:Great Worm, the: n. The 1988 Internet {worm} perpetrated by
{RTM}. This is a play on Tolkien (compare {elvish},
{elder days}). In the fantasy history of his Middle Earth
books, there were dragons powerful enough to lay waste to entire
regions; two of these (Scatha and Glaurung) were known as "the
Great Worms". This usage expresses the connotation that the RTM
hack was a sort of devastating watershed event in hackish history;
certainly it did more to make non-hackers nervous about the
Internet than anything before or since.
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
{RTM}. This is a play on Tolkien (compare {elvish},
{elder days}). In the fantasy history of his Middle Earth
books, there were dragons powerful enough to lay waste to entire
regions; two of these (Scatha and Glaurung) were known as "the
Great Worms". This usage expresses the connotation that the RTM
hack was a sort of devastating watershed event in hackish history;
certainly it did more to make non-hackers nervous about the
Internet than anything before or since.
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
Related:
- Great Worm n.
The 1988 Internet worm perpetrated
by RTM.
This is a play on Tolkien (compare elvish, elder... - worm: [from `tapeworm' in John Brunner's novel "The
Shockwave Rider",
via XEROX PARC] n. A program that propagates itself... - elder days: n. The heroic age of hackerdom (roughly,
pre-1980); the era of the {PDP-10}, {TECO}, {{ITS}}... - RTM: /R-T-M/ [USENET: abbreviation for `Read The Manual']
1.
Politer variant of {RTFM}. 2. Robert T. Morris Jr... - worm n.
[from `tapeworm' in John Brunner's novel
"The Shockwave Rider",
via XEROX PARC] A program that propagates itself... - RTM /R-T-M/
[Usenet: abbreviation for `Read The Manual']
1.
Politer variant of RTFM. 2. Robert Tappan Morris,... - moria: /mor'ee-*/ n. Like {nethack} and {rogue}, one of
the large PD Dungeons-and-Dragons-like simulation games,
available for a wide range of machines and operating... - security through obscurity
(alt. `security by obscurity')
A term applied by hackers to most OS vendors' favorite way of
coping with security holes -
namely, ignoring them, documenting neither any known... - bang: 1. n. Common spoken name for `!' (ASCII 0100001),
especially when used in pronouncing a {bang path} in...
