WhatIs

/rān dan(t)s/

n. 1. Any ceremonial action taken to correct a hardware problem, with the expectation that nothing will be accomplished. This especially applies to reseating printed circuit boards, reconnecting cables, etc.

"I can't boot up the machine. We'll have to wait for Greg to do his rain dance."

2. Any arcane sequence of actions performed with computers or software in order to achieve some goal; the term is usually restricted to rituals that include both an incantation or two and physical activity or motion.

/kwər-tē/

/kwuhks/

The fourth of the standard metasyntactic variables, after baz and before the quu(u...)x series.

See foo, bar, baz, quux. This appears to be a recent mutation from quux, and many versions of the standard series just run foo, bar, baz, quux...

/kwuhks/

[Mythically, from the Latin semi-deponent verb quuxo, quuxare, quuxandum iri; noun form variously 'quux' (plural 'quuces', anglicized to 'quuxes') and 'quuxu' (genitive plural is 'quuxuum', for four u-letters out of seven in all, using up all the 'u' letters in Scrabble).]

/kwō-shənt/

n. See coefficient.

/kwōt chap-tər ən(d) vərs/

[by analogy with the mainstream phrase]

v. To reproduce a relevant excerpt from an appropriate bible.

"I don't care if 'rn' gets it wrong; 'Followup-To: poster' is explicitly permitted by RFC-1036. I'll quote chapter and verse if you don't believe me."

/kwik-ən(d)-dər-tē/

adj. Describes a crock put together under time or user pressure. Used esp. when you want to convey that you think the fast way might lead to trouble further down the road.

"I can have a quick-and-dirty fix in place tonight, but I'll have to rewrite the whole module to solve the underlying design problem."

See also kluge.

/kwes/

1. n. The question mark character ('?', ASCII 0111111).

2. interj. What? Also frequently verb-doubled as "Ques ques?"

See wall.

/kwȯ(r)-tər/

n. Two bits. This in turn comes from the pieces of eight famed in pirate movies -- Spanish gold pieces that could be broken into eight pie-slice-shaped bits to make change. Early in American history the Spanish coin was considered equal to a dollar, so each of these bits was considered worth 12.5 cents.

Syn. tayste, crumb, quad.

/kwän-təm bō-gō-dī-na-miks/

n. A theory that characterizes the universe in terms of bogon sources (such as politicians, used-car salesmen, TV evangelists, and suits in general), bogon sinks (such as taxpayers and computers), and bogosity potential fields. Bogon absorption, of course, causes human beings to behave mindlessly and machines to fail (and may also cause both to emit secondary bogons); however, the precise mechanics of the bogon-computron interaction are not yet understood and remain to be elucidated.