From Notebook

Hi.

I am the Cerebrate[1]), and this is my Notebook.

By Notebook, of course, I mean giant dumping ground of random stuff which I may have found, or expect to find, or might find useful at some point or other, for some purpose or other, or just want to remember (currently 1,798 in stock). That's fairly general, but so is the content of this wiki.

(This has also replaced all of the pages located under siliconcerebrate.com/documents - if you've just been redirected from there, no need for confusion. You were supposed to be.)

Also, it lets me preserve the content of things I've found useful, the Web being, as ever, an annoyingly transient medium.

Also also, it's something of a playground to see how much things cross-link if I Wikify words freely.

Where sources exist, I'm citing them; if you see something without a source that you know has one, do feel free to let me know.

(The main pages of this Wiki are only editable by a select few - just me, at the moment (and me!) - as this is after all my Notebook; but if you want to drop me a note regarding something you see here, feel free to e-mail me .)

As can easily be seen, the Notebook is running on MediaWiki. (Credit for the Notebook concept belongs to Jon Eveland of http://jwenet.net/).

Finding Your Way About

Probably the easiest way to find pages is through the category list, the index of all pages, or the search box to your left. However, here are some of my most-used categories:

• Code Snippets
• Humour
• Laws
• Quotations
• Technical Notes
• Words

If you find any of the information in my Notebook useful, please feel free to defray our running costs a little... :)

New Recently

• 03:04, 30 September 2008 ‎Namespace (hist) ‎[76 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{FOLDOC}} namespace A set of names in which all names are unique.)
• 03:02, 30 September 2008 ‎ZX-81 (hist) ‎[371 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{FOLDOC}} ZX-81 An even more successful version of the Sinclair ZX-80, featuring a large uncommitted logic array instead of much discrete logic, an improved [[BASIC]...)
• 02:59, 30 September 2008 ‎100baseTX (hist) ‎[179 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{FOLDOC}} 100baseTX The predominant form of {Fast Ethernet}. 100baseTX runs over two pairs of wires in category 5 cable. (1998-06-30) Category:Networking)
• 02:58, 30 September 2008 ‎Zigamorph (hist) ‎[646 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} zigamorph: /zig'@ morf/, n. # Hex FF (11111111) when used as a delimiter or fence character. Usage: primarily at IBM shops. # [proposed] n. The [...)
• 02:56, 30 September 2008 ‎Snarf & barf (hist) ‎[366 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} snarf & barf: /snarf n barf`/, n. Under a WIMP environment, the act of grabbing a region of text and then stuffing the contents of that region into another reg...)
• 02:54, 30 September 2008 ‎Slopsucker (hist) ‎[414 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} slopsucker: /slop suhk r/, n. A lowest-priority task that waits around until everything else has ‘had its fill’ of machine resources. Only when the machin...)
• 02:51, 30 September 2008 ‎Stack (hist) ‎[1,408 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} stack: n. The set of things a person has to do in the future. One speaks of the next project to be attacked as having risen to the top of the stack. “I'm afraid...)
• 02:49, 30 September 2008 ‎Accumulator (hist) ‎[1,110 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} accumulator: n. obs. # Archaic term for a register. On-line use of it as a synonym for register is a fairly reliable indication that the user has been around ...)
• 02:47, 30 September 2008 ‎Awk (hist) ‎[624 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} awk: /awk/ # n. [ Unix techspeak] An interpreted language for massaging text data developed by Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan (the n...)
• 02:45, 30 September 2008 ‎Angband (hist) ‎[1,368 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} Angband: n., /ang´band/ Like nethack, moria, and rogue, one of the large freely distributed Dungeons-and-Dragons-like simulation games, available for ...)
• 02:42, 30 September 2008 ‎Wheel bit (hist) ‎[739 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} wheel bit: n. A privilege bit that allows the possessor to perform some restricted operation on a timesharing system, such as read or write any file o...)
• 02:40, 30 September 2008 ‎Wheel (hist) ‎[492 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} wheel: n. [from slang ‘big wheel’ for a powerful person] A person who has an active wheel bit. “We need to find a wheel to unwedge the hung t...)
• 02:39, 30 September 2008 ‎Root (hist) ‎[532 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} root: n. # [ Unix ] The superuser account (with user name ‘root’) that ignores permission bits, user number 0 on a Unix system. The term [...)
• 02:36, 30 September 2008 ‎Code grinder (hist) ‎[937 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} code grinder: n. # A suit-wearing minion of the sort hired in legion strength by banks and insurance companies to implement payroll packages in RPG an...)
• 02:33, 30 September 2008 ‎Gritch (hist) ‎[794 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} gritch: /grich/ [ MIT ] # n. A complaint (often caused by a glitch). # vi. To complain. Often verb-doubled: “Gritch gritch”. # A synonym for glitch (as...)
• 02:22, 30 September 2008 ‎Preventing disconnected network drives (hist) ‎[1,139 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{source|http://thelazyadmin.com/blogs/thelazyadmin/archive/2005/12/27/Quick-Tip_3A00_-Preventing-Disconnected-Network-Drives.aspx}} One very common issue is mapped drives to [[networ...)
• 16:48, 25 September 2008 ‎Ning (hist) ‎[251 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: A ning is a fish with a monkey hat (a fish!). Category:Words)
• 03:14, 22 September 2008 ‎Operator (hist) ‎[314 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{FOLDOC}} operator A symbol used as a function, with infix syntax if it has two arguments (e.g. "+") or prefix syntax if it has only one (e.g. Boolean NOT). Man...)
• 03:11, 22 September 2008 ‎FORTRAN (hist) ‎[699 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{FOLDOC}} Fortran (Formula Translation) The first and, for a long time, the most widely used programming language for numerical and scientific applications. The origina...)
• 23:50, 21 September 2008 ‎Unix to Unix Copy (hist) ‎[872 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{FOLDOC}} Unix to Unix Copy (uucp) A Unix utility program and protocol that allows one Unix system to send files to another via a serial line whi...)
• 23:42, 21 September 2008 ‎Soundex (hist) ‎[625 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{FOLDOC}} soundex An algorithm for encoding a word so that similar sounding words encode the same. The first letter is copied unchanged then subsequent letters are encoded ...)
• 23:40, 21 September 2008 ‎Application (hist) ‎[116 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Disambiguation}} application You may be looking for: # application program. # function application.)
• 23:36, 21 September 2008 ‎Picture element (hist) ‎[516 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{FOLDOC}} picture element (pixel) The smallest resolvable rectangular area of an image, either on a screen or stored in memory. Each pixel in a monochrome image...)
• 23:31, 21 September 2008 ‎Death Star (hist) ‎[751 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} Death Star: n. [ from the movie ''Star Wars''] # The AT&T corporate logo, which bears an uncanny resemblance to the Death Star in the ''Star Wars'' movies...)
• 21:11, 21 September 2008 ‎Death Square (hist) ‎[373 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} Death Square: n. The corporate logo of Novell, the people who acquired USL after AT&T let go of it (Novell eventually sold the Unix group to SCO). ...)
• 21:09, 21 September 2008 ‎Cracking (hist) ‎[606 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} cracking: n. [very common] The act of breaking into a computer system; what a cracker does. Contrary to widespread myth, this does not usually involve some mys...)
• 21:08, 21 September 2008 ‎Hackers (the movie) (hist) ‎[282 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} Hackers (the movie): n. A notable bomb from 1995. Should have been titled ''Crackers'', because cracking is what the movie was about. It's understandable that they...)
• 21:06, 21 September 2008 ‎Phase (hist) ‎[1,505 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} phase # n. The offset of one's waking-sleeping schedule with respect to the standard 24-hour cycle; a useful concept among people who often work at night and/or a...)
• 21:04, 21 September 2008 ‎Hacking run (hist) ‎[245 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} hacking run: n. [analogy with ‘bombing run’ or ‘speed run’] A hack session extended long outside normal working times, especially one longer than 12 hours. May ca...)
• 21:03, 21 September 2008 ‎Crash (hist) ‎[975 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} crash # n. A sudden, usually drastic failure. Most often said of the system (q.v., sense 1), esp. of magnetic disk drives (the term originally described what happe...)
• 21:01, 21 September 2008 ‎Human (hist) ‎[158 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Me (Cerebrate)}} A very badly designed organic computer operating a meat robot. Despite their many obvious design flaws, humans run the world.)
• 20:59, 21 September 2008 ‎Data (hist) ‎[981 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{FOLDOC}} data /day't*/ (Or "raw data") Numbers, characters, images, or other method of recording, in a form which can be assessed by a human or (especially) input into ...)
• 17:37, 21 September 2008 ‎100baseT (hist) ‎[454 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{FOLDOC}} 100BaseT Any of several Fast Ethernet 100 Mbps CSMA/CD standards for twisted pair cables, including: 100baseTX (100 Mbps over two-pair Cat5 or bett...)
• 17:35, 21 September 2008 ‎Zxnrbl (hist) ‎[406 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{FOLDOC}} zxnrbl <jargon> /sner'b*l/ Incorrect data introduced by transmission errors; any corrupted or uninterpretable data. The word originated in a 1978 advertisement for a ...)
• 17:33, 21 September 2008 ‎Variable (hist) ‎[2,222 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{FOLDOC}} variable (Sometimes "var" /veir/ or /var/) A named memory location in which a program can store intermediate results and from which it can read it them. E...)
• 17:27, 21 September 2008 ‎Product (hist) ‎[908 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: Something which is produced, obviously. And thereafter, often, sold. ---- {{FOLDOC}} product An expression in mathematics or computer programming consisting of two oth...)
• 17:21, 21 September 2008 ‎Hello world (hist) ‎[850 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} hello world: interj. # The canonical minimal test message in the C/Unix universe. # Any of the minimal programs that emit this message (a representati...)
• 17:19, 21 September 2008 ‎Obfuscated C Contest (hist) ‎[1,987 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} Obfuscated C Contest: n. (in full, the ‘International Obfuscated C Code Contest’, or IOCCC) An annual contest run since 1984 over Usenet by [[Landon Curt ...)
• 17:17, 21 September 2008 ‎Crunch (hist) ‎[1,417 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} crunch # vi. To process, usually in a time-consuming or complicated way. Connotes an essentially trivial operation that is nonetheless painful to perform. The ...)
• 17:15, 21 September 2008 ‎Compress (hist) ‎[555 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} compress: vt. [ Unix ] When used without a qualifier, generally refers to crunching of a file using a particular C implementation of compression by [[...)
• 17:13, 21 September 2008 ‎Tar and feather (hist) ‎[848 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} tar and feather: vi. [ from Unix tar(1) ] To create a transportable archive from a group of files by first sticking them together with tar(1) (the [[Ta...)
• 17:11, 21 September 2008 ‎Zip (hist) ‎[369 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} zip: vt. [ primarily MS-DOS/Windows ] To create a compressed archive from a group of files using PKWare's PKZIP or a compatible archiver. Its use i...)
• 17:10, 21 September 2008 ‎And there was much rejoicing (hist) ‎[941 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} [from the movie ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail''.] Acknowledgement of a notable accomplishment. Something long-awaited, widely desired, possibly unexpected but secretly...)
• 17:07, 21 September 2008 ‎Moen's Second Law of Debate (hist) ‎[248 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Source|http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/lexicon.html}} "There's nothing quite as sublimely silly as publicly professing one's humility." I get the giggles when I see people making a big deal...)
• 17:06, 21 September 2008 ‎Moen's First Law of Debate (hist) ‎[552 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Source|http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/lexicon.html}} "No matter what the issue, someone will try to turn it into a [http://zgp.org/pipermail/linux-elitists/2004-January/008588.html persona...)
• 19:51, 28 August 2008 ‎Swab (hist) ‎[421 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} swab: /swob/ [From the mnemonic for the PDP-11 ‘SWAp Byte’ instruction, as immortalized in the dd(1) option '''conv=swab''' (see dd)] # vt. To solve the...)
• 19:49, 28 August 2008 ‎Big-endian (hist) ‎[1,499 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} big-endian: adj. [common; From Swift's ''Gulliver's Travels'' via the famous paper ''On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace'' by Danny Cohen, USC/ISI [http://k...)
• 19:46, 28 August 2008 ‎Holy wars (hist) ‎[1,170 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} holy wars: n. [from Usenet, but may predate it; common] n. flame wars over religious issues. The paper by Danny Cohen that popularized the terms [[big-end...)
• 19:43, 28 August 2008 ‎Religious issues (hist) ‎[842 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: 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, [[a...)
• 19:42, 28 August 2008 ‎Bigot (hist) ‎[650 bytes] ‎Cerebrate (Talk | contribs) (New page: {{Jargon}} bigot: n. [common] A person who is religiously attached to a particular computer, language, operating system, editor, or other tool (see [[religious issues...)