blink vi.,n.
To use a navigator or off-line message reader to minimize time
spent on-line to a commercial network service (a necessity in
many places outside the U.S. where the telecoms monopolies charge
per-minute for local calls). This term attained wide use in the
UK, but is rare or unknown in the US.
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blinkenlights /blink'*n-li:tz/ n.
[common] Front-panel diagnostic lights on a computer, esp. a
dinosaur. Now that dinosaurs are
rare, this term usually refers to status lights on a modem,
network hub, or the like.
This term 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: