WhatIs

/filk/

[from SF fandom, where a typo for 'folk' was adopted as a new word]

n.,v. A 'filk' is a popular or folk song with lyrics revised or completely new lyrics, intended for humorous effect when read and/or to be sung late at night at SF conventions. There is a flourishing subgenre of these called 'computer filks', written by hackers and often containing rather sophisticated technical humor.

See double bucky for an example.

/fī(-ə)l ri-ˈkwest/

[FidoNet]

1. n. The FidoNet equivalent of FTP, in which one BBS system automatically dials another and snarfs one or more files. Files are often announced as being "available for FReq" in the same way that files are announced as being "available for/by anonymous FTP" on the Internet.

2. vt. The act of getting a copy of a file by using the File Request option of the BBS mailer.

/fī(-ə)l ə-ˈtach/

[FidoNet]

1. n. A file sent along with a mail message from one BBS to another.

2. vt. Sending someone a file by using the File Attach option in a BBS mailer.

/fī-(ˌ)dōnet/

[FidoNet]

n. Deliberate distortion of FidoNet, often applied after a flurry of flamage in a particular echo, especially the SYSOP echo or Fidonews.

/fee'ld ser'voyd/

[play on 'Android']

n. Representative of a field service organization (see field circus). This has many of the implications of droid.

/fēld sər-kəs/

[a derogatory pun on 'field service']

n. The field service organization of any hardware manufacturer, but especially DEC. There is an entire genre of jokes about DEC field circus engineers:

Q: How can you recognize a DEC field circus engineer with a flat tire?
A: He's changing each tire to see which one is flat.

Q: How can you recognize a DEC field circus engineer who is out of gas?
A: He's changing each tire to see which one is flat.

/fī-(ˌ)dōnet/

n. A worldwide hobbyist network of personal computers which exchange mail, discussion groups, and files. Founded in 1984 and originally consisting only of IBM PCs and compatibles, FidoNet now includes such diverse machines as Apple ][s, Ataris, Amigas and UNIX systems. Though it is much younger than USENET, FidoNet is already (in early 1991) a significant fraction of USENET's size at some 8000 systems.

/fept owt/

adj. The Symbolics 3600 Lisp Machine has a Front-End Processor called a 'FEP' (compare sense 2 of box). When the main processor gets wedged, the FEP takes control of the keyboard and screen. Such a machine is said to have 'fepped out'.

/fen(t)spōst er-ər/

n. 1. A problem with the discrete equivalent of a boundary condition. Often exhibited in programs by iterative loops. From the following problem:

"If you build a fence 100 feet long with posts 10 feet apart, how many posts do you need?"

/fen(t)s/

n. 1. A sequence of one or more distinguished (out-of-band) characters (or other data items), used to delimit a piece of data intended to be treated as a unit (the computer-science literature calls this a 'sentinel'). The NUL (ASCII 0000000) character that terminates strings in C is a fence. Hex FF is probably the most common fence character after NUL.

See zigamorph.