The New Hacker's Dictionary
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BBS has 4 nodes even though it has a single machine and no Internet link, confusing an Internet hacker no end.
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Node:Nominal Semidestructor, Next:[9490]non-optimal solution, Previous:[9491]node, Up:[9492]= N =
Nominal Semidestructor n.
Soundalike slang for `National Semiconductor', found among other places in the Networking/2 networking sources. During the late 1970s to mid-1980s this company marketed a series of microprocessors including the NS16000 and NS32000 and several variants. At one point early in the great microprocessor race, the specs on these chips made them look like serious competition for the rising Intel 80x86 and Motorola 680x0 series. Unfortunately, the actual parts were notoriously flaky and never implemented the full instruction set promised in their literature, apparently because the company couldn't get any of the mask steppings to work as designed. They eventually sank without trace, joining the Zilog Z8000 and a few even more obscure also-rans in the graveyard of forgotten microprocessors. Compare [9493]HP-SUX, [9494]AIDX, [9495]buglix, [9496]Macintrash, [9497]Telerat, [9498]ScumOS, [9499]sun-stools, [9500]Slowlaris, [9501]Internet Exploder.
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Node:non-optimal solution, Next:[9502]nonlinear, Previous:[9503]Nominal Semidestructor, Up:[9504]= N =
non-optimal solution n.
(also `sub-optimal solution') An astoundingly stupid way to do something. This term is generally used in deadpan sarcasm, as its impact is greatest when the person speaking looks completely serious. Compare [9505]stunning. See also [9506]Bad Thing.
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Node:nonlinear, Next:[9507]nontrivial, Previous:[9508]non-optimal solution, Up:[9509]= N =
nonlinear adj.
[scientific computation] 1. Behaving in an erratic and unpredictable fashion; unstable. When used to describe the behavior of a machine or program, it suggests that said machine or program is being forced to run far outside of design specifications. This behavior may be induced by unreasonable inputs, or may be triggered when a more mundane bug sends the computation far off from its expected course. 2. When describing the behavior of a person, suggests a tantrum or a [9510]flame. "When you talk to Bob, don't mention the drug problem or he'll go nonlinear for hours." In this context, `go nonlinear' connotes `blow up out of proportion' (proportion connotes linearity).
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Node:nontrivial, Next:[9511]not ready for prime time,
Previous:[9512]nonlinear, Up:[9513]= N =
nontrivial adj.
Requiring real thought or significant computing power. Often used as an understated way of saying that a problem is quite difficult or impractical, or even entirely unsolvable ("Proving P=NP is nontrivial"). The preferred emphatic form is `decidedly nontrivial'. See [9514]trivial, [9515]uninteresting, [9516]interesting.
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Node:not ready for prime time, Next:[9517]notwork,
Previous:[9518]nontrivial, Up:[9519]= N =
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not ready for prime time adj.
Usable, but only just so; not very robust; for internal use only. Said of a program or device. Often connotes that the thing will be made more solid [9520]Real Soon Now. This term comes from the ensemble name of the original cast of "Saturday Night Live", the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players". It has extra flavor for hackers because of the special (though now semi-obsolescent) meaning of [9521]prime time. Compare [9522]beta.
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Node:notwork, Next:[9523]NP-, Previous:[9524]not ready for prime time, Up:[9525]= N =
notwork /not'werk/ n.
A network, when it is acting [9526]flaky or is [9527]down. Compare [9528]nyetwork. Said at IBM to have originally referred to a particular period of flakiness on IBM's VNET corporate network ca. 1988; but there are independent reports of the term from elsewhere.
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Node:NP-, Next:[9529]nroff, Previous:[9530]notwork, Up:[9531]= N =
NP- /N-P/ pref.
Extremely. Used to modify adjectives describing a level or quality of difficulty; the connotation is often `more so than it should be' This is generalized from the computer-science terms `NP-hard' and `NP-complete'; NP-complete problems all seem to be very hard, but so far no one has found a proof that they are. NP is the set of Nondeterministic-Polynomial algorithms, those that can be completed by a nondeterministic Turing machine in an amount of time that is a polynomial function of the size of the input; a solution for one NP-complete problem would solve all the others. "Coding a BitBlt implementation to perform correctly in every case
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is NP-annoying."
Note, however, that strictly speaking this usage is misleading; there are plenty of easy problems in class NP. NP-complete problems are hard not because they are in class NP, but because they are the hardest problems in class NP.
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Node:nroff, Next:[9532]NSA line eater, Previous:[9533]NP-, Up:[9534]= N =
nroff /N'rof/
n. [Unix, from "new roff" (see [9535]troff)] A companion program to the Unix typesetter [9536]troff, accepting identical input but preparing output for terminals and line printers.
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Node:NSA line eater, Next:[9537]NSP, Previous:[9538]nroff, Up:[9539]= N =
NSA line eater n.
The National Security Agency trawling program sometimes assumed to be reading the net for the U.S. Government's spooks. Most hackers used to think it was mythical but believed in acting as though existed just in case. since the mid-1990s it has gradually become known that the NSA actually does this, quite illegaly, through its Echelon program.
The standard countermeasure is to put loaded phrases like `KGB', `Uzi', `nuclear materials', `Palestine', `cocaine', and `assassination' in their [9540]sig blocks in a (probably futile) attempt to confuse and overload the creature. The [9541]GNU version of [9542]EMACS actually has a command that randomly inserts a bunch of insidious anarcho-verbiage into
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your edited text.
As far back as the 1970s there was a mainstream variant of this myth involving a `Trunk Line Monitor', which supposedly used speech recognition to extract words from telephone trunks. This is much harder than noticing keywords in email, and most of the people who originally propagated it had no idea of then-current technology or the storage, signal-processing, or speech recognition needs of such a project. On the basis of mass-storage costs alone it would have been cheaper to hire 50 high-school students and just let them listen in. Twenty years and several orders of technological magnitude later, however, there are clear indications that the NSA has actually deployed such filtering (again, very much against U.S. law).
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Node:NSP, Next:[9543]nude, Previous:[9544]NSA line eater, Up:[9545]= N =
NSP /N-S-P/ n.
Common abbreviation for `Network Service Provider', one of the big national or regional companies that maintains a portion of the Internet backbone and resells connectivity to [9546]ISPs. In 1996, major NSPs include ANS, MCI, UUNET, and Sprint. An Internet wholesaler.
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Node:nude, Next:[9547]nugry, Previous:[9548]NSP, Up:[9549]= N =
nude adj.
Said of machines delivered without an operating system (compare [9550]bare metal). "We ordered 50 systems, but they all arrived nude, so we had to spend a an extra weekend with the installation disks." This usage is a recent innovation reflecting the fact that most IBM-PC clones are now
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delivered with an operating system pre-installed at the factory. Other kinds of hardware are still normally delivered without OS, so this term is particular to PC support groups.
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Node:nugry, Next:[9551]nuke, Previous:[9552]nude, Up:[9553]= N =
nugry /n[y]oo'gree/
[Usenet, 'newbie' + '-gry'] `. n. A [9554]newbie who posts a [9555]FAQ in the rec.puzzles newsgroup, especially if it is a variant of the notorious and unanswerable "What, besides `angry' and `hungry', is the third common English word that ends in -GRY?". In the newsgroup, the canonical answer is of course `nugry' itself. Plural is `nusgry' /n[y]oos'gree/. 2. adj. Having the qualities of a nugry.
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Node:nuke, Next:[9556]number-crunching, Previous:[9557]nugry,
Up:[9558]= N =
nuke /n[y]ook/ vt.
[common] 1. To intentionally delete the entire contents of a given directory or storage volume. "On Unix, rm -r /usr will nuke everything in the usr filesystem." Never used for accidental deletion; contrast [9559]blow away. 2. Syn. for [9560]dike, applied to smaller things such as files, features, or code sections. Often used to express a final verdict. "What do you want me to do with that 80-meg [9561]wallpaper file?" "Nuke it." 3. Used of processes as well as files; nuke is a frequent verbal alias for kill -9 on Unix. 4. On IBM PCs, a bug that results in [9562]fandango on core can trash the operating system, including the FAT (the in-core copy of the disk block chaining information). This can utterly scramble attached disks, which are then said to have been `nuked'. This term is also used of analogous lossages on Macintoshes and other micros without memory protection.
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Node:number-crunching, Next:[9563]numbers, Previous:[9564]nuke,
Up:[9565]= N =
number-crunching n.
[common] Computations of a numerical nature, esp. those that make extensive use of floating-point numbers. The only thing [9566]Fortrash is good for. This term is in widespread informal use outside hackerdom and even in mainstream slang, but has additional hackish connotations: namely, that the computations are mindless and involve massive use of [9567]brute force. This is not always [9568]evil, esp. if it involves ray tracing or fractals or some other use that makes [9569]pretty pictures, esp. if such pictures can be used as [9570]wallpaper. See also [9571]crunch.
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Node:numbers, Next:[9572]NUXI problem,
Previous:[9573]number-crunching, Up:[9574]= N =
numbers n.
[scientific computation] Output of a computation that may not be significant results but at least indicate that the program is running. May be used to placate management, grant sponsors, etc. `Making numbers' means running a program because output -- any output, not necessarily meaningful output -- is needed as a demonstration of progress. See [9575]pretty pictures, [9576]math-out, [9577]social science number.
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Node:NUXI problem, Next:[9578]nybble, Previous:[9579]numbers, Up:[9580]= N =
NUXI problem /nuk'see pro'bl*m/ n.
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Refers to the problem of transferring data between machines with differing byte-order. The string `UNIX' might look like `NUXI' on a machine with a different `byte sex' (e.g., when transferring data from a [9581]little-endian to a [9582]big-endian, or vice-versa). See also [9583]middle-endian, [9584]swab, and [9585]bytesexual.
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Node:nybble, Next:[9586]nyetwork, Previous:[9587]NUXI problem, Up:[9588]= N =
nybble /nib'l/ (alt. `nibble') n.
[from v. `nibble' by analogy with `bite' => `byte'] Four bits; one [9589]hex digit; a half-byte. Though `byte' is now techspeak, this useful relative is still jargon. Compare [9590]byte; see also [9591]bit. The more mundane spelling "nibble" is also commonly used. Apparently the `nybble' spelling is uncommon in Commonwealth Hackish, as British orthography would suggest the pronunciation /ni:'bl/.
Following `bit', `byte' and `nybble' there have been quite a few analogical attempts to construct unambiguous terms for bit blocks of other sizes. All of these are strictly jargon, not techspeak, and not very common jargon at that (most hackers would recognize them in context but not use them spontaneously). We collect them here for reference together with the ambiguous techspeak terms `word', `half-word' and `double word'; some (indicated) have substantial information separate entries.
2 bits: [9592]crumb, [9593]quad, [9594]quarter, tayste, tydbit
4 bits: nybble
5 bits: [9595]nickle
10 bits: [9596]deckle
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16 bits: playte, [9597]chawmp (on a 32-bit machine), word (on a 16-bit machine), half-word (on a 32-bit machine).
18 bits: [9598]chawmp (on a 36-bit machine), half-word (on a 36-bit machine)
32 bits: dynner, [9599]gawble (on a 32-bit machine), word (on a 32-bit machine), longword (on a 16-bit machine).
36: word (on a 36-bit machine)
48 bits: [9600]gawble (under circumstances that remain obscure)
64 bits double word (on a 32-bit machine)
The fundamental motivation for most of these jargon terms (aside from the normal hackerly enjoyment of punning wordplay) is the extreme ambiguity of the term `word' and its derivatives.
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Node:nyetwork, Next:[9601]Ob-, Previous:[9602]nybble, Up:[9603]= N =
nyetwork /nyet'werk/ n.
[from Russian `nyet' = no] A network, when it is acting [9604]flaky or is [9605]down. Compare [9606]notwork.
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Node:= O =, Next:[9607]= P =, Previous:[9608]= N =, Up:[9609]The Jargon Lexicon
= O =
* [9610]Ob-:
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*[9611]Obfuscated C Contest:
*[9612]obi-wan error:
*[9613]Objectionable-C:
*[9614]obscure:
*[9615]octal forty:
*[9616]off the trolley:
*[9617]off-by-one error:
*[9618]offline:
*[9619]ogg:
*[9620]-oid:
*[9621]old fart:
*[9622]Old Testament:
*[9623]on the gripping hand:
*[9624]one-banana problem:
*[9625]one-line fix:
*[9626]one-liner wars:
*[9627]ooblick:
*[9628]op: