The New Hacker's Dictionary

132

[contraction of `Berkeley Unix'] See [1251]BSD. Not used at Berkeley itself. May be more common among [1252]suits attempting to sound like cognoscenti than among hackers, who usually just say `BSD'.

---

Node:Berzerkeley, Next:[1253]beta, Previous:[1254]berklix, Up:[1255]= B

=

Berzerkeley /b*r-zer'klee/ n.

[from `berserk', via the name of a now-deceased record label; poss. originated by famed columnist Herb Caen] Humorous distortion of `Berkeley' used esp. to refer to the practices or products of the [1256]BSD Unix hackers. See [1257]software bloat, [1258]Missed'em-five, [1259]Berkeley Quality Software.

Mainstream use of this term in reference to the cultural and political peculiarities of UC Berkeley as a whole has been reported from as far back as the 1960s.

---

Node:beta, Next:[1260]BFI, Previous:[1261]Berzerkeley, Up:[1262]= B =

beta /bay't*/, /be't*/ or (Commonwealth) /bee't*/ n.

1. Mostly working, but still under test; usu. used with `in': `in beta'. In the [1263]Real World, systems (hardware or software) software often go through two stages of release testing: Alpha (in-house) and Beta (out-house?). Beta releases are generally made to a group of lucky (or unlucky) trusted customers. 2. Anything that is new and experimental. "His girlfriend is in beta" means that he is still testing for compatibility and reserving judgment. 3. Flaky; dubious; suspect (since beta software is notoriously buggy).

133

Historical note: More formally, to beta-test is to test a pre-release (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software by making it available to selected (or self-selected) customers and users. This term derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints, first used at IBM but later standard throughout the industry. `Alpha Test' was the unit, module, or component test phase; `Beta Test' was initial system test. These themselves came from earlier A- and B-tests for hardware. The A-test was a feasibility and manufacturability evaluation done before any commitment to design and development. The B-test was a demonstration that the engineering model functioned as specified. The C-test (corresponding to today's beta) was the B-test performed on early samples of the production design, and the D test was the C test repeated after the model had been in production a while.

---

Node:BFI, Next:[1264]bible, Previous:[1265]beta, Up:[1266]= B =

BFI /B-F-I/ n.

See [1267]brute force and ignorance. Also encountered in the variants `BFMI', `brute force and massive ignorance' and `BFBI' `brute force and bloody ignorance'. In dome parts of the U.S. this abbreviation was probably reinforced by a company called Browning-Ferris Industries who used to be in the waste-management business; a large BFI logo in white-on-blue could be seen on the sides of garbage trucks.

---

Node:bible, Next:[1268]BiCapitalization, Previous:[1269]BFI, Up:[1270]=

B =

bible n.

1. One of a small number of fundamental source books such as [1271]Knuth, [1272]K&R, or the [1273]Camel Book. 2. The most detailed

134

and authoritative reference for a particular language, operating system, or other complex software system.

---

Node:BiCapitalization, Next:[1274]B1FF, Previous:[1275]bible,

Up:[1276]= B =

BiCapitalization n.

The act said to have been performed on trademarks (such as [1277]PostScript, NeXT, [1278]NeWS, VisiCalc, FrameMaker, TK!solver, EasyWriter) that have been raised above the ruck of common coinage by nonstandard capitalization. Too many [1279]marketroid types think this sort of thing is really cute, even the 2,317th time they do it. Compare [1280]studlycaps.

---

Node:B1FF, Next:[1281]BI, Previous:[1282]BiCapitalization, Up:[1283]=

B =

B1FF /bif/ [Usenet] (alt. `BIFF') n.

The most famous [1284]pseudo, and the prototypical [1285]newbie. Articles from B1FF feature all uppercase letters sprinkled liberally with bangs, typos, `cute' misspellings (EVRY BUDY LUVS GOOD OLD BIFF CUZ HE"S A K00L DOOD AN HE RITES REEL AWESUM THINGZ IN CAPITULL LETTRS LIKE THIS!!!), use (and often misuse) of fragments of [1286]talk mode abbreviations, a long [1287]sig block (sometimes even a [1288]doubled sig), and unbounded naivete. B1FF posts articles using his elder brother's VIC-20. B1FF's location is a mystery, as his articles appear to come from a variety of sites. However, [1289]BITNET seems to be the most frequent origin. The theory that B1FF is a denizen of BITNET is supported by B1FF's (unfortunately invalid) electronic mail address: B1FF@BIT.NET.

135

[1993: Now It Can Be Told! My spies inform me that B1FF was originally created by Joe Talmadge <jat@cup.hp.com>, also the author of the infamous and much-plagiarized "Flamer's Bible". The BIFF filter he wrote was later passed to Richard Sexton, who posted BIFFisms much more widely. Versions have since been posted for the amusement of the net at large. See also [1290]Jeff K. --ESR]

---

Node:BI, Next:[1291]biff, Previous:[1292]B1FF, Up:[1293]= B =

BI //

Common written abbreviation for [1294]Breidbart Index.

---

Node:biff, Next:[1295]Big Gray Wall, Previous:[1296]BI, Up:[1297]= B =

biff /bif/ vt.

To notify someone of incoming mail. From the BSD utility biff(1), which was in turn named after a friendly dog who used to chase frisbees in the halls at UCB while 4.2BSD was in development. There was a legend that it had a habit of barking whenever the mailman came, but the author of biff says this is not true. No relation to [1298]B1FF.

---

Node:Big Gray Wall, Next:[1299]big iron, Previous:[1300]biff, Up:[1301]= B =

Big Gray Wall n.

What faces a [1302]VMS user searching for documentation. A full VMS kit comes on a pallet, the documentation taking up around 15 feet of shelf

136

space before the addition of layered products such as compilers, databases, multivendor networking, and programming tools. Recent (since VMS version 5) documentation comes with gray binders; under VMS version 4 the binders were orange (`big orange wall'), and under version 3 they were blue. See [1303]VMS. Often contracted to `Gray Wall'.

---

Node:big iron, Next:[1304]Big Red Switch, Previous:[1305]Big Gray Wall, Up:[1306]= B =

big iron n.

[common] Large, expensive, ultra-fast computers. Used generally of [1307]number-crunching supercomputers such as Crays, but can include more conventional big commercial IBMish mainframes. Term of approval; compare [1308]heavy metal, oppose [1309]dinosaur.

---

Node:Big Red Switch, Next:[1310]Big Room, Previous:[1311]big iron, Up:[1312]= B =

Big Red Switch n.

[IBM] The power switch on a computer, esp. the `Emergency Pull' switch on an IBM [1313]mainframe or the power switch on an IBM PC where it really is large and red. "This !@%$% [1314]bitty box is hung again; time to hit the Big Red Switch." Sources at IBM report that, in tune with the company's passion for [1315]TLAs, this is often abbreviated as `BRS' (this has also become established on FidoNet and in the PC [1316]clone world). It is alleged that the emergency pull switch on an IBM 360/91 actually fired a non-conducting bolt into the main power feed; the BRSes on more recent mainframes physically drop a block into place so that they can't be pushed back in. People get fired for pulling them, especially inappropriately (see also [1317]molly-guard). Compare [1318]power cycle, [1319]three-finger

137

salute, [1320]120 reset; see also [1321]scram switch.

---

Node:Big Room, Next:[1322]big win, Previous:[1323]Big Red Switch, Up:[1324]= B =

Big Room n.

(Also `Big Blue Room') The extremely large room with the blue ceiling and intensely bright light (during the day) or black ceiling with lots of tiny night-lights (during the night) found outside all computer installations. "He can't come to the phone right now, he's somewhere out in the Big Room."

---

Node:big win, Next:[1325]big-endian, Previous:[1326]Big Room, Up:[1327]= B =

big win n.

1. [common] Major success. 2. [MIT] Serendipity. "Yes, those two physicists discovered high-temperature superconductivity in a batch of ceramic that had been prepared incorrectly according to their experimental schedule. Small mistake; big win!" See [1328]win big.

---

Node:big-endian, Next:[1329]bignum, Previous:[1330]big win, Up:[1331]= B =

big-endian adj.

[common; From Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" via the famous paper "On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace" by Danny Cohen, USC/ISI IEN 137, dated April 1, 1980] 1. Describes a computer architecture in which, within a

138

given multi-byte numeric representation, the most significant byte has the lowest address (the word is stored `big-end-first'). Most processors, including the IBM 370 family, the [1332]PDP-10, the Motorola microprocessor families, and most of the various RISC designs are big-endian. Big-endian byte order is also sometimes called `network order'. See [1333]little-endian, [1334]middle-endian, [1335]NUXI problem, [1336]swab. 2. An [1337]Internet address the wrong way round. Most of the world follows the Internet standard and writes email addresses starting with the name of the computer and ending up with the name of the country. In the U.K. the Joint Networking Team had decided to do it the other way round before the Internet domain standard was established. Most gateway sites have [1338]ad-hockery in their mailers to handle this, but can still be confused. In particular, the address me@uk.ac.bris.pys.as could be interpreted in JANET's big-endian way as one in the U.K. (domain uk) or in the standard little-endian way as one in the domain as (American Samoa) on the opposite side of the world.

---

Node:bignum, Next:[1339]bigot, Previous:[1340]big-endian, Up:[1341]= B

=

bignum /big'nuhm/ n.

[common; orig. from MIT MacLISP] 1. [techspeak] A multiple-precision computer representation for very large integers. 2. More generally, any very large number. "Have you ever looked at the United States Budget? There's bignums for you!" 3. [Stanford] In backgammon, large numbers on the dice especially a roll of double fives or double sixes (compare [1342]moby, sense 4). See also [1343]El Camino Bignum.

Sense 1 may require some explanation. Most computer languages provide a kind of data called `integer', but such computer integers are usually very limited in size; usually they must be smaller than 2^(31) (2,147,483,648) or (on a [1344]bitty box) 2^(15) (32,768). If you want to work with numbers larger than that, you have to use floating-point numbers, which are usually

139

accurate to only six or seven decimal places. Computer languages that provide bignums can perform exact calculations on very large numbers, such as 1000! (the factorial of 1000, which is 1000 times 999 times 998 times ... times 2 times 1). For example, this value for 1000! was computed by the MacLISP system using bignums:

40238726007709377354370243392300398571937486421071

46325437999104299385123986290205920442084869694048

00479988610197196058631666872994808558901323829669

94459099742450408707375991882362772718873251977950

59509952761208749754624970436014182780946464962910

56393887437886487337119181045825783647849977012476

63288983595573543251318532395846307555740911426241

74743493475534286465766116677973966688202912073791

43853719588249808126867838374559731746136085379534

52422158659320192809087829730843139284440328123155

86110369768013573042161687476096758713483120254785

89320767169132448426236131412508780208000261683151

02734182797770478463586817016436502415369139828126

48102130927612448963599287051149649754199093422215

66832572080821333186116811553615836546984046708975

60290095053761647584772842188967964624494516076535

34081989013854424879849599533191017233555566021394

50399736280750137837615307127761926849034352625200

01588853514733161170210396817592151090778801939317

81141945452572238655414610628921879602238389714760

88506276862967146674697562911234082439208160153780

88989396451826324367161676217916890977991190375403

12746222899880051954444142820121873617459926429565

81746628302955570299024324153181617210465832036786

90611726015878352075151628422554026517048330422614

39742869330616908979684825901254583271682264580665

26769958652682272807075781391858178889652208164348

34482599326604336766017699961283186078838615027946

59551311565520360939881806121385586003014356945272

24206344631797460594682573103790084024432438465657

140

24501440282188525247093519062092902313649327349756

55139587205596542287497740114133469627154228458623

77387538230483865688976461927383814900140767310446

64025989949022222176590433990188601856652648506179

97023561938970178600408118897299183110211712298459

01641921068884387121855646124960798722908519296819

37238864261483965738229112312502418664935314397013

74285319266498753372189406942814341185201580141233

44828015051399694290153483077644569099073152433278

28826986460278986432113908350621709500259738986355

42771967428222487575867657523442202075736305694988

25087968928162753848863396909959826280956121450994

87170124451646126037902930912088908694202851064018

21543994571568059418727489980942547421735824010636

77404595741785160829230135358081840096996372524230

56085590370062427124341690900415369010593398383577

79394109700277534720000000000000000000000000000000

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

000000000000000000.

---

Node:bigot, Next:[1345]bit, Previous:[1346]bignum, Up:[1347]= B =

bigot n.

[common] A person who is religiously attached to a particular computer, language, operating system, editor, or other tool (see [1348]religious issues). Usually found with a specifier; thus, `cray bigot', `ITS bigot', `APL bigot', `VMS bigot', `Berkeley bigot'. Real bigots can be distinguished from mere partisans or zealots by the fact that they refuse to learn alternatives even when the march of time and/or technology is threatening to obsolete the favored tool. It is truly said "You can tell a bigot, but you can't tell him