The New Hacker's Dictionary

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Node:studly, Next:[12763]studlycaps, Previous:[12764]stubroutine,

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studly adj.

Impressive; powerful. Said of code and designs which exhibit both complexity and a virtuoso flair. Has connotations similar to [12766]hairy but is more positive in tone. Often in the emphatic `most studly' or as noun-form `studliness'. "Smail 3.0's configuration parser is most studly."

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Node:studlycaps, Next:[12767]stunning, Previous:[12768]studly,

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studlycaps /stuhd'lee-kaps/ n.

A hackish form of silliness similar to [12770]BiCapitalization for trademarks, but applied randomly and to arbitrary text rather than to trademarks. ThE oRigiN and SigNificaNce of thIs pRacTicE iS oBscuRe.

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Node:stunning, Next:[12771]stupid-sort, Previous:[12772]studlycaps,

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stunning adj.

Mind-bogglingly stupid. Usually used in sarcasm. "You want to code what in ADA? That's a ... stunning idea!"

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Node:stupid-sort, Next:[12774]Stupids, Previous:[12775]stunning,

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1023

Node:sucking mud, Next:[12788]sufficiently small,

Previous:[12789]Sturgeon's Law, Up:[12790]= S =

sucking mud adj.

[Applied Data Research] (also `pumping mud') Crashed or [12791]wedged. Usually said of a machine that provides some service to a network, such as a file server. This Dallas regionalism derives from the East Texas oilfield lament, "Shut 'er down, Ma, she's a-suckin' mud". Often used as a query. "We are going to reconfigure the network, are you ready to suck mud?"

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Node:sufficiently small, Next:[12792]suit, Previous:[12793]sucking mud, Up:[12794]= S =

sufficiently small adj.

Syn. [12795]suitably small.

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Node:suit, Next:[12796]suitable win, Previous:[12797]sufficiently small, Up:[12798]= S =

suit n.

1. Ugly and uncomfortable `business clothing' often worn by non-hackers. Invariably worn with a `tie', a strangulation device that partially cuts off the blood supply to the brain. It is thought that this explains much about the behavior of suit-wearers. Compare [12799]droid. 2. A person who habitually wears suits, as distinct from a techie or hacker. See [12800]pointy-haired, [12801]burble, [12802]management, [12803]Stupids, [12804]SNAFU principle, [12805]PHB, and [12806]brain-damaged.

1024

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Node:suitable win, Next:[12807]suitably small, Previous:[12808]suit, Up:[12809]= S =

suitable win n.

See [12810]win.

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Node:suitably small, Next:[12811]Sun, Previous:[12812]suitable win, Up:[12813]= S =

suitably small adj.

[perverted from mathematical jargon]

An expression used ironically to characterize unquantifiable behavior that differs from expected or required behavior. For example, suppose a newly created program came up with a correct full-screen display, and one publicly exclaimed: "It works!" Then, if the program dumped core on the first mouse click, one might add: "Well, for suitably small values of `works'." Compare the characterization of pi under [12814]random numbers.

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Node:Sun, Next:[12815]sun lounge, Previous:[12816]suitably small, Up:[12817]= S =

Sun n.

Sun Microsystems. Hackers remember that the name was originally an acronym, Stanford University Network. Sun started out around 1980 with some hardware hackers (mainly) from Stanford talking to some software

1026

Node:sunspots, Next:[12828]super source quench,

Previous:[12829]sun-stools, Up:[12830]= S =

sunspots n.

1. Notional cause of an odd error. "Why did the program suddenly turn the screen blue?" "Sunspots, I guess." 2. Also the cause of [12831]bit rot -- from the myth that sunspots will increase [12832]cosmic rays, which can flip single bits in memory. See also [12833]phase of the moon.

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Node:super source quench, Next:[12834]superloser,

Previous:[12835]sunspots, Up:[12836]= S =

super source quench n.

A special packet designed to shut up an Internet host. The Internet Protocol (IP) has a control message called Source Quench that asks a host to transmit more slowly on a particular connection to avoid congestion. It also has a Redirect control message intended to instruct a host to send certain packets to a different local router. A "super source quench" is actually a redirect control packet, forged to look like it came from a local router, that instructs a host to send all packets to its own local loopback address. This will effectively tie many Internet hosts up in knots. Compare [12837]Godzillagram, [12838]breath-of-life packet.

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Node:superloser, Next:[12839]superprogrammer, Previous:[12840]super source quench, Up:[12841]= S =

superloser n.

[Unix] A superuser with no clue - someone with root privileges on a Unix system and no idea what he/she is doing, the moral equivalent of a

1027

three-year-old with an unsafetied Uzi. Anyone who thinks this is an uncommon situation reckons without the territorial urges of [12842]management.

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Node:superprogrammer, Next:[12843]superuser,

Previous:[12844]superloser, Up:[12845]= S =

superprogrammer n.

A prolific programmer; one who can code exceedingly well and quickly. Not all hackers are superprogrammers, but many are. (Productivity can vary from one programmer to another by three orders of magnitude. For example, one programmer might be able to write an average of 3 lines of working code in one day, while another, with the proper tools, might be able to write 3,000. This range is astonishing; it is matched in very few other areas of human endeavor.) The term `superprogrammer' is more commonly used within such places as IBM than in the hacker community. It tends to stress naive measures of productivity and to underweight creativity, ingenuity, and getting the job done -- and to sidestep the question of whether the 3,000 lines of code do more or less useful work than three lines that do the [12846]Right Thing. Hackers tend to prefer the terms [12847]hacker and [12848]wizard.

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Node:superuser, Next:[12849]support, Previous:[12850]superprogrammer,

Up:[12851]= S =

superuser n.

[Unix] Syn. [12852]root, [12853]avatar. This usage has spread to non-Unix environments; the superuser is any account with all [12854]wheel bits on. A more specific term than [12855]wheel.

1028

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Node:support, Next:[12856]surf, Previous:[12857]superuser, Up:[12858]=

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support n.

After-sale handholding; something many software vendors promise but few deliver. To hackers, most support people are useless -- because by the time a hacker calls support he or she will usually know the software and the relevant manuals better than the support people (sadly, this is not a joke or exaggeration). A hacker's idea of `support' is a tte-ˆ-tte with the software's designer.

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Node:surf, Next:[12859]Suzie COBOL, Previous:[12860]support,

Up:[12861]= S =

surf v.

[from the `surf' idiom for rapidly flipping TV channels] To traverse the Internet in search of interesting stuff, used esp. if one is doing so with a World Wide Web browser. It is also common to speak of `surfing in' to a particular resource.

Hackers adopted this term early, but many have stopped using it since it went completely mainstream around 1995. The passive, couch-potato connotations that go with TV channel surfing were never pleasant, and hearing non-hackers wax enthusiastic about "surfing the net" tends to make hackers feel a bit as though their home is being overrun by ignorami.

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Node:Suzie COBOL, Next:[12862]swab, Previous:[12863]surf,

Up:[12864]= S =

1029

Suzie COBOL /soo'zee koh'bol/

1. [IBM: prob. from Frank Zappa's `Suzy Creamcheese'] n. A coder straight out of training school who knows everything except the value of comments in plain English. Also (fashionable among personkind wishing to avoid accusations of sexism) `Sammy Cobol' or (in some non-IBM circles) `Cobol Charlie'. 2. [proposed] Meta-name for any [12865]code grinder, analogous to [12866]J. Random Hacker.

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Node:swab, Next:[12867]swap, Previous:[12868]Suzie COBOL,

Up:[12869]= S =

swab /swob/

[From the mnemonic for the PDP-11 `SWAp Byte' instruction, as immortalized in the dd(1) option conv=swab (see [12870]dd)] 1. vt. To solve the [12871]NUXI problem by swapping bytes in a file. 2. n. The program in V7 Unix used to perform this action, or anything functionally equivalent to it. See also [12872]big-endian, [12873]little-endian, [12874]middle-endian, [12875]bytesexual.

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Node:swap, Next:[12876]swap space, Previous:[12877]swab, Up:[12878]= S =

swap vt.

1. [techspeak] To move information from a fast-access memory to a slow-access memory (`swap out'), or vice versa (`swap in'). Often refers specifically to the use of disks as `virtual memory'. As pieces of data or program are needed, they are swapped into [12879]core for processing; when they are no longer needed they may be swapped out again. 2. The jargon use of these terms analogizes people's short-term memories with