The letter D

• D. C. Power Lab n. The former site of SAIL. Hackers thought
• daemon /day'mn/ or /dee'mn/ [from the mythological meaning,
• dangling pointer n. A reference that doesn't actually lead
• dark-side hacker n. A criminal or malicious hacker; a
• Datamation /day`t*-may'sh*n/ n. A magazine that many hackers
• DAU /dow/ [German Fidonet] n. German acronym for D"ummster
• day mode n. See phase (sense 1). Used of people only.
• dd /dee-dee/ [UNIX from IBM JCL] vt. Equivalent to
• DDT /D-D-T/ n. 1. Generic term for a program that assists in
• de-rezz /dee-rez'/ [from `de-resolve' via the movie
• dead adj. 1. Non-functional; down; crashed. Especially
• dead code n. Routines that can never be accessed because all
• DEADBEEF /ded-beef/ n. The hexadecimal word-fill pattern for
• deadlock n. 1. [techspeak] A situation wherein two or more
• deadly embrace n. Same as deadlock, though usually used only when
• death code n. A routine whose job is to set everything in the
• Death Star [from the movie "Star Wars"] 1. The AT&T
• DEC n. Digital Equipment Corporation. Before the {killermicro}
• dec /dek/ v. Verbal (and only rarely written) shorthand for
• DEC Wars n. A 1983 USENET posting by Alan Hastings and Steve
• decay [from nuclear physics] n.,vi. An automatic conversion which
• DEChead /dek'hed/ n. 1. A DEC field servoid. Not flattering.
• deckle /dek'l/ [from dec- and nybble; the original
• DED /D-E-D/ n. Dark-Emitting Diode (that is, a burned-out
• deep hack mode n. See hack mode.
• deep magic [poss. from C. S. Lewis's "Narnia" books] n. An
• deep space n. 1. Describes the notional location of any program
• defenestration [from the traditional Czechoslovakian method of
• defined as adj. In the role of, usually in an organization-chart
• dehose /dee-hohz/ vt. To clear a hosed condition.
• delint /dee-lint/ v. To modify code to remove problems detected
• delta n. 1. [techspeak] A quantitative change, especially a small
• demented adj. Yet another term of disgust used to describe a
• demigod n. A hacker with years of experience, a national reputation,
• demo /de'moh/ [short for `demonstration'] 1. v. To
• demo mode [Sun] n. 1. The state of being heads down in order
• demon n. 1. [MIT] A portion of a program that is not invoked
• depeditate /dee-ped'*-tayt/ [by (faulty) analogy with
• deprecated adj. Said of a program or feature that is considered
• deserves to lose adj. Said of someone who willfully does the
• desk check n.,v. To grovel over hardcopy of source code,
• despew /d*-spyoo'/ [USENET] v. To automatically generate a
• Devil Book n. "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD
• devo /dee'voh/ [orig. in-house jargon at Symbolics] n. A person in a
• dickless workstation n. Extremely pejorative hackerism for
• dictionary flame [USENET] n. An attempt to sidetrack a debate
• diddle 1. vt. To work with or modify in a not particularly
• die v. Syn. crash. Unlike crash, which is used
• die horribly v. The software equivalent of crash and burn,
• diff /dif/ n. 1. A change listing, especially giving
• digit n. An employee of Digital Equipment Corporation. See also
• dike vt. To remove or disable a portion of something, as a wire
• ding n.,vi. 1. Synonym for feep. Usage rare among hackers,
• dink /dink/ adj. Said of a machine that has the bitty box
• dinosaur n. 1. Any hardware requiring raised flooring and special
• dinosaur pen n. A traditional mainframe computer room complete with
• dinosaurs mating n. Said to occur when yet another big iron
• dirtball [XEROX PARC] n. A small, perhaps struggling outsider;
• dirty power n. Electrical mains voltage that is unfriendly to
• disclaimer n. [USENET] n. Statement ritually appended to many USENET
• Discordianism /dis-kor'di-*n-ism/ n. The veneration of
• disk farm n. (also laundromat) A large room or rooms filled
• display hack n. A program with the same approximate purpose as a
• Dissociated Press [play on `Associated Press'; perhaps inspired
• distribution n. 1. A software source tree packaged for
• disusered adj. [USENET] Said of a person whose account on a computer
• do protocol [from network protocol programming] vi. To perform an
• doc /dok/ n. Common spoken and written shorthand for
• doco /do'koh/ [orig. in-house jargon at Symbolics] n. A
• documentation n. The multiple kilograms of macerated, pounded,
• dodgy adj. Syn. with flaky. Preferred outside the U.S.
• dogcow /dog'kow/ n. See Moof.
• dogpile [USENET prob. fr. mainstream "puppy pile"] v. When
• dogwash /dog'wosh/ [From a quip in the `urgency' field of a very
• domainist /doh-mayn'ist/ adj. 1. Said of an {Internetaddress}
• Don't do that, then! [from an old doctor's office joke about a
• dongle /dong'gl/ n. 1. A security or copy protection
• dongle-disk /don'gl disk/ n. A special floppy disk that is
• donuts n.obs. A collective noun for any set of memory bits. This
• doorstop n. Used to describe equipment that is non-functional and
• dot file [UNIX] n. A file that is not visible by default to
• double bucky adj. Using both the CTRL and META keys. "The
• double DECkers n. Used to describe married couples in which both
• doubled sig [USENET] n. A sig block that has been included
• down 1. adj. Not operating. "The up escalator is down" is
• download vt. To transfer data or (esp.) code from a larger `host'
• DP /D-P/ n. 1. Data Processing. Listed here because,
• DPB /d*-pib'/ [from the PDP-10 instruction set] vt. To plop
• DPer /dee-pee-er/ n. Data Processor. Hackers are absolutely
• dragon n. [MIT] A program similar to a daemon, except that
• Dragon Book n. The classic text "Compilers Principles,
• drain [IBM] v. Syn. for flush (sense 2). Has a connotation
• dread high-bit disease n. A condition endemic to PRIME (a.k.a.
• DRECNET /drek'net/ [from Yiddish/German `dreck', meaning
• driver n. 1. The main loop of an event-processing program;
• droid [from `android', SF terminology for a humanoid robot of
• drool-proof paper n. Documentation that has been obsessively {dumbeddown}
• drop on the floor vt. To react to an error condition by silently
• drop-ins [prob. by analogy with drop-outs] n. Spurious
• drop-outs n. 1. A variety of `power glitch' (see glitch);
• drugged adj. (also `on drugs') 1. Conspicuously stupid,
• drum adj, n. Ancient techspeak term referring to slow,
• drunk mouse syndrome (also `mouse on drugs') n. A malady
• Duff's device n. The most dramatic use yet seen of {fallthrough}
• dumb terminal n. A terminal that is one step above a glass tty,
• dumbass attack /duhm'as *-tak'/ [Purdue] n. Notional cause of a
• dumbed down adj. Simplified, with a strong connotation of
• dump n. 1. An undigested and voluminous mass of information about
• dumpster diving /dump'-ster di'-ving/ n. 1. The practice of
• dup killer /d[y]oop kill'r/ [FidoNet] n. Software that is
• dup loop /d[y]oop loop/ (also `dupe loop') [FidoNet] n. An
• dusty deck n. Old software (especially applications) which one is
• DWIM /dwim/ [acronym, `Do What I Mean'] 1. adj. Able to guess,
• dynner /din'r/ 32 bits, by analogy with nybble and

---

The letter E