Part 42

[from the submariners' term for a sonar pulse] 1. n. Slang term for a small network message (ICMP ECHO) sent by a computer to check for the presence and alertness of another. The Unix command ping(8) can be used to do this manually (note that ping(8)'s author denies the widespread folk etymology that the name was ever intended as acronym for `Packet INternet Groper'). Occasionally used as a phone greeting. See ACK, also ENQ. 2. vt. To verify the presence of. 3. vt. To get the attention of. 4. vt. To send a message to all members of a mailing list requesting an ACK (in order to verify that everybody's addresses are reachable). "We haven't heard much of anything from Geoff, but he did respond with an ACK both times I pinged jargon-friends." 5. n. A quantum packet of happiness. People who are very happy tend to exude pings; furthermore, one can intentionally create pings and aim them at a needy party (e.g., a depressed person). This sense of ping may appear as an exclamation; "Ping!" (I'm happy; I am emitting a quantum of happiness; I have been struck by a quantum of happiness). The form "pingfulness", which is used to describe people who exude pings, also occurs. (In the standard abuse of language, "pingfulness" can also be used as an exclamation, in which case it's a much stronger exclamation than just "ping"!). Oppose blargh.

The funniest use of `ping' to date was described in January 1991 by Steve Hayman on the Usenet group _comp.sys.next_. He was trying to isolate a faulty cable segment on a TCP/IP Ethernet hooked up to a NeXT machine, and got tired of having to run back to his console after each cabling tweak to see if the ping packets were getting through. So he used the sound-recording feature on the NeXT, then wrote a script that repeatedly invoked ping(8), listened for an echo, and played back the recording on each returned packet. Result? A program that caused the machine to repeat, over and over, "Ping ... ping ... ping ..." as long as the network was up. He turned the volume to maximum, ferreted through the building with one ear cocked, and found a faulty tee connector in no time.

Node:Ping O' Death, Next:ping storm, Previous:ping, Up:= P =

Ping O' Death n.

A notorious exploit that (when first discovered) could be easily used to crash a wide variety of machines by overunning size limits in their TCP/IP stacks. First revealed in late 1996. The open-source Unix community patched its systems to remove the vulnerability within days or weeks, the closed-source OS vendors generally took months. While the difference in response times repeated a pattern familiar from other security incidents, the accompanying glare of Web-fueled publicity proved unusually embarrassing to the OS vendors and so passed into history and myth. The term is now used to refer to any nudge delivered by network wizards over the network that causes bad things to happen on the system being nudged. For the full story on the original exploit, see http://www.insecure.org/sploits/ping-o-death.html.

Compare with 'kamikaze packet,' 'Finger of Death' and 'Chernobyl packet.'

Node:ping storm, Next:pink wire, Previous:Ping O' Death, Up:= P =

ping storm n.

A form of DoS attack consisting of a flood of ping requests (normally used to check network conditions) designed to disrupt the normal activity of a system. This act is sometimes called `ping lashing' or `ping flood'. Compare mail storm, broadcast storm.

Node:pink wire, Next:pipe, Previous:ping storm, Up:= P =

pink wire n.

[from the pink PTFE wire used in military equipment] As blue wire, but used in military applications. 2. vi. To add a pink wire to a board.

Node:pipe, Next:pistol, Previous:pink wire, Up:= P =

pipe n.

[common] Idiomatically, one's connection to the Internet; in context, the expansion "bit pipe" is understood. A "fat pipe" is a line with T1 or higher capacity. A person with a 28.8 modem might be heard to complain "I need a bigger pipe".

Node:pistol, Next:pixel sort, Previous:pipe, Up:= P =

pistol n.

[IBM] A tool that makes it all too easy for you to shoot yourself in the foot. "Unix rm * makes such a nice pistol!"

Node:pixel sort, Next:pizza box, Previous:pistol, Up:= P =

pixel sort n.

[Commodore users] Any compression routine which irretrievably loses valuable data in the process of crunching it. Disparagingly used for `lossy' methods such as JPEG. The theory, of course, is that these methods are only used on photographic images in which minor loss-of-data is not visible to the human eye. The term `pixel sort' implies distrust of this theory. Compare bogo-sort.

Node:pizza box, Next:plaid screen, Previous:pixel sort, Up:= P =

pizza box n.

[Sun] The largish thin box housing the electronics in (especially Sun) desktop workstations, so named because of its size and shape and the dimpled pattern that looks like air holes.

Two meg single-platter removable disk packs used to be called pizzas, and the huge drive they were stuck into was referred to as a pizza oven. It's an index of progress that in the old days just the disk was pizza-sized, while now the entire computer is.

Node:plaid screen, Next:plain-ASCII, Previous:pizza box, Up:= P =

plaid screen n.

[XEROX PARC] A `special effect' that occurs when certain kinds of memory smashes overwrite the control blocks or image memory of a bit-mapped display. The term "salt and pepper" may refer to a different pattern of similar origin. Though the term as coined at PARC refers to the result of an error, some of the X demos induce plaid-screen effects deliberately as a display hack.

Node:plain-ASCII, Next:plan file, Previous:plaid screen, Up:= P =

plain-ASCII /playn-as'kee/

Syn. flat-ASCII.

Node:plan file, Next:platinum-iridium, Previous:plain-ASCII, Up:= P =

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.

Node:platinum-iridium, Next:playpen, Previous:plan file, Up:= P =

platinum-iridium adj.

Standard, against which all others of the same category are measured. Usage: silly. The notion is that one of whatever it is has actually been cast in platinum-iridium alloy and placed in the vault beside the Standard Kilogram at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures near Paris. (From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined to be the distance between two scratches in a platinum-iridium bar kept in that same vault -- this replaced an earlier definition as 10^(-7) times the distance between the North Pole and the Equator along a meridian through Paris; unfortunately, this had been based on an inexact value of the circumference of the Earth. From 1960 to 1984 it was defined to be 1650763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red line of krypton-86 propagating in a vacuum. It is now defined as the length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum in the time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second. The kilogram is now the only unit of measure officially defined in terms of a unique artifact.) "This garbage-collection algorithm has been tested against the platinum-iridium cons cell in Paris." Compare golden.

Node:playpen, Next:playte, Previous:platinum-iridium, Up:= P =

playpen n.

[IBM] A room where programmers work. Compare salt mines.

Node:playte, Next:plingnet, Previous:playpen, Up:= P =

playte /playt/

16 bits, by analogy with nybble and byte. Usage: rare and extremely silly. See also dynner and crumb. General discussion of such terms is under nybble.

Node:plingnet, Next:plokta, Previous:playte, Up:= P =

plingnet /pling'net/ n.

Syn. UUCPNET. Also see Commonwealth Hackish, which uses `pling' for bang (as in bang path).

Node:plokta, Next:plonk, Previous:plingnet, Up:= P =

plokta /plok't*/ v.

[acronym: Press Lots Of Keys To Abort] To press random keys in an attempt to get some response from the system. One might plokta when the abort procedure for a program is not known, or when trying to figure out if the system is just sluggish or really hung. Plokta can also be used while trying to figure out any unknown key sequence for a particular operation. Someone going into `plokta mode' usually places both hands flat on the keyboard and mashes them down, hoping for some useful response.

A slightly more directed form of plokta can often be seen in mail messages or Usenet articles from new users -- the text might end with

^X^C q quit :q ^C end x exit ZZ ^D ? help

as the user vainly tries to find the right exit sequence, with the incorrect tries piling up at the end of the message....

Node:plonk, Next:plug-and-pray, Previous:plokta, Up:= P =

plonk excl.,vt.

[Usenet: possibly influenced by British slang `plonk' for cheap booze, or `plonker' for someone behaving stupidly (latter is lit. equivalent to Yiddish `schmuck')] The sound a newbie makes as he falls to the bottom of a kill file. While it originated in the newsgroup _talk.bizarre_, this term (usually written "*plonk*") is now (1994) widespread on Usenet as a form of public ridicule.

Node:plug-and-pray, Next:plugh, Previous:plonk, Up:= P =

plug-and-pray adj.,vi.

Parody of the techspeak term `plug-and-play', describing a PC peripheral card which is claimed to have no need for hardware configuration via DIP switches, and which should be work as soon as it is inserted in the PC. Unfortunately, even the PCI bus is not up to pulling this off reliably, and people who have to do installation or troubleshoot PCs soon find themselves longing for the DIP switches.

Node:plugh, Next:plumbing, Previous:plug-and-pray, Up:= P =

plugh /ploogh/ v.

[from the ADVENT game] See xyzzy.

Node:plumbing, Next:PM, Previous:plugh, Up:= P =

plumbing n.

[Unix] Term used for shell code, so called because of the prevalence of `pipelines' that feed the output of one program to the input of another. Under Unix, user utilities can often be implemented or at least prototyped by a suitable collection of pipelines and temp-file grinding encapsulated in a shell script; this is much less effort than writing C every time, and the capability is considered one of Unix's major winning features. A few other OSs such as IBM's VM/CMS support similar facilities. Esp. used in the construction `hairy plumbing' (see hairy). "You can kluge together a basic spell-checker out of sort(1), comm(1), and tr(1) with a little plumbing." See also tee.

Node:PM, Next:pnambic, Previous:plumbing, Up:= P =

PM /P-M/

1. v. (from `preventive maintenance') To bring down a machine for inspection or test purposes. See provocative maintenance; see also scratch monkey. 2. n. Abbrev. for `Presentation Manager', an elephantine OS/2 graphical user interface.

Node:pnambic, Next:pod, Previous:PM, Up:= P =

pnambic /p*-nam'bik/

[Acronym from the scene in the film version of "The Wizard of Oz" in which the true nature of the wizard is first discovered: "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."] 1. A stage of development of a process or function that, owing to incomplete implementation or to the complexity of the system, requires human interaction to simulate or replace some or all of the actions, inputs, or outputs of the process or function. 2. Of or pertaining to a process or function whose apparent operations are wholly or partially falsified. 3. Requiring prestidigitization.

The ultimate pnambic product was "Dan Bricklin's Demo", a program which supported flashy user-interface design prototyping. There is a related maxim among hackers: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo." See magic, sense 1, for illumination of this point.

Node:pod, Next:point-and-drool interface, Previous:pnambic, Up:= P =

pod n.

[allegedly from abbreviation POD for `Prince Of Darkness'] A Diablo 630 (or, latterly, any letter-quality impact printer). From the DEC-10 PODTYPE program used to feed formatted text to it. Not to be confused with P.O.D..

Node:point-and-drool interface, Next:pointy hat, Previous:pod, Up:= P =

point-and-drool interface n.

Parody of the techspeak term `point-and-shoot interface', describing a windows, icons, and mouse-based interface such as is found on the Macintosh. The implication, of course, is that such an interface is only suitable for idiots. See for the rest of us, WIMP environment, Macintrash, drool-proof paper. Also `point-and-grunt interface'.

Node:pointy hat, Next:pointy-haired, Previous:point-and-drool interface, Up:= P =

pointy hat n.

See wizard hat. This synonym specifically refers to the wizards of Unseen University in Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" serious of humorous fantasies; these books are extremely popular among hackers.

Node:pointy-haired, Next:poke, Previous:pointy hat, Up:= P =

pointy-haired adj.

[after the character in the Dilbert comic strip] Describes the extreme form of the property that separates suits and marketroids from hackers. Compare brain-dead; demented; see PHB. Always applied to people, never to ideas. The plural form is often used as a noun. "The pointy-haireds ordered me to use Windows NT, but I set up a Linux server with Samba instead."

Node:poke, Next:poll, Previous:pointy-haired, Up:= P =

poke n.,vt.

See peek.

Node:poll, Next:polygon pusher, Previous:poke, Up:= P =

poll v.,n.

1. [techspeak] The action of checking the status of an input line, sensor, or memory location to see if a particular external event has been registered. 2. To repeatedly call or check with someone: "I keep polling him, but he's not answering his phone; he must be swapped out." 3. To ask. "Lunch? I poll for a takeout order daily."

Node:polygon pusher, Next:POM, Previous:poll, Up:= P =

polygon pusher n.

A chip designer who spends most of his or her time at the physical layout level (which requires drawing lots of multi-colored polygons). Also `rectangle slinger'.

Node:POM, Next:pop, Previous:polygon pusher, Up:= P =

POM /P-O-M/ n.

Common abbreviation for phase of the moon. Usage: usually in the phrase `POM-dependent', which means flaky.

Node:pop, Next:POPJ, Previous:POM, Up:= P =

pop /pop/

[from the operation that removes the top of a stack, and the fact that procedure return addresses are usually saved on the stack] (also capitalized `POP') 1. vt. To remove something from a stack or PDL. If a person says he/she has popped something from his stack, that means he/she has finally finished working on it and can now remove it from the list of things hanging overhead. 2. When a discussion gets to a level of detail so deep that the main point of the discussion is being lost, someone will shout "Pop!", meaning "Get back up to a higher level!" The shout is frequently accompanied by an upthrust arm with a finger pointing to the ceiling. 3. [all-caps, as `POP'] Point of Presence, a bank of dial-in lines allowing customers to make (local) calls into an ISP. This is borderline techspeak.

Node:POPJ, Next:poser, Previous:pop, Up:= P =

POPJ /pop'J/ n.,v.

[from a PDP-10 return-from-subroutine instruction] To return from a digression. By verb doubling, "Popj, popj" means roughly "Now let's see, where were we?" See RTI.

Node:poser, Next:post, Previous:POPJ, Up:= P =

poser n.

A wannabee; not hacker slang, but used among crackers, phreaks and warez d00dz. Not as negative as lamer or leech. Probably derives from a similar usage among punk-rockers and metalheads, putting down those who "talk the talk but don't walk the walk".

Node:post, Next:postcardware, Previous:poser, Up:= P =

post v.

To send a message to a mailing list or newsgroup. Distinguished in context from `mail'; one might ask, for example: "Are you going to post the patch or mail it to known users?"

Node:postcardware, Next:posting, Previous:post, Up:= P =

postcardware n.

A kind of shareware that borders on freeware, in that the author requests only that satisfied users send a postcard of their home town or something. (This practice, silly as it might seem, serves to remind users that they are otherwise getting something for nothing, and may also be psychologically related to real estate `sales' in which $1 changes hands just to keep the transaction from being a gift.)

Node:posting, Next:postmaster, Previous:postcardware, Up:= P =

posting n.

Noun corresp. to v. post (but note that post can be nouned). Distinguished from a `letter' or ordinary email message by the fact that it is broadcast rather than point-to-point. It is not clear whether messages sent to a small mailing list are postings or email; perhaps the best dividing line is that if you don't know the names of all the potential recipients, it is a posting.

Node:postmaster, Next:PostScript, Previous:posting, Up:= P =

postmaster n.

The email contact and maintenance person at a site connected to the Internet or UUCPNET. Often, but not always, the same as the admin. The Internet standard for electronic mail (RFC-822) requires each machine to have a `postmaster' address; usually it is aliased to this person.

Node:PostScript, Next:pound on, Previous:postmaster, Up:= P =

PostScript n.

A Page Description Language (PDL), based on work originally done by John Gaffney at Evans and Sutherland in 1976, evolving through `JaM' (`John and Martin', Martin Newell) at XEROX PARC, and finally implemented in its current form by John Warnock et al. after he and Chuck Geschke founded Adobe Systems Incorporated in 1982. PostScript gets its leverage by using a full programming language, rather than a series of low-level escape sequences, to describe an image to be printed on a laser printer or other output device (in this it parallels EMACS, which exploited a similar insight about editing tasks). It is also noteworthy for implementing on-the fly rasterization, from Bezier curve descriptions, of high-quality fonts at low (e.g. 300 dpi) resolution (it was formerly believed that hand-tuned bitmap fonts were required for this task). Hackers consider PostScript to be among the most elegant hacks of all time, and the combination of technical merits and widespread availability has made PostScript the language of choice for graphical output.

Node:pound on, Next:power cycle, Previous:PostScript, Up:= P =

pound on vt.

Syn. bang on.

Node:power cycle, Next:power hit, Previous:pound on, Up:= P =

power cycle vt.

(also, `cycle power' or just `cycle') To power off a machine and then power it on immediately, with the intention of clearing some kind of hung or gronked state. Syn. 120 reset; see also Big Red Switch. Compare Vulcan nerve pinch, bounce (sense 4), and boot, and see the "Some AI Koans" (in Appendix A) about Tom Knight and the novice.

Node:power hit, Next:PPN, Previous:power cycle, Up:= P =

power hit n.

A spike or drop-out in the electricity supplying your machine; a power glitch. These can cause crashes and even permanent damage to your machine(s).

Node:PPN, Next:pr0n, Previous:power hit, Up:= P =

PPN /P-P-N/, /pip'n/ n. obs.

[from `Project-Programmer Number'] A user-ID under TOPS-10 and its various mutant progeny at SAIL, BBN, CompuServe, and elsewhere. Old-time hackers from the PDP-10 era sometimes use this to refer to user IDs on other systems as well.

Node:pr0n, Next:precedence lossage, Previous:PPN, Up:= P =

pr0n //

[Usenet, IRC] Pornography. Originally this referred only to Internet porn but since then it has expanded to refer to just about anything. The term comes from the warez kiddies tendency to replace letters with numbers. At some point on IRC someone mistyped, swapped the middle two letters, and the name stuck, then propagated over into mainstream hacker usage. Compare filk, grilf, hing and newsfroup.

Node:precedence lossage, Next:prepend, Previous:pr0n, Up:= P =

precedence lossage /pre's*-dens los'*j/ n.

[C programmers] Coding error in an expression due to unexpected grouping of arithmetic or logical operators by the compiler. Used esp. of certain common coding errors in C due to the nonintuitively low precedence levels of &, |, ^, <<, and >> (for this reason, experienced C programmers deliberately forget the language's baroque precedence hierarchy and parenthesize defensively). Can always be avoided by suitable use of parentheses. LISP fans enjoy pointing out that this can't happen in their favorite language, which eschews precedence entirely, requiring one to use explicit parentheses everywhere. See aliasing bug, memory leak, memory smash, smash the stack, fandango on core, overrun screw.

Node:prepend, Next:prestidigitization, Previous:precedence lossage, Up:= P =

prepend /pree`pend'/ vt.

[by analogy with `append'] To prefix. As with `append' (but not `prefix' or `suffix' as a verb), the direct object is always the thing being added and not the original word (or character string, or whatever). "If you prepend a semicolon to the line, the translation routine will pass it through unaltered."

Node:prestidigitization, Next:pretty pictures, Previous:prepend, Up:= P =

prestidigitization /pres`t*-di`j*-ti:-zay'sh*n/ n.

1. The act of putting something into digital notation via sleight of hand. 2. Data entry through legerdemain.

Node:pretty pictures, Next:prettyprint, Previous:prestidigitization, Up:= P =

pretty pictures n.

[scientific computation] The next step up from numbers. Interesting graphical output from a program that may not have any sensible relationship to the system the program is intended to model. Good for showing to management.

Node:prettyprint, Next:pretzel key, Previous:pretty pictures, Up:= P =

prettyprint /prit'ee-print/ v.

(alt. `pretty-print') 1. To generate `pretty' human-readable output from a hairy internal representation; esp. used for the process of grinding (sense 1) program code, and most esp. for LISP code. 2. To format in some particularly slick and nontrivial way.

Node:pretzel key, Next:priesthood, Previous:prettyprint, Up:= P =

pretzel key n.

[Mac users] See feature key.

Node:priesthood, Next:prime time, Previous:pretzel key, Up:= P =

priesthood n. obs.

[TMRC] The select group of system managers responsible for the operation and maintenance of a batch operated computer system. On these computers, a user never had direct access to a computer, but had to submit his/her data and programs to a priest for execution. Results were returned days or even weeks later. See acolyte.

Node:prime time, Next:print, Previous:priesthood, Up:= P =

prime time n.

[from TV programming] Normal high-usage hours on a system or network. Back in the days of big timesharing machines `prime time' was when lots of people were competing for limited cycles, usually the day shift. Avoidance of prime time was traditionally given as a major reason for night mode hacking. The term fell into disuse during the early PC era, but has been revived to refer to times of day or evening at which the Internet tends to be heavily loaded, making Web access slow. The hackish tendency to late-night hacking runs has changed not a bit.

Node:print, Next:printing discussion, Previous:prime time, Up:= P =

print v.

To output, even if to a screen. If a hacker says that a program "printed a message", he means this; if he refers to printing a file, he probably means it in the conventional sense of writing to a hardcopy device (compounds like `print job' and `printout', on the other hand, always refer to the latter). This very common term is likely a holdover from the days when printing terminals were the norm, perpetuated by programming language constructs like C's printf(3). See senses 1 and 2 of tty.

Node:printing discussion, Next:priority interrupt, Previous:print, Up:= P =

printing discussion n.

[XEROX PARC] A protracted, low-level, time-consuming, generally pointless discussion of something only peripherally interesting to all.

Node:priority interrupt, Next:profile, Previous:printing discussion, Up:= P =

priority interrupt n.

[from the hardware term] Describes any stimulus compelling enough to yank one right out of hack mode. Classically used to describe being dragged away by an SO for immediate sex, but may also refer to more mundane interruptions such as a fire alarm going off in the near vicinity. Also called an NMI (non-maskable interrupt), especially in PC-land.

Node:profile, Next:progasm, Previous:priority interrupt, Up:= P =

profile n.