life n.
1. A cellular-automata game invented by John Horton
Conway and first introduced publicly by Martin Gardner
("Scientific American", October 1970); the game's popularity
had to wait a few years for computers on which it could reasonably
be played, as it's no fun to simulate the cells by hand. Many
hackers pass through a stage of fascination with it, and hackers at
various places contributed heavily to the mathematical analysis of
this game (most notably Bill Gosper at MIT, who even implemented
life in TECO!; see Gosperism). When a hacker mentions
`life', he is much more likely to mean this game than the
magazine, the breakfast cereal, or the human state of existence.
2. The opposite of Usenet. As in "Get a life!"
1. A cellular-automata game invented by John Horton
Conway and first introduced publicly by Martin Gardner
("Scientific American", October 1970); the game's popularity
had to wait a few years for computers on which it could reasonably
be played, as it's no fun to simulate the cells by hand. Many
hackers pass through a stage of fascination with it, and hackers at
various places contributed heavily to the mathematical analysis of
this game (most notably Bill Gosper at MIT, who even implemented
life in TECO!; see Gosperism). When a hacker mentions
`life', he is much more likely to mean this game than the
magazine, the breakfast cereal, or the human state of existence.
2. The opposite of Usenet. As in "Get a life!"
Related:
- life: n. 1. A cellular-automata game invented by John Horton
Conway and first introduced publicly by Martin Gardner
("Scientific American",
October 1970); the game's popularity had to wait... - SPACEWAR: n. A space-combat simulation game, inspired by
E.
E. "Doc" Smith's "Lensman" books, in which two spaceships... - HAKMEM /hak'mem/ n.
MIT AI Memo 239 (February 1972).
A legendary collection of neat mathematical and... - Life is a Game;
Cheat... - Gosperism: /gos'p*r-izm/ A hack, invention, or saying due to
arch-hacker R.
William (Bill) Gosper. This notion merits its own... - Life is the only game in which the object of the game
is to learn the rules... - Life is a game. In order to have a game, something has to be more important
than something else.
If what already is, is more important than what isn't... - TECO /tee'koh/ n.,v. obs.
1. [originally an acronym for
`[paper] Tape Editor and COrrector';
later, `Text Editor and COrrector'] n. A text editor...
From the same category:
- branch to Fishkill n.
[IBM: from the location of one of the
corporation's facilities] Any unexpected jump in a program that
produces catastrophic or just plain weird results.
See jump off... - braino /bray'no/ n.
Syn. for thinko.
See also brain fart... - infinity n.
1. The largest value that can be represented in
a particular type of variable (register,
memory location, data type, whatever). 2. `minus... - nerd n.
1. [mainstream slang] Pejorative applied to anyone
with an above-average IQ and few gifts at small talk and ordinary
social rituals.
2. [jargon] Term of praise applied (in conscious... - non-optimal solution n.
(also `sub-optimal solution') An
astoundingly stupid way to do something.
This term is generally used in deadpan sarcasm,...
