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

n. Syn. [6896]home box. 2. The machine that receives your email. These

senses might be distinct, for example, for a hacker who owns one

computer at home, but reads email at work.

Node:home page, Next:[6897]honey pot, Previous:[6898]home machine,

Up:[6899]= H =

home page n.

One's personal billboard on the World Wide Web. The term `home

page' is perhaps a bit misleading because home directories and

physical homes in [6900]RL are private, but home pages are designed to

be very public. 2. By extension, a WWW repository for information and

links related to a project or organization. Compare [6901]home box.

Node:honey pot, Next:[6902]hook, Previous:[6903]home page, Up:[6904]=

H =

honey pot n.

A box designed to attract [6905]crackers so that they can be observed

in action. It is usually well isolated from the rest of the network,

but has extensive logging (usually network layer, on a different

machine). Different from an [6906]iron box in that it's purpose is to

attract, not merely observe. Sometimes, it is also a defensive network

security tactic - you set up an easy-to-crack box so that your real

servers don't get messed with. The concept was presented in Cheswick &

Bellovin's book "Firewalls and Internet Security".

Node:hook, Next:[6907]hop, Previous:[6908]honey pot, Up:[6909]= H =

hook n.

A software or hardware feature included in order to simplify later

additions or changes by a user. For example, a simple program that

prints numbers might always print them in base 10, but a more flexible

version would let a variable determine what base to use; setting the

variable to 5 would make the program print numbers in base 5. The

variable is a simple hook. An even more flexible program might examine

the variable and treat a value of 16 or less as the base to use, but

treat any other number as the address of a user-supplied routine for

printing a number. This is a [6910]hairy but powerful hook; one can

then write a routine to print numbers as Roman numerals, say, or as

Hebrew characters, and plug it into the program through the hook.

Often the difference between a good program and a superb one is that

the latter has useful hooks in judiciously chosen places. Both may do

the original job about equally well, but the one with the hooks is

much more flexible for future expansion of capabilities ([6911]EMACS,

for example, is all hooks). The term `user exit' is synonymous but

much more formal and less hackish.

Node:hop, Next:[6912]hose, Previous:[6913]hook, Up:[6914]= H =

hop

n. [common] One file transmission in a series required to get a

file from point A to point B on a store-and-forward network. On such

networks (including [6915]UUCPNET and [6916]FidoNet), an important

inter-machine metric is the number of hops in the shortest path

between them, which can be more significant than their geographical

separation. See [6917]bang path. 2. v. [rare] To log in to a remote

machine, esp. via rlogin or telnet. "I'll hop over to foovax to FTP

that."

Node:hose, Next:[6918]hosed, Previous:[6919]hop, Up:[6920]= H =

hose

vt. [common] To make non-functional or greatly degraded in

performance. "That big ray-tracing program really hoses the system."

See [6921]hosed. 2. n. A narrow channel through which data flows under

pressure. Generally denotes data paths that represent performance

bottlenecks. 3. n. Cabling, especially thick Ethernet cable. This is

sometimes called bit hose' orhosery' (play on `hosiery') or

`etherhose'. See also [6922]washing machine.

Node:hosed, Next:[6923]hot chat, Previous:[6924]hose, Up:[6925]= H =

hosed adj.

Same as [6926]down. Used primarily by Unix hackers. Humorous: also

implies a condition thought to be relatively easy to reverse. Probably

derived from the Canadian slang `hoser' popularized by the Bob and

Doug Mackenzie skits on SCTV, but this usage predated SCTV by years in

hackerdom (it was certainly already live at CMU in the 1970s). See

[6927]hose. It is also widely used of people in the mainstream sense

of `in an extremely unfortunate situation'.

Once upon a time, a Cray that had been experiencing periodic

difficulties crashed, and it was announced to have been hosed. It was

discovered that the crash was due to the disconnection of some coolant

hoses. The problem was corrected, and users were then assured that

everything was OK because the system had been rehosed. See also

[6928]dehose.

Node:hot chat, Next:[6929]hot spot, Previous:[6930]hosed, Up:[6931]= H

=

hot chat n.

Sexually explicit one-on-one chat. See [6932]teledildonics.

Node:hot spot, Next:[6933]hotlink, Previous:[6934]hot chat, Up:[6935]=

H =

hot spot n.

[primarily used by C/Unix programmers, but spreading] It is

received wisdom that in most programs, less than 10% of the code eats

90% of the execution time; if one were to graph instruction visits

versus code addresses, one would typically see a few huge spikes

amidst a lot of low-level noise. Such spikes are called `hot spots'

and are good candidates for heavy optimization or [6936]hand-hacking.

The term is especially used of tight loops and recursions in the

code's central algorithm, as opposed to (say) initial set-up costs or

large but infrequent I/O operations. See [6937]tune, [6938]bum,

[6939]hand-hacking. 2. The active location of a cursor on a bit-map

display. "Put the mouse's hot spot on the `ON' widget and click the

left button." 3. A screen region that is sensitive to mouse gestures,

which trigger some action. World Wide Web pages now provide the

[6940]canonical examples; WWW browsers present hypertext links as hot

spots which, when clicked on, point the browser at another document

(these are specifically called [6941]hotlinks). 4. In a massively

parallel computer with shared memory, the one location that all 10,000

processors are trying to read or write at once (perhaps because they

are all doing a [6942]busy-wait on the same lock). 5. More generally,

any place in a hardware design that turns into a performance

bottleneck due to resource contention.

Node:hotlink, Next:[6943]house wizard, Previous:[6944]hot spot,

Up:[6945]= H =

hotlink /hot'link/ n.

A [6946]hot spot on a World Wide Web page; an area, which, when

clicked or selected, chases a URL. Also spelled `hot link'. Use of

this term focuses on the link's role as an immediate part of your

display, as opposed to the timeless sense of logical connection

suggested by [6947]web pointer. Your screen shows hotlinks but your

document has web pointers, not (in normal usage) the other way around.

Node:house wizard, Next:[6948]HP-SUX, Previous:[6949]hotlink,

Up:[6950]= H =

house wizard n.

[prob. from ad-agency tradetalk, `house freak'] A hacker occupying a

technical-specialist, R&D, or systems position at a commercial shop. A

really effective house wizard can have influence out of all proportion

to his/her ostensible rank and still not have to wear a suit. Used

esp. of Unix wizards. The term `house guru' is equivalent.

Node:HP-SUX, Next:[6951]HTH, Previous:[6952]house wizard, Up:[6953]= H

=

HP-SUX /H-P suhks/ n.

Unflattering hackerism for HP-UX, Hewlett-Packard's Unix port, which

features some truly unique bogosities in the filesystem internals and

elsewhere (these occasionally create portability problems). HP-UX is

often referred to as `hockey-pux' inside HP, and one respondent claims

that the proper pronunciation is /H-P ukkkhhhh/ as though one were

about to spit. Another such alternate spelling and pronunciation is

"H-PUX" /H-puhks/. Hackers at HP/Apollo (the former Apollo Computers

which was swallowed by HP in 1989) have been heard to complain that

Mr. Packard should have pushed to have his name first, if for no other

reason than the greater eloquence of the resulting acronym. Compare

[6954]AIDX, [6955]buglix. See also [6956]Nominal Semidestructor,

[6957]Telerat, [6958]ScumOS, [6959]sun-stools, [6960]Slowlaris.

Node:HTH, Next:[6961]huff, Previous:[6962]HP-SUX, Up:[6963]= H =

HTH //

[Usenet: very common] Abbreviation: Hope This Helps (e.g. following a

response to a technical question). Often used just before [6964]HAND.

See also [6965]YHBT.

Node:huff, Next:[6966]humma, Previous:[6967]HTH, Up:[6968]= H =

huff v.

To compress data using a Huffman code. Various programs that use such

methods have been called `HUFF' or some variant thereof. Oppose

[6969]puff. Compare [6970]crunch, [6971]compress.

Node:humma, Next:[6972]hung, Previous:[6973]huff, Up:[6974]= H =

humma // excl.

A filler word used on various chat' andtalk' programs when you had

nothing to say but felt that it was important to say something. The

word apparently originated (at least with this definition) on the MECC

Timeshare System (MTS, a now-defunct educational time-sharing system

running in Minnesota during the 1970s and the early 1980s) but was

later sighted on early Unix systems. Compare the U.K's [6975]wibble.

Node:hung, Next:[6976]hungry puppy, Previous:[6977]humma, Up:[6978]= H

=

hung adj.

[from `hung up'; common] Equivalent to [6979]wedged, but more common

at Unix/C sites. Not generally used of people. Syn. with [6980]locked

up, [6981]wedged; compare [6982]hosed. See also [6983]hang. A hung

state is distinguished from [6984]crashed or [6985]down, where the

program or system is also unusable but because it is not running

rather than because it is waiting for something. However, the recovery

from both situations is often the same. It is also distinguished from

the similar but more drastic state [6986]wedged - hung software can be

woken up with easy things like interrupt keys, but wedged will need a

kill -9 or even reboot.

Node:hungry puppy, Next:[6987]hungus, Previous:[6988]hung, Up:[6989]=

H =

hungry puppy n.

Syn. [6990]slopsucker.

Node:hungus, Next:[6991]hyperspace, Previous:[6992]hungry puppy,

Up:[6993]= H =

hungus /huhng'g*s/ adj.

[perhaps related to slang `humongous'] Large, unwieldy, usually

unmanageable. "TCP is a hungus piece of code." "This is a hungus set

of modifications." The [6994]Infocom text adventure game "Beyond Zork"

included two monsters called hunguses.

Node:hyperspace, Next:[6995]hysterical reasons, Previous:[6996]hungus,

Up:[6997]= H =

hyperspace /hi:'per-spays/ n.

A memory location that is far away from where the program counter

should be pointing, especially a place that is inaccessible because it

is not even mapped in by the virtual-memory system. "Another core dump

-- looks like the program jumped off to hyperspace somehow." (Compare

[6998]jump off into never-never land.) This usage is from the SF

notion of a spaceship jumping `into hyperspace', that is, taking a

shortcut through higher-dimensional space -- in other words, bypassing

this universe. The variant `east hyperspace' is recorded among CMU and

Bliss hackers.

Node:hysterical reasons, Next:[6999]I didn't change anything!,

Previous:[7000]hyperspace, Up:[7001]= H =

hysterical reasons n.

(also `hysterical raisins') A variant on the stock phrase "for

historical reasons", indicating specifically that something must be

done in some stupid way for backwards compatibility, and moreover that

the feature it must be compatible with was the result of a bad design

in the first place. "All IBM PC video adapters have to support MDA

text mode for hysterical reasons." Compare [7002]bug-for-bug

compatible.

Node:= I =, Next:[7003]= J =, Previous:[7004]= H =, Up:[7005]The

Jargon Lexicon

= I =

[7006]I didn't change anything!:

[7007]I see no X here.:

[7008]IANAL:

[7009]IBM:

[7010]IBM discount:

[7011]ICBM address:

[7012]ice:

[7013]ID10T error:

[7014]idempotent:

[7015]IDP:

[7016]If you want X you know where to find it.:

[7017]ifdef out:

[7018]IIRC:

[7019]ill-behaved:

[7020]IMHO:

[7021]Imminent Death Of The Net Predicted!:

[7022]in the extreme:

[7023]inc:

[7024]incantation:

[7025]include:

[7026]include war:

[7027]indent style:

[7028]index of X:

[7029]infant mortality:

[7030]infinite:

[7031]infinite loop:

[7032]Infinite-Monkey Theorem:

[7033]infinity:

[7034]inflate:

[7035]Infocom:

[7036]initgame:

[7037]insanely great:

[7038]installfest:

[7039]INTERCAL:

[7040]interesting:

[7041]Internet:

[7042]Internet address:

[7043]Internet Death Penalty:

[7044]Internet Exploder:

[7045]Internet Exploiter:

[7046]interrupt:

[7047]interrupt list:

[7048]interrupts locked out:

[7049]intro:

[7050]IRC:

[7051]iron:

[7052]Iron Age:

[7053]iron box:

[7054]ironmonger:

[7055]ISO standard cup of tea:

[7056]ISP:

[7057]ITS:

[7058]IWBNI:

[7059]IYFEG:

Node:I didn't change anything!, Next:[7060]I see no X here.,

Previous:[7061]hysterical reasons, Up:[7062]= I =

I didn't change anything! interj.

An aggrieved cry often heard as bugs manifest during a regression

test. The [7063]canonical reply to this assertion is "Then it works

just the same as it did before, doesn't it?" See also [7064]one-line

fix. This is also heard from applications programmers trying to blame

an obvious applications problem on an unrelated systems software

change, for example a divide-by-0 fault after terminals were