The Jargon File, Version 2.9.10, 01 Jul 1992. Various

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       Satanic cow This cow is a Yuppie Cow in love

      Figure 4.

      :attoparsec: n. `atto-' is the standard SI prefix for multiplication by 10^(-18). A parsec (parallax-second) is 3.26 light-years; an attoparsec is thus 3.26 * 10^(-18) light years, or about 3.1 cm (thus, 1 attoparsec/{microfortnight} equals about 1 inch/sec). This unit is reported to be in use (though probably not very seriously) among hackers in the U.K. See {micro-}.

      :autobogotiphobia: /aw'to-boh-got`*-foh'bee-*/ n. See {bogotify}.

      :automagically: /aw-toh-maj'i-klee/ or /aw-toh-maj'i-k*l-ee/ adv. Automatically, but in a way that, for some reason (typically because it is too complicated, or too ugly, or perhaps even too trivial), the speaker doesn't feel like explaining to you. See {magic}. "The C-INTERCAL compiler generates C, then automagically invokes `cc(1)' to produce an executable."

      :avatar: [CMU, Tektronix] n. Syn. {root}, {superuser}. There are quite a few UNIX machines on which the name of the superuser account is `avatar' rather than `root'. This quirk was originated by a CMU hacker who disliked the term `superuser', and was propagated through an ex-CMU hacker at Tektronix.

      :awk: 1. n. [UNIX techspeak] An interpreted language for massaging text data developed by Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan (the name is from their initials). It is characterized by C-like syntax, a declaration-free approach to variable typing and declarations, associative arrays, and field-oriented text processing. See also {Perl}. 2. n. Editing term for an expression awkward to manipulate through normal {regexp} facilities (for example, one containing a {newline}). 3. vt. To process data using `awk(1)'.

      = B = =====

      :back door: n. A hole in the security of a system deliberately left in place by designers or maintainers. The motivation for this is not always sinister; some operating systems, for example, come out of the box with privileged accounts intended for use by field service technicians or the vendor's maintenance programmers.

      Historically, back doors have often lurked in systems longer than anyone expected or planned, and a few have become widely known. The infamous {RTM} worm of late 1988, for example, used a back door in the {BSD} UNIX `sendmail(8)' utility.

      Ken Thompson's 1983 Turing Award lecture to the ACM revealed the existence of a back door in early UNIX versions that may have qualified as the most fiendishly clever security hack of all time. The C compiler contained code that would recognize when the `login' command was being recompiled and insert some code recognizing a password chosen by Thompson, giving him entry to the system whether or not an account had been created for him.

      Normally such a back door could be removed by removing it from the source code for the compiler and recompiling the compiler. But to recompile the compiler, you have to *use* the compiler —- so Thompson also arranged that the compiler would *recognize when it was compiling a version of itself*, and insert into the recompiled compiler the code to insert into the recompiled `login' the code to allow Thompson entry —- and, of course, the code to recognize itself and do the whole thing again the next time around! And having done this once, he was then able to recompile the compiler from the original sources, leaving his back door in place and active but with no trace in the sources.

      The talk that revealed this truly moby hack was published as

       "Reflections on Trusting Trust", `Communications of the

       ACM 27', 8 (August 1984), pp. 761—763.

      Syn. {trap door}; may also be called a `wormhole'. See also

       {iron box}, {cracker}, {worm}, {logic bomb}.

      :backbone cabal: n. A group of large-site administrators who pushed

       through the {Great Renaming} and reined in the chaos of {USENET}

       during most of the 1980s. The cabal {mailing list} disbanded in

       late 1988 after a bitter internal catfight, but the net hardly

       noticed.

      :backbone site: n. A key USENET and email site; one that processes

       a large amount of third-party traffic, especially if it is the home

       site of any of the regional coordinators for the USENET maps.

       Notable backbone sites as of early 1991 include uunet and the

       mail machines at Rutgers University, UC Berkeley, DEC's Western

       Research Laboratories, Ohio State University, and the University of

       Texas. Compare {rib site}, {leaf site}.

      :backgammon:: See {bignum}, {moby}, and {pseudoprime}.

      :background: n.,adj.,vt. To do a task `in background' is to do it whenever {foreground} matters are not claiming your undivided attention, and `to background' something means to relegate it to a lower priority. "For now, we'll just print a list of nodes and links; I'm working on the graph-printing problem in background." Note that this implies ongoing activity but at a reduced level or in spare time, in contrast to mainstream `back burner' (which connotes benign neglect until some future resumption of activity). Some people prefer to use the term for processing that they have queued up for their unconscious minds (a tack that one can often fruitfully take upon encountering an obstacle in creative work). Compare {amp off}, {slopsucker}.

      Technically, a task running in background is detached from the terminal where it was started (and often running at a lower priority); oppose {foreground}. Nowadays this term is primarily associated with {{UNIX}}, but it appears to have been first used in this sense on OS/360.

      :backspace and overstrike: interj. Whoa! Back up. Used to suggest that someone just said or did something wrong. Common among APL programmers.

      :backward combatability: /bak'w*rd k*m-bat'*-bil'*-tee/ [from `backward compatibility'] n. A property of hardware or software revisions in which previous protocols, formats, and layouts are discarded in favor of `new and improved' protocols, formats, and layouts. Occurs usually when making the transition between major releases. When the change is so drastic that the old formats are not retained in the new version, it is said to be `backward combatable'. See {flag day}.

      :BAD: /B-A-D/ [IBM: acronym, `Broken As Designed'] adj. Said

       of a program that is {bogus} because of bad design and misfeatures

       rather than because of bugginess. See {working as designed}.

      :Bad Thing: [from the 1930 Sellar & Yeatman parody `1066 And

       All That'] n. Something that can't possibly result in improvement

       of the subject. This term is always capitalized, as in "Replacing

       all of the 9600-baud modems with bicycle couriers would be a Bad

       Thing". Oppose {Good Thing}. British correspondents confirm

       that {Bad Thing} and {Good Thing} (and prob. therefore {Right

       Thing} and {Wrong Thing}) come from the book referenced in the

       etymology, which discusses rulers who were Good Kings but Bad

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