The New Hacker's Dictionary
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Node:lamer, Next:[7800]language lawyer, Previous:[7801]lag, Up:[7802]= L =
lamer n.
[prob. originated in skateboarder slang] 1. Synonym for [7803]luser, not used much by hackers but common among [7804]warez d00dz, crackers, and [7805]phreakers. A person who downloads much, but who never uploads. (Also known as `leecher'). Oppose [7806]elite. Has the same connotations of self-conscious elitism that use of [7807]luser does among hackers. 2. Someone who tries to crack a BBS. 3. Someone who annoys the sysop or other BBS users - for instance, by posting lots of silly messages, uploading virus-ridden software, frequently dropping carrier, etc.
Crackers also use it to refer to cracker [7808]wannabees. In phreak culture, a lamer is one who scams codes off others rather than doing cracks or really understanding the fundamental concepts. In [7809]warez d00dz culture, where the ability to wave around cracked commercial software within days of (or before) release to the commercial market is much esteemed, the lamer might try to upload garbage or shareware or something incredibly old (old in this context is read as a few years to anything older than 3 days).
`Lamer' is also much used in the IRC world in a similar sense to the above.
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Node:language lawyer, Next:[7810]languages of choice,
Previous:[7811]lamer, Up:[7812]= L =
language lawyer n.
A person, usually an experienced or senior software engineer, who is intimately familiar with many or most of the numerous restrictions and features (both useful and esoteric) applicable to one or more computer programming languages. A language lawyer is distinguished by the ability to show you the five sentences scattered through a 200-plus-page manual
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that together imply the answer to your question "if only you had thought to look there". Compare [7813]wizard, [7814]legal, [7815]legalese.
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Node:languages of choice, Next:[7816]LART, Previous:[7817]language lawyer, Up:[7818]= L =
languages of choice n.
[7819]C, [7820]C++, [7821]LISP, and [7822]Perl. Nearly every hacker knows one of C or LISP, and most good ones are fluent in both. C++, despite some serious drawbacks, is generally preferred to other object-oriented languages (though in 1999 it looks as though [7823]Java has displaced it in the affections of hackers, if not everywhere). Since around 1990 Perl has rapidly been gaining favor, especially as a tool for systems-administration utilities and rapid prototyping. [7824]Python, Smalltalk and Prolog are also popular in small but influential communities.
There is also a rapidly dwindling category of older hackers with FORTRAN, or even assembler, as their language of choice. They often prefer to be known as [7825]Real Programmers, and other hackers consider them a bit odd (see "[7826]The Story of Mel" in Appendix A). Assembler is generally no longer considered interesting or appropriate for anything but [7827]HLL implementation, [7828]glue, and a few time-critical and hardware-specific uses in systems programs. FORTRAN occupies a shrinking niche in scientific programming.
Most hackers tend to frown on languages like [7829]Pascal and [7830]Ada, which don't give them the near-total freedom considered necessary for hacking (see [7831]bondage-and-discipline language), and to regard everything even remotely connected with [7832]COBOL or other traditional [7833]card walloper languages as a total and unmitigated [7834]loss.
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Node:LART, Next:[7835]larval stage, Previous:[7836]languages of choice, Up:[7837]= L =
LART //
Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool. 1. n. In the collective mythos of [7838]scary devil monastery, this is an essential item in the toolkit of every [7839]BOFH. The LART classic is a 2x4 or other large billet of wood usable as a club, to be applied upside the head of spammers and other people who cause sysadmins more grief than just naturally goes with the job. Perennial debates rage on alt.sysadmin.recovery over what constitutes the truly effective LART; knobkerries, semiautomatic weapons, flamethrowers, and tactical nukes all have their partisans. Compare [7840]clue-by-four. 2. v. To use a LART. Some would add "in malice", but some sysadmins do prefer to gently lart their users as a first (and sometimes final) warning. 3. interj. Calling for one's LART, much as a surgeon might call "Scalpel!". 4. interj. [rare] Used in [7841]flames as a rebuke. "LART! LART! LART!"
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Node:larval stage, Next:[7842]lase, Previous:[7843]LART, Up:[7844]= L =
larval stage n.
Describes a period of monomaniacal concentration on coding apparently passed through by all fledgling hackers. Common symptoms include the perpetration of more than one 36-hour [7845]hacking run in a given week; neglect of all other activities including usual basics like food, sleep, and personal hygiene; and a chronic case of advanced bleary-eye. Can last from 6 months to 2 years, the apparent median being around 18 months. A few so afflicted never resume a more `normal' life, but the ordeal seems to be necessary to produce really wizardly (as opposed to merely competent) programmers. See also [7846]wannabee. A less protracted and intense version of larval stage (typically lasting about a month) may recur when one is learning a new [7847]OS or programming language.
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Node:lase, Next:[7848]laser chicken, Previous:[7849]larval stage, Up:[7850]= L =
lase /layz/ vt.
To print a given document via a laser printer. "OK, let's lase that sucker and see if all those graphics-macro calls did the right things."
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Node:laser chicken, Next:[7851]lasherism, Previous:[7852]lase, Up:[7853]= L =
laser chicken n.
Kung Pao Chicken, a standard Chinese dish containing chicken, peanuts, and hot red peppers in a spicy pepper-oil sauce. Many hackers call it `laser chicken' for two reasons: It can [7854]zap you just like a laser, and the sauce has a red color reminiscent of some laser beams. The dish has also been called `gunpowder chicken'.
In a variation on this theme, it is reported that some Australian hackers have redesignated the common dish `lemon chicken' as `Chernobyl Chicken'. The name is derived from the color of the sauce, which is considered bright enough to glow in the dark (as, mythically, do some of the inhabitants of Chernobyl).
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Node:lasherism, Next:[7855]laundromat, Previous:[7856]laser chicken, Up:[7857]= L =
lasherism n.
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[Harvard] A program that solves a standard problem (such as the Eight Queens puzzle or implementing the [7858]life algorithm) in a deliberately nonstandard way. Distinguished from a [7859]crock or [7860]kluge by the fact that the programmer did it on purpose as a mental exercise. Such constructions are quite popular in exercises such as the [7861]Obfuscated C Contest, and occasionally in [7862]retrocomputing. Lew Lasher was a student at Harvard around 1980 who became notorious for such behavior.
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Node:laundromat, Next:[7863]LDB, Previous:[7864]lasherism, Up:[7865]=
L =
laundromat n.
Syn. [7866]disk farm; see [7867]washing machine.
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Node:LDB, Next:[7868]leaf site, Previous:[7869]laundromat, Up:[7870]= L =
LDB /l*'d*b/ vt.
[from the PDP-10 instruction set] To extract from the middle. "LDB me a slice of cake, please." This usage has been kept alive by Common LISP's function of the same name. Considered silly. See also [7871]DPB.
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Node:leaf site, Next:[7872]leak, Previous:[7873]LDB, Up:[7874]= L =
leaf site n.,obs.
Before pervasive TCP/IP, this term was used of a machine that merely originated and read Usenet news or mail, and did not relay any third-party
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traffic. It was often uttered in a critical tone; when the ratio of leaf sites to backbone, rib, and other relay sites got too high, the network tended to develop bottlenecks. Compare [7875]backbone site, [7876]rib site. Now that traffic patterns depend more on the distribution of routers than of host machines this term has largely fallen out of use.
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Node:leak, Next:[7877]leaky heap, Previous:[7878]leaf site, Up:[7879]= L
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leak n.
With qualifier, one of a class of resource-management bugs that occur when resources are not freed properly after operations on them are finished, so they effectively disappear (leak out). This leads to eventual exhaustion as new allocation requests come in. [7880]memory leak and [7881]fd leak have their own entries; one might also refer, to, say, a `window handle leak' in a window system.
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Node:leaky heap, Next:[7882]leapfrog attack, Previous:[7883]leak, Up:[7884]= L =
leaky heap n.
[Cambridge] An [7885]arena with a [7886]memory leak.
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Node:leapfrog attack, Next:[7887]leech, Previous:[7888]leaky heap, Up:[7889]= L =
leapfrog attack n.
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Use of userid and password information obtained illicitly from one host (e.g., downloading a file of account IDs and passwords, tapping TELNET, etc.) to compromise another host. Also, the act of TELNETting through one or more hosts in order to confuse a trace (a standard cracker procedure).
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Node:leech, Next:[7890]leech mode, Previous:[7891]leapfrog attack, Up:[7892]= L =
leech
1. n. (Also `leecher'.) Among BBS types, crackers and [7893]warez d00dz, one who consumes knowledge without generating new software, cracks, or techniques. BBS culture specifically defines a leech as someone who downloads files with few or no uploads in return, and who does not contribute to the message section. Cracker culture extends this definition to someone (a [7894]lamer, usually) who constantly presses informed sources for information and/or assistance, but has nothing to contribute. 2. v. [common, Toronto area] To instantly fetch a file (other than a mail attachment) whether by FTP or IRC file req or any other method. Seems to be a holdover from the early 1990s when Toronto had a very active BBS and warez scene.
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Node:leech mode, Next:[7895]legal, Previous:[7896]leech, Up:[7897]= L =
leech mode n.
[warez d00dz] "Leech mode" or "leech access" or (simply "leech" as in "You get leech") is the access mode on a FTP site where one can download as many files as one wants, without having to upload. Leech mode is often promised on banner sites, but rarely obtained. See [7898]ratio site, [7899]banner site.
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Node:legal, Next:[7900]legalese, Previous:[7901]leech mode, Up:[7902]= L =
legal adj.
Loosely used to mean `in accordance with all the relevant rules', esp. in connection with some set of constraints defined by software. "The older =+ alternate for += is no longer legal syntax in ANSI C." "This parser processes each line of legal input the moment it sees the trailing linefeed." Hackers often model their work as a sort of game played with the environment in which the objective is to maneuver through the thicket of `natural laws' to achieve a desired objective. Their use of `legal' is flavored as much by this game-playing sense as by the more conventional one having to do with courts and lawyers. Compare [7903]language lawyer, [7904]legalese.
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Node:legalese, Next:[7905]LER, Previous:[7906]legal, Up:[7907]= L =
legalese n.
Dense, pedantic verbiage in a language description, product specification, or interface standard; text that seems designed to obfuscate and requires a [7908]language lawyer to [7909]parse it. Though hackers are not afraid of high information density and complexity in language (indeed, they rather enjoy both), they share a deep and abiding loathing for legalese; they associate it with deception, [7910]suits, and situations in which hackers generally get the short end of the stick.
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Node:LER, Next:[7911]LERP, Previous:[7912]legalese, Up:[7913]= L =
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LER /L-E-R/
n. 1. [TMRC, from `Light-Emitting Diode'] A light-emitting resistor (that is, one in the process of burning up). Ohm's law was broken. See also [7914]SED. 2. An incandescent light bulb (the filament emits light because it's resistively heated).
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Node:LERP, Next:[7915]let the smoke out, Previous:[7916]LER, Up:[7917]= L =
LERP /lerp/ vi.,n.
Quasi-acronym for Linear Interpolation, used as a verb or noun for the operation. "Bresenham's algorithm lerps incrementally between the two endpoints of the line."
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Node:let the smoke out, Next:[7918]letterbomb, Previous:[7919]LERP, Up:[7920]= L =
let the smoke out v.
To fry hardware (see [7921]fried). See [7922]magic smoke for a discussion of the underlying mythology.
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Node:letterbomb, Next:[7923]lexer, Previous:[7924]let the smoke out, Up:[7925]= L =
letterbomb
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1.n. A piece of [7926]email containing [7927]live data intended to do nefarious things to the recipient's machine or terminal. It used to be possible, for example, to send letterbombs that would lock up some specific kinds of terminals when they are viewed, so thoroughly that the user must cycle power (see [7928]cycle, sense 3) to unwedge them. Under Unix, a letterbomb can also try to get part of its contents interpreted as a shell command to the mailer. The results of this could range from silly to tragic; fortunately it has been some years since any of the standard Unix/Internet mail software was vulnerable to such an attack (though, as the Melissa virus attack demonstrated in early 1999, Microsoft systems can have serious problems). See also [7929]Trojan horse; compare [7930]nastygram.
2.Loosely, a [7931]mailbomb.
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Node:lexer, Next:[7932]lexiphage, Previous:[7933]letterbomb, Up:[7934]=
L =
lexer /lek'sr/ n.
Common hacker shorthand for `lexical analyzer', the input-tokenizing stage in the parser for a language (the part that breaks it into word-like pieces). "Some C lexers get confused by the old-style compound ops like =-."
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Node:lexiphage, Next:[7935]life, Previous:[7936]lexer, Up:[7937]= L =
lexiphage /lek'si-fayj`/ n.
A notorious word [7938]chomper on ITS. See [7939]bagbiter. This program would draw on a selected victim's bitmapped terminal the words "THE BAG" in ornate letters, followed a pair of jaws biting pieces of it off.
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