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black magic n. A technique that works, though nobody really understands why. More obscure than voodoo programming, which may be done by cookbook. Compare also black art, deep magic, and magic number (sense 2). |
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Black Screen of Death n. [probably related to the Floating Head of Death in a famous "Far Side" cartoon.] A failure mode of Microsloth Windows. On an attempt to launch a DOS box, a networked Windows system not uncommonly blanks the screen and locks up the PC so hard that it requires a cold boot to recover. This unhappy phenomenon is known as The Black Screen of Death. |
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Black Thursday n. February 8th, 1996 the day of the signing into law of the CDA, so called by analogy with the catastrophic "Black Friday" in 1929 that began the Great Depression. |
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blammo v. [Oxford Brookes University and alumni, UK] To forcibly remove someone from any interactive system, especially talker systems. The operators, who may remain hidden, may 'blammo' a user who is misbehaving. Very similar to MIT gun; in fact, the blammo-gun is a notional device used to 'blammo' someone. While in actual fact the only incarnation of the blammo-gun is the command used to forcibly eject a user, operators speak of different levels of blammo-gun fire; e.g., a blammo-gun to 'stun' will temporarily remove someone, but a blammo-gun set to 'maim' will stop someone coming back on for a while. |
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blargh /blarg/ n. [MIT] The opposite of ping, sense 5; an exclamation indicating that one has absorbed or is emitting a quantum of unhappiness. Less common than ping. |
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blast 1. v.,n. Synonym for BLT, used esp. for large data sends over a network or comm line. Opposite of snarf. Usage: uncommon. The variant 'blat' has been reported. 2. vt. [HP/Apollo] Synonymous with nuke (sense 3). Sometimes the message Unable to kill all processes. Blast them (y/n)? would appear in the command window upon logout. |
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blat n. 1. Syn. blast, sense 1. 2. See thud. |
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bletch /blech/ interj. [from Yiddish/German 'brechen', to vomit, poss. via comic-strip exclamation 'blech'] Term of disgust. Often used in "Ugh, bletch". Compare barf. |
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