TANSTAAFL /tan'stah-fl/
[acronym, from Robert Heinlein's
classic "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".] "There Ain't No
Such Thing As A Free Lunch", often invoked when someone is balking
at the prospect of using an unpleasantly heavyweight
technique, or at the poor quality of some piece of software, or at
the signal-to-noise ratio of unmoderated Usenet newsgroups.
"What? Don't tell me I have to implement a database back end to
get my address book program to work!" "Well, TANSTAAFL you
know." This phrase owes some of its popularity to the high
concentration of science-fiction fans and political libertarians in
hackerdom (see Appendix B for discussion).
[acronym, from Robert Heinlein's
classic "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".] "There Ain't No
Such Thing As A Free Lunch", often invoked when someone is balking
at the prospect of using an unpleasantly heavyweight
technique, or at the poor quality of some piece of software, or at
the signal-to-noise ratio of unmoderated Usenet newsgroups.
"What? Don't tell me I have to implement a database back end to
get my address book program to work!" "Well, TANSTAAFL you
know." This phrase owes some of its popularity to the high
concentration of science-fiction fans and political libertarians in
hackerdom (see Appendix B for discussion).
Related:
- TANSTAAFL: /tan'stah-fl/ [acronym, from Robert Heinlein's
classic "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress".] "There Ain't No
Such Thing As A Free Lunch",
often invoked when someone is balking at the prospect... - signal-to-noise ratio: [from analog electronics] n.
Used by hackers in a generalization of its technical... - signal-to-noise ratio [from analog electronics] n.
Used by
hackers in a generalization of its technical meaning.
`Signal' refers to useful information conveyed by... - moby /moh'bee/
[MIT: seems to have been in use among
model railroad fans years ago.
Derived from Melville's "Moby Dick" (some say from... - In ecology, as in economics, TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free
Lunch) is intended to warn that every gain is won at some cost.
Failure to recognize the no free lunch law causes... - Jacques: First, you must get to know your lane. Feel the slickness,
feel the slippery finish. Caresses it, experience it... - mailing list n.
(often shortened in context to `list')
1.
An email address that is an alias (or macro, though... - network address: n. (also `net address') As used by hackers,
means an address on `the' network (see {network, the}... - newsgroup: [USENET] n. One of {USENET}'s huge collection of
topic groups or {fora}.
Usenet groups can be `unmoderated' (anyone can post)...
From the same category:
- yellow wire n.
[IBM] Repair wires used when connectors
(especially ribbon connectors) got broken due to some schlemiel
pinching them,
or to reconnect cut traces after the FE mistakenly... - grault /grawlt/ n.
Yet another metasyntactic variable,
invented by Mike Gallaher and propagated by GOSMACS... - VAXen /vak'sn/ n.
[from `oxen', perhaps influenced by
`vixen'] (alt.
`vaxen') The plural canonically used among hackers... - backward combatability /bak'w*rd k*m-bat'*-bil'*-tee/ n.
[CMU, Tektronix: from `backward compatibility'] A property... - sandbox n.
1. (also `sandbox, the') Common term for the R&D
department at many software and computer companies (where hackers
in commercial environments are likely to be found).
Half...
