guru n.
[Unix] An expert. Implies not only wizard skill but also a history of being a
knowledge resource for others. Less often, used (with a
qualifier) for other experts on other systems, as in `VMS guru'.
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guru meditation n.
Amiga equivalent of `panic' in Unix (sometimes just called a
`guru' or `guru event'). When the system crashes, a cryptic
message of the form "GURU MEDITATION #XXXXXXXX.YYYYYYYY" may
appear, indicating what the problem was. An Amiga guru can figure
things out from the numbers. Sometimes a guru event must be followed by a Vulcan nerve pinch.
This term is (no surprise) an in-joke from the earliest days
of the Amiga. An earlier product of the Amiga corporation was a
device called a `Joyboard' which was basically a plastic board
built onto a joystick-like device; it was sold with a skiing game
cartridge for the Atari game machine. It is said that whenever
the prototype OS crashed, the system programmer responsible would
calm down by concentrating on a solution while sitting
cross-legged on a Joyboard trying to keep the board in balance.
This position resembled that of a meditating guru. Sadly, the
joke was removed fairly early on (but there's a well-known patch
to restore it in more recent versions).