Computer Terms That Your Mother Should Have Taught You

backbone

the high speed "main line" typically connecting multiple computers and local-area-networks. Example "Grepping across the backbone really sucks up resources, you shouldn't do it during peak usage hours." Also refers to the NSF (National Science Foundation) sponsored backbone for the Internet.

big red switch

The power switch on a computer or peripheral. When computers lock up (hang) or are doing something which there seems to be no other way to stop, "power cycling" or, more literally, "turning it off" may be the only way to regain control of the machine. Be careful in turning off a terminal which is not really a computer. While this may seem to fix things, chances are it will leave other jobs running that must be stopped. Also 120 reset (from 120 volts.). For PC's that are hung one usually tries (in this order) four things: hitting ESCAPE or ^C (Control-C) and other random keys, doing a warm boot by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL simultaneously (aka three fingered salute, pressing the reset button and only as a last resort hitting the big red switch.

CLI

Command Line Interface. An operating system which a user interacts with by typing commands rather than moving a mouse or honking a series of horns of different pitches. VMS is a command line interface, as is DOS, CP/M and many OS's. See gui. The ultimate CLI based operating system was undoubtedly TOPS-20, now regrettably extinct.

crlf

Carriage Return Line Feed. Pressing the [enter] key does two things, represented by two separate characters, the first character, the CR brings the cursor back to the first column of the screen, the other character, the LF moves the cursor down a line. If you see someone complaining "That stupid terminal emulator doesn't even know how to make a proper crlf!" You'll know it has something to do with the way the [return] codes are being interpreted. Note UNIX, VMS, Macintosh and IBM PC compatibles use different codes to mark the ends of lines.

cyberpunk

A digital warrior, internet surfer etc. The cool computer geek of the 90's. This is science fiction spinoff, the term was coined by SF writer Bruce Bethke when talking about William Gibson's novel Neuromancer. Things "cyberpunk" are Max Headroom and Blade Runner (and me sometimes).

DCL

Stands for DIGITAL Command Language. It is the set of commands which VMS understands. There are over 200 commands and functions in DCL, only a handfull of which are understandable by human beings. You can write command files (files with the extension .com which are similar too (but more powerful than) a DOS batch files. One important com file is login.com which runs when you first log in. You can run a comand file on VMS by typing @ (that's a capital 2) in front of its name. @login will run your login.com file.

/dev/null

Stands for device / null, essentially meaning "nowhere." This is UNIX jargon which has found its way onto the Net because most people who are using the net are doing so through UNIX. Often you will see people post "followups to alt.swedish.chief.bork.bork.bork, flames to /dev/null" meaning, "route your wicked comments into the cold vacuum of space, little toad!"

Doom

A game made by ID software, the people who made Castle Wolfenstein 3D. Everybody on the Internet seems to be talking about it, playing it or writing applications that make it run better. Sorry folks, it won't run on a Alpha (but can be played multiplayer on a Novell network!).

flame

The practice of sending incendiary e-mail to someone you disagree with, or posting same. The equivalent of shouting at someone. Posting "I love to kill cows and eat them!" to rec.foods.vegetarian is liable to get you flamed. You will see talk of "asbestos suits" when flameage is imminent and may see flames bracketed by flame-on and flame-off. Beware of flame-baiters, people who will post absurd things just to get people to flame them (I speak the truth. Some people have nothing better to do with their lives).

followups

Someone may post a message to several newsgroups looking for information on a particular topic, but not want to clutter those groups with discussion, or have to go searching for the answer. Thusly, a thread on rec.motorcycles concerning what happens to an elevator in free fall might incite someone to post a message to sci.physics and sci.engineering.elevators asking a question and directing the "followups" back to rec.motorcycles where people are really interested.

foo

The term has both no meaning and much meaning, to take the Taoist approach. There is no agreed upon definition for the word, but it is used for everything, expecially in conjunction with the word bar, which has a similar null-meaning. A computer geek will say "Foo!" when he dropps a rock on his foot and he will say "John Q. Foobar" or "Foo Inc" to mean anyone or any company and foo.bar to talk about a generic filename (foo) and extension (bar). Basically foo or foobar may be thought of as a variable name for anyword. It is common to see names like linda@foo.bar.com as examples in manuals.

galactic trader

This is a difficult though way-cool game that does run under VMS (but we don't have it). It's multiplayer, which means that you can play with a bunch of other people at the same time.

gateway

A computer which acts as a connection (or, "gateway") between networks. The purpose of a gateway is to decide where to route information, both incoming and outgoing. "Gateways" will often handle e-mail.

grep

A UNIX command used to search through text doccuments. You'll frequently hear people on the Net saying "I had tolocate 150 Shakespeare quotes for my take home final. I FTPd the complete works from world.std.com and I grepped the quotes out in about 30 seconds." VMS has a similar feature called SEARCH.

GUI

Graphic User Interface. A program (usually an operating system) where commands are entered by manipulating a series of graphical objects on a screen, usually with a mouse or trackball. The Macintosh OS is a gui, as is Windows, and OS/2. Compare with cli. If you or someone you know will give McMurry a whole bunch of money we can get a really nifty GUI for VMS. Until then...

header

That portion of an e-mail message or a USENET post which contains the To: and From: information as well as the routing information, etc.

hork core

In UNIX, an error which baffles the computer can cause a core dump. These result in screeds of numbers (the contents of memory) being dumped to either a file or the screen. You can say that a person got sick and "horked core" (vomited) or that your process somehow caused MCM to "hork core" on you. The actual VMS term is "Register Dump". ("Horked registers" just doesn't sound right.)

job

a process which is running on a computer. The command show users /full will list the jobs that VMS is running. So will FINGER with no arguments.

LAN

"Local Area Network" a group of computers connected to one another within a small area, usually one building. Most of our LAN's run under Novell Netware, a decidedly inferior OS to VMS.

120 reset

see big red switch.

OS

Short for "Operating System." The OS is what's between you and the computer itself, the integrated circuit. It interprets your keyboard commands and causes the microprocessor to function in a certain way. VMS is the operating system which is running on MCM. Other OS's are UNIX, and the MACINTOSH OS. (Non sequitur: Microsoft Windows is not an operating system, although it pretends to be. Windows is actually a DOS program. DOS is not an Operating System either. It's a program loader. Take our OS course and learn more.)

postscript

Sometimes seen as "ps". PostScript is a printer language spoken by (strangely enough) "postscript compatible printers." Very popular on the net. A postscript file can have all sorts of nifty doo-dads in it, things like pictures, font changes, italics, etc. all the niceties of desk top publishing can be put in a file and printed out on any "postscript compatible printer." Text files in .ps are invariably MUCH better looking than their ascii counterparts. They are also HUGE.

real time

As the clock ticks. "Real Time" is the time on your watch. IRC is real-time, e-mail is not.

root

The primary or default directory. When you say "root" you actually mean the "system" directory (which you certainly don't have access to. Saying a file is in your root directory will be understood by all to mean that the file is to be found in the lowest level of your directory structure. Also known as home directory or $home directory.

router

"Router," "Gateway," it's all the same. See gateway.

.sig

(also .signature) A short file which is appended to electronic mail and USENET posts. Sig's or "signature's" usually contain something about the poster, how to reach them via e-mail, some particular interest they might have, or some nifty ascii art. Some .sig's are interminably long and very annoying. With some fiddling, MAIL will append them, or you could just keep a file called "sig" in your home directory and INCLUDE FILE it at the end of your message or post.

smiley

From time to time you'll see someone stick a :-) in a USENET post or in e-mail. This might seem a bit odd at first. If you tilt your head to the left about 90ø you may see a smiley face. These are used to designate humor and let people know when you're joking in a world where people can't see your expression. Example: "Well Ralph, you never did have any taste in computers :-)" Other popular smilies are :) :-O and the "sad" smiley :-( My personal favorite is the "punk" smiley with the mohawk --:-) Okay. So it's a little goofy. One more point, no one seems to know how to punctuate smileys, as adding a comma, or period or right paren to them would change the way they look. The best way is to just leave the punctuation out. Somewhere out there is a HUGE document of many many smileys. Quite a few of them are extremely creative.

snail mail

The old fashioned paper variety mail which takes so long to arrive. Internet users (rightly) assume that no mail should take more than 10 minutes to be delivered

switch

A modifier in a command. In the command
show users /full
"show users" is the command, and "/full" is the switch. Switches make commands much more versitile. Also "qualifier."

thread

The continuing topic of conversation in a USENET group. "Threads" are usually distinguished by their sameness of titles, mostly prefaced by RE:. Example: "Rec.motorcycles is fun to read, but I get bored every time they start up that old helmet thread again."

UNIX

A computer operating system very popular among computer geeks and cyberpunks alike. It was invented by a variety of entities. Notably among them, Berkeley University, and AT&T. Some misguided people believe that UNIX is better than VMS :-). It is true that the leading edge of Internet work is found on UNIX boxes. However a surprising number of programs are "ported" (translated) to VMS.

unsupported feature

A program or portion of a program that the maintainers no longer spend any time maintaining -- usually due to obsolescence or something that was added on but never documented. The Internet is chock full 'o unsupported features.

VAX

Virtual Address Extension. (Oh, of course.) The VAX is a variation of the PDP (Programmable Data Processor) designed by DIGITAL in 1978. According to the New Hackers Dictionary, there is also a vacuum cleaner company in England called VAX, their motto"Nothing sucks like a VAX!" is often touted by computer users. The VAX uses a 32 bit processor and "virtual" memory ("Pah!" you say, "so does my 486!" But can you have 28 people logged onto it at once? I didn't think so, smarty pants.) which has made it the most popular computer in the history of the world. The plural of VAX is VAXen. Digital has a new computer architecture called Alpha which is faster than anybody elses. And they've ported VMS to it. We've bought one to replace the old VAX.

VMS

The standard VAX/Alpha operating system. VMS stands for "Virtual Memory System" whatever that means.

Appendix C: Solutions to Frequently Discovered Problems

I'm calling in from home and nothing seems to work. I connect, but when I type menu the machine just hangs.

You're probably using the wrong terminal emulator. Get a copy of QVT.

When I type MAIL, I don't get the EVE screen you say I should, I just get a stupid "*" at the bottom of the screen and I can't make heads or tails of it.

You've got the wrong editor selected. The "*" goes with EDT. At the MAIL> prompt, type set editor tpu to make everything better.

When I type show users /full I see that I'm logged on seventeen times! How is this possible?

You forgot to log out. Rather, you turned off the computer, hung up the modem or whatever. You've got to stop these ghost processes which are running around MCM like Hamlet's father. When you type show users note the process names (the first one should be your name, the others will be something like _LTA6671. At the $ prompt type
stop process_name
and do this until you've killed them all like rats in a barrel. Don't be discouraged if you accidentally kill your active process, just log in again. Keep up the good work soldier.

When I try to finger my uncle Frodo at the National Security Agency I get a connect: connection refused message. Is their computer broken? Should I send mail to postmaster@nsa.gov and tell them?

Some places consider FINGER to be a security problem. Some places don't want anybody to know when their users last logged in, or if they're logged in right now or how long they've been away from their computer. Many places don't allow fingering for these reasons. Sorry, but you'll just have to suffer (and when the NSA comes by to find out why you've been fingering people there you will suffer).

I sent a talk request to my uncle Frodo, but he didn't answer. What gives?

Some systems don't have the TALK program installed. Have Frodo check with his system admnistrator to make sure they have access to TALK and make sure that they're using "ntalk" (new talk) as opposed to old talk.

I accidentally deleted the wrong file. Can I undelete it?

No. But if it was really important, it might have been saved in the backup. Each week on Friday night MCM does a tape backup of all it's files. Quick as a bunny send a note to the Alpha system managent and let them know that you need a file restored. Don't forget to say please.

Bibliography

Bynon, David W., Mastering VMS, Professional Press Inc, Horsham Pa, 1990

Bynon's book is good. It's obvious that he knows his stuff. I recommend it for those of you who reach that moment of epiphany where you say "Hey! VMS sort of makes sense!" There's a picture of him on the back of the book, where he looks like he's not quite getting a joke that someone's telling. Unfourtionately he doesn't look like the sort of person you'd want to invite to a party, but you never know.

digital equipment corporation, VMS User's Manual Digital Equipment Corporation, 1989

This is a huge, semi-useful, though entirely stoic reference manual. The coolest thing about it is that it was produced with the VAX DOCUMENT electronic publishing system, using terminals for crying out loud the poor slobs who wrote it typeset the darned thing in ascii instead of going out and spending $2000 lousy bucks on a Macintosh and doing it in FrameMaker, which would make sense. This shows an unbelieveable amount of mettle. I applaud them. Hats off.

Gibson, William, Neuromancer, Ace Science Fiction, 1984

This is where we got Cyberpunk. Gibson is visionary. After reading it you'll see how technology expanded to fill the void he created with this book. Other authors in the cyberpunk genre include Bruce Sterling, Rudy Rucker. Dr. Etheridge (English) knows a bit about this stuff.

Keyhoe, Brendan P., Zen and the Art of Internet, cs.widener.edu, 1992

The seminal in-house Internet guide. Kehoe was something like 19 when he wrote Zen and the Art of Internet which has been so widely distributed and read as to make him an overnight celebrity. He was severely injured in an automobile accident on New Years day 1994.

Krol, Ed, The Whole Internet: Second Edition, OReilly & Associates, Sebastopol, Ca. 1992

Probably the best general guide to the Internet. It's in the bookstore.

Raymond, Eric, ed., The New Hacker's Dictionary, MIT Press, Cambridge Mass, 1992

Based on the jargon file which is also available on the net.

Stoll, Cliff, The Cuckoo's Egg, Doubleday, New York, 1989

Cliff Stoll is great. He's not a geek, but he is a geek if you know what I mean. He's hysterically funny and this book is great for anybody, no matter how much you know about computers or how little. Buy it for your mom and dad, buy it for yourself. The Cuckoo's Egg is a spy story. It's fascinating and just reading it you'll find that you're beginning to understand more about the Internet just by osmosis.

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