n. On a MUD, the use of ':' or an equivalent command to announce to other players that one is taking a certain physical action that has no effect on the game (it may, however, serve as a social signal or propaganda device that induces other people to take game actions). For example, if one's character name is Firechild, one might type ': looks delighted at the idea and begins hacking on the nearest terminal' to broadcast a message that says
"Firechild looks delighted at the idea and begins hacking on the nearest terminal".
[from the operation that removes the top of a stack, and the fact that procedure return addresses are saved on the stack]
(also capitalized 'POP' /pop/) 1. vt. To remove something from a stack or pdl. If a person says he/she has popped something from his stack, that means he/she has finally finished working on it and can now remove it from the list of things hanging overhead.
n. A chip designer who spends most of his or her time at the physical layout level (which requires drawing *lots* of multi-colored polygons). Also rectangle slinger.
v.,n. 1. [techspeak] The action of checking the status of an input line, sensor, or memory location to see if a particular external event has been registered.
2. To repeatedly call or check with someone:
"I keep polling him, but he's not answering his phone; he must be swapped out."
