random

cd tilde /C·D til·d@/ vi.

To go home. From the Unix C-shell and Korn-shell command cd ~, which takes one to one's $HOME (cd with no arguments happens to do the same thing). By extension, may be used with other arguments; thus, over an electronic chat link, cd ~coffee would mean “I'm going to the coffee machine.”

barfulation /bar`fyoo·lay´sh@n/ interj.

Variation of barf used around the Stanford area. An exclamation, expressing disgust. On seeing some particularly bad code one might exclaim, “Barfulation! Who wrote this, Quux?”

scribble n.

To modify a data structure in a random and unintentionally destructive way. “Bletch! Somebody's disk-compactor program went berserk and scribbled on the i-node table.” “It was working fine until one of the allocation routines scribbled on low core.” Synonymous with trash; compare mung, which conveys a bit more intention, and mangle, which is more violent and final.

BrokenWindows n.

Abusive hackerism for the crufty and elephantine X environment on Sun machines; properly called ‘OpenWindows’.

laser chicken n.

Kung Pao Chicken, a standard Chinese dish containing chicken, peanuts, and hot red peppers in a spicy pepper-oil sauce. Many hackers call it laser chicken for two reasons: It can zap you just like a laser, and the sauce has a red color reminiscent of some laser beams. The dish has also been called gunpowder chicken.

In a variation on this theme, it is reported that some Australian hackers have redesignated the common dish ‘lemon chicken’ as Chernobyl Chicken. The name is derived from the color of the sauce, which is considered bright enough to glow in the dark (as, mythically, do some of the inhabitants of Chernobyl).