WhatIs

/snif/

v.,n. Synonym for poll.

/snē-kər-net/

n. Term used (generally with ironic intent) for transfer of electronic information by physically carrying tape, disks, or some other media from one machine to another.

"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with magtape, or a 747 filled with CD-ROMs."

Also called Tennis-Net, Armpit-Net, Floppy-Net.

/snärk/

[Lewis Carroll, via the Michigan Terminal System]

n. 1. A system failure. When a user's process bombed, the operator would get the message "Help, Help, Snark in MTS!"

2. More generally, any kind of unexplained or threatening event on a computer (especially if it might be a boojum). Often used to refer to an event or a log file entry that might indicate an attempted security violation.

See snivitz.

3. UUCP name of snark.thyrsus.com, home site of the Jargon File 2.*.* versions (i.e., this lexicon).

/snärf ən(d) bärf/

n. Under a WIMP environment, the act of grabbing a region of text and then stuffing the contents of that region into another region (or the same one) to avoid retyping a command line. In the late 1960s, this was a mainstream expression for an 'eat now, regret it later' cheap-restaurant expedition.

/snärf/

vt. 1. To grab, esp. to grab a large document or file for the purpose of using it with or without the author's permission.

See also BLT.

2. [in the UNIX community] To fetch a file or set of files across a network.

See also blast.

This term was mainstream in the late 1960s, meaning 'to eat piggishly'. It may still have this connotation in context.
"He's in the snarfing phase of hacking -- FTPing megs of stuff a day."

/snap/

v. To replace a pointer to a pointer with a direct pointer; to replace an old address with the forwarding address found there. If you telephone the main number for an institution and ask for a particular person by name, the operator may tell you that person's extension before connecting you, in the hopes that you will 'snap your pointer' and dial direct next time. The underlying metaphor may be that of a rubber band stretched through a number of intermediate points; if you remove all the thumbtacks in the middle, it snaps into a straight line from first to last.

/snāl māl/

n. Paper mail, as opposed to electronic. Sometimes written as the single word SnailMail. One's postal address is, correspondingly, a snail address. Derives from earlier coinage USnail (from U.S. Mail), for which there have been parody posters and stamps made.

Oppose email.

/snāl/

vt. To snail-mail something.

"Snail me a copy of those graphics, will you?"

/sna-ˈfü prin(t)-s(ə-)pəl/

[from WWII Army acronym for 'Situation Normal, All Fucked Up']

/S-M-O-P/

[Simple (or Small) Matter of Programming]