standard references on SmallTalk: "Smalltalk-80: Bits of History, Words of Advice", by Glenn Krasner (Addison-Wesley, 1983; QA76.8.S635S58; ISBN 0-201-11669-3) (this, too, is associated with blue and red books). 3. The "X/Open Compatibility Guide", which defines an international standard Unix environment that is a proper superset of POSIX/SVID; also includes descriptions of a standard utility toolkit, systems administrations features, and the like. This grimoire is taken with particular seriousness in Europe. See Purple Book. 4. The IEEE 1003.1 POSIX Operating Systems Interface standard has been dubbed "The Ugly Green Book". 5. Any of the 1992 standards issued by the CCITT's tenth plenary assembly. These include, among other things, the X.400 email standard and the Group 1 through 4 fax standards. See also book titles.
Node:green bytes, Next:green card, Previous:Green Book, Up:= G =
green bytes n.
(also `green words') 1. Meta-information embedded in a file, such as the length of the file or its name; as opposed to keeping such information in a separate description file or record. The term comes from an IBM user's group meeting (ca. 1962) at which these two approaches were being debated and the diagram of the file on the blackboard had the `green bytes' drawn in green. 2. By extension, the non-data bits in any self-describing format. "A GIF file contains, among other things, green bytes describing the packing method for the image." Compare out-of-band, zigamorph, fence (sense 1).
Node:green card, Next:green lightning, Previous:green bytes, Up:= G =
green card n.
[after the "IBM System/360 Reference Data" card] A summary of an assembly language, even if the color is not green and not a card. Less frequently used now because of the decrease in the use of assembly language. "I'll go get my green card so I can check the addressing mode for that instruction."