noun

• As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

noun

• A hypothetical substance which attracts the index bots of Google.com. In common usage, a web page or web site with high placement in the results of a particular search on Google or frequent placement in the results of a various searches is said to have a lot of google juice.

  CrackMonkey has more google juice than KPMG.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

noun

• The side-effect that destroyed touch-screens as a mainstream input technology despite a promising start in the early 1980s. It seems the designers of all those touch-menu systems failed to notice that humans aren't designed to hold their arms in front of them making small motions. After more than a very few selections, the arm begins to feel sore, cramped, and oversized - the operator looks like a gorilla while using the touch screen and feels like one afterwards.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

• acronym for "great". Used mainly in computer-based conversation (instant messaging, email, text messaging, etc.)

  by WalterGR, Sacramento, CA, USA, Aug 11 2009.

verb

• to search.

  Grep the bulletin board for the system backup schedule, would you?

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

origin

• From a Unix utility used to scan files in search of particular content.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

noun

• A piece of freeware decorated with a message telling one how long and hard the author worked on it and intimating that one is a no-good freeloader if one does not immediately send the poor suffering martyr gobs of money.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

adjective

• A system that is sufficiently patched, kluged, and tweaked that the scars are beginning to show. Not all programs that are hacked become "hacked up"; if modifications are done with some eye to coherence and continued maintainability, the software may emerge better for the experience.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

• n. an individual breaks into computers.

  The Hackers took secret infomation from the government.

  by Charles B., Westminster, CO, USA, Jun 16 1999.

noun

• An expert or enthusiast of any kind, but implies hands-on work. One might be a culinary hacker, for example.

  by WalterGR, Sacramento, CA, USA, Aug 14 2009.

• A person who is good at programming

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

• A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

• One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

• An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in 'a Unix hacker'.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

adjective

• Said of something that is or involves a hack.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

transitive verb

• To hack; implies that the subject is some pre-existing hunk of code that one is evolving, as opposed to something one might hack up.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

transitive verb

• To throw something together so it will work. Unlike "kluge together", this does not necessarily have negative connotations.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

transitive verb

• To hack, with the result being something quickly and sloppily created. It may be an alteration of something already existing, e.g. a quick-and-dirty modification to an existing computer program.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

adjective

• a joke or "joke" that contains a core of truth.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

noun

• The act of handwaving.

  Boy, what a handwave!

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

verb

• To gloss over a complex point.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

noun

• A bug that disappears or alters its behavior when one attempts to probe or isolate it. (This usage is not even particularly fanciful; the use of a debugger sometimes alters a program's operating environment significantly enough that buggy code, such as that which relies on the values of uninitialized memory, behaves quite differently.)

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

origin

• from Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle in quantum physics

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.

• noun. a person hired for their expertise.

  And he notes that his organization has long advocated more standardization and stronger ethics rules, so hired guns can't pollute courtrooms with biased testimony.
  
  -- "CSI Myths: The Shaky Science Behind Forensics", Popular Mechanics, Brad Reagan, August 2009 issue

  by WalterGR, Sacramento, CA, USA, Jul 27 2009.

noun

• A contract programmer, as opposed to a full-time staff member. All the connotations of this term suggested by innumerable spaghetti Westerns are intentional.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009.