WhatIs

/bloh *n ee'prom/

v. (alt. 'blast an EPROM', 'burn an EPROM') To program a read-only memory, e.g. for use with an embedded system. This term arises because the programming process for the Programmable Read-Only Memories (PROMs) that preceded present-day Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memories (EPROMs) involved intentionally blowing tiny electrical fuses on the chip. Thus, one was said to 'blow' (or 'blast') a PROM, and the terminology carried over even though the write process on EPROMs is nondestructive.

/bläk tran(t)s-ˈfər käm-pyu̇-ˈtā-shəns/

n. From the television series Dr. Who, in which it referred to computations so fiendishly subtle and complex that they could not be performed by machines. Used to refer to any task that should be expressible as an algorithm in theory, but isn't.

/bläk/

[from process scheduling terminology in OS theory]

1. vi. To delay or sit idle while waiting for something. "We're blocking until everyone gets here."

Compare busy-wait.

2. 'block on' vt. To block, waiting for (something). "Lunch is blocked on Phil's arrival."

/bläb/

The crypto equivalent of a locked box. A cryptographic primitive for bit commitment, with the properties that a blob can represent a 0 or a 1, that others cannot tell be looking whether it is a 0 or a 1, that the creator of the blob can "open" the blob to reveal the contents, and that no blob can be both a 1 and a 0. An example of this is a flipped coin covered by a hand.

/bliv'*t/

[ allegedly from a World War II military term meaning "ten pounds of manure in a five-pound bag" ]

n. 1. An intractable problem.

2. A crucial piece of hardware that can't be fixed or replaced if it breaks.

3. A tool that has been hacked over by so many incompetent programmers that it has become an unmaintainable tissue of hacks.

4. An out-of-control but unkillable development effort.

5. An embarrassing bug that pops up during a customer demo.

/blit'r/

n. A special-purpose chip or hardware system built to perform BLIT operations, esp. used for fast implementation of bit-mapped graphics. The Commodore Amiga and a few other micros have these, but in 1991 the trend is away from them (however, see cycle of reincarnation).

Syn. raster blaster.

/blit/

vt. 

1. To copy a large array of bits from one part of a computer's memory to another part, particularly when the memory is being used to determine what is shown on a display screen. "The storage allocator picks through the table and copies the good parts up into high memory, and then blits it all back down again."

   See bitBLT, BLT, dd, cat, blast, snarf.

/blink'*n-li:tz/

n. Front-panel diagnostic lights on a computer, esp. a dinosaur. Derives from the last word of the famous blackletter-Gothic sign in mangled pseudo-German that once graced about half the computer rooms in the English-speaking world. One version ran in its entirety as follows:

/blech'*-r*s/

adj. Disgusting in design or function; esthetically unappealing. This word is seldom used of people.

"This keyboard is bletcherous!"

/blech/

[from Yiddish/German 'brechen', to vomit, poss. via comic-strip exclamation 'blech']

interj. Term of disgust. Often used in "Ugh, bletch".

Compare barf.

other jargon: