glitch /glich/
[very common; from German `glitschig' to
slip, via Yiddish `glitshen', to slide or skid] 1. n. A
sudden interruption in electric service, sanity, continuity, or
program function. Sometimes recoverable. An interruption in
electric service is specifically called a `power glitch' (also
power hit), of grave concern because it usually crashes all
the computers. In jargon, though, a hacker who got to the middle
of a sentence and then forgot how he or she intended to complete it
might say, "Sorry, I just glitched". 2. vi. To commit a
glitch. See gritch. 3. vt. [Stanford] To scroll a
display screen, esp. several lines at a time. WAITS
terminals used to do this in order to avoid continuous scrolling,
which is distracting to the eye. 4. obs. Same as magic cookie, sense 2.
All these uses of `glitch' derive from the specific technical
meaning the term has in the electronic hardware world, where it is
now techspeak. A glitch can occur when the inputs of a circuit
change, and the outputs change to some random value for some
very brief time before they settle down to the correct value. If
another circuit inspects the output at just the wrong time, reading
the random value, the results can be very wrong and very hard to
debug (a glitch is one of many causes of electronic heisenbugs).
[very common; from German `glitschig' to
slip, via Yiddish `glitshen', to slide or skid] 1. n. A
sudden interruption in electric service, sanity, continuity, or
program function. Sometimes recoverable. An interruption in
electric service is specifically called a `power glitch' (also
power hit), of grave concern because it usually crashes all
the computers. In jargon, though, a hacker who got to the middle
of a sentence and then forgot how he or she intended to complete it
might say, "Sorry, I just glitched". 2. vi. To commit a
glitch. See gritch. 3. vt. [Stanford] To scroll a
display screen, esp. several lines at a time. WAITS
terminals used to do this in order to avoid continuous scrolling,
which is distracting to the eye. 4. obs. Same as magic cookie, sense 2.
All these uses of `glitch' derive from the specific technical
meaning the term has in the electronic hardware world, where it is
now techspeak. A glitch can occur when the inputs of a circuit
change, and the outputs change to some random value for some
very brief time before they settle down to the correct value. If
another circuit inspects the output at just the wrong time, reading
the random value, the results can be very wrong and very hard to
debug (a glitch is one of many causes of electronic heisenbugs).
Related:
- glitch: /glich/ [from German `glitschen' to slip, via Yiddish
`glitshen',
to slide or skid] 1. n. A sudden interruption in ... - bug n.
An unwanted and unintended property of a program or
piece of hardware,
esp. one that causes it to malfunction. Antonym... - fried: adj. 1. Non-working due to hardware failure;
burnt out. Especially used of hardware brought down... - fried adj.
1. [common] Non-working due to hardware
failure;
burnt out. Especially used of hardware brought down... - gritch /grich/
[MIT] 1. n. A complaint (often caused by a
glitch).
2. vi. To complain. Often verb-doubled: "Gritch ... - random adj.
1. Unpredictable (closest to mathematical
definition);
weird. "The system's been behaving pretty randomly... - talk mode n.
A feature supported by Unix, ITS, and some
other OSes that allows two or more logged-in users to set up a
real-time on-line conversation.
It combines the immediacy of talking with all the... - magic cookie n.
[Unix; common] 1. Something passed
between routines or programs that enables the receiver to perform
some operation;
a capability ticket or opaque identifier. Especially... - glork /glork/
1. interj. Term of mild surprise, usually
tinged with outrage,
as when one attempts to save the results of two...
