the stack}.
:arg: /arg/ /n./ Abbreviation for `argument' (to a function), used so often
as to have become a new word (like `piano' from `pianoforte'). "The
sine function takes 1 arg, but the arc-tangent function can take either 1
or 2 args." Compare {param}, {parm}, {var}.
:ARMM: /n./ [acronym, `Automated Retroactive Minimal Moderation']
A Usenet robot created by Dick Depew of Munroe Falls, Ohio. ARMM
was intended to automatically cancel posts from anonymous-posting
sites. Unfortunately, the robot's recognizer for anonymous postings
triggered on its own automatically-generated control messages!
Transformed by this stroke of programming ineptitude into a monster
of Frankensteinian proportions, it broke loose on the night of March 31,
1993 and proceeded to {spam} news.admin.policy with a recursive
explosion of over 200 messages.
ARMM's bug produced a recursive {cascade} of messages each of
which mechanically added text to the ID and Subject and some other
headers of its parent. This produced a flood of messages in which each
header took up several screens and each message ID and subject line
got longer and longer and longer.
Reactions varied from amusement to outrage. The pathological
messages crashed at least one mail system, and upset people paying
line charges for their Usenet feeds. One poster described the ARMM
debacle as "instant Usenet history" (also establishing the term
{despew}), and it has since been widely cited as a cautionary example
of the havoc the combination of good intentions and incompetence can
wreak on a network. Compare {Great Worm, the}; {sorcerer's
apprentice mode}. See also {software laser}, {network meltdown}.
:armor-plated: /n./ Syn. for {bulletproof}.
:asbestos: /adj./ Used as a modifier to anything intended to protect one
from {flame}s; also in other highly {flame}-suggestive usages. See, for
example, {asbestos longjohns} and {asbestos cork award}.
:asbestos cork award: /n./ Once, long ago at MIT, there was a {flamer}
so consistently obnoxious that another hacker designed, had made, and
distributed posters announcing that said flamer had been nominated for
the `asbestos cork award'. (Any reader in doubt as to the intended
application of the cork should consult the etymology under {flame}.)
Since then, it is agreed that only a select few have risen to the heights
of bombast required to earn this dubious dignity -- but there is no
agreement on *which* few.
:asbestos longjohns: /n./ Notional garments donned by {Usenet}
posters just before emitting a remark they expect will elicit {flamage}.
This is the most common of the {asbestos} coinages. Also `asbestos
underwear', `asbestos overcoat', etc.
:ASCII:: /as'kee/ /n./ [acronym: American Standard Code for
Information Interchange] The predominant character set encoding of
present-day computers. The modern version uses 7 bits for each
character, whereas most earlier codes (including an early version of
ASCII) used fewer. This change allowed the inclusion of lowercase
letters -- a major {win} -- but it did not provide for accented letters or
any other letterforms not used in English (such as the German sharp-S
or the ae-ligature which is a letter in, for example, Norwegian). It could
be worse, though. It could be much worse. See {{EBCDIC}} to
understand how.
Computers are much pickier and less flexible about spelling than
humans; thus, hackers need to be very precise when talking about
characters, and have developed a considerable amount of verbal
shorthand for them. Every character has one or more names -- some
formal, some concise, some silly. Common jargon names for ASCII
characters are collected here. See also individual entries for {bang},
{excl}, {open}, {ques}, {semi}, {shriek}, {splat}, {twiddle}, and
{Yu-Shiang Whole Fish}.
This list derives from revision 2.3 of the Usenet ASCII pronunciation
guide. Single characters are listed in ASCII order; character pairs are
sorted in by first member. For each character, common names are given
in rough order of popularity, followed by names that are reported but
rarely seen; official ANSI/CCITT names are surrounded by brokets: <>.
Square brackets mark the particularly silly names introduced by
{INTERCAL}. The abbreviations "l/r" and "o/c" stand for left/right and
"open/close" respectively. Ordinary parentheticals provide some usage
information.
! Common: {bang}; pling; excl; shriek;
. Rare:
factorial; exclam; smash; cuss; boing; yell; wow; hey; wham; eureka;
[spark-spot]; soldier.
" Common: double quote; quote. Rare: literal mark; double-glitch;
; ; dirk; [rabbit-ears]; double prime.
# Common: number sign; pound; pound sign; hash; sharp; {crunch};
hex; [mesh]. Rare: grid; crosshatch; octothorpe; flash; ,
pig-pen; tictactoe; scratchmark; thud; thump; {splat}.
$ Common: dollar; . Rare: currency symbol; buck; cash;
string (from BASIC); escape (when used as the echo of ASCII ESC);
ding; cache; [big money].
% Common: percent; ; mod; grapes. Rare:
[double-oh-seven].
& Common: ; amper; and. Rare: address (from C);
reference (from C++); andpersand; bitand; background (from `sh(1)');
pretzel; amp. [INTERCAL called this `ampersand'; what could be
sillier?]
' Common: single quote; quote; . Rare: prime; glitch; tick;
irk; pop; [spark];
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