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

emitted by

authority figures (or computers!); (c) a rule-governed mentality, one

unwilling or unable to look beyond the `letter of the law' in

exceptional situations; (d) a paralyzing fear of official reprimand or

worse if Procedures are not followed No Matter What; and (e) no

interest in doing anything above or beyond the call of a very

narrowly-interpreted duty, or in particular in fixing that which is

broken; an "It's not my job, man" attitude.

Typical droid positions include supermarket checkout assistant and

bank clerk; the syndrome is also endemic in low-level government

employees. The implication is that the rules and official procedures

constitute software that the droid is executing; problems arise when

the software has not been properly debugged. The term `droid

mentality' is also used to describe the mindset behind this behavior.

Compare [4243]suit, [4244]marketroid; see [4245]-oid.

In England there is equivalent mainstream slang; a `jobsworth' is an

obstructive, rule-following bureaucrat, often of the uniformed or

suited variety. Named for the habit of denying a reasonable request by

sucking his teeth and saying "Oh no, guv, sorry I can't help you:

that's more than my job's worth".

Node:drone, Next:[4246]drool-proof paper, Previous:[4247]droid,

Up:[4248]= D =

drone n.

Ignorant sales or customer service personnel in computer or

electronics superstores. Characterized by a lack of even superficial

knowledge about the products they sell, yet possessed of the

conviction that they are more competent than their hacker customers.

Usage: "That video board probably sucks, it was recommended by a drone

at Fry's" In the year 2000, their natural habitats include Fry's

Electronics, Best Buy, and CompUSA.

Node:drool-proof paper, Next:[4249]drop on the floor,

Previous:[4250]drone, Up:[4251]= D =

drool-proof paper n.

Documentation that has been obsessively [4252]dumbed down, to the

point where only a [4253]cretin could bear to read it, is said to have

succumbed to the drool-proof paper syndrome' or to have beenwritten

on drool-proof paper'. For example, this is an actual quote from

Apple's LaserWriter manual: "Do not expose your LaserWriter to open

fire or flame." The SGI Indy manual is said to include the line "Do

not dangle the mouse by the cord or throw it at coworkers.", but this

sounds like parody.

Node:drop on the floor, Next:[4254]drop-ins,

Previous:[4255]drool-proof paper, Up:[4256]= D =

drop on the floor vt.

To react to an error condition by silently discarding messages or

other valuable data. "The gateway ran out of memory, so it just

started dropping packets on the floor." Also frequently used of faulty

mail and netnews relay sites that lose messages. See also [4257]black

hole, [4258]bit bucket.

Node:drop-ins, Next:[4259]drop-outs, Previous:[4260]drop on the floor,

Up:[4261]= D =

drop-ins n.

[prob. by analogy with [4262]drop-outs] Spurious characters appearing

on a terminal or console as a result of line noise or a system

malfunction of some sort. Esp. used when these are interspersed with

one's own typed input. Compare [4263]drop-outs, sense 2.

Node:drop-outs, Next:[4264]drugged, Previous:[4265]drop-ins,

Up:[4266]= D =

drop-outs n.

A variety of `power glitch' (see [4267]glitch); momentary 0 voltage

on the electrical mains. 2. Missing characters in typed input due to

software malfunction or system saturation (one cause of such behavior

under Unix when a bad connection to a modem swamps the processor with

spurious character interrupts; see [4268]screaming tty). 3. Mental

glitches; used as a way of describing those occasions when the mind

just seems to shut down for a couple of beats. See [4269]glitch,

[4270]fried.

Node:drugged, Next:[4271]drum, Previous:[4272]drop-outs, Up:[4273]= D

=

drugged adj.

(also `on drugs') 1. Conspicuously stupid, heading toward

[4274]brain-damaged. Often accompanied by a pantomime of toking a

joint. 2. Of hardware, very slow relative to normal performance.

Node:drum, Next:[4275]drunk mouse syndrome, Previous:[4276]drugged,

Up:[4277]= D =

drum adj, n.

Ancient techspeak term referring to slow, cylindrical magnetic media

that were once state-of-the-art storage devices. Under BSD Unix the

disk partition used for swapping is still called /dev/drum; this has

led to considerable humor and not a few straight-faced but utterly

bogus `explanations' getting foisted on [4278]newbies. See also

"[4279]The Story of Mel" in Appendix A.

Node:drunk mouse syndrome, Next:[4280]dub dub dub,

Previous:[4281]drum, Up:[4282]= D =

drunk mouse syndrome n.

(also `mouse on drugs') A malady exhibited by the mouse pointing

device of some computers. The typical symptom is for the mouse cursor

on the screen to move in random directions and not in sync with the

motion of the actual mouse. Can usually be corrected by unplugging the

mouse and plugging it back again. Another recommended fix for optical

mice is to rotate your mouse pad 90 degrees.

At Xerox PARC in the 1970s, most people kept a can of copier cleaner

(isopropyl alcohol) at their desks. When the steel ball on the mouse

had picked up enough [4283]cruft to be unreliable, the mouse was

doused in cleaner, which restored it for a while. However, this

operation left a fine residue that accelerated the accumulation of

cruft, so the dousings became more and more frequent. Finally, the

mouse was declared `alcoholic' and sent to the clinic to be dried out

in a CFC ultrasonic bath.

Node:dub dub dub, Next:[4284]Duff's device, Previous:[4285]drunk mouse

syndrome, Up:[4286]= D =

dub dub dub

[common] Spoken-only shorthand for the "www" (double-u double-u

double-u) in many web host names. Nothing to do with the style of

reggae music called `dub'.

Node:Duff's device, Next:[4287]dumb terminal, Previous:[4288]dub dub

dub, Up:[4289]= D =

Duff's device n.

The most dramatic use yet seen of [4290]fall through in C, invented by

Tom Duff when he was at Lucasfilm. Trying to [4291]bum all the

instructions he could out of an inner loop that copied data serially

onto an output port, he decided to unroll it. He then realized that

the unrolled version could be implemented by interlacing the

structures of a switch and a loop:

register n = (count + 7) / 8; / count > 0 assumed /

switch (count % 8)

{

case 0: do { to = from++;

case 7: to = from++;

case 6: to = from++;

case 5: to = from++;

case 4: to = from++;

case 3: to = from++;

case 2: to = from++;

case 1: to = from++;

} while (--n > 0);

}

Shocking though it appears to all who encounter it for the first time,

the device is actually perfectly valid, legal C. C's default

[4292]fall through in case statements has long been its most

controversial single feature; Duff observed that "This code forms some

sort of argument in that debate, but I'm not sure whether it's for or

against." Duff has discussed the device in detail at

[4293]http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/duffs-device.html. Note that the

omission of postfix ++ from *to was intentional (though confusing).

Duff's device can be used to implement memory copy, but the original

aim was to copy values serially into a magic IO register.

[For maximal obscurity, the outermost pair of braces above could

actually be removed -- GLS]

Node:dumb terminal, Next:[4294]dumbass attack, Previous:[4295]Duff's

device, Up:[4296]= D =

dumb terminal n.

A terminal that is one step above a [4297]glass tty, having a

minimally addressable cursor but no on-screen editing or other

features normally supported by a [4298]smart terminal. Once upon a

time, when glass ttys were common and addressable cursors were

something special, what is now called a dumb terminal could pass for a

smart terminal.

Node:dumbass attack, Next:[4299]dumbed down, Previous:[4300]dumb

terminal, Up:[4301]= D =

dumbass attack /duhm'as *-tak'/ n.

[Purdue] Notional cause of a novice's mistake made by the experienced,

especially one made while running as [4302]root under Unix, e.g.,

typing rm -r * or mkfs on a mounted file system. Compare [4303]adger.

Node:dumbed down, Next:[4304]dump, Previous:[4305]dumbass attack,

Up:[4306]= D =

dumbed down adj.

Simplified, with a strong connotation of oversimplified. Often, a

[4307]marketroid will insist that the interfaces and documentation of

software be dumbed down after the designer has burned untold gallons

of midnight oil making it smart. This creates friction. See

[4308]user-friendly.

Node:dump, Next:[4309]dumpster diving, Previous:[4310]dumbed down,

Up:[4311]= D =

dump n.

An undigested and voluminous mass of information about a problem or

the state of a system, especially one routed to the slowest available

output device (compare [4312]core dump), and most especially one

consisting of hex or octal [4313]runes describing the byte-by-byte

state of memory, mass storage, or some file. In [4314]elder days,

debugging was generally done by `groveling over' a dump (see

[4315]grovel); increasing use of high-level languages and interactive

debuggers has made such tedium uncommon, and the term `dump' now has a

faintly archaic flavor. 2. A backup. This usage is typical only at

large timesharing installations.

Node:dumpster diving, Next:[4316]dup killer, Previous:[4317]dump,

Up:[4318]= D =

dumpster diving /dump'-ster di:'-ving/ n.

The practice of sifting refuse from an office or technical

installation to extract confidential data, especially

security-compromising information (`dumpster' is an Americanism for

what is elsewhere called a `skip'). Back in AT&T's monopoly days,

before paper shredders became common office equipment, phone phreaks

(see [4319]phreaking) used to organize regular dumpster runs against

phone company plants and offices. Discarded and damaged copies of AT&T

internal manuals taught them much. The technique is still rumored to

be a favorite of crackers operating against careless targets. 2. The

practice of raiding the dumpsters behind buildings where producers

and/or consumers of high-tech equipment are located, with the

expectation (usually justified) of finding discarded but

still-valuable equipment to be nursed back to health in some hacker's

den. Experienced dumpster-divers not infrequently accumulate basements

full of moldering (but still potentially useful) [4320]cruft.

Node:dup killer, Next:[4321]dup loop, Previous:[4322]dumpster diving,

Up:[4323]= D =

dup killer /d[y]oop kill'r/ n.

[FidoNet] Software that is supposed to detect and delete duplicates of

a message that may have reached the FidoNet system via different

routes.

Node:dup loop, Next:[4324]dusty deck, Previous:[4325]dup killer,

Up:[4326]= D =

dup loop /d[y]oop loop/ (also `dupe loop') n.

[FidoNet] An infinite stream of duplicated, near-identical messages on

a FidoNet [4327]echo, the only difference being unique or mangled

identification information applied by a faulty or incorrectly

configured system or network gateway, thus rendering [4328]dup killers

ineffective. If such a duplicate message eventually reaches a system

through which it has already passed (with the original identification

information), all systems passed on the way back to that system are

said to be involved in a [4329]dup loop.

Node:dusty deck, Next:[4330]DWIM, Previous:[4331]dup loop, Up:[4332]=

D =

dusty deck n.

Old software (especially applications) which one is obliged to remain

compatible with, or to maintain ([4333]DP types call this `legacy

code', a term hackers consider smarmy and excessively reverent). The

term implies that the software in question is a holdover from

card-punch days. Used esp. when referring to old scientific and

[4334]number-crunching software, much of which was written in FORTRAN

and very poorly documented but is believed to be too expensive to

replace. See [4335]fossil; compare [4336]crawling horror.

Node:DWIM, Next:[4337]dynner, Previous:[4338]dusty deck, Up:[4339]= D

=

DWIM /dwim/

[acronym, `Do What I Mean'] 1. adj. Able to guess, sometimes even

correctly, the result intended when bogus input was provided. 2. n.

obs. The BBNLISP/INTERLISP function that attempted to accomplish this

feat by correcting many of the more common errors. See [4340]hairy. 3.

Occasionally, an interjection hurled at a balky computer, esp. when

one senses one might be