down
1. adj. Not operating. "The up escalator is down" is
considered a humorous thing to say (unless of course you were
expecting to use it), and "The elevator is down" always means
"The elevator isn't working" and never refers to what floor the
elevator is on. With respect to computers, this term has passed
into the mainstream; the extension to other kinds of machine is
still confined to techies (e.g. boiler mechanics may speak of a
boiler being down). 2. `go down' vi. To stop functioning; usually
said of the system. The message from
the console that every hacker hates
to hear from the operator is "System going down in 5 minutes". 3.
`take down', `bring down' vt. To deactivate purposely, usually
for repair work or PM. "I'm taking the
system down to work on that bug in the tape drive." Occasionally
one hears the word `down' by itself used as a verb in this vt.
sense. See crash; oppose up.
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download vt.
To transfer data or (esp.) code from a far-away system
(especially a larger `host' system) over a digital communications
link to a nearby system (especially a smaller `client' system.
Oppose upload.
Historical use of these terms was at one time associated with
transfers from large timesharing machines to PCs or peripherals
(download) and vice-versa (upload). The modern usage relative to
the speaker (rather than as an indicator of the size and role of
the machines) evolved as machine categories lost most of their
former functional importance.
Node:DP, Next:DPB,
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DP /D-P/ n.
1. Data Processing. Listed here because, according to hackers,
use of the term marks one immediately as a suit. See DPer. 2.
Common abbrev for Dissociated
Press.
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DPB /d*-pib'/ vt.
[from the PDP-10 instruction set] To plop something down in
the middle. Usage: silly. "DPB yourself into that couch there."
The connotation would be that the couch is full except for one
slot just big enough for one last person to sit in. DPB means
`DePosit Byte', and was the name of a PDP-10 instruction that
inserts some bits into the middle of some other bits. Hackish
usage has been kept alive by the Common LISP function of the same
name.