The letter H

• h [from SF fandom] infix. A method of `marking' common words,
• ha ha only serious [from SF fandom, orig. as mutation of HHOK,
• hack 1. n. Originally, a quick job that produces what is needed,
• hack attack [poss. by analogy with `Big Mac Attack' from ads
• hack mode n. 1. What one is in when hacking, of course. 2. More
• hack on vt. To hack; implies that the subject is some
• hack together vt. To throw something together so it will work.
• hack up vt. To hack, but generally implies that the result is
• hack value n. Often adduced as the reason or motivation for
• hacked off [analogous to `pissed off'] adj. Said of system
• hacked up adj. Sufficiently patched, kluged, and tweaked that the
• hacker [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] n.
• hacker ethic, the n. 1. The belief that information-sharing
• hacking run [analogy with `bombing run' or `speed run'] n. A
• Hacking X for Y [ITS] n. Ritual phrasing of part of the
• Hackintosh n. 1. An Apple Lisa that has been hacked into emulating a
• hackish /hak'ish/ adj. (also hackishness n.) 1. Said of
• hackishness n. The quality of being or involving a hack. This
• hackitude n. Syn. hackishness; this word is considered sillier.
• hair [back-formation from hairy] n. The complications that
• hairy adj. 1. Annoyingly complicated. "DWIM is incredibly
• HAKMEM /hak'mem/ n. MIT AI Memo 239 (February 1972). A
• hakspek /hak'speek/ n. A shorthand method of spelling found on
• hammer vt. Commonwealth hackish syn. for bang on.
• hamster n. 1. [Fairchild] A particularly slick little piece of
• hand cruft [pun on `hand craft'] vt. See cruft, sense 3.
• hand-hacking n. 1. The practice of translating hot spots from
• handle n. 1. [from CB slang] An electronic pseudonym; a `nom
• hand-roll [from obs. mainstream slang `hand-rolled' in
• handshaking n. Hardware or software activity designed to start or
• handwave [poss. from gestures characteristic of stage magicians]
• hang v. 1. To wait for an event that will never occur. "The
• Hanlon's Razor prov. A corollary of Finagle's Law, similar
• happily adv. Of software, used to emphasize that a program is
• haque /hak/ [USENET] n. Variant spelling of hack, used
• hard boot n. See boot.
• hardcoded adj. 1. Said of data inserted directly into a program,
• hardwarily /hard-weir'*-lee/ adv. In a way pertaining to
• hardwired adj. 1. In software, syn. for hardcoded. 2. By
• has the X nature [seems to derive from Zen Buddhist koans of the
• hash bucket n. A notional receptacle, a set of which might be
• hash collision [from the technical usage] n. (var. `hash
• hat n. Common (spoken) name for the circumflex (`^', ASCII
• HCF /H-C-F/ n. Mnemonic for `Halt and Catch Fire', any of
• heads down [Sun] adj. Concentrating, usually so heavily and for
• heartbeat n. 1. The signal emitted by a Level 2 Ethernet
• heatseeker [IBM] n. A customer who can be relied upon to buy,
• heavy metal [Cambridge] n. Syn. big iron.
• heavy wizardry n. Code or designs that trade on a particularly
• heavyweight adj. High-overhead; baroque; code-intensive;
• heisenbug /hi'zen-buhg/ [from Heisenberg's Uncertainty
• Helen Keller mode n. 1. State of a hardware or software system
• hello, sailor! interj. Occasional West Coast equivalent of
• hello, wall! excl. See wall.
• hello, world interj. 1. The canonical minimal test message in the
• hex n. 1. Short for hexadecimal, base 16. 2. A 6-pack
• hexadecimal n. Base 16. Coined in the early 1960s to replace
• hexit /hek'sit/ n. A hexadecimal digit (0--9, and A--F or a--f).
• HHOK See ha ha only serious.
• HHOS See ha ha only serious.
• hidden flag [scientific computation] n. An extra option added to
• high bit [from `high-order bit'] n. 1. The most significant
• high moby /hi' mohb'ee/ n. The high half of a 512K
• highly [scientific computation] adv. The preferred modifier for
• hing // [IRC] n. Fortuitous typo for `hint', now in wide
• hirsute adj. Occasionally used humorously as a synonym for hairy.
• HLL /H-L-L/ n. [High-Level Language (as opposed to assembler)]
• hobbit n. 1. The High Order Bit of a byte; same as the {metabit}
• hog n.,vt. 1. Favored term to describe programs or hardware that
• holy wars [from USENET, but may predate it] n. {flamewar}
• home box n. A hacker's personal machine, especially one he or she
• home machine n. 1. Syn. home box. 2. The machine that
• hook n. A software or hardware feature included in order to
• hop 1. n. One file transmission in a series required to get a
• hose 1. vt. To make non-functional or greatly degraded in
• hosed adj. Same as down. Used primarily by UNIX hackers.
• hot spot n. 1. [primarily used by C/UNIX programmers, but
• house wizard [prob. from ad-agency tradetalk, `house freak']
• HP-SUX /H-P suhks/ n. Unflattering hackerism for HP-UX,
• huff v. To compress data using a Huffman code. Various programs
• humma // excl. A filler word used on various `chat' and
• Humor, Hacker n. A distinctive style of shared intellectual
• hung [from `hung up'] adj. Equivalent to wedged, but more
• hungry puppy n. Syn. slopsucker.
• hungus /huhng'g*s/ [perhaps related to slang `humongous'] adj.
• hyperspace /hi'per-spays/ n. A memory location that is *far*
• hysterical reasons (also `hysterical raisins') n. A variant on

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The letter I