bit bucket n.
[very common] 1. The universal data sink (originally, the
mythical receptacle used to catch bits when they fall off the end
of a register during a shift instruction). Discarded, lost, or
destroyed data is said to have `gone to the bit bucket'. On Unix, often used for /dev/null. Sometimes amplified as `the
Great Bit Bucket in the Sky'. 2. The place where all lost mail
and news messages eventually go. The selection is performed
according to Finagle's Law;
important mail is much more likely to end up in the bit bucket
than junk mail, which has an almost 100% probability of getting
delivered. Routing to the bit bucket is automatically performed
by mail-transfer agents, news systems, and the lower layers of
the network. 3. The ideal location for all unwanted mail
responses: "Flames about this article to the bit bucket." Such a
request is guaranteed to overflow one's mailbox with flames. 4.
Excuse for all mail that has not been sent. "I mailed you those
figures last week; they must have landed in the bit bucket."
Compare black hole.
This term is used purely in jest. It is based on the fanciful
notion that bits are objects that are not destroyed but only
misplaced. This appears to have been a mutation of an earlier
term `bit box', about which the same legend was current; old-time
hackers also report that trainees used to be told that when the
CPU stored bits into memory it was actually pulling them `out of
the bit box'. See also chad
box.
Another variant of this legend has it that, as a consequence
of the `parity preservation law', the number of 1 bits that go to
the bit bucket must equal the number of 0 bits. Any imbalance
results in bits filling up the bit bucket. A qualified computer
technician can empty a full bit bucket as part of scheduled
maintenance.