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grue
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= G =
grunge/gruhnj/ n.
1. That which is grungy, or that which makes it so. 2. [Cambridge] Code which is inaccessible due to changes in other parts of the program. The preferred term in North America isdead code.
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gubbish
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Guido
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grunge
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= G =
gubbish/guhb'*sh/ n.
[a portmanteau of `garbage' and `rubbish'; may have originated with SF author Philip K. Dick] Garbage; crap; nonsense. "What is all this gubbish?" The opposite portmanteau `rubbage' is also reported; in fact, it was British slang during the 19th century and appears in Dickens.
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Guido
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guiltware
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gubbish
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= G =
Guido/gwee'do/ or /khwee'do/
Without qualification, Guido van Rossum (author ofPython). Note that Guido answers to English /gwee'do/ but in Dutch it's /khwee'do/.
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guiltware
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gumby
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Guido
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= G =
guiltware/gilt'weir/ n.
1. A piece offreewaredecorated with a message telling one how long and hard the author worked on it and intimating that one is a no-good freeloader if one does not immediately send the poor suffering martyr gobs of money. 2. A piece ofsharewarethat works.
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gumby
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gun
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guiltware
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= G =
gumby/guhm'bee/ n.
[from a class of Monty Python characters, poss. with some influence from the 1960s claymation character] 1. An act of minor but conspicuous stupidity, often in `gumby maneuver' or `pull a gumby'. 2. [NRL] n. A bureaucrat, or other technical incompetent who impedes the progress of real work. 3. adj. Relating to things typically associated with people in sense 2. (e.g. "Ran would be writing code, but Richard gave him gumby work that's due on Friday", or, "Dammit! Travel screwed up my plane tickets. I have to go out on gumby patrol.")
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gun
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gunch
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gumby
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= G =
gunvt.
[ITS, now rare: from the:GUNcommand] To forcibly terminate a program or job (computer, not career). "Some idiot left a background process running soaking up half the cycles, so I gunned it." Usage: now rare. Comparecan,blammo.
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gunch
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gunpowder chicken
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gun
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= G =
gunch/guhnch/ vt.
[TMRC] To push, prod, or poke at a device that has almost (but not quite) produced the desired result. Implies a threat tomung.
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gunpowder chicken
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gurfle
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gunch
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= G =
gunpowder chickenn.
Same aslaser chicken.
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gurfle
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guru
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gunpowder chicken
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= G =
gurfle/ger'fl/ interj.
An expression of shocked disbelief. "He said we have to recode this thing in FORTRAN by next week. Gurfle!" Compareweeble.
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guru
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guru meditation
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gurfle
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= G =
gurun.
[Unix] An expert. Implies not onlywizardskill but also a history of being a knowledge resource for others. Less often, used (with a qualifier) for other experts on other systems, as in `VMS guru'. Seesource of all good bits.
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guru meditation
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gweep
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guru
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= G =
guru meditationn.
Amiga equivalent of `panic' in Unix (sometimes just called a `guru' or `guru event'). When the system crashes, a cryptic message of the form "GURU MEDITATION #XXXXXXXX.YYYYYYYY" may appear, indicating what the problem was. An Amiga guru can figure things out from the numbers. Sometimes aguruevent must be followed by aVulcan nerve pinch.
This term is (no surprise) an in-joke from the earliest days of the Amiga. An earlier product of the Amiga corporation was a device called a `Joyboard' which was basically a plastic board built onto a joystick-like device; it was sold with a skiing game cartridge for the Atari game machine. It is said that whenever the prototype OS crashed, the system programmer responsible would calm down by concentrating on a solution while sitting cross-legged on a Joyboard trying to keep the board in balance. This position resembled that of a meditating guru. Sadly, the joke was removed fairly early on (but there's a well-known patch to restore it in more recent versions).
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gweep
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h
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guru meditation
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= G =
gweep/gweep/
[WPI] 1. v. Tohack, usually at night. At WPI, from 1975 onwards, one who gweeped could often be found at the College Computing Center punching cards or crashing thePDP-10or, later, the DEC-20. A correspondent who was there at the time opines that the term was originally onomatopoetic, describing the keyclick sound of the Datapoint terminals long connected to the PDP-10. The term has survived the demise of those technologies, however, and was still alive in early 1999. "I'm going to go gweep for a while. See you in the morning." "I gweep from 8 PM till 3 AM during the week." 2. n. One who habitually gweeps in sense 1; ahacker. "He's a hard-core gweep, mumbles code in his sleep."
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= H =
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= I =
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The Jargon Lexicon
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h
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ha ha only serious
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gweep
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= H =
h
[from SF fandom] A method of `marking' common words, i.e., calling attention to the fact that they are being used in a nonstandard, ironic, or humorous way. Originated in the fannish catchphrase "Bheer is the One True Ghod!" from decades ago. H-infix marking of `Ghod' and other words spread into the 1960s counterculture via underground comix, and into early hackerdom either from the counterculture or from SF fandom (the three overlapped heavily at the time). More recently, the h infix has become an expected feature of benchmark names (Dhrystone, Rhealstone, etc.); this is probably patterning on the original Whetstone (the name of a laboratory) but influenced by the fannish/counterculture h infix.
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ha ha only serious
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hack
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h
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= H =
ha ha only serious
[from SF fandom, orig. as mutation of HHOK, `Ha Ha Only Kidding'] A phrase (often seen abbreviated as HHOS) that aptly captures the flavor of much hacker discourse. Applied especially to parodies, absurdities, and ironic jokes that are both intended and perceived to contain a possibly disquieting amount of truth, or truths that are constructed on in-joke and self-parody. This lexicon contains many examples of ha-ha-only-serious in both form and content. Indeed, the entirety of hacker culture is often perceived as ha-ha-only-serious by hackers themselves; to take it either too lightly or too seriously marks a person as an outsider, awannabee, or inlarval stage. For further enlightenment on this subject, consult any Zen master. See alsohacker humor, andAI koans.
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hack
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hack attack
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ha ha only serious
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= H =
hack
[very common] 1. n. Originally, a quick job that produces what is needed, but not well. 2. n. An incredibly good, and perhaps very time-consuming, piece of work that produces exactly what is needed. 3. vt. To bear emotionally or physically. "I can't hack this heat!" 4. vt. To work on something (typically a program). In an immediate sense: "What are you doing?" "I'm hacking TECO." In a general (time-extended) sense: "What do you do around here?" "I hack TECO." More generally, "I hack `foo'" is roughly equivalent to "`foo' is my major interest (or project)". "I hack solid-state physics." SeeHacking X for Y. 5. vt. To pull a prank on. See sense 2 andhacker(sense 5). 6. vi. To interact with a computer in a playful and exploratory rather than goal-directed way. "Whatcha up to?" "Oh, just hacking." 7. n. Short forhacker. 8. Seenethack. 9. [MIT] v. To explore the basements, roof ledges, and steam tunnels of a large, institutional building, to the dismay of Physical Plant workers and (since this is usually performed at educational institutions) the Campus Police. This activity has been found to be eerily similar to playing adventure games such as Dungeons and Dragons andZork. See alsovadding.
Constructions on this term abound. They include `happy hacking' (a farewell), `how's hacking?' (a friendly greeting among hackers) and `hack, hack' (a fairly content-free but friendly comment, often used as a temporary farewell). For more on this totipotent term see "The Meaning of Hack". See alsoneat hack,real hack.
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hack attack
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hack mode
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hack
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= H =
hack attackn.
[poss. by analogy with `Big Mac Attack' from ads for the McDonald's fast-food chain; the variant `big hack attack' is reported] Nearly synonymous withhacking run, though the latter more strongly implies an all-nighter.
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hack mode
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hack on
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hack attack
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= H =
hack moden.
1. What one is in when hacking, of course. 2. More specifically, a Zen-like state of total focus on The Problem that may be achieved when one is hacking (this is why every good hacker is part mystic). Ability to enter such concentration at will correlates strongly with wizardliness; it is one of the most important skills learned duringlarval stage. Sometimes amplified as `deep hack mode'.
Being yanked out of hack mode (seepriority interrupt) may be experienced as a physical shock, and the sensation of being in hack mode is more than a little habituating. The intensity of this experience is probably by itself sufficient explanation for the existence of hackers, and explains why many resist being promoted out of positions where they can code. See alsocyberspace(sense 2).
Some aspects of hacker etiquette will appear quite odd to an observer unaware of the high value placed on hack mode. For example, if someone appears at your door, it is perfectly okay to hold up a hand (without turning one's eyes away from the screen) to avoid being interrupted. One may read, type, and interact with the computer for quite some time before further acknowledging the other's presence (of course, he or she is reciprocally free to leave without a word). The understanding is that you might be inhack modewith a lot of delicatestate(sense 2) in your head, and you dare notswapthat context out until you have reached a good point to pause. See alsojuggling eggs.
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hack on
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hack together
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hack mode
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= H =
hack onvt.
[very common] Tohack; implies that the subject is some pre-existing hunk of code that one is evolving, as opposed to something one mighthack up.
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hack together
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hack up
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hack on
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= H =
hack togethervt.
[common] To throw something together so it will work. Unlike `kluge together' orcruft together, this does not necessarily have negative connotations.