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

>

[4778]finger trouble:

[4779]finger-pointing syndrome:

[4780]finn:

[4781]firebottle:

[4782]firefighting:

[4783]firehose syndrome:

[4784]firewall code:

[4785]firewall machine:

[4786]fireworks mode:

[4787]firmware:

[4788]firmy:

[4789]fish:

[4790]FISH queue:

[4791]FITNR:

[4792]fix:

[4793]FIXME:

[4794]flag:

[4795]flag day:

[4796]flaky:

[4797]flamage:

[4798]flame:

[4799]flame bait:

[4800]flame on:

[4801]flame war:

[4802]flamer:

[4803]flap:

[4804]flarp:

[4805]flash crowd:

[4806]flat:

[4807]flat-ASCII:

[4808]flat-file:

[4809]flatten:

[4810]flavor:

[4811]flavorful:

[4812]flippy:

[4813]flood:

[4814]flowchart:

[4815]flower key:

[4816]flush:

[4817]flypage:

[4818]Flyspeck 3:

[4819]flytrap:

[4820]FM:

[4821]fnord:

[4822]FOAF:

[4823]FOD:

[4824]fold case:

[4825]followup:

[4826]fontology:

[4827]foo:

[4828]foobar:

[4829]fool:

[4830]fool file:

[4831]Foonly:

[4832]footprint:

[4833]for free:

[4834]for the rest of us:

[4835]for values of:

[4836]fora:

[4837]foreground:

[4838]fork:

[4839]fork bomb:

[4840]forked:

[4841]Fortrash:

[4842]fortune cookie:

[4843]forum:

[4844]fossil:

[4845]four-color glossies:

[4846]frag:

[4847]fragile:

[4848]fred:

[4849]Fred Foobar:

[4850]frednet:

[4851]free software:

[4852]freeware:

[4853]freeze:

[4854]fried:

[4855]frink:

[4856]friode:

[4857]fritterware:

[4858]frob:

[4859]frobnicate:

[4860]frobnitz:

[4861]frog:

[4862]frogging:

[4863]front end:

[4864]frotz:

[4865]frotzed:

[4866]frowney:

[4867]FRS:

[4868]fry:

[4869]fscking:

[4870]FSF:

[4871]FTP:

[4872]-fu:

[4873]FUBAR:

[4874]fuck me harder:

[4875]FUD:

[4876]FUD wars:

[4877]fudge:

[4878]fudge factor:

[4879]fuel up:

[4880]Full Monty:

[4881]fum:

[4882]functino:

[4883]funky:

[4884]funny money:

[4885]furrfu:

[4886]fuzzball:

Node:face time, Next:[4887]factor, Previous:[4888]eyeball search,

Up:[4889]= F =

face time n.

[common] Time spent interacting with somebody face-to-face (as opposed

to via electronic links). "Oh, yeah, I spent some face time with him

at the last Usenix."

Node:factor, Next:[4890]fairings, Previous:[4891]face time, Up:[4892]=

F =

factor n.

See [4893]coefficient of X.

Node:fairings, Next:[4894]fall over, Previous:[4895]factor, Up:[4896]=

F =

fairings n. /fer'ingz/

[FreeBSD; orig. a typo for `fairness'] A term thrown out in discussion

whenever a completely and transparently nonsensical argument in one's

favor(?) seems called for, e,g. at the end of a really long thread for

which the outcome is no longer even cared about since everyone is now

so sick of it; or in rebuttal to another nonsensical argument ("Change

the loader to look for /kernel.pl? What about fairings?")

Node:fall over, Next:[4897]fall through, Previous:[4898]fairings,

Up:[4899]= F =

fall over vi.

[IBM] Yet another synonym for [4900]crash or [4901]lose. `Fall over

hard' equates to [4902]crash and burn.

Node:fall through, Next:[4903]fan, Previous:[4904]fall over,

Up:[4905]= F =

fall through v.

(n. fallthrough', var.fall-through') 1. To exit a loop by

exhaustion, i.e., by having fulfilled its exit condition rather than

via a break or exception condition that exits from the middle of it.

This usage appears to be really old, dating from the 1940s and 1950s.

To fail a test that would have passed control to a subroutine or

some other distant portion of code. 3. In C, `fall-through' occurs

when the flow of execution in a switch statement reaches a case label

other than by jumping there from the switch header, passing a point

where one would normally expect to find a break. A trivial example:

switch (color)

{

case GREEN:

do---green();

break;

case PINK:

do---pink();

/ FALL THROUGH /

case RED:

do---red();

break;

default:

do---blue();

break;

}

The variant spelling / FALL THRU / is also common.

The effect of the above code is to do---green() when color is GREEN,

do---red() when color is RED, do---blue() on any other color other than

PINK, and (and this is the important part) do---pink() and then do---red()

when color is PINK. Fall-through is [4906]considered harmful by some,

though there are contexts (such as the coding of state machines) in

which it is natural; it is generally considered good practice to

include a comment highlighting the fall-through where one would

normally expect a break. See also [4907]Duff's device.

Node:fan, Next:[4908]fandango on core, Previous:[4909]fall through,

Up:[4910]= F =

fan n.

Without qualification, indicates a fan of science fiction, especially

one who goes to [4911]cons and tends to hang out with other fans. Many

hackers are fans, so this term has been imported from fannish slang;

however, unlike much fannish slang it is recognized by most

non-fannish hackers. Among SF fans the plural is correctly `fen', but

this usage is not automatic to hackers. "Laura reads the stuff

occasionally but isn't really a fan."

Node:fandango on core, Next:[4912]FAQ, Previous:[4913]fan, Up:[4914]=

F =

fandango on core n.

[Unix/C hackers, from the Iberian dance] In C, a wild pointer that

runs out of bounds, causing a [4915]core dump, or corrupts the

malloc(3) [4916]arena in such a way as to cause mysterious failures

later on, is sometimes said to have `done a fandango on core'. On

low-end personal machines without an MMU (or Windows boxes, which have

an MMU but use it incompetently), this can corrupt the OS itself,

causing massive lossage. Other frenetic dances such as the cha-cha or

the watusi, may be substituted. See [4917]aliasing bug,

[4918]precedence lossage, [4919]smash the stack, [4920]memory leak,

[4921]memory smash, [4922]overrun screw, [4923]core.

Node:FAQ, Next:[4924]FAQ list, Previous:[4925]fandango on core,

Up:[4926]= F =

FAQ /F-A-Q/ or /fak/ n.

[Usenet] 1. A Frequently Asked Question. 2. A compendium of

accumulated lore, posted periodically to high-volume newsgroups in an

attempt to forestall such questions. Some people prefer the term `FAQ

list' or FAQL' /fa'kl/, reservingFAQ' for sense 1.

This lexicon itself serves as a good example of a collection of one

kind of lore, although it is far too big for a regular FAQ posting.

Examples: "What is the proper type of NULL?" and "What's that funny

name for the # character?" are both Frequently Asked Questions.

Several FAQs refer readers to this file.

Node:FAQ list, Next:[4927]FAQL, Previous:[4928]FAQ, Up:[4929]= F =

FAQ list /F-A-Q list/ or /fak list/ n.

[common; Usenet] Syn [4930]FAQ, sense 2.

Node:FAQL, Next:[4931]faradize, Previous:[4932]FAQ list, Up:[4933]= F

=

FAQL /fa'kl/ n.

Syn. [4934]FAQ list.

Node:faradize, Next:[4935]farkled, Previous:[4936]FAQL, Up:[4937]= F =

faradize /far'*-di:z/ v.

[US Geological Survey] To start any hyper-addictive process or trend,

or to continue adding current to such a trend. Telling one user about

a new octo-tetris game you compiled would be a faradizing act -- in

two weeks you might find your entire department playing the faradic

game.

Node:farkled, Next:[4938]farming, Previous:[4939]faradize, Up:[4940]=

F =

farkled /far'kld/ adj.

[DeVry Institute of Technology, Atlanta] Syn. [4941]hosed. Poss. owes

something to Yiddish farblondjet' and/or theFarkle Family' skits on

"Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In", a popular comedy show of the late

1960s.

Node:farming, Next:[4942]fascist, Previous:[4943]farkled, Up:[4944]= F

=

farming n.

[Adelaide University, Australia] What the heads of a disk drive are

said to do when they plow little furrows in the magnetic media.

Associated with a [4945]crash. Typically used as follows: "Oh no, the

machine has just crashed; I hope the hard drive hasn't gone

[4946]farming again." No longer common; modern drives automatically

park their heads in a safe zone on power-down, so it takes a real

mechanical problem to induce this.

Node:fascist, Next:[4947]fat electrons, Previous:[4948]farming,

Up:[4949]= F =

fascist adj.

[common] Said of a computer system with excessive or annoying

security barriers, usage limits, or access policies. The implication

is that said policies are preventing hackers from getting interesting

work done. The variant `fascistic' seems to have been preferred at

MIT, poss. by analogy with `touristic' (see [4950]tourist or under the

influence of German/Yiddish `faschistisch'). 2. In the design of

languages and other software tools, `the fascist alternative' is the

most restrictive and structured way of capturing a particular

function; the implication is that this may be desirable in order to

simplify the implementation or provide tighter error checking. Compare

[4951]bondage-and-discipline language, although that term is global

rather than local.

Node:fat electrons, Next:[4952]fat-finger, Previous:[4953]fascist,

Up:[4954]= F =

fat electrons n.

Old-time hacker David Cargill's theory on the causation of computer

glitches. Your typical electric utility draws its line current out of

the big generators with a pair of coil taps located near the top of

the dynamo. When the normal tap brushes get dirty, they take them off

line to clean them up, and use special auxiliary taps on the bottom of

the coil. Now, this is a problem, because when they do that they get

not ordinary or `thin' electrons, but the fat'n'sloppy electrons that

are heavier and so settle to the bottom of the generator. These flow

down ordinary wires just fine, but when they have to turn a sharp

corner (as in an integrated-circuit via), they're apt to get stuck.

This is what causes computer glitches. [Fascinating. Obviously, fat

electrons must gain mass by [4955]bogon absorption --ESR] Compare

[4956]bogon, [4957]magic smoke.

Node:fat-finger, Next:[4958]faulty, Previous:[4959]fat electrons,

Up:[4960]= F =

fat-finger vt.

To introduce a typo while editing in such a way that the resulting

manglification of a configuration file does something useless,

damaging, or wildly unexpected. "NSI fat-fingered their DNS zone file

and took half the net down again." 2. More generally, any typo that

produces dramatically bad results.

Node:faulty, Next:[4961]fd leak, Previous:[4962]fat-finger, Up:[4963]=

F =

faulty adj.

Non-functional; buggy. Same denotation as [4964]bletcherous,

[4965]losing, q.v., but the connotation is much milder.

Node:fd leak, Next:[4966]fear and loathing, Previous:[4967]faulty,

Up:[4968]= F =

fd leak /F-D leek/ n.

A kind of programming bug analogous to a [4969]core leak, in which a

program fails to close file descriptors (`fd's) after file operations

are completed, and thus eventually runs out of them. See [4970]leak.

Node:fear and loathing, Next:[4971]feature, Previous:[4972]fd leak,

Up:[4973]= F =

fear and loathing n.

[from Hunter S. Thompson] A state inspired by the prospect of dealing

with certain real-world systems and standards that are totally

[4974]brain-damaged but ubiquitous -- Intel 8086s, or [4975]COBOL, or

[4976]EBCDIC, or any [4977]IBM machine bigger than a workstation.

"Ack! They want PCs to be able to talk to the AI machine. Fear and

loathing time!"

Node:feature, Next:[4978]feature creature, Previous:[4979]fear and

loathing, Up:[4980]= F =

feature n.

[common] A good property or behavior (as of a program). Whether it

was intended or not is immaterial. 2. [common] An intended property or

behavior (as of a program). Whether it is good or not is immaterial

(but if bad, it is also a [4981]misfeature). 3. A surprising property

or behavior; in particular, one that is purposely inconsistent because

it works better that way -- such an inconsistency is therefore a

[4982]feature and not a [4983]bug. This kind of feature is sometimes

called a [4984]miswart; see that entry for a classic example. 4. A

property or behavior that is gratuitous or unnecessary, though perhaps

also impressive or cute. For example, one feature of Common LISP's

format function is the ability to print numbers in two different

Roman-numeral formats (see [4985]bells whistles and gongs). 5. A

property or behavior that was put in to help someone else but that

happens to be in your way. 6. [common] A bug that has been documented.

To call something a feature sometimes means the author of the program

did not consider the particular case, and that the program responded

in a way that was unexpected but not strictly incorrect. A standard

joke is that a bug can be turned into a [4986]feature simply by

documenting it (then theoretically no one can complain about it

because it's in the manual), or even by simply declaring it to be

good. "That's not a bug, that's a feature!" is a common catchphrase.

See also [4987]feetch feetch, [4988]creeping featurism, [4989]wart,

[4990]green lightning.

The relationship among bugs, features, misfeatures, warts, and

miswarts might be clarified by the following hypothetical exchange

between two hackers on an airliner:

A: "This seat doesn't recline."

B: "That's not a bug, that's a feature. There is an emergency exit

door built around the window behind you, and the route has to be kept

clear."

A: "Oh. Then it's a misfeature; they should have increased the spacing

between rows here."

B: "Yes. But if