Books: The New Hacker\'s Dictionary version 4.2.2

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* [9890]P-mail:
* [9891]P.O.D.:
* [9892]packet over air:
* [9893]padded cell:
* [9894]page in:
* [9895]page out:
* [9896]pain in the net:
* [9897]Pangloss parity:
* [9898]paper-net:
* [9899]param:
* [9900]PARC:
* [9901]parent message:
* [9902]parity errors:
* [9903]Parkinson's Law of Data:
* [9904]parm:
* [9905]parse:
* [9906]Pascal:
* [9907]pastie:
* [9908]patch:
* [9909]patch pumpkin:
* [9910]patch space:
* [9911]path:
* [9912]pathological:
* [9913]payware:
* [9914]PBD:
* [9915]PC-ism:
* [9916]PD:
* [9917]PDL:
* [9918]PDP-10:
* [9919]PDP-20:
* [9920]PEBKAC:
* [9921]peek:
* [9922]pencil and paper:
* [9923]Pentagram Pro:
* [9924]Pentium:
* [9925]peon:
* [9926]percent-S:
* [9927]perf:
* [9928]perfect programmer syndrome:
* [9929]Perl:
* [9930]person of no account:
* [9931]pessimal:
* [9932]pessimizing compiler:
* [9933]peta-:
* [9934]PETSCII:
* [9935]PFY:
* [9936]phage:
* [9937]phase:
* [9938]phase of the moon:
* [9939]phase-wrapping:
* [9940]PHB:
* [9941]phreaker:
* [9942]phreaking:
* [9943]pico-:
* [9944]pig-tail:
* [9945]pilot error:
* [9946]ping:
* [9947]Ping O' Death:
* [9948]ping storm:
* [9949]pink wire:
* [9950]pipe:
* [9951]pistol:
* [9952]pixel sort:
* [9953]pizza box:
* [9954]plaid screen:
* [9955]plain-ASCII:
* [9956]plan file:
* [9957]platinum-iridium:
* [9958]playpen:
* [9959]playte:
* [9960]plingnet:
* [9961]plokta:
* [9962]plonk:
* [9963]plug-and-pray:
* [9964]plugh:
* [9965]plumbing:
* [9966]PM:
* [9967]pnambic:
* [9968]pod:
* [9969]point-and-drool interface:
* [9970]pointy hat:
* [9971]pointy-haired:
* [9972]poke:
* [9973]poll:
* [9974]polygon pusher:
* [9975]POM:
* [9976]pop:
* [9977]POPJ:
* [9978]poser:
* [9979]post:
* [9980]postcardware:
* [9981]posting:
* [9982]postmaster:
* [9983]PostScript:
* [9984]pound on:
* [9985]power cycle:
* [9986]power hit:
* [9987]PPN:
* [9988]pr0n:
* [9989]precedence lossage:
* [9990]prepend:
* [9991]prestidigitization:
* [9992]pretty pictures:
* [9993]prettyprint:
* [9994]pretzel key:
* [9995]priesthood:
* [9996]prime time:
* [9997]print:
* [9998]printing discussion:
* [9999]priority interrupt:
* [10000]profile:
* [10001]progasm:
* [10002]proggy:
* [10003]proglet:
* [10004]program:
* [10005]Programmer's Cheer:
* [10006]programming:
* [10007]programming fluid:
* [10008]propeller head:
* [10009]propeller key:
* [10010]proprietary:
* [10011]protocol:
* [10012]provocative maintenance:
* [10013]prowler:
* [10014]pseudo:
* [10015]pseudoprime:
* [10016]pseudosuit:
* [10017]psychedelicware:
* [10018]psyton:
* [10019]pubic directory:
* [10020]puff:
* [10021]pumpkin holder:
* [10022]pumpking:
* [10023]punched card:
* [10024]punt:
* [10025]Purple Book:
* [10026]purple wire:
* [10027]push:
* [10028]Python:
_________________________________________________________________

Node:P-mail, Next:[10029]P.O.D., Previous:[10030]overrun screw,
Up:[10031]= P =

P-mail n.

[rare] Physical mail, as opposed to [10032]email. Synonymous with
[10033]snail-mail, but much less common.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:P.O.D., Next:[10034]packet over air, Previous:[10035]P-mail,
Up:[10036]= P =

P.O.D. /P-O-D/

[rare] Acronym for `Piece Of Data' (as opposed to a code section). See
also [10037]pod.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:packet over air, Next:[10038]padded cell, Previous:[10039]P.O.D.,
Up:[10040]= P =

packet over air

[common among backbone ISPs] The protocol notionally being used by
Internet data attempting to traverse a physical gap or break in the
network, such as might be caused by a [10041]fiber-seeking backhoe. "I
see why you're dropping packets. You seem to have a packet over air
problem.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:padded cell, Next:[10042]page in, Previous:[10043]packet over
air, Up:[10044]= P =

padded cell n.

Where you put [10045]lusers so they can't hurt anything. A program
that limits a luser to a carefully restricted subset of the
capabilities of the host system (for example, the rsh(1) utility on
USG Unix). Note that this is different from an [10046]iron box because
it is overt and not aimed at enforcing security so much as protecting
others (and the luser) from the consequences of the luser's boundless
naivete (see [10047]naive). Also `padded cell environment'.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:page in, Next:[10048]page out, Previous:[10049]padded cell,
Up:[10050]= P =

page in v.

[MIT] 1. To become aware of one's surroundings again after having
paged out (see [10051]page out). Usually confined to the sarcastic
comment: "Eric pages in, [10052]film at 11!" 2. Syn. `swap in'; see
[10053]swap.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:page out, Next:[10054]pain in the net, Previous:[10055]page in,
Up:[10056]= P =

page out vi.

[MIT] 1. To become unaware of one's surroundings temporarily, due to
daydreaming or preoccupation. "Can you repeat that? I paged out for a
minute." See [10057]page in. Compare [10058]glitch, [10059]thinko. 2.
Syn. `swap out'; see [10060]swap.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:pain in the net, Next:[10061]Pangloss parity,
Previous:[10062]page out, Up:[10063]= P =

pain in the net n.

A [10064]flamer.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Pangloss parity, Next:[10065]paper-net, Previous:[10066]pain in
the net, Up:[10067]= P =

Pangloss parity n.

[from Dr. Pangloss, the eternal optimist in Voltaire's "Candide"] In
corporate DP shops, a common condition of severe but equally shared
[10068]lossage resulting from the theory that as long as everyone in
the organization has the exactly the same model of obsolete computer,
everything will be fine.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:paper-net, Next:[10069]param, Previous:[10070]Pangloss parity,
Up:[10071]= P =

paper-net n.

Hackish way of referring to the postal service, analogizing it to a
very slow, low-reliability network. Usenet [10072]sig blocks sometimes
include a "Paper-Net:" header just before the sender's postal address;
common variants of this are "Papernet" and "P-Net". Note that the
standard [10073]netiquette guidelines discourage this practice as a
waste of bandwidth, since netters are quite unlikely to casually use
postal addresses. Compare [10074]voice-net, [10075]snail-mail,
[10076]P-mail.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:param, Next:[10077]PARC, Previous:[10078]paper-net, Up:[10079]= P
=

param /p*-ram'/ n.

[common] Shorthand for `parameter'. See also [10080]parm; compare
[10081]arg, [10082]var.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:PARC, Next:[10083]parent message, Previous:[10084]param,
Up:[10085]= P =

PARC n.

See [10086]XEROX PARC.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:parent message, Next:[10087]parity errors, Previous:[10088]PARC,
Up:[10089]= P =

parent message n.

What a [10090]followup follows up.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:parity errors, Next:[10091]Parkinson's Law of Data,
Previous:[10092]parent message, Up:[10093]= P =

parity errors pl.n.

Little lapses of attention or (in more severe cases) consciousness,
usually brought on by having spent all night and most of the next day
hacking. "I need to go home and crash; I'm starting to get a lot of
parity errors." Derives from a relatively common but nearly always
correctable transient error in memory hardware. It predates RAM; in
fact, this term is reported to have already have been in use in its
jargoin sense back in the 1960s when magnetic cores ruled. Parity
errors can also afflict mass storage and serial communication lines;
this is more serious because not always correctable.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Parkinson's Law of Data, Next:[10094]parm, Previous:[10095]parity
errors, Up:[10096]= P =

Parkinson's Law of Data prov.

"Data expands to fill the space available for storage"; buying more
memory encourages the use of more memory-intensive techniques. It has
been observed since the mid-1980s that the memory usage of evolving
systems tends to double roughly once every 18 months. Fortunately,
memory density available for constant dollars also tends to about
double once every 18 months (see [10097]Moore's Law); unfortunately,
the laws of physics guarantee that the latter cannot continue
indefinitely.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:parm, Next:[10098]parse, Previous:[10099]Parkinson's Law of Data,
Up:[10100]= P =

parm /parm/ n.

Further-compressed form of [10101]param. This term is an IBMism, and
written use is almost unknown outside IBM shops; spoken /parm/ is more
widely distributed, but the synonym [10102]arg is favored among
hackers. Compare [10103]arg, [10104]var.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:parse, Next:[10105]Pascal, Previous:[10106]parm, Up:[10107]= P =

parse [from linguistic terminology] vt.

1. To determine the syntactic structure of a sentence or other
utterance (close to the standard English meaning). "That was the one I
saw you." "I can't parse that." 2. More generally, to understand or
comprehend. "It's very simple; you just kretch the glims and then aos
the zotz." "I can't parse that." 3. Of fish, to have to remove the
bones yourself. "I object to parsing fish", means "I don't want to get
a whole fish, but a sliced one is okay". A `parsed fish' has been
deboned. There is some controversy over whether `unparsed' should mean
`bony', or also mean `deboned'.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Pascal, Next:[10108]pastie, Previous:[10109]parse, Up:[10110]= P
=

Pascal n.

An Algol-descended language designed by Niklaus Wirth on the CDC 6600
around 1967-68 as an instructional tool for elementary programming.
This language, designed primarily to keep students from shooting
themselves in the foot and thus extremely restrictive from a
general-purpose-programming point of view, was later promoted as a
general-purpose tool and, in fact, became the ancestor of a large
family of languages including Modula-2 and [10111]Ada (see also
[10112]bondage-and-discipline language). The hackish point of view on
Pascal was probably best summed up by a devastating (and, in its
deadpan way, screamingly funny) 1981 paper by Brian Kernighan (of
[10113]K&R fame) entitled "Why Pascal is Not My Favorite Programming
Language", which was turned down by the technical journals but
circulated widely via photocopies. It was eventually published in
"Comparing and Assessing Programming Languages", edited by Alan Feuer
and Narain Gehani (Prentice-Hall, 1984). Part of his discussion is
worth repeating here, because its criticisms are still apposite to
Pascal itself after ten years of improvement and could also stand as
an indictment of many other bondage-and-discipline languages. At the
end of a summary of the case against Pascal, Kernighan wrote:

9. There is no escape

This last point is perhaps the most important. The language is
inadequate but circumscribed, because there is no way to escape its
limitations. There are no casts to disable the type-checking when
necessary. There is no way to replace the defective run-time
environment with a sensible one, unless one controls the compiler
that defines the "standard procedures". The language is closed.

People who use Pascal for serious programming fall into a fatal
trap. Because the language is impotent, it must be extended. But
each group extends Pascal in its own direction, to make it look
like whatever language they really want. Extensions for separate
compilation, FORTRAN-like COMMON, string data types, internal
static variables, initialization, octal numbers, bit operators,
etc., all add to the utility of the language for one group but
destroy its portability to others.

I feel that it is a mistake to use Pascal for anything much beyond
its original target. In its pure form, Pascal is a toy language,
suitable for teaching but not for real programming.

Pascal has since been almost entirely displaced (by [10114]C) from the
niches it had acquired in serious applications and systems
programming, but retains some popularity as a hobbyist language in the
MS-DOS and Macintosh worlds.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:pastie, Next:[10115]patch, Previous:[10116]Pascal, Up:[10117]= P
=

pastie /pay'stee/ n.

An adhesive-backed label designed to be attached to a key on a
keyboard to indicate some non-standard character which can be accessed
through that key. Pasties are likely to be used in APL environments,
where almost every key is associated with a special character. A
pastie on the R key, for example, might remind the user that it is
used to generate the rho character. The term properly refers to
nipple-concealing devices formerly worn by strippers in concession to
indecent-exposure laws; compare [10118]tits on a keyboard.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:patch, Next:[10119]patch pumpkin, Previous:[10120]pastie,
Up:[10121]= P =

patch

1. n. A temporary addition to a piece of code, usually as a
[10122]quick-and-dirty remedy to an existing bug or misfeature. A
patch may or may not work, and may or may not eventually be
incorporated permanently into the program. Distinguished from a
[10123]diff or [10124]mod by the fact that a patch is generated by
more primitive means than the rest of the program; the classical
examples are instructions modified by using the front panel switches,
and changes made directly to the binary executable of a program
originally written in an [10125]HLL. Compare [10126]one-line fix. 2.
vt. To insert a patch into a piece of code. 3. [in the Unix world] n.
A [10127]diff (sense 2). 4. A set of modifications to binaries to be
applied by a patching program. IBM operating systems often receive
updates to the operating system in the form of absolute hexadecimal
patches. If you have modified your OS, you have to disassemble these
back to the source. The patches might later be corrected by other
patches on top of them (patches were said to "grow scar tissue"). The
result was often a convoluted [10128]patch space and headaches galore.
5. [Unix] the patch(1) program, written by Larry Wall, which
automatically applies a patch (sense 3) to a set of source code.

There is a classic story of a [10129]tiger team penetrating a secure
military computer that illustrates the danger inherent in binary
patches (or, indeed, any patches that you can't -- or don't -- inspect
and examine before installing). They couldn't find any [10130]trap
doors or any way to penetrate security of IBM's OS, so they made a
site visit to an IBM office (remember, these were official military
types who were purportedly on official business), swiped some IBM
stationery, and created a fake patch. The patch was actually the
trapdoor they needed. The patch was distributed at about the right
time for an IBM patch, had official stationery and all accompanying
documentation, and was dutifully installed. The installation manager
very shortly thereafter learned something about proper procedures.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:patch pumpkin, Next:[10131]patch space, Previous:[10132]patch,
Up:[10133]= P =

patch pumpkin n.

[Perl hackers] A notional token passed around among the members of a
project. Possession of the patch pumpkin means one has the exclusive
authority to make changes on the project's master source tree. The
implicit assumption is that `pumpkin holder' status is temporary and
rotates periodically among senior project members.

This term comes from the Perl development community, but has been
sighted elsewhere. It derives from a stuffed-toy pumpkin that was
passed around at a development shop years ago as the access control
for a shared backup-tape drive.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:patch space, Next:[10134]path, Previous:[10135]patch pumpkin,
Up:[10136]= P =

patch space n.

An unused block of bits left in a binary so that it can later be
modified by insertion of machine-language instructions there
(typically, the patch space is modified to contain new code, and the
superseded code is patched to contain a jump or call to the patch
space). The near-universal use of compilers and interpreters has made
this term rare; it is now primarily historical outside IBM shops. See
[10137]patch (sense 4), [10138]zap (sense 4), [10139]hook.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:path, Next:[10140]pathological, Previous:[10141]patch space,
Up:[10142]= P =

path n.

1. A [10143]bang path or explicitly routed [10144]Internet address; a
node-by-node specification of a link between two machines. Though
these are now obsolete as a form of addressing, they still show up in
diagnostics and trace headers ocvcasionally (e.g. in NNTP headers). 2.
[Unix] A filename, fully specified relative to the root directory (as
opposed to relative to the current directory; the latter is sometimes
called a `relative path'). This is also called a `pathname'. 3. [Unix
and MS-DOS] The `search path', an environment variable specifying the
directories in which the [10145]shell (COMMAND.COM, under MS-DOS)
should look for commands. Other, similar constructs abound under Unix
(for example, the C preprocessor has a `search path' it uses in
looking for #include files).
_________________________________________________________________

Node:pathological, Next:[10146]payware, Previous:[10147]path,
Up:[10148]= P =

pathological adj.

1. [scientific computation] Used of a data set that is grossly
atypical of normal expected input, esp. one that exposes a weakness or
bug in whatever algorithm one is using. An algorithm that can be
broken by pathological inputs may still be useful if such inputs are
very unlikely to occur in practice. 2. When used of test input,
implies that it was purposefully engineered as a worst case. The
implication in both senses is that the data is spectacularly
ill-conditioned or that someone had to explicitly set out to break the
algorithm in order to come up with such a crazy example. 3. Also said
of an unlikely collection of circumstances. "If the network is down
and comes up halfway through the execution of that command by root,
the system may just crash." "Yes, but that's a pathological case."
Often used to dismiss the case from discussion, with the implication
that the consequences are acceptable, since they will happen so
infrequently (if at all) that it doesn't seem worth going to the extra
trouble to handle that case (see sense 1).
_________________________________________________________________

Node:payware, Next:[10149]PBD, Previous:[10150]pathological,
Up:[10151]= P =

payware /pay'weir/ n.

Commercial software. Oppose [10152]shareware or [10153]freeware.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:PBD, Next:[10154]PC-ism, Previous:[10155]payware, Up:[10156]= P =

PBD /P-B-D/ n.

[abbrev. of `Programmer Brain Damage'] Applied to bug reports
revealing places where the program was obviously broken by an
incompetent or short-sighted programmer. Compare [10157]UBD; see also
[10158]brain-damaged.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:PC-ism, Next:[10159]PD, Previous:[10160]PBD, Up:[10161]= P =

PC-ism /P-C-izm/ n.

A piece of code or coding technique that takes advantage of the
unprotected single-tasking environment in IBM PCs and the like running
DOS, e.g., by busy-waiting on a hardware register, direct diddling of
screen memory, or using hard timing loops. Compare [10162]ill-behaved,
[10163]vaxism, [10164]unixism. Also, `PC-ware' n., a program full of
PC-isms on a machine with a more capable operating system. Pejorative.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:PD, Next:[10165]PDL, Previous:[10166]PC-ism, Up:[10167]= P =

PD /P-D/ adj.

[common] Abbreviation for `public domain', applied to software
distributed over [10168]Usenet and from Internet archive sites. Much
of this software is not in fact public domain in the legal sense but
travels under various copyrights granting reproduction and use rights
to anyone who can [10169]snarf a copy. See [10170]copyleft.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:PDL, Next:[10171]PDP-10, Previous:[10172]PD, Up:[10173]= P =

PDL /P-D-L/, /pid'l/, /p*d'l/ or /puhd'l/

1. n. `Program Design Language'. Any of a large class of formal and
profoundly useless pseudo-languages in which [10174]management forces
one to design programs. Too often, management expects PDL descriptions
to be maintained in parallel with the code, imposing massive overhead
to little or no benefit. See also [10175]flowchart. 2. v. To design
using a program design language. "I've been pdling so long my eyes
won't focus beyond 2 feet." 3. n. `Page Description Language'. Refers
to any language which is used to control a graphics device, usually a
laserprinter. The most common example is, of course, Adobe's
[10176]PostScript language, but there are many others, such as Xerox
InterPress, etc. 4. In ITS days, the preferred MITism for
[10177]stack. See [10178]overflow pdl. 5. Dave Lebling, one of the
co-authors of [10179]Zork; (his [10180]network address on the ITS
machines was at one time pdl@dms).
_________________________________________________________________

Node:PDP-10, Next:[10181]PDP-20, Previous:[10182]PDL, Up:[10183]= P =

PDP-10 n.

[Programmed Data Processor model 10] The machine that made timesharing
real. It looms large in hacker folklore because of its adoption in the
mid-1970s by many university computing facilities and research labs,
including the MIT AI Lab, Stanford, and CMU. Some aspects of the
instruction set (most notably the bit-field instructions) are still
considered unsurpassed. The 10 was eventually eclipsed by the VAX
machines (descendants of the PDP-11) when [10184]DEC recognized that
the 10 and VAX product lines were competing with each other and
decided to concentrate its software development effort on the more
profitable VAX. The machine was finally dropped from DEC's line in
1983, following the failure of the Jupiter Project at DEC to build a
viable new model. (Some attempts by other companies to market clones
came to nothing; see [10185]Foonly and [10186]Mars.) This event
spelled the doom of [10187]ITS and the technical cultures that had
spawned the original Jargon File, but by mid-1991 it had become
something of a badge of honorable old-timerhood among hackers to have
cut one's teeth on a PDP-10. See [10188]TOPS-10, [10189]ITS,
[10190]BLT, [10191]DDT, [10192]DPB, [10193]EXCH, [10194]HAKMEM,
[10195]LDB, [10196]pop, [10197]push. See also
[10198]http://www.inwap.com/pdp10/.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:PDP-20, Next:[10199]PEBKAC, Previous:[10200]PDP-10, Up:[10201]= P
=

PDP-20 n.

The most famous computer that never was. [10202]PDP-10 computers
running the [10203]TOPS-10 operating system were labeled
`DECsystem-10' as a way of differentiating them from the PDP-11. Later
on, those systems running [10204]TOPS-20 were labeled `DECSYSTEM-20'
(the block capitals being the result of a lawsuit brought against DEC
by Singer, which once made a computer called `system-10'), but
contrary to popular lore there was never a `PDP-20'; the only
difference between a 10 and a 20 was the operating system and the
color of the paint. Most (but not all) machines sold to run TOPS-10
were painted `Basil Blue', whereas most TOPS-20 machines were painted
`Chinese Red' (often mistakenly called orange).
_________________________________________________________________

Node:PEBKAC, Next:[10205]peek, Previous:[10206]PDP-20, Up:[10207]= P =

PEBKAC /peb'kak/

[Abbrev., "Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair"] Used by support
people, particularly at call centers and help desks. Not used with the
public. Denotes pilot error as the cause of the crash, especially
stupid errors that even a [10208]luser could figure out. Very
derogatory. Usage: "Did you ever figure out why that guy couldn't
print?" "Yeah, he kept cancelling the operation before it could
finish. PEBKAC."
_________________________________________________________________

Node:peek, Next:[10209]pencil and paper, Previous:[10210]PEBKAC,
Up:[10211]= P =

peek n.,vt.

(and [10212]poke) The commands in most microcomputer BASICs for
directly accessing memory contents at an absolute address; often
extended to mean the corresponding constructs in any [10213]HLL (peek
reads memory, poke modifies it). Much hacking on small, non-MMU micros
used to consist of `peek'ing around memory, more or less at random, to
find the location where the system keeps interesting stuff. Long (and
variably accurate) lists of such addresses for various computers
circulated (see [10214]interrupt list). The results of `poke's at
these addresses may be highly useful, mildly amusing, useless but
neat, or (most likely) total [10215]lossage (see [10216]killer poke).

Since a [10217]real operating system provides useful, higher-level
services for the tasks commonly performed with peeks and pokes on
micros, and real languages tend not to encourage low-level memory
groveling, a question like "How do I do a peek in C?" is diagnostic of
the [10218]newbie. (Of course, OS kernels often have to do exactly
this; a real kernel hacker would unhesitatingly, if unportably, assign
an absolute address to a pointer variable and indirect through it.)
_________________________________________________________________

Node:pencil and paper, Next:[10219]Pentagram Pro,
Previous:[10220]peek, Up:[10221]= P =

pencil and paper n.

An archaic information storage and transmission device that works by
depositing smears of graphite on bleached wood pulp. More recent
developments in paper-based technology include improved `write-once'
update devices which use tiny rolling heads similar to mouse balls to
deposit colored pigment. All these devices require an operator skilled
at so-called `handwriting' technique. These technologies are
ubiquitous outside hackerdom, but nearly forgotten inside it. Most
hackers had terrible handwriting to begin with, and years of
keyboarding tend to have encouraged it to degrade further. Perhaps for
this reason, hackers deprecate pencil-and-paper technology and often
resist using it in any but the most trivial contexts.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Pentagram Pro, Next:[10222]Pentium, Previous:[10223]pencil and
paper, Up:[10224]= P =

Pentagram Pro n.

A humorous corruption of "Pentium Pro", with a Satanic reference,
implying that the chip is inherently [10225]evil. Often used with "666
MHz"; there is a T-shirt. See [10226]Pentium
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Pentium, Next:[10227]peon, Previous:[10228]Pentagram Pro,
Up:[10229]= P =

Pentium n.

The name given to Intel's P5 chip, the successor to the 80486. The
name was chosen because of difficulties Intel had in trademarking a
number. It suggests the number five (implying 586) while (according to
Intel) conveying a meaning of strength "like titanium". Among hackers,
the plural is frequently `pentia'. See also [10230]Pentagram Pro.

Intel did not stick to this convention when naming its P6 processor
the Pentium Pro; many believe this is due to difficulties in selling a
chip with "sex" in its name. Successor chips have been called `Pentium
II' and `Pentium III'.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:peon, Next:[10231]percent-S, Previous:[10232]Pentium, Up:[10233]=
P =

peon n.

A person with no special ([10234]root or [10235]wheel) privileges on a
computer system. "I can't create an account on foovax for you; I'm
only a peon there."
_________________________________________________________________

Node:percent-S, Next:[10236]perf, Previous:[10237]peon, Up:[10238]= P
=

percent-S /per-sent' es'/ n.

[From the code in C's printf(3) library function used to insert an
arbitrary string argument] An unspecified person or object. "I was
just talking to some percent-s in administration." Compare
[10239]random.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:perf, Next:[10240]perfect programmer syndrome,
Previous:[10241]percent-S, Up:[10242]= P =

perf /perf/ n.

Syn. [10243]chad (sense 1). The term `perfory' /per'f*-ree/ is also
heard. The term [10244]perf may also refer to the perforations
themselves, rather than the chad they produce when torn (philatelists
use it this way).
_________________________________________________________________

Node:perfect programmer syndrome, Next:[10245]Perl,
Previous:[10246]perf, Up:[10247]= P =

perfect programmer syndrome n.

Arrogance; the egotistical conviction that one is above normal human
error. Most frequently found among programmers of some native ability
but relatively little experience (especially new graduates; their
perceptions may be distorted by a history of excellent performance at
solving [10248]toy problems). "Of course my program is correct, there
is no need to test it." "Yes, I can see there may be a problem here,
but I'll never type rm -r / while in [10249]root mode."
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Perl, Next:[10250]person of no account, Previous:[10251]perfect
programmer syndrome, Up:[10252]= P =

Perl /perl/ n.

[Practical Extraction and Report Language, a.k.a. Pathologically
Eclectic Rubbish Lister] An interpreted language developed by Larry
Wall ([10253], author of patch(1) and rn(1)) and
distributed over Usenet. Superficially resembles [10254]awk, but is
much hairier, including many facilities reminiscent of sed(1) and
shells and a comprehensive Unix system-call interface. Unix sysadmins,
who are almost always incorrigible hackers, generally consider it one
of the [10255]languages of choice, and it is by far the most widely
used tool for making `live' web pages via CGI. Perl has been
described, in a parody of a famous remark about lex(1), as the
"Swiss-Army chainsaw" of Unix programming. Though Perl is very useful,
it would be a stretch to describe it as pretty or [10256]elegant;
people who like clean, spare design generally prefer [10257]Python.
See also [10258]Camel Book, [10259]TMTOWTDI.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:person of no account, Next:[10260]pessimal, Previous:[10261]Perl,
Up:[10262]= P =

person of no account n.

[University of California at Santa Cruz] Used when referring to a
person with no [10263]network address, frequently to forestall
confusion. Most often as part of an introduction: "This is Bill, a
person of no account, but he used to be bill@random.com". Compare
[10264]return from the dead.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:pessimal, Next:[10265]pessimizing compiler,
Previous:[10266]person of no account, Up:[10267]= P =

pessimal /pes'im-l/ adj.

[Latin-based antonym for `optimal'] Maximally bad. "This is a pessimal
situation." Also `pessimize' vt. To make as bad as possible. These
words are the obvious Latin-based antonyms for `optimal' and
`optimize', but for some reason they do not appear in most English
dictionaries, although `pessimize' is listed in the OED.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:pessimizing compiler, Next:[10268]peta-,
Previous:[10269]pessimal, Up:[10270]= P =

pessimizing compiler /pes'*-mi:z`ing k*m-pi:l'r/ n.

A compiler that produces object [antonym of techspeak `optimizing
compiler'] code that is worse than the straightforward or obvious hand
translation. The implication is that the compiler is actually trying
to optimize the program, but through excessive cleverness is doing the
opposite. A few pessimizing compilers have been written on purpose,
however, as pranks or burlesques.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:peta-, Next:[10271]PETSCII, Previous:[10272]pessimizing compiler,
Up:[10273]= P =

peta- /pe't*/ pref

[SI] See [10274]quantifiers.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:PETSCII, Next:[10275]PFY, Previous:[10276]peta-, Up:[10277]= P =

PETSCII /pet'skee/ n. obs.

[abbreviation of PET ASCII] The variation (many would say perversion)
of the [10278]ASCII character set used by the Commodore Business
Machines PET series of personal computers and the later Commodore C64,
C16, C128, and VIC20 machines. The PETSCII set used left-arrow and
up-arrow (as in old-style ASCII) instead of underscore and caret,
placed the unshifted alphabet at positions 65-90, put the shifted
alphabet at positions 193-218, and added graphics characters.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:PFY, Next:[10279]phage, Previous:[10280]PETSCII, Up:[10281]= P =

PFY n.

[Usenet; common] Abbreviation for `Pimply-Faced Youth'. A [10282]BOFH
in training, esp. one apprenticed to an elder BOFH aged in evil.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:phage, Next:[10283]phase, Previous:[10284]PFY, Up:[10285]= P =

phage n.

A program that modifies other programs or databases in unauthorized
ways; esp. one that propagates a [10286]virus or [10287]Trojan horse.
See also [10288]worm, [10289]mockingbird. The analogy, of course, is
with phage viruses in biology.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:phase, Next:[10290]phase of the moon, Previous:[10291]phage,
Up:[10292]= P =

phase

1. n. The offset of one's waking-sleeping schedule with respect to the
standard 24-hour cycle; a useful concept among people who often work
at night and/or according to no fixed schedule. It is not uncommon to
change one's phase by as much as 6 hours per day on a regular basis.
"What's your phase?" "I've been getting in about 8 P.M. lately, but
I'm going to [10293]wrap around to the day schedule by Friday." A
person who is roughly 12 hours out of phase is sometimes said to be in
`night mode'. (The term `day mode' is also (but less frequently) used,
meaning you're working 9 to 5 (or, more likely, 10 to 6).) The act of
altering one's cycle is called `changing phase'; `phase shifting' has
also been recently reported from Caltech. 2. `change phase the hard
way': To stay awake for a very long time in order to get into a
different phase. 3. `change phase the easy way': To stay asleep, etc.
However, some claim that either staying awake longer or sleeping
longer is easy, and that it is shortening your day or night that is
really hard (see [10294]wrap around). The `jet lag' that afflicts
travelers who cross many time-zone boundaries may be attributed to two
distinct causes: the strain of travel per se, and the strain of
changing phase. Hackers who suddenly find that they must change phase
drastically in a short period of time, particularly the hard way,
experience something very like jet lag without traveling.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:phase of the moon, Next:[10295]phase-wrapping,
Previous:[10296]phase, Up:[10297]= P =

phase of the moon n.

Used humorously as a random parameter on which something is said to
depend. Sometimes implies unreliability of whatever is dependent, or
that reliability seems to be dependent on conditions nobody has been
able to determine. "This feature depends on having the channel open in
mumble mode, having the foo switch set, and on the phase of the moon."
See also [10298]heisenbug.

True story: Once upon a time there was a program bug that really did
depend on the phase of the moon. There was a little subroutine that
had traditionally been used in various programs at MIT to calculate an
approximation to the moon's true phase. GLS incorporated this routine
into a LISP program that, when it wrote out a file, would print a
timestamp line almost 80 characters long. Very occasionally the first
line of the message would be too long and would overflow onto the next
line, and when the file was later read back in the program would
[10299]barf. The length of the first line depended on both the precise
date and time and the length of the phase specification when the
timestamp was printed, and so the bug literally depended on the phase
of the moon!

The first paper edition of the Jargon File (Steele-1983) included an
example of one of the timestamp lines that exhibited this bug, but the
typesetter `corrected' it. This has since been described as the
phase-of-the-moon-bug bug.

However, beware of assumptions. A few years ago, engineers of CERN
(European Center for Nuclear Research) were baffled by some errors in
experiments conducted with the LEP particle accelerator. As the
formidable amount of data generated by such devices is heavily
processed by computers before being seen by humans, many people
suggested the software was somehow sensitive to the phase of the moon.
A few desperate engineers discovered the truth; the error turned out
to be the result of a tiny change in the geometry of the 27km
circumference ring, physically caused by the deformation of the Earth
by the passage of the Moon! This story has entered physics folklore as
a Newtonian vengeance on particle physics and as an example of the
relevance of the simplest and oldest physical laws to the most modern
science.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:phase-wrapping, Next:[10300]PHB, Previous:[10301]phase of the
moon, Up:[10302]= P =

phase-wrapping n.

[MIT] Syn. [10303]wrap around, sense 2.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:PHB, Next:[10304]phreaker, Previous:[10305]phase-wrapping,
Up:[10306]= P =

PHB /P-H-B/

[Usenet; common; rarely spoken] Abbreviation, "Pointy-Haired Boss".
From the [10307]Dilbert character, the archetypal halfwitted
middle-[10308]management type. See also [10309]pointy-haired.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:phreaker, Next:[10310]phreaking, Previous:[10311]PHB, Up:[10312]=
P =

phreaker /freek'r/ n.

One who engages in [10313]phreaking. See also [10314]blue box.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:phreaking, Next:[10315]pico-, Previous:[10316]phreaker,
Up:[10317]= P =

phreaking /freek'ing/ n.

[from `phone phreak'] 1. The art and science of [10318]cracking the
phone network (so as, for example, to make free long-distance calls).
2. By extension, security-cracking in any other context (especially,
but not exclusively, on communications networks) (see
[10319]cracking).

At one time phreaking was a semi-respectable activity among hackers;
there was a gentleman's agreement that phreaking as an intellectual
game and a form of exploration was OK, but serious theft of services
was taboo. There was significant crossover between the hacker
community and the hard-core phone phreaks who ran semi-underground
networks of their own through such media as the legendary "TAP
Newsletter". This ethos began to break down in the mid-1980s as wider
dissemination of the techniques put them in the hands of less
responsible phreaks. Around the same time, changes in the phone
network made old-style technical ingenuity less effective as a way of
hacking it, so phreaking came to depend more on overtly criminal acts
such as stealing phone-card numbers. The crimes and punishments of
gangs like the `414 group' turned that game very ugly. A few old-time
hackers still phreak casually just to keep their hand in, but most
these days have hardly even heard of `blue boxes' or any of the other
paraphernalia of the great phreaks of yore.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:pico-, Next:[10320]pig-tail, Previous:[10321]phreaking,
Up:[10322]= P =

pico- pref.

[SI: a quantifier meaning * 10^-12] Smaller than [10323]nano-; used in
the same rather loose connotative way as [10324]nano- and micro-. This
usage is not yet common in the way [10325]nano- and [10326]micro- are,
but should be instantly recognizable to any hacker. See also
[10327]quantifiers, [10328]micro-.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:pig-tail, Next:[10329]pilot error, Previous:[10330]pico-,
Up:[10331]= P =

pig-tail

[radio hams] A short piece of cable with two connectors on each end
for converting between one connector type and another. Common
pig-tails are 9-to-25-pin serial-port converters and cables to connect
PCMCIA network cards to an RJ-45 network cable.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:pilot error, Next:[10332]ping, Previous:[10333]pig-tail,
Up:[10334]= P =

pilot error n.

[Sun: from aviation] A user's misconfiguration or misuse of a piece of
software, producing apparently buglike results (compare [10335]UBD).
"Joe Luser reported a bug in sendmail that causes it to generate bogus
headers." "That's not a bug, that's pilot error. His sendmail.cf is
hosed."
_________________________________________________________________

Node:ping, Next:[10336]Ping O' Death, Previous:[10337]pilot error,
Up:[10338]= P =

ping

[from the submariners' term for a sonar pulse] 1. n. Slang term for a
small network message (ICMP ECHO) sent by a computer to check for the
presence and alertness of another. The Unix command ping(8) can be
used to do this manually (note that ping(8)'s author denies the
widespread folk etymology that the name was ever intended as acronym
for `Packet INternet Groper'). Occasionally used as a phone greeting.
See [10339]ACK, also [10340]ENQ. 2. vt. To verify the presence of. 3.
vt. To get the attention of. 4. vt. To send a message to all members
of a [10341]mailing list requesting an [10342]ACK (in order to verify
that everybody's addresses are reachable). "We haven't heard much of
anything from Geoff, but he did respond with an ACK both times I
pinged jargon-friends." 5. n. A quantum packet of happiness. People
who are very happy tend to exude pings; furthermore, one can
intentionally create pings and aim them at a needy party (e.g., a
depressed person). This sense of ping may appear as an exclamation;
"Ping!" (I'm happy; I am emitting a quantum of happiness; I have been
struck by a quantum of happiness). The form "pingfulness", which is
used to describe people who exude pings, also occurs. (In the standard
abuse of language, "pingfulness" can also be used as an exclamation,
in which case it's a much stronger exclamation than just "ping"!).
Oppose [10343]blargh.

The funniest use of `ping' to date was described in January 1991 by
Steve Hayman on the Usenet group comp.sys.next. He was trying to
isolate a faulty cable segment on a TCP/IP Ethernet hooked up to a
NeXT machine, and got tired of having to run back to his console after
each cabling tweak to see if the ping packets were getting through. So
he used the sound-recording feature on the NeXT, then wrote a script
that repeatedly invoked ping(8), listened for an echo, and played back
the recording on each returned packet. Result? A program that caused
the machine to repeat, over and over, "Ping ... ping ... ping ..." as
long as the network was up. He turned the volume to maximum, ferreted
through the building with one ear cocked, and found a faulty tee
connector in no time.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:Ping O' Death, Next:[10344]ping storm, Previous:[10345]ping,
Up:[10346]= P =

Ping O' Death n.

A notorious [10347]exploit that (when first discovered) could be
easily used to crash a wide variety of machines by overunning size
limits in their TCP/IP stacks. First revealed in late 1996. The
open-source Unix community patched its systems to remove the
vulnerability within days or weeks, the closed-source OS vendors
generally took months. While the difference in response times repeated
a pattern familiar from other security incidents, the accompanying
glare of Web-fueled publicity proved unusually embarrassing to the OS
vendors and so passed into history and myth. The term is now used to
refer to any nudge delivered by network wizards over the network that
causes bad things to happen on the system being nudged. For the full
story on the original exploit, see
[10348]http://www.insecure.org/sploits/ping-o-death.html.

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

Node:ping storm, Next:[10349]pink wire, Previous:[10350]Ping O' Death,
Up:[10351]= P =

ping storm n.

A form of [10352]DoS attack consisting of a flood of [10353]ping
requests (normally used to check network conditions) designed to
disrupt the normal activity of a system. This act is sometimes called
`ping lashing' or `ping flood'. Compare [10354]mail storm,
[10355]broadcast storm.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:pink wire, Next:[10356]pipe, Previous:[10357]ping storm,
Up:[10358]= P =

pink wire n.

[from the pink PTFE wire used in military equipment] As [10359]blue
wire, but used in military applications. 2. vi. To add a pink wire to
a board.
_________________________________________________________________

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

pipe n.

[common] Idiomatically, one's connection to the Internet; in context,
the expansion "bit pipe" is understood. A "fat pipe" is a line with T1
or higher capacity. A person with a 28.8 modem might be heard to
complain "I need a bigger pipe".
_________________________________________________________________

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

pistol n.

[IBM] A tool that makes it all too easy for you to shoot yourself in
the foot. "Unix rm * makes such a nice pistol!"
_________________________________________________________________

Node:pixel sort, Next:[10366]pizza box, Previous:[10367]pistol,
Up:[10368]= P =

pixel sort n.

[Commodore users] Any compression routine which irretrievably loses
valuable data in the process of [10369]crunching it. Disparagingly
used for `lossy' methods such as JPEG. The theory, of course, is that
these methods are only used on photographic images in which minor
loss-of-data is not visible to the human eye. The term `pixel sort'
implies distrust of this theory. Compare [10370]bogo-sort.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:pizza box, Next:[10371]plaid screen, Previous:[10372]pixel sort,
Up:[10373]= P =

pizza box n.

[Sun] The largish thin box housing the electronics in (especially Sun)
desktop workstations, so named because of its size and shape and the
dimpled pattern that looks like air holes.

Two meg single-platter removable disk packs used to be called pizzas,
and the huge drive they were stuck into was referred to as a pizza
oven. It's an index of progress that in the old days just the disk was
pizza-sized, while now the entire computer is.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:plaid screen, Next:[10374]plain-ASCII, Previous:[10375]pizza box,
Up:[10376]= P =

plaid screen n.

[XEROX PARC] A `special effect' that occurs when certain kinds of
[10377]memory smashes overwrite the control blocks or image memory of
a bit-mapped display. The term "salt and pepper" may refer to a
different pattern of similar origin. Though the term as coined at PARC
refers to the result of an error, some of the [10378]X demos induce
plaid-screen effects deliberately as a [10379]display hack.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:plain-ASCII, Next:[10380]plan file, Previous:[10381]plaid screen,
Up:[10382]= P =

plain-ASCII /playn-as'kee/

Syn. [10383]flat-ASCII.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:plan file, Next:[10384]platinum-iridium,
Previous:[10385]plain-ASCII, Up:[10386]= P =

plan file n.

[Unix] On systems that support [10387]finger, the `.plan' file in a
user's home directory is displayed when the user is fingered. This
feature was originally intended to be used to keep potential fingerers
apprised of one's location and near-future plans, but has been turned
almost universally to humorous and self-expressive purposes (like a
[10388]sig block). See also [10389]Hacking X for Y.

A recent innovation in plan files has been the introduction of
"scrolling plan files" which are one-dimensional animations made using
only the printable ASCII character set, carriage return and line feed,
avoiding terminal specific escape sequences, since the [10390]finger
command will (for security reasons; see [10391]letterbomb) not pass
the escape character.

Scrolling .plan files have become art forms in miniature, and some
sites have started competitions to find who can create the longest
running, funniest, and most original animations. Various animation
characters include:

Centipede:
mmmmme

Lorry/Truck:
oo-oP

Andalusian Video Snail:
_@/

and a compiler (ASP) is available on Usenet for producing them. See
also [10392]twirling baton.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:platinum-iridium, Next:[10393]playpen, Previous:[10394]plan file,
Up:[10395]= P =

platinum-iridium adj.

Standard, against which all others of the same category are measured.
Usage: silly. The notion is that one of whatever it is has actually
been cast in platinum-iridium alloy and placed in the vault beside the
Standard Kilogram at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures
near Paris. (From 1889 to 1960, the meter was defined to be the
distance between two scratches in a platinum-iridium bar kept in that
same vault -- this replaced an earlier definition as 10^(-7) times the
distance between the North Pole and the Equator along a meridian
through Paris; unfortunately, this had been based on an inexact value
of the circumference of the Earth. From 1960 to 1984 it was defined to
be 1650763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red line of krypton-86
propagating in a vacuum. It is now defined as the length of the path
traveled by light in a vacuum in the time interval of 1/299,792,458 of
a second. The kilogram is now the only unit of measure officially
defined in terms of a unique artifact.) "This garbage-collection
algorithm has been tested against the platinum-iridium cons cell in
Paris." Compare [10396]golden.
_________________________________________________________________

Node:playpen, Next:[10397]playte, Previous:[10398]platinum-iridium,
Up:[10399]= P =

playpen n.

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

Node:playte, Next:[10401]plingnet, Previous:[10402]playpen,
Up:[10403]= P =

playte /playt/

16 bits, by analogy with [10404]nybble and [10405]byte. Usage: rare
and extremely silly. See also [10406]dynner and [10407]crumb. General
discussion of such terms is under [10408]nybble.
_________________________________________________________________

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

plingnet /pling'net/ n.

Syn. [10412]UUCPNET. Also see [10413]Commonwealth Hackish, which uses
`pling' for [10414]bang (as in [10415]bang path).
_________________________________________________________________

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

plokta /plok't*/ v.

[acronym: Press Lots Of Keys To Abort] To press random keys in an
attempt to get some response from the system. One might plokta when
the abort procedure for a program is not known, or when trying to
figure out if the system is just sluggish or really hung. Plokta can
also be used while trying to figure out any unknown key sequence for a
particular operation. Someone going into `plokta mode' usually places
both hands flat on the keyboard and mashes them down, hoping for some
useful response.

A slightly more directed form of plokta can often be seen in mail
messages or Usenet articles from new users -- the text might end with
^X^C
q
quit
:q
^C
end
x
exit
ZZ
^D
?
help

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