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drone n.

Ignorant sales or customer service personnel in computer or

electronics superstores. Characterized by a lack of even

superficial knowledge about the products they sell, yet possessed

of the conviction that they are more competent than their hacker

customers. Usage: "That video board probably sucks, it was

recommended by a drone at Fry's" In the year 2000, their natural

habitats include Fry's Electronics, Best Buy, and CompUSA.

Node:drool-proof paper, Next:drop on the floor,

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drool-proof paper n.

Documentation that has been obsessively dumbed down, to the point where only a

cretin could bear to read it, is

said to have succumbed to the `drool-proof paper syndrome' or to

have been `written on drool-proof paper'. For example, this is an

actual quote from Apple's LaserWriter manual: "Do not expose your

LaserWriter to open fire or flame." The SGI Indy manual is said

to include the line "Do not dangle the mouse by the cord or throw

it at coworkers.", but this sounds like parody.

Node:drop on the floor,

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drop on the floor vt.

To react to an error condition by silently discarding messages

or other valuable data. "The gateway ran out of memory, so it

just started dropping packets on the floor." Also frequently used

of faulty mail and netnews relay sites that lose messages. See

also black hole, bit bucket.

The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 · 第 529 / 1941 题