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

[5528]friode, [5529]SED and [5530]LER. However,

this term is also used metaphorically.) Compare [5531]frotzed. 2.

[common] Of people, exhausted. Said particularly of those who continue

to work in such a state. Often used as an explanation or excuse.

"Yeah, I know that fix destroyed the file system, but I was fried when

I put it in." Esp. common in conjunction with `brain': "My brain is

fried today, I'm very short on sleep."

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frink /frink/ v.

The unknown ur-verb, fill in your own meaning. Found esp. on the

Usenet newsgroup alt.fan.lemurs, where it is said that the lemurs know

what `frink' means, but they aren't telling. Compare [5535]gorets.

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friode /fri:'ohd/ n.

[TMRC] A reversible (that is, fused or blown) diode. Compare

[5539]fried; see also [5540]SED, [5541]LER.

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fritterware n.

An excess of capability that serves no productive end. The canonical

example is font-diddling software on the Mac (see [5545]macdink); the

term describes anything that eats huge amounts of time for quite

marginal gains in function but seduces people into using it anyway.

See also [5546]window shopping.

Node:frob, Next:[5547]frobnicate, Previous:[5548]fritterware,

Up:[5549]= F =

frob /frob/ 1. n.

[MIT; very common] The [5550]TMRC definition was "FROB = a protruding

arm or trunnion"; by metaphoric extension, a `frob' is any random

small thing; an object that you can comfortably hold in one hand;

something you can frob (sense 2). See [5551]frobnitz. 2. vt.

Abbreviated form of [5552]frobnicate. 3. [from the [5553]MUD world] A

command on some MUDs that changes a player's experience level (this

can be used to make wizards); also, to request [5554]wizard privileges

on the `professional courtesy' grounds that one is a wizard elsewhere.

The command is actually `frobnicate' but is universally abbreviated to

the shorter form.

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frobnicate /frob'ni-kayt/ vt.

[Poss. derived from [5558]frobnitz, and usually abbreviated to

[5559]frob, but `frobnicate' is recognized as the official full form.]

To manipulate or adjust, to tweak. One frequently frobs bits or other

2-state devices. Thus: "Please frob the light switch" (that is, flip

it), but also "Stop frobbing that clasp; you'll break it". One also

sees the construction `to frob a frob'. See [5560]tweak and

[5561]twiddle.

Usage: frob, twiddle, and tweak sometimes connote points along a

continuum. Frob' connotes aimless manipulation;twiddle' connotes

gross manipulation, often a coarse search for a proper setting;

`tweak' connotes fine-tuning. If someone is turning a knob on an

oscilloscope, then if he's carefully adjusting it, he is probably

tweaking it; if he is just turning it but looking at the screen, he is

probably twiddling it; but if he's just doing it because turning a

knob is fun, he's frobbing it. The variant `frobnosticate' has been

recently reported.

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frobnitz /frob'nits/, pl. frobnitzem' /frob'nit-zm/ orfrobni'

/frob'ni:/ n.

[TMRC] An unspecified physical object, a widget. Also refers to

electronic black boxes. This rare form is usually abbreviated to

frotz', or more commonly to [5565]frob. Also used arefrobnule'

(/frob'n[y]ool/) and `frobule' (/frob'yool/). Starting perhaps in

1979, frobozz' /fr*-boz'/ (plural:frobbotzim' /fr*-bot'zm/) has

also become very popular, largely through its exposure as a name via

[5566]Zork. These variants can also be applied to nonphysical objects,

such as data structures.

Pete Samson, compiler of the original [5567]TMRC lexicon, adds, "Under

the TMRC [railroad] layout were many storage boxes, managed (in 1958)

by David R. Sawyer. Several had fanciful designations written on them,

such as `Frobnitz Coil Oil'. Perhaps DRS intended Frobnitz to be a

proper name, but the name was quickly taken for the thing". This was

almost certainly the origin of the term.

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frog alt. `phrog'

interj. Term of disgust (we seem to have a lot of them). 2. Used as

a name for just about anything. See [5571]foo. 3. n. Of things, a

crock. 4. n. Of people, somewhere in between a turkey and a toad. 5.

`froggy': adj. Similar to [5572]bagbiting, but milder. "This froggy

program is taking forever to run!"

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frogging [University of Waterloo] v.

Partial corruption of a text file or input stream by some bug or

consistent glitch, as opposed to random events like line noise or

media failures. Might occur, for example, if one bit of each incoming

character on a tty were stuck, so that some characters were correct

and others were not. See [5576]terminak for a historical example and

compare [5577]dread high-bit disease. 2. By extension, accidental

display of text in a mode where the output device emits special

symbols or mnemonics rather than conventional ASCII. This often

happens, for example, when using a terminal or comm program on a

device like an IBM PC with a special `high-half' character set and

with the bit-parity assumption wrong. A hacker sufficiently familiar

with ASCII bit patterns might be able to read the display anyway.

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front end n.

An intermediary computer that does set-up and filtering for another

(usually more powerful but less friendly) machine (a `back end'). 2.

What you're talking to when you have a conversation with someone who

is making replies without paying attention. "Look at the dancing

elephants!" "Uh-huh." "Do you know what I just said?" "Sorry, you were

talking to the front end." 3. Software that provides an interface to

another program `behind' it, which may not be as user-friendly.

Probably from analogy with hardware front-ends (see sense 1) that

interfaced with mainframes.

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frotz /frots/

n. See [5584]frobnitz. 2. `mumble frotz': An interjection of

mildest disgust.

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frotzed /frotst/ adj.

[5588]down because of hardware problems. Compare [5589]fried. A

machine that is merely frotzed may be fixable without replacing parts,

but a fried machine is more seriously damaged.

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frowney n.

(alt. `frowney face') See [5593]emoticon.

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FRS // n.,obs.

Abbreviation for "Freely Redistributable Software" which entered

general use on the Internet in 1995 after years of low-level confusion

over what exactly to call software written to be passed around and

shared (contending terms including [5597]freeware, [5598]shareware,

and `sourceware' were never universally felt to be satisfactory for

various subtle reasons). The first formal conference on freely

redistributable software was held in Cambridge, Massachussetts, in

February 1996 (sponsored by the Free Software Foundation). The

conference organizers used the FRS abbreviation heavily in its calls

for papers and other literature during 1995. The term was in steady

though not common use until 1998 and the invention of [5599]open

source.

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fry

vi. To fail. Said especially of smoke-producing hardware failures.

More generally, to become non-working. Usage: never said of software,

only of hardware and humans. See [5603]fried, [5604]magic smoke. 2.

vt. To cause to fail; to [5605]roach, [5606]toast, or [5607]hose a

piece of hardware. Never used of software or humans, but compare

[5608]fried.

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fscking /fus'-king/ or /eff'-seek-ing/ adj.

[Usenet; common] Fucking, in the expletive sense (it refers to the

Unix filesystem-repair command fsck(1), of which it can be said that

if you have to use it at all you are having a bad day). Originated on

[5612]scary devil monastery and the bofh.net newsgroups, but became

much more widespread following the passage of [5613]CDA. Also

occasionally seen in the variant "What the fsck?"

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FSF /F-S-F/ abbrev.

Common abbreviation (both spoken and written) for the name of the Free

Software Foundation, a nonprofit educational association formed to

support the [5617]GNU project.

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FTP /F-T-P/, not /fit'ip/

[techspeak] n. The File Transfer Protocol for transmitting files

between systems on the Internet. 2. vt. To [5621]beam a file using the

File Transfer Protocol. 3. Sometimes used as a generic even for file

transfers not using [5622]FTP. "Lemme get a copy of "Wuthering

Heights" ftp'd from uunet."

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-fu

[common; generalized from `kung-fu'] Combining form denoting expert

practice of a skill. "That's going to take some serious code-fu."

First sighted in connection with the GIMP's remote-scripting facility,

script-fu, in 1998.

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FUBAR n.

The Failed UniBus Address Register in a VAX. A good example of how

jargon can occasionally be snuck past the [5629]suits; see

[5630]foobar, and [5631]foo for a fuller etymology.

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fuck me harder excl.

Sometimes uttered in response to egregious misbehavior, esp. in

software, and esp. of misbehaviors which seem unfairly persistent (as

though designed in by the imp of the perverse). Often theatrically

elaborated: "Aiighhh! Fuck me with a piledriver and 16 feet of

curare-tipped wrought-iron fence and no lubricants!" The phrase is

sometimes heard abbreviated `FMH' in polite company.

[This entry is an extreme example of the hackish habit of coining

elaborate and evocative terms for lossage. Here we see a quite

self-conscious parody of mainstream expletives that has become a

running gag in part of the hacker culture; it illustrates the hackish

tendency to turn any situation, even one of extreme frustration, into

an intellectual game (the point being, in this case, to creatively

produce a long-winded description of the most anatomically absurd

mental image possible -- the short forms implicitly allude to all the

ridiculous long forms ever spoken). Scatological language is actually

relatively uncommon among hackers, and there was some controversy over

whether this entry ought to be included at all. As it reflects a live

usage recognizably peculiar to the hacker culture, we feel it is in

the hackish spirit of truthfulness and opposition to all forms of

censorship to record it here. --ESR & GLS]

Node:FUD, Next:[5635]FUD wars, Previous:[5636]fuck me harder,

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FUD /fuhd/ n.

Defined by Gene Amdahl after he left IBM to found his own company:

"FUD is the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that IBM sales people instill

in the minds of potential customers who might be considering [Amdahl]

products." The idea, of course, was to persuade them to go with safe

IBM gear rather than with competitors' equipment. This implicit

coercion was traditionally accomplished by promising that Good Things

would happen to people who stuck with IBM, but Dark Shadows loomed

over the future of competitors' equipment or software. See [5638]IBM.

After 1990 the term FUD was associated increasingly frequently with

[5639]Microsoft, and has become generalized to refer to any kind of

disinformation used as a competitive weapon.

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FUD wars /fuhd worz/ n.

[from [5643]FUD] Political posturing engaged in by hardware and

software vendors ostensibly committed to standardization but actually

willing to fragment the market to protect their own shares. The Unix

International vs. OSF conflict about Unix standards was one

outstanding example; Microsoft vs. Netscape vs. W3C about HTML

standards is another.

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fudge

vt. To perform in an incomplete but marginally acceptable way,

particularly with respect to the writing of a program. "I didn't feel

like going through that pain and suffering, so I fudged it -- I'll fix

it later." 2. n. The resulting code.

Node:fudge factor, Next:[5647]fuel up, Previous:[5648]fudge,

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fudge factor n.

[common] A value or parameter that is varied in an ad hoc way to

produce the desired result. The terms `tolerance' and [5650]slop are

also used, though these usually indicate a one-sided leeway, such as a

buffer that is made larger than necessary because one isn't sure

exactly how large it needs to be, and it is better to waste a little

space than to lose completely for not having enough. A fudge factor,

on the other hand, can often be tweaked in more than one direction.