The Jargon File by Eric S. Raymond (sites to read books for free .TXT) 📖

that distribute the latest ware, or pirate

program. The whole point of the Warez sub-culture is to get the

pirate program released and distributed before any other group. I

know, I know. But don't ask, and it won't hurt as much. This is how

they prove their poweress [sic]. It gives them the right to say, "I

released King's Quest IVXIX before you so obviously my testicles

are larger." Again don't ask...

The studly thing to do if one is a warez d00d, it appears, is emit

`0-day warez', that is copies of commercial software copied and

cracked on the same day as its retail release. Warez d00ds also hoard

software in a big way, collecting untold megabytes of arcade-style

games, pornographic JPGs, and applications they'll never use onto

their hard disks. As Ozone Pilot acutely observes:

[BELONG] is the only word you will need to know. Warez d00dz want

to belong. They have been shunned by everyone, and thus turn to

cyberspace for acceptance. That is why they always start groups

like TGW, FLT, USA and the like. Structure makes them happy. [...]

Warez d00dz will never have a handle like "Pink Daisy" because

warez d00dz are insecure. Only someone who is very secure with a

good dose of self-esteem can stand up to the cries of fag and

girlie-man. More likely you will find warez d00dz with handles

like: Doctor Death, Deranged Lunatic, Hellraiser, Mad Prince,

Dreamdevil, The Unknown, Renegade Chemist, Terminator, and Twin

Turbo. They like to sound badass when they can hide behind their

terminals. More likely, if you were given a sample of 100 people,

the person whose handle is Hellraiser is the last person you'd

associate with the name.

The contrast with Internet hackers is stark and instructive. See

[14488]cracker, [14489]wannabee, [14490]handle, [14491]elite,

[14492]courier, [14493]leech; compare [14494]weenie, [14495]spod.

Node:warez kiddies, Next:[14496]warlording, Previous:[14497]warez

d00dz, Up:[14498]= W =

warez kiddies n.

Even more derogatory way of referring to [14499]warez d00dz; refers to

the fact that most warez d00dz are around the age of puberty. Compare

[14500]script kiddies.

Node:warlording, Next:[14501]warm boot, Previous:[14502]warez kiddies,

Up:[14503]= W =

warlording v.

[from the Usenet group alt.fan.warlord] The act of excoriating a

bloated, ugly, or derivative [14504]sig block. Common grounds for

warlording include the presence of a signature rendered in a

[14505]BUAF, over-used or cliched [14506]sig quotes, ugly [14507]ASCII

art, or simply excessive size. The original `Warlord' was a

[14508]B1FF-like [14509]newbie c.1991 who featured in his sig a

particularly large and obnoxious ASCII graphic resembling the sword of

Conan the Barbarian in the 1981 John Milius movie; the group name

alt.fan.warlord was sarcasm, and the characteristic mode of warlording

is devastatingly sarcastic praise.

Node:warm boot, Next:[14510]wart, Previous:[14511]warlording,

Up:[14512]= W =

warm boot n.

See [14513]boot.

Node:wart, Next:[14514]washing machine, Previous:[14515]warm boot,

Up:[14516]= W =

wart n.

A small, [14517]crocky [14518]feature that sticks out of an otherwise

[14519]clean design. Something conspicuous for localized ugliness,

especially a special-case exception to a general rule. For example, in

some versions of csh(1), single quotes literalize every character

inside them except !. In ANSI C, the ?? syntax used for obtaining

ASCII characters in a foreign environment is a wart. See also

[14520]miswart.

Node:washing machine, Next:[14521]washing software,

Previous:[14522]wart, Up:[14523]= W =

washing machine n.

Old-style 14-inch hard disks in floor-standing cabinets. So called

because of the size of the cabinet and the `top-loading' access to the

media packs -- and, of course, they were always set on `spin cycle'.

The washing-machine idiom transcends language barriers; it is even

used in Russian hacker jargon. See also [14524]walking drives. The

thick channel cables connecting these were called `bit hoses' (see

[14525]hose, sense 3). 2. [CMU] A machine used exclusively for

[14526]washing software. CMU has clusters of these.

Node:washing software, Next:[14527]water MIPS, Previous:[14528]washing

machine, Up:[14529]= W =

washing software n.

The process of recompiling a software distribution (used more often

when the recompilation is occuring from scratch) to pick up and merge

together all of the various changes that have been made to the source.

Node:water MIPS, Next:[14530]wave a dead chicken,

Previous:[14531]washing software, Up:[14532]= W =

water MIPS n.

(see [14533]MIPS, sense 2) Large, water-cooled machines of either

today's ECL-supercomputer flavor or yesterday's traditional

[14534]mainframe type.

Node:wave a dead chicken, Next:[14535]weasel, Previous:[14536]water

MIPS, Up:[14537]= W =

wave a dead chicken v.

To perform a ritual in the direction of crashed software or hardware

that one believes to be futile but is nevertheless necessary so that

others are satisfied that an appropriate degree of effort has been

expended. "I'll wave a dead chicken over the source code, but I really

think we've run into an OS bug." Compare [14538]voodoo programming,

[14539]rain dance; see also [14540]casting the runes.

Node:weasel, Next:[14541]web pointer, Previous:[14542]wave a dead

chicken, Up:[14543]= W =

weasel n.

[Cambridge] A naive user, one who deliberately or accidentally does

things that are stupid or ill-advised. Roughly synonymous with

[14544]loser.

Node:web pointer, Next:[14545]web toaster, Previous:[14546]weasel,

Up:[14547]= W =

web pointer n.

A World Wide Web [14548]URL. See also [14549]hotlink, which has

slightly different connotations.

Node:web toaster, Next:[14550]webify, Previous:[14551]web pointer,

Up:[14552]= W =

web toaster n.

A small specialized computer, shipped with no monitor or keyboard or

any other external peripherals, pre-configured to be controlled

through an Ethernet port and function as a WWW server. Products of

this kind (for example the Cobalt Qube) are often about the size of a

toaster. See [14553]toaster; compare [14554]video toaster.

Node:webify, Next:[14555]webmaster, Previous:[14556]web toaster,

Up:[14557]= W =

webify n.

To put a piece of (possibly already existing) material on the WWW.

Frequently used for papers ("Why don't you webify all your

publications?") or for demos ("They webified their 6.866 final

project"). This term seems to have been (rather logically)

independently invented multiple times in the early 1990s.

Node:webmaster, Next:[14558]web ring, Previous:[14559]webify,

Up:[14560]= W =

webmaster n.

[WWW: from [14561]postmaster] The person at a site providing World

Wide Web information who is responsible for maintaining the public

pages and keeping the Web server running and properly configured.

Node:web ring, Next:[14562]wedged, Previous:[14563]webmaster,

Up:[14564]= W =

web ring n.

Two or more web sites connected by prominent links between sites

sharing a common interest or theme. Usually such cliques have the

topology of a ring, in order to make it easy for visitors to navigate

through all of them.

Node:wedged, Next:[14565]wedgie, Previous:[14566]web ring, Up:[14567]=

W =

wedged adj.

To be stuck, incapable of proceeding without help. This is

different from having crashed. If the system has crashed, it has

become totally non-functioning. If the system is wedged, it is trying

to do something but cannot make progress; it may be capable of doing a

few things, but not be fully operational. For example, a process may

become wedged if it [14568]deadlocks with another (but not all

instances of wedging are deadlocks). See also [14569]gronk,

[14570]locked up, [14571]hosed, [14572]hung (wedged is more severe

than [14573]hung). 2. Often refers to humans suffering misconceptions.

"He's totally wedged -- he's convinced that he can levitate through

meditation." 3. [Unix] Specifically used to describe the state of a

TTY left in a losing state by abort of a screen-oriented program or

one that has messed with the line discipline in some obscure way.

There is some dispute over the origin of this term. It is usually

thought to derive from a common description of recto-cranial

inversion; however, it may actually have originated with older

`hot-press' printing technology in which physical type elements were

locked into type frames with wedges driven in by mallets. Once this

had been done, no changes in the typesetting for that page could be

made.

Node:wedgie, Next:[14574]wedgitude, Previous:[14575]wedged,

Up:[14576]= W =

wedgie n.

[Fairchild] A bug. Prob. related to [14577]wedged.

Node:wedgitude, Next:[14578]weeble, Previous:[14579]wedgie,

Up:[14580]= W =

wedgitude /wedj'i-t[y]ood/ n.

The quality or state of being [14581]wedged.

Node:weeble, Next:[14582]weeds, Previous:[14583]wedgitude, Up:[14584]=

W =

weeble /weeb'l/ interj.

[Cambridge] Used to denote frustration, usually at amazing stupidity.

"I stuck the disk in upside down." "Weeble...." Compare [14585]gurfle.

Node:weeds, Next:[14586]weenie, Previous:[14587]weeble, Up:[14588]= W

=

weeds n.

Refers to development projects or algorithms that have no possible

relevance or practical application. Comes from `off in the weeds'.

Used in phrases like "lexical analysis for microcode is serious

weeds...." 2. At CDC/ETA before its demise, the phrase `go off in the

weeds' was equivalent to IBM's [14589]branch to Fishkill and

mainstream hackerdom's [14590]jump off into never-never land.

Node:weenie, Next:[14591]Weenix, Previous:[14592]weeds, Up:[14593]= W

=

weenie n.

[on BBSes] Any of a species of luser resembling a less amusing

version of [14594]B1FF that infests many [14595]BBS systems. The

typical weenie is a teenage boy with poor social skills travelling

under a grandiose [14596]handle derived from fantasy or heavy-metal

rock lyrics. Among sysops, `the weenie problem' refers to the

marginally literate and profanity-laden [14597]flamage weenies tend to

spew all over a newly-discovered BBS. Compare [14598]spod,

[14599]computer geek, [14600]terminal junkie, [14601]warez d00dz. 2.

[Among hackers] When used with a qualifier (for example, as in

[14602]Unix weenie, VMS weenie, IBM weenie) this can be either an

insult or a term of praise, depending on context, tone of voice, and

whether or not it is applied by a person who considers him or herself

to be the same sort of weenie. Implies that the weenie has put a major

investment of time, effort, and concentration into the area indicated;

whether this is good or bad depends on the hearer's judgment of how

the speaker feels about that area. See also [14603]bigot. 3. The

semicolon character, ; (ASCII 0111011).

Node:Weenix, Next:[14604]well-behaved, Previous:[14605]weenie,

Up:[14606]= W =

Weenix /wee'niks/ n.

[ITS] A derogatory term for [14607]Unix, derived from [14608]Unix

weenie. According to one noted ex-ITSer, it is "the operating system

preferred by Unix Weenies: typified by poor modularity, poor

reliability, hard file deletion, no file version numbers, case

sensitivity everywhere, and users who believe that these are all

advantages". (Some ITS fans behave as though they believe Unix stole a

future that rightfully belonged to them. See [14609]ITS, sense 2.) 2.

[Brown University] A Unix-like OS developed for tutorial purposes at

Brown University. See

[14610]http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs167/weenix.html. Named

independently of the ITS usage.

Node:well-behaved, Next:[14611]well-connected, Previous:[14612]Weenix,

Up:[14613]= W =

well-behaved adj.

[primarily [14614]MS-DOS] Said of software conforming to system

interface guidelines and standards. Well-behaved software uses the

operating system to do chores such as keyboard input, allocating

memory and drawing graphics. Oppose [14615]ill-behaved. 2. Software

that does its job quietly and without counterintuitive effects. Esp.

said of software having an interface spec sufficiently simple and

well-defined that it can be used as a [14616]tool by other software.

See [14617]cat. 3. Said of an algorithm that doesn't [14618]crash or

[14619]blow up, even when given [14620]pathological input. Implies

that the stability of the algorithm is intrinsic, which makes this

somewhat different from [14621]bulletproof.

Node:well-connected, Next:[14622]wetware,

Previous:[14623]well-behaved, Up:[14624]= W =

well-connected adj.

Said of a computer installation, asserts that it has reliable email

links with the network and/or that it relays a large fraction of

available [14625]Usenet newsgroups. `Well-known' can be almost

synonymous, but also implies that the site's name is familiar to many

(due perhaps to an archive service or active Usenet users).

Node:wetware, Next:[14626]whack, Previous:[14627]well-connected,

Up:[14628]= W =

wetware /wet'weir/ n.

[prob. from the novels of Rudy Rucker] 1. The human nervous system, as

opposed to computer hardware or software. "Wetware has 7 plus or minus

2 temporary registers." 2. Human beings (programmers, operators,

administrators) attached to a computer system, as opposed to the

system's hardware or software. See [14629]liveware, [14630]meatware.

Node:whack, Next:[14631]whack-a-mole, Previous:[14632]wetware,

Up:[14633]= W =

whack v.

According to arch-hacker James Gosling (designer of [14634]NeWS,

[14635]GOSMACS and Java), to "...modify a program with no idea

whatsoever how it works." (See [14636]whacker.) It is actually

possible to do this in nontrivial circumstances if the change is small

and well-defined and you are very good at [14637]glarking things from

context. As a trivial example, it is relatively easy to change all

stderr writes to stdout writes in