Books: The New Hacker\'s Dictionary version 4.2.2

V >> Various editors >> The New Hacker\'s Dictionary version 4.2.2

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* [8197]M:
* [8198]M$:
* [8199]macdink:
* [8200]machinable:
* [8201]machoflops:
* [8202]Macintoy:
* [8203]Macintrash:
* [8204]macro:
* [8205]macro-:
* [8206]macrology:
* [8207]macrotape:
* [8208]maggotbox:
* [8209]magic:
* [8210]magic cookie:
* [8211]magic number:
* [8212]magic smoke:
* [8213]mail storm:
* [8214]mailbomb:
* [8215]mailing list:
* [8216]main loop:
* [8217]mainframe:
* [8218]management:
* [8219]mandelbug:
* [8220]manged:
* [8221]mangle:
* [8222]mangled name:
* [8223]mangler:
* [8224]manularity:
* [8225]marbles:
* [8226]marginal:
* [8227]Marginal Hacks:
* [8228]marginally:
* [8229]marketroid:
* [8230]Mars:
* [8231]martian:
* [8232]massage:
* [8233]math-out:
* [8234]Matrix:
* [8235]maximum Maytag mode:
* [8236]meatspace:
* [8237]meatware:
* [8238]meeces:
* [8239]meg:
* [8240]mega-:
* [8241]megapenny:
* [8242]MEGO:
* [8243]meltdown network:
* [8244]meme:
* [8245]meme plague:
* [8246]memetics:
* [8247]memory farts:
* [8248]memory leak:
* [8249]memory smash:
* [8250]menuitis:
* [8251]mess-dos:
* [8252]meta:
* [8253]meta bit:
* [8254]metasyntactic variable:
* [8255]MFTL:
* [8256]mickey:
* [8257]mickey mouse program:
* [8258]micro-:
* [8259]MicroDroid:
* [8260]microfloppies:
* [8261]microfortnight:
* [8262]microLenat:
* [8263]microReid:
* [8264]microserf:
* [8265]Microsloth Windows:
* [8266]Microsoft:
* [8267]micros~1:
* [8268]middle-endian:
* [8269]middle-out implementation:
* [8270]milliLampson:
* [8271]minifloppies:
* [8272]MIPS:
* [8273]misbug:
* [8274]misfeature:
* [8275]Missed'em-five:
* [8276]missile address:
* [8277]miswart:
* [8278]MMF:
* [8279]mobo:
* [8280]moby:
* [8281]mockingbird:
* [8282]mod:
* [8283]mode:
* [8284]mode bit:
* [8285]modulo:
* [8286]molly-guard:
* [8287]Mongolian Hordes technique:
* [8288]monkey up:
* [8289]monkey scratch:
* [8290]monstrosity:
* [8291]monty:
* [8292]Moof:
* [8293]Moore's Law:
* [8294]moose call:
* [8295]moria:
* [8296]MOTAS:
* [8297]MOTOS:
* [8298]MOTSS:
* [8299]mouse ahead:
* [8300]mouse around:
* [8301]mouse belt:
* [8302]mouse droppings:
* [8303]mouse elbow:
* [8304]mouso:
* [8305]MS-DOS:
* [8306]mu:
* [8307]MUD:
* [8308]muddie:
* [8309]mudhead:
* [8310]muggle:
* [8311]multician:
* [8312]Multics:
* [8313]multitask:
* [8314]mumblage:
* [8315]mumble:
* [8316]munch:
* [8317]munching:
* [8318]munching squares:
* [8319]munchkin:
* [8320]mundane:
* [8321]mung:
* [8322]munge:
* [8323]Murphy's Law:
* [8324]music:
* [8325]mutter:
_________________________________________________________________

Node:M, Next:[8326]M$, Previous:[8327]luser, Up:[8328]= M =

M pref. (on units) suff. (on numbers)

[SI] See [8329]quantifiers.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:M$, Next:[8330]macdink, Previous:[8331]M, Up:[8332]= M =

M$

Common net abbreviation for Microsoft, everybody's least favorite
monopoly.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:macdink, Next:[8333]machinable, Previous:[8334]M$, Up:[8335]= M =

macdink /mak'dink/ vt.

[from the Apple Macintosh, which is said to encourage such behavior]
To make many incremental and unnecessary cosmetic changes to a program
or file. Often the subject of the macdinking would be better off
without them. "When I left at 11 P.M. last night, he was still
macdinking the slides for his presentation." See also
[8336]fritterware, [8337]window shopping.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:machinable, Next:[8338]machoflops, Previous:[8339]macdink,
Up:[8340]= M =

machinable adj.

Machine-readable. Having the [8341]softcopy nature.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:machoflops, Next:[8342]Macintoy, Previous:[8343]machinable,
Up:[8344]= M =

machoflops /mach'oh-flops/ n.

[pun on `megaflops', a coinage for `millions of FLoating-point
Operations Per Second'] Refers to artificially inflated performance
figures often quoted by computer manufacturers. Real applications are
lucky to get half the quoted speed. See [8345]Your mileage may vary,
[8346]benchmark.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Macintoy, Next:[8347]Macintrash, Previous:[8348]machoflops,
Up:[8349]= M =

Macintoy /mak'in-toy/ n.

The Apple Macintosh, considered as a [8350]toy. Less pejorative than
[8351]Macintrash.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Macintrash, Next:[8352]macro, Previous:[8353]Macintoy, Up:[8354]=
M =

Macintrash /mak'in-trash`/ n.

The Apple Macintosh, as described by a hacker who doesn't appreciate
being kept away from the real computer by the interface. The term
[8355]maggotbox has been reported in regular use in the Research
Triangle area of North Carolina. Compare [8356]Macintoy. See also
[8357]beige toaster, [8358]WIMP environment, [8359]point-and-drool
interface, [8360]drool-proof paper, [8361]user-friendly.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:macro, Next:[8362]macro-, Previous:[8363]Macintrash, Up:[8364]= M
=

macro /mak'roh/ n.

[techspeak] A name (possibly followed by a formal [8365]arg list) that
is equated to a text or symbolic expression to which it is to be
expanded (possibly with the substitution of actual arguments) by a
macro expander. This definition can be found in any technical
dictionary; what those won't tell you is how the hackish connotations
of the term have changed over time.

The term `macro' originated in early assemblers, which encouraged the
use of macros as a structuring and information-hiding device. During
the early 1970s, macro assemblers became ubiquitous, and sometimes
quite as powerful and expensive as [8366]HLLs, only to fall from favor
as improving compiler technology marginalized assembler programming
(see [8367]languages of choice). Nowadays the term is most often used
in connection with the C preprocessor, LISP, or one of several
special-purpose languages built around a macro-expansion facility
(such as TeX or Unix's [nt]roff suite).

Indeed, the meaning has drifted enough that the collective `macros' is
now sometimes used for code in any special-purpose application control
language (whether or not the language is actually translated by text
expansion), and for macro-like entities such as the `keyboard macros'
supported in some text editors (and PC TSR or Macintosh INIT/CDEV
keyboard enhancers).
_________________________________________________________________

Node:macro-, Next:[8368]macrology, Previous:[8369]macro, Up:[8370]= M
=

macro- pref.

Large. Opposite of [8371]micro-. In the mainstream and among other
technical cultures (for example, medical people) this competes with
the prefix [8372]mega-, but hackers tend to restrict the latter to
quantification.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:macrology, Next:[8373]macrotape, Previous:[8374]macro-,
Up:[8375]= M =

macrology /mak-rol'*-jee/ n.

1. Set of usually complex or crufty macros, e.g., as part of a large
system written in [8376]LISP, [8377]TECO, or (less commonly)
assembler. 2. The art and science involved in comprehending a
macrology in sense 1. Sometimes studying the macrology of a system is
not unlike archeology, ecology, or [8378]theology, hence the
sound-alike construction. See also [8379]boxology.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:macrotape, Next:[8380]maggotbox, Previous:[8381]macrology,
Up:[8382]= M =

macrotape /mak'roh-tayp/ n.

An industry-standard reel of tape. Originally, as opposed to a DEC
microtape; nowadays, as opposed to modern QIC and DDS tapes. Syn.
[8383]round tape.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:maggotbox, Next:[8384]magic, Previous:[8385]macrotape, Up:[8386]=
M =

maggotbox /mag'*t-boks/ n.

See [8387]Macintrash. This is even more derogatory.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:magic, Next:[8388]magic cookie, Previous:[8389]maggotbox,
Up:[8390]= M =

magic

1. adj. As yet unexplained, or too complicated to explain; compare
[8391]automagically and (Arthur C.) Clarke's Third Law: "Any
sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
"TTY echoing is controlled by a large number of magic bits." "This
routine magically computes the parity of an 8-bit byte in three
instructions." 2. adj. Characteristic of something that works although
no one really understands why (this is especially called [8392]black
magic). 3. n. [Stanford] A feature not generally publicized that
allows something otherwise impossible, or a feature formerly in that
category but now unveiled. 4. n. The ultimate goal of all engineering
& development, elegance in the extreme; from the first corollary to
Clarke's Third Law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is
insufficiently advanced".

Parodies playing on these senses of the term abound; some have made
their way into serious documentation, as when a MAGIC directive was
described in the Control Card Reference for GCOS c.1978. For more
about hackish `magic', see [8393]Appendix A. Compare [8394]black
magic, [8395]wizardly, [8396]deep magic, [8397]heavy wizardry.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:magic cookie, Next:[8398]magic number, Previous:[8399]magic,
Up:[8400]= M =

magic cookie n.

[Unix; common] 1. Something passed between routines or programs that
enables the receiver to perform some operation; a capability ticket or
opaque identifier. Especially used of small data objects that contain
data encoded in a strange or intrinsically machine-dependent way.
E.g., on non-Unix OSes with a non-byte-stream model of files, the
result of ftell(3) may be a magic cookie rather than a byte offset; it
can be passed to fseek(3), but not operated on in any meaningful way.
The phrase `it hands you a magic cookie' means it returns a result
whose contents are not defined but which can be passed back to the
same or some other program later. 2. An in-band code for changing
graphic rendition (e.g., inverse video or underlining) or performing
other control functions (see also [8401]cookie). Some older terminals
would leave a blank on the screen corresponding to mode-change magic
cookies; this was also called a [8402]glitch (or occasionally a
`turd'; compare [8403]mouse droppings). See also [8404]cookie.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:magic number, Next:[8405]magic smoke, Previous:[8406]magic
cookie, Up:[8407]= M =

magic number n.

[Unix/C; common] 1. In source code, some non-obvious constant whose
value is significant to the operation of a program and that is
inserted inconspicuously in-line ([8408]hardcoded), rather than
expanded in by a symbol set by a commented #define. Magic numbers in
this sense are bad style. 2. A number that encodes critical
information used in an algorithm in some opaque way. The classic
examples of these are the numbers used in hash or CRC functions, or
the coefficients in a linear congruential generator for pseudo-random
numbers. This sense actually predates and was ancestral to the more
commonsense 1. 3. Special data located at the beginning of a binary
data file to indicate its type to a utility. Under Unix, the system
and various applications programs (especially the linker) distinguish
between types of executable file by looking for a magic number. Once
upon a time, these magic numbers were PDP-11 branch instructions that
skipped over header data to the start of executable code; 0407, for
example, was octal for `branch 16 bytes relative'. Many other kinds of
files now have magic numbers somewhere; some magic numbers are, in
fact, strings, like the ! at the beginning of a Unix archive
file or the %! leading PostScript files. Nowadays only a [8409]wizard
knows the spells to create magic numbers. How do you choose a fresh
magic number of your own? Simple -- you pick one at random. See? It's
magic!

The magic number, on the other hand, is 7+/-2. See "The magical number
seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing
information" by George Miller, in the "Psychological Review" 63:81-97
(1956). This classic paper established the number of distinct items
(such as numeric digits) that humans can hold in short-term memory.
Among other things, this strongly influenced the interface design of
the phone system.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:magic smoke, Next:[8410]mail storm, Previous:[8411]magic number,
Up:[8412]= M =

magic smoke n.

A substance trapped inside IC packages that enables them to function
(also called `blue smoke'; this is similar to the archaic `phlogiston'
hypothesis about combustion). Its existence is demonstrated by what
happens when a chip burns up -- the magic smoke gets let out, so it
doesn't work any more. See [8413]smoke test, [8414]let the smoke out.

Usenetter Jay Maynard tells the following story: "Once, while hacking
on a dedicated Z80 system, I was testing code by blowing EPROMs and
plugging them in the system, then seeing what happened. One time, I
plugged one in backwards. I only discovered that after I realized that
Intel didn't put power-on lights under the quartz windows on the tops
of their EPROMs -- the die was glowing white-hot. Amazingly, the EPROM
worked fine after I erased it, filled it full of zeros, then erased it
again. For all I know, it's still in service. Of course, this is
because the magic smoke didn't get let out." Compare the original
phrasing of [8415]Murphy's Law.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mail storm, Next:[8416]mailbomb, Previous:[8417]magic smoke,
Up:[8418]= M =

mail storm n.

[from [8419]broadcast storm, influenced by `maelstrom'] What often
happens when a machine with an Internet connection and active users
re-connects after extended downtime -- a flood of incoming mail that
brings the machine to its knees. See also [8420]hairball.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mailbomb, Next:[8421]mailing list, Previous:[8422]mail storm,
Up:[8423]= M =

mailbomb

(also mail bomb) [Usenet] 1. v. To send, or urge others to send,
massive amounts of [8424]email to a single system or person, esp. with
intent to crash or [8425]spam the recipient's system. Sometimes done
in retaliation for a perceived serious offense. Mailbombing is itself
widely regarded as a serious offense -- it can disrupt email traffic
or other facilities for innocent users on the victim's system, and in
extreme cases, even at upstream sites. 2. n. An automatic procedure
with a similar effect. 3. n. The mail sent. Compare [8426]letterbomb,
[8427]nastygram, [8428]BLOB (sense 2), [8429]list-bomb.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mailing list, Next:[8430]main loop, Previous:[8431]mailbomb,
Up:[8432]= M =

mailing list n.

(often shortened in context to `list') 1. An [8433]email address that
is an alias (or [8434]macro, though that word is never used in this
connection) for many other email addresses. Some mailing lists are
simple `reflectors', redirecting mail sent to them to the list of
recipients. Others are filtered by humans or programs of varying
degrees of sophistication; lists filtered by humans are said to be
`moderated'. 2. The people who receive your email when you send it to
such an address.

Mailing lists are one of the primary forms of hacker interaction,
along with [8435]Usenet. They predate Usenet, having originated with
the first UUCP and ARPANET connections. They are often used for
private information-sharing on topics that would be too specialized
for or inappropriate to public Usenet groups. Though some of these
maintain almost purely technical content (such as the Internet
Engineering Task Force mailing list), others (like the `sf-lovers'
list maintained for many years by Saul Jaffe) are recreational, and
many are purely social. Perhaps the most infamous of the social lists
was the eccentric bandykin distribution; its latter-day progeny,
lectroids and tanstaafl, still include a number of the oddest and most
interesting people in hackerdom.

Mailing lists are easy to create and (unlike Usenet) don't tie up a
significant amount of machine resources (until they get very large, at
which point they can become interesting torture tests for mail
software). Thus, they are often created temporarily by working groups,
the members of which can then collaborate on a project without ever
needing to meet face-to-face. Much of the material in this lexicon was
criticized and polished on just such a mailing list (called
`jargon-friends'), which included all the co-authors of Steele-1983.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:main loop, Next:[8436]mainframe, Previous:[8437]mailing list,
Up:[8438]= M =

main loop n.

The top-level control flow construct in an input- or event-driven
program, the one which receives and acts or dispatches on the
program's input. See also [8439]driver.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mainframe, Next:[8440]management, Previous:[8441]main loop,
Up:[8442]= M =

mainframe n.

Term originally referring to the cabinet containing the central
processor unit or `main frame' of a room-filling [8443]Stone Age batch
machine. After the emergence of smaller `minicomputer' designs in the
early 1970s, the traditional [8444]big iron machines were described as
`mainframe computers' and eventually just as mainframes. The term
carries the connotation of a machine designed for batch rather than
interactive use, though possibly with an interactive timesharing
operating system retrofitted onto it; it is especially used of
machines built by IBM, Unisys, and the other great [8445]dinosaurs
surviving from computing's [8446]Stone Age.

It has been common wisdom among hackers since the late 1980s that the
mainframe architectural tradition is essentially dead (outside of the
tiny market for [8447]number-crunching supercomputers (see
[8448]cray)), having been swamped by the recent huge advances in IC
technology and low-cost personal computing. The wave of failures,
takeovers, and mergers among traditional mainframe makers in the early
1990s bore this out. The biggest mainframer of all, IBM, was compelled
to re-invent itself as a huge systems-consulting house. (See
[8449]dinosaurs mating and [8450]killer micro).
_________________________________________________________________

Node:management, Next:[8451]mandelbug, Previous:[8452]mainframe,
Up:[8453]= M =

management n.

1. Corporate power elites distinguished primarily by their distance
from actual productive work and their chronic failure to manage (see
also [8454]suit). Spoken derisively, as in "Management decided that
...". 2. Mythically, a vast bureaucracy responsible for all the
world's minor irritations. Hackers' satirical public notices are often
signed `The Mgt'; this derives from the "Illuminatus" novels (see the
[8455]Bibliography in Appendix C).
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mandelbug, Next:[8456]manged, Previous:[8457]management,
Up:[8458]= M =

mandelbug /man'del-buhg/ n.

[from the Mandelbrot set] A bug whose underlying causes are so complex
and obscure as to make its behavior appear chaotic or even
non-deterministic. This term implies that the speaker thinks it is a
[8459]Bohr bug, rather than a [8460]heisenbug. See also
[8461]schroedinbug.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:manged, Next:[8462]mangle, Previous:[8463]mandelbug, Up:[8464]= M
=

manged /mahnjd/ n.

[probably from the French `manger' or Italian `mangiare', to eat;
perhaps influenced by English `mange', `mangy'] adj. Refers to
anything that is mangled or damaged, usually beyond repair. "The disk
was manged after the electrical storm." Compare [8465]mung.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mangle, Next:[8466]mangled name, Previous:[8467]manged,
Up:[8468]= M =

mangle vt.

1. Used similarly to [8469]mung or [8470]scribble, but more violent in
its connotations; something that is mangled has been irreversibly and
totally trashed. 2. To produce the [8471]mangled name corresponding to
a C++ declaration.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mangled name, Next:[8472]mangler, Previous:[8473]mangle,
Up:[8474]= M =

mangled name n.

A name, appearing in a C++ object file, that is a coded representation
of the object declaration as it appears in the source. Mangled names
are used because C++ allows multiple objects to have the same name, as
long as they are distinguishable in some other way, such as by having
different parameter types. Thus, the internal name must have that
additional information embedded in it, using the limited character set
allowed by most linkers. For instance, one popular compiler encodes
the standard library function declaration "memchr(const
void*,int,unsigned int)" as "@memchr$qpxviui".
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mangler, Next:[8475]manularity, Previous:[8476]mangled name,
Up:[8477]= M =

mangler n.

[DEC] A manager. Compare [8478]management. Note that [8479]system
mangler is somewhat different in connotation.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:manularity, Next:[8480]marbles, Previous:[8481]mangler,
Up:[8482]= M =

manularity /man`yoo-la'ri-tee/ n.

[prob. fr. techspeak `manual' + `granularity'] A notional measure of
the manual labor required for some task, particularly one of the sort
that automation is supposed to eliminate. "Composing English on paper
has much higher manularity than using a text editor, especially in the
revising stage." Hackers tend to consider manularity a symptom of
primitive methods; in fact, a true hacker confronted with an apparent
requirement to do a computing task [8483]by hand will inevitably seize
the opportunity to build another tool (see [8484]toolsmith).
_________________________________________________________________

Node:marbles, Next:[8485]marginal, Previous:[8486]manularity,
Up:[8487]= M =

marbles pl.n.

[from mainstream "lost all his/her marbles"] The minimum needed to
build your way further up some hierarchy of tools or abstractions.
After a bad system crash, you need to determine if the machine has
enough marbles to come up on its own, or enough marbles to allow a
rebuild from backups, or if you need to rebuild from scratch. "This
compiler doesn't even have enough marbles to compile [8488]hello
world."
_________________________________________________________________

Node:marginal, Next:[8489]Marginal Hacks, Previous:[8490]marbles,
Up:[8491]= M =

marginal adj.

[common] 1. [techspeak] An extremely small change. "A marginal
increase in [8492]core can decrease [8493]GC time drastically." In
everyday terms, this means that it is a lot easier to clean off your
desk if you have a spare place to put some of the junk while you sort
through it. 2. Of little merit. "This proposed new feature seems
rather marginal to me." 3. Of extremely small probability of
[8494]winning. "The power supply was rather marginal anyway; no wonder
it fried."
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Marginal Hacks, Next:[8495]marginally, Previous:[8496]marginal,
Up:[8497]= M =

Marginal Hacks n.

Margaret Jacks Hall, a building into which the Stanford AI Lab was
moved near the beginning of the 1980s (from the [8498]D. C. Power
Lab).
_________________________________________________________________

Node:marginally, Next:[8499]marketroid, Previous:[8500]Marginal Hacks,
Up:[8501]= M =

marginally adv.

Slightly. "The ravs here are only marginally better than at Small
Eating Place." See [8502]epsilon.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:marketroid, Next:[8503]Mars, Previous:[8504]marginally,
Up:[8505]= M =

marketroid /mar'k*-troyd/ n.

alt. `marketing slime', `marketeer', `marketing droid', `marketdroid'.
A member of a company's marketing department, esp. one who promises
users that the next version of a product will have features that are
not actually scheduled for inclusion, are extremely difficult to
implement, and/or are in violation of the laws of physics; and/or one
who describes existing features (and misfeatures) in ebullient,
buzzword-laden adspeak. Derogatory. Compare [8506]droid.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Mars, Next:[8507]martian, Previous:[8508]marketroid, Up:[8509]= M
=

Mars n.

A legendary tragic failure, the archetypal Hacker Dream Gone Wrong.
Mars was the code name for a family of PDP-10 compatible computers
built by Systems Concepts (now, The SC Group): the multi-processor
SC-30M, the small uniprocessor SC-25M, and the never-built
superprocessor SC-40M. These machines were marvels of engineering
design; although not much slower than the unique [8510]Foonly F-1,
they were physically smaller and consumed less power than the much
slower [8511]DEC KS10 or Foonly F-2, F-3, or F-4 machines. They were
also completely compatible with the DEC KL10, and ran all KL10
binaries (including the operating system) with no modifications at
about 2-3 times faster than a KL10.

When DEC cancelled the Jupiter project in 1983, Systems Concepts
should have made a bundle selling their machine into shops with a lot
of software investment in PDP-10s, and in fact their spring 1984
announcement generated a great deal of excitement in the PDP-10 world.
TOPS-10 was running on the Mars by the summer of 1984, and TOPS-20 by
early fall. Unfortunately, the hackers running Systems Concepts were
much better at designing machines than at mass producing or selling
them; the company allowed itself to be sidetracked by a bout of
perfectionism into continually improving the design, and lost
credibility as delivery dates continued to slip. They also overpriced
the product ridiculously; they believed they were competing with the
KL10 and VAX 8600 and failed to reckon with the likes of Sun
Microsystems and other hungry startups building workstations with
power comparable to the KL10 at a fraction of the price. By the time
SC shipped the first SC-30M to Stanford in late 1985, most customers
had already made the traumatic decision to abandon the PDP-10, usually
for VMS or Unix boxes. Most of the Mars computers built ended up being
purchased by CompuServe.

This tale and the related saga of [8512]Foonly hold a lesson for
hackers: if you want to play in the [8513]Real World, you need to
learn Real World moves.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:martian, Next:[8514]massage, Previous:[8515]Mars, Up:[8516]= M =

martian n.

A packet sent on a TCP/IP network with a source address of the test
loopback interface [127.0.0.1]. This means that it will come back
labeled with a source address that is clearly not of this earth. "The
domain server is getting lots of packets from Mars. Does that gateway
have a martian filter?" Compare [8517]Christmas tree packet,
[8518]Godzillagram.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:massage, Next:[8519]math-out, Previous:[8520]martian, Up:[8521]=
M =

massage vt.

[common] Vague term used to describe `smooth' transformations of a
data set into a different form, esp. transformations that do not lose
information. Connotes less pain than [8522]munch or [8523]crunch. "He
wrote a program that massages X bitmap files into GIF format." Compare
[8524]slurp.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:math-out, Next:[8525]Matrix, Previous:[8526]massage, Up:[8527]= M
=

math-out n.

[poss. from `white-out' (the blizzard variety)] A paper or
presentation so encrusted with mathematical or other formal notation
as to be incomprehensible. This may be a device for concealing the
fact that it is actually [8528]content-free. See also [8529]numbers,
[8530]social science number.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Matrix, Next:[8531]maximum Maytag mode, Previous:[8532]math-out,
Up:[8533]= M =

Matrix n.

[FidoNet] 1. What the Opus BBS software and sysops call [8534]FidoNet.
2. Fanciful term for a [8535]cyberspace expected to emerge from
current networking experiments (see [8536]the network). The name of
the rather good 1999 [8537]cypherpunk movie "The Matrix" played on
this sense, which however had been established for years before. 3.
The totality of present-day computer networks (popularized in this
sense by John Quarterman; rare outside academic literature).
_________________________________________________________________

Node:maximum Maytag mode, Next:[8538]meatspace, Previous:[8539]Matrix,
Up:[8540]= M =

maximum Maytag mode n.

What a [8541]washing machine or, by extension, any disk drive is in
when it's being used so heavily that it's shaking like an old Maytag
with an unbalanced load. If prolonged for any length of time, can lead
to disks becoming [8542]walking drives. In 1999 it's been some years
since hard disks were large enough to do this, but the same phenomenon
has recently been reported with 24X CD-ROM drives.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:meatspace, Next:[8543]meatware, Previous:[8544]maximum Maytag
mode, Up:[8545]= M =

meatspace /meet'spays/ n.

The physical world, where the meat lives - as opposed to
[8546]cyberspace. Hackers are actually more willing to use this term
than `cyberspace', because it's not speculative - we already have a
running meatspace implementation (the universe). Compare [8547]RL.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:meatware, Next:[8548]meeces, Previous:[8549]meatspace, Up:[8550]=
M =

meatware n.

Synonym for [8551]wetware. Less common.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:meeces, Next:[8552]meg, Previous:[8553]meatware, Up:[8554]= M =

meeces /mees'*z/ n.

[TMRC] Occasional furry visitors who are not [8555]urchins. [That is,
mice. This may no longer be in live use; it clearly derives from the
refrain of the early-1960s cartoon character Mr. Jinx: "I hate meeces
to pieces!" -- ESR]
_________________________________________________________________

Node:meg, Next:[8556]mega-, Previous:[8557]meeces, Up:[8558]= M =

meg /meg/ n.

See [8559]quantifiers.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mega-, Next:[8560]megapenny, Previous:[8561]meg, Up:[8562]= M =

mega- /me'g*/ pref.

[SI] See [8563]quantifiers.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:megapenny, Next:[8564]MEGO, Previous:[8565]mega-, Up:[8566]= M =

megapenny /meg'*-pen`ee/ n.

$10,000 (1 cent * 10^6). Used semi-humorously as a unit in comparing
computer cost and performance figures.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:MEGO, Next:[8567]meltdown network, Previous:[8568]megapenny,
Up:[8569]= M =

MEGO /me'goh/ or /mee'goh/

[`My Eyes Glaze Over', often `Mine Eyes Glazeth (sic) Over',
attributed to the futurologist Herman Kahn] Also `MEGO factor'. 1. n.
A [8570]handwave intended to confuse the listener and hopefully induce
agreement because the listener does not want to admit to not
understanding what is going on. MEGO is usually directed at senior
management by engineers and contains a high proportion of [8571]TLAs.
2. excl. An appropriate response to MEGO tactics. 3. Among
non-hackers, often refers not to behavior that causes the eyes to
glaze, but to the eye-glazing reaction itself, which may be triggered
by the mere threat of technical detail as effectively as by an actual
excess of it.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:meltdown network, Next:[8572]meme, Previous:[8573]MEGO,
Up:[8574]= M =

meltdown, network n.

See [8575]network meltdown.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:meme, Next:[8576]meme plague, Previous:[8577]meltdown network,
Up:[8578]= M =

meme /meem/ n.

[coined by analogy with `gene', by Richard Dawkins] An idea considered
as a [8579]replicator, esp. with the connotation that memes parasitize
people into propagating them much as viruses do. Used esp. in the
phrase `meme complex' denoting a group of mutually supporting memes
that form an organized belief system, such as a religion. This lexicon
is an (epidemiological) vector of the `hacker subculture' meme
complex; each entry might be considered a meme. However, `meme' is
often misused to mean `meme complex'. Use of the term connotes
acceptance of the idea that in humans (and presumably other tool- and
language-using sophonts) cultural evolution by selection of adaptive
ideas has superseded biological evolution by selection of hereditary
traits. Hackers find this idea congenial for tolerably obvious
reasons.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:meme plague, Next:[8580]memetics, Previous:[8581]meme, Up:[8582]=
M =

meme plague n.

The spread of a successful but pernicious [8583]meme, esp. one that
parasitizes the victims into giving their all to propagate it.
Astrology, BASIC, and the other guy's religion are often considered to
be examples. This usage is given point by the historical fact that
`joiner' ideologies like Naziism or various forms of millennarian
Christianity have exhibited plague-like cycles of exponential growth
followed by collapses to small reservoir populations.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:memetics, Next:[8584]memory farts, Previous:[8585]meme plague,
Up:[8586]= M =

memetics /me-met'iks/ n.

[from [8587]meme] The study of memes. As of early 1999, this is still
an extremely informal and speculative endeavor, though the first steps
towards at least statistical rigor have been made by H. Keith Henson
and others. Memetics is a popular topic for speculation among hackers,
who like to see themselves as the architects of the new information
ecologies in which memes live and replicate.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:memory farts, Next:[8588]memory leak, Previous:[8589]memetics,
Up:[8590]= M =

memory farts n.

The flatulent sounds that some DOS box BIOSes (most notably AMI's)
make when checking memory on bootup.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:memory leak, Next:[8591]memory smash, Previous:[8592]memory
farts, Up:[8593]= M =

memory leak n.

An error in a program's dynamic-store allocation logic that causes it
to fail to reclaim discarded memory, leading to eventual collapse due
to memory exhaustion. Also (esp. at CMU) called [8594]core leak. These
problems were severe on older machines with small, fixed-size address
spaces, and special "leak detection" tools were commonly written to
root them out. With the advent of virtual memory, it is unfortunately
easier to be sloppy about wasting a bit of memory (although when you
run out of memory on a VM machine, it means you've got a real leak!).
See [8595]aliasing bug, [8596]fandango on core, [8597]smash the stack,
[8598]precedence lossage, [8599]overrun screw, [8600]leaky heap,
[8601]leak.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:memory smash, Next:[8602]menuitis, Previous:[8603]memory leak,
Up:[8604]= M =

memory smash n.

[XEROX PARC] Writing through a pointer that doesn't point to what you
think it does. This occasionally reduces your machine to a rubble of
bits. Note that this is subtly different from (and more general than)
related terms such as a [8605]memory leak or [8606]fandango on core
because it doesn't imply an allocation error or overrun condition.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:menuitis, Next:[8607]mess-dos, Previous:[8608]memory smash,
Up:[8609]= M =

menuitis /men`yoo-i:'tis/ n.

Notional disease suffered by software with an obsessively
simple-minded menu interface and no escape. Hackers find this
intensely irritating and much prefer the flexibility of command-line
or language-style interfaces, especially those customizable via macros
or a special-purpose language in which one can encode useful hacks.
See [8610]user-obsequious, [8611]drool-proof paper, [8612]WIMP
environment, [8613]for the rest of us.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mess-dos, Next:[8614]meta, Previous:[8615]menuitis, Up:[8616]= M
=

mess-dos /mes-dos/ n.

[semi-obsolescent now that DOS is] Derisory term for MS-DOS. Often
followed by the ritual banishing "Just say No!" See [8617]MS-DOS. Most
hackers (even many MS-DOS hackers) loathed MS-DOS for its
single-tasking nature, its limits on application size, its nasty
primitive interface, and its ties to IBMness and Microsoftness (see
[8618]fear and loathing). Also `mess-loss', `messy-dos', `mess-dog',
`mess-dross', `mush-dos', and various combinations thereof. In Ireland
and the U.K. it is even sometimes called `Domestos' after a brand of
toilet cleanser.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:meta, Next:[8619]meta bit, Previous:[8620]mess-dos, Up:[8621]= M
=

meta /me't*/ or /may't*/ or (Commonwealth) /mee't*/ adj.,pref.

[from analytic philosophy] One level of description up. A
metasyntactic variable is a variable in notation used to describe
syntax, and meta-language is language used to describe language. This
is difficult to explain briefly, but much hacker humor turns on
deliberate confusion between meta-levels. See [8622]hacker humor.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:meta bit, Next:[8623]metasyntactic variable, Previous:[8624]meta,
Up:[8625]= M =

meta bit n.

The top bit of an 8-bit character, which is on in character values
128-255. Also called [8626]high bit, [8627]alt bit, or (rarely)
[8628]hobbit. Some terminals and consoles (see [8629]space-cadet
keyboard) have a META shift key. Others (including, mirabile dictu,
keyboards on IBM PC-class machines) have an ALT key. See also
[8630]bucky bits.

Historical note: although in modern usage shaped by a universe of
8-bit bytes the meta bit is invariably hex 80 (octal 0200), things
were different on earlier machines with 36-bit words and 9-bit bytes.
The MIT and Stanford keyboards (see [8631]space-cadet keyboard)
generated hex 100 (octal 400) from their meta keys.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:metasyntactic variable, Next:[8632]MFTL, Previous:[8633]meta bit,
Up:[8634]= M =

metasyntactic variable n.

A name used in examples and understood to stand for whatever thing is
under discussion, or any random member of a class of things under
discussion. The word [8635]foo is the [8636]canonical example. To
avoid confusion, hackers never (well, hardly ever) use `foo' or other
words like it as permanent names for anything. In filenames, a common
convention is that any filename beginning with a
metasyntactic-variable name is a [8637]scratch file that may be
deleted at any time.

Metasyntactic variables are so called because (1) they are variables
in the metalanguage used to talk about programs etc; (2) they are
variables whose values are often variables (as in usages usages like
"the value of f(foo,bar) is the sum of foo and bar"). However, it has
been plausibly suggested that the real reason for the term
"metasyntactic variable" is that it sounds good.

To some extent, the list of one's preferred metasyntactic variables is
a cultural signature. They occur both in series (used for related
groups of variables or objects) and as singletons. Here are a few
common signatures:

[8638]foo, [8639]bar, [8640]baz, [8641]quux, quuux, quuuux...:
MIT/Stanford usage, now found everywhere (thanks largely to
early versions of this lexicon!). At MIT (but not at Stanford),
[8642]baz dropped out of use for a while in the 1970s and '80s.
A common recent mutation of this sequence inserts [8643]qux
before [8644]quux.

bazola, ztesch:
Stanford (from mid-'70s on).

[8645]foo, [8646]bar, thud, grunt:
This series was popular at CMU. Other CMU-associated variables
include [8647]gorp.

[8648]foo, [8649]bar, fum:
This series is reported to be common at XEROX PARC.

[8650]fred, jim, sheila, [8651]barney:
See the entry for [8652]fred. These tend to be Britishisms.

[8653]corge, [8654]grault, [8655]flarp:
Popular at Rutgers University and among [8656]GOSMACS hackers.

zxc, spqr, wombat:
Cambridge University (England).

shme
Berkeley, GeoWorks, Ingres. Pronounced /shme/ with a short /e/.

foo, bar, baz, bongo
Yale, late 1970s.

spam
[8657]Python programmers.

snork
Brown University, early 1970s.

[8658]foo, [8659]bar, zot
Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.

blarg, wibble
New Zealand.

toto, titi, tata, tutu
France.

pippo, pluto, paperino
Italy. Pippo /pee'po/ and Paperino /pa-per-ee'-no/ are the
Italian names for Goofy and Donald Duck.

aap, noot, mies
The Netherlands. These are the first words a child used to
learn to spell on a Dutch spelling board.

oogle, foogle, boogle; zork, gork, bork
These two series (which may be continued with other initial
consonents) are reportedly common in England, and said to go
back to Lewis Carroll.

Of all these, only `foo' and `bar' are universal (and [8660]baz nearly
so). The compounds [8661]foobar and `foobaz' also enjoy very wide
currency.

Some jargon terms are also used as metasyntactic names; [8662]barf and
[8663]mumble, for example. See also [8664]Commonwealth Hackish for
discussion of numerous metasyntactic variables found in Great Britain
and the Commonwealth.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:MFTL, Next:[8665]mickey, Previous:[8666]metasyntactic variable,
Up:[8667]= M =

MFTL /M-F-T-L/

[abbreviation: `My Favorite Toy Language'] 1. adj. Describes a talk on
a programming language design that is heavy on the syntax (with lots
of BNF), sometimes even talks about semantics (e.g., type systems),
but rarely, if ever, has any content (see [8668]content-free). More
broadly applied to talks -- even when the topic is not a programming
language -- in which the subject matter is gone into in unnecessary
and meticulous detail at the sacrifice of any conceptual content.
"Well, it was a typical MFTL talk". 2. n. Describes a language about
which the developers are passionate (often to the point of proselytic
zeal) but no one else cares about. Applied to the language by those
outside the originating group. "He cornered me about type resolution
in his MFTL."

The first great goal in the mind of the designer of an MFTL is usually
to write a compiler for it, then bootstrap the design away from
contamination by lesser languages by writing a compiler for it in
itself. Thus, the standard put-down question at an MFTL talk is "Has
it been used for anything besides its own compiler?" On the other
hand, a (compiled) language that cannot even be used to write its own
compiler is beneath contempt. (The qualification has become necessary
because of the increasing popularity of interpreted languages like
[8669]Perl and [8670]Python. See [8671]break-even point.

(On a related note, Doug McIlroy once proposed a test of the
generality and utility of a language and the operating system under
which it is compiled: "Is the output of a FORTRAN program acceptable
as input to the FORTRAN compiler?" In other words, can you write
programs that write programs? (See [8672]toolsmith.) Alarming numbers
of (language, OS) pairs fail this test, particularly when the language
is FORTRAN; aficionados are quick to point out that [8673]Unix (even
using FORTRAN) passes it handily. That the test could ever be failed
is only surprising to those who have had the good fortune to have
worked only under modern systems which lack OS-supported and -imposed
"file types".)
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mickey, Next:[8674]mickey mouse program, Previous:[8675]MFTL,
Up:[8676]= M =

mickey n.

The resolution unit of mouse movement. It has been suggested that the
`disney' will become a benchmark unit for animation graphics
performance.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mickey mouse program, Next:[8677]micro-, Previous:[8678]mickey,
Up:[8679]= M =

mickey mouse program n.

North American equivalent of a [8680]noddy (that is, trivial) program.
Doesn't necessarily have the belittling connotations of mainstream
slang "Oh, that's just mickey mouse stuff!"; sometimes trivial
programs can be very useful.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:micro-, Next:[8681]MicroDroid, Previous:[8682]mickey mouse
program, Up:[8683]= M =

micro- pref.

1. Very small; this is the root of its use as a quantifier prefix. 2.
A quantifier prefix, calling for multiplication by 10^(-6) (see
[8684]quantifiers). Neither of these uses is peculiar to hackers, but
hackers tend to fling them both around rather more freely than is
countenanced in standard English. It is recorded, for example, that
one CS professor used to characterize the standard length of his
lectures as a microcentury -- that is, about 52.6 minutes (see also
[8685]attoparsec, [8686]nanoacre, and especially
[8687]microfortnight). 3. Personal or human-scale -- that is, capable
of being maintained or comprehended or manipulated by one human being.
This sense is generalized from `microcomputer', and is esp. used in
contrast with `macro-' (the corresponding Greek prefix meaning
`large'). 4. Local as opposed to global (or [8688]macro-). Thus a
hacker might say that buying a smaller car to reduce pollution only
solves a microproblem; the macroproblem of getting to work might be
better solved by using mass transit, moving to within walking
distance, or (best of all) telecommuting.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:MicroDroid, Next:[8689]microfloppies, Previous:[8690]micro-,
Up:[8691]= M =

MicroDroid n.

[Usenet] A Microsoft employee, esp. one who posts to various
operating-system advocacy newsgroups. MicroDroids post follow-ups to
any messages critical of Microsoft's operating systems, and often end
up sounding like visiting fundamentalist missionaries. See also
[8692]astroturfing; compare [8693]microserf.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:microfloppies, Next:[8694]microfortnight,
Previous:[8695]MicroDroid, Up:[8696]= M =

microfloppies n.

3.5-inch floppies, as opposed to 5.25-inch [8697]vanilla or
mini-floppies and the now-obsolete 8-inch variety. This term may be
headed for obsolescence as 5.25-inchers pass out of use, only to be
revived if anybody floats a sub-3-inch floppy standard. See
[8698]stiffy, [8699]minifloppies.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:microfortnight, Next:[8700]microLenat,
Previous:[8701]microfloppies, Up:[8702]= M =

microfortnight n.

1/1000000 of the fundamental unit of time in the
Furlong/Firkin/Fortnight system of measurement; 1.2096 sec. (A furlong
is 1/8th of a mile; a firkin is 1/4th of a barrel; the mass unit of
the system is taken to be a firkin of water). The VMS operating system
has a lot of tuning parameters that you can set with the SYSGEN
utility, and one of these is TIMEPROMPTWAIT, the time the system will
wait for an operator to set the correct date and time at boot if it
realizes that the current value is bogus. This time is specified in
microfortnights!

Multiple uses of the millifortnight (about 20 minutes) and
[8703]nanofortnight have also been reported.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:microLenat, Next:[8704]microReid, Previous:[8705]microfortnight,
Up:[8706]= M =

microLenat /mi:`-kroh-len'-*t/ n.

The unit of [8707]bogosity. consensus is that this is the largest unit
practical for everyday use. The microLenat, originally invented by
David Jefferson, was promulgated as an attack against noted computer
scientist Doug Lenat by a [8708]tenured graduate student at CMU. Doug
had failed the student on an important exam because the student gave
only "AI is bogus" as his answer to the questions. The slur is
generally considered unmerited, but it has become a running gag
nevertheless. Some of Doug's friends argue that of course a microLenat
is bogus, since it is only one millionth of a Lenat. Others have
suggested that the unit should be redesignated after the grad student,
as the microReid.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:microReid, Next:[8709]microserf, Previous:[8710]microLenat,
Up:[8711]= M =

microReid /mi:'kroh-reed/ n.

See [8712]microLenat.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:microserf, Next:[8713]Microsloth Windows,
Previous:[8714]microReid, Up:[8715]= M =

microserf /mi:'kro-s*rf/

[popularized, though not originated, by Douglas Copeland's book
"Microserfs"] A programmer at [8716]Microsoft, especially a low-level
coder with little chance of fame or fortune. Compare [8717]MicroDroid.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Microsloth Windows, Next:[8718]Microsoft,
Previous:[8719]microserf, Up:[8720]= M =

Microsloth Windows /mi:'kroh-sloth` win'dohz/ n.

(Variants combine {Microshift, Macroshaft, Microsuck} with {Windoze,
WinDOS}. Hackerism(s) for `Microsoft Windows'. A thirty-two bit
extension and graphical shell to a sixteen bit patch to an eight bit
operating system originally coded for a four bit microprocessor which
was written by a two-bit company that can't stand one bit of
competition. Also just called `Windoze', with the implication that you
can fall asleep waiting for it to do anything; the latter term is
extremely common on Usenet. See [8721]Black Screen of Death and
[8722]Blue Screen of Death; compare [8723]X, [8724]sun-stools.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Microsoft, Next:[8725]micros~1, Previous:[8726]Microsloth
Windows, Up:[8727]= M =

Microsoft

The new [8728]Evil Empire (the old one was [8729]IBM). The basic
complaints are, as formerly with IBM, that (a) their system designs
are horrible botches, (b) we can't get [8730]source to fix them, and
(c) they throw their weight around a lot. See also [8731]Halloween
Documents.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:micros~1, Next:[8732]middle-endian, Previous:[8733]Microsoft,
Up:[8734]= M =

micros~1

An abbreviation of the full name [8735]Microsoft resembling the rather
[8736]bogus way Windows 9x's VFAT filesystem truncates long file names
to fit in the MS-DOS 8+3 scheme (the real filename is stored
elsewhere). If other files start with the same prefix, they'll be
called micros~2 and so on, causing lots of problems with backups and
other routine system-administration problems. During the US Antitrust
trial against Microsoft the names Micros~1 ans Micros~2 were suggested
for the two companies that would exist after a break-up.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:middle-endian, Next:[8737]middle-out implementation,
Previous:[8738]micros~1, Up:[8739]= M =

middle-endian adj.

Not [8740]big-endian or [8741]little-endian. Used of perverse byte
orders such as 3-4-1-2 or 2-1-4-3, occasionally found in the
packed-decimal formats of minicomputer manufacturers who shall remain
nameless. See [8742]NUXI problem. Non-US hackers use this term to
describe the American mm/dd/yy style of writing dates (Europeans write
little-endian dd/mm/yy, and Japanese use big-endian yy/mm/dd for
Western dates).
_________________________________________________________________

Node:middle-out implementation, Next:[8743]milliLampson,
Previous:[8744]middle-endian, Up:[8745]= M =

middle-out implementation

See [8746]bottom-up implementation.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:milliLampson, Next:[8747]minifloppies, Previous:[8748]middle-out
implementation, Up:[8749]= M =

milliLampson /mil'*-lamp`sn/ n.

A unit of talking speed, abbreviated mL. Most people run about 200
milliLampsons. The eponymous Butler Lampson (a CS theorist and systems
implementor highly regarded among hackers) goes at 1000. A few people
speak faster. This unit is sometimes used to compare the (sometimes
widely disparate) rates at which people can generate ideas and
actually emit them in speech. For example, noted computer architect C.
Gordon Bell (designer of the PDP-11) is said, with some awe, to think
at about 1200 mL but only talk at about 300; he is frequently reduced
to fragments of sentences as his mouth tries to keep up with his
speeding brain.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:minifloppies, Next:[8750]MIPS, Previous:[8751]milliLampson,
Up:[8752]= M =

minifloppies n.,obs.

5.25-inch floppy disks, as opposed to 3.5-inch or [8753]microfloppies
and the long-obsolescent 8-inch variety (if there is ever a smaller
size, they will undoubtedly be tagged `nanofloppies'). At one time,
this term was a trademark of Shugart Associates for their SA-400
minifloppy drive. Nobody paid any attention. See [8754]stiffy.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:MIPS, Next:[8755]misbug, Previous:[8756]minifloppies, Up:[8757]=
M =

MIPS /mips/ n.

[abbreviation] 1. A measure of computing speed; formally, `Million
Instructions Per Second' (that's 10^6 per second, not 2^(20)!); often
rendered by hackers as `Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed' or
in other unflattering ways, such as `Meaningless Information Provided
by Salesmen'. This joke expresses an attitude nearly universal among
hackers about the value of most [8758]benchmark claims, said attitude
being one of the great cultural divides between hackers and
[8759]marketroids (see also [8760]BogoMIPS). The singular is sometimes
`1 MIP' even though this is clearly etymologically wrong. See also
[8761]KIPS and [8762]GIPS. 2. Computers, especially large computers,
considered abstractly as sources of [8763]computrons. "This is just a
workstation; the heavy MIPS are hidden in the basement." 3. The
corporate name of a particular RISC-chip company; among other things,
they designed the processor chips used in [8764]DEC's 3100 workstation
series. 4. Acronym for `Meaningless Information per Second' (a joke,
prob. from sense 1).
_________________________________________________________________

Node:misbug, Next:[8765]misfeature, Previous:[8766]MIPS, Up:[8767]= M
=

misbug /mis-buhg/ n.

[MIT; rare (like its referent)] An unintended property of a program
that turns out to be useful; something that should have been a
[8768]bug but turns out to be a [8769]feature. Compare [8770]green
lightning. See [8771]miswart.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:misfeature, Next:[8772]Missed'em-five, Previous:[8773]misbug,
Up:[8774]= M =

misfeature /mis-fee'chr/ or /mis'fee`chr/ n.

[common] A feature that eventually causes lossage, possibly because it
is not adequate for a new situation that has evolved. Since it results
from a deliberate and properly implemented feature, a misfeature is
not a bug. Nor is it a simple unforeseen side effect; the term implies
that the feature in question was carefully planned, but its long-term
consequences were not accurately or adequately predicted (which is
quite different from not having thought ahead at all). A misfeature
can be a particularly stubborn problem to resolve, because fixing it
usually involves a substantial philosophical change to the structure
of the system involved.

Many misfeatures (especially in user-interface design) arise because
the designers/implementors mistake their personal tastes for laws of
nature. Often a former feature becomes a misfeature because trade-offs
were made whose parameters subsequently change (possibly only in the
judgment of the implementors). "Well, yeah, it is kind of a misfeature
that file names are limited to six characters, but the original
implementors wanted to save directory space and we're stuck with it
for now."
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Missed'em-five, Next:[8775]missile address,
Previous:[8776]misfeature, Up:[8777]= M =

Missed'em-five n.

Pejorative hackerism for AT&T System V Unix, generally used by
[8778]BSD partisans in a bigoted mood. (The synonym `SysVile' is also
encountered.) See [8779]software bloat, [8780]Berzerkeley.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:missile address, Next:[8781]miswart,
Previous:[8782]Missed'em-five, Up:[8783]= M =

missile address n.

See [8784]ICBM address.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:miswart, Next:[8785]MMF, Previous:[8786]missile address,
Up:[8787]= M =

miswart /mis-wort/ n.

[from [8788]wart by analogy with [8789]misbug] A [8790]feature that
superficially appears to be a [8791]wart but has been determined to be
the [8792]Right Thing. For example, in some versions of the
[8793]EMACS text editor, the `transpose characters' command exchanges
the character under the cursor with the one before it on the screen,
except when the cursor is at the end of a line, in which case the two
characters before the cursor are exchanged. While this behavior is
perhaps surprising, and certainly inconsistent, it has been found
through extensive experimentation to be what most users want. This
feature is a miswart.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:MMF, Next:[8794]mobo, Previous:[8795]miswart, Up:[8796]= M =

MMF //

[Usenet; common] Abbreviation: "Make Money Fast". Refers to any kind
of scheme which promises participants large profits with little or no
risk or effort. Typically, it is a some kind of multi-level marketing
operation which involves recruiting more members, or an illegal
pyramid scam. The term is also used to refer to any kind of spam which
promotes this. For more information, see the [8797]Make Money Fast
Myth Page.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mobo, Next:[8798]moby, Previous:[8799]MMF, Up:[8800]= M =

mobo /moh'bo/

Written and (rarely) spoken contraction of "motherboard"
_________________________________________________________________

Node:moby, Next:[8801]mockingbird, Previous:[8802]mobo, Up:[8803]= M =

moby /moh'bee/

[MIT: seems to have been in use among model railroad fans years ago.
Derived from Melville's "Moby Dick" (some say from `Moby Pickle'). Now
common.] 1. adj. Large, immense, complex, impressive. "A Saturn V
rocket is a truly moby frob." "Some MIT undergrads pulled off a moby
hack at the Harvard-Yale game." (See [8804]Appendix A for discussion.)
2. n. obs. The maximum address space of a machine (see below). For a
680[234]0 or VAX or most modern 32-bit architectures, it is
4,294,967,296 8-bit bytes (4 gigabytes). 3. A title of address (never
of third-person reference), usually used to show admiration, respect,
and/or friendliness to a competent hacker. "Greetings, moby Dave.
How's that address-book thing for the Mac going?" 4. adj. In
backgammon, doubles on the dice, as in `moby sixes', `moby ones', etc.
Compare this with [8805]bignum (sense 3): double sixes are both
bignums and moby sixes, but moby ones are not bignums (the use of
`moby' to describe double ones is sarcastic). Standard emphatic forms:
`Moby foo', `moby win', `moby loss'. `Foby moo': a spoonerism due to
Richard Greenblatt. 5. The largest available unit of something which
is available in discrete increments. Thus, ordering a "moby Coke" at
the local fast-food joint is not just a request for a large Coke, it's
an explicit request for the largest size they sell.

This term entered hackerdom with the Fabritek 256K memory added to the
MIT AI PDP-6 machine, which was considered unimaginably huge when it
was installed in the 1960s (at a time when a more typical memory size
for a timesharing system was 72 kilobytes). Thus, a moby is
classically 256K 36-bit words, the size of a PDP-6 or PDP-10 moby.
Back when address registers were narrow the term was more generally
useful, because when a computer had virtual memory mapping, it might
actually have more physical memory attached to it than any one program
could access directly. One could then say "This computer has 6 mobies"
meaning that the ratio of physical memory to address space is 6,
without having to say specifically how much memory there actually is.
That in turn implied that the computer could timeshare six
`full-sized' programs without having to swap programs between memory
and disk.

Nowadays the low cost of processor logic means that address spaces are
usually larger than the most physical memory you can cram onto a
machine, so most systems have much less than one theoretical `native'
moby of [8806]core. Also, more modern memory-management techniques
(esp. paging) make the `moby count' less significant. However, there
is one series of widely-used chips for which the term could stand to
be revived -- the Intel 8088 and 80286 with their incredibly
[8807]brain-damaged segmented-memory designs. On these, a `moby' would
be the 1-megabyte address span of a segment/offset pair (by
coincidence, a PDP-10 moby was exactly 1 megabyte of 9-bit bytes).
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mockingbird, Next:[8808]mod, Previous:[8809]moby, Up:[8810]= M =

mockingbird n.

Software that intercepts communications (especially login
transactions) between users and hosts and provides system-like
responses to the users while saving their responses (especially
account IDs and passwords). A special case of [8811]Trojan horse.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mod, Next:[8812]mode, Previous:[8813]mockingbird, Up:[8814]= M =

mod vt.,n.

[very common] 1. Short for `modify' or `modification'. Very commonly
used -- in fact the full terms are considered markers that one is
being formal. The plural `mods' is used esp. with reference to bug
fixes or minor design changes in hardware or software, most esp. with
respect to [8815]patch sets or a [8816]diff. 2. Short for [8817]modulo
but used only for its techspeak sense.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mode, Next:[8818]mode bit, Previous:[8819]mod, Up:[8820]= M =

mode n.

[common] A general state, usually used with an adjective describing
the state. Use of the word `mode' rather than `state' implies that the
state is extended over time, and probably also that some activity
characteristic of that state is being carried out. "No time to hack;
I'm in thesis mode." In its jargon sense, `mode' is most often
attributed to people, though it is sometimes applied to programs and
inanimate objects. In particular, see [8821]hack mode, [8822]day mode,
[8823]night mode, [8824]demo mode, [8825]fireworks mode, and
[8826]yoyo mode; also [8827]talk mode.

One also often hears the verbs `enable' and `disable' used in
connection with jargon modes. Thus, for example, a sillier way of
saying "I'm going to crash" is "I'm going to enable crash mode now".
One might also hear a request to "disable flame mode, please".

In a usage much closer to techspeak, a mode is a special state that
certain user interfaces must pass into in order to perform certain
functions. For example, in order to insert characters into a document
in the Unix editor vi, one must type the "i" key, which invokes the
"Insert" command. The effect of this command is to put vi into "insert
mode", in which typing the "i" key has a quite different effect (to
wit, it inserts an "i" into the document). One must then hit another
special key, "ESC", in order to leave "insert mode". Nowadays, modeful
interfaces are generally considered [8828]losing but survive in quite
a few widely used tools built in less enlightened times.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mode bit, Next:[8829]modulo, Previous:[8830]mode, Up:[8831]= M =

mode bit n.

[common] A [8832]flag, usually in hardware, that selects between two
(usually quite different) modes of operation. The connotations are
different from [8833]flag bit in that mode bits are mainly written
during a boot or set-up phase, are seldom explicitly read, and seldom
change over the lifetime of an ordinary program. The classic example
was the EBCDIC-vs.-ASCII bit (#12) of the Program Status Word of the
IBM 360.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:modulo, Next:[8834]molly-guard, Previous:[8835]mode bit,
Up:[8836]= M =

modulo /mod'yu-loh/ prep.

Except for. An overgeneralization of mathematical terminology; one can
consider saying that 4 equals 22 except for the 9s (4 = 22 mod 9).
"Well, LISP seems to work okay now, modulo that [8837]GC bug." "I feel
fine today modulo a slight headache."
_________________________________________________________________

Node:molly-guard, Next:[8838]Mongolian Hordes technique,
Previous:[8839]modulo, Up:[8840]= M =

molly-guard /mol'ee-gard/ n.

[University of Illinois] A shield to prevent tripping of some
[8841]Big Red Switch by clumsy or ignorant hands. Originally used of
the plexiglass covers improvised for the BRS on an IBM 4341 after a
programmer's toddler daughter (named Molly) frobbed it twice in one
day. Later generalized to covers over stop/reset switches on disk
drives and networking equipment. In hardware catalogues, you'll see
the much less interesting description "guarded button".
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Mongolian Hordes technique, Next:[8842]monkey up,
Previous:[8843]molly-guard, Up:[8844]= M =

Mongolian Hordes technique n.

[poss. from the Sixties counterculture expression `Mongolian
clusterfuck' for a public orgy] Development by [8845]gang bang.
Implies that large numbers of inexperienced programmers are being put
on a job better performed by a few skilled ones (but see
[8846]bazaar). Also called `Chinese Army technique'; see also
[8847]Brooks's Law.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:monkey up, Next:[8848]monkey scratch, Previous:[8849]Mongolian
Hordes technique, Up:[8850]= M =

monkey up vt.

To hack together hardware for a particular task, especially a one-shot
job. Connotes an extremely [8851]crufty and consciously temporary
solution. Compare [8852]hack up, [8853]kluge up, [8854]cruft together.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:monkey scratch, Next:[8855]monstrosity, Previous:[8856]monkey up,
Up:[8857]= M =

monkey, scratch n.

See [8858]scratch monkey.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:monstrosity, Next:[8859]monty, Previous:[8860]monkey scratch,
Up:[8861]= M =

monstrosity

1. n. A ridiculously [8862]elephantine program or system, esp. one
that is buggy or only marginally functional. 2. adj. The quality of
being monstrous (see `Overgeneralization' in the discussion of
jargonification). See also [8863]baroque.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:monty, Next:[8864]Moof, Previous:[8865]monstrosity, Up:[8866]= M
=

monty /mon'tee/ n.

1. [US Geological Survey] A program with a ludicrously complex user
interface written to perform extremely trivial tasks. An example would
be a menu-driven, button clicking, pulldown, pop-up windows program
for listing directories. The original monty was an infamous
weather-reporting program, Monty the Amazing Weather Man, written at
the USGS. Monty had a widget-packed X-window interface with over 200
buttons; and all monty actually did was [8867]FTP files off the
network. 2. [Great Britain; commonly capitalized as `Monty' or as `the
Full Monty'] 16 megabytes of memory, when fitted to an IBM-PC or
compatible. A standard PC-compatible using the AT- or ISA-bus with a
normal BIOS cannot access more than 16 megabytes of RAM. Generally
used of a PC, Unix workstation, etc. to mean `fully populated with'
memory, disk-space or some other desirable resource. This usage may be
related to a TV commercial for Del Monte fruit juice, in which one of
the characters insisted on "the full Del Monte"; but see the World
Wide Words article [8868]"The Full Monty" for discussion of the rather
complex etymology that may lie behind this. Compare American
[8869]moby.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Moof, Next:[8870]Moore's Law, Previous:[8871]monty, Up:[8872]= M
=

Moof /moof/

[Macintosh users] 1. n. The call of a semi-legendary creature,
properly called the [8873]dogcow. (Some previous versions of this
entry claimed, incorrectly, that Moof was the name of the creature.)
2. adj. Used to flag software that's a hack, something untested and on
the edge. On one Apple CD-ROM, certain folders such as "Tools & Apps
(Moof!)" and "Development Platforms (Moof!)", are so marked to
indicate that they contain software not fully tested or sanctioned by
the powers that be. When you open these folders you cross the boundary
into hackerland. 3. v. On the Microsoft Network, the term `moof' has
gained popularity as a verb meaning `to be suddenly disconnected by
the system'. One might say "I got moofed".
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Moore's Law, Next:[8874]moose call, Previous:[8875]Moof,
Up:[8876]= M =

Moore's Law /morz law/ prov.

The observation that the logic density of silicon integrated circuits
has closely followed the curve (bits per square inch) = 2^(t - 1962)
where t is time in years; that is, the amount of information storable
on a given amount of silicon has roughly doubled every year since the
technology was invented. This relation, first uttered in 1964 by
semiconductor engineer Gordon Moore (who co-founded Intel four years
later) held until the late 1970s, at which point the doubling period
slowed to 18 months. The doubling period remained at that value
through time of writing (late 1999). Moore's Law is apparently
self-fulfilling. The implication is that somebody, somewhere is going
to be able to build a better chip than you if you rest on your
laurels, so you'd better start pushing hard on the problem. See also
[8877]Parkinson's Law of Data and [8878]Gates's Law.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:moose call, Next:[8879]moria, Previous:[8880]Moore's Law,
Up:[8881]= M =

moose call n.

See [8882]whalesong.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:moria, Next:[8883]MOTAS, Previous:[8884]moose call, Up:[8885]= M
=

moria /mor'ee-*/ n.

Like [8886]nethack and [8887]rogue, one of the large PD
Dungeons-and-Dragons-like simulation games, available for a wide range
of machines and operating systems. The name is from Tolkien's Mines of
Moria; compare [8888]elder days, [8889]elvish. The game is extremely
addictive and a major consumer of time better used for hacking. See
also [8890]nethack, [8891]rogue, [8892]Angband.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:MOTAS, Next:[8893]MOTOS, Previous:[8894]moria, Up:[8895]= M =

MOTAS /moh-tahz/ n.

[Usenet: Member Of The Appropriate Sex, after [8896]MOTOS and
[8897]MOTSS] A potential or (less often) actual sex partner. See also
[8898]SO.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:MOTOS, Next:[8899]MOTSS, Previous:[8900]MOTAS, Up:[8901]= M =

MOTOS /moh-tohs/ n.

[acronym from the 1970 U.S. census forms via Usenet: Member Of The
Opposite Sex] A potential or (less often) actual sex partner. See
[8902]MOTAS, [8903]MOTSS, [8904]SO. Less common than MOTSS or
[8905]MOTAS, which has largely displaced it.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:MOTSS, Next:[8906]mouse ahead, Previous:[8907]MOTOS, Up:[8908]= M
=

MOTSS /mots/ or /M-O-T-S-S/ n.

[from the 1970 U.S. census forms via Usenet] Member Of The Same Sex,
esp. one considered as a possible sexual partner. The gay-issues
newsgroup on Usenet is called soc.motss. See [8909]MOTOS and
[8910]MOTAS, which derive from it. See also [8911]SO.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mouse ahead, Next:[8912]mouse around, Previous:[8913]MOTSS,
Up:[8914]= M =

mouse ahead vi.

Point-and-click analog of `type ahead'. To manipulate a computer's
pointing device (almost always a mouse in this usage, but not
necessarily) and its selection or command buttons before a computer
program is ready to accept such input, in anticipation of the program
accepting the input. Handling this properly is rare, but it can help
make a [8915]WIMP environment much more usable, assuming the users are
familiar with the behavior of the user interface.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mouse around, Next:[8916]mouse belt, Previous:[8917]mouse ahead,
Up:[8918]= M =

mouse around vi.

To explore public portions of a large system, esp. a network such as
Internet via [8919]FTP or [8920]TELNET, looking for interesting stuff
to [8921]snarf.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mouse belt, Next:[8922]mouse droppings, Previous:[8923]mouse
around, Up:[8924]= M =

mouse belt n.

See [8925]rat belt.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mouse droppings, Next:[8926]mouse elbow, Previous:[8927]mouse
belt, Up:[8928]= M =

mouse droppings n.

[MS-DOS] Pixels (usually single) that are not properly restored when
the mouse pointer moves away from a particular location on the screen,
producing the appearance that the mouse pointer has left droppings
behind. The major causes for this problem are programs that write to
the screen memory corresponding to the mouse pointer's current
location without hiding the mouse pointer first, and mouse drivers
that do not quite support the graphics mode in use.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mouse elbow, Next:[8929]mouso, Previous:[8930]mouse droppings,
Up:[8931]= M =

mouse elbow n.

A tennis-elbow-like fatigue syndrome resulting from excessive use of a
[8932]WIMP environment. Similarly, `mouse shoulder'; GLS reports that
he used to get this a lot before he taught himself to be
ambimoustrous.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mouso, Next:[8933]MS-DOS, Previous:[8934]mouse elbow, Up:[8935]=
M =

mouso /mow'soh/ n.

[by analogy with `typo'] An error in mouse usage resulting in an
inappropriate selection or graphic garbage on the screen. Compare
[8936]thinko, [8937]braino.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:MS-DOS, Next:[8938]mu, Previous:[8939]mouso, Up:[8940]= M =

MS-DOS /M-S-dos/ n.

[MicroSoft Disk Operating System] A [8941]clone of [8942]CP/M for the
8088 crufted together in 6 weeks by hacker Tim Paterson at Seattle
Computer Products, who called the original QDOS (Quick and Dirty
Operating System) and is said to have regretted it ever since.
Microsoft licensed QDOS order to have something to demo for IBM on
time, and the rest is history. Numerous features, including vaguely
Unix-like but rather broken support for subdirectories, I/O
redirection, and pipelines, were hacked into Microsoft's 2.0 and
subsequent versions; as a result, there are two or more incompatible
versions of many system calls, and MS-DOS programmers can never agree
on basic things like what character to use as an option switch or
whether to be case-sensitive. The resulting appalling mess is now the
highest-unit-volume OS in history. Often known simply as DOS, which
annoys people familiar with other similarly abbreviated operating
systems (the name goes back to the mid-1960s, when it was attached to
IBM's first disk operating system for the 360). The name further
annoys those who know what the term [8943]operating system does (or
ought to) connote; DOS is more properly a set of relatively simple
interrupt services. Some people like to pronounce DOS like "dose", as
in "I don't work on dose, man!", or to compare it to a dose of
brain-damaging drugs (a slogan button in wide circulation among
hackers exhorts: "MS-DOS: Just say No!"). See [8944]mess-dos,
[8945]ill-behaved.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mu, Next:[8946]MUD, Previous:[8947]MS-DOS, Up:[8948]= M =

mu /moo/

The correct answer to the classic trick question "Have you stopped
beating your wife yet?". Assuming that you have no wife or you have
never beaten your wife, the answer "yes" is wrong because it implies
that you used to beat your wife and then stopped, but "no" is worse
because it suggests that you have one and are still beating her.
According to various Discordians and Douglas Hofstadter the correct
answer is usually "mu", a Japanese word alleged to mean "Your question
cannot be answered because it depends on incorrect assumptions".
Hackers tend to be sensitive to logical inadequacies in language, and
many have adopted this suggestion with enthusiasm. The word `mu' is
actually from Chinese, meaning `nothing'; it is used in mainstream
Japanese in that sense. Native speakers do not recognize the
Discordian question-denying use, which almost certainly derives from
overgeneralization of the answer in the following well-known Rinzai
Zen [8949]koan:

A monk asked Joshu, "Does a dog have the Buddha nature?" Joshu
retorted, "Mu!"

See also [8950]has the X nature, [8951]Some AI Koans, and Douglas
Hofstadter's "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" (pointer
in the [8952]Bibliography in Appendix C.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:MUD, Next:[8953]muddie, Previous:[8954]mu, Up:[8955]= M =

MUD /muhd/ n.

[acronym, Multi-User Dungeon; alt. Multi-User Dimension] 1. A class of
[8956]virtual reality experiments accessible via the Internet. These
are real-time chat forums with structure; they have multiple
`locations' like an adventure game, and may include combat, traps,
puzzles, magic, a simple economic system, and the capability for
characters to build more structure onto the database that represents
the existing world. 2. vi. To play a MUD. The acronym MUD is often
lowercased and/or verbed; thus, one may speak of `going mudding', etc.

Historically, MUDs (and their more recent progeny with names of MU-
form) derive from a hack by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw on the
University of Essex's DEC-10 in the early 1980s; descendants of that
game still exist today and are sometimes generically called
BartleMUDs. There is a widespread myth (repeated, unfortunately, by
earlier versions of this lexicon) that the name MUD was trademarked to
the commercial MUD run by Bartle on British Telecom (the motto: "You
haven't lived 'til you've died on MUD!"); however, this is false --
Richard Bartle explicitly placed `MUD' in the public domain in 1985.
BT was upset at this, as they had already printed trademark claims on
some maps and posters, which were released and created the myth.

Students on the European academic networks quickly improved on the MUD
concept, spawning several new MUDs (VAXMUD, AberMUD, LPMUD). Many of
these had associated bulletin-board systems for social interaction.
Because these had an image as `research' they often survived
administrative hostility to BBSs in general. This, together with the
fact that Usenet feeds were often spotty and difficult to get in the
U.K., made the MUDs major foci of hackish social interaction there.

AberMUD and other variants crossed the Atlantic around 1988 and
quickly gained popularity in the U.S.; they became nuclei for large
hacker communities with only loose ties to traditional hackerdom (some
observers see parallels with the growth of Usenet in the early 1980s).
The second wave of MUDs (TinyMUD and variants) tended to emphasize
social interaction, puzzles, and cooperative world-building as opposed
to combat and competition (in writing, these social MUDs are sometimes
referred to as `MU*', with `MUD' implicitly reserved for the more
game-oriented ones). By 1991, over 50% of MUD sites were of a third
major variety, LPMUD, which synthesizes the combat/puzzle aspects of
AberMUD and older systems with the extensibility of TinyMud. In 1996
the cutting edge of the technology is Pavel Curtis's MOO, even more
extensible using a built-in object-oriented language. The trend toward
greater programmability and flexibility will doubtless continue.

The state of the art in MUD design is still moving very rapidly, with
new simulation designs appearing (seemingly) every month. Around 1991
there was an unsuccessful movement to deprecate the term [8957]MUD
itself, as newer designs exhibit an exploding variety of names
corresponding to the different simulation styles being explored. It
survived. See also [8958]bonk/oif, [8959]FOD, [8960]link-dead,
[8961]mudhead, [8962]talk mode.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:muddie, Next:[8963]mudhead, Previous:[8964]MUD, Up:[8965]= M =

muddie n.

Syn. [8966]mudhead. More common in Great Britain, possibly because
system administrators there like to mutter "bloody muddies" when
annoyed at the species.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:mudhead, Next:[8967]muggle, Previous:[8968]muddie, Up:[8969]= M =

mudhead n.

Commonly used to refer to a [8970]MUD player who eats, sleeps, and
breathes MUD. Mudheads have been known to fail their degrees, drop
out, etc., with the consolation, however, that they made wizard level.
When encountered in person, on a MUD, or in a chat system, all a
mudhead will talk about is three topics: the tactic, character, or
wizard that is supposedly always unfairly stopping him/her from
becoming a wizard or beating a favorite MUD; why the specific game
he/she has experience with is so much better than any other; and the
MUD he or she is writing or going to write because his/her design
ideas are so much better than in any existing MUD. See also
[8971]wannabee.

To the anthropologically literate, this term may recall the Zuni/Hopi
legend of the mudheads or `koyemshi', mythical half-formed children of
an unnatural union. Figures representing them act as clowns in Zuni
sacred ceremonies. Others may recall the `High School Madness'
sequence from the Firesign Theatre album "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand
Me the Pliers", in which there is a character named "Mudhead".
_________________________________________________________________

Node:muggle, Next:[8972]multician, Previous:[8973]mudhead, Up:[8974]=
M =

muggle

[from J.K. Rowling's `Harry Potter' books, 1998] A non-[8975]wizard.
Not as disparaging as [8976]luser; implies vague pity rather than
contempt. In the universe of Rowling's enormously (and deservedly)
popular children's series, muggles and wizards inhabit the same modern
world, but each group is ignorant of the commonplaces of the others'
existence - most muggles are unaware that wizards exist, and wizards
(used to magical ways of doing everything) are perplexed and
fascinated by muggle artifacts.

In retrospect it seems completely inevitable that hackers would adopt
this metaphor, and in hacker usage it readily forms compounds such as
`muggle-friendly'. Compare [8977]luser, [8978]mundane.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:multician, Next:[8979]Multics, Previous:[8980]muggle, Up:[8981]=
M =

multician /muhl-ti'shn/ n.

[coined at Honeywell, ca. 1970] Competent user of [8982]Multics.
Perhaps oddly, no one has ever promoted the analogous `Unician'.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Multics, Next:[8983]multitask, Previous:[8984]multician,
Up:[8985]= M =

Multics /muhl'tiks/ n.

[from "MULTiplexed Information and Computing Service"] An early
time-sharing [8986]operating system co-designed by a consortium
including MIT, GE, and Bell Laboratories as a successor to [8987]CTSS.
The design was first presented in 1965, planned for operation in 1967,
first operational in 1969, and took several more years to achieve
respectable performance and stability.

Multics was very innovative for its time -- among other things, it
provided a hierarchical file system with access control on individual
files and introduced the idea of treating all devices uniformly as
special files. It was also the first OS to run on a symmetric
multiprocessor, and the only general-purpose system to be awarded a B2
security rating by the NSA (see [8988]Orange Book).

Bell Labs left the development effort in 1969 after judging that
[8989]second-system effect had bloated Multics to the point of
practical unusability. Honeywell commercialized Multics in 1972 after
buying out GE's computer group, but it was never very successful: at
its peak in the 1980s, there were between 75 and 100 Multics sites,
each a multi-million dollar mainframe.

One of the former Multics developers from Bell Labs was Ken Thompson,
and [8990]Unix deliberately carried through and extended many of
Multics' design ideas; indeed, Thompson described the very name `Unix'
as `a weak pun on Multics'. For this and other reasons, aspects of the
Multics design remain a topic of occasional debate among hackers. See
also [8991]brain-damaged and [8992]GCOS.

MIT ended its development association with Multics in 1977. Honeywell
sold its computer business to Bull in the mid 80s, and development on
Multics was stopped in 1988. Four Multics sites were known to be still
in use as late as 1998. There is a Multics page at
[8993]http://www.stratus.com/pub/vos/multics/tvv/multics.html.
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Node:multitask, Next:[8994]mumblage, Previous:[8995]Multics,
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multitask n.

Often used of humans in the same meaning it has for computers, to
describe a person doing several things at once (but see [8997]thrash).
The term `multiplex', from communications technology (meaning to
handle more than one channel at the same time), is used similarly.
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Node:mumblage, Next:[8998]mumble, Previous:[8999]multitask, Up:[9000]=
M =

mumblage /muhm'bl*j/ n.

The topic of one's mumbling (see [9001]mumble). "All that mumblage" is
used like "all that stuff" when it is not quite clear how the subject
of discussion works, or like "all that crap" when `mumble' is being
used as an implicit replacement for pejoratives.
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Node:mumble, Next:[9002]munch, Previous:[9003]mumblage, Up:[9004]= M =

mumble interj.

1. Said when the correct response is too complicated to enunciate, or
the speaker has not thought it out. Often prefaces a longer answer, or
indicates a general reluctance to get into a long discussion. "Don't
you think that we could improve LISP performance by using a hybrid
reference-count transaction garbage collector, if the cache is big
enough and there are some extra cache bits for the microcode to use?"
"Well, mumble ... I'll have to think about it." 2. [MIT] Expression of
not-quite-articulated agreement, often used as an informal vote of
consensus in a meeting: "So, shall we dike out the COBOL emulation?"
"Mumble!" 3. Sometimes used as an expression of disagreement
(distinguished from sense 2 by tone of voice and other cues). "I think
we should buy a [9005]VAX." "Mumble!" Common variant: `mumble frotz'
(see [9006]frotz; interestingly, one does not say `mumble frobnitz'
even though `frotz' is short for `frobnitz'). 4. Yet another
[9007]metasyntactic variable, like [9008]foo. 5. When used as a
question ("Mumble?") means "I didn't understand you". 6. Sometimes
used in `public' contexts on-line as a placefiller for things one is
barred from giving details about. For example, a poster with
pre-released hardware in his machine might say "Yup, my machine now
has an extra 16M of memory, thanks to the card I'm testing for
Mumbleco." 7. A conversational wild card used to designate something
one doesn't want to bother spelling out, but which can be
[9009]glarked from context. Compare [9010]blurgle. 8. [XEROX PARC] A
colloquialism used to suggest that further discussion would be
fruitless.
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Node:munch, Next:[9011]munching, Previous:[9012]mumble, Up:[9013]= M =

munch vt.

[often confused with [9014]mung, q.v.] To transform information in a
serial fashion, often requiring large amounts of computation. To trace
down a data structure. Related to [9015]crunch and nearly synonymous
with [9016]grovel, but connotes less pain.
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Node:munching, Next:[9017]munching squares, Previous:[9018]munch,
Up:[9019]= M =

munching n.

Exploration of security holes of someone else's computer for thrills,
notoriety, or to annoy the system manager. Compare [9020]cracker. See
also [9021]hacked off.
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Node:munching squares, Next:[9022]munchkin, Previous:[9023]munching,
Up:[9024]= M =

munching squares n.

A [9025]display hack dating back to the PDP-1 (ca. 1962, reportedly
discovered by Jackson Wright), which employs a trivial computation
(repeatedly plotting the graph Y = X XOR T for successive values of T
-- see [9026]HAKMEM items 146-148) to produce an impressive display of
moving and growing squares that devour the screen. The initial value
of T is treated as a parameter, which, when well-chosen, can produce
amazing effects. Some of these, later (re)discovered on the LISP
machine, have been christened `munching triangles' (try AND for XOR
and toggling points instead of plotting them), `munching w's', and
`munching mazes'. More generally, suppose a graphics program produces
an impressive and ever-changing display of some basic form, foo, on a
display terminal, and does it using a relatively simple program; then
the program (or the resulting display) is likely to be referred to as
`munching foos'. [This is a good example of the use of the word
[9027]foo as a [9028]metasyntactic variable.]
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Node:munchkin, Next:[9029]mundane, Previous:[9030]munching squares,
Up:[9031]= M =

munchkin /muhnch'kin/ n.

[from the squeaky-voiced little people in L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard
of Oz"] A teenage-or-younger micro enthusiast hacking BASIC or
something else equally constricted. A term of mild derision --
munchkins are annoying but some grow up to be hackers after passing
through a [9032]larval stage. The term [9033]urchin is also used. See
also [9034]wannabee, [9035]bitty box.
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Node:mundane, Next:[9036]mung, Previous:[9037]munchkin, Up:[9038]= M =

mundane n.

[from SF fandom] 1. A person who is not in science fiction fandom. 2.
A person who is not in the computer industry. In this sense, most
often an adjectival modifier as in "in my mundane life...." See also
[9039]Real World, [9040]muggle.
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Node:mung, Next:[9041]munge, Previous:[9042]mundane, Up:[9043]= M =

mung /muhng/ vt.

[in 1960 at MIT, `Mash Until No Good'; sometime after that the
derivation from the [9044]recursive acronym `Mung Until No Good'
became standard; but see [9045]munge] 1. To make changes to a file,
esp. large-scale and irrevocable changes. See [9046]BLT. 2. To
destroy, usually accidentally, occasionally maliciously. The system
only mungs things maliciously; this is a consequence of
[9047]Finagle's Law. See [9048]scribble, [9049]mangle, [9050]trash,
[9051]nuke. Reports from [9052]Usenet suggest that the pronunciation
/muhnj/ is now usual in speech, but the spelling `mung' is still
common in program comments (compare the widespread confusion over the
proper spelling of [9053]kluge). 3. The kind of beans the sprouts of
which are used in Chinese food. (That's their real name! Mung beans!
Really!)

Like many early hacker terms, this one seems to have originated at
[9054]TMRC; it was already in use there in 1958. Peter Samson
(compiler of the original TMRC lexicon) thinks it may originally have
been onomatopoeic for the sound of a relay spring (contact) being
twanged. However, it is known that during the World Wars, `mung' was
U.S. army slang for the ersatz creamed chipped beef better known as
`SOS', and it seems quite likely that the word in fact goes back to
Scots-dialect [9055]munge.
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Node:munge, Next:[9056]Murphy's Law, Previous:[9057]mung, Up:[9058]= M
=

munge /muhnj/ vt.

1. [derogatory] To imperfectly transform information. 2. A
comprehensive rewrite of a routine, data structure or the whole
program. 3. To modify data in some way the speaker doesn't need to go
into right now or cannot describe succinctly (compare [9059]mumble).
4. To add [9060]spamblock to an email address.

This term is often confused with [9061]mung, which probably was
derived from it. However, it also appears the word `munge' was in
common use in Scotland in the 1940s, and in Yorkshire in the 1950s, as
a verb, meaning to munch up into a masticated mess, and as a noun,
meaning the result of munging something up (the parallel with the
[9062]kluge/[9063]kludge pair is amusing). The OED reports `munge' as
an archaic verb nmeaning "to wipe (a person's nose)".
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Node:Murphy's Law, Next:[9064]music, Previous:[9065]munge, Up:[9066]=
M =

Murphy's Law prov.

The correct, original Murphy's Law reads: "If there are two or more
ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a
catastrophe, then someone will do it." This is a principle of
defensive design, cited here because it is usually given in mutant
forms less descriptive of the challenges of design for [9067]lusers.
For example, you don't make a two-pin plug symmetrical and then label
it `THIS WAY UP'; if it matters which way it is plugged in, then you
make the design asymmetrical (see also the anecdote under [9068]magic
smoke).

Edward A. Murphy, Jr. was one of the engineers on the rocket-sled
experiments that were done by the U.S. Air Force in 1949 to test human
acceleration tolerances (USAF project MX981). One experiment involved
a set of 16 accelerometers mounted to different parts of the subject's
body. There were two ways each sensor could be glued to its mount, and
somebody methodically installed all 16 the wrong way around. Murphy
then made the original form of his pronouncement, which the test
subject (Major John Paul Stapp) quoted at a news conference a few days
later.

Within months `Murphy's Law' had spread to various technical cultures
connected to aerospace engineering. Before too many years had gone by
variants had passed into the popular imagination, changing as