beep: n.,v. Syn. {feep}.  This term seems to be preferred among micro   hobbyists.beige toaster: n. A Macintosh. See {toaster}; compare   {Macintrash}, {maggotbox}.bells and whistles: [by analogy with the toyboxes on theater   organs] n. Features added to a program or system to make it more   {flavorful} from a hacker's point of view, without necessarily   adding to its utility for its primary function.  Distinguished from   {chrome}, which is intended to attract users.  "Now that we've   got the basic program working, let's go back and add some bells and   whistles."  No one seems to know what distinguishes a bell from a   whistle.bells, whistles, and gongs: n. A standard elaborated form of   {bells and whistles}; typically said with a pronounced and ironic   accent on the `gongs'.benchmark: [techspeak] n. An inaccurate measure of computer   performance.  "In the computer industry, there are three kinds of   lies: lies, damn lies, and benchmarks."  Well-known ones include   Whetstone, Dhrystone, Rhealstone (see {h}), the Gabriel LISP   benchmarks (see {gabriel}), the SPECmark suite, and LINPACK.  See   also {machoflops}, {MIPS}.Berkeley Quality Software: adj. (often abbreviated `BQS') Term used   in a pejorative sense to refer to software that was apparently   created by rather spaced-out hackers late at night to solve some   unique problem.  It usually has nonexistent, incomplete, or   incorrect documentation, has been tested on at least two examples,   and core dumps when anyone else attempts to use it.  This term was   frequently applied to early versions of the `dbx(1)' debugger.   See also {Berzerkeley}.berklix: /berk'liks/ n.,adj. [contraction of `Berkeley UNIX'] See   {BSD}.  Not used at Berkeley itself.  May be more common among   {suit}s attempting to sound like cognoscenti than among hackers,   who usually just say `BSD'.berserking: vi. A {MUD} term meaning to gain points *only*   by killing other players and mobiles (non-player characters).   Hence, a Berserker-Wizard is a player character that has achieved   enough points to become a wizard, but only by killing other   characters.  Berserking is sometimes frowned upon because of its   inherently antisocial nature, but some MUDs have a `berserker   mode' in which a player becomes *permanently* berserk, can   never flee from a fight, cannot use magic, gets no score for   treasure, but does get double kill points.  "Berserker   wizards can seriously damage your elf!"Berzerkeley: /b*r-zer'klee/ [from `berserk', via the name of a   now-deceased record label] n. Humorous distortion of `Berkeley'   used esp. to refer to the practices or products of the   {BSD} UNIX hackers.  See {software bloat}, {Missed'em-five},   {Berkeley Quality Software}.   Mainstream use of this term in reference to the cultural and   political peculiarities of UC Berkeley as a whole has been reported   from as far back as the 1960s.beta: /bay't*/, /be't*/ or (Commonwealth) /bee't*/ n. 1. In   the {Real World}, software often goes through two stages of   testing: Alpha (in-house) and Beta (out-house?).  Software is said   to be `in beta'.  2. Anything that is new and experimental is in   beta. "His girlfriend is in beta" means that he is still testing   for compatibility and reserving judgment.  3. Beta software is   notoriously buggy, so `in beta' connotes flakiness.   Historical note: More formally, to beta-test is to test a   pre-release (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software   by making it available to selected customers and users.  This term   derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints,   first used at IBM but later standard throughout the industry.   `Alpha Test' was the unit, module, or component test phase; `Beta   Test' was initial system test.  These themselves came from earlier   A- and B-tests for hardware.  The A-test was a feasibility and   manufacturability evaluation done before any commitment to design   and development.  The B-test was a demonstration that the   engineering model functioned as specified.  The C-test   (corresponding to today's beta) was the B-test performed on early   samples of the production design.BFI: /B-F-I/ n. See {brute force and ignorance}.  Also   encountered in the variant `BFMI', `brute force and   *massive* ignorance'.bible: n. 1. One of a small number of fundamental source books   such as {Knuth} and {K&R}.  2. The most detailed and   authoritative reference for a particular language, operating   system, or other complex software system.BiCapitalization: n. The act said to have been performed on   trademarks (such as NeXT, {NeWS}, VisiCalc, FrameMaker,   TK!solver, EasyWriter) that have been raised above the ruck of   common coinage by nonstandard capitalization.  Too many   {marketroid} types think this sort of thing is really cute, even   the 2,317th time they do it.  Compare {studlycaps}.BIFF: /bif/ [USENET] n. The most famous {pseudo}, and the   prototypical {newbie}.  Articles from BIFF are characterized by   all uppercase letters sprinkled liberally with bangs, typos,   `cute' misspellings (EVRY BUDY LUVS GOOD OLD BIFF CUZ HE"S A K00L   DOOD AN HE RITES REEL AWESUM THINGZ IN CAPITULL LETTRS LIKE   THIS!!!), use (and often misuse) of fragments of {talk mode}   abbreviations, a long {sig block} (sometimes even a {doubled   sig}), and unbounded na"ivet'e.  BIFF posts articles using his elder   brother's VIC-20.  BIFF's location is a mystery, as his articles   appear to come from a variety of sites.  However, {BITNET} seems to   be the most frequent origin.  The theory that BIFF is a denizen of   BITNET is supported by BIFF's (unfortunately invalid) electronic   mail address: BIFF@BIT.NET.biff: /bif/ vt. To notify someone of incoming mail.  From the   BSD utility `biff(1)', which was in turn named after the   implementor's dog (it barked whenever the mailman came).  No   relation to {BIFF}.Big Gray Wall: n. What faces a {VMS} user searching for   documentation.  A full VMS kit comes on a pallet, the documentation   taking up around 15 feet of shelf space before the addition of layered   products such as compilers, databases, multivendor networking,   and programming tools.  Recent (since VMS version 5) DEC   documentation comes with gray binders; under VMS version 4 the   binders were orange (`big orange wall'), and under version 3   they were blue.  See {VMS}.big iron: n. Large, expensive, ultra-fast computers.  Used generally   of {number-crunching} supercomputers such as Crays, but can include   more conventional big commercial IBMish mainframes.  Term of   approval; compare {heavy metal}, oppose {dinosaur}.Big Red Switch: [IBM] n. The power switch on a computer, esp. the   `Emergency Pull' switch on an IBM {mainframe} or the power switch   on an IBM PC where it really is large and red.  "This !@%$%   {bitty box} is hung again; time to hit the Big Red Switch."   Sources at IBM report that, in tune with the company's passion for   {TLA}s, this is often acronymized as `BRS' (this has also   become established on FidoNet and in the PC {clone} world).  It   is alleged that the emergency pull switch on an IBM 360/91 actually   fired a non-conducting bolt into the main power feed; the BRSes on   more recent machines physically drop a block into place so that   they can't be pushed back in.  People get fired for pulling them,   especially inappropriately (see also {molly-guard}).  Compare   {power cycle}, {three-finger salute}, {120 reset}.Big Room, the: n. The extremely large room with the blue ceiling   and intensely bright light (during the day) or black ceiling with   lots of tiny night-lights (during the night) found outside all   computer installations.  "He can't come to the phone right now,   he's somewhere out in the Big Room."big win: n. Serendipity.  "Yes, those two physicists discovered   high-temperature superconductivity in a batch of ceramic that had   been prepared incorrectly according to their experimental schedule.   Small mistake; big win!" See {win big}.big-endian: [From Swift's `Gulliver's Travels' via the famous   paper `On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace' by Danny Cohen,   USC/ISI IEN 137, dated April 1, 1980] adj. 1. Describes a computer   architecture in which, within a given multi-byte numeric   representation, the most significant byte has the lowest address   (the word is stored `big-end-first').  Most processors, including   the IBM 370 family, the {PDP-10}, the Motorola microprocessor   families, and most of the various RISC designs current in mid-1991,   are big-endian.  See {little-endian}, {middle-endian}, {NUXI   problem}.  2. An {{Internet address}} the wrong way round.  Most   of the world follows the Internet standard and writes email   addresses starting with the name of the computer and ending up with   the name of the country.  In the U.K. the Joint Networking Team had   decided to do it the other way round before the Internet domain   standard was established; e.g., me@uk.ac.wigan.cs.  Most gateway   sites have {ad-hockery} in their mailers to handle this, but can   still be confused.  In particular, the address above could be in the   U.K. (domain uk) or Czechoslovakia (domain cs).bignum: /big'nuhm/ [orig. from MIT MacLISP] n. 1. [techspeak] A   multiple-precision computer representation for very large integers.   More generally, any very large number.  "Have you ever looked at   the United States Budget?  There's bignums for you!"   2. [Stanford] In backgammon, large numbers on the dice are called   `bignums', especially a roll of double fives or double sixes   (compare {moby}, sense 4).  See also {El Camino Bignum}.   Sense 1 may require some explanation.  Most computer languages   provide a kind of data called `integer', but such computer   integers are usually very limited in size; usually they must be   smaller than than 2^{31} (2,147,483,648) or (on a losing   {bitty box}) 2^{15} (32,768).  If you want to work with   numbers larger than that, you have to use floating-point numbers,   which are usually accurate to only six or seven decimal places.   Computer languages that provide bignums can perform exact   calculations on very large numbers, such as 1000!  (the factorial   of 1000, which is 1000 times 999 times 998 times ... times 2   times 1).  For example, this value for 1000!  was computed by the   MacLISP system using bignums:     40238726007709377354370243392300398571937486421071     46325437999104299385123986290205920442084869694048     00479988610197196058631666872994808558901323829669     94459099742450408707375991882362772718873251977950     59509952761208749754624970436014182780946464962910     56393887437886487337119181045825783647849977012476     63288983595573543251318532395846307555740911426241     74743493475534286465766116677973966688202912073791     43853719588249808126867838374559731746136085379534     52422158659320192809087829730843139284440328123155     86110369768013573042161687476096758713483120254785     89320767169132448426236131412508780208000261683151     02734182797770478463586817016436502415369139828126     48102130927612448963599287051149649754199093422215     66832572080821333186116811553615836546984046708975     60290095053761647584772842188967964624494516076535     34081989013854424879849599533191017233555566021394     50399736280750137837615307127761926849034352625200     01588853514733161170210396817592151090778801939317     81141945452572238655414610628921879602238389714760     88506276862967146674697562911234082439208160153780     88989396451826324367161676217916890977991190375403     12746222899880051954444142820121873617459926429565     81746628302955570299024324153181617210465832036786     90611726015878352075151628422554026517048330422614     39742869330616908979684825901254583271682264580665     26769958652682272807075781391858178889652208164348     34482599326604336766017699961283186078838615027946     59551311565520360939881806121385586003014356945272     24206344631797460594682573103790084024432438465657     24501440282188525247093519062092902313649327349756     55139587205596542287497740114133469627154228458623     77387538230483865688976461927383814900140767310446     64025989949022222176590433990188601856652648506179     97023561938970178600408118897299183110211712298459     01641921068884387121855646124960798722908519296819     37238864261483965738229112312502418664935314397013     74285319266498753372189406942814341185201580141233     44828015051399694290153483077644569099073152433278     28826986460278986432113908350621709500259738986355     42771967428222487575867657523442202075736305694988     25087968928162753848863396909959826280956121450994     87170124451646126037902930912088908694202851064018     21543994571568059418727489980942547421735824010636     77404595741785160829230135358081840096996372524230     56085590370062427124341690900415369010593398383577     79394109700277534720000000000000000000000000000000     00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000     00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000     00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000     00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000     000000000000000000.bigot: n. A person who is religiously attached to a particular   computer, language, operating system, editor, or other tool (see   {religious issues}).  Usually found with a specifier; thus,   `cray bigot', {ITS bigot}, `APL bigot', `VMS bigot',   {Berkeley bigot}.  True bigots can be distinguished from mere   pa