pseudo /soo'doh/ n.
[Usenet: truncation of `pseudonym']
1. An electronic-mail or Usenet persona adopted by a human for
amusement value or as a means of avoiding negative repercussions of
one's net.behavior; a `nom de Usenet', often associated with
forged postings designed to conceal message origins. Perhaps the
best-known and funniest hoax of this type is B1FF. See also
tentacle. 2. Notionally, a flamage-generating AI program
simulating a Usenet user. Many flamers have been accused of
actually being such entities, despite the fact that no AI program
of the required sophistication yet exists. However, in 1989 there
was a famous series of forged postings that used a
phrase-frequency-based travesty generator to simulate the styles of
several well-known flamers; it was based on large samples of their
back postings (compare Dissociated Press). A significant
number of people were fooled by the forgeries, and the debate over
their authenticity was settled only when the perpetrator came
forward to publicly admit the hoax.
[Usenet: truncation of `pseudonym']
1. An electronic-mail or Usenet persona adopted by a human for
amusement value or as a means of avoiding negative repercussions of
one's net.behavior; a `nom de Usenet', often associated with
forged postings designed to conceal message origins. Perhaps the
best-known and funniest hoax of this type is B1FF. See also
tentacle. 2. Notionally, a flamage-generating AI program
simulating a Usenet user. Many flamers have been accused of
actually being such entities, despite the fact that no AI program
of the required sophistication yet exists. However, in 1989 there
was a famous series of forged postings that used a
phrase-frequency-based travesty generator to simulate the styles of
several well-known flamers; it was based on large samples of their
back postings (compare Dissociated Press). A significant
number of people were fooled by the forgeries, and the debate over
their authenticity was settled only when the perpetrator came
forward to publicly admit the hoax.
Related:
- pseudo: /soo'doh/ [USENET: truncation of `pseudonym'] n.
1. An electronic-mail or {USENET} persona adopted... - kremvax /krem-vaks/ n.
[from the then large number of
Usenet VAXen with names of the form foovax]
Originally,
a fictitious Usenet site at the Kremlin, announced... - flamage: /flay'm*j/ n. Flaming verbiage, esp. high-noise,
low-signal postings to {USENET} or other electronic... - flamage /flay'm*j/ n.
[very common] Flaming verbiage,
esp. high-noise, low-signal postings to Usenet or other... - newsgroup: [USENET] n. One of {USENET}'s huge collection of
topic groups or {fora}.
Usenet groups can be `unmoderated' (anyone can post)... - ken: /ken/ n. 1. [UNIX] Ken Thompson, principal inventor of
UNIX.
In the early days he used to hand-cut distribution... - doubled sig [Usenet] n.
A sig block that has been
included twice in a Usenet article or,
less commonly, in an electronic mail message. An... - Dissociated Press n.
[play on `Associated Press';
perhaps inspired by a reference in the 1950 Bugs... - spam vt.,vi.,n.
[from "Monty Python's Flying
Circus"] 1.
To crash a program by overrunning a fixed-size buffer...
From the same category:
- freeze v.
To lock an evolving software distribution or
document against changes so it can be released with some hope of
stability.
Carries the strong implication that the item in ... - livelock /li:v'lok/ n.
A situation in which some critical stage of a task... - lithium lick n.
[NeXT] Steve Jobs.
Employees who have gotten too much attention from... - GOSMACS /goz'maks/ n.
[contraction of `Gosling
EMACS'] The first EMACS-in-C implementation,
predating but now largely eclipsed by GNUMACS. ... - bogotify /boh-go't*-fi:/ vt.
To make or become bogus.
A program that has been changed so many times as...
