:finger: [WAITS, via BSD UNIX] 1. n. A program that displays
information about a particular user or all users logged on the
system, or a remote system. Typically shows full name, last login
time, idle time, terminal line, and terminal location (where
applicable). May also display a {plan file} left by the user
(see also {Hacking X for Y}). 2. vt. To apply finger to a
username. 3. vt. By extension, to check a human's current state by
any means. "Foodp?" "T!" "OK, finger Lisa and see if she's
idle." 4. Any picture (composed of ASCII characters) depicting
`the finger'. Originally a humorous component of one's plan file
to deter the curious fingerer (sense 2), it has entered the arsenal
of some {flamer}s.
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
information about a particular user or all users logged on the
system, or a remote system. Typically shows full name, last login
time, idle time, terminal line, and terminal location (where
applicable). May also display a {plan file} left by the user
(see also {Hacking X for Y}). 2. vt. To apply finger to a
username. 3. vt. By extension, to check a human's current state by
any means. "Foodp?" "T!" "OK, finger Lisa and see if she's
idle." 4. Any picture (composed of ASCII characters) depicting
`the finger'. Originally a humorous component of one's plan file
to deter the curious fingerer (sense 2), it has entered the arsenal
of some {flamer}s.
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
Related:
- finger
[WAITS, via BSD Unix] 1. n. A program that displays
information about a particular user or all users logged on the
system, or a remote system.
Typically shows full name, last login time, idle time, terminal line, and terminal location (where applicable).... - plan file n.
[Unix] On systems that support finger, the
`.
plan' file in a user's home directory is displayed when the user is fingered.... - oot: [UNIX] n. 1. The {superuser} account (with user name
`root') that ignores permission bits, user number 0 on a UNIX
system.
The term {avatar} is also used. 2. The top node of the system directory structure (home directory of the root user).... - ark: [Lewis Carroll, via the Michigan Terminal System] n.
1. A system failure. When a user's process bombed, the operator would get the message "Help, Help, Snark in MTS!... - ITS /I-T-S/ n.
1. Incompatible Time-sharing System,
an influential though highly idiosyncratic operating system written
for PDP-6s and PDP-10s at MIT and long used at the MIT AI Lab.
Much AI-hacker jargon derives from ITS folklore, and to have been `an ITS hacker' qualifies one instantly as an old-timer of the most venerable sort.... - glitch: /glich/ [from German `glitschen' to slip, via Yiddish
`glitshen', to slide or skid] 1.
. A sudden interruption in electric service, sanity, continuity, or program function.... - EOF: /E-O-F/ [abbreviation, `End Of File'] n. 1. [techspeak] The
{out-of-band} value returned by C's sequential character-input
functions (and their equivalents in other environments) when end of
file has been reached.
This value is -1 under C libraries postdating V6 UNIX, but was originally 0.... - dot file: [UNIX] n. A file that is not visible by default to
normal directory-browsing tools (on UNIX
files named with a leading dot are, by convention, not normally presented in directory listings).... - oot n.
[Unix] 1. The superuser account (with user
name `root') that ignores permission bits, user number 0 on a
Unix system.
The term avatar is also used. 2. The top node of the system directory structure...
