= R =
=====

   :rabbit job: n.  [Cambridge] A batch job that does little, if
any, real work, but creates one or more copies of itself, breeding
like rabbits.  Compare {wabbit}, {fork bomb}.

   :rain dance: n.  1. Any ceremonial action taken to correct a
hardware problem, with the expectation that nothing will be
accomplished.  This especially applies to reseating printed circuit
boards, reconnecting cables, etc.  "I can't boot up the machine.
We'll have to wait for Greg to do his rain dance."  2. Any arcane
sequence of actions performed with computers or software in order    to
achieve some goal; the term is usually restricted to rituals    that
include both an {incantation} or two and physical activity    or
motion.  Compare {magic}, {voodoo programming}, {black    art}, {cargo
cult programming}, {wave a dead chicken}; see    also {casting the
runes}.

   :rainbow series: n.  Any of several series of technical    manuals
distinguished by cover color.  The original rainbow series    was the
NCSC security manuals (see {Orange Book}, {crayola    books}); the term
has also been commonly applied to the PostScript    reference set (see
{Red Book}, {Green Book}, {Blue Book},    {White Book}).  Which books
are meant by "`the' rainbow    series" unqualified is thus dependent on
one's local technical    culture.

   :random: adj.  1. Unpredictable (closest to mathematical
definition); weird.  "The system's been behaving pretty    randomly."
2. Assorted; undistinguished.  "Who was at the    conference?"  "Just a
bunch of random business types."     3. (pejorative) Frivolous;
unproductive; undirected.  "He's just a    random loser."  4.
Incoherent or inelegant; poorly chosen; not    well organized.  "The
program has a random set of misfeatures."     "That's a random name for
that function."  "Well, all the names    were chosen pretty randomly."
5. In no particular order, though    deterministic.  "The I/O channels
are in a pool, and when a file    is opened one is chosen randomly."
6. Arbitrary.  "It generates    a random name for the scratch file."
7. Gratuitously wrong, i.e.,    poorly done and for no good apparent
reason.  For example, a    program that handles file name defaulting in
a particularly useless    way, or an assembler routine that could
easily have been coded    using only three registers, but redundantly
uses seven for values    with non-overlapping lifetimes, so that no one
else can invoke it    without first saving four extra registers.  What
{randomness}!     8. n. A random hacker; used particularly of
high-school    students who soak up computer time and generally get in
the way.     9. n.  Anyone who is not a hacker (or, sometimes, anyone
not known    to the hacker speaking); the noun form of sense 2.  "I
went to the    talk, but the audience was full of randoms asking bogus
 questions".  10. n. (occasional MIT usage) One who lives at    Random
Hall.  See also {J. Random}, {some random X}.     11. [UK]
Conversationally, a non sequitur or something similarly
out-of-the-blue. As in: "Stop being so random!"  This sense    equates
to `hatstand', taken from the Viz comic character "Roger    Irrelevant
- He's completely Hatstand."

   :random numbers:: n.  When one wishes to specify a large but
random number of things, and the context is inappropriate for    {N},
certain numbers are preferred by hacker tradition (that is,    easily
recognized as placeholders).  These include the following:

    17
          Long described at MIT as `the least random number'; see 23.

    23
          Sacred number of Eris, Goddess of Discord (along with 17 and
          5).

    42
          The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and
          Everything. (Note that this answer is completely fortuitous.
          `:-)')

    69
          From the sexual act.  This one was favored in MIT's ITS
          culture.

    105
          69 hex = 105 decimal, and 69 decimal = 105 octal.  Also, 105
          is 69 in base 42.

    666
          The Number of the Beast.

For further enlightenment, study the "Principia Discordia",    "{The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}", "The Joy    of Sex", and the
Christian Bible (Revelation 13:18).  See also    {Discordianism} or
consult your pineal gland.  See also {for    values of}.

   :randomness: n.  1. An inexplicable misfeature; gratuitous
inelegance.  2. A {hack} or {crock} that depends on a complex
combination of coincidences (or, possibly, the combination upon
which the crock depends for its accidental failure to malfunction).
"This hack can output characters 40-57 by putting the character    in
the four-bit accumulator field of an XCT and then extracting six
bits -- the low 2 bits of the XCT opcode are the right thing."
"What randomness!"  3. Of people, synonymous with `flakiness'.     The
connotation is that the person so described is behaving    weirdly,
incompetently, or inappropriately for reasons which are    (a) too
tiresome to bother inquiring into, (b) are probably as    inscrutable
as quantum phenomena anyway, and (c) are likely to pass    with time.
"Maybe he has a real complaint, or maybe it's just    randomness.  See
if he calls back."

   Despite the negative connotations jargon uses of this term have, it
 is worth noting that randomness can actually be a valuable
resource, very useful for applications in cryptography and
elsewhere.  Computers are so thoroughly deterministic that they    have
a hard time generating high-quality randomess, so hackers have
sometimes felt the need to built special-purpose contraptions for
this purpose alone.  One well-known website offers random bits
generated by radioactive decay (http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/).
Another derives random bits from    images of Lava Lite lamps
(http://lavarand.sgi.com/).     (Hackers invariably find the latter
hilarious.  If you have to ask    why, you'll never get it.)

   :rape: vt.  1. To {screw} someone or something, violently;    in
particular, to destroy a program or information irrecoverably.
Often used in describing file-system damage.  "So-and-so was    running
a program that did absolute disk I/O and ended up raping    the master
directory."  2. To strip a piece of hardware for parts.     3.
[CMU/Pitt] To mass-copy files from an anonymous ftp site.     "Last
night I raped Simtel's dskutl directory."

   :rare mode: adj.  [Unix] CBREAK mode (character-by-character    with
interrupts enabled).  Distinguished from {raw mode} and    {cooked
mode}; the phrase "a sort of half-cooked (rare?) mode"    is used in
the V7/BSD manuals to describe the mode.  Usage: rare.

   :raster blaster: n.  [Cambridge] Specialized hardware for
{bitblt} operations (a {blitter}).  Allegedly inspired by    `Rasta
Blasta', British slang for the sort of portable stereo    Americans
call a `boom box' or `ghetto blaster'.

   :raster burn: n.  Eyestrain brought on by too many hours of
looking at low-res, poorly tuned, or glare-ridden monitors, esp.
graphics monitors.  See {terminal illness}.

   :rasterbation: n.  [portmanteau: raster + masturbation]    The
gratuituous use of comuputer generated images and effects in    movies
and graphic art which would have been better without them.
Especially employed as a term of abuse by Photoshop/GIMP users and
graphic artists.

   :rat belt: n.  A cable tie, esp. the sawtoothed,    self-locking
plastic kind that you can remove only by cutting (as    opposed to a
random twist of wire or a twist tie or one of those    humongous metal
clip frobs).  Small cable ties are `mouse belts'.

   :rat dance: n.  [From the {Dilbert} comic strip of November    14,
1995] A {hacking run} that produces results which, while
superficially coherent, have little or nothing to do with its
original objectives.  There are strong connotations that the coding
process and the objectives themselves were pretty {random}.  (In    the
original comic strip, the Ratbert is invited to dance    on Dilbert's
keyboard in order to produce bugs for him to fix, and    authors a Web
browser instead.) Compare {Infinite-Monkey    Theorem}.

   This term seems to have become widely recognized quite rapidly
after the original strip, a fact which testifies to Dilbert's huge
popularity among hackers.  All too many find the perverse    incentives
and Kafkaesque atmosphere of Dilbert's mythical    workplace reflective
of their own experiences.

   :rave: vi.  [WPI] 1. To persist in discussing a specific    subject.
2. To speak authoritatively on a subject about which one    knows very
little.  3. To complain to a person who is not in a    position to
correct the difficulty.  4. To purposely annoy another    person
verbally.  5. To evangelize.  See {flame}.  6. Also used    to describe
a less negative form of blather, such as friendly    bullshitting.
`Rave' differs slightly from {flame} in that    `rave' implies that it
is the persistence or obliviousness of the    person speaking that is
annoying, while {flame} implies somewhat    more strongly that the tone
or content is offensive as well.

   :rave on!: imp.  Sarcastic invitation to continue a {rave},    often
by someone who wishes the raver would get a clue but realizes    this
is unlikely.

   :ravs: /ravz/, also `Chinese ravs' n.  Jiao-zi (steamed or
boiled) or Guo-tie (pan-fried).  A Chinese appetizer, known
variously in the plural as dumplings, pot stickers (the literal
translation of guo-tie), and (around Boston) `Peking Ravioli'.  The
term `rav' is short for `ravioli', and among hackers always    means
the Chinese kind rather than the Italian kind.  Both consist    of a
filling in a pasta shell, but the Chinese kind includes no    cheese,
uses a thinner pasta, has a pork-vegetable filling (good    ones
include Chinese chives), and is cooked differently, either by
steaming or frying.  A rav or dumpling can be cooked any way, but a
potsticker is always the fried kind (so called because it sticks to
the frying pot and has to be scraped off).  "Let's get    hot-and-sour
soup and three orders of ravs."  See also    {{oriental food}}.

   :raw mode: n.  A mode that allows a program to transfer bits
directly to or from an I/O device (or, under {bogus} systems    that
make a distinction, a disk file) without any processing,
abstraction, or interpretation by the operating system.  Compare
{rare mode}, {cooked mode}.  This is techspeak under Unix,    jargon
elsewhere.

   :RBL: /R-B-L/  Abbreviation: "Realtime Blackhole List". A    service
that allows people to blacklist sites for emitting    {spam}, and makes
the blacklist available in real time to    electronic-mail transport
programs that know how to use RBL so they    can filter out mail from
those sites.  Drastic but effective.     There is an RBL home page
(http://maps.vix.com/rbl/usage.html).

   :rc file: /R-C fi:l/ n.  [Unix: from `runcom files' on    the {CTSS}
system ca.1955, via the startup script    `/etc/rc'] Script file
containing startup instructions for an    application program (or an
entire operating system), usually a text    file containing commands of
the sort that might have been invoked    manually once the system was
running but are to be executed    automatically each time the system
starts up.  See also {dot    file}, {profile} (sense 1).

   :RE: /R-E/ n.  Common spoken and written shorthand for    {regexp}.

   :read-only user: n.  Describes a {luser} who uses computers
almost exclusively for reading Usenet, bulletin boards, and/or
email, rather than writing code or purveying useful information.
See {twink}, {terminal junkie}, {lurker}.

   :README file: n.  Hacker's-eye introduction traditionally
included in the top-level directory of a Unix source distribution,
containing a pointer to more detailed documentation, credits,
miscellaneous revision history, notes, etc.  (The file may be named
README, or READ.ME, or rarely ReadMe or readme.txt or some other
variant.)  In the Mac and PC worlds, software is not usually
distributed in source form, and the README is more likely to    contain
user-oriented material like last-minute documentation    changes, error
workarounds, and restrictions.  When asked, hackers    invariably
relate the README convention to the famous scene in    Lewis Carroll's
"Alice's Adventures In Wonderland" in which    Alice confronts magic
munchies labeled "Eat Me" and "Drink Me".

   :real: adj.  Not simulated.  Often used as a specific antonym    to
{virtual} in any of its jargon senses.

   :real estate: n.  May be used for any critical resource    measured
in units of area.  Most frequently used of `chip real    estate', the
area available for logic on the surface of an    integrated circuit
(see also {nanoacre}).  May also be used of    floor space in a
{dinosaur pen}, or even space on a crowded    desktop (whether physical
or electronic).

   :real hack: n.  A {crock}.  This is sometimes used
affectionately; see {hack}.

   :real operating system: n.  The sort the speaker is used to.
People from the BSDophilic academic community are likely to issue
comments like "System V?  Why don't you use a _real_    operating
system?", people from the commercial/industrial Unix    sector are
known to complain "BSD?  Why don't you use a    _real_ operating
system?", and people from IBM object    "Unix?  Why don't you use a
_real_ operating system?"  Only    {MS-DOS} is universally considered
unreal.  See {holy wars},    {religious issues}, {proprietary}, {Get a
real computer!}

   :Real Programmer: n.   [indirectly, from the book    "Real Men Don't
Eat Quiche"] A particular sub-variety of    hacker: one possessed of a
flippant attitude toward complexity that    is arrogant even when
justified by experience.  The archetypal    `Real Programmer' likes to
program on the {bare metal} and is    very good at same, remembers the
binary opcodes for every machine    he has ever programmed, thinks that
HLLs are sissy, and uses a    debugger to edit his code because
full-screen editors are for    wimps.  Real Programmers aren't
satisfied with code that hasn't    been {bum}med into a state of
{tense}ness just short of    rupture.  Real Programmers never use
comments or write    documentation: "If it was hard to write", says the
Real    Programmer, "it should be hard to understand."  Real Programmers
  can make machines do things that were never in their spec sheets;
in fact, they are seldom really happy unless doing so.  A Real
Programmer's code can awe with its fiendish brilliance, even as its
crockishness appalls.  Real Programmers live on junk food and
coffee, hang line-printer art on their walls, and terrify the crap
out of other programmers -- because someday, somebody else might
have to try to understand their code in order to change it.  Their
successors generally consider it a {Good Thing} that there    aren't
many Real Programmers around any more.  For a famous (and    somewhat
more positive) portrait of a Real Programmer, see    "{The Story of
Mel}" in Appendix A.  The term itself    was popularized by a 1983
Datamation article "Real    Programmers Don't Use Pascal" by Ed Post,
still circulating on    Usenet and Internet in on-line form.       You
can browse "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal" from the    Datamation
home page `http://www.datamation.com'.

   :Real Soon Now: adv.  [orig. from SF's fanzine community,
popularized by Jerry Pournelle's column in "BYTE"] 1. Supposed    to be
available (or fixed, or cheap, or whatever) real soon now    according
to somebody, but the speaker is quite skeptical.  2. When    one's
gods, fates, or other time commitments permit one to get to    it (in
other words, don't hold your breath).  Often abbreviated    RSN.
Compare {copious free time}.

   :real time:  1. [techspeak] adj. Describes an application    which
requires a program to respond to stimuli within some small    upper
limit of response time (typically milli- or microseconds).     Process
control at a chemical plant is the classic example.  Such
applications often require special operating systems (because
everything else must take a back seat to response time) and
speed-tuned hardware.  2. adv. In jargon, refers to doing something
while people are watching or waiting.  "I asked her how to find    the
calling procedure's program counter on the stack and she came    up
with an algorithm in real time."

   :real user: n.  1. A commercial user.  One who is paying    _real_
money for his computer usage.  2. A non-hacker.     Someone using the
system for an explicit purpose (a research    project, a course, etc.)
other than pure exploration.  See    {user}.  Hackers who are also
students may also be real users.     "I need this fixed so I can do a
problem set.  I'm not complaining    out of randomness, but as a real
user."  See also {luser}.

   :Real World: n.  1. Those institutions at which    `programming' may
be used in the same sentence as `FORTRAN',    `{COBOL}', `RPG',
`{IBM}', `DBASE', etc.  Places where    programs do such commercially
necessary but intellectually    uninspiring things as generating
payroll checks and invoices.     2. The location of non-programmers and
activities not related to    programming.  3. A bizarre dimension in
which the standard dress is    shirt and tie and in which a person's
working hours are defined as    9 to 5 (see {code grinder}).  4.
Anywhere outside a university.     "Poor fellow, he's left MIT and gone
into the Real World."  Used    pejoratively by those not in residence
there.  In conversation,    talking of someone who has entered the Real
World is not unlike    speaking of a deceased person.  It is also
noteworthy that on the    campus of Cambridge University in England,
there is a gaily-painted    lamp-post which bears the label `REALITY
CHECKPOINT'.  It marks the    boundary between university and the Real
World; check your notions    of reality before passing.  This joke is
funnier because the    Cambridge `campus' is actually coextensive with
the center of    Cambridge town.  See also {fear and loathing},
{mundane}, and    {uninteresting}.

   :reality check: n.  1. The simplest kind of test of software    or
hardware; doing the equivalent of asking it what 2 + 2 is    and seeing
if you get 4.  The software equivalent of a {smoke    test}.  2. The
act of letting a {real user} try out prototype    software.  Compare
{sanity check}.

   :reality-distortion field: n.  An expression used to    describe the
persuasive ability of managers like Steve Jobs (the    term originated
at Apple in the 1980s to describe his peculiar    charisma).  Those
close to these managers become passionately    committed to possibly
insane projects, without regard to the    practicality of their
implementation or competitive forces in the    marketpace.

   :reaper: n.  A {prowler} that {GFR}s files.  A file    removed in
this way is said to have been `reaped'.

   :recompile the world:  The surprisingly large amount of work    that
needs to be done as the result of any small but globally    visible
program change. "The world" may mean the entirety of some    huge
program, or may in theory refer to every program of a certain    class
in the entire known universe. For instance, "Add one #define    to
stdio.h, and you have to recompile the world." This means that    any
minor change to the standard-I/O header file theoretically    mandates
recompiling every C program in existence, even if only to    verify
that the change didn't screw something else up. In practice,    you may
not actually have to recompile the world, but the    implication is
that some human cleverness is required to figure out    what parts can
be safely left out.

   :rectangle slinger: n.  See {polygon pusher}.

   :recursion: n.  See {recursion}.  See also {tail    recursion}.

   :recursive acronym:: n.  A hackish (and especially MIT)    tradition
is to choose acronyms/abbreviations that refer humorously    to
themselves or to other acronyms/abbreviations.  The classic    examples
were two MIT editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not EMACS")    and ZWEI
("ZWEI Was EINE Initially").  More recently, there is a    Scheme
compiler called LIAR (Liar Imitates Apply Recursively), and    {GNU}
(q.v., sense 1) stands for "GNU's Not Unix!" -- and a    company with
the name Cygnus, which expands to "Cygnus, Your GNU    Support" (though
Cygnus people say this is a {backronym}).  See    also {mung}, {EMACS}.

   :Red Book: n.  1. Informal name for one of the three    standard
references on {{PostScript}} ("PostScript Language    Reference
Manual", Adobe Systems (Addison-Wesley, 1985;    QA76.73.P67P67; ISBN
0-201-10174-2, or the 1990 second edition ISBN    0-201-18127-4); the
others are known as the {Green Book}, the    {Blue Book}, and the
{White Book} (sense 2).  2. Informal    name for one of the 3 standard
references on Smalltalk    ("Smalltalk-80: The Interactive Programming
Environment" by    Adele Goldberg (Addison-Wesley, 1984;
QA76.8.S635G638; ISBN    0-201-11372-4); this too is associated with
blue and green books).     3. Any of the 1984 standards issued by the
CCITT eighth plenary    assembly.  These include, among other things,
the X.400 email spec    and the Group 1 through 4 fax standards.  4.
The new version of the    {Green Book} (sense 4) -- IEEE 1003.1-1990,
a.k.a ISO 9945-1    -- is (because of the color and the fact that it is
printed on A4    paper) known in the USA as "the Ugly Red Book That
Won't Fit On    The Shelf" and in Europe as "the Ugly Red Book That's A
Sensible    Size".  5. The NSA "Trusted Network Interpretation"
companion    to the {Orange Book}.  6. Nemeth, Snyder, Seebass, Hein;
"Unix System Administration Handbook, Second Edition"    (Prentice
Hall PTR, New Jersey; 1995; QA76.76.063N45; ISBN    0-13-151051-7).
See also {{book titles}}.

   :red wire: n.  [IBM] Patch wires installed by programmers who have
no business mucking with the hardware.  It is said that the only
thing more dangerous than a hardware guy with a code patch is a
{softy} with a soldering iron....  Compare {blue wire},    {yellow
wire}, {purple wire}.

   :regexp: /reg'eksp/ n.  [Unix] (alt. `regex' or `reg-ex')    1.
Common written and spoken abbreviation for `regular    expression', one
of the wildcard patterns used, e.g., by Unix    utilities such as
`grep(1)', `sed(1)', and `awk(1)'.     These use conventions similar to
but more elaborate than those    described under {glob}.  For purposes
of this lexicon, it is    sufficient to note that regexps also allow
complemented character    sets using `^'; thus, one can specify `any
non-alphabetic    character' with `[^A-Za-z]'.  2. Name of a well-known
PD    regexp-handling package in portable C, written by revered
Usenetter    Henry Spencer <<henry@zoo.toronto.edu>>.

   :register dancing: n.  Many older processor architectures    suffer
from a serious shortage of general-purpose registers.  This    is
especially a problem for compiler-writers, because their    generated
code needs places to store temporaries for things like    intermediate
values in expression evaluation.  Some designs with    this problem,
like the Intel 80x86, do have a handful of    special-purpose registers
that can be pressed into service,    providing suitable care is taken
to avoid unpleasant side effects    on the state of the processor:
while the special-purpose register    is being used to hold an
intermediate value, a delicate minuet is    required in which the
previous value of the register is saved and    then restored just
before the official function (and value) of the    special-purpose
register is again needed.

   :rehi:  [IRC, MUD] "Hello again." Very commonly used to greet
people upon returning to an IRC channel after {channel    hopping}.

   :reincarnation, cycle of: n.  See {cycle of reincarnation}.

   :reinvent the wheel: v.  To design or implement a tool    equivalent
to an existing one or part of one, with the implication    that doing
so is silly or a waste of time.  This is often a valid    criticism.
On the other hand, automobiles don't use wooden    rollers, and some
kinds of wheel have to be reinvented many times    before you get them
right.  On the third hand, people reinventing    the wheel do tend to
come up with the moral equivalent of a    trapezoid with an offset
axle.

   :relay rape: n.  The hijacking of a third party's    unsecured mail
server to deliver {spam}.

   :religion of CHI: /ki:/ n.  [Case Western Reserve    University] Yet
another hackish parody religion (see also    {Church of the SubGenius},
{Discordianism}).  In the mid-70s,    the canonical "Introduction to
Programming" courses at CWRU were    taught in Algol, and student
exercises were punched on cards and    run on a Univac 1108 system
using a homebrew operating system named    CHI.  The religion had no
doctrines and but one ritual: whenever    the worshipper noted that a
digital clock read 11:08, he or she    would recite the phrase "It is
11:08; ABS, ALPHABETIC, ARCSIN,    ARCCOS, ARCTAN."  The last five
words were the first five    functions in the appropriate chapter of
the Algol manual; note the    special pronunciations /obz/ and
/ark'sin/ rather than the more    common /ahbz/ and /ark'si:n/.  Using
an alarm clock to warn of    11:08's arrival was {considered harmful}.

   :religious issues: n.  Questions which seemingly cannot be    raised
without touching off {holy wars}, such as "What is the    best
operating system (or editor, language, architecture, shell,    mail
reader, news reader)?", "What about that Heinlein guy,    eh?", "What
should we add to the new Jargon File?"  See    {holy wars}; see also
{theology}, {bigot}.

   This term is a prime example of {ha ha only serious}.  People
actually develop the most amazing and religiously intense
attachments to their tools, even when the tools are intangible.     The
most constructive thing one can do when one stumbles into the
crossfire is mumble {Get a life!} and leave -- unless, of course,
one's _own_ unassailably rational and obviously correct    choices are
being slammed.

   :replicator: n.  Any construct that acts to produce copies of
itself; this could be a living organism, an idea (see {meme}), a
program (see {quine}, {worm}, {wabbit}, {fork bomb},    and {virus}), a
pattern in a cellular automaton (see {life},    sense 1), or
(speculatively) a robot or {nanobot}.  It is even    claimed by some
that {{Unix}} and {C} are the symbiotic halves    of an extremely
successful replicator; see {Unix conspiracy}.

   :reply: n.  See {followup}.

   :restriction: n.  A {bug} or design error that limits a    program's
capabilities, and which is sufficiently egregious that    nobody can
quite work up enough nerve to describe it as a    {feature}.  Often
used (esp. by {marketroid} types) to make    it sound as though some
crippling bogosity had been intended by the    designers all along, or
was forced upon them by arcane technical    constraints of a nature no
mere user could possibly comprehend    (these claims are almost
invariably false).

   Old-time hacker Joseph M. Newcomer advises that whenever choosing a
 quantifiable but arbitrary restriction, you should make it either a
power of 2 or a power of 2 minus 1.  If you impose a limit of    107
items in a list, everyone will know it is a random number -- on    the
other hand, a limit of 15 or 16 suggests some deep reason    (involving
0- or 1-based indexing in binary) and you will get less    {flamage}
for it.  Limits which are round numbers in base 10 are    always
especially suspect.

   :retcon: /ret'kon/  [short for `retroactive continuity',    from the
Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.comics] 1. n. The common    situation in pulp
fiction (esp. comics or soap operas) where a    new story `reveals'
things about events in previous stories,    usually leaving the `facts'
the same (thus preserving    continuity) while completely changing
their interpretation.  For    example, revealing that a whole season of
"Dallas" was a    dream was a retcon.  2. vt. To write such a story
about a character    or fictitious object.  "Byrne has retconned
Superman's cape so    that it is no longer unbreakable."  "Marvelman's
old adventures    were retconned into synthetic dreams."  "Swamp Thing
was    retconned from a transformed person into a sentient vegetable."
  "Darth Vader was retconned into Luke Skywalker's father in    "The
Empire Strikes Back".

   [This term is included because it is a good example of hackish
linguistic innovation in a field completely unrelated to computers.
The word `retcon' will probably spread through comics fandom and
lose its association with hackerdom within a couple of years; for
the record, it started here. --ESR]

   [1993 update: some comics fans on the net now claim that retcon was
 independently in use in comics fandom before rec.arts.comics.     In
lexicography, nothing is ever simple. --ESR]

   :RETI: v.  Syn. {RTI}

   :retrocomputing: /ret'-roh-k*m-pyoo'ting/ n.  Refers to
emulations of way-behind-the-state-of-the-art hardware or software,
or implementations of never-was-state-of-the-art; esp. if such
implementations are elaborate practical jokes and/or parodies,
written mostly for {hack value}, of more `serious' designs.     Perhaps
the most widely distributed retrocomputing utility was the    `pnch(6)'
or `bcd(6)' program on V7 and other early Unix    versions, which would
accept up to 80 characters of text argument    and display the
corresponding pattern in {{punched card}} code.     Other well-known
retrocomputing hacks have included the programming    language
{INTERCAL}, a {JCL}-emulating shell for Unix, the
card-punch-emulating editor named 029, and various elaborate PDP-11
hardware emulators and RT-11 OS emulators written just to keep an
old, sourceless {Zork} binary running.

   A tasty selection of retrocomputing programs are made available at
the Retrocomputing Museum, `http://www.ccil.org/retro'.

   :return from the dead: v.  To regain access to the net after a
long absence.  Compare {person of no account}.

   :RFC: /R-F-C/ n.  [Request For Comment] One of a    long-established
series of numbered Internet informational    documents and standards
widely followed by commercial software and    freeware in the Internet
and Unix communities.  Perhaps the single    most influential one has
been RFC-822 (the Internet mail-format    standard).  The RFCs are
unusual in that they are floated by    technical experts acting on
their own initiative and reviewed by    the Internet at large, rather
than formally promulgated through an    institution such as ANSI.  For
this reason, they remain known as    RFCs even once adopted as
standards.

   The RFC tradition of pragmatic, experience-driven, after-the-fact
standard writing done by individuals or small working groups has
important advantages over the more formal, committee-driven process
typical of ANSI or ISO.  Emblematic of some of these advantages is
the existence of a flourishing tradition of `joke' RFCs; usually    at
least one a year is published, usually on April 1st.  Well-known
joke RFCs have included 527 ("ARPAWOCKY", R. Merryman, UCSD; 22    June
1973), 748 ("Telnet Randomly-Lose Option", Mark R. Crispin;    1 April
1978), and 1149 ("A Standard for the Transmission of IP    Datagrams on
Avian Carriers", D. Waitzman, BBN STC; 1 April    1990).  The first was
a Lewis Carroll pastiche; the second a parody    of the TCP-IP
documentation style, and the third a deadpan    skewering of
standards-document legalese, describing protocols for    transmitting
Internet data packets by carrier pigeon.

   The RFCs are most remarkable for how well they work -- they manage
to have neither the ambiguities that are usually rife in informal
specifications, nor the committee-perpetrated misfeatures that    often
haunt formal standards, and they define a network that has    grown to
truly worldwide proportions.

   :RFE: /R-F-E/ n.  1. [techspeak] Request For Enhancement    (compare
{RFC}).  2. [from `Radio Free Europe', Bellcore and    Sun] Radio Free
Ethernet, a system (originated by Peter Langston)    for broadcasting
audio among Sun SPARCstations over the ethernet.

   :rib site: n.  [by analogy with {backbone site}] A machine    that
has an on-demand high-speed link to a {backbone site} and    serves as
a regional distribution point for lots of third-party    traffic in
email and Usenet news.  Compare {leaf site},    {backbone site}.

   :rice box: n.  [from ham radio slang] Any Asian-made commodity
computer, esp. an 80x86-based machine built to IBM PC-compatible    ISA
or EISA-bus standards.

   :Right Thing: n.  That which is _compellingly_ the    correct or
appropriate thing to use, do, say, etc.  Often    capitalized, always
emphasized in speech as though capitalized.     Use of this term often
implies that in fact reasonable people may    disagree.  "What's the
right thing for LISP to do when it sees    `(mod a 0)'?  Should it
return `a', or give a divide-by-0    error?"  Oppose {Wrong Thing}.

   :rip: v.  To extract the digital representation of a piece of
music from an audio CD. Software that does this is often called a
"CD ripper".

   :ripoff: n.  Synonym for {chad}, sense 1.

   :RL: // n.  [MUD community] Real Life.  "Firiss laughs in    RL"
means that Firiss's player is laughing.  Oppose {VR}.

   :roach: vt.  [Bell Labs] To destroy, esp. of a data    structure.
Hardware gets {toast}ed or {fried}, software gets    roached.

   :robocanceller: /roh-boh-kan'sel-*r/  A program that    monitors
Usenet feeds, attempting to detect and elimnate {spam}    by sending
appropriate cancel messages .  Robocancellers may use    the {Breidbart
Index} as a trigger.  Programming them is not a    game for amateurs;
see {ARMM}. See also {Dave the    Resurrector}.

   :robot: n.  See {bot}.

   :robust: adj.  Said of a system that has demonstrated an    ability
to recover gracefully from the whole range of exceptional    inputs and
situations in a given environment.  One step below    {bulletproof}.
Carries the additional connotation of elegance    in addition to just
careful attention to detail.  Compare    {smart}, oppose {brittle}.

   :rococo: adj.  Terminally {baroque}.  Used to imply that a
program has become so encrusted with the software equivalent of    gold
leaf and curlicues that they have completely swamped the    underlying
design.  Called after the later and more extreme forms    of Baroque
architecture and decoration prevalent during the    mid-1700s in
Europe.  Alan Perlis said: "Every program eventually    becomes rococo,
and then rubble."  Compare {critical mass}.

   :rogue:  1. [Unix] n. A Dungeons-and-Dragons-like game    using
character graphics, written under BSD Unix and subsequently    ported
to other Unix systems.  The original BSD `curses(3)'    screen-handling
package was hacked together by Ken Arnold primarily    to support
games, and the development of `rogue(6)'    popularized its use; it has
since become one of Unix's most    important and heavily used
application libraries.  Nethack, Omega,    Larn, Angband, and an entire
subgenre of computer dungeon games all    took off from the inspiration
provided by `rogue(6)'; the    popular Windows game Diablo, though
graphics-intensive, has very    similar play logic.  See also
{nethack}.  2. [Usenet] adj.     An {ISP} which permits net abuse
(usually in the form of    {spam}ming) by its customers, or which
itself engages in such    activities.  Rogue ISPs are sometimes subject
to {IDP}s or    {UDP}s.  Sometimes deliberately mispelled as "rouge".

   :room-temperature IQ: quant.  [IBM] 80 or below (nominal room
temperature is 72 degrees Fahrenheit, 22 degrees Celsius).  Used in
describing the expected intelligence range of the {luser}.     "Well,
but how's this interface going to play with the    room-temperature IQ
crowd?"  See {drool-proof paper}.  This is    a much more insulting
phrase in countries that use Celsius    thermometers.

   :root: 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; historically the home directory    of the
root user, but probably named after the root of an    (inverted) tree.
3. By extension, the privileged    system-maintenance login on any OS.
See {root mode}, {go    root}, see also {wheel}.

   :root mode: n.  Syn. with {wizard mode} or `wheel mode'.     Like
these, it is often generalized to describe privileged states    in
systems other than OSes.

   :rot13: /rot ther'teen/ n.,v.  [Usenet: from `rotate    alphabet 13
places'] The simple Caesar-cypher encryption that    replaces each
English letter with the one 13 places forward or back    along the
alphabet, so that "The butler did it!" becomes "Gur    ohgyre qvq vg!"
Most Usenet news reading and posting programs    include a rot13
feature.  It is used to enclose the text in a    sealed wrapper that
the reader must choose to open -- e.g., for    posting things that
might offend some readers, or {spoiler}s.  A    major advantage of
rot13 over rot(N) for other N is    that it is self-inverse, so the
same code can be used for encoding    and decoding.

   :rotary debugger: n.  [Commodore] Essential equipment for    those
late-night or early-morning debugging sessions.  Mainly used    as
sustenance for the hacker.  Comes in many decorator colors, such    as
Sausage, Pepperoni, and Garbage.  See {ANSI standard pizza}.

   :round tape: n.  Industry-standard 1/2-inch magnetic tape (7-    or
9-track) on traditional circular reels.  See {macrotape},    oppose
{square tape}.

   :RSN: /R-S-N/ adj.  See {Real Soon Now}.

   :RTBM: /R-T-B-M/ imp.  [Unix] Commonwealth Hackish variant    of
{RTFM}; expands to `Read The Bloody Manual'.  RTBM is often    the
entire text of the first reply to a question from a    {newbie}; the
_second_ would escalate to "RTFM".

   :RTFAQ: /R-T-F-A-Q/ imp.  [Usenet: primarily written, by    analogy
with {RTFM}] Abbrev. for `Read the FAQ!', an    exhortation that the
person addressed ought to read the newsgroup's    {FAQ list} before
posting questions.

   :RTFB: /R-T-F-B/ imp.  [Unix] Abbreviation for `Read The Fucking
Binary'.  Used when neither documentation nor source for the    problem
at hand exists, and the only thing to do is use some    debugger or
monitor and directly analyze the assembler or even the    machine code.
"No source for the buggy port driver?  Aaargh! I    _hate_ proprietary
operating systems.  Time to RTFB."

   Of the various RTF? forms, `RTFB' is the least pejorative against
anyone asking a question for which RTFB is the answer; the anger
here is directed at the absence of both source _and_ adequate
documentation.

   :RTFM: /R-T-F-M/ imp.  [Unix] Abbreviation for `Read The    Fucking
Manual'.  1. Used by {guru}s to brush off questions they    consider
trivial or annoying.  Compare {Don't do that then!}.     2. Used when
reporting a problem to indicate that you aren't just    asking out of
{randomness}.  "No, I can't figure out how to    interface Unix to my
toaster, and yes, I have RTFM."  Unlike    sense 1, this use is
considered polite.  See also {FM},    {RTFAQ}, {RTFB}, {RTFS}, {STFW},
{RTM}, all of which    mutated from RTFM, and compare {UTSL}.

   :RTFS: /R-T-F-S/  [Unix] 1. imp. Abbreviation for `Read The
Fucking Source'.  Variant form of {RTFM}, used when the problem    at
hand is not necessarily obvious and not answerable from the    manuals
-- or the manuals are not yet written and maybe never will    be.  For
even trickier situations, see {RTFB}.  Unlike RTFM, the    anger
inherent in RTFS is not usually directed at the person asking    the
question, but rather at the people who failed to provide    adequate
documentation.  2. imp. `Read The Fucking Standard'; this    oath can
only be used when the problem area (e.g., a language or    operating
system interface) has actually been codified in a    ratified standards
document.  The existence of these standards    documents (and the
technically inappropriate but politically    mandated compromises that
they inevitably contain, and the    impenetrable {legalese} in which
they are invariably written,    and the unbelievably tedious
bureaucratic process by which they are    produced) can be unnerving to
hackers, who are used to a certain    amount of ambiguity in the
specifications of the systems they use.     (Hackers feel that such
ambiguities are acceptable as long as the    {Right Thing} to do is
obvious to any thinking observer; sadly,    this casual attitude
towards specifications becomes unworkable when    a system becomes
popular in the {Real World}.)  Since a hacker    is likely to feel that
a standards document is both unnecessary and    technically deficient,
the deprecation inherent in this term may be    directed as much
against the standard as against the person who    ought to read it.

   :RTI: /R-T-I/ interj.  The mnemonic for the `return from
interrupt' instruction on many computers including the 6502 and
6800.  The variant `RETI' is found among former Z80 hackers    (almost
nobody programs these things in assembler anymore).     Equivalent to
"Now, where was I?" or used to end a    conversational digression.  See
{pop}; see also {POPJ}.

   :RTM: /R-T-M/  [Usenet: abbreviation for `Read The Manual']    1.
Politer variant of {RTFM}.  2. Robert Tappan Morris,    perpetrator of
the great Internet worm of 1988 (see {Great    Worm}); villain to many,
naive hacker gone wrong to a few.  Morris    claimed that the worm that
brought the Internet to its knees was a    benign experiment that got
out of control as the result of a coding    error.  After the storm of
negative publicity that followed this    blunder, Morris's username on
ITS was hacked from RTM to    {RTFM}.

   :RTS: /R-T-S/ imp.  Abbreviation for `Read The Screen'.  Mainly
used by hackers in the microcomputer world.  Refers to what one
would like to tell the {suit} one is forced to explain an    extremely
simple application to.  Particularly appropriate when the    suit
failed to notice the `Press any key to continue' prompt, and    wishes
to know `why won't it do anything'.  Also seen as `RTFS' in
especially deserving cases.

   :rude: [WPI] adj.  1. (of a program) Badly written.     2.
Functionally poor, e.g., a program that is very difficult to use
because of gratuitously poor (random?) design decisions.  Oppose
{cuspy}.  3. Anything that manipulates a shared resource without
regard for its other users in such a way as to cause a (non-fatal)
problem.  Examples: programs that change tty modes without    resetting
them on exit, or windowing programs that keep forcing    themselves to
the top of the window stack.  Compare    {all-elbows}.

   :runes: pl.n.  1. Anything that requires {heavy wizardry}    or
{black art} to {parse}: core dumps, JCL commands, APL, or    code in a
language you haven't a clue how to read.  Not quite as    bad as {line
noise}, but close.  Compare {casting the runes},    {Great Runes}.  2.
Special display characters (for example, the    high-half graphics on
an IBM PC).  3. [borderline techspeak]    16-bit characters from the
Unicode multilingual character set.

   :runic: adj.  Syn. {obscure}.  VMS fans sometimes refer to    Unix
as `Runix'; Unix fans return the compliment by expanding VMS    to
`Very Messy Syntax' or `Vachement Mauvais Syste`me' (French    idiom,
"Hugely Bad System").

   :rusty iron: n.  Syn. {tired iron}.  It has been claimed    that
this is the inevitable fate of {water MIPS}.

   :rusty memory: n.  Mass-storage that uses iron-oxide-based
magnetic media (esp. tape and the pre-Winchester removable disk
packs used in {washing machine}s).  Compare {donuts}.

   :rusty wire: n.  [Amateur Packet Radio] Any very noisy network
medium, in which the packets are subject to frequent corruption.
Most prevalent in reference to wireless links subject to all the
vagaries of RF noise and marginal propagation conditions. "Yes,    but
how good is your whizbang new protocol on really rusty    wire?".

