/*************************************************** This is a boxed comment in C style**************************************************/
Common variants of this style omit the asterisks in column 2 or add a matching row of asterisks closing the right side of the box. The sparest variant omits all but the comment delimiters themselves; the `box' is implied. Opposewinged comments.
Node:
boxen
, Next:
boxology
, Previous:
boxed comments
, Up:
= B =
boxen/bok'sn/ pl.n.
[very common; by analogy withVAXen] Fanciful plural ofboxoften encountered in the phrase `Unix boxen', used to describe commodityUnixhardware. The connotation is that any two Unix boxen are interchangeable.
Node:
boxology
, Next:
bozotic
, Previous:
boxen
, Up:
= B =
boxology/bok-sol'*-jee/ n.
Syn.ASCII art. This term implies a more restricted domain, that of box-and-arrow drawings. "His report has a lot of boxology in it." Comparemacrology.
Node:
bozotic
, Next:
BQS
, Previous:
boxology
, Up:
= B =
bozotic/boh-zoh'tik/ or /boh-zo'tik/ adj.
[from the name of a TV clown even more losing than Ronald McDonald] Resembling or having the quality of a bozo; that is, clownish, ludicrously wrong, unintentionally humorous. Comparewonky,demented. Note that the noun `bozo' occurs in slang, but the mainstream adjectival form would be `bozo-like' or (in New England) `bozoish'.
Node:
BQS
, Next:
brain dump
, Previous:
bozotic
, Up:
= B =
BQS/B-Q-S/ adj.
Syn.Berkeley Quality Software.
Node:
brain dump
, Next:
brain fart
, Previous:
BQS
, Up:
= B =
brain dumpn.
[common] The act of telling someone everything one knows about a particular topic or project. Typically used when someone is going to let a new party maintain a piece of code. Conceptually analogous to an operating systemcore dumpin that it saves a lot of usefulstatebefore an exit. "You'll have to give me a brain dump on FOOBAR before you start your new job at HackerCorp." Seecore dump(sense 4). At Sun, this is also known as `TOI' (transfer of information).
Node:
brain fart
, Next:
brain-damaged
, Previous:
brain dump
, Up:
= B =
brain fartn.
The actual result of abraino, as opposed to the mental glitch that is the braino itself. E.g., typingdiron a Unix box after a session with DOS.
Node:
brain-damaged
, Next:
brain-dead
, Previous:
brain fart
, Up:
= B =
brain-damagedadj.
1. [common; generalization of `Honeywell Brain Damage' (HBD), a theoretical disease invented to explain certain utter cretinisms in HoneywellMultics] adj. Obviously wrong;cretinous;demented. There is an implication that the person responsible must have suffered brain damage, because he should have known better. Calling something brain-damaged is really bad; it also implies it is unusable, and that its failure to work is due to poor design rather than some accident. "Only six monocase characters per file name? Nowthat'sbrain-damaged!" 2. [esp. in the Mac world] May refer to free demonstration software that has been deliberately crippled in some way so as not to compete with the product it is intended to sell. Syn.crippleware.
Node:
brain-dead
, Next:
braino
, Previous:
brain-damaged
, Up:
= B =
brain-deadadj.
[common] Brain-damaged in the extreme. It tends to imply terminal design failure rather than malfunction or simple stupidity. "This comm program doesn't know how to send a break -- how brain-dead!"
Node:
braino
, Next:
branch to Fishkill
, Previous:
brain-dead
, Up:
= B =
braino/bray'no/ n.
Syn. forthinko. See alsobrain fart.
Node:
branch to Fishkill
, Next:
bread crumbs
, Previous:
braino
, Up:
= B =
branch to Fishkilln.
[IBM: from the location of one of the corporation's facilities] Any unexpected jump in a program that produces catastrophic or just plain weird results. Seejump off into never-never land,hyperspace.
Node:
bread crumbs
, Next:
break
, Previous:
branch to Fishkill
, Up:
= B =
bread crumbsn.
1. Debugging statements inserted into a program that emit output or log indicators of the program'sstateto a file so you can see where it dies or pin down the cause of surprising behavior. The term is probably a reference to the Hansel and Gretel story from the Brothers Grimm or the older French folktale of Thumbelina; in several variants of these, a character leaves a trail of bread crumbs so as not to get lost in the woods. 2. In user-interface design, any feature that allows some tracking of where you've been, like coloring visited links purple rather than blue in Netscape (also called `footrinting').
Node:
break
, Next:
break-even point
, Previous:
bread crumbs
, Up:
= B =
break
1. vt. To cause to bebroken(in any sense). "Your latest patch to the editor broke the paragraph commands." 2. v. (of a program) To stop temporarily, so that it may debugged. The place where it stops is a `breakpoint'. 3. [techspeak] vi. To send an RS-232 break (two character widths of line high) over a serial comm line. 4. [Unix] vi. To strike whatever key currently causes the tty driver to send SIGINT to the current process. Normally, break (sense 3), delete orcontrol-Cdoes this. 5. `break break' may be said to interrupt a conversation (this is an example of verb doubling). This usage comes from radio communications, which in turn probably came from landline telegraph/teleprinter usage, as badly abused in the Citizen's Band craze a few years ago.
Node:
break-even point
, Next:
breath-of-life packet
, Previous:
break
, Up:
= B =
break-even pointn.
In the process of implementing a new computer language, the point at which the language is sufficiently effective that one can implement the language in itself. That is, for a new language called, hypothetically, FOOGOL, one has reached break-even when one can write a demonstration compiler for FOOGOL in FOOGOL, discard the original implementation language, and thereafter use working versions of FOOGOL to develop newer ones. This is an important milestone; seeMFTL.
Since this entry was first written, several correspondents have reported that there actually was a compiler for a tiny Algol-like language called Foogol floating around on variousVAXenin the early and mid-1980s. A FOOGOL implementation is available at the Retrocomputing Museum http://www.ccil.org/retro.
Node:
breath-of-life packet
, Next:
breedle
, Previous:
break-even point
, Up:
= B =
breath-of-life packetn.
[XEROX PARC] An Ethernet packet that contains bootstrap (seeboot) code, periodically sent out from a working computer to infuse the `breath of life' into any computer on the network that has happened to crash. Machines depending on such packets have sufficient hardware or firmware code to wait for (or request) such a packet during the reboot process. See alsodickless workstation.
The notional `kiss-of-death packet', with a function complementary to that of a breath-of-life packet, is recommended for dealing with hosts that consume too many network resources. Though `kiss-of-death packet' is usually used in jest, there is at least one documented instance of an Internet subnet with limited address-table slots in a gateway machine in which such packets were routinely used to compete for slots, rather like Christmas shoppers competing for scarce parking spaces.
Node:
breedle
, Next:
Breidbart Index
, Previous:
breath-of-life packet
, Up:
= B =
breedlen.
Seefeep.
Node:
Breidbart Index
, Next:
bring X to its knees
, Previous:
breedle
, Up:
= B =
Breidbart Index/bri:d'bart ind*ks/
A measurement of the severity of spam invented by long-time hacker Seth Breidbart, used for programming cancelbots. The Breidbart Index takes into account the fact that excessive multi-postingEMPis worse than excessive cross-postingECP. The Breidbart Index is computed as follows: For each article in a spam, take the square-root of the number of newsgroups to which the article is posted. The Breidbart Index is the sum of the square roots of all of the posts in the spam. For example, one article posted to nine newsgroups and again to sixteen would have BI = sqrt(9) + sqrt(16) = 7. It is generally agreed that a spam is cancelable if the Breidbart Index exceeds 20.
The Breidbart Index accumulates over a 45-day window. Ten articles yesterday and ten articles today and ten articles tomorrow add up to a 30-article spam. Spam fighters will often reset the count if you can convince them that the spam was accidental and/or you have seen the error of your ways and won't repeat it. Breidbart Index can accumulate over multiple authors. For example, the "Make Money Fast" pyramid scheme exceeded a BI of 20 a long time ago, and is now considered "cancel on sight".
Node:
bring X to its knees
, Next:
brittle
, Previous:
Breidbart Index
, Up:
= B =
bring X to its kneesv.
[common] To present a machine, operating system, piece of software, or algorithm with a load so extreme orpathologicalthat it grinds to a halt. "To bring a MicroVAX to its knees, try twenty users runningvi-- or four runningEMACS." Comparehog.
Node:
brittle
, Next:
broadcast storm
, Previous:
bring X to its knees
, Up:
= B =
brittleadj.
Said of software that is functional but easily broken by changes in operating environment or configuration, or by any minor tweak to the software itself. Also, any system that responds inappropriately and disastrously to abnormal but expected external stimuli; e.g., a file system that is usually totally scrambled by a power failure is said to be brittle. This term is often used to describe the results of a research effort that were never intended to be robust, but it can be applied to commercial software, which (due to closed-source development) displays the quality far more often than it ought to. Opposerobust.
Node:
broadcast storm
, Next:
brochureware
, Previous:
brittle
, Up:
= B =
broadcast stormn.
[common] An incorrect packet broadcast on a network that causes most hosts to respond all at once, typically with wrong answers that start the process over again. Seenetwork meltdown; comparemail storm.
Node:
brochureware
, Next:
broken
, Previous:
broadcast storm
, Up:
= B =
brochurewaren.
Planned but non-existent product likevaporware, but with the added implication that marketing is actively selling and promoting it (they've printed brochures). Brochureware is often deployed as a strategic weapon; the idea is to con customers into not committing to an existing product of the competition's. It is a safe bet that when a brochureware product finally becomes real, it will be more expensive than and inferior to the alternatives that had been available for years.
Node:
broken
, Next:
broken arrow
, Previous:
brochureware
, Up:
= B =
brokenadj.
1. Not working properly (of programs). 2. Behaving strangely; especially (when used of people) exhibiting extreme depression.
Node:
broken arrow
, Next:
BrokenWindows
, Previous:
broken
, Up:
= B =
broken arrown.
[IBM] The error code displayed on line 25 of a 3270 terminal (or a PC emulating a 3270) for various kinds of protocol violations and "unexpected" error conditions (including connection to adowncomputer). On a PC, simulated with `->/_', with the two center characters overstruck.
Note: to appreciate this term fully, it helps to know that `broken arrow' is also military jargon for an accident involving nuclear weapons....
Node:
BrokenWindows
, Next:
broket
, Previous:
broken arrow
, Up:
= B =
BrokenWindowsn.
Abusive hackerism for thecruftyandelephantineXenvironment on Sun machines; properly called `OpenWindows'.
Node:
broket
, Next:
Brooks's Law
, Previous:
BrokenWindows
, Up:
= B =
broket/broh'k*t/ or /broh'ket`/ n.
[rare; by analogy with `bracket': a `broken bracket'] Either
of the characters
Node:
Brooks's Law
, Next:
brown-paper-bag bug
, Previous:
broket
, Up:
= B =
Brooks's Lawprov.
"Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later" -- a result of the fact that the expected advantage from splitting development work among N programmers is O(N) (that is, proportional to N), but the complexity and communications cost associated with coordinating and then merging their work is O(N^2) (that is, proportional to the square of N). The quote is from Fred Brooks, a manager of IBM's OS/360 project and author of "The Mythical Man-Month" (Addison-Wesley, 1975, ISBN 0-201-00650-2), an excellent early book on software engineering. The myth in question has been most tersely expressed as "Programmer time is fungible" and Brooks established conclusively that it is not. Hackers have never forgotten his advice (though it's not the whole story; seebazaar); too often,managementstill does. See alsocreationism,second-system effect,optimism.
Node:
brown-paper-bag bug
, Next:
browser
, Previous:
Brooks's Law
, Up:
= B =
brown-paper-bag bugn.
A bug in a public software release that is so embarrassing that the author notionally wears a brown paper bag over his head for a while so he won't be recognized on the net. Entered popular usage after the early-1999 release of the first Linux 2.2, which had one. The phrase was used in Linus Torvalds's apology posting.
Node:
browser
, Next:
BRS
, Previous:
brown-paper-bag bug
, Up:
= B =