The New Hacker's Dictionarycopyparty // n. [C64/amiga demoscene ]A computer party organized so demosceners can meet other in real life, and to facilitate software copying (mostly pirated software). The copyparty has become less common as the Internet makes communication easier. The demoscene has gradually evolved the demoparty to replace it. copywronged /kop'ee-rongd/ adj. [play on 'copyright'] syn. for copybroke. core // n. Main storage or RAM. Dates from the days of ferrite-core memory; now archaic as techspeak most places outside IBM, but also still used in the Unix community and by old-time hackers or those who would sound like them. Some derived idioms are quite current; 'in core', for example, means 'in memory' (as opposed to 'on disk'), and both core dump and the 'core image' or 'core file' produced by one are terms in favor. Some varieties of Commonwealth hackish prefer store. core cancer // n. [rare] A process that exhibits a slow but inexorable resource leak -- like a cancer, it kills by crowding out productive 'tissue'. core dump // n. [common Iron Age jargon, preserved by Unix] 1. [techspeak] A copy of the contents of core, produced when a process is aborted by certain kinds of internal error. 2. By extension, used for humans passing out, vomiting, or registering extreme shock. "He dumped core. All over the floor. What a mess." "He heard about X and dumped core." 3. Occasionally used for a human rambling on pointlessly at great length; esp. in apology: "Sorry, I dumped core on you". 4. A recapitulation of knowledge (compare bits, sense 1). Hence, spewing all one knows about a topic (syn. brain dump), esp. in a lecture or answer to an exam question. "Short, concise answers are better than core dumps" (from the instructions to an exam at Columbia). See core. |