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-fu -fu [common; generalized from kung-fu ] Combining form denoting expert prac...
-oid -oid : suff. [from Greek suffix -oid = in the image of ] 1. Used as in main...
-ware -ware : suff. [from ‘software’] Commonly used to form jargon te...
0 0 Numeric zero, as opposed to the letter ‘O’ (the 15th letter o...
1TBS 1TBS : // , n. The “ One True Brace Style ”; see indent style .
2 2 : infix. In translation software written by hackers, infix 2 often repres...
404 404 : // , n. [from the HTTP error “ file not found on server ”...
404 compliant 404 compliant : adj. The status of a website which has been completely remo...
ABEND ABEND : /a´bend/ , /@·bend´/ , n. [ABnormal END] 1. Abnormal termination...
ACK ACK : /ak/ , interj. 1. [common; from the ASCII mnemonic for 0000110] Ackno...
ADVENT ADVENT : /ad´vent/ , n. The prototypical computer adventure game, first de...
AFAIK AFAIK : // , n. [Usenet; common] Abbrev. for “ As Far As I Know ̶...
AFJ AFJ : // , n. Written-only abbreviation for “ April Fool_s Joke ̶...
AFK AFK [MUD] Abbrev. for “ Away From Keyboard ”. Used to notify ot...
AI-complete AI-complete : /A·I k@m·pleet_/ , adj. [MIT, Stanford: by analogy with NP-...
AI AI : /A·I/ , n. Abbreviation for ‘Artificial Intelligence’, so...
ANSI standard ANSI standard : /an´see stan´d@rd/ The ANSI standard usage of ANSI standa...
ANSI standard pizza ANSI standard pizza : /an´see stan´d@rd peet´z@/ [CMU] Pepperoni and mus...
AOL! AOL! : n. [Usenet] Common synonym for “ Me, too! ” alluding to ...
ARMM ARMM : n. [acronym, ‘Automated Retroactive Minimal Moderation’]...
ASCII ASCII : /as´kee/ , n. [originally an acronym (American Standard Code for I...
ASCII art ASCII art : n. The fine art of drawing diagrams using the ASCII character s...
ASCIIbetical order ASCIIbetical order : /as´kee·be_·t@·kl or´dr/ , adj.,n. Used to indica...
AUP AUP : /A·U·P/ Abbreviation, “ Acceptable Use Policy ”. The po...
Acme Acme : n. [from Greek akme highest point of perfection or achievement] The ...
Alderson loop Alderson loop : n. [Intel] A special version of an infinite loop where ther...
Alice and Bob Alice and Bob : n. The archetypal individuals used as examples in discussio...
All hardware sucks_ all software sucks. All hardware sucks, all software sucks. : prov. [from scary devil monastery...
Aluminum Book Aluminum Book : n. [MIT] Common LISP: The Language , by Guy L. Steele Jr. (...
Amiga Amiga : n A series of personal computer models originally sold by Commodore...
Amiga Persecution Complex Amiga Persecution Complex : n. The disorder suffered by a particularly egre...
Angband Angband : n. , /ang´band/ Like nethack , moria , and rogue , one of the la...
Archimedes Archimedes The world_s first RISC microcomputer, available only in the Brit...
Aunt Tillie Aunt Tillie : n. [linux-kernel mailing list] The archetypal non-technical u...
B1FF B1FF : /bif/ , BIFF , n. The most famous pseudo , and the prototypical newb...
B5 B5 : // [common] Abbreviation for “ Babylon 5 ”, a science-fict...
BAD BAD : /B·A·D/ , adj. [IBM: acronym, “ Broken As Designed ”] S...
BASIC BASIC : /bay_·sic/ , n. A programming language, originally designed for Da...
BBS BBS : /B·B·S/ , n. [common; abbreviation, “ Bulletin Board System &...
BCPL BCPL : // , n. [abbreviation, “ Basic Combined Programming Language &...
BDFL BDFL [Python; common] Benevolent Dictator For Life. Guido , considered in h...
BFI BFI : /B·F·I/ , n. See brute force and ignorance . Also encountered in th...
BI BI : // Common written abbreviation for Breidbart Index .
BLOB BLOB 1. n. [acronym: Binary Large OBject] Used by database people to refer ...
BLT BLT : /B·L·T/ , /bl@t/ , /belt/ , n.,vt. Synonym for blit . This is the o...
BNF BNF : /B·N·F/ , n. 1. [techspeak] Acronym for Backus Normal Form (later r...
BOF BOF : /B·O·F/ , /bof/ , n. 1. [common] Abbreviation for the phrase “...
BOFH BOFH : // , n. [common] Acronym, Bastard Operator From Hell. A system admin...
BRS BRS : /B·R·S/ , n. Syn. Big Red Switch . This abbreviation is fairly comm...
BSD BSD : /B·S·D/ , n. [abbreviation for ‘Berkeley Software Distributio...
BSOD BSOD : /B·S·O·D/ Very common abbreviation for Blue Screen of Death . Bot...
BUAF BUAF : // , n. [abbreviation, from alt.fan.warlord ] Big Ugly ASCII Font &#...
BUAG BUAG : // , n. [abbreviation, from alt.fan.warlord ] Big Ugly ASCII Graphic...
BWQ BWQ : /B·W·Q/ , n. [IBM: abbreviation, `Buzz Word Quotient_] The percenta...
Bad Thing Bad Thing : n. [very common; always pronounced as if capitalized. Orig. fr....
Bad and Wrong Bad and Wrong : adj. [Durham, UK] Said of something that is both badly desi...
Batman factor Batman factor : n. 1. An integer number representing the number of items ha...
Befunge Befunge : n. A worthy companion to INTERCAL ; a computer language family wh...
Berkeley Quality Software Berkeley Quality Software : adj. (often abbreviated “ BQS ”) Te...
Berzerkeley Berzerkeley : /b@r·zer´klee/ , n. [from ‘berserk’, via the na...
BiCapitalization BiCapitalization : n. The act said to have been performed on trademarks (su...
Big Red Switch Big Red Switch : n. [IBM] The power switch on a computer, esp. the ‘E...
Big Room Big Room : n. (Also Big Blue Room ) The extremely large room with the blue ...
Black Screen of Death Black Screen of Death : [prob.: related to the Floating Head of Death in a ...
Bloggs Family Bloggs Family : n. An imaginary family consisting of Fred and Mary Bloggs a...
Blue Glue Blue Glue : n. [IBM; obs.] IBM_s SNA (Systems Network Architecture), an inc...
Blue Screen of Death Blue Screen of Death : n. [common] This term is closely related to the olde...
BogoMIPS BogoMIPS : /bo´go·mips/ , n. The number of million times a second a proce...
Bohr bug Bohr bug : /bohr buhg/ , n. [from quantum physics] A repeatable bug ; one t...
Borg Borg : n. In Star Trek: The Next Generation the Borg is a species of cyborg...
Breidbart Index Breidbart Index : /bri:d´bart ind@ks/ A measurement of the severity of spa...
BrokenWindows BrokenWindows : n. Abusive hackerism for the crufty and elephantine X envir...
Brooks's Law Brooks_s Law : prov. “ Adding manpower to a late software project mak...
Bzzzt! Wrong. Bzzzt! Wrong. : /bzt rong/ , excl. [common; Usenet/Internet; punctuation va...
C C : n. 1. The third letter of the English alphabet. 2. ASCII 1000011. 3. Th...
CDA CDA : /C·D·A/ The “ Communications Decency Act ”, passed as s...
CHOP CHOP : /chop/ , n. [IRC] See channel op .
CI$ CI$ : // , n. Hackerism for ‘CIS’, CompuServe Information Servi...
CLM CLM : /C·L·M/ [Sun: ‘Career Limiting Move’] 1. n. An action e...
COBOL COBOL : /koh´bol/ , n. [COmmon Business-Oriented Language] (Synonymous wit...
COBOL fingers COBOL fingers : /koh´bol fing´grz/ , n. Reported from Sweden, a (hypothet...
COME FROM COME FROM : n. A semi-mythical language construct dual to the ‘go to&...
CPU Wars CPU Wars : /C·P·U worz/ , n. A 1979 large-format comic by Chas Andres chr...
CP/M CP/M : /C·P·M/ , n. [Control Program/Monitor; later retcon ned to Control...
CRC handbook CRC handbook Any of the editions of the Chemical Rubber Company Handbook of...
CTSS CTSS : /C·T·S·S/ , n. Compatible Time-Sharing System. An early (1963) ex...
C|N>_K C|N>K : n. [Usenet] Coffee through Nose to Keyboard; that is, “ I ...
C Programmer's Disease C Programmer_s Disease : n. The tendency of the undisciplined C programmer ...
C++ C++ : /C_·pluhs·pluhs/ , n. Designed by Bjarne Stroustrup of AT&T Bel...
C&_C C&C : // [common, esp. on news.admin.net-abuse.email ] Contraction of &...
Camel Book Camel Book : n. Universally recognized nickname for the book Programming Pe...
Cancelmoose[tm] Cancelmoose[tm] : /kan´sel·moos/ [Usenet] The archetype and model of all ...
Chernobyl chicken Chernobyl chicken : n. See laser chicken .
Chernobyl packet Chernobyl packet : /cher·noh´b@l pak_@t/ , n. A network packet that induc...
Chinese Army technique Chinese Army technique : n. Syn. Mongolian Hordes technique .
Christmas tree Christmas tree : n. A kind of RS-232 line tester or breakout box featuring ...
Christmas tree packet Christmas tree packet : n. A packet with every single option set for whatev...
Church of the SubGenius Church of the SubGenius : n. A mutant offshoot of Discordianism launched in...
Cinderella Book Cinderella Book : n. [CMU] Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and ...
Classic C Classic C : /klas´ik C/ , n. [a play on ‘Coke Classic’] The C ...
Code of the Geeks Code of the Geeks : n. see geek code .
Commonwealth Hackish Commonwealth Hackish : n. Hacker jargon as spoken in English outside the U....
Compu$erve Compu$erve : n. See CI$ . Synonyms CompuSpend and Compu$pend are also repor...
Conway's Law Conway_s Law : prov. The rule that the organization of the software and the...
Core Wars Core Wars : n. A game between assembler programs in a machine or machine si...
CrApTeX CrApTeX : /krap´tekh/ , n. [University of York, England] Term of abuse use...
DAU DAU : /dow/ , n. [German FidoNet] German acronym for Dümmster Anzunehmende...
DDT DDT : /D·D·T/ , n. [from the insecticide para-dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro...
DEADBEEF DEADBEEF : /ded·beef/ , n. The hexadecimal word-fill pattern for freshly a...
DEC DEC : /dek/ , n. n. Commonly used abbreviation for Digital Equipment Corpor...
DEC Wars DEC Wars : n. A 1983 Usenet posting by Alan Hastings and Steve Tarr spoofin...
DED DED : /D·E·D/ , n. Dark-Emitting Diode (that is, a burned-out LED). Compa...
DMZ DMZ [common] Literally, De-Militarized Zone. Figuratively, the portion of a...
DP DP : /D·P/ , n. 1. Data Processing. Listed here because, according to hack...
DPer DPer : /dee·pee·er/ , n. Data Processor. Hackers are absolutely amazed th...
DRECNET DRECNET : /drek´net/ , n. [from Yiddish/German ‘dreck’, meanin...
DSW DSW : n. [alt.(sysadmin|tech-support).recovery; abbrev. for Dick Size War ]...
DWIM DWIM : /dwim/ [acronym, ‘Do What I Mean’] 1. adj. Able to guess...
Datamation Datamation : /day`t@·may´sh@n/ , n. A magazine that many hackers assume a...
Dave the Resurrector Dave the Resurrector : n. [Usenet; also abbreviated DtR] A cancelbot that c...
Death Square Death Square : n. The corporate logo of Novell, the people who acquired USL...
Death Star Death Star : n. [from the movie Star Wars ] 1. The AT&T corporate logo,...
Death_ X of Death, X of [common] A construction used to imbue the subject with campy me...
Dejagoo Dejagoo [Portmanteau of Dejanews and Google] Google newsgroups. Became comm...
Dilbert Dilbert n. Name and title character of a comic strip nationally syndicated ...
Discordianism Discordianism : /dis·kor´di·@n·ism/ , n. The veneration of Eris , a.k.a...
Dissociated Press Dissociated Press : n. [play on ‘Associated Press’; perhaps ins...
DoS attack DoS attack : // [Usenet,common; note that it_s unrelated to DOS as name of ...
Don't do that then! Don_t do that then! : imp. [from an old doctor_s office joke about a patien...
Doom_ X of Doom, X of [common] A construction similar to ‘ Death, X of , but der...
Dr. Fred Mbogo Dr. Fred Mbogo : /@m·boh´goh, dok´tr fred/ , n. [Stanford] The archetypa...
Dragon Book Dragon Book : n. The classic text Compilers: Principles, Techniques and Too...
Duff's device Duff_s device : n. The most dramatic use yet seen of fall through in C, inv...
EBCDIC EBCDIC : /eb´s@·dik/ , /eb´see`dik/ , /eb´k@·dik/ , n. [abbreviation, ...
ECP ECP : /E·C·P/ , n. See spam and velveeta .
ELIZA effect ELIZA effect : /@·li:´z@ @·fekt´/ , n. [AI community] The tendency of h...
EMACS EMACS : /ee´maks/ , n. [from Editing MACroS] The ne plus ultra of hacker e...
EMP EMP : /E·M·P/ See spam .
ENQ ENQ : /enkw/ , /enk/ [from the ASCII mnemonic ENQuire for 0000101] An on-li...
EOD EOD : n. [IRC, Usenet] Abbreviation: End of Discussion. Used when the speak...
EOF EOF : /E·O·F/ , n. [abbreviation, ‘End Of File’] 1. [techspea...
EOL EOL : /E·O·L/ , n. [End Of Line] Syn. for newline , derived perhaps from ...
EOU EOU : /E·O·U/ , n. The mnemonic of a mythical ASCII control character (En...
EXCH EXCH : /eks´ch@/ , /eksch/ , vt. To exchange two things, each for the othe...
EXE EXE : /eks´ee/ , /eek´see/ , /E·X·E/ , n. An executable binary file. So...
Easter egg Easter egg : n. [from the custom of the Easter Egg hunt observed in the U.S...
Easter egging Easter egging : n. [IBM] The act of replacing unrelated components more or ...
El Camino Bignum El Camino Bignum : /el´ k@·mee´noh big´nuhm/ , n. The road mundanely ca...
English English 1. n. obs. The source code for a program, which may be in any langu...
Eric Conspiracy Eric Conspiracy : n. A shadowy group of mustachioed hackers named Eric firs...
Eris Eris : /e´ris/ , n. The Greek goddess of Chaos, Discord, Confusion, and Th...
Evil Empire Evil Empire : n. [from Ronald Reagan_s famous characterization of the commu...
Exon Exon : /eks´on/ , excl. A generic obscenity that quickly entered wide use ...
Exploder Exploder : n. Used within Microsoft to refer to the Windows Explorer, the w...
FAQ FAQ : /F·A·Q/ , /fak/ , n. [Usenet] 1. A Frequently Asked Question. 2. A ...
FAQL FAQL : /fa´kl/ , n. Syn. FAQ list .
FAQ list FAQ list : /F·A·Q list/ , /fak list/ , n. [common; Usenet] Syn FAQ , sens...
FISH queue FISH queue : n. [acronym, by analogy with FIFO (First In, First Out)] ̵...
FITNR FITNR : // , adj. [Thinking Machines, Inc.] Fixed In The Next Release. A wr...
FIXME FIXME : imp. [common] A standard tag often put in C comments near a piece o...
FM FM : /F·M/ , n. 1. [common] Not ‘Frequency Modulation’ but rat...
FOAF FOAF : // , n. [Usenet; common] Acronym for ‘Friend Of A Friend’...
FOD FOD : /fod/ , v. [Abbreviation for ‘Finger of Death’, originall...
FRS FRS : // , n.,obs. [obs.] Abbreviation for “ Freely Redistributable S...
FSF FSF : /F·S·F/ , abbrev. Common abbreviation (both spoken and written) for...
FUBAR FUBAR : n. The Failed UniBus Address Register in a VAX . A good example of ...
FUD FUD : /fuhd/ , n. Defined by Gene Amdahl after he left IBM to found his own...
FUD wars FUD wars : /fuhd worz/ , n. 1, [from FUD ] Historically, political posturin...
FidoNet FidoNet : n. A worldwide hobbyist network of personal computers which excha...
Finagle's Law Finagle_s Law : n. The generalized or ‘folk’ version of Murphy_...
Flyspeck 3 Flyspeck 3 : n. Standard name for any font that is so tiny as to be unreada...
Foonly Foonly : n. 1. The PDP-10 successor that was to have been built by the Supe...
Formosa's Law Formosa_s Law : n. “ The truly insane have enough on their plates wit...
Fortrash Fortrash : /for´trash/ , n. Hackerism for the FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator)...
Frankenputer Frankenputer : n. 1. A mostly-working computer thrown together from the spa...
Fred Foobar Fred Foobar : n. J. Random Hacker _s cousin. Any typical human being, more ...
Full Monty Full Monty : n. See monty , sense 2.
G G : pref.,suff. 1. [SI] See quantifiers . 2. The letter G has special signi...
GC GC : /G·C/ [from LISP terminology; Garbage Collect ] 1. vt. To clean up an...
GCOS GCOS : /jee´kohs/ , n. A quick-and-dirty clone of System/360 DOS that emer...
GECOS GECOS : /jee´kohs/ , n. See GCOS .
GIFs at 11 GIFs at 11 [Fidonet] Fidonet alternative to film at 11 , especially in echo...
GIGO GIGO : /gi:´goh/ 1. ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’ — usually ...
GIPS GIPS : /gips/ , /jips/ , n. [analogy with MIPS ] Giga-Instructions per Seco...
GIYF GIYF : n. Abbrev: Google Is Your Friend. Used to suggest, gently and polite...
GNU GNU : /gnoo/ , not , /noo/ 1. [acronym: ‘GNU’s Not Unix!_, see ...
GNUMACS GNUMACS : /gnoo´maks/ , n. [contraction of ‘GNU EMACS’] Often-...
GOSMACS GOSMACS : /goz´maks/ , n. [contraction of ‘Gosling EMACS’] The...
GPL GPL : /G·P·L/ , n. Abbreviation for ‘General Public License’ ...
GPV GPV : /G·P·V/ , n. Abbrev. for General Public Virus in widespread use.
GWF GWF : n. “ Common abbreviation for Goober with Firewall ”. A lu...
GandhiCon GandhiCon There is a quote from Mohandas Gandhi, describing the stages of e...
Gang of Four Gang of Four : n. (also abbreviated GOF ) [prob. a play on the ‘Gang ...
Gates's Law Gates_s Law “ The speed of software halves every 18 months. ” T...
General Public Virus General Public Virus : n. Pejorative name for some versions of the GNU proj...
Genius From Mars Technique Genius From Mars Technique : n. [TMRC] A visionary quality which enables on...
Get a life! Get a life! : imp. Hacker-standard way of suggesting that the person to who...
Get a real computer! Get a real computer! : imp. In 1996 when this entry first entered the File,...
GoAT GoAT : // [Usenet] Abbreviation: “ Go Away, Troll ”. See troll .
Godwin's Law Godwin_s Law : prov. [Usenet] “ As a Usenet discussion grows longer, ...
Godzillagram Godzillagram : /god·zil_@·gram/ , n. [from Japan_s national hero] 1. A ne...
Good Thing Good Thing : n.,adj. [very common; always pronounced as if capitalized. Ori...
Great Internet Explosion Great Internet Explosion The mainstreaming of the Internet in 1993-1994. Us...
Great Renaming Great Renaming : n. The flag day in 1987 on which all of the non-local grou...
Great Runes Great Runes : n. Uppercase-only text or display messages. Some archaic oper...
Great Worm Great Worm : n. The 1988 Internet worm perpetrated by RTM . This is a play ...
Green's Theorem Green_s Theorem : prov. [TMRC] For any story, in any group of people there ...
Guido Guido : /gwee´do/ , /khwee´do/ Without qualification, Guido van Rossum (a...
HAKMEM HAKMEM : /hak´mem/ , n. MIT AI Memo 239 (February 1972). A legendary colle...
HAND HAND : // [Usenet: very common] Abbreviation: Have A Nice Day. Typically us...
HCF HCF : /H·C·F/ , n. Mnemonic for ‘Halt and Catch Fire’, any of...
HHOK HHOK See ha ha only serious .
HHOS HHOS See ha ha only serious .
HLL HLL : /H·L·L/ , n. [High-Level Language (as opposed to assembler)] Found ...
HP-SUX HP-SUX : /H·P suhks/ , n. Unflattering hackerism for HP-UX, Hewlett-Packar...
HTH HTH : // [Usenet: very common] Abbreviation: Hope This Helps (e.g. followin...
Hackers (the movie) Hackers (the movie) : n. A notable bomb from 1995. Should have been titled ...
Hacking X for Y Hacking X for Y : n. [ITS] Ritual phrasing of part of the information which...
Hackintosh Hackintosh : n. 1. An Apple Lisa that has been hacked into emulating a Maci...
Halloween Documents Halloween Documents : n. A pair of Microsoft internal strategy memoranda le...
Hanlon's Razor Hanlon_s Razor : prov. A corollary of Finagle_s Law , similar to Occam_s Ra...
Hed Rat Hed Rat Unflattering spoonerism of Red Hat, a popular Linux distribution. C...
IANAL IANAL : // [Usenet] Abbreviation, “ I Am Not A Lawyer ”. Usuall...
IBM IBM : /I·B·M/ Once upon a time, the computer company most hackers loved t...
ICBM address ICBM address : n. (Also missile address ) The form used to register a site ...
ID10T error ID10T error : /I·D·ten·T er_@r/ Synonym for PEBKAC , e.g. “ The us...
IDP IDP : /I·D·P/ , v.,n. [Usenet] Abbreviation for Internet Death Penalty . ...
IIRC IIRC : // Common abbreviation for “ If I Recall Correctly ”.
IMHO IMHO : // , abbrev. [from SF fandom via Usenet; abbreviation for ‘In ...
INTERCAL INTERCAL : /in´t@r·kal/ , n. [said by the authors to stand for Compiler L...
IRC IRC : /I·R·C/ , n. [Internet Relay Chat] A worldwide “ party line &...
ISO standard cup of tea ISO standard cup of tea : n. [South Africa] A cup of tea with milk and one ...
ISP ISP : /I·S·P/ Common abbreviation for Internet Service Provider, a kind o...
ITS ITS : /I·T·S/ , n. 1. Incompatible Time-sharing System, an influential th...
IWBNI IWBNI : // Abbreviation for ‘It Would Be Nice If’. Compare WIBNI .
IYFEG IYFEG : // [Usenet] Abbreviation for ‘Insert Your Favorite Ethnic Gro...
I didn't change anything! I didn_t change anything! : interj. An aggrieved cry often heard as bugs ma...
I see no X here. I see no X here. Hackers (and the interactive computer games they write) tr...
If you want X_ you know where to find it. If you want X, you know where to find it. There is a legend that Dennis Rit...
Imminent Death Of The Net Predicted! Imminent Death Of The Net Predicted! : prov. [Usenet] Since Usenet first go...
Indent-o-Meter Indent-o-Meter [] A fiendishly clever ASCII display hack that became a brie...
Infinite-Monkey Theorem Infinite-Monkey Theorem : n. “ If you put an infinite number of monke...
Infocom Infocom : n. A now-legendary games company, active from 1979 to 1989, that ...
InterCaps InterCaps [Great Britain] Synonym for BiCapitalization .
Internet Internet : n. The mother of all networks. First incarnated beginning in 196...
Internet Death Penalty Internet Death Penalty [Usenet] (often abbreviated IDP) The ultimate sancti...
Internet Exploder Internet Exploder [very common] Pejorative hackerism for Microsoft_s “...
Internet Exploiter Internet Exploiter : n. Another common name-of-insult for Internet Explorer...
Iron Age Iron Age : n. In the history of computing, 1961-1971 — the formative ...
Itanic Itanic : n. The Intel Itanium, so called in reference to the legendary disa...
JCL JCL : /J·C·L/ , n. 1. IBM_s supremely rude Job Control Language. JCL is t...
JEDR JEDR : // , n. Synonymous with IYFEG . At one time, people in the Usenet ne...
J. Random J. Random : /J rand´m/ , n. [common; generalized from J. Random Hacker ] A...
J. Random Hacker J. Random Hacker : /J rand´m hak´r/ , n. [very common] A mythical figure ...
Java Java An object-oriented language originally developed at Sun by James Gosli...
Jeff K. Jeff K. The spiritual successor to B1FF and the archetype of script kiddies...
Jeopardy-style quoting Jeopardy-style quoting See top-post .
K K : /K/ , n. [from kilo- ] A kilobyte. Used both as a spoken word and a wri...
KIBO KIBO : /ki:´boh/ 1. [acronym] Knowledge In, Bullshit Out. A summary of wha...
KIPS KIPS : /kips/ , n. [abbreviation, by analogy with MIPS using K ] Thousands ...
KISS Principle KISS Principle : /kis´ prin´si·pl/ , n. “ Keep It Simple, Stupid &...
KLB KLB : n. [common among Perl hackers] Known Lazy Bastard. Used to describe s...
K&_R K&R : n. Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie_s book The C Programming La...
Knights of the Lambda Calculus Knights of the Lambda Calculus : n. A semi-mythical organization of wizardl...
Knuth Knuth : /ka·nooth´/ , n. [Donald E. Knuth_s The Art of Computer Programmi...
Kool-Aid Kool-Aid [from a kid_s sugar-enriched drink in fruity flavors] When someone...
LAN party LAN party : /lan par´tee/ An event to which several users bring their boxe...
LART LART : // Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool. 1. n. In the collective mythos ...
LER LER : /L·E·R/ n. 1. [TMRC, from ‘Light-Emitting Diode’] A lig...
LERP LERP : /lerp/ , vi.,n. Quasi-acronym for Linear Interpolation, used as a ve...
LISP LISP : n. [from ‘LISt Processing language’, but mythically from...
Life is hard Life is hard : prov. [XEROX PARC] This phrase has two possible interpretati...
Lintel Lintel : n. The emerging Linux /Intel alliance. This term began to be used ...
Linus Linus : /leen´us/ , /lin´us/ , /li:´nus/ Linus Torvalds, the author of L...
Linux Linux : /lee´nuhks/ , /li´nuks/ , not , /li:´nuhks/ , n. The free Unix w...
Lions Book Lions Book : n. Source Code and Commentary on Unix level 6 , by John Lions....
Live Free Or Die! Live Free Or Die! : imp. 1. The state motto of New Hampshire, which appears...
Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology Lubarsky_s Law of Cybernetic Entomology : prov. “ There is always one...
Lumber Cartel Lumber Cartel : n. A mythical conspiracy accused by spam -spewers of fundin...
M M : pref. [SI] See quantifiers .
MEGO MEGO : /me´goh/ , /mee´goh/ [“ My Eyes Glaze Over ”, often &#...
MFTL MFTL : /M·F·T·L/ [abbreviation: ‘My Favorite Toy Language’] ...
MIPS MIPS : /mips/ , n. [abbreviation] 1. A measure of computing speed; formally...
MMF MMF : // [Usenet; common] Abbreviation: “ Make Money Fast ”. Re...
MOTAS MOTAS : /moh·tahz/ , n. [Usenet: Member Of The Appropriate Sex, after MOTO...
MOTOS MOTOS : /moh·tohs/ , n. [acronym from the 1970 U.S. census forms via Usene...
MOTSS MOTSS : /mots/ , /M·O·T·S·S/ , n. [from the 1970 U.S. census forms via ...
MS-DOS MS-DOS : /M·S·dos/ , n. [MicroSoft Disk Operating System] A clone of CP/M...
MUD MUD : /muhd/ , n. [acronym, Multi-User Dungeon; alt.: Multi-User Dimension]...
M$ M$ Common net abbreviation for Microsoft, everybody_s least favorite monopoly.
Macintoy Macintoy : /mak´in·toy/ , n. The Apple Macintosh, considered as a toy . L...
Macintrash Macintrash : /mak´in·trash`/ , n. The Apple Macintosh, as described by a ...
Mars Mars : n. A legendary tragic failure, the archetypal Hacker Dream Gone Wron...
Matrix Matrix : n. [FidoNet] 1. What the Opus BBS software and sysops call FidoNet...
McQuary limit McQuary limit [from the name of the founder of alt.fan.warlord ; see warlor...
MiSTing MiSTing [blogosphere] A variant of fisking patterned on the protocol of Mys...
MicroDroid MicroDroid : n. [Usenet] A Microsoft employee, esp. one who posts to variou...
Microsloth Windows Microsloth Windows : /mi:´kroh·sloth` win´dohz/ , n. (Variants combine {...
Microsoft Microsoft The new Evil Empire (the old one was IBM ). The basic complaints ...
Mongolian Hordes technique Mongolian Hordes technique : n. [poss. from the Sixties counterculture expr...
Moof Moof : /moof/ [Macintosh users] 1. n. The call of a semi-legendary creature...
Moore's Law Moore_s Law : /morz law/ , prov. Any one of several similar folk theorems t...
Multics Multics : /muhl´tiks/ , n. [from “ MULTiplexed Information and Compu...
Murphy's Law Murphy_s Law : prov. The correct, original Murphy_s Law reads: “ If t...
N N : /N/ , quant. 1. A large and indeterminate number of objects: “ Th...
NAK NAK : /nak/ , interj. [from the ASCII mnemonic for 0010101] 1. On-line joke...
NANA NANA : // [Usenet] The newsgroups news.admin.net-abuse.*, devoted to fighti...
NIL NIL : /nil/ No. Used in reply to a question, particularly one asked using t...
NMI NMI : /N·M·I/ , n. Non-Maskable Interrupt. An IRQ 7 on the PDP-11 or 680[...
NP- NP- : /N·P/ , pref. Extremely. Used to modify adjectives describing a leve...
NSA line eater NSA line eater : n. The National Security Agency trawling program sometimes...
NSP NSP : /N·S·P/ , n. Common abbreviation for ‘Network Service Provide...
NUXI problem NUXI problem : /nuk´see pro´bl@m/ , n. Refers to the problem of transferr...
Nathan Hale Nathan Hale : n. An asterisk (see also splat , ASCII ). Oh, you want an ety...
NeWS NeWS : /nee´wis/ , /n[y]oo´is/ , /n[y]ooz/ , n. [acronym; the “ Net...
Netscrape Netscrape : n. [sometimes elaborated to Netscrape Fornicator , also Nutscra...
New Jersey New Jersey : adj. [primarily Stanford/Silicon Valley] Brain-damaged or of...
New Testament New Testament : n. [C programmers] The second edition of K&R_s The C Pr...
Nightmare File System Nightmare File System : n. Pejorative hackerism for Sun_s Network File Syst...
Ninety-Ninety Rule Ninety-Ninety Rule : n. “ The first 90% of the code accounts for the ...
OP OP : // [Usenet; common] Abbreviation for “ original poster ”, ...
OS OS : /O·S/ 1. [Operating System] n. An abbreviation heavily used in email,...
OSS OSS Written-only acronym for “ Open Source Software ” (see open...
OS/2 OS/2 : /O S too/ , n. The anointed successor to MS-DOS for Intel 286- and 3...
OT OT : // [Usenet: common] Abbreviation for “ off-topic ”. This i...
OTOH OTOH : // [Usenet; very common] On The Other Hand.
Ob- Ob- : /ob/ , pref. Obligatory. A piece of netiquette acknowledging that the...
Obfuscated C Contest Obfuscated C Contest : n. (in full, the ‘International Obfuscated C C...
Objectionable-C Objectionable-C : n. Hackish take on “ Objective-C ”, the name ...
Old Testament Old Testament : n. [C programmers] The first edition of K&R , the sacre...
Oracle_ the Oracle, the The all-knowing, all-wise Internet Oracle rec.humor.oracle , or...
Orange Book Orange Book : n. The U.S. Government_s (now obsolete) standards document Tr...
PARC PARC : n. See XEROX PARC .
PBD PBD : /P·B·D/ , n. [abbrev. of ‘Programmer Brain Damage’] App...
PD PD : /P·D/ , adj. [common] Abbreviation for ‘public domain’, a...
PDP-10 PDP-10 : n. [Programmed Data Processor model 10] The machine that made time...
PDP-11 PDP-11 Possibly the single most successful minicomputer design in history, ...
PDP-20 PDP-20 : n. The most famous computer that never was. PDP-10 computers runni...
PEBKAC PEBKAC : /peb´kak/ [Abbrev., “ Problem Exists Between Keyboard And C...
PFY PFY : n. [Usenet; common, originally from the BOFH mythos] Abbreviation for...
PHB PHB : /P·H·B/ [Usenet; common; rarely spoken] Abbreviation, “ Point...
PM PM : /P·M/ 1. v. (from preventive maintenance ) To bring down a machine fo...
POM POM : /P·O·M/ , n. Common abbreviation for phase of the moon . Usage: usu...
P.O.D. P.O.D. : /P·O·D/ [rare; sometimes ‘POD’ without the periods] ...
Parkinson's Law of Data Parkinson_s Law of Data : prov. “ Data expands to fill the space avai...
Pascal Pascal : n. An Algol-descended language designed by Niklaus Wirth on the CD...
PascalCasing PascalCasing The practice of marking all word boundaries in long identifier...
Pentagram Pro Pentagram Pro : n. A humorous corruption of “ Pentium Pro ”, wi...
Pentium Pentium : n. The name given to Intel_s P5 chip, the successor to the 80486....
Perl Perl : /perl/ , n. [Practical Extraction and Report Language, a.k.a. Pathol...
Ping O' Death Ping O_ Death : n. A notorious exploit that (when first discovered) could b...
Plan 9 Plan 9 : n. In the late 1980s, researchers at Bell Labs (especially Rob Pik...
PostScript PostScript : n. A page description language, based on work originally done ...
Postel's Prescription Postel_s Prescription [proposed] Several of the key Internet RFC s, especia...
Programmer's Cheer Programmer_s Cheer “ Shift to the left! Shift to the right! Pop up, p...
Purple Book Purple Book : n. 1. The System V Interface Definition . The covers of the f...
Python Python : /pi:´thon/ In the words of its author, “ the other scriptin...
QWERTY QWERTY : /kwer´tee/ , adj. [from the keycaps at the upper left] Pertaining...
Quirk objection Quirk objection : interj. [Named for Captain Gym Z. Quirk, the first to rai...
RBL RBL : /R·B·L/ Abbreviation: “ Realtime Blackhole List ”. A se...
RE RE : /R·E/ , n. Common spoken and written shorthand for regexp .
README file README file : n. Hacker_s-eye introduction traditionally included in the to...
RETI RETI : v. Syn. RTI
RFC RFC : /R·F·C/ , n. [Request For Comment] One of a long-established se...
RFE RFE : /R·F·E/ , n. 1. [techspeak] Request For Enhancement (compare RFC )....
RL RL : // , n. [MUD community] Real Life. “ Firiss laughs in RL ”...
RSN RSN : /R·S·N/ , adj. See Real Soon Now .
RTBM RTBM : /R·T·B·M/ , imp. [Unix] Commonwealth Hackish variant of RTFM ; ex...
RTFAQ RTFAQ : /R·T·F·A·Q/ , imp. [Usenet: primarily written, by analogy with ...
RTFB RTFB : /R·T·F·B/ , imp. [Unix] Abbreviation for ‘Read The Fucking ...
RTFM RTFM : /R·T·F·M/ , imp. [Unix] Abbreviation for ‘Read The Fucking ...
RTFS RTFS : /R·T·F·S/ [Unix] 1. imp. Abbreviation for ‘Read The Fucking...
RTI RTI : /R·T·I/ , interj. The mnemonic for the ‘return from interrupt...
RTM RTM : /R·T·M/ 1. [Usenet: abbreviation for ‘Read The Manual’]...
RTS RTS : /R·T·S/ , imp. Abbreviation for ‘Read The Screen’. Main...
Random Number God Random Number God [rec.games.roguelike.angband; often abbreviated ‘RN...
Real Programmer Real Programmer : n. [indirectly, from the book Real Men Don_t Eat Quiche ]...
Real Soon Now Real Soon Now : adv. [orig. from SF_s fanzine community, popularized by Jer...
Real World Real World : n. 1. Those institutions at which ‘programming’ ma...
Right Thing Right Thing : n. That which is compellingly the correct or appropriate thin...
SAIL SAIL : /sayl/ , /S·A·I·L/ , n. 1. The Stanford Artificial Intelligence L...
SCNR SCNR : abbrev [common] Sorry, Could Not Resist. Normally used to semi-apolo...
SCSI SCSI : n. [Small Computer System Interface] A bus-independent standard for ...
SCSI voodoo SCSI voodoo : /skuz´ee voo´doo/ [common among Mac users] SCSI interface h...
SED SED : /S·E·D/ , n. [TMRC, from ‘Light-Emitting Diode’] Smoke-...
SEX SEX : /seks/ [Sun Users_ Group & elsewhere] n. 1. Software EXchange. A ...
SIG SIG : /sig/ , n. (also common as a prefix in combining forms) A Special Int...
SMOP SMOP : /S·M·O·P/ , n. [Simple (or Small) Matter of Programming] 1. A pie...
SNAFU principle SNAFU principle : /sna´foo prin´si·pl/ , n. [from a WWII Army acrony...
SO SO : /S·O/ , n. 1. (also S.O. ) Abbrev. for Significant Other, almost inva...
SPACEWAR SPACEWAR : n. A space-combat simulation game, inspired by E. E. “ Doc...
STFW STFW : imp. , /S·T·F·W/ [Usenet] Common abbreviation for “ Search ...
STR STR Spot the reference. Used in scary devil monastery to mark the witticism...
S/N ratio S/N ratio : // , n. (also s/n ratio , s:n ratio ). Syn. signal-to-noise rat...
Saturday-night special Saturday-night special : n. [from police slang for a cheap handgun] A quick...
See figure 1 See figure 1 Metaphorically, “ Get stuffed. ” From the title of...
September that never ended September that never ended All time since September 1993. One of the season...
Share and enjoy! Share and enjoy! : imp. 1. Commonly found at the end of software release an...
Shub-Internet Shub-Internet : /shuhb´ in´t@r·net/ , n. [MUD: from H. P. Lovecraft_s ev...
Slowlaris Slowlaris : /slo_·lahr·is/ , n. [Usenet; poss. from the variety of prosim...
Spinning Pizza of Death Spinning Pizza of Death : n. [OS X; common] The quartered-circle busy indic...
Stanford Bunny Stanford Bunny The successor of the Utah Teapot . The model is of a chocola...
Stone Age Stone Age : n.,adj. 1. In computer folklore, an ill-defined period from ENI...
Stupids Stupids : n. Term used by samurai for the suit s who employ them; succinctl...
Sturgeon's Law Sturgeon_s Law : prov. “ Ninety percent of everything is crud ”...
Sun Sun : n. Sun Microsystems. Hackers remember that the name was originally an...
Suzie COBOL Suzie COBOL : /soo´zee koh´bol/ 1. [IBM: prob.: from Frank Zappa_s ‘...
Swiss-Army chainsaw Swiss-Army chainsaw In early Unix days, a well-known technical paper analog...
T T : /T/ 1. [from LISP terminology for ‘true’] Yes. Used in repl...
TAN TAN : adj. [Usenet, particularly rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan ] Abbrev...
TANSTAAFL TANSTAAFL : /tan´stah·fl/ [acronym, from Robert Heinlein_s classic SF nov...
TCB TCB : /T·C·B/ , n. [IBM] 1. Trouble Came Back. An intermittent or difficu...
TCP/IP TCP/IP : /T´C·P I´P/ , n. 1. [Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Pro...
TECO TECO : /tee´koh/ , n.,v. obs. 1. [originally an acronym for ‘[paper]...
TINC TINC : // [Usenet] Abbreviation: “ There Is No Cabal ”. See bac...
TINLC TINLC : // Abbreviation: “ There Is No Lumber Cartel ”. See Lum...
TLA TLA : /T·L·A/ , n. [Three-Letter Acronym] 1. Self-describing abbreviation...
TMRC TMRC : /tmerk´/ , n. The Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT, one of the wells...
TMRCie TMRCie : /tmerk´ee/ , n. [MIT] A denizen of TMRC .
TMTOWTDI TMTOWTDI : /tim·toh_·dee/ , abbrev. There_s More Than One Way To Do It. T...
TOFU TOFU Text Over, Fullquote Under; see top-post .
TOPS-10 TOPS-10 : /tops·ten/ , n. DEC _s proprietary OS for the fabled PDP-10 mach...
TOPS-20 TOPS-20 : /tops·twen´tee/ , n. See TWENEX .
TOS TOS : vt. [from the acronym for ‘Terms Of Service’ playing on t...
TWENEX TWENEX : /twe´neks/ , n. The TOPS-20 operating system by DEC — the s...
TeX TeX : /tekh/ , n. An extremely powerful macro -based text formatter written...
That's not a bug_ that's a feature! That_s not a bug, that_s a feature! The canonical first parry in a debate a...
This can't happen This can_t happen Less clipped variant of can_t happen .
This time_ for sure! This time, for sure! : excl. Ritual affirmation frequently uttered during p...
Tinkerbell program Tinkerbell program : n. [Great Britain] A monitoring program used to scan i...
Trojan horse Trojan horse : n. [coined by MIT-hacker-turned-NSA-spook Dan Edwards] A mal...
Troll-O-Meter Troll-O-Meter : n. Common Usenet jargon for a notional instrument used to m...
Turing tar-pit Turing tar-pit : n. 1. A place where anything is possible but nothing of in...
Tux Tux Tux the Penguin is the official emblem of Linux , This eventuated after...
UBD UBD : /U·B·D/ , n. [abbreviation for ‘User Brain Damage’] An ...
UBE UBE : // , n. [abbrev., Unsolicited Bulk Email] A widespread, more formal t...
UCE UCE : n. [abbrev., Unsolicited Commercial Email] A widespread, more formal ...
UDP UDP : /U·D·P/ , v.,n. [Usenet] Abbreviation for Usenet Death Penalty . Co...
UN*X UN*X : n. Used to refer to the Unix operating system (a trademark of AT&...
URL URL : /U·R·L/ , /erl/ , n. Uniform Resource Locator, an address widget th...
UTSL UTSL : // , n. [Unix] On-line acronym for ‘Use the Source, Luke’...
UUOC UUOC [from the comp.unix.shell group on Usenet] Stands for Useless Use of c...
Unix Unix : /yoo´niks/ , n. [In the authors_ words, “ A weak pun on Multi...
Unix brain damage Unix brain damage : n. Something that has to be done to break a network pro...
Unix conspiracy Unix conspiracy : n. [ITS] According to a conspiracy theory long popular am...
Unix weenie Unix weenie : n. [ITS] 1. A derogatory play on ‘Unix wizard’, c...
Usenet Usenet : /yoos´net/ , /yooz´net/ , n. [from ‘Users_ Network’;...
Usenet Death Penalty Usenet Death Penalty [Usenet] A sanction against sites that habitually spew...
Utah teapot_ the Utah teapot, the This object is historically one of the first complex 3D mo...
V7 V7 : /V´sev´en/ , n. See Version 7 .
VAX VAX : /vaks/ , n. 1. [from Virtual Address eXtension] The most successful m...
VAXen VAXen : /vak´sn/ , n. [from ‘oxen’, perhaps influenced by R...
VMS VMS : /V·M·S/ , n. DEC _s proprietary operating system for its VAX minico...
VR VR : // , n. On-line abbrev for virtual reality , as opposed to RL .
Venus flytrap Venus flytrap : n. [after the insect-eating plant] See firewall machine .
Version 7 Version 7 : /vee´ se´vn/ , n. The first widely distributed version of Uni...
Visual Fred Visual Fred : n. Pejorative hackerism for VB.NET (Visual Basic for the .NET...
Vulcan nerve pinch Vulcan nerve pinch : n. [from the old Star Trek TV series via Commodore Ami...
WAITS WAITS : /wayts/ , n. The mutant cousin of TOPS-10 used on a handful of syst...
WIBNI WIBNI : // , n. [Bell Labs: Wouldn_t It Be Nice If] What most requirements ...
WIMP environment WIMP environment : n. [acronym: ‘Window, Icon, Menu, Pointing device ...
WOMBAT WOMBAT : /wom´bat/ , adj. [acronym: Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time] Appl...
WYSIAYG WYSIAYG : /wiz´ee·ayg/ , adj. Describes a user interface under which R...
WYSIWYG WYSIWYG : /wiz´ee·wig/ , /wiss´ee·wig/ , adj. [Traced to Flip Wilson_s ...
Weenix Weenix : /wee´niks/ , n. 1. [ITS] A derogatory term for Unix , derived fro...
What's a spline? What_s a spline? [XEROX PARC] This phrase expands to: “ You have just...
Whorfian mind-lock Whorfian mind-lock [from the Lojban-language list] Software designs are oft...
Winchester Winchester : n. Informal generic term for sealed-enclosure magnetic-disk dr...
Windowsitis Windowsitis 1. As a disease of people: the tendency of inexperienced (or Wi...
Windoze Windoze : /win´dohz/ , n. See Microsloth Windows . (Also Losedoze .)
Wintel Wintel : n. Microsoft Windows plus Intel — the tacit alliance that do...
Wintendo Wintendo : /win·ten´doh/ , n. [Play on “ Nintendo ”] A PC run...
Wizard Book Wizard Book : n. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (Hal Abe...
Wrong Thing Wrong Thing : n. A design, action, or decision that is clearly incorrect or...
X X : /X/ , n. 1. Used in various speech and writing contexts (also in lowerc...
XEROX PARC XEROX PARC : /zee´roks park´/ , n. The famed Palo Alto Research Center. F...
XOFF XOFF : /X·of/ , n. Syn. control-S .
XON XON : /X·on/ , n. Syn. control-Q .
XXX XXX : /X·X·X/ , n. A marker that attention is needed. Commonly used in pr...
YA- YA- : abbrev. [Yet Another] In hackish acronyms this almost invariably expa...
YABA YABA : /ya´b@/ , n. [Cambridge] Yet Another Bloody Acronym. Whenever some ...
YAFIYGI YAFIYGI : /yaf´ee·y@·gee/ , adj. [coined in response to WYSIWYG] Describ...
YAUN YAUN : /yawn/ , n. [Acronym for ‘Yet Another Unix Nerd’] Report...
YHBT YHBT : // [Usenet: very common] Abbreviation: You Have Been Trolled (see tr...
YKYBHTLW YKYBHTLW : // , abbrev. Abbreviation of ‘You know you_ve been hacking...
YMMV YMMV : // , cav. Abbreviation for Your mileage may vary common on Usenet.
Yet Another Yet Another : adj. [From Unix_s yacc (1) , ‘Yet Another Compiler-Comp...
You are not expected to understand this You are not expected to understand this : cav. [Unix] The canonical comment...
You know you've been hacking too long when You know you_ve been hacking too long when The set-up line for a genre of o...
Your mileage may vary Your mileage may vary : cav. [from the standard disclaimer attached to EPA ...
Yow! Yow! : /yow/ , interj. [from “ Zippy the Pinhead ” comix] A fav...
Yu-Shiang Whole Fish Yu-Shiang Whole Fish : /yoo·shyang hohl fish/ , n. obs. The character gamm...
Zawinski's Law Zawinski_s Law “ Every program attempts to expand until it can read m...
Zero-One-Infinity Rule Zero-One-Infinity Rule : prov. “ Allow none of foo , one of foo , or ...
Zork Zork : /zork/ , n. The second of the great early experiments in computer fa...
@-party @-party : /at´par`tee/ , n. [from the @-sign in an Internet address] (alt....
(TM) (TM) : // [Usenet] ASCII rendition of the ™ appended to phrases that ...
/dev/null /dev/null : /dev·nuhl/ , n. [from the Unix null device, used as a data sin...
/me /me : // [IRC; common] Under most IRC, /me is the “ pose ” comm...
abbrev abbrev : /@·breev´/ , /@·brev´/ , n. Common abbreviation for ‘abb...
accumulator accumulator : n. obs. 1. Archaic term for a register. On-line use of it as ...
ad-hockery ad-hockery : /ad·hok_@r·ee/ , n. [Purdue] 1. Gratuitous assumptions made ...
address harvester address harvester : n. A robot that searches web pages and/or filters netne...
adger adger : /aj´r/ , vt. [UCLA mutant of nadger , poss. also from the middle n...
admin admin : /ad·min´/ , n. Short for ‘administrator’; very common...
adware adware : n. Software which is free to download and use but includes pop-up ...
airplane rule airplane rule : n. “ Complexity increases the possibility of failure;...
aliasing bug aliasing bug : n. A class of subtle programming errors that can arise in co...
all your base are belong to us all your base are belong to us A declaration of victory or superiority. The...
alpha geek alpha geek : n. [from animal ethologists_ alpha male ] The most technically...
alpha particles alpha particles : n. See bit rot .
alt alt : /awlt/ 1. n. The alt shift key on an IBM PC or clone keyboard; see bu...
alt bit alt bit : /awlt bit/ , adj. See meta bit .
ambimouseterous ambimouseterous : /am·b@·mows´ter·us/ , /am·b@·mows´trus/ , adj [mod...
amp off amp off : vt. [Purdue] To run in background . From the Unix shell ‘&a...
amper amper : n. Common abbreviation for the name of the ampersand (‘&&...
and there was much rejoicing and there was much rejoicing [from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grai...
angle brackets angle brackets : n. Either of the characters < (ASCII 0111100) and > ...
angry fruit salad angry fruit salad : n. A bad visual-interface design that uses too many col...
annoybot annoybot : /@·noy·bot/ , n. [IRC] See bot .
annoyware annoyware : n. A type of shareware that frequently disrupts normal program ...
anti-idiotarianism anti-idiotarianism : n. [very common] Opposition to idiots of all political...
app app : /ap/ , n. Short for ‘application program’, as opposed to ...
arena arena : n. [common; Unix] The area of memory attached to a process by brk (...
arg arg : /arg/ , n. Abbreviation for ‘argument’ (to a function), u...
armor-plated armor-plated : n. Syn. for bulletproof .
asbestos asbestos : adj. [common] Used as a modifier to anything intended to protect...
asbestos cork award asbestos cork award : n. Once, long ago at MIT, there was a flamer so consi...
asbestos longjohns asbestos longjohns : n. Notional garments donned by Usenet posters just bef...
astroturfing astroturfing : n. 1. The use of paid shills to create the impression of a p...
atomic atomic : adj. [from Gk. atomos , indivisible] 1. Indivisible; cannot be spl...
attoparsec attoparsec : n. About an inch. atto- is the standard SI prefix for multipli...
autobogotiphobia autobogotiphobia : /aw´toh·boh·got`@·foh´bee·@/ n. See bogotify .
autoconfiscate autoconfiscate To set up or modify a source-code distribution so that it co...
automagically automagically : /aw·toh·maj´i·klee/ , adv. Automatically, but in a way ...
avatar avatar : n. [in Hindu mythology, the incarnation of a god] 1. Among people ...
awk awk : /awk/ 1. n. [Unix techspeak] An interpreted language for massaging te...
back door back door : n. [common] A hole in the security of a system deliberately lef...
backbone cabal backbone cabal : n. A group of large-site administrators who pushed through...
backbone site backbone site : n.,obs. Formerly, a key Usenet and email site, one that pro...
backgammon backgammon See bignum (sense 3), moby (sense 4), and pseudoprime .
background background : n.,adj.,vt. [common] To do a task in background is to do it wh...
backreference backreference : n. 1. In a regular expression or pattern match, the text wh...
backronym backronym : n. [portmanteau of back + acronym] A word interpreted as an acr...
backward combatability backward combatability : /bak´w@rd k@m·bat_@·bil_@·tee/ , n. [CMU, Tekt...
bag on the side bag on the side : n. [prob. originally related to a colostomy bag] An exten...
bagbiter bagbiter : /bag´bi:t·@r/ , n. 1. Something, such as a program or a comput...
bagbiting bagbiting : adj. [MIT; now rare] Having the quality of a bagbiter . “...
baggy pantsing baggy pantsing : v. [Georgia Tech] A “ baggy pantsing ” is used...
balloonian variable balloonian variable : n. [Commodore users; perh. a deliberate phonetic mang...
bamf bamf : /bamf/ 1. [from X-Men comics; originally “ bampf ”] inte...
banana problem banana problem : n. [from the story of the little girl who said “ I k...
bandwidth bandwidth : n. 1. [common] Used by hackers (in a generalization of its tech...
bang bang 1. n. Common spoken name for ! (ASCII 0100001), especially when used i...
bang on bang on : vt. To stress-test a piece of hardware or software: “ I ban...
bang path bang path : n. [now historical] An old-style UUCP electronic-mail address s...
banner banner : n. 1. A top-centered graphic on a web page. Esp. used in banner ad...
banner ad banner ad : n. Any of the annoying graphical advertisements that span the t...
banner site banner site : n. [warez d00dz] An FTP site storing pirated files where one ...
bar bar : /bar/ , n. 1. [very common] The second metasyntactic variable , after...
bare metal bare metal : n. 1. [common] New computer hardware, unadorned with such snar...
barf barf : /barf/ , n.,v. [common; from mainstream slang meaning ‘vomit&#...
barfmail barfmail : n. Multiple bounce message s accumulating to the level of seriou...
barfulation barfulation : /bar`fyoo·lay´sh@n/ , interj. Variation of barf used around...
barfulous barfulous : /bar´fyoo·l@s/ , adj. (alt.: barfucious , /bar-fyoo-sh@s/ ) S...
barn barn : n. [uncommon; prob. from the nuclear military] An unexpectedly large...
barney barney : n. In Commonwealth hackish, barney is to fred (sense #1) as bar is...
baroque baroque : adj. [common] Feature-encrusted; complex; gaudy; verging on exces...
batbelt batbelt : n. Many hackers routinely hang numerous devices such as pagers, c...
batch batch : adj. 1. Non-interactive. Hackers use this somewhat more loosely tha...
bathtub curve bathtub curve : n. Common term for the curve (resembling an end-to-end sect...
baud baud : /bawd/ , n. [simplified from its technical meaning] n. Bits per seco...
baz baz : /baz/ , n. 1. [common] The third metasyntactic variable “ Suppo...
bazaar bazaar : n.,adj. In 1997, after meditating on the success of Linux for thre...
bboard bboard : /bee´bord/ , n. [contraction of ‘bulletin board’] 1. ...
beam beam : vt. [from Star Trek Classic_s “ Beam me up, Scotty! ”] 1...
beanie key beanie key : n. [Mac users] See command key .
beep beep : n.,v. Syn. feep . This term is techspeak under MS-DOS/Windows and OS...
beige toaster beige toaster : n. [obs.] An original Macintosh in the boxy beige case. See...
bells and whistles bells and whistles : n. [common] Features added to a program or system to m...
bells whistles and gongs bells whistles and gongs : n. A standard elaborated form of bells and whist...
benchmark benchmark : n. [techspeak] An inaccurate measure of computer performance. &...
beta beta : /bay´t@/ , /be´t@/ , /bee´t@/ , n. 1. Mostly working, but still u...
bible bible : n. 1. One of a small number of fundamental source books such as Knu...
biff biff : /bif/ , vt. [now rare] To notify someone of incoming mail. From the ...
big-endian big-endian : adj. [common; From Swift_s Gulliver_s Travels via the famous p...
big iron big iron : n. [common] Large, expensive, ultra-fast computers. Used general...
big win big win : n. 1. [common] Major success. 2. [MIT] Serendipity. “ Yes, ...
bignum bignum : /big´nuhm/ , n. [common; orig. from MIT MacLISP] 1. [techspeak] A...
bigot bigot : n. [common] A person who is religiously attached to a particular co...
bikeshedding bikeshedding [originally BSD, now common] Technical disputes over minor, ma...
binary four binary four : n. [Usenet] The finger, in the sense of digitus impudicus . T...
bit-paired keyboard bit-paired keyboard : n.,obs. (alt.: bit-shift keyboard ) A non-standard ke...
bit bit : n. [from the mainstream meaning and “ Binary digIT ”] 1. ...
bit bashing bit bashing : n. (alt.: bit diddling or bit twiddling ) Term used to descri...
bit bucket bit bucket : n. [very common] 1. The universal data sink (originally, the m...
bit decay bit decay : n. See bit rot . People with a physics background tend to prefe...
bit rot bit rot : n. [common] Also bit decay . Hypothetical disease the existence o...
bit twiddling bit twiddling : n. [very common] 1. (pejorative) An exercise in tuning (see...
bitblt bitblt : /bit´blit/ , n. [from BLT , q.v.:] 1. [common] Any of a family of...
bits bits : pl.n. 1. Information. Examples: “ I need some bits about file ...
bitty box bitty box : /bit´ee boks/ , n. 1. A computer sufficiently small, primitive...
bixie bixie : /bik´see/ , n. Variant emoticon s used BIX (the BIX Information eX...
black art black art : n. [common] A collection of arcane, unpublished, and (by implic...
black hat black hat 1. [common among security specialists] A cracker , someone bent o...
black hole black hole : n.,vt. [common] What data (a piece of email or netnews, or a s...
black magic black magic : n. [common] A technique that works, though nobody really unde...
blammo blammo : v. [Oxford Brookes University and alumni, UK] To forcibly remove s...
blargh blargh : /blarg/ , n. [MIT; now common] The opposite of ping , sense 5; an ...
blast blast 1. v.,n. Synonym for BLT , used esp. for large data sends over a netw...
blat blat : n. 1. Syn. blast , sense 1. 2. See thud .
bletch bletch : /blech/ , interj. [very common; from Yiddish/German ‘brechen...
bletcherous bletcherous : /blech_@·r@s/ , adj. Disgusting in design or function; esthe...
blinkenlights blinkenlights : /blink_@n·li:tz/ , n. [common] Front-panel diagnostic ligh...
blit blit : /blit/ , vt. 1. [common] To copy a large array of bits from one part...
blitter blitter : /blit´r/ , n. [common] A special-purpose chip or hardware system...
blivet blivet : /bliv_@t/ , n. [allegedly from a World War II military term meanin...
bloatware bloatware : n. [common] Software that provides minimal functionality while ...
block block : v. [common; from process scheduling terminology in OS theory] 1. vi...
blog blog : n. [common] Short for weblog , an on-line web-zine or diary (usually...
blogosphere blogosphere The totality of all blog s. A culture heavily overlapping with ...
blogrolling blogrolling [From the American political term ‘logrolling’, for...
blow an EPROM blow an EPROM : /bloh @n ee´prom/ , v. (alt.: blast an EPROM , burn an EPR...
blow away blow away : vt. To remove (files and directories) from permanent storage, g...
blow out blow out : vi. [prob.: from mining and tunneling jargon] Of software, to fa...
blow past blow past : vt. To blow out despite a safeguard. “ The server blew pa...
blow up blow up : vi. 1. [scientific computation] To become unstable. Suggests that...
blue box blue box n. 1. obs. Once upon a time, before all-digital switches made it p...
blue goo blue goo : n. Term for ‘police’ nanobot s intended to prevent g...
blue wire blue wire : n. [IBM] Patch wires (esp. 30 AWG gauge) added to circuit board...
blurgle blurgle : /bler´gl/ , n. [UK] Spoken metasyntactic variable , to indicate ...
boa boa : n. Any one of the fat cables that lurk under the floor in a dinosaur ...
board board : n. 1. In-context synonym for bboard ; sometimes used even for Usene...
boat anchor boat anchor : n. [common; from ham radio] 1. Like doorstop but more severe;...
bob bob : n. At Demon Internet , all tech support personnel are called “ ...
bodge bodge [Commonwealth hackish] Syn. kludge or hack (sense 1). “ I_ll bo...
bogo-sort bogo-sort : /boh`goh·sort´/ , n. (var.: stupid-sort ) The archetypical pe...
bogometer bogometer : /boh·gom_·@t·er/ , n. A notional instrument for measuring bo...
bogon bogon : /boh´gon/ , n. [very common; by analogy with proton/electron/neutr...
bogon filter bogon filter : /boh´gon fil_tr/ , n. Any device, software or hardware, tha...
bogon flux bogon flux : /boh´gon fluhks/ , n. A measure of a supposed field of bogosi...
bogosity bogosity : /boh·go´s@·tee/ , n. 1. [orig. CMU, now very common] The degr...
bogotify bogotify : /boh·go´t@·fi:/ , vt. To make or become bogus. A program that...
bogue out bogue out : /bohg owt/ , vi. To become bogus, suddenly and unexpectedly. &#...
bogus bogus : adj. 1. Non-functional. “ Your patches are bogus. ” 2. ...
boink boink : /boynk/ 1. [Usenet: variously ascribed to the TV series Cheers , Mo...
bomb bomb 1. v. General synonym for crash (sense 1) except that it is not used a...
bondage-and-discipline language bondage-and-discipline language : n. A language (such as Pascal , Ada, APL,...
bonk/oif bonk/oif : /bonk/ , /oyf/ , interj. In the U.S. MUD community, it has becom...
book titles book titles There is a tradition in hackerdom of informally tagging importa...
boot boot : v.,n. [techspeak; from ‘by one_s bootstraps’] To load an...
borken borken : adj. (also borked ) Common deliberate typo for ‘broken’.
bot bot : n [common on IRC, MUD and among gamers; from “ robot ”] 1...
bottom-post bottom-post : v. In a news or mail reply, to put the response to a news or ...
bottom-up implementation bottom-up implementation : n. Hackish opposite of the techspeak term top-do...
bottom feeder bottom feeder : n. 1. An Internet user that leeches off ISPs — the so...
bounce bounce : v. 1. [common; perhaps by analogy to a bouncing check] An electron...
bounce message bounce message : n. [common] Notification message returned to sender by a s...
boustrophedon boustrophedon : n. [from a Greek word for turning like an ox while plowing]...
box box : n. A computer; esp. in the construction foo box where foo is some fun...
boxed comments boxed comments : n. Comments (explanatory notes attached to program instruc...
boxen boxen : /bok´sn/ , pl.n. [very common; by analogy with VAXen ] Fanciful pl...
boxology boxology : /bok·sol_@·jee/ , n. Syn. ASCII art . This term implies a more...
bozotic bozotic : /boh·zoh´tik/ , /boh·zo´tik/ , adj. [from the name of a TV cl...
brain-damaged brain-damaged : adj. 1. [common; generalization of “ Honeywell Brain ...
brain-dead brain-dead : adj. [common] Brain-damaged in the extreme. It tends to imply ...
brain dump brain dump : n. [common] The act of telling someone everything one knows ab...
brain fart brain fart : n. The actual result of a braino , as opposed to the mental gl...
braino braino : /bray´no/ , n. Syn. for thinko . See also brain fart .
brainwidth brainwidth : n. [Great Britain] Analagous to bandwidth but used strictly fo...
bread crumbs bread crumbs : n. 1. Debugging statements inserted into a program that emit...
break-even point break-even point : n. In the process of implementing a new computer languag...
break break 1. vt. To cause to be broken (in any sense). “ Your latest patc...
breath-of-life packet breath-of-life packet : n. [XEROX PARC] An Ethernet packet that contains bo...
breedle breedle : n. See feep .
brick brick : n. 1. A piece of equipment that has been programmed or configured i...
bricktext bricktext [Usenet: common] Text which is carefully composed to be right-jus...
bring X to its knees bring X to its knees : v. [common] To present a machine, operating system, ...
brittle brittle : adj. Said of software that is functional but easily broken by cha...
broadcast storm broadcast storm : n. [common] An incorrect packet broadcast on a network th...
broken-ring network broken-ring network Pejorative hackerism for “ token-ring network ...
broken broken : adj. 1. Not working according to design (of programs). This is the...
broken arrow broken arrow : n. [IBM] The error code displayed on line 25 of a 3270 termi...
broket broket : /broh´k@t/ , /broh´ket`/ , n. [rare; by analogy with ‘brac...
brown-paper-bag bug brown-paper-bag bug : n. A bug in a public software release that is so emba...
browser browser : n. A program specifically designed to help users view and navigat...
brute force brute force : adj. Describes a primitive programming style, one in which th...
brute force and ignorance brute force and ignorance : n. A popular design technique at many software ...
bubble sort bubble sort : n. Techspeak for a particular sorting technique in which pair...
bucky bits bucky bits : /buh´kee bits/ , n. 1. [obs.] The bits produced by the CONTRO...
buffer chuck buffer chuck : n. Shorter and ruder syn. for buffer overflow .
buffer overflow buffer overflow : n. What happens when you try to stuff more data into a bu...
bug-compatible bug-compatible : adj. [common] Said of a design or revision that has been b...
bug-for-bug compatible bug-for-bug compatible : n. Same as bug-compatible , with the additional im...
bug-of-the-month club bug-of-the-month club : n. [from “ book-of-the-month club ”, a ...
bug bug : n. An unwanted and unintended property of a program or piece of hardw...
bulletproof bulletproof : adj. Used of an algorithm or implementation considered extrem...
bullschildt bullschildt : /bul´shilt/ , n. [comp.lang.c on USENET] A confident, but in...
bump bump : vt. Synonym for increment. Has the same meaning as C_s ++ operator. ...
burble burble : v. [from Lewis Carroll_s Jabberwocky ] Like flame , but connotes t...
buried treasure buried treasure : n. A surprising piece of code found in some program. Whil...
burn-in period burn-in period : n. 1. A factory test designed to catch systems with margin...
burn a CD burn a CD : v. To write a software or document distribution on a CDR. Coine...
burst page burst page : n. Syn. banner , sense 1.
busy-wait busy-wait : vi. Used of human behavior, conveys that the subject is busy wa...
buzz buzz : vi. 1. Of a program, to run with no indication of progress and perha...
buzzword-compliant buzzword-compliant [also buzzword-enabled ] Used (disparagingly) of product...
by hand by hand : adv. 1. [common] Said of an operation (especially a repetitive, t...
byte byte : /bi:t/ , n. [techspeak] A unit of memory or data equal to the amount...
byte sex byte sex : n. [common] The byte sex of hardware is big-endian or little-end...
bytesexual bytesexual : /bi:t`sek´shu·@l/ , adj. [rare] Said of hardware, denotes wi...
calculator calculator : n. Syn. for bitty box .
camelCase camelCase A variable in a programming language is sait to be camelCased whe...
camelCasing camelCasing See PascalCasing .
can't happen can_t happen The traditional program comment for code executed under a cond...
cancelbot cancelbot : /kan´sel·bot/ [Usenet: compound, cancel + robot] 1. Mythicall...
candygrammar candygrammar : n. A programming-language grammar that is mostly syntactic s...
canonical canonical : adj. [very common; historically, ‘according to religious ...
careware careware : /keir´weir/ , n. A variety of shareware for which either the au...
cargo cult programming cargo cult programming : n. A style of (incompetent) programming dominated ...
cascade cascade : n. 1. A huge volume of spurious error-message output produced by ...
case and paste case and paste : n. [from ‘cut and paste’] The addition of a ne...
case mod case mod [from ‘case modification’] 1. Originally a kind of har...
casters-up mode casters-up mode : n. [IBM, prob. fr. slang belly up ] Yet another synonym f...
casting the runes casting the runes : n. What a guru does when you ask him or her to run a pa...
cat cat : vt. [from catenate via Unix cat (1) ] 1. [techspeak] To spew an entir...
catatonic catatonic : adj. Describes a condition of suspended animation in which some...
cathedral cathedral : n.,adj. [see bazaar for derivation] The ‘classical’...
cd tilde cd tilde : /C·D til·d@/ , vi. To go home. From the Unix C-shell and Korn-...
cdr cdr : /ku´dr/ , /kuh´dr/ , vt. [from LISP] To skip past the first item fr...
chad chad : /chad/ , n. 1. [common] The perforated edge strips on printer paper,...
chad box chad box : n. A metal box about the size of a lunchbox (or in some models a...
chain chain 1. vi. [orig. from BASIC_s CHAIN statement] To hand off execution to ...
chainik chainik : /chi:´nik/ [Russian, literally “ teapot ”] Almost sy...
channel channel : n. [IRC] The basic unit of discussion on IRC . Once one joins a c...
channel hopping channel hopping : n. [common; IRC, GEnie] To rapidly switch channels on IRC...
channel op channel op : /chan´l op/ , n. [IRC] Someone who is endowed with privileges...
chanop chanop : /chan_·op/ , n. [IRC] See channel op .
char char : /keir/ , /char/ , /kar/ , n. Shorthand for ‘character’. ...
charityware charityware : /cha´rit·ee·weir`/ , n. Syn. careware .
chase pointers chase pointers 1. vi. To go through multiple levels of indirection, as in t...
chawmp chawmp : n. [University of Florida] 16 or 18 bits (half of a machine word)....
check check : n. A hardware-detected error condition, most commonly used to refer...
cheerfully cheerfully : adv. See happily .
chemist chemist : n. [Cambridge] Someone who wastes computer time on number-crunchi...
chicken head chicken head : n. [Commodore] The Commodore Business Machines logo, which s...
chickenboner chickenboner : n. [spamfighters] Derogatory term for a spammer. The image t...
chiclet keyboard chiclet keyboard : n. A keyboard with a small, flat rectangular or lozenge-...
choad choad : /chohd/ , n. Synonym for ‘penis’ used in alt.tasteless ...
choke choke : v. [common] To reject input, often ungracefully. “ NULs make ...
chomp chomp : vi. 1. To lose ; specifically, to chew on something of which more w...
chomper chomper : n. Someone or something that is chomping; a loser. See loser , ba...
chrome chrome : n. [from automotive slang via wargaming] Showy features added to a...
chug chug : vi. To run slowly; to grind or grovel . “ The disk is chugging...
clean clean 1. adj. Used of hardware or software designs, implies ‘elegance...
click of death click of death : n. A syndrome of certain Iomega ZIP drives, named for the ...
clobber clobber : vt. To overwrite, usually unintentionally: “ I walked off t...
clock clock n.,v. 1. [techspeak] The master oscillator that steps a CPU or other ...
clocks clocks : n. Processor logic cycles, so called because each generally corres...
clone-and-hack coding clone-and-hack coding : n. [DEC] Syn. case and paste .
clone clone : n. 1. An exact duplicate: “ Our product is a clone of their p...
clover key clover key : n. [Mac users] See feature key .
clue-by-four clue-by-four [Usenet: portmanteau, clue + two-by-four] The notional stick w...
clustergeeking clustergeeking : /kluh´st@r·gee`king/ , n. [CMU] Spending more time at a ...
co-lo co-lo : /koh´loh`/ , n. [very common; first heard c.1995] Short for ‘...
coaster coaster : n. 1. Unuseable CD produced during failed attempt at writing to w...
coaster toaster coaster toaster A writer for recordable CD-Rs, especially cheap IDE models ...
cobweb site cobweb site : n. A World Wide Web Site that hasn_t been updated so long it ...
code code 1. n. The stuff that software writers write, either in source form or ...
code grinder code grinder : n. 1. A suit -wearing minion of the sort hired in legion str...
code monkey code monkey : n 1. A person only capable of grinding out code, but unable t...
code police code police : n. [by analogy with George Orwell_s ‘thought policeR...
codes codes : n. [scientific computing] Programs. This usage is common in people ...
codewalker codewalker : n. A program component that traverses other programs for a liv...
coefficient of X coefficient of X : n. Hackish speech makes heavy use of pseudo-mathematical...
cokebottle cokebottle : /kohk´bot·l/ , n. Any very unusual character, particularly o...
cold boot cold boot : n. See boot .
comm mode comm mode : /kom mohd/ , n. [ITS: from the feature supporting on-line chat;...
command key command key : n. [Mac users] Syn. feature key .
comment out comment out : vt. To surround a section of code with comment delimiters or ...
compact compact : adj. Of a design, describes the valuable property that it can all...
compiler jock compiler jock : n. See jock (sense 2).
compo compo : n. [ demoscene ] Finnish-originated slang for ‘competition...
compress compress : vt. [Unix] When used without a qualifier, generally refers to cr...
computer confetti computer confetti : n. Syn. chad . [obs.] Though this term was common at on...
computron computron : /kom´pyoo·tron`/ , n. 1. [common] A notional unit of computin...
con con : n. [from SF fandom] A science-fiction convention. Not used of other s...
condition out condition out : vt. To prevent a section of code from being compiled by sur...
condom condom : n. 1. The protective plastic bag that accompanies 3.5-inch microfl...
confuser confuser : n. Common soundalike slang for ‘computer’. Usually e...
connector conspiracy connector conspiracy : n. [probably came into prominence with the appearanc...
cons cons : /konz/ , /kons/ [from LISP] 1. vt. To add a new element to a specifi...
considered harmful considered harmful : adj. [very common] Edsger W. Dijkstra_s note in the Ma...
console console : n. 1. The operator_s station of a mainframe . In times past, this...
console jockey console jockey : n. See terminal junkie .
content-free content-free : adj. [by analogy with techspeak context-free ] Used of a mes...
control-C control-C : vi. 1. “ Stop whatever you are doing. ” From the in...
control-O control-O : vi. “ Stop talking. ” From the character used on so...
control-Q control-Q : vi. “ Resume. ” From the ASCII DC1 or XON character...
control-S control-S : vi. “ Stop talking for a second. ” From the ASCII D...
cookbook cookbook : n. [from amateur electronics and radio] A book of small code seg...
cooked mode cooked mode : n. [Unix, by opposition from raw mode ] The normal character-...
cookie cookie : n. A handle, transaction ID, or other token of agreement between c...
cookie bear cookie bear : n. obs. Original term, pre-Sesame-Street, for what is now uni...
cookie file cookie file : n. A collection of fortune cookie s in a format that facilita...
cookie jar cookie jar : n. An area of memory set aside for storing cookie s. Most comm...
cookie monster cookie monster : n. [from the children_s TV program Sesame Street ] Any of ...
copious free time copious free time : n. [Apple; orig. fr. the intro to Tom Lehrer_s song It ...
copper copper : n. Conventional electron-carrying network cable with a core conduc...
copy protection copy protection : n. A class of methods for preventing incompetent pirates ...
copybroke copybroke : /kop´ee·brohk/ , adj. 1. [play on copyright ] Used to describ...
copycenter copycenter : n. [play on ‘copyright’ and ‘copyleft’...
copyleft copyleft : /kop´ee·left/ , n. [play on copyright ] 1. The copyright notic...
copyparty copyparty : n. [C64/amiga demoscene ] A computer party organized so demosce...
copywronged copywronged : /kop´ee·rongd/ , adj. [play on copyright ] Syn. for copybro...
core core : n. Main storage or RAM. Dates from the days of ferrite-core memory; ...
core cancer core cancer : n. [rare] A process that exhibits a slow but inexorable resou...
core dump core dump : n. [common Iron Age jargon, preserved by Unix] 1. [techspeak] A...
core leak core leak : n. Syn. memory leak .
cosmic rays cosmic rays : n. Notionally, the cause of bit rot . However, this is a semi...
cough and die cough and die : v. Syn. barf . Connotes that the program is throwing its ha...
courier courier [BBS & cracker cultures] A person who distributes newly cracked...
cow orker cow orker : n. [Usenet] n. fortuitous typo for co-worker, widely used in Us...
cowboy cowboy : n. [Sun, from William Gibson_s cyberpunk SF] Synonym for hacker . ...
crack crack [warez d00dz] 1. v. To break into a system (compare cracker ). 2. v. ...
crack root crack root : v. [very common] To defeat the security system of a Unix machi...
cracker cracker : n. One who breaks security on a system. Coined ca. 1985 by hacker...
cracking cracking : n. [very common] The act of breaking into a computer system; wha...
crank crank : vt. [from automotive slang] Verb used to describe the performance o...
crapplet crapplet : n. [portmanteau, crap + applet] A worthless applet, esp. a Java ...
crash crash 1. n. A sudden, usually drastic failure. Most often said of the syste...
crash and burn crash and burn : vi.,n. A spectacular crash, in the mode of the conclusion ...
crawling horror crawling horror : n. Ancient crufty hardware or software that is kept obsti...
creationism creationism : n. The (false) belief that large, innovative software designs...
creep creep : v. To advance, grow, or multiply inexorably. In hackish usage this ...
creeping elegance creeping elegance : n. Describes a tendency for parts of a design to become...
creeping featurism creeping featurism : /kree´ping fee´chr·izm/ , n. [common] 1. Describes ...
creeping featuritis creeping featuritis : /kree´ping fee_·chr·i:`t@s/ , n. Variant of creepi...
cretin cretin : /kret´in/ , /kree´tn/ , n. Congenital loser ; an obnoxious perso...
cretinous cretinous : /kret´n·@s/ , /kreet´n·@s/ , adj. Wrong; stupid; non-functi...
crippleware crippleware : n. 1. [common] Software that has some important functionality...
critical mass critical mass : n. In physics, the minimum amount of fissionable material r...
crlf crlf : /ker´l@f/ , /kru´l@f/ , /C·R·L·F/ , n. (often capitalized as &#...
crock crock : n. [from the American scatologism crock of shit ] 1. An awkward fea...
cross-post cross-post : vi. [Usenet; very common] To post a single article simultaneou...
crossload crossl