playpen n.
[IBM] A room where programmers work. Compare salt mines.
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playte /playt/
16 bits, by analogy with nybble
and byte. Usage: rare and extremely
silly. See also dynner and crumb. General discussion of such terms is
under nybble.
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plingnet /pling'net/ n.
Syn. UUCPNET. Also see Commonwealth Hackish,
which uses `pling' for bang (as in
bang path).
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plokta /plok't*/ v.
[acronym: Press Lots Of Keys To Abort] To press random keys in
an attempt to get some response from the system. One might plokta
when the abort procedure for a program is not known, or when
trying to figure out if the system is just sluggish or really
hung. Plokta can also be used while trying to figure out any
unknown key sequence for a particular operation. Someone going
into `plokta mode' usually places both hands flat on the keyboard
and mashes them down, hoping for some useful response.
A slightly more directed form of plokta can often be seen in
mail messages or Usenet articles from new users -- the text might
end with
^X^C
q
quit
:q
^C
end
x
exit
ZZ
^D
?
help
as the user vainly tries to find the right exit sequence, with
the incorrect tries piling up at the end of the
message....
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plonk excl.,vt.
[Usenet: possibly influenced by British slang `plonk' for
cheap booze, or `plonker' for someone behaving stupidly (latter
is lit. equivalent to Yiddish `schmuck')] The sound a newbie makes as he falls to the bottom of a
kill file. While it originated
in the newsgroup
_talk.bizarre_, this term (usually written "*plonk*") is now
(1994) widespread on Usenet as a form of public ridicule.
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plug-and-pray adj.,vi.
Parody of the techspeak term `plug-and-play', describing a PC
peripheral card which is claimed to have no need for hardware
configuration via DIP switches, and which should be work as soon
as it is inserted in the PC. Unfortunately, even the PCI bus is
not up to pulling this off reliably, and people who have to do
installation or troubleshoot PCs soon find themselves longing for
the DIP switches.