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

so rapidly that it will soon overflow or at

least go [1578]nonlinear. 2. Syn. [1579]blow out.

Node:BLT, Next:[1580]Blue Book, Previous:[1581]blow up, Up:[1582]= B =

BLT /B-L-T/, /bl*t/ or (rarely) /belt/ n.,vt.

Synonym for [1583]blit. This is the original form of [1584]blit and

the ancestor of [1585]bitblt. It referred to any large bit-field copy

or move operation (one resource-intensive memory-shuffling operation

done on pre-paged versions of ITS, WAITS, and TOPS-10 was sardonically

referred to as `The Big BLT'). The jargon usage has outlasted the

[1586]PDP-10 BLock Transfer instruction from which [1587]BLT derives;

nowadays, the assembler mnemonic [1588]BLT almost always means `Branch

if Less Than zero'.

Node:Blue Book, Next:[1589]blue box, Previous:[1590]BLT, Up:[1591]= B

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Blue Book n.

Informal name for one of the four standard references on the

page-layout and graphics-control language [1592]PostScript

("PostScript Language Tutorial and Cookbook", Adobe Systems,

Addison-Wesley 1985, QA76.73.P67P68, ISBN 0-201-10179-3); the other

three official guides are known as the [1593]Green Book, the [1594]Red

Book, and the [1595]White Book (sense 2). 2. Informal name for one of

the three standard references on Smalltalk: "Smalltalk-80: The

Language and its Implementation", David Robson, Addison-Wesley 1983,

QA76.8.S635G64, ISBN 0-201-11371-63 (this book also has green and red

siblings). 3. Any of the 1988 standards issued by the CCITT's ninth

plenary assembly. These include, among other things, the X.400 email

spec and the Group 1 through 4 fax standards. See also [1596]book

titles.

Node:blue box, Next:[1597]Blue Glue, Previous:[1598]Blue Book,

Up:[1599]= B =

blue box

n. 1. obs. Once upon a time, before all-digital switches made it

possible for the phone companies to move them out of band, one could

actually hear the switching tones used to route long-distance calls.

Early [1600]phreakers built devices called `blue boxes' that could

reproduce these tones, which could be used to commandeer portions of

the phone network. (This was not as hard as it may sound; one early

phreak acquired the sobriquet `Captain Crunch' after he proved that he

could generate switching tones with a plastic whistle pulled out of a

box of Captain Crunch cereal!) There were other colors of box with

more specialized phreaking uses; red boxes, black boxes, silver boxes,

etc. 2. n. An [1601]IBM machine, especially a large (non-PC) one.

Node:Blue Glue, Next:[1602]blue goo, Previous:[1603]blue box,

Up:[1604]= B =

Blue Glue n.

[IBM] IBM's SNA (Systems Network Architecture), an incredibly

[1605]losing and [1606]bletcherous communications protocol widely

favored at commercial shops that don't know any better. The official

IBM definition is "that which binds blue boxes together." See

[1607]fear and loathing. It may not be irrelevant that Blue Glue is

the trade name of a 3M product that is commonly used to hold down the

carpet squares to the removable panel floors common in [1608]dinosaur

pens. A correspondent at U. Minn. reports that the CS department there

has about 80 bottles of the stuff hanging about, so they often refer

to any messy work to be done as `using the blue glue'.

Node:blue goo, Next:[1609]Blue Screen of Death, Previous:[1610]Blue

Glue, Up:[1611]= B =

blue goo n.

Term for `police' [1612]nanobots intended to prevent [1613]gray goo,

denature hazardous waste, destroy pollution, put ozone back into the

stratosphere, prevent halitosis, and promote truth, justice, and the

American way, etc. The term `Blue Goo' can be found in Dr. Seuss's

"Fox In Socks" to refer to a substance much like bubblegum. `Would you

like to chew blue goo, sir?'. See [1614]nanotechnology.

Node:Blue Screen of Death, Next:[1615]blue wire, Previous:[1616]blue

goo, Up:[1617]= B =

Blue Screen of Death n.

[common] This term is closely related to the older [1618]Black Screen

of Death but much more common (many non-hackers have picked it up).

Due to the extreme fragility and bugginess of Microsoft Windows

misbehaving applications can readily crash the OS (and the OS

sometimes crashes itself spontaneously). The Blue Screen of Death,

sometimes decorated with hex error codes, is what you get when this

happens. (Commonly abbreviated [1619]BSOD.)

The following entry from the [1620]Salon Haiku Contest, seems to have

predated popular use of the term:

Windows NT crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death No one hears your screams.

Node:blue wire, Next:[1621]blurgle, Previous:[1622]Blue Screen of

Death, Up:[1623]= B =

blue wire n.

[IBM] Patch wires (esp. 30 AWG gauge) added to circuit boards at the

factory to correct design or fabrication problems. Blue wire is not

necessarily blue, the term describes function rather than color. These

may be necessary if there hasn't been time to design and qualify

another board version. In Great Britain this can be `bodge wire',

after mainstreanm slang `bodge' for a clumsy improvisation or sloppy

job of work. Compare [1624]purple wire, [1625]red wire, [1626]yellow

wire, [1627]pink wire.

Node:blurgle, Next:[1628]BNF, Previous:[1629]blue wire, Up:[1630]= B =

blurgle /bler'gl/ n.

[UK] Spoken [1631]metasyntactic variable, to indicate some text that

is obvious from context, or which is already known. If several words

are to be replaced, blurgle may well be doubled or tripled. "To look

for something in several files use `grep string blurgle blurgle'." In

each case, "blurgle blurgle" would be understood to be replaced by the

file you wished to search. Compare [1632]mumble, sense 7.

Node:BNF, Next:[1633]boa, Previous:[1634]blurgle, Up:[1635]= B =

BNF /B-N-F/ n.

[techspeak] Acronym for `Backus Normal Form' (later retronymed to

`Backus-Naur Form' because BNF was not in fact a normal form), a

metasyntactic notation used to specify the syntax of programming

languages, command sets, and the like. Widely used for language

descriptions but seldom documented anywhere, so that it must usually

be learned by osmosis from other hackers. Consider this BNF for a U.S.

postal address:

::=

::= | "."

::= []

| <personal-part> <name-part>

::= []

::= ","

This translates into English as: "A postal-address consists of a

name-part, followed by a street-address part, followed by a zip-code

part. A personal-part consists of either a first name or an initial

followed by a dot. A name-part consists of either: a personal-part

followed by a last name followed by an optional `jr-part' (Jr., Sr.,

or dynastic number) and end-of-line, or a personal part followed by a

name part (this rule illustrates the use of recursion in BNFs,

covering the case of people who use multiple first and middle names

and/or initials). A street address consists of an optional apartment

specifier, followed by a street number, followed by a street name. A

zip-part consists of a town-name, followed by a comma, followed by a

state code, followed by a ZIP-code followed by an end-of-line." Note

that many things (such as the format of a personal-part, apartment

specifier, or ZIP-code) are left unspecified. These are presumed to be

obvious from context or detailed somewhere nearby. See also

[1636]parse. 2. Any of a number of variants and extensions of BNF

proper, possibly containing some or all of the [1637]regexp wildcards

such as * or +. In fact the example above isn't the pure form invented

for the Algol-60 report; it uses [], which was introduced a few years

later in IBM's PL/I definition but is now universally recognized. 3.

In [1638]science-fiction fandom, a `Big-Name Fan' (someone famous or

notorious). Years ago a fan started handing out black-on-green BNF

buttons at SF conventions; this confused the hacker contingent

terribly.

Node:boa, Next:[1639]board, Previous:[1640]BNF, Up:[1641]= B =

boa [IBM] n.

Any one of the fat cables that lurk under the floor in a

[1642]dinosaur pen. Possibly so called because they display a

ferocious life of their own when you try to lay them straight and flat

after they have been coiled for some time. It is rumored within IBM

that channel cables for the 370 are limited to 200 feet because beyond

that length the boas get dangerous -- and it is worth noting that one

of the major cable makers uses the trademark `Anaconda'.

Node:board, Next:[1643]boat anchor, Previous:[1644]boa, Up:[1645]= B =

board n.

In-context synonym for [1646]bboard; sometimes used even for Usenet

newsgroups (but see usage note under [1647]bboard, sense 1). 2. An

electronic circuit board.

Node:boat anchor, Next:[1648]bob, Previous:[1649]board, Up:[1650]= B =

boat anchor n.

[common; from ham radio] 1. Like [1651]doorstop but more severe;

implies that the offending hardware is irreversibly dead or useless.

"That was a working motherboard once. One lightning strike later,

instant boat anchor!" 2. A person who just takes up space. 3. Obsolete

but still working hardware, especially when used of an old S100-bus

hobbyist system; originally a term of annoyance, but became more and

more affectionate as the hardware became more and more obsolete.

Node:bob, Next:[1652]bodysurf code, Previous:[1653]boat anchor,

Up:[1654]= B =

bob n.

At [1655]Demon Internet, all tech support personnel are called "Bob".

(Female support personnel have an option on "Bobette"). This has

nothing to do with Bob the divine drilling-equipment salesman of the

[1656]Church of the SubGenius. Nor is it acronymized from "Brother Of

[1657]BOFH", though all parties agree it could have been. Rather, it

was triggered by an unusually large draft of new tech-support people

in 1995. It was observed that there would be much duplication of

names. To ease the confusion, it was decided that all support techs

would henceforth be known as "Bob", and identity badges were created

labelled "Bob 1" and "Bob 2". ("No, we never got any further" reports

a witness).

The reason for "Bob" rather than anything else is due to a [1658]luser

calling and asking to speak to "Bob", despite the fact that no "Bob"

was currently working for Tech Support. Since we all know "the

customer is always right", it was decided that there had to be at

least one "Bob" on duty at all times, just in case.

This sillyness inexorably snowballed. Shift leaders and managers began

to refer to their groups of "bobs". Whole ranks of support machines

were set up (and still exist in the DNS as of 1999) as bob1 through

bobN. Then came alt.tech-support.recovery, and it was filled with

Demon support personnel. They all referred to themselves, and to

others, as `bob', and after a while it caught on. There is now a

[1659]Bob Code describing the Bob nature.

Node:bodysurf code, Next:[1660]BOF, Previous:[1661]bob, Up:[1662]= B =

bodysurf code n.

A program or segment of code written quickly in the heat of

inspiration without the benefit of formal design or deep thought. Like

its namesake sport, the result is too often a wipeout that leaves the

programmer eating sand.

Node:BOF, Next:[1663]BOFH, Previous:[1664]bodysurf code, Up:[1665]= B

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BOF /B-O-F/ or /bof/ n.

[common] Abbreviation for the phrase "Birds Of a Feather" (flocking

together), an informal discussion group and/or bull session scheduled

on a conference program. It is not clear where or when this term

originated, but it is now associated with the USENIX conferences for

Unix techies and was already established there by 1984. It was used

earlier than that at DECUS conferences and is reported to have been

common at SHARE meetings as far back as the early 1960s. 2. Acronym,

`Beginning of File'.

Node:BOFH, Next:[1666]bogo-sort, Previous:[1667]BOF, Up:[1668]= B =

BOFH // n.

[common] Acronym, Bastard Operator From Hell. A system administrator

with absolutely no tolerance for [1669]lusers. "You say you need more

filespace? Seems to me you have plenty

left..." Many BOFHs (and others who would be BOFHs if they could get

away with it) hang out in the newsgroup alt.sysadmin.recovery,

although there has also been created a top-level newsgroup hierarchy

(bofh.*) of their own.

Several people have written stories about BOFHs. The set usually

considered canonical is by Simon Travaglia and may be found at the

[1670]Bastard Home Page. BOFHs and BOFH wannabes hang out on

[1671]scary devil monastery and wield [1672]LARTs.

Node:bogo-sort, Next:[1673]bogometer, Previous:[1674]BOFH, Up:[1675]=

B =

bogo-sort /boh`goh-sort'/ n.

(var. `stupid-sort') The archetypical perversely awful algorithm (as

opposed to [1676]bubble sort, which is merely the generic bad

algorithm). Bogo-sort is equivalent to repeatedly throwing a deck