|
|
|
|
|
|
|
dangling pointer n. A reference that doesn't actually lead anywhere (in C and some other languages, a pointer that doesn't actually point at anything valid). Usually this happens because it formerly pointed to something that has moved or disappeared. Used as jargon in a generalization of its techspeak meaning; for example, a local phone number for a person who has since moved to the other coast is a dangling pointer. Compare dead link. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
dark-side hacker n. A criminal or malicious hacker; a cracker. From George Lucas's Darth Vader, "seduced by the dark side of the Force". The implication that hackers form a sort of elite of technological Jedi Knights is intended. Oppose samurai. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Datamation /day't -may'shn/ n. A magazine that many hackers assume all suits read. Used to question an unbelieved quote, as in "Did you read that in 'Datamation?'" (But see below; this slur may be dated by the time you read this.) It used to publish something hackishly funny every once in a while, like the original paper on COME FROM in 1973, and Ed Post's Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal ten years later, but for a long time after that it was much more exclusively suit-oriented and boring. Following a change of editorship in 1994, Datamation is trying for more of the technical content and irreverent humor that marked its early days. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Datamation now has a WWW page at http://www.datamation.com worth visiting for its selection of computer humor, including Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal and the 'Bastard Operator From Hell' stories by Simon Travaglia (see BOFH). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DAU /dow/ [German FidoNet] n. German acronym for Dümmster Anzunehmender User (stupidest imaginable user). From the engineering-slang GAU for Grösster Anzunehmender Unfall, worst assumable accident, esp. of a LNG tank farm plant or something with similarly disastrous consequences. In popular German, GAU is used only to refer to worst-case nuclear accidents such as a core meltdown. See cretin, fool, loser and weasel. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
day mode n. See phase (sense 1). Used of people only. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
dd /dee-dee/ vt. [Unix: from IBM JCL] Equivalent to cat or BLT. Originally the name of a Unix copy command with special options suitable for block-oriented devices; it was often used in heavy-handed system maintenance, as in "Let's dd the root partition onto a tape, then use the boot PROM to load it back on to a new disk". The Unix dd(1) was designed with a weird, distinctly non-Unixy keyword option syntax reminiscent of IBM System/360 |
|
|
|
|
|