admin (n) ['administrator']: Commonly used in speech or on-line to refer to the systems person in charge on a computer or network. Common constructions on this include 'sysadmin' and 'site admin' (emphasizing the administrator's role as a site contact for email and news) or 'newsadmin' (focusing specifically on news).

akimbo (adj) /1: To be holding two guns, one in each hand. /2: To be holding two of any object or person, one in each hand.

aleph (adj) [Heb] /1: A point or state where an infinite amount of information is stored and processed. /2 (n): The prefix for a level of transfinity.

alpha (adj): The first playable version of a videogame. Alpha software generally barely runs and is missing major features like gameplay and complete levels.

alpha geek (n) ['alpha male']: The most technically accomplished or skillful person in some implied context. "Ask Larry, he's the alpha geek here."

alphanumeric (adj) /1: Characters which consist of letters, numbers, punctuation, and symbols found on a standard keyboard. /2 [ReBoot]: Awesome or cool.

alternateen (n): Teenybopper kids who listen to alternative music and try to be different by looking identical to other trend-following teenagers who are trying to be different. Usually used in reference to the kids who listen to Top 40 bands like Pearl Jam or U2 that are classified as alternative for some reason.

ambimouseterous (adj) ['ambidextrous']: Able to use a mouse with either hand.

amecomi (n) ["american comics"]: Variously describes any comic originating in the West; the short 20-40 page booklet or 'comic book' format of Western comics; and the styles and graphic devices popularly ascribed to them. The word 'manga' is never used to describe any of these.

analog (adj) /1: A way of representing information (such as the position of a joystick or the height of a soundwave) that uses a continuous range of values. /2: Out of date. "Bob's SUV is so analog. When's he gonna get a new car?"

anime (n) [fr]: A French word which has been adopted by the Japanese. It translates to "Animation" and in Japan it’s used in reference to any form of animation, be it traditional hand drawn cell animation, stop-motion animation, or the latest CGI techniques. In fandom outside of Japan it is usually used to refer to the distinct style of hand drawn animation produced in Japan.

anorak (n) [brit]: An often socially inept person with little or no fashion sense, and erring towards eccentricity. Originates from the 'trainspotter' look, of wearing anoraks; spending so much time at the end of station platforms in all weathers necessitates the wearing of such attire.

arcade (n): A place where one can play coin-operation amusement machines, from videogames to pinball to redemption machines which dispense tickets that can be traded in for prizes.

arcade conversion (n): An arcade facsimile found on home systems. These games are rarely straight conversions because, despite the claims of every home-system manufacturer, arcade systems are usually one or two steps beyond home systems in terms of resolution, speed and graphic power.

arcade game (n): A coin-operated videogame.

arcade perfect (adj): A term used to describe a flawless conversion of an arcade game to a home system.

Area 51 /1 (n): Part of an off-limits military base near Groom Dry Lake in Nevada. UFOers are sure it is used to hide aliens from the public. The state of Nevada recently designated a barren 98-mile stretch of Route 375, which runs near Area 51, as the Extraterrestrial Highway. /2 (adj): An inaccessable club or unapparoachable person. "That place is so Area 51. You couldn't get in there if you owned the place."

away team (n) [Star Trek] /1: Starfleet term for a specialized squad of personnel sent on assignment away from their ship, such as landing on a planet's surface. /2: A group of marketers and producers at Sega who spearheaded the introduction of the Saturn into the US market.

baby bat (n): A derogatory term for those wannabe Gothics who are only familiar with the superficial aspects of the culture. They may do their makeup horribly and only listen to the most popular of the goth bands. They are mostly the younger kids going through a phase and trying to look cool. However people tend to fling this label at anyone they don't like. A lot of people prefer not to use the label because it implies a "more gothic than thou" attitude.

bambification (n) [Douglas Coupland, Generation X, 1992]: The mental conversion of flesh and blood living creatures into cartoon characters possessing bourgeois Judeo-Christian attitudes and morals.

Barbie blog (n): A blog which portrays an individual's life but would only be of interest to the person's immediate circle of friends.

Bardic Circle (n): Filk song organizational rules whereby participants sit in a circle and take turns. Turns pass sequentially along the ring with each person given the choice to perform, pick someone else to perform, or pass.

beta (adj): Software nearing the release stage of development that still contains bugs or other problems. At the beta stage, software is stable enough to distribute to reviewers and to show retailers- all the final play elements should be in place.

BFG (n) ["Big F-cking Gun"] /1: An oversized and ridiculously powerful weapon or tool. /2: The last weapon one could acquire in Id Software's Doom games. When fired, it emitted a badly pixilated burst of green energy which caused enemies within range to implode.

Big Three (n): Collective term for the three largest comic book publishers- Marvel, DC, and Image.

bionics (n) /1: The science of connecting biological systems to artifical organs, or other systems. /2: An attempt to develop better machines through understanding of biological design principles or imitation of biology.

black dens (n) [Douglas Coupland, Generation X, 1992]: Where Black Holes live; often unheated warehouses with Day-Glo spray painting, mutilated mannequins, Elvis references, dozens of overflowing ashtrays, broken mirror sculptures, and Velvet Underground music playing in background.

black holes (n) [Douglas Coupland, Generation X, 1992]: An X generation subgroup best known for their possession of almost entirely black wardrobes.

blog ["weblog"] /1 (n): A online journal or diary, updated regularly and available for public view. /2 (v): To have an online journal or write in it.

blue badge (n): Synonym for full-time Microsoft employees, the Brahmins of the deeply ingrained Microsoft caste system, whose card keys have a blue background rather than the orange used for contractors and green for vendors.

Blue Screen of Death (n) [Jargon File 4.2.2]: This term is closely related to the older Black Screen of Death but much more common (many non-hackers have picked it up). Due to the extreme fragility and bugginess of Microsoft Windows misbehaving applications can readily crash the OS (and the OS sometimes crashes itself spontaneously). The Blue Screen of Death, sometimes decorated with hex error codes, is what you get when this happens. (Commonly abbreviated BSOD.)

Blues Brothers Rule (n): In role-playing videogames, the heroes are always right, no matter what they do. Whatever side the heroes are on is the good side.

Bombaholic (n): One who is addicted to the videogame Super Bomberman 2.

bonus level (n): A level or stage in a videogame where the character can not be hurt, but can gain special items like free guys, power-ups or extra points. Typically bonus levels are either hidden and require discovery or appear after a certain number of regular levels have been completed.

Borgware (n) ["Star Trek: The Next Generation"]: Software which, once installed, requires the use of other products by the same company. It may shock some people to learn that Microsoft produces such software. For example: if you decide to write on-line apps using MS asp, you must then use an MS server or your apps won't run. All will be assimilated.

boss (n): Any larger, more powerful and more difficult to defeat enemy encounted in a game. A typical boss is a singular enemy fought only once, usually at or near the end of a level or stage. In some games it may be encountered several times, but may be more powerful and difficult to defeat each time. If the same boss is encountered multiple times, it generally requires a different strategy to defeat each time.

Boswell blog (n) [James Boswell]: A blog which portrays a street-level account of an individual life.

bread and circuits (n) [Douglas Coupland, Generation X, 1992]: The electronic era tendency to view party politics as corny-no longer relevant or meaningful or useful to modern societal issues, and in many cases dangerous.

buff (n): A person possessing a knowledgable interest in something that is accepted as part of society but of which more extensive knowledge of the subject is largely obscure and unneccessary.

Buffy (n) ["Buffy the Vampire Slayer"]: A muscular female. "Buffy over there could kick your ass."

bug-compatible (adj) [Jargon File 3.0]: Said of a design or revision that has been badly compromised by a requirement to be compatible with fossils or misfeatures in other programs or previous releases of itself.

campus (n) /1: The grounds and buildings of a university, college, or school. /2: A university, college, or school viewed as an academic, social, or spiritual entity. /3: A physically contiguous association of locations such as several adjacent office buildings. Typically, such areas require one or more local area networks and bridging, routing, and aggregation equipment based on situational needs.

canon (n) /1: The authentic works of a writer. /2: A sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works. /3: An accepted principle, rule, criterion, or standard of judgment; the body of principles, rules, standards, and norms.

Charlie Brown Karma (n): A destiny in which the possessor is fated to fail in most things they undertake. The results are often incredibly ironic, and occasionally the cause will be their own or another's stupidity.

cheats (n): Codes or tricks that are programmed into a videogame which give the player special abilities, like invulnerability or extra weapons. Cheats are often programmed into games to facilitate easy testing, and left in to add depth. Many magazines print cheats for games that they have discovered.

Church of the SubGenius (n): A mutant offshoot of Discordianism launched in 1981 as a spoof of fundamentalist Christianity by the 'Reverend' Ivan Stang, a brilliant satirist with a gift for promotion. Popular among hackers as a rich source of bizarre imagery and references such as 'Bob' the divine drilling-equipment salesman, the Benevolent Space Xists, and the Stark Fist of Removal. Much SubGenius theory is concerned with the acquisition of the mystical substance or quality of slack.

clustergeek (v) [Carnegie Mellon University]: To spend more time at a computer cluster doing CS homework than most people spend breathing.

coaster (n): A CD-ROM which is so terrible that it has more functionality as a coaster for drinks than it does when inserted into a computer or game system.

code grinder (n) /1: A suit-wearing minion of the type hired in legion strength by banks and insurance companies to implement payroll packages in RPG and other such unspeakable horrors. In its native habitat, the code grinder often removes the suit jacket to reveal an underplumage consisting of button-down shirt (starch optional) and a tie. In times of dire stress, the sleeves (if long) may be rolled up and the tie loosened about half an inch. It seldom helps. The code grinder's milieu is about as far from hackerdom as one can get and still touch a computer; the term connotes pity. /2: Used of or to a hacker, a really serious slur on the person's creative ability; connotes a design style characterized by primitive technique, rule-boundedness, brute force, and utter lack of imagination.

code police (n) [George Orwell's 'thought police']: A mythical team of Gestapo-like storm troopers that might burst into one's office and arrest one for violating programming style rules. May be used either seriously, to underline a claim that a particular style violation is dangerous, or ironically, to suggest that the practice under discussion is condemned mainly by anal-retentive weenies. "Dike out that goto or the code police will get you!" The ironic usage is perhaps more common.

comiket (n) ["comic market"]: Japan's largest market for manga doujinshi, established since the late 1970s, and held twice per year over two days. It is a gathering of epic proportions, now featuring nearly 20,000 doujinshi sellers at each event. The bulk of doujinshis are devoted to whatever manga and anime is popular at the time, but a vast range of tastes are catered for, with doujinshis devoted to video games, pop music, animals, machines, novels, movies, RPG's, and much more.

computer geek (n) [Jargon File 3.0.0] /1: One who eats computer bugs for a living. One who fulfills all the dreariest negative stereotypes about hackers: an asocial, malodorous, pasty-faced monomaniac with all the personality of a cheese grater. Cannot be used by outsiders without implied insult to all hackers. A computer geek may be either a fundamentally clueless individual or a proto-hacker in larval stage. /2: Some self-described computer geeks use this term in a positive sense and protest sense.

concom (n): The committee that puts together a fan convention.

Couplandesque (adj): To be philosophical about pop culture; to view aspects of mass media and cultural consumption as trancendental; to find meaning in that which is normally viewed as shallow or mundane. Derived from the works of Douglas Coupland, wherein pop culture is analyzed and celebrated on a personal level.

cracker (n) [Jargon File 3.0.0]: One who breaks security on a system. Coined c.1985 by hackers in defense against journalistic misuse of hacker.

cracking (n) [Jargon File 3.0.0]: The act of breaking into a computer system; what a cracker does. Contrary to widespread myth, this does not usually involve some mysterious leap of hackerly brilliance, but rather persistence and the dogged repetition of a handful of fairly well-known tricks that exploit common weaknesses in the security of target systems. Accordingly, most crackers are only mediocre.

Crisis (n) [DC Comics]: The "Crisis on Infinite Earths" was a 12-issue series published by DC Comics in 1985-86. The Crisis effectively revamped the entire DC Universe by merging several universes (containing the various DC characters) into a single universe (whose history is still somewhat unclear in parts). The Crisis was used as an opportunity to change DC history retroactively, including the remaking of several main DC characters. Thus people refer to the 'post-Crisis' Superman, Wonder Woman, and others as distinct from the 'pre-Crisis' versions who existed on Earth-1 (Silver Age) or Earth-2 (Golden Age).

cut-scene (n): An intermission during gameplay in a videogame, cut-scenes usually feature animation, information about the next level, or full-motion video. In the cartridge days, when space was at a premium, cut-scenes which contained lots to see and hear were very popular, because they were very rare. With the surfeit of storage space that CDs provide, they have become almost obligatory; usually a tedious video must be endured or if possible, aborted by pressing a button on the joypad.

cyberburger joint (n): A fast-food restaurant that provides Internet access at a computer to its customers.

cybercafe (n): A cafe, coffee or espresso shop, or similar food and/or beverage-serving place that has a number of personal computers connected to the Internet and available for use by customers. Some cybercafes allow customers to use the computers at no charge; others charge by the hour or fraction of an hour.

cyberfiction (n): Science fiction embodying the technological ideas of cyberpunk, without necessarily embodying cyberpunk's amoralism or nihilism.

cyberpunk (n): Literary movement characterized by science fiction that combines flashy hard-boiled narrative with an interest in mind and body invasions, technology, and boundary-displacing 'interzones,' whether on or offline.

cyberwoozling (n): The practice of gathering data from a Web user's PC when the user visits a Web site, by using a combination of cookies and browser-side add-in code.

cyborg (n): Refers to a person that is partially flesh and bone, but has one or more robotic appendages electronically linked to their nerves. A cyborg is said to be half human and half machine. The line between humanity and the machine is blurred.

cybrarian (n): One who makes a living doing online research and information retrieval. Also known as a 'data surfer' or a 'super searcher'.

cypherpunk (n) ["cyberpunk"]: Someone interested in the uses of encryption via electronic ciphers for enhancing personal privacy and guarding against tyranny by centralized, authoritarian power structures, especially government.

next ->