no-op /noh'op/ n.,v.
alt. NOP /nop/ [no operation] 1. A machine instruction that
does nothing (sometimes used in assembler-level programming as
filler for data or patch areas, or to overwrite code to be
removed in binaries). 2. A person who contributes nothing to a
project, or has nothing going on upstairs, or both. As in "He's a
no-op." 3. Any operation or sequence of operations with no
effect, such as circling the block without finding a parking
space, or putting money into a vending machine and having it fall
immediately into the coin-return box, or asking someone for help
and being told to go away. "Oh, well, that was a no-op."
Hot-and-sour soup (see great-wall) that is insufficiently either
is `no-op soup'; so is wonton soup if everybody else is having
hot-and-sour.
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noddy /nod'ee/ adj.
[UK: from the children's books] 1. Small and un-useful, but
demonstrating a point. Noddy programs are often written by people
learning a new language or system. The archetypal noddy program
is hello world. Noddy code
may be used to demonstrate a feature or bug of a compiler. May be
used of real hardware or software to imply that it isn't worth
using. "This editor's a bit noddy." 2. A program that is more or
less instant to produce. In this use, the term does not
necessarily connote uselessness, but describes a hack sufficiently trivial that it can be written
and debugged while carrying on (and during the space of) a normal
conversation. "I'll just throw together a noddy awk script to dump all the first fields." In North
America this might be called a mickey mouse program. See
toy program.
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node n.
1. [Internet, UUCP] A host machine on the network. 2. [MS-DOS
BBSes] A dial-in line on a BBS. Thus an MS-DOS sysop might say that his BBS has 4 nodes even
though it has a single machine and no Internet link, confusing an
Internet hacker no end.
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Nominal Semidestructor n.
Soundalike slang for `National Semiconductor', found among
other places in the Networking/2 networking sources. During the
late 1970s to mid-1980s this company marketed a series of
microprocessors including the NS16000 and NS32000 and several
variants. At one point early in the great microprocessor race,
the specs on these chips made them look like serious competition
for the rising Intel 80x86 and Motorola 680x0 series.
Unfortunately, the actual parts were notoriously flaky and never
implemented the full instruction set promised in their
literature, apparently because the company couldn't get any of
the mask steppings to work as designed. They eventually sank
without trace, joining the Zilog Z8000 and a few even more
obscure also-rans in the graveyard of forgotten microprocessors.
Compare HP-SUX, AIDX, buglix, Macintrash, Telerat, ScumOS,
sun-stools, Slowlaris, Internet Exploder.
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non-optimal solution n.
(also `sub-optimal solution') An astoundingly stupid way to do
something. This term is generally used in deadpan sarcasm, as its
impact is greatest when the person speaking looks completely
serious. Compare stunning. See
also Bad Thing.