Computer Jargon
A coworker showed me this resource around computer jargon — a hacker’s lexicon if you will (apparently it’s the online version of The New Hacker’s Dictionary).There are some funny terms in there. If you work in technology, you’ll probably enjoy these.
Here are a few I enjoyed:
Able to use a mouse with either hand.
To partially obscure a potentially provocative word by substituting splat characters () for some of its letters (usually, but not always, the vowels). The purpose is not to make the word unrecognizable but to make it a mention rather than a use, so that no flamewar ensues. [Example: “gn cntrl”]
When some piece of code is written in a particularly obscure fashion, and no good reason (such as time or space optimization) can be discovered, it is often said that the programmer was attempting to increase his job security (i.e., by making himself indispensable for maintenance). This sour joke seldom has to be said in full; if two hackers are looking over some code together and one points at a section and says “job security”, the other one may just nod.
A sacrificial file used to test a computer virus, i.e. a dummy executable that carries a sample of the virus, isolated so it can be studied. Not common among hackers, since the Unix systems most use basically don't get viruses.
“The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time.” ... Other maxims in the same vein include the law attributed to the early British computer scientist Douglas Hartree: “The time from now until the completion of the project tends to become constant.”