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PM
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pnambic
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plumbing
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= P =
PM/P-M/
1. v. (from `preventive maintenance') To bring down a machine for inspection or test purposes. Seeprovocative maintenance; see alsoscratch monkey. 2. n. Abbrev. for `Presentation Manager', anelephantineOS/2 graphical user interface.
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pnambic
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pod
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PM
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= P =
pnambic/p*-nam'bik/
[Acronym from the scene in the film version of "The Wizard of Oz" in which the true nature of the wizard is first discovered: "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."] 1. A stage of development of a process or function that, owing to incomplete implementation or to the complexity of the system, requires human interaction to simulate or replace some or all of the actions, inputs, or outputs of the process or function. 2. Of or pertaining to a process or function whose apparent operations are wholly or partially falsified. 3. Requiringprestidigitization.
The ultimate pnambic product was "Dan Bricklin's Demo", a program which supported flashy user-interface design prototyping. There is a related maxim among hackers: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo." Seemagic, sense 1, for illumination of this point.
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pod
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point-and-drool interface
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pnambic
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= P =
podn.
[allegedly from abbreviation POD for `Prince Of Darkness'] A Diablo 630 (or, latterly, any letter-quality impact printer). From the DEC-10 PODTYPE program used to feed formatted text to it. Not to be confused withP.O.D..
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point-and-drool interface
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pointy hat
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pod
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= P =
point-and-drool interfacen.
Parody of the techspeak term `point-and-shoot interface', describing a windows, icons, and mouse-based interface such as is found on the Macintosh. The implication, of course, is that such an interface is only suitable for idiots. Seefor the rest of us,WIMP environment,Macintrash,drool-proof paper. Also `point-and-grunt interface'.
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pointy hat
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pointy-haired
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point-and-drool interface
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= P =
pointy hatn.
Seewizard hat. This synonym specifically refers to the wizards of Unseen University in Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" serious of humorous fantasies; these books are extremely popular among hackers.
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pointy-haired
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poke
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pointy hat
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= P =
pointy-hairedadj.
[after the character in theDilbertcomic strip] Describes the extreme form of the property that separatessuits andmarketroids from hackers. Comparebrain-dead;demented; seePHB. Always applied to people, never to ideas. The plural form is often used as a noun. "The pointy-haireds ordered me to use Windows NT, but I set up a Linux server with Samba instead."
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poke
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poll
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pointy-haired
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= P =
poken.,vt.
Seepeek.
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poll
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polygon pusher
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poke
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pollv.,n.
1. [techspeak] The action of checking the status of an input line, sensor, or memory location to see if a particular external event has been registered. 2. To repeatedly call or check with someone: "I keep polling him, but he's not answering his phone; he must be swapped out." 3. To ask. "Lunch? I poll for a takeout order daily."
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polygon pusher
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POM
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poll
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polygon pushern.
A chip designer who spends most of his or her time at the physical layout level (which requires drawinglotsof multi-colored polygons). Also `rectangle slinger'.
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POM
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pop
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polygon pusher
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= P =
POM/P-O-M/ n.
Common abbreviation forphase of the moon. Usage: usually in the phrase `POM-dependent', which meansflaky.
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pop
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POPJ
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POM
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pop/pop/
[from the operation that removes the top of a stack, and the fact that procedure return addresses are usually saved on the stack] (also capitalized `POP') 1. vt. To remove something from astackorPDL. If a person says he/she has popped something from his stack, that means he/she has finally finished working on it and can now remove it from the list of things hanging overhead. 2. When a discussion gets to a level of detail so deep that the main point of the discussion is being lost, someone will shout "Pop!", meaning "Get back up to a higher level!" The shout is frequently accompanied by an upthrust arm with a finger pointing to the ceiling. 3. [all-caps, as `POP'] Point of Presence, a bank of dial-in lines allowing customers to make (local) calls into an ISP. This is borderline techspeak.
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POPJ
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poser
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pop
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= P =
POPJ/pop'J/ n.,v.
[from aPDP-10return-from-subroutine instruction] To return from a digression. By verb doubling, "Popj, popj" means roughly "Now let's see, where were we?" SeeRTI.
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poser
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post
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POPJ
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posern.
Awannabee; not hacker slang, but used among crackers, phreaks andwarez d00dz. Not as negative aslamerorleech. Probably derives from a similar usage among punk-rockers and metalheads, putting down those who "talk the talk but don't walk the walk".
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post
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postcardware
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poser
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postv.
To send a message to amailing listornewsgroup. Distinguished in context from `mail'; one might ask, for example: "Are you going to post the patch or mail it to known users?"
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postcardware
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posting
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post
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postcardwaren.
A kind ofsharewarethat borders onfreeware, in that the author requests only that satisfied users send a postcard of their home town or something. (This practice, silly as it might seem, serves to remind users that they are otherwise getting something for nothing, and may also be psychologically related to real estate `sales' in which $1 changes hands just to keep the transaction from being a gift.)
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posting
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postmaster
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postcardware
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postingn.
Noun corresp. to v.post(but note thatpostcan be nouned). Distinguished from a `letter' or ordinaryemailmessage by the fact that it is broadcast rather than point-to-point. It is not clear whether messages sent to a small mailing list are postings or email; perhaps the best dividing line is that if you don't know the names of all the potential recipients, it is a posting.
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postmaster
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PostScript
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posting
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postmastern.
The email contact and maintenance person at a site connected to the Internet or UUCPNET. Often, but not always, the same as theadmin. The Internet standard for electronic mail (RFC-822) requires each machine to have a `postmaster' address; usually it is aliased to this person.
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PostScript
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pound on
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postmaster
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PostScriptn.
A Page Description Language (PDL), based on work originally done by John Gaffney at Evans and Sutherland in 1976, evolving through `JaM' (`John and Martin', Martin Newell) atXEROX PARC, and finally implemented in its current form by John Warnock et al. after he and Chuck Geschke founded Adobe Systems Incorporated in 1982. PostScript gets its leverage by using a full programming language, rather than a series of low-level escape sequences, to describe an image to be printed on a laser printer or other output device (in this it parallelsEMACS, which exploited a similar insight about editing tasks). It is also noteworthy for implementing on-the fly rasterization, from Bezier curve descriptions, of high-quality fonts at low (e.g. 300 dpi) resolution (it was formerly believed that hand-tuned bitmap fonts were required for this task). Hackers consider PostScript to be among the most elegant hacks of all time, and the combination of technical merits and widespread availability has made PostScript the language of choice for graphical output.
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pound on
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power cycle
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PostScript
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pound onvt.
Syn.bang on.
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power cycle
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power hit
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pound on
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power cyclevt.
(also, `cycle power' or just `cycle') To power off a machine and then power it on immediately, with the intention of clearing some kind ofhungorgronked state. Syn.120 reset; see alsoBig Red Switch. CompareVulcan nerve pinch,bounce(sense 4), andboot, and see the "Some AI Koans" (in Appendix A) about Tom Knight and the novice.
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power hit
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PPN
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power cycle
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power hitn.
A spike or drop-out in the electricity supplying your machine; a powerglitch. These can cause crashes and even permanent damage to your machine(s).
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PPN
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pr0n
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power hit
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PPN/P-P-N/, /pip'n/ n. obs.
[from `Project-Programmer Number'] A user-ID underTOPS-10and its various mutant progeny at SAIL, BBN, CompuServe, and elsewhere. Old-time hackers from the PDP-10 era sometimes use this to refer to user IDs on other systems as well.
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pr0n
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precedence lossage
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PPN
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pr0n//
[Usenet, IRC] Pornography. Originally this referred only to Internet porn but since then it has expanded to refer to just about anything. The term comes from thewarez kiddiestendency to replace letters with numbers. At some point on IRC someone mistyped, swapped the middle two letters, and the name stuck, then propagated over into mainstream hacker usage. Comparefilk,grilf,hingandnewsfroup.
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precedence lossage
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prepend
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pr0n
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precedence lossage/pre's*-dens los'*j/ n.
[C programmers] Coding error in an expression due to unexpected grouping of arithmetic or logical operators by the compiler. Used esp. of certain common coding errors in C due to the nonintuitively low precedence levels of&,|,^,<<, and>>(for this reason, experienced C programmers deliberately forget the language'sbaroqueprecedence hierarchy and parenthesize defensively). Can always be avoided by suitable use of parentheses.LISPfans enjoy pointing out that this can't happen intheirfavorite language, which eschews precedence entirely, requiring one to use explicit parentheses everywhere. Seealiasing bug,memory leak,memory smash,smash the stack,fandango on core,overrun screw.
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prepend
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prestidigitization
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precedence lossage
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= P =
prepend/pree`pend'/ vt.
[by analogy with `append'] To prefix. As with `append' (but not `prefix' or `suffix' as a verb), the direct object is always the thing being added and not the original word (or character string, or whatever). "If you prepend a semicolon to the line, the translation routine will pass it through unaltered."
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prestidigitization
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pretty pictures
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prepend
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= P =
prestidigitization/pres`t*-di`j*-ti:-zay'sh*n/ n.
1. The act of putting something into digital notation via sleight of hand. 2. Data entry through legerdemain.
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pretty pictures
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prettyprint
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prestidigitization
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pretty picturesn.
[scientific computation] The next step up fromnumbers. Interesting graphical output from a program that may not have any sensible relationship to the system the program is intended to model. Good for showing tomanagement.
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prettyprint
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pretzel key
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pretty pictures