noun

• Used humorously as a random parameter on which something is said to depend. Sometimes implies unreliability of whatever is dependent, or that reliability seems to be dependent on conditions nobody has been able to determine. See also heisenbug.

  This feature depends on having the channel open in mumble mode, having the foo switch set, and on the phase of the moon.

  More words meaning: computer slang

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)

noun

• Abbreviation, Pointy-Haired Boss. From the Dilbert character, the archetypal halfwitted middle-management type.

  More words meaning: computer slang

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)

• the urinary tract.

  by WalterGR, Sacramento, CA, USA, Sep 27 2009  (Edit definition)

• the digestive system.

  by WalterGR, Sacramento, CA, USA, Sep 27 2009  (Edit definition)

noun

• the internal portions of some system.

  More words meaning: computer slang

  by WalterGR, Sacramento, CA, USA, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)

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

  More words meaning: texting, SMS, email, chat acronyms (list of)

  by WalterGR, Sacramento, CA, USA, Aug 11 2009  (Edit definition)

adjective

• the extreme form of the property that separates suits and marketroids from hackers. See PHB. Always applied to people, never to ideas. The plural form is often used as a noun.

  The pointy-haireds ordered me to use Windows NT, but I set up a Linux server with Samba instead.

  More words meaning: computer slang

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)

origin

• after the character in the Dilbert comic strip

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)

noun

• A kind of shareware that borders on freeware, in that the author requests only that satisfied users send a postcard of their home town or something.

  More words meaning: computer slang

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)

transitive verb

• Syn. bang on.

  More words meaning: computer slang

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)

noun

• Pornography.

  More words meaning: computer slang

  by WalterGR, Sacramento, CA, USA, Aug 11 2009  (Edit definition)

transitive verb

• by analogy with "append": To prefix. As with "append", the direct object is always the thing being added and not the original word (or character string, or whatever).

  If you prepend a semicolon to the line, the translation routine will pass it through unaltered.

  More words meaning: computer slang

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)

noun

• geek.

  More words meaning: computer slang

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)

transitive verb

• for a female to use a strap-on dildo to perform anal sex on a male. The term was a runner-up in a competition by readers of Dan Savage's Savage Love column to coin a term for this. The winning term was peg. Another runner-up was bob.

  by WalterGR, Sacramento, CA, USA, Feb 20 2010  (Edit definition)

verb

• To knock someone off an Internet or chat connection.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)

• A design decision to defer solving a problem, typically because one cannot define what is desirable sufficiently well to frame an algorithmic solution.

  No way to know what the right form to dump the graph in is - we'll punt that for now.

  More words meaning: computer slang

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)

• To hand a tricky implementation problem off to some other section of the design.

  It's too hard to get the compiler to do that; let's punt to the runtime system.

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)

noun

• "computer."

  More words meaning: abbreviations (list of)
  More words meaning: computer slang

  by Veronica-Leigh, Charlotte, NC, USA, Jul 23 2002  (Edit definition)

verb

• To cite a relevant excerpt from some text.

  More words meaning: computer slang

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)

intransitive verb

• during a discussion about a particular topic, to focus on an unimportant detail.

  by WalterGR, Sacramento, CA, USA, Sep 27 2009  (Edit definition)

noun

• A technical subject that is known to be able to absorb infinite amounts of discussion time without more than an infinitesimal probability of arrival at a conclusion or consensus.

  More words meaning: computer slang

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)

• a dilapidated place.

  by WalterGR, Sacramento, CA, USA, Sep 27 2009  (Edit definition)

noun

• any critical resource measured in units of area. For example, "chip real estate", the area available for logic on the surface of an integrated circuit; the amount of space in one's computer room; space on a crowded computer desktop.

  More words meaning: computer slang

  by The Jargon File, Aug 14 2009  (Edit definition)