`$' in the 6502 world, `>' at Texas Instruments, and   `&' on the BBC Micro, Sinclair, and some Z80 machines).  See   also {splat}.   The inability of ASCII text to correctly represent any of the   world's other major languages makes the designers' choice of 7 bits   look more and more like a serious {misfeature} as the use of   international networks continues to increase (see {software   rot}).  Hardware and software from the U.S. still tends to embody   the assumption that ASCII is the universal character set; this is a   a major irritant to people who want to use a character set suited   to their own languages.  Perversely, though, efforts to solve this   problem by proliferating `national' character sets produce an   evolutionary pressure to use a *smaller* subset common to all   those in use.ASCII art: n. The fine art of drawing diagrams using the ASCII   character set (mainly `|', `-', `/', `\', and   `+').  Also known as `character graphics' or `ASCII   graphics'; see also {boxology}.  Here is a serious example:         o----)||(--+--|<----+   +---------o + D O           L  )||(  |        |   |             C U         A I  )||(  +-->|-+  |   +-\/\/-+--o -   T         C N  )||(        |  |   |      |        P           E  )||(  +-->|-+--)---+--)|--+-o      U              )||(  |        |          | GND    T         o----)||(--+--|<----+----------+                 A power supply consisting of a full            wave rectifier circuit feeding a            capacitor input filter circuit                               Figure 1.   And here are some very silly examples:       |\/\/\/|     ____/|              ___    |\_/|    ___       |      |     \ o.O|   ACK!      /   \_  |` '|  _/   \       |      |      =(_)=  THPHTH!   /      \/     \/      \       | (o)(o)        U             /                       \       C      _)  (__)                \/\/\/\  _____  /\/\/\/       | ,___|    (oo)                       \/     \/       |   /       \/-------\         U                  (__)      /____\        ||     | \    /---V  `v'-            oo )     /      \       ||---W||  *  * |--|   || |`.         |_/\                               Figure 2.   There is an important subgenre of humorous ASCII art that takes   advantage of the names of the various characters to tell a   pun-based joke.     +--------------------------------------------------------+     |      ^^^^^^^^^^^^                                      |     | ^^^^^^^^^^^            ^^^^^^^^^                       |     |                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ |     |        ^^^^^^^         B       ^^^^^^^^^               |     |  ^^^^^^^^^          ^^^            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^      |     +--------------------------------------------------------+                  " A Bee in the Carrot Patch "                               Figure 3.   Within humorous ASCII art, there is for some reason an entire   flourishing subgenre of pictures of silly cows.  Four of these are   reproduced in Figure 2; here are three more:              (__)              (__)              (__)              (\/)              ($$)              (**)       /-------\/        /-------\/        /-------\/      / | 666 ||        / |=====||        / |     ||     *  ||----||       *  ||----||       *  ||----||        ~~    ~~          ~~    ~~          ~~    ~~      Satanic cow    This cow is a Yuppie   Cow in love                               Figure 4.attoparsec: n. `atto-' is the standard SI prefix for   multiplication by 10^{-18}.  A parsec (parallax-second) is   3.26 light-years; an attoparsec is thus 3.26 * 10^{-18} light   years, or about 3.1 cm (thus, 1 attoparsec/{microfortnight}   equals about 1 inch/sec).  This unit is reported to be in use   (though probably not very seriously) among hackers in the U.K.  See   {micro-}.autobogotiphobia: /aw'to-boh-got`*-foh'bee-*/ n. See {bogotify}.automagically: /aw-toh-maj'i-klee/ or /aw-toh-maj'i-k*l-ee/ adv.   Automatically, but in a way that, for some reason (typically   because it is too complicated, or too ugly, or perhaps even too   trivial), the speaker doesn't feel like explaining to you.  See   {magic}.  "The C-INTERCAL compiler generates C, then automagically   invokes `cc(1)' to produce an executable."avatar: [CMU, Tektronix] n. Syn. {root}, {superuser}.  There   are quite a few UNIX machines on which the name of the superuser   account is `avatar' rather than `root'.  This quirk was   originated by a CMU hacker who disliked the term `superuser',   and was propagated through an ex-CMU hacker at Tektronix.awk: 1. n. [UNIX techspeak] An interpreted language for massaging   text data developed by Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian   Kernighan (the name is from their initials).  It is characterized   by C-like syntax, a declaration-free approach to variable typing   and declarations, associative arrays, and field-oriented text   processing.  See also {Perl}.  2. n.  Editing term for an   expression awkward to manipulate through normal {regexp}   facilities (for example, one containing a {newline}).  3. vt. To   process data using `awk(1)'.= B =back door: n. A hole in the security of a system deliberately left   in place by designers or maintainers.  The motivation for this is   not always sinister; some operating systems, for example, come out   of the box with privileged accounts intended for use by field   service technicians or the vendor's maintenance programmers.   Historically, back doors have often lurked in systems longer than   anyone expected or planned, and a few have become widely known.   The infamous {RTM} worm of late 1988, for example, used a back door   in the {BSD} UNIX `sendmail(8)' utility.   Ken Thompson's 1983 Turing Award lecture to the ACM revealed the   existence of a back door in early UNIX versions that may have   qualified as the most fiendishly clever security hack of all time.   The C compiler contained code that would recognize when the   `login' command was being recompiled and insert some code   recognizing a password chosen by Thompson, giving him entry to the   system whether or not an account had been created for him.   Normally such a back door could be removed by removing it from the   source code for the compiler and recompiling the compiler.  But to   recompile the compiler, you have to *use* the compiler --- so   Thompson also arranged that the compiler would *recognize when   it was compiling a version of itself*, and insert into the   recompiled compiler the code to insert into the recompiled `login'   the code to allow Thompson entry --- and, of course, the code to   recognize itself and do the whole thing again the next time around!   And having done this once, he was then able to recompile the   compiler from the original sources, leaving his back door in place   and active but with no trace in the sources.   The talk that revealed this truly moby hack was published as   "Reflections on Trusting Trust", `Communications of the   ACM 27', 8 (August 1984), pp. 761--763.   Syn. {trap door}; may also be called a `wormhole'.  See also   {iron box}, {cracker}, {worm}, {logic bomb}.backbone cabal: n. A group of large-site administrators who pushed   through the {Great Renaming} and reined in the chaos of {USENET}   during most of the 1980s.  The cabal {mailing list} disbanded in   late 1988 after a bitter internal catfight, but the net hardlynoticed.backbone site: n. A key USENET and email site; one that processes   a large amount of third-party traffic, especially if it is the home   site of any of the regional coordinators for the USENET maps.   Notable backbone sites as of early 1991 include uunet and the   mail machines at Rutgers University, UC Berkeley, DEC's Western   Research Laboratories, Ohio State University, and the University of   Texas.  Compare {rib site}, {leaf site}.backgammon:: See {bignum}, {moby}, and {pseudoprime}.background: n.,adj.,vt.  To do a task `in background' is to do   it whenever {foreground} matters are not claiming your undivided   attention, and `to background' something means to relegate it to   a lower priority.  "For now, we'll just print a list of nodes and   links; I'm working on the graph-printing problem in background."   Note that this implies ongoing activity but at a reduced level or   in spare time, in contrast to mainstream `back burner' (which   connotes benign neglect until some future resumption of activity).   Some people prefer to use the term for processing that they have   queued up for their unconscious minds (a tack that one can often   fruitfully take upon encountering an obstacle in creative work).   Compare {amp off}, {slopsucker}.   Technically, a task running in background is detached from the   terminal where it was started (and often running at a lower   priority); oppose {foreground}.  Nowadays this term is primarily   associated with {{UNIX}}, but it appears to have been first used   in this sense on OS/360.backspace and overstrike: interj. Whoa!  Back up.  Used to suggest   that someone just said or did something wrong.  Common among   APL programmers.backward combatability: /bak'w*rd k*m-bat'*-bil'*-tee/ [from   `backward compatibility'] n. A property of hardware or software   revisions in which previous protocols, formats, and layouts are   discarded in favor of `new and improved' protocols, formats, and   layouts.  Occurs usually when making the transition between major   releases.  When the change is so drastic that the old formats are   not retained in the new version, it is said to be `backward   combatable'.  See {flag day}.BAD: /B-A-D/ [IBM: acronym, `Broken As Designed'] adj.  Said   of a program that is {bogus} because of bad design and misfeatures   rather than because of bugginess.  See {working as designed}.Bad Thing: [from the 1930 Sellar & Yeatman parody `1066 And   All That'] n. Something that can't possibly result in improvement   of the subject.  This term is always capitalized, as in "Replacing   all of the 9600-baud modems with bicycle couriers would be a Bad   Thing".  Oppose {Good Thing}.  British correspondents confirm   that {Bad Thing} and {Good Thing} (and prob. therefore {Right   Thing} and {Wrong Thing}) come from the book referenced in the   etymology, which discusses rulers who were Good Kings but Bad   Things.  This has apparently created a mainstream idiom on the   British side of the pond.bag on the side: n. An extension to an established hack that is   supposed to add some functionality to the original.  Usually   derogatory, implying that the original was being overextended and   should have been thrown away, and the new product is ugly,   inelegant, or bloated.  Also v. phrase, `to hang a bag on the side   [of]'.  "C++?  That's just a bag on the side of C ...." "They   want me to hang a bag on the side of the accounting system."bagbiter: /bag'bi:t-*r/ n. 1. Something, such as a program or a   computer, that fails to work, or works in a remarkably clumsy   manner.  "This text editor won't let me make a file with a line   longer than 80 characters!  What a bagbiter!"  2. A person who has   caused you some trouble, inadvertently or otherwise, typically by   failing to program the computer properly.  Synonyms: {loser},   {cretin}, {chomper}.  3. adj. `bagbiting' Having the   quality of a bagbiter.  "This bagbiting system won't let me   compute the factorial of a negative number."  Compare {losing},   {cretinous}, {bletcherous}, `barfucious' (under   {barfulous}) and `chomping' (under {chomp}).  4. `bite   the bag' vi. To fail in some manner.  "The computer keeps crashing   every 5 minutes."  "Yes, the disk controller is really biting the   bag."  The original loading of these terms was almost undoubtedly   obscene, possibly referring to the scrotum, but in their current   usage they have become almost completely sanitized.   A program called Lexiphage on the old MIT AI PDP-10 would draw on   a selected victim's bitmapped terminal the words "THE BAG" in   ornate letters, and then a pair of jaws biting pieces of it off.   This is the first and to date only known example of a program   *intended* to be a bagbiter.bamf: /bamf/ 1. [from old X-Men comics] interj. Notional sound made   by a person or object teleporting in or out of the hearer's   vicinity.  Often used in {virtual reality} (esp. {MUD})   electronic {fora} when a character wishes to make a dramatic entrance   or exit.  2. The sound of magical transformation, used in virtual   reality {fora} like sense 1.  3. [from `Don Washington's   Survival Guide'] n. Acronym for `Bad-Ass Mother Fucker', used to