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slurp
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smart
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Slowlaris
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slurpvt.
To read a large data file entirely intocorebefore working on it. This may be contrasted with the strategy of reading a small piece at a time, processing it, and then reading the next piece. "This program slurps in a 1K-by-1K matrix and does an FFT." See alsosponge.
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smart
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smart terminal
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slurp
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smartadj.
Said of a program that does theRight Thingin a wide variety of complicated circumstances. There is a difference between calling a program smart and calling it intelligent; in particular, there do not exist any intelligent programs (yet -- seeAI-complete). Comparerobust(smart programs can bebrittle).
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smart terminal
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smash case
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smart
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smart terminaln.
1. A terminal that has enough computing capability to render graphics or to offload some kind of front-end processing from the computer it talks to. The development of workstations and personal computers has made this term and the product it describes semi-obsolescent, but one may still hear variants of the phrase `act like a smart terminal' used to describe the behavior of workstations or PCs with respect to programs that execute almost entirely out of a remoteserver's storage, using local devices as displays. 2. obs. Any terminal with an addressable cursor; the opposite of aglass tty. Today, a terminal with merely an addressable cursor, but with none of the more-powerful features mentioned in sense 1, is called adumb terminal.
There is a classic quote from Rob Pike (inventor of theblitterminal): "A smart terminal is not a smartassterminal, but rather a terminal you can educate." This illustrates a common design problem: The attempt to make peripherals (or anything else) intelligent sometimes results in finicky, rigid `special features' that become just so much dead weight if you try to use the device in any way the designer didn't anticipate. Flexibility and programmability, on the other hand, arereallysmart. Comparehook.
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smash case
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smash the stack
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smart terminal
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smash casevi.
To lose or obliterate the uppercase/lowercase distinction in text input. "MS-DOS will automatically smash case in the names of all the files you create." Comparefold case.
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smash the stack
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smiley
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smash case
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smash the stackn.
[C programming] To corrupt the execution stack by writing past the end of a local array or other data structure. Code that smashes the stack can cause a return from the routine to jump to a random address, resulting in some of the most insidious data-dependent bugs known to mankind. Variants include `trash' the stack,scribblethe stack,manglethe stack; the term **mungthe stack is not used, as this is never done intentionally. Seespam; see alsoaliasing bug,fandango on core,memory leak,memory smash,precedence lossage,overrun screw.
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smiley
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smoke
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smash the stack
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smileyn.
Seeemoticon.
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smoke
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smoke and mirrors
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smiley
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smokevi.
1. Tocrashor blow up, usually spectacularly. "The new version smoked, just like the last one." Used for both hardware (where it often describes an actual physical event), and software (where it's merely colorful). 2. [from automotive slang] To be conspicuously fast. "That processor really smokes." Comparemagic smoke.
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smoke and mirrors
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smoke test
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smoke
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smoke and mirrorsn.
Marketing deceptions. The term is mainstream in this general sense. Among hackers it's strongly associated with bogus demos and crockedbenchmarks (see alsoMIPS,machoflops). "They claim their new box cranks 50 MIPS for under $5000, but didn't specify the instruction mix -- sounds like smoke and mirrors to me." The phrase, popularized by newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin c.1975, has been said to derive from carnie slang for magic acts and `freak show' displays that depend on `trompe l'oeil' effects, but also calls to mind the fierce Aztec god Tezcatlipoca (lit. "Smoking Mirror") for whom the hearts of huge numbers of human sacrificial victims were regularly cut out. Upon hearing about a rigged demo or yet another round of fantasy-based marketing promises, hackers often feel analogously disheartened. See alsostealth manager.
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smoke test
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smoking clover
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smoke and mirrors
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smoke testn.
1. A rudimentary form of testing applied to electronic equipment following repair or reconfiguration, in which power is applied and the tester checks for sparks, smoke, or other dramatic signs of fundamental failure. Seemagic smoke. 2. By extension, the first run of a piece of software after construction or a critical change. See and comparereality check.
There is an interesting semi-parallel to this term among typographers and printers: When new typefaces are being punch-cut by hand, a `smoke test' (hold the letter in candle smoke, then press it onto paper) is used to check out new dies.
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smoking clover
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smoot
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smoke test
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smoking clovern.
[ITS] Adisplay hackoriginally due to Bill Gosper. Many convergent lines are drawn on a color monitor in such a way that every pixel struck has its color incremented. The lines all have one endpoint in the middle of the screen; the other endpoints are spaced one pixel apart around the perimeter of a large square. The color map is then repeatedly rotated. This results in a striking, rainbow-hued, shimmering four-leaf clover. Gosper joked about keeping it hidden from the FDA (the U.S.'s Food and Drug Administration) lest its hallucinogenic properties cause it to be banned.
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smoot
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SMOP
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smoking clover
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smoot/smoot/ n.
[MIT] A unit of length equal five feet seven inches. The length of the Harvard Bridge in Boston is famously 364.4 smoots plus or minus an ear (the ear stands forepsilon). This legend began with a fraternity prank in 1958 during which the body length of Oliver Smoot (class of '62) was actually used to measure out that distance. It is commemorated by smoot marks that MIT students repaint every few years; the tradition even survived the demolition and rebuilding of the bridge in the late 1980s. The Boston police have been known to use smoot markers to indicate accident locations on the bridge.
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SMOP
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smurf
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smoot
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SMOP/S-M-O-P/ n.
[Simple (or Small) Matter of Programming] 1. A piece of code, not yet written, whose anticipated length is significantly greater than its complexity. Used to refer to a program that could obviously be written, but is not worth the trouble. Also used ironically to imply that a difficult problem can be easily solved because a program can be written to do it; the irony is that it is very clear that writing such a program will be a great deal of work. "It's easy to enhance a FORTRAN compiler to compile COBOL as well; it's just an SMOP." 2. Often used ironically by the intended victim when a suggestion for a program is made which seems easy to the suggester, but is obviously (to the victim) a lot of work.
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smurf
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SNAFU principle
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SMOP
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smurf/smerf/ n.
1. [from thesoc.motssnewsgroup on Usenet, after some obnoxiously gooey cartoon characters] A newsgroup regular with a habitual style that is irreverent, silly, andcute. Like many other hackish terms for people, this one may be praise or insult depending on who uses it. In general, being referred to as a smurf is probably not going to make your day unless you've previously adopted the label yourself in a spirit of irony. Compareold fart. 2. [techspeak] A ping packet with a forged source address sent to some other network's broadcast address. All the machines on the destination network will send a ping response to the forged source address (the victim). This both overloads the victim's network and hides the location of the attacker.
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SNAFU principle
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snail
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SNAFU principle/sna'foo prin'si-pl/ n.
[from a WWII Army acronym for `Situation Normal, All Fucked Up'] "True communication is possible only between equals, because inferiors are more consistently rewarded for telling their superiors pleasant lies than for telling the truth." -- a central tenet ofDiscordianism, often invoked by hackers to explain why authoritarian hierarchies screw up so reliably and systematically. The effect of the SNAFU principle is a progressive disconnection of decision-makers from reality. This lightly adapted version of a fable dating back to the early 1960s illustrates the phenomenon perfectly:
In the beginning was the plan,and then the specification;And the plan was without form,and the specification was void.And darknesswas on the faces of the implementors thereof;And they spake unto their leader,saying:"It is a crock of shit,and smells as of a sewer."And the leader took pity on them,and spoke to the project leader:"It is a crock of excrement,and none may abide the odor thereof."And the project leaderspake unto his section head, saying:"It is a container of excrement,and it is very strong, such that none may abide it."The section head then hurried to his department manager,and informed him thus:"It is a vessel of fertilizer,and none may abide its strength."The department manager carried these wordsto his general manager,and spoke unto himsaying:"It containeth that which aideth the growth of plants,and it is very strong."And so it was that the general manager rejoicedand delivered the good news unto the Vice President."It promoteth growth,and it is very powerful."The Vice President rushed to the President's side,and joyously exclaimed:"This powerful new software productwill promote the growth of the company!"And the President looked upon the product,and saw that it was very good.
And darknesswas on the faces of the implementors thereof;And they spake unto their leader,saying:"It is a crock of shit,and smells as of a sewer."
And the leader took pity on them,and spoke to the project leader:"It is a crock of excrement,and none may abide the odor thereof."
And the project leaderspake unto his section head, saying:"It is a container of excrement,and it is very strong, such that none may abide it."
The section head then hurried to his department manager,and informed him thus:"It is a vessel of fertilizer,and none may abide its strength."
The department manager carried these wordsto his general manager,and spoke unto himsaying:"It containeth that which aideth the growth of plants,and it is very strong."
And so it was that the general manager rejoicedand delivered the good news unto the Vice President."It promoteth growth,and it is very powerful."
The Vice President rushed to the President's side,and joyously exclaimed:"This powerful new software productwill promote the growth of the company!"
And the President looked upon the product,and saw that it was very good.
After the subsequent and inevitable disaster, thesuits protect themselves by saying "I was misinformed!", and the implementors are demoted or fired. CompareConway's Law.
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snail
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snail-mail
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SNAFU principle
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snailvt.
Tosnail-mailsomething. "Snail me a copy of those graphics, will you?"
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snail-mail
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snap
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snail
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snail-mailn.
Paper mail, as opposed to electronic. Sometimes written as the single word `SnailMail'. One's postal address is, correspondingly, a `snail address'. Derives from earlier coinage `USnail' (from `U.S. Mail'), for which there have even been parody posters and stamps made. Also (less commonly) called `P-mail', from `paper mail' or `physical mail'. Opposeemail.
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snap
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snarf
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snail-mail
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snapv.
To replace a pointer to a pointer with a direct pointer; to replace an old address with the forwarding address found there. If you telephone the main number for an institution and ask for a particular person by name, the operator may tell you that person's extension before connecting you, in the hopes that you will `snap your pointer' and dial direct next time. The underlying metaphor may be that of a rubber band stretched through a number of intermediate points; if you remove all the thumbtacks in the middle, it snaps into a straight line from first to last. Seechase pointers.
Often, the behavior of atrampolineis to perform an error check once and then snap the pointer that invoked it so as henceforth to bypass the trampoline (and its one-shot error check). In this context one also speaks of `snapping links'. For example, in a LISP implementation, a function interface trampoline might check to make sure that the caller is passing the correct number of arguments; if it is, and if the caller and the callee are both compiled, then snapping the link allows that particular path to use a direct procedure-call instruction with no further overhead.
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snarf
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snarf/snarf/ vt.
1. To grab, esp. to grab a large document or file for the purpose of using it with or without the author's permission. See alsoBLT. 2. [in the Unix community] To fetch a file or set of files across a network. See alsoblast. This term was mainstream in the late 1960s, meaning `to eat piggishly'. It may still have this connotation in context. "He's in the snarfing phase of hacking --FTPing megs of stuff a day." 3. To acquire, with little concern for legal forms orpolitesse(but not quite by stealing). "They were giving away samples, so I snarfed a bunch of them." 4. Syn. forslurp. "This program starts by snarfing the entire database into core, then...." 5. [GEnie] To spray food orprogramming fluids due to laughing at the wrong moment. "I was drinking coffee, and when I read your post I snarfed all over my desk." "If I keep reading this topic, I think I'll have to snarf-proof my computer with a keyboardcondom." [This sense appears to be widespread among mundane teenagers --ESR]
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snarf & barf
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snarf down
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snarf
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snarf & barf/snarf'n-barf`/ n.
Under aWIMP environment, the act of grabbing a region of text and then stuffing the contents of that region into another region (or the same one) to avoid retyping a command line. In the late 1960s, this was a mainstream expression for an `eat now, regret it later' cheap-restaurant expedition.
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snarf down
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snark
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snarf & barf
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snarf downv.
Tosnarf, with the connotation of absorbing, processing, or understanding. "I'll snarf down the latest version of thenethackuser's guide -- it's been a while since I played last and I don't know what's changed recently."
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snark
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sneaker
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snarf down
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snarkn.
[Lewis Carroll, via the Michigan Terminal System] 1. A system failure. When a user's process bombed, the operator would get the message "Help, Help, Snark in MTS!" 2. More generally, any kind of unexplained or threatening event on a computer (especially if it might be a boojum). Often used to refer to an event or a log file entry that might indicate an attempted security violation. Seesnivitz. 3. UUCP name ofsnark.thyrsus.com, home site of the Jargon File versions from 2.*.* on (i.e., this lexicon).
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sneaker
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sneakernet
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snark
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sneakern.
An individual hired to break into places in order to test their security; analogous totiger team. Comparesamurai.
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sneakernet
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sniff
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sneaker
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sneakernet/snee'ker-net/ n.
Term used (generally with ironic intent) for transfer of electronic information by physically carrying tape, disks, or some other media from one machine to another. "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with magtape, or a 747 filled with CD-ROMs." Also called `Tennis-Net', `Armpit-Net', `Floppy-Net' or `Shoenet'; in the 1990s, `Nike network' after a well-known sneaker brand.
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sniff
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snivitz
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sneakernet
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sniffv.,n.
1. To watch IP packets traversing a local network. Most often in the phrase `packet sniffer', a program for doing same. 2.Synonym forpoll.
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snivitz
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'Snooze
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sniff
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