frogging [University of Waterloo] v.
1. Partial corruption of a text file or input stream by some
bug or consistent glitch, as opposed to random events like line
noise or media failures. Might occur, for example, if one bit of
each incoming character on a tty were stuck, so that some
characters were correct and others were not. See terminak for a historical example and compare
dread high-bit
disease. 2. By extension, accidental display of text in a
mode where the output device emits special symbols or mnemonics
rather than conventional ASCII. This often happens, for example,
when using a terminal or comm program on a device like an IBM PC
with a special `high-half' character set and with the bit-parity
assumption wrong. A hacker sufficiently familiar with ASCII bit
patterns might be able to read the display anyway.
Node:front end, Next:frotz, Previous:frogging, Up:=
F =
front end n.
1. An intermediary computer that does set-up and filtering for
another (usually more powerful but less friendly) machine (a
`back end'). 2. What you're talking to when you have a
conversation with someone who is making replies without paying
attention. "Look at the dancing elephants!" "Uh-huh." "Do you
know what I just said?" "Sorry, you were talking to the front
end." 3. Software that provides an interface to another program
`behind' it, which may not be as user-friendly. Probably from
analogy with hardware front-ends (see sense 1) that interfaced
with mainframes.