:Helen Keller mode: n. 1. State of a hardware or software system
that is deaf, dumb, and blind, i.e., accepting no input and
generating no output, usually due to an infinite loop or some other
excursion into {deep space}. (Unfair to the real Helen Keller,
whose success at learning speech was triumphant.) See also
{go flatline}, {catatonic}. 2. On IBM PCs under DOS, refers
to a specific failure mode in which a screen saver has kicked in
over an {ill-behaved} application which bypasses the very
interrupts the screen saver watches for activity. Your choices are
to try to get from the program's current state through a successful
save-and-exit without being able to see what you're doing, or to
re-boot the machine. This isn't (strictly speaking) a
crash.
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
that is deaf, dumb, and blind, i.e., accepting no input and
generating no output, usually due to an infinite loop or some other
excursion into {deep space}. (Unfair to the real Helen Keller,
whose success at learning speech was triumphant.) See also
{go flatline}, {catatonic}. 2. On IBM PCs under DOS, refers
to a specific failure mode in which a screen saver has kicked in
over an {ill-behaved} application which bypasses the very
interrupts the screen saver watches for activity. Your choices are
to try to get from the program's current state through a successful
save-and-exit without being able to see what you're doing, or to
re-boot the machine. This isn't (strictly speaking) a
crash.
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
Related:
- Helen Keller mode n.
1. State of a hardware or software
system that is deaf, dumb, and blind, i.
e., accepting no input and generating no output, usually due to an infinite loop or some other excursion into deep space.... - demo mode: [Sun] n. 1. The state of being {heads down} in order
to finish code in time for a {demo}, usually due yesterday.
2. A mode in which video games sit by themselves running through a portion of the game, also known as `attract mode'.... - demo mode n.
1. [Sun] The state of being heads down
in order to finish code in time for a demo, usually due
yesterday.
2. A mode in which video games sit by themselves running through a portion of the game, also known as `attract mode'.... - ill-behaved: adj. 1. [numerical analysis] Said of an algorithm or
computational method that tends to blow up because of accumulated
roundoff error or poor convergence properties.
2. Software that bypasses the defined {OS} interfaces to do things (like screen, keyboard, and disk I/O) itself, often in a way that depends on the hardware of the machine it is running on or which is nonportable or incompatible with other pieces of software.... - ill-behaved adj.
1. [numerical analysis] Said of an
algorithm or computational method that tends to blow up because of
accumulated roundoff error or poor convergence properties.
2. Software that bypasses the defined OS interfaces to do things (like screen, keyboard, and disk I/O) itself, often in a way that depends on the hardware of the machine it is running on or which is nonportable or incompatible with other pieces of software.... - boot v.,n.
[techspeak; from `by one's bootstraps'] To
load and initialize the operating system on a machine.
This usage is no longer jargon (having passed into techspeak) but has given rise to some derivatives that are still jargon.... - die: v. Syn. {crash}. Unlike {crash}, which is used
primarily of hardware, this verb is used of both hardware and
software.
See also {go flatline}, {casters-up mode}. -- The AI Hackers Dictionary... - wedged: adj. 1. To be stuck, incapable of proceeding without
help.
This is different from having crashed. If the system has crashed, it has become totally non-functioning.... - bare metal n.
1. [common] New computer hardware,
unadorned with such snares and delusions as an operating system, an
bit bashing needed to create these basic tools
for a new machine.
Real bare-metal programming involves things like building boot proms and BIOS chips, implementing basic monitors used to test device drivers, and writing the assemblers that will be used to write the compiler back ends that will give the new machine a real development environment....
