Node:
Objectionable-C
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obscure
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obi-wan error
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= O =
Objectionable-Cn.
Hackish take on "Objective-C", the name of an object-oriented dialect of C in competition with the better-known C++ (it is used to write native applications on the NeXT machine). Objectionable-C uses a Smalltalk-like syntax, but lacks the flexibility of Smalltalk method calls, and (like many such efforts) comes frustratingly close to attaining theRight Thingwithout actually doing so.
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obscure
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octal forty
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Objectionable-C
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= O =
obscureadj.
Used in an exaggeration of its normal meaning, to imply total incomprehensibility. "The reason for that last crash is obscure." "Thefind(1)command's syntax is obscure!" The phrase `moderately obscure' implies that something could be figured out but probably isn't worth the trouble. The construction `obscure in the extreme' is the preferred emphatic form.
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octal forty
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off the trolley
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obscure
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= O =
octal forty/ok'tl for'tee/ n.
Hackish way of saying "I'm drawing a blank." Octal 40 is theASCIIspace character, 0100000; by an odd coincidence,hex40 (01000000) is theEBCDICspace character. Seewall.
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off the trolley
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off-by-one error
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octal forty
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= O =
off the trolleyadj.
Describes the behavior of a program that malfunctions and goes catatonic, but doesn't actuallycrashor abort. Seeglitch,bug,deep space,wedged.
This term is much older than computing, and is (uncommon) slang elsewhere. A trolley is the small wheel that trolls, or runs against, the heavy wire that carries the current to run a streetcar. It's at the end of the long pole (the trolley pole) that reaches from the roof of the streetcar to the overhead line. When the trolley stops making contact with the wire (from passing through a switch, going over bumpy track, or whatever), the streetcar comes to a halt, (usually) without crashing. The streetcar is then said to be off the trolley, or off the wire. Later on, trolley came to mean the streetcar itself. Since streetcars became common in the 1890s, the term is more than 100 years old. Nowadays, trolleys are only seen on historic streetcars, since modern streetcars use pantographs to contact the wire.
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off-by-one error
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offline
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off the trolley
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= O =
off-by-one errorn.
[common] Exceedingly common error induced in many ways, such as by starting at 0 when you should have started at 1 or vice-versa, or by writing< Ninstead of<= Nor vice-versa. Also applied to giving something to the person next to the one who should have gotten it. Often confounded withfencepost error, which is properly a particular subtype of it.
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offline
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ogg
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off-by-one error
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= O =
offlineadv.
Not now or not here. "Let's take this discussion offline." Specifically used onUsenetto suggest that a discussion be moved off a public newsgroup to email.
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ogg
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-oid
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offline
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= O =
ogg/og/ v.
[CMU] 1. In the multi-player space combat game Netrek, to execute kamikaze attacks against enemy ships which are carrying armies or occupying strategic positions. Named during a game in which one of the players repeatedly used the tactic while playing Orion ship G, showing up in the player list as "Og". This trick has been roundly denounced by those who would return to the good old days when the tactic of dogfighting was dominant, but as Sun Tzu wrote, "What is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy, not his tactics." However, the traditional answer to the newbie question "What does ogg mean?" is just "Pick up some armies and I'll show you." 2. In other games, to forcefully attack an opponent with the expectation that the resources expended will be renewed faster than the opponent will be able to regain his previous advantage. Taken more seriously as a tactic since it has gained a simple name. 3. To do anything forcefully, possibly without consideration of the drain on future resources. "I guess I'd better go ogg the problem set that's due tomorrow." "Whoops! I looked down at the map for a sec and almost ogged that oncoming car."
Node:
-oid
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old fart
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ogg
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= O =
-oidsuff.
[from Greek suffix -oid = `in the image of'] 1. Used as in mainstream slang English to indicate a poor imitation, a counterfeit, or some otherwise slightly bogus resemblance. Hackers will happily use it with all sorts of non-Greco/Latin stem words that wouldn't keep company with it in mainstream English. For example, "He's a nerdoid" means that he superficially resembles a nerd but can't make the grade; a `modemoid' might be a 300-baud box (Real Modems run at 28.8 or up); a `computeroid' might be anybitty box. The word `keyboid' could be used to describe achiclet keyboard, but would have to be written; spoken, it would confuse the listener as to the speaker's city of origin. 2. More specifically, an indicator for `resembling an android' which in the past has been confined to science-fiction fans and hackers. It too has recently (in 1991) started to go mainstream (most notably in the term `trendoid' for victims of terminal hipness). This is probably traceable to the popularization of the termdroidin "Star Wars" and its sequels. (See alsowindoid.)
Coinages in both forms have been common in science fiction for at least fifty years, and hackers (who are often SF fans) have probably been making `-oid' jargon for almost that long [though GLS and I can personally confirm only that they were already common in the mid-1970s --ESR].
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old fart
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Old Testament
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-oid
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= O =
old fartn.
Tribal elder. A title self-assumed with remarkable frequency by (esp.) Usenetters who have been programming for more than about 25 years; often appears insig blocks attached to Jargon File contributions of great archeological significance. This is a term of insult in the second or third person but one of pride in first person.
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Old Testament
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on the gripping hand
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old fart
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= O =
Old Testamentn.
[C programmers] The first edition ofK&R, the sacred text describingClassic C.
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on the gripping hand
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one-banana problem
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Old Testament
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= O =
on the gripping hand
In the progression that starts "On the one hand..." and continues "On the other hand..." mainstream English may add "on the third hand..." even though most people don't have three hands. Among hackers, it is just as likely to be "on the gripping hand". This metaphor supplied the title of Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle's 1993 SF novel "The Gripping Hand" which involved a species of hostile aliens with three arms (the same species, in fact, referenced injuggling eggs). As withTANSTAAFLandcon, this usage one of the naturalized imports from SF fandom frequently observed among hackers.
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one-banana problem
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one-line fix
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on the gripping hand
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= O =
one-banana problemn.
At mainframe shops, where the computers have operators for routine administrivia, the programmers and hardware people tend to look down on the operators and claim that a trained monkey could do their job. It is frequently observed that the incentives that would be offered said monkeys can be used as a scale to describe the difficulty of a task. A one-banana problem is simple; hence, "It's only a one-banana job at the most; what's taking them so long?"
At IBM, folklore divides the world into one-, two-, and three-banana problems. Other cultures have different hierarchies and may divide them more finely; at ICL, for example, five grapes (a bunch) equals a banana. Their upper limit for the in-housesysapes is said to be two bananas and three grapes (another source claims it's three bananas and one grape, but observes "However, this is subject to local variations, cosmic rays and ISO"). At a complication level any higher than that, one asks the manufacturers to send someone around to check things.
See alsoInfinite-Monkey Theorem.
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one-line fix
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one-liner wars
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one-banana problem
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= O =
one-line fixn.
Used (often sarcastically) of a change to a program that is thought to be trivial or insignificant right up to the moment it crashes the system. Usually `cured' by another one-line fix. See alsoI didn't change anything!
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one-liner wars
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ooblick
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one-line fix
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one-liner warsn.
A game popular among hackers who code in the language APL (seewrite-only languageandline noise). The objective is to see who can code the most interesting and/or useful routine in one line of operators chosen from APL's exceedinglyhairyprimitive set. A similar amusement was practiced amongTECOhackers and is now popular amongPerlaficionados.
Ken Iverson, the inventor of APL, has been credited with a one-liner that, given a number N, produces a list of the prime numbers from 1 to N inclusive. It looks like this:
(2 = 0 +.= T o.| T) / T <- iN
where `o' is the APL null character, the assignment arrow is a single character, and `i' represents the APL iota.
Here's aPerlprogram that prints primes:
perl -wle '(1 x $_) !~ /^(11+)\1+$/ && print while ++ $_'
In the Perl world this game is sometimes called Perl Golf because the player with the fewest (key)strokes wins.
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ooblick
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op
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one-liner wars
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= O =
ooblick/oo'blik/ n.
[from the Dr. Seuss title "Bartholomew and the Oobleck"; the spelling `oobleck' is still current in the mainstream] A bizarre semi-liquid sludge made from cornstarch and water. Enjoyed among hackers who make batches during playtime at parties for its amusing and extremely non-Newtonian behavior; it pours and splatters, but resists rapid motion like a solid and will even crack when hit by a hammer. Often found near lasers.
Here is a field-tested ooblick recipe contributed by GLS:
This recipe isn't quite as non-Newtonian as a pure cornstarch ooblick, but has an appropriately slimy feel.
Some, however, insist that the notion of an ooblickrecipeis far too mechanical, and that it is best to add the water in small increments so that the various mixed states the cornstarch goes through as itbecomesooblick can be grokked in fullness by many hands. For optional ingredients of this experience, see the "Ceremonial Chemicals" section of Appendix B.
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op
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open
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ooblick
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= O =
op/op/ n.
1. In England and Ireland, common verbal abbreviation for `operator', as in system operator. Less common in the U.S., wheresysopseems to be preferred. 2. [IRC] Someone who is endowed with privileges onIRC, not limited to a particular channel. These are generally people who are in charge of the IRC server at their particular site. Sometimes used interchangeably withCHOP. Comparesysop.
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open
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open source
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op
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= O =
openn.
Abbreviation for `open (or left) parenthesis' -- used when necessary to eliminate oral ambiguity. To read aloud the LISP form (DEFUN FOO (X) (PLUS X 1)) one might say: "Open defun foo, open eks close, open, plus eks one, close close."
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open source
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open switch
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open
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open sourcen.
[common; also adj. `open-source'] Term coined in March 1998 following the Mozilla release to describe software distributed in source under licenses guaranteeing anybody rights to freely use, modify, and redistribute, the code. The intent was to be able to sell the hackers' ways of doing software to industry and the mainstream by avoid the negative connotations (tosuits) of the term "free software". For discussion of the followon tactics and their consequences, see the Open Source Initiative site.
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open switch
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operating system
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open source
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= O =
open switchn.
[IBM: prob. from railroading] An unresolved question, issue, or problem.
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operating system
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optical diff
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open switch
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= O =
operating systemn.
[techspeak] (Often abbreviated `OS') The foundation software of a machine; that which schedules tasks, allocates storage, and presents a default interface to the user between applications. The facilities an operating system provides and its general design philosophy exert an extremely strong influence on programming style and on the technical cultures that grow up around its host machines. Hacker folklore has been shaped primarily by theUnix,ITS,TOPS-10,TOPS-20/TWENEX,WAITS,CP/M,MS-DOS, andMulticsoperating systems (most importantly by ITS and Unix).
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optical diff
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optical grep
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operating system
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= O =
optical diffn.
Seevdiff.
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optical grep
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optimism
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optical diff
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= O =
optical grepn.
Seevgrep.
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optimism
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Oracle the
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optical grep
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optimismn.
What a programmer is full of after fixing the last bug and before discovering thenextlast bug. Fred Brooks's book "The Mythical Man-Month" (See "Brooks's Law") contains the following paragraph that describes this extremely well:
All programmers are optimists. Perhaps this modern sorcery especially attracts those who believe in happy endings and fairy godmothers. Perhaps the hundreds of nitty frustrations drive away all but those who habitually focus on the end goal. Perhaps it is merely that computers are young, programmers are younger, and the young are always optimists. But however the selection process works, the result is indisputable: "This time it will surely run," or "I just found the last bug.".
See alsoLubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology.
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Oracle the
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Orange Book
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optimism
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Oracle, the
The all-knowing, all-wise Internet Oraclerec.humor.oracle), or one of the foreign language derivatives of same. Newbies frequently confuse the Oracle with Oracle, a database vendor. As a result, the unmoderatedrec.humor.oracle.dis frequently crossposted to by the clueless, looking for advice on SQL. As more than one person has said in similar situations, "Don't people bother to look at the newsgroup description line anymore?" (To which the standard response is, "Did people ever read it in the first place?")
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Orange Book
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oriental food
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Oracle the
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= O =
Orange Bookn.
The U.S. Government's standards document "Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria, DOD standard 5200.28-STD, December, 1985" which characterize secure computing architectures and defines levels A1 (most secure) through D (least). Modern Unixes are roughly C2. See alsocrayola books,book titles.
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oriental food