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WAITS, CP/M, MS-DOS, and Multics operating systems (most importantly by ITS and Unix). |
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optical diff n. See vdiff. |
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optical grep n. See vgrep. |
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optimism n. What a programmer is full of after fixing the last bug and before discovering the next last bug. Fred Brooks's book The Mythical Man-Month (See Brooks's Law) contains the following paragraph that describes this extremely well: |
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All programmers are optimists. Perhaps this modern sorcery especially attracts those who believe in happy endings and fairy godmothers. Perhaps the hundreds of nitty frustrations drive away all but those who habitually focus on the end goal. Perhaps it is merely that computers are young, programmers are younger, and the young are always optimists. But however the selection process works, the result is indisputable: "This time it will surely run," or "I just found the last bug.". |
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See also Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology. |
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Orange Book n. The U.S. Government's standards document Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria, DOD standard 5200.28-STD, December, 1985 which characterize secure computing architectures and defines levels A1 (most secure) through D (least). Stock Unixes are roughly C1, and can be upgraded to about C2 without excessive pain. See also crayola books, book titles. |
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oriental food n. Hackers display an intense tropism towards oriental cuisine, especially Chinese, and especially of the spicier varieties such as Szechuan and Hunan. This phenomenon (which has also been observed in subcultures that overlap heavily with hackerdom, most notably sciencefiction fandom) has never been satisfactorily explained, but is sufficiently intense that one can assume the target of a hackish dinner expedition to be the best local Chinese place and be right at least three times out of four. See also ravs, great-wall, stir-fried random, laser chicken, Yu-Shiang Whole Fish. Thai, Indian, Korean, and Vietnamese cuisines are also quite popular. |
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orphan n. [Unix] A process whose parent has died; one inherited by init(1). Compare zombie. |
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