WhatIs

/vä-diŋ/

[from VAD, a permutation of ADV (i.e., ADVENT), used to avoid a particular admin's continual search-and-destroy sweeps for the game]

n. A leisure-time activity of certain hackers involving the covert exploration of the 'secret' parts of large buildings -- basements, roofs, freight elevators, maintenance crawlways, steam tunnels, and the like. A few go so far as to learn locksmithing in order to synthesize vadding keys. The verb is 'to vad' (compare phreaking).

/UUCP-NET/

n. The store-and-forward network consisting of all the world's connected UNIX machines (and others running some clone of the UUCP (UNIX-to-UNIX CoPy) software). Any machine reachable only via a bang path is on UUCPNET.

See network address.

/U-T-S-L/

[UNIX]

/U-S-G yü-nikz/

n. Refers to AT&T UNIX commercial versions after Version 7, especially System III and System V releases 1, 2, and 3. So called because during most of the life-span of those versions AT&T's support crew was called the 'UNIX Support Group'.

See BSD, UNIX.

/yü-zər-əb-sē-kwē-əs/

adj. Emphatic form of user-friendly. Connotes a system so verbose, inflexible, and determinedly simple-minded that it is nearly unusable.
"Design a system any fool can use and only a fool will want to use it."

See WIMP environment, Macintrash.

/yü-zər-fren(d)-lē/

adj. Programmer-hostile. Generally used by hackers in a critical tone, to describe systems that hold the user's hand so obsessively that they make it painful for the more experienced and knowledgeable to get any work done.

See menuitis, drool-proof paper, Macintrash, user-obsequious.

/yü-zər/

n. 

1. Someone doing real work with the computer, using it as a means rather than an end. Someone who pays to use a computer.

   See real user.
    

/yoos'net/ or /yooz'net/

[from Users' Network]

/jʊərˈɛl/ (you-are-ell)

A URL, short for Uniform Resource Locator, serves as the unique address or identifier for resources on the internet. It is akin to a digital map, guiding users to specific destinations within the vast online landscape.

A URL consists of several components. The first part indicates the protocol, such as https:// for secure connections or http:// for standard ones. This ensures a secure and encrypted data exchange between the user and the website.

/ər-chən/

n. See munchkin.