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

and later considerably enhanced by Andries

Brouwer, were simply called `hack'. The name changed when maintenance

was taken over by a group of hackers originally organized by Mike

Stephenson. There is now an official site one at

[9342]http://www.nethack.org/. See also [9343]moria, [9344]rogue,

[9345]Angband.

Node:netiquette, Next:[9346]netlag, Previous:[9347]nethack, Up:[9348]=

N =

netiquette /net'ee-ket/ or /net'i-ket/ n.

[portmanteau, network + etiquette] The conventions of politeness

recognized on [9349]Usenet, such as avoidance of cross-posting to

inappropriate groups and refraining from commercial pluggery outside

the biz groups.

Node:netlag, Next:[9350]netnews, Previous:[9351]netiquette, Up:[9352]=

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netlag n.

[IRC, MUD] A condition that occurs when the delays in the [9353]IRC

network or on a [9354]MUD become severe enough that servers briefly

lose and then reestablish contact, causing messages to be delivered in

bursts, often with delays of up to a minute. (Note that this term has

nothing to do with mainstream "jet lag", a condition which hackers

tend not to be much bothered by.) Often shortened to just `lag'.

Node:netnews, Next:[9355]netrock, Previous:[9356]netlag, Up:[9357]= N

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netnews /net'n[y]ooz/ n.

The software that makes [9358]Usenet run. 2. The content of Usenet.

"I read netnews right after my mail most mornings."

Node:netrock, Next:[9359]Netscrape, Previous:[9360]netnews, Up:[9361]=

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netrock /net'rok/ n.

[IBM] A [9362]flame; used esp. on VNET, IBM's internal corporate

network.

Node:Netscrape, Next:[9363]netsplit, Previous:[9364]netrock,

Up:[9365]= N =

Netscrape n.

[sometimes elaborated to Netscrape Fornicator', alsoNutscrape']

Standard name-of-insult for Netscape Navigator/Communicator,

Netscape's overweight Web browser. Compare [9366]Internet Exploiter.

Node:netsplit, Next:[9367]netter, Previous:[9368]Netscrape, Up:[9369]=

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netsplit n.

Syn. [9370]netburp.

Node:netter, Next:[9371]network address, Previous:[9372]netsplit,

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netter n.

Loosely, anyone with a [9374]network address. 2. More specifically,

a [9375]Usenet regular. Most often found in the plural. "If you post

that in a technical group, you're going to be flamed by angry netters

for the rest of time!"

Node:network address, Next:[9376]network meltdown,

Previous:[9377]netter, Up:[9378]= N =

network address n.

(also net address') As used by hackers, means an address onthe'

network (see [9379]the network; this used to include [9380]bang path

addresses but now almost always implies an [9381]Internet address).

Net addresses are often used in email text as a more concise

substitute for personal names; indeed, hackers may come to know each

other quite well by network names without ever learning each others'

`legal' monikers. Indeed, display of a network address (e.g on

business cards) used to function as an important hacker identification

signal, like lodge pins among Masons or tie-dyed T-shirts among

Grateful Dead fans. In the day of pervasive Internet this is less

true, but you can still be fairly sure that anyone with a network

address handwritten on his or her convention badge is a hacker.

Node:network meltdown, Next:[9382]New Jersey, Previous:[9383]network

address, Up:[9384]= N =

network meltdown n.

A state of complete network overload; the network equivalent of

[9385]thrashing. This may be induced by a [9386]Chernobyl packet. See

also [9387]broadcast storm, [9388]kamikaze packet.

Network meltdown is often a result of network designs that are

optimized for a steady state of moderate load and don't cope well with

the very jagged, bursty usage patterns of the real world. One amusing

instance of this is triggered by the popular and very bloody

shoot-'em-up game Doom on the PC. When used in multiplayer mode over a

network, the game uses broadcast packets to inform other machines when

bullets are fired. This causes problems with weapons like the chain

gun which fire rapidly -- it can blast the network into a meltdown

state just as easily as it shreds opposing monsters.

Node:New Jersey, Next:[9389]New Testament, Previous:[9390]network

meltdown, Up:[9391]= N =

New Jersey adj.

[primarily Stanford/Silicon Valley] Brain-damaged or of poor design.

This refers to the allegedly wretched quality of such software as C,

C++, and Unix (which originated at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New

Jersey). "This compiler bites the bag, but what can you expect from a

compiler designed in New Jersey?" Compare [9392]Berkeley Quality

Software. See also [9393]Unix conspiracy.

Node:New Testament, Next:[9394]newbie, Previous:[9395]New Jersey,

Up:[9396]= N =

New Testament n.

[C programmers] The second edition of K&R's "The C Programming

Language" (Prentice-Hall, 1988; ISBN 0-13-110362-8), describing ANSI

Standard C. See [9397]K&R; this version is also called `K&R2'.

Node:newbie, Next:[9398]newgroup wars, Previous:[9399]New Testament,

Up:[9400]= N =

newbie /n[y]oo'bee/ n.

[verry common; orig. from British public-school and military slang

variant of `new boy'] A Usenet neophyte. This term surfaced in the

[9401]newsgroup talk.bizarre but is now in wide use (the combination

"clueless newbie" is especially common). Criteria for being considered

a newbie vary wildly; a person can be called a newbie in one newsgroup

while remaining a respected regular in another. The label `newbie' is

sometimes applied as a serious insult to a person who has been around

Usenet for a long time but who carefully hides all evidence of having

a clue. See [9402]B1FF; see also [9403]gnubie.

Node:newgroup wars, Next:[9404]newline, Previous:[9405]newbie,

Up:[9406]= N =

newgroup wars /n[y]oo'groop worz/ n.

[Usenet] The salvos of dueling newgroup and rmgroup messages sometimes

exchanged by persons on opposite sides of a dispute over whether a

[9407]newsgroup should be created net-wide, or (even more frequently)

whether an obsolete one should be removed. These usually settle out

within a week or two as it becomes clear whether the group has a

natural constituency (usually, it doesn't). At times, especially in

the completely anarchic alt hierarchy, the names of newsgroups

themselves become a form of comment or humor; e.g., the group

alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork which originated as a birthday joke

for a Muppets fan, or any number of specialized abuse groups named

after particularly notorious [9408]flamers, e.g., alt.weemba.

Node:newline, Next:[9409]NeWS, Previous:[9410]newgroup wars,

Up:[9411]= N =

newline /n[y]oo'li:n/ n.

[techspeak, primarily Unix] The ASCII LF character (0001010), used

under [9412]Unix as a text line terminator. Though the term `newline'

appears in ASCII standards, it never caught on in the general

computing world before Unix. 2. More generally, any magic character,

character sequence, or operation (like Pascal's writeln procedure)

required to terminate a text record or separate lines. See [9413]crlf,

[9414]terpri.

Node:NeWS, Next:[9415]newsfroup, Previous:[9416]newline, Up:[9417]= N

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NeWS /nee'wis/, /n[y]oo'is/ or /n[y]ooz/ n.

[acronym; the `Network Window System'] The road not taken in window

systems, an elegant [9418]PostScript-based environment that would

almost certainly have won the standards war with [9419]X if it hadn't

been [9420]proprietary to Sun Microsystems. There is a lesson here

that too many software vendors haven't yet heeded. Many hackers insist

on the two-syllable pronunciations above as a way of distinguishing

NeWS from Usenet news (the [9421]netnews software).

Node:newsfroup, Next:[9422]newsgroup, Previous:[9423]NeWS, Up:[9424]=

N =

newsfroup // n.

[Usenet] Silly synonym for [9425]newsgroup, originally a typo but now

in regular use on Usenet's talk.bizarre, and other lunatic-fringe

groups. Compare [9426]hing, [9427]grilf, [9428]pr0n and [9429]filk.

Node:newsgroup, Next:[9430]nick, Previous:[9431]newsfroup, Up:[9432]=

N =

newsgroup n.

[Usenet] One of [9433]Usenet's huge collection of topic groups or

[9434]fora. Usenet groups can be `unmoderated' (anyone can post) or

`moderated' (submissions are automatically directed to a moderator,

who edits or filters and then posts the results). Some newsgroups have

parallel [9435]mailing lists for Internet people with no netnews

access, with postings to the group automatically propagated to the

list and vice versa. Some moderated groups (especially those which are

actually gatewayed Internet mailing lists) are distributed as

`digests', with groups of postings periodically collected into a

single large posting with an index.

Among the best-known are comp.lang.c (the C-language forum), comp.arch

(on computer architectures), comp.unix.wizards (for Unix wizards),

rec.arts.sf.written and siblings (for science-fiction fans), and

talk.politics.misc (miscellaneous political discussions and

[9436]flamage).

Node:nick, Next:[9437]nickle, Previous:[9438]newsgroup, Up:[9439]= N =

nick n.

[IRC; very common] Short for nickname. On [9440]IRC, every user must

pick a nick, which is sometimes the same as the user's real name or

login name, but is often more fanciful. Compare [9441]handle,

[9442]screen name.

Node:nickle, Next:[9443]night mode, Previous:[9444]nick, Up:[9445]= N

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nickle /ni'kl/ n.

[from `nickel', common name for the U.S. 5-cent coin] A [9446]nybble +

1; 5 bits. Reported among developers for Mattel's GI 1600 (the

Intellivision games processor), a chip with 16-bit-wide RAM but

10-bit-wide ROM. See also [9447]deckle, and [9448]nybble for names of

other bit units.

Node:night mode, Next:[9449]Nightmare File System,

Previous:[9450]nickle, Up:[9451]= N =

night mode n.

See [9452]phase (of people).

Node:Nightmare File System, Next:[9453]NIL, Previous:[9454]night mode,

Up:[9455]= N =

Nightmare File System n.

Pejorative hackerism for Sun's Network File System (NFS). In any

nontrivial network of Suns where there is a lot of NFS cross-mounting,

when one Sun goes down, the others often freeze up. Some machine tries

to access the down one, and (getting no response) repeats

indefinitely. This causes it to appear dead to some messages (what is

actually happening is that it is locked up in what should have been a

brief excursion to a higher [9456]spl level). Then another machine

tries to reach either the down machine or the pseudo-down machine, and

itself becomes pseudo-down. The first machine to discover the down one

is now trying both to access the down one and to respond to the

pseudo-down one, so it is even harder to reach. This situation

snowballs very quickly, and soon the entire network of machines is

frozen -- worst of all, the user can't even abort the file access that

started the problem! Many of NFS's problems are excused by partisans

as being an inevitable result of its statelessness, which is held to

be a great feature (critics, of course, call it a great

[9457]misfeature). (ITS partisans are apt to cite this as proof of

Unix's alleged bogosity; ITS had a working NFS-like shared file system

with none of these problems in the early 1970s.) See also

[9458]broadcast storm.

Node:NIL, Next:[9459]Ninety-Ninety Rule, Previous:[9460]Nightmare File

System, Up:[9461]= N =

NIL /nil/

No. Used in reply to a question, particularly one asked using the `-P'

convention. Most hackers assume this derives simply from LISP

terminology for `false' (see also [9462]T), but NIL as a negative

reply was well-established among radio hams decades before the advent

of LISP. The historical connection between early hackerdom and the ham

radio world was strong enough that this may have been an influence.

Node:Ninety-Ninety Rule, Next:[9463]nipple mouse, Previous:[9464]NIL,

Up:[9465]= N =

Ninety-Ninety Rule n.

"The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the

development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other

90% of the development time." Attributed to Tom Cargill of Bell Labs,

and popularized by Jon Bentley's September 1985 "Bumper-Sticker

Computer Science" column in "Communications of the ACM". It was there

called the "Rule of Credibility", a name which seems not to have

stuck. Other maxims in the same vein include the law attributed to the

early British computer scientist Douglas Hartree: "The time from now

until the completion of the project tends to become constant."

Node:nipple mouse, Next:[9466]NMI, Previous:[9467]Ninety-Ninety Rule,

Up:[9468]= N =

nipple mouse n.

Var. `clit mouse, clitoris' Common term for the pointing device used

on IBM ThinkPads and a few other laptop computers. The device, which

sits between the g' andh' keys on the keyboard, indeed resembles a

rubber nipple intended to be tweaked by a forefinger. Many hackers

consider these superior to the glide pads found on most laptops, which

are harder to control precisely.

Node:NMI, Next:[9469]no-op, Previous:[9470]nipple mouse, Up:[9471]= N

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NMI /N-M-I/ n.

Non-Maskable Interrupt. An IRQ 7 on the PDP-11 or 680[01234]0; the NMI

line on an 80[1234]86. In contrast with a [9472]priority interrupt

(which might be ignored, although that is unlikely), an NMI is never

ignored. Except, that is, on [9473]clone boxes, where NMI is often

ignored on the motherboard because flaky hardware can generate many

spurious ones.

Node:no-op, Next:[9474]noddy, Previous:[9475]NMI, Up:[9476]= N =

no-op /noh'op/ n.,v.

alt. NOP /nop/ [no operation] 1. A machine instruction that does

nothing (sometimes used in assembler-level programming as filler for

data or patch areas, or to overwrite code to be removed in binaries).

A person who contributes nothing to a project, or has nothing going

on