DEADBEEF /ded-beef/ n.
The hexadecimal word-fill pattern for freshly allocated memory
(decimal -21524111) under a number of IBM environments, including
the RS/6000. Some modern debugging tools deliberately fill freed
memory with this value as a way of converting heisenbugs into Bohr bugs. As in "Your program is DEADBEEF"
(meaning gone, aborted, flushed from memory); if you start from
an odd half-word boundary, of course, you have BEEFDEAD. See also
the anecdote under fool and dead beef attack.