firefighting n.
1. What sysadmins have to do to correct sudden operational
problems. An opposite of hacking. "Been hacking your new
newsreader?" "No, a power glitch hosed the network and I spent
the whole afternoon fighting fires." 2. The act of throwing lots
of manpower and late nights at a project, esp. to get it out
before deadline. See also gang
bang, Mongolian Hordes
technique; however, the term `firefighting' connotes that
the effort is going into chasing bugs rather than adding
features.