ping
[from the submariners' term for a sonar pulse] 1. n. Slang
term for a small network message (ICMP ECHO) sent by a computer
to check for the presence and alertness of another. The Unix
command ping(8) can be used to do this manually
(note that ping(8)'s author denies the widespread
folk etymology that the name was ever intended as acronym for
`Packet INternet Groper'). Occasionally used as a phone greeting.
See ACK, also ENQ. 2. vt. To verify the presence of. 3. vt. To
get the attention of. 4. vt. To send a message to all members of
a mailing list requesting an
ACK (in order to verify that
everybody's addresses are reachable). "We haven't heard much of
anything from Geoff, but he did respond with an ACK both times I
pinged jargon-friends." 5. n. A quantum packet of happiness.
People who are very happy tend to exude pings; furthermore, one
can intentionally create pings and aim them at a needy party
(e.g., a depressed person). This sense of ping may appear as an
exclamation; "Ping!" (I'm happy; I am emitting a quantum of
happiness; I have been struck by a quantum of happiness). The
form "pingfulness", which is used to describe people who exude
pings, also occurs. (In the standard abuse of language,
"pingfulness" can also be used as an exclamation, in which case
it's a much stronger exclamation than just "ping"!). Oppose blargh.
The funniest use of `ping' to date was described in January
1991 by Steve Hayman on the Usenet group _comp.sys.next_. He
was trying to isolate a faulty cable segment on a TCP/IP Ethernet
hooked up to a NeXT machine, and got tired of having to run back
to his console after each cabling tweak to see if the ping
packets were getting through. So he used the sound-recording
feature on the NeXT, then wrote a script that repeatedly invoked
ping(8), listened for an echo, and played back the
recording on each returned packet. Result? A program that caused
the machine to repeat, over and over, "Ping ...
ping ... ping ..." as long as the
network was up. He turned the volume to maximum, ferreted through
the building with one ear cocked, and found a faulty tee
connector in no time.