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

Unix command ping(8) can be

used to do this manually (note that ping(8)'s author denies the

widespread folk etymology that the name was ever intended as acronym

for `Packet INternet Groper'). Occasionally used as a phone greeting.

See [10339]ACK, also [10340]ENQ. 2. vt. To verify the presence of. 3.

vt. To get the attention of. 4. vt. To send a message to all members

of a [10341]mailing list requesting an [10342]ACK (in order to verify

that everybody's addresses are reachable). "We haven't heard much of

anything from Geoff, but he did respond with an ACK both times I

pinged jargon-friends." 5. n. A quantum packet of happiness. People

who are very happy tend to exude pings; furthermore, one can

intentionally create pings and aim them at a needy party (e.g., a

depressed person). This sense of ping may appear as an exclamation;

"Ping!" (I'm happy; I am emitting a quantum of happiness; I have been

struck by a quantum of happiness). The form "pingfulness", which is

used to describe people who exude pings, also occurs. (In the standard

abuse of language, "pingfulness" can also be used as an exclamation,

in which case it's a much stronger exclamation than just "ping"!).

Oppose [10343]blargh.

The funniest use of `ping' to date was described in January 1991 by

Steve Hayman on the Usenet group comp.sys.next. He was trying to

isolate a faulty cable segment on a TCP/IP Ethernet hooked up to a

NeXT machine, and got tired of having to run back to his console after

each cabling tweak to see if the ping packets were getting through. So

he used the sound-recording feature on the NeXT, then wrote a script

that repeatedly invoked ping(8), listened for an echo, and played back

the recording on each returned packet. Result? A program that caused

the machine to repeat, over and over, "Ping ... ping ... ping ..." as

long as the network was up. He turned the volume to maximum, ferreted

through the building with one ear cocked, and found a faulty tee

connector in no time.

Node:Ping O' Death, Next:[10344]ping storm, Previous:[10345]ping,

Up:[10346]= P =

Ping O' Death n.

A notorious [10347]exploit that (when first discovered) could be

easily used to crash a wide variety of machines by overunning size

limits in their TCP/IP stacks. First revealed in late 1996. The

open-source Unix community patched its systems to remove the

vulnerability within days or weeks, the closed-source OS vendors

generally took months. While the difference in response times repeated

a pattern familiar from other security incidents, the accompanying

glare of Web-fueled publicity proved unusually embarrassing to the OS

vendors and so passed into history and myth. The term is now used to

refer to any nudge delivered by network wizards over the network that

causes bad things to happen on the system being nudged. For the full

story on the original exploit, see

[10348]http://www.insecure.org/sploits/ping-o-death.html.

Compare with 'kamikaze packet,' 'Finger of Death' and 'Chernobyl

packet.'

Node:ping storm, Next:[10349]pink wire, Previous:[10350]Ping O' Death,

Up:[10351]= P =

ping storm n.

A form of [10352]DoS attack consisting of a flood of [10353]ping

requests (normally used to check network conditions) designed to

disrupt the normal activity of a system. This act is sometimes called

ping lashing' orping flood'. Compare [10354]mail storm,

[10355]broadcast storm.

Node:pink wire, Next:[10356]pipe, Previous:[10357]ping storm,

Up:[10358]= P =

pink wire n.

[from the pink PTFE wire used in military equipment] As [10359]blue

wire, but used in military applications. 2. vi. To add a pink wire to

a board.

Node:pipe, Next:[10360]pistol, Previous:[10361]pink wire, Up:[10362]=

P =

pipe n.

[common] Idiomatically, one's connection to the Internet; in context,

the expansion "bit pipe" is understood. A "fat pipe" is a line with T1

or higher capacity. A person with a 28.8 modem might be heard to

complain "I need a bigger pipe".

Node:pistol, Next:[10363]pixel sort, Previous:[10364]pipe, Up:[10365]=

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pistol n.

[IBM] A tool that makes it all too easy for you to shoot yourself in

the foot. "Unix rm * makes such a nice pistol!"

Node:pixel sort, Next:[10366]pizza box, Previous:[10367]pistol,

Up:[10368]= P =

pixel sort n.

[Commodore users] Any compression routine which irretrievably loses

valuable data in the process of [10369]crunching it. Disparagingly

used for `lossy' methods such as JPEG. The theory, of course, is that

these methods are only used on photographic images in which minor

loss-of-data is not visible to the human eye. The term `pixel sort'

implies distrust of this theory. Compare [10370]bogo-sort.

Node:pizza box, Next:[10371]plaid screen, Previous:[10372]pixel sort,

Up:[10373]= P =

pizza box n.

[Sun] The largish thin box housing the electronics in (especially Sun)

desktop workstations, so named because of its size and shape and the

dimpled pattern that looks like air holes.

Two meg single-platter removable disk packs used to be called pizzas,

and the huge drive they were stuck into was referred to as a pizza

oven. It's an index of progress that in the old days just the disk was

pizza-sized, while now the entire computer is.

Node:plaid screen, Next:[10374]plain-ASCII, Previous:[10375]pizza box,

Up:[10376]= P =

plaid screen n.

[XEROX PARC] A `special effect' that occurs when certain kinds of

[10377]memory smashes overwrite the control blocks or image memory of

a bit-mapped display. The term "salt and pepper" may refer to a

different pattern of similar origin. Though the term as coined at PARC

refers to the result of an error, some of the [10378]X demos induce

plaid-screen effects deliberately as a [10379]display hack.

Node:plain-ASCII, Next:[10380]plan file, Previous:[10381]plaid screen,

Up:[10382]= P =

plain-ASCII /playn-as'kee/

Syn. [10383]flat-ASCII.

Node:plan file, Next:[10384]platinum-iridium,

Previous:[10385]plain-ASCII, Up:[10386]= P =

plan file n.

[Unix] On systems that support [10387]finger, the `.plan' file in a

user's home directory is displayed when the user is fingered. This

feature was originally intended to be used to keep potential fingerers

apprised of one's location and near-future plans, but has been turned

almost universally to humorous and self-expressive purposes (like a

[10388]sig block). See also [10389]Hacking X for Y.

A recent innovation in plan files has been the introduction of

"scrolling plan files" which are one-dimensional animations made using

only the printable ASCII character set, carriage return and line feed,

avoiding terminal specific escape sequences, since the [10390]finger

command will (for security reasons; see [10391]letterbomb) not pass

the escape character.

Scrolling .plan files have become art forms in miniature, and some

sites have started competitions to find who can create the longest

running, funniest, and most original animations. Various animation

characters include:

Centipede:

mmmmme

Lorry/Truck:

oo-oP

Andalusian Video Snail:

---@/

and a compiler (ASP) is available on Usenet for producing them. See

also [10392]twirling baton.

Node:platinum-iridium, Next:[10393]playpen, Previous:[10394]plan file,

Up:[10395]= P =

platinum-iridium adj.

Standard, against which all others of the same category are measured.

Usage: silly. The notion is that one of whatever it is has actually

been cast in platinum-iridium alloy and placed in the vault beside the

Standard Kilogram at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures

near Paris. (From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined to be the

distance between two scratches in a platinum-iridium bar kept in that

same vault -- this replaced an earlier definition as 10^(-7) times the

distance between the North Pole and the Equator along a meridian

through Paris; unfortunately, this had been based on an inexact value

of the circumference of the Earth. From 1960 to 1984 it was defined to

be 1650763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red line of krypton-86

propagating in a vacuum. It is now defined as the length of the path

traveled by light in a vacuum in the time interval of 1/299,792,458 of

a second. The kilogram is now the only unit of measure officially

defined in terms of a unique artifact.) "This garbage-collection

algorithm has been tested against the platinum-iridium cons cell in

Paris." Compare [10396]golden.

Node:playpen, Next:[10397]playte, Previous:[10398]platinum-iridium,

Up:[10399]= P =

playpen n.

[IBM] A room where programmers work. Compare [10400]salt mines.

Node:playte, Next:[10401]plingnet, Previous:[10402]playpen,

Up:[10403]= P =

playte /playt/

16 bits, by analogy with [10404]nybble and [10405]byte. Usage: rare

and extremely silly. See also [10406]dynner and [10407]crumb. General

discussion of such terms is under [10408]nybble.

Node:plingnet, Next:[10409]plokta, Previous:[10410]playte, Up:[10411]=

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plingnet /pling'net/ n.

Syn. [10412]UUCPNET. Also see [10413]Commonwealth Hackish, which uses

`pling' for [10414]bang (as in [10415]bang path).

Node:plokta, Next:[10416]plonk, Previous:[10417]plingnet, Up:[10418]=

P =

plokta /plok't*/ v.

[acronym: Press Lots Of Keys To Abort] To press random keys in an

attempt to get some response from the system. One might plokta when

the abort procedure for a program is not known, or when trying to

figure out if the system is just sluggish or really hung. Plokta can

also be used while trying to figure out any unknown key sequence for a

particular operation. Someone going into `plokta mode' usually places

both hands flat on the keyboard and mashes them down, hoping for some

useful response.

A slightly more directed form of plokta can often be seen in mail

messages or Usenet articles from new users -- the text might end with

^X^C q quit :q ^C end x exit ZZ ^D ? help

as the user vainly tries to find the right exit sequence, with the

incorrect tries piling up at the end of the message....

Node:plonk, Next:[10419]plug-and-pray, Previous:[10420]plokta,

Up:[10421]= P =

plonk excl.,vt.

[Usenet: possibly influenced by British slang `plonk' for cheap booze,

or `plonker' for someone behaving stupidly (latter is lit. equivalent

to Yiddish `schmuck')] The sound a [10422]newbie makes as he falls to

the bottom of a [10423]kill file. While it originated in the

[10424]newsgroup talk.bizarre, this term (usually written "plonk")

is now (1994) widespread on Usenet as a form of public ridicule.

Node:plug-and-pray, Next:[10425]plugh, Previous:[10426]plonk,

Up:[10427]= P =

plug-and-pray adj.,vi.

Parody of the techspeak term `plug-and-play', describing a PC

peripheral card which is claimed to have no need for hardware

configuration via DIP switches, and which should be work as soon as it

is inserted in the PC. Unfortunately, even the PCI bus is not up to

pulling this off reliably, and people who have to do installation or

troubleshoot PCs soon find themselves longing for the DIP switches.

Node:plugh, Next:[10428]plumbing, Previous:[10429]plug-and-pray,

Up:[10430]= P =

plugh /ploogh/ v.

[from the [10431]ADVENT game] See [10432]xyzzy.

Node:plumbing, Next:[10433]PM, Previous:[10434]plugh, Up:[10435]= P =

plumbing n.

[Unix] Term used for [10436]shell code, so called because of the

prevalence of `pipelines' that feed the output of one program to the

input of another. Under Unix, user utilities can often be implemented

or at least prototyped by a suitable collection of pipelines and

temp-file grinding encapsulated in a shell script; this is much less

effort than writing C every time, and the capability is considered one

of Unix's major winning features. A few other OSs such as IBM's VM/CMS

support similar facilities. Esp. used in the construction `hairy

plumbing' (see [10437]hairy). "You can kluge together a basic

spell-checker out of sort(1), comm(1), and tr(1) with a little

plumbing." See also [10438]tee.

Node:PM, Next:[10439]pnambic, Previous:[10440]plumbing, Up:[10441]= P

=

PM /P-M/

v. (from `preventive maintenance') To bring down a machine for

inspection or test purposes. See [10442]provocative maintenance; see

also [10443]scratch monkey. 2. n. Abbrev. for `Presentation Manager',

an [10444]elephantine OS/2 graphical user interface.

Node:pnambic, Next:[10445]pod, Previous:[10446]PM, Up:[10447]= P =

pnambic /p*-nam'bik/

[Acronym from the scene in the film version of "The Wizard of Oz" in

which the true nature of the wizard is first discovered: "Pay no

attention to the man behind the curtain."] 1. A stage of development

of a process or function that, owing to incomplete implementation or

to the complexity of the system, requires human interaction to

simulate or replace some or all of the actions, inputs, or outputs of

the process or function. 2. Of or pertaining to a process or function

whose apparent operations are wholly or partially falsified. 3.

Requiring [10448]prestidigitization.

The ultimate pnambic product was "Dan Bricklin's Demo", a program

which supported flashy user-interface design prototyping. There is a

related maxim among hackers: "Any sufficiently