filter n.
[very common; orig. Unix, now also
in MS-DOS] A program that processes
an input data stream into an output data stream in some
well-defined way, and does no I/O to anywhere else except
possibly on error conditions; one designed to be used as a stage
in a `pipeline' (see plumbing).
Compare sponge.
Node:Finagle's Law, Next:fine, Previous:filter, Up:= F
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Finagle's Law n.
The generalized or `folk' version of Murphy's Law, fully named "Finagle's
Law of Dynamic Negatives" and usually rendered "Anything that can
go wrong, will". One variant favored among hackers is "The
perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum" (but see also
Hanlon's Razor). The label
`Finagle's Law' was popularized by SF author Larry Niven in
several stories depicting a frontier culture of asteroid miners;
this `Belter' culture professed a religion and/or running joke
involving the worship of the dread god Finagle and his mad
prophet Murphy. Some technical and scientific cultures (e.g.,
paleontologists) know it under the name `Sod's Law'; this usage
may be more common in Great Britain.