The New Hacker's Dictionary by Eric S. Raymond (each kindness read aloud TXT) 📖

the hundreds of megabytes of low-quality

[3319]freeware circulated by user's groups and BBS systems in the

micro-hobbyist world. "Yet another set of disk catalog utilities for

[3320]MS-DOS? What crudware!"

Node:cruft, Next:[3321]cruft together, Previous:[3322]crudware,

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cruft /kruhft/

[very common; back-formation from [3324]crufty] 1. n. An unpleasant

substance. The dust that gathers under your bed is cruft; the TMRC

Dictionary correctly noted that attacking it with a broom only

produces more. 2. n. The results of shoddy construction. 3. vt. [from

hand cruft', pun onhand craft'] To write assembler code for

something normally (and better) done by a compiler (see

[3325]hand-hacking). 4. n. Excess; superfluous junk; used esp. of

redundant or superseded code. 5. [University of Wisconsin] n. Cruft is

to hackers as gaggle is to geese; that is, at UW one properly says "a

cruft of hackers".

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cruft together vt.

(also `cruft up') To throw together something ugly but temporarily

workable. Like vt. [3329]kluge up, but more pejorative. "There isn't

any program now to reverse all the lines of a file, but I can probably

cruft one together in about 10 minutes." See [3330]hack together,

[3331]hack up, [3332]kluge up, [3333]crufty.

Node:cruftsmanship, Next:[3334]crufty, Previous:[3335]cruft together,

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cruftsmanship /kruhfts'm*n-ship / n.

[from [3337]cruft] The antithesis of craftsmanship.

Node:crufty, Next:[3338]crumb, Previous:[3339]cruftsmanship,

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crufty /kruhf'tee/ adj.

[very common; origin unknown; poss. from crusty' orcruddy'] 1.

Poorly built, possibly over-complex. The [3341]canonical example is

"This is standard old crufty [3342]DEC software". In fact, one

fanciful theory of the origin of `crufty' holds that was originally a

mutation of crusty' applied to DEC software so old that thes'

characters were tall and skinny, looking more like `f' characters. 2.

Unpleasant, especially to the touch, often with encrusted junk. Like

spilled coffee smeared with peanut butter and catsup. 3. Generally

unpleasant. 4. (sometimes spelled `cruftie') n. A small crufty object

(see [3343]frob); often one that doesn't fit well into the scheme of

things. "A LISP property list is a good place to store crufties (or,

collectively, [3344]random cruft)."

This term is one of the oldest in the jargon and no one is sure of its

etymology, but it is suggestive that there is a Cruft Hall at Harvard

University which is part of the old physics building; it's said to

have been the physics department's radar lab during WWII. To this day

(early 1993) the windows appear to be full of random techno-junk. MIT

or Lincoln Labs people may well have coined the term as a knock on the

competition.

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crumb n.

Two binary digits; a [3348]quad. Larger than a [3349]bit, smaller than

a [3350]nybble. Considered silly. Syn. [3351]tayste. General

discussion of such terms is under [3352]nybble.

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crunch 1. vi.

To process, usually in a time-consuming or complicated way. Connotes

an essentially trivial operation that is nonetheless painful to

perform. The pain may be due to the triviality's being embedded in a

loop from 1 to 1,000,000,000. "FORTRAN programs do mostly

[3356]number-crunching." 2. vt. To reduce the size of a file by a

complicated scheme that produces bit configurations completely

unrelated to the original data, such as by a Huffman code. (The file

ends up looking something like a paper document would if somebody

crunched the paper into a wad.) Since such compression usually takes

more computations than simpler methods such as run-length encoding,

the term is doubly appropriate. (This meaning is usually used in the

construction `file crunch(ing)' to distinguish it from

[3357]number-crunching.) See [3358]compress. 3. n. The character #.

Used at XEROX and CMU, among other places. See [3359]ASCII. 4. vt. To

squeeze program source into a minimum-size representation that will

still compile or execute. The term came into being specifically for a

famous program on the BBC micro that crunched BASIC source in order to

make it run more quickly (it was a wholly interpretive BASIC, so the

number of characters mattered). [3360]Obfuscated C Contest entries are

often crunched; see the first example under that entry.

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cryppie /krip'ee/ n.

A cryptographer. One who hacks or implements cryptographic software or

hardware.

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CTSS /C-T-S-S/ n.

Compatible Time-Sharing System. An early (1963) experiment in the

design of interactive time-sharing operating systems, ancestral to

[3367]Multics, [3368]Unix, and [3369]ITS. The name [3370]ITS

(Incompatible Time-sharing System) was a hack on CTSS, meant both as a

joke and to express some basic differences in philosophy about the way

I/O services should be presented to user programs.

Node:cube, Next:[3371]cubing, Previous:[3372]CTSS, Up:[3373]= C =

cube n.

[short for `cubicle'] A module in the open-plan offices used at

many programming shops. "I've got the manuals in my cube." 2. A NeXT

machine (which resembles a matte-black cube).

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cubing vi.

[parallel with `tubing'] 1. Hacking on an IPSC (Intel Personal

SuperComputer) hypercube. "Louella's gone cubing again!!" 2. Hacking

Rubik's Cube or related puzzles, either physically or mathematically.

An indescribable form of self-torture (see sense 1 or 2).

Node:cup holder, Next:[3377]cursor dipped in X, Previous:[3378]cubing,

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cup holder n.

The tray of a CD-ROM drive, or by extension the CD drive itself. So

called because of a common tech support legend about the idiot who

called to complain that the cup holder on his computer broke. A joke

program was once distributed around the net called "cupholder.exe",

which when run simply extended the CD drive tray. The humor of this

was of course lost on people whose drive had a slot or a caddy

instead.

Node:cursor dipped in X, Next:[3380]cuspy, Previous:[3381]cup holder,

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cursor dipped in X n.

There are a couple of metaphors in English of the form `pen dipped in

X' (perhaps the most common values of X are acid',bile', and

`vitriol'). These map over neatly to this hackish usage (the cursor

being what moves, leaving letters behind, when one is composing

on-line). "Talk about a [3383]nastygram! He must've had his cursor

dipped in acid when he wrote that one!"

Node:cuspy, Next:[3384]cut a tape, Previous:[3385]cursor dipped in X,

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cuspy /kuhs'pee/ adj.

[WPI: from the [3387]DEC abbreviation CUSP, for `Commonly Used System

Program', i.e., a utility program used by many people] 1. (of a

program) Well-written. 2. Functionally excellent. A program that

performs well and interfaces well to users is cuspy. See [3388]rude.

[NYU] Said of an attractive woman, especially one regarded as

available. Implies a certain curvaceousness.

Node:cut a tape, Next:[3389]cybercrud, Previous:[3390]cuspy,

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cut a tape vi.

To write a software or document distribution on magnetic tape for

shipment. Has nothing to do with physically cutting the medium! Early

versions of this lexicon claimed that one never analogously speaks of

`cutting a disk', but this has since been reported as live usage.

Related slang usages are mainstream business's `cut a check', the

recording industry's cut a record', and the military'scut an

order'.

All of these usages reflect physical processes in obsolete recording

and duplication technologies. The first stage in manufacturing an

old-style vinyl record involved cutting grooves in a stamping die with

a precision lathe. More mundanely, the dominant technology for mass

duplication of paper documents in pre-photocopying days involved

"cutting a stencil", punching away portions of the wax overlay on a

silk screen. More directly, paper tape with holes punched in it was an

important early storage medium.

Node:cybercrud, Next:[3392]cyberpunk, Previous:[3393]cut a tape,

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cybercrud /si:'ber-kruhd/ n.

[coined by Ted Nelson] Obfuscatory tech-talk. Verbiage with a high

[3395]MEGO factor. The computer equivalent of bureaucratese. 2.

Incomprehensible stuff embedded in email. First there were the

"Received" headers that show how mail flows through systems, then MIME

(Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions) headers and part boundaries,

and now huge blocks of radix-64 for PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail) or PGP

(Pretty Good Privacy) digital signatures and certificates of

authenticity. This stuff all services a purpose and good user

interfaces should hide it, but all too often users are forced to wade

through it.

Node:cyberpunk, Next:[3396]cyberspace, Previous:[3397]cybercrud,

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cyberpunk /si:'ber-puhnk/ n.,adj.

[orig. by SF writer Bruce Bethke and/or editor Gardner Dozois] A

subgenre of SF launched in 1982 by William Gibson's epoch-making novel

"Neuromancer" (though its roots go back through Vernor Vinge's "True

Names" (see the [3399]Bibliography in Appendix C) to John Brunner's

1975 novel "The Shockwave Rider"). Gibson's near-total ignorance of

computers and the present-day hacker culture enabled him to speculate

about the role of computers and hackers in the future in ways hackers

have since found both irritatingly na�ve and tremendously stimulating.

Gibson's work was widely imitated, in particular by the short-lived

but innovative "Max Headroom" TV series. See [3400]cyberspace,

[3401]ice, [3402]jack in, [3403]go flatline.

Since 1990 or so, popular culture has included a movement or fashion

trend that calls itself `cyberpunk', associated especially with the

rave/techno subculture. Hackers have mixed feelings about this. On the

one hand, self-described cyberpunks too often seem to be shallow

trendoids in black leather who have substituted enthusiastic

blathering about technology for actually learning and doing it.

Attitude is no substitute for competence. On the other hand, at least

cyberpunks are excited about the right things and properly respectful

of hacking talent in those who have it. The general consensus is to

tolerate them politely in hopes that they'll attract people who grow

into being true hackers.

Node:cyberspace, Next:[3404]cycle, Previous:[3405]cyberpunk,

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cyberspace /si:'br-spays`/ n.

Notional `information-space' loaded with visual cues and navigable

with brain-computer interfaces called `cyberspace decks'; a

characteristic prop of [3407]cyberpunk SF. Serious efforts to

construct [3408]virtual reality interfaces modeled explicitly on

Gibsonian cyberspace are under way, using more conventional devices

such as glove sensors and binocular TV headsets. Few hackers are

prepared to deny outright the possibility of a cyberspace someday

evolving out of the network (see [3409]the network). 2. The Internet

or [3410]Matrix (sense #2) as a whole, considered as a crude

cyberspace (sense 1). Although this usage became widely popular in the

mainstream press during 1994 when the Internet exploded into public

awareness, it is strongly deprecated among hackers because the

Internet does not meet the high, SF-inspired standards they have for

true cyberspace technology. Thus, this use of the term usually tags a

[3411]wannabee or outsider. Oppose [3412]meatspace. 3. Occasionally,

the metaphoric location of the mind of a person in [3413]hack mode.

Some hackers report experiencing strong eidetic imagery when in hack

mode; interestingly, independent reports from multiple sources suggest

that there are common features to the experience. In particular, the

dominant colors of this subjective `cyberspace' are often gray and

silver, and the imagery often involves constellations of marching

dots, elaborate shifting patterns of lines and angles, or moire

patterns.

Node:cycle, Next:[3414]cycle crunch, Previous:[3415]cyberspace,

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cycle

n. The basic unit of computation. What every hacker wants more of

(noted hacker Bill Gosper described himself as a "cycle junkie"). One

can describe an instruction as taking so many `clock cycles'. Often

the computer can access its memory once on every clock cycle, and so

one speaks also of `memory cycles'. These are technical meanings of

[3417]cycle. The jargon meaning comes from the observation that there

are only so many cycles per second, and when you are sharing a

computer the cycles get divided up among the users. The more cycles

the computer spends working on your program rather than someone

else's, the faster your program will run. That's why every hacker

wants more cycles: so he can spend less time waiting for the computer

to respond. 2. By extension, a notional unit of human thought power,

emphasizing that lots of things compete for the typical hacker's think

time. "I refused to get involved with the Rubik's Cube back when it

was big. Knew I'd burn too many cycles on it if I let myself." 3.