quadruple bucky n. obs.
1. On an MIT space-cadet
keyboard, use of all four of the shifting keys (control,
meta, hyper, and super) while typing a character key. 2. On a
Stanford or MIT keyboard in raw
mode, use of four shift keys while typing a fifth
character, where the four shift keys are the control and meta
keys on both sides of the keyboard. This was very
difficult to do! One accepted technique was to press the
left-control and left-meta keys with your left hand, the
right-control and right-meta keys with your right hand, and the
fifth key with your nose.
Quadruple-bucky combinations were very seldom used in
practice, because when one invented a new command one usually
assigned it to some character that was easier to type. If you
want to imply that a program has ridiculously many commands or
features, you can say something like: "Oh, the command that makes
it spin the tapes while whistling Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is
quadruple-bucky-cokebottle." See double bucky, bucky bits, cokebottle.
Node:quantifiers, Next:quantum bogodynamics,
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quantifiers
In techspeak and jargon, the standard metric prefixes used in
the SI (Système International) conventions for scientific
measurement have dual uses. With units of time or things that
come in powers of 10, such as money, they retain their usual
meanings of multiplication by powers of 1000 = 10^3. But when
used with bytes or other things that naturally come in powers of
2, they usually denote multiplication by powers of 1024 =
2^(10).
Here are the SI magnifying prefixes, along with the
corresponding binary interpretations in common use:
prefix decimal binary
kilo- 1000^1 1024^1 = 2^10 = 1,024
mega- 1000^2 1024^2 = 2^20 = 1,048,576
giga- 1000^3 1024^3 = 2^30 = 1,073,741,824
tera- 1000^4 1024^4 = 2^40 = 1,099,511,627,776
peta- 1000^5 1024^5 = 2^50 = 1,125,899,906,842,624
exa- 1000^6 1024^6 = 2^60 = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976
zetta- 1000^7 1024^7 = 2^70 = 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424
yotta- 1000^8 1024^8 = 2^80 = 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176
Here are the SI fractional prefixes:
prefix decimal jargon usage
milli- 1000^-1 (seldom used in jargon)
micro- 1000^-2 small or human-scale (see micro-)
nano- 1000^-3 even smaller (see nano-)
pico- 1000^-4 even smaller yet (see pico-)
femto- 1000^-5 (not used in jargon---yet)
atto- 1000^-6 (not used in jargon---yet)
zepto- 1000^-7 (not used in jargon---yet)
yocto- 1000^-8 (not used in jargon---yet)
The prefixes zetta-, yotta-, zepto-, and yocto- have been
included in these tables purely for completeness and giggle
value; they were adopted in 1990 by the `19th Conference Generale
des Poids et Mesures'. The binary peta- and exa- loadings, though
well established, are not in jargon use either -- yet. The prefix
milli-, denoting multiplication by 1/1000, has always been rare
in jargon (there is, however, a standard joke about the
`millihelen' -- notionally, the amount of beauty required to
launch one ship). See the entries on micro-, pico-, and
nano- for more information on
connotative jargon use of these terms. `Femto' and `atto' (which,
interestingly, derive not from Greek but from Danish) have not
yet acquired jargon loadings, though it is easy to predict what
those will be once computing technology enters the required
realms of magnitude (however, see attoparsec).
There are, of course, some standard unit prefixes for powers
of 10. In the following table, the `prefix' column is the
international standard suffix for the appropriate power of ten;
the `binary' column lists jargon abbreviations and words for the
corresponding power of 2. The B-suffixed forms are commonly used
for byte quantities; the words `meg' and `gig' are nouns that may
(but do not always) pluralize with `s'.
_prefix decimal binary pronunciation_
kilo- k K, KB, /kay/
mega- M M, MB, meg /meg/
giga- G G, GB, gig /gig/,/jig/
Confusingly, hackers often use K or M as though they were
suffix or numeric multipliers rather than a prefix; thus "2K
dollars", "2M of disk space". This is also true (though less
commonly) of G.
Note that the formal SI metric prefix for 1000 is `k'; some
use this strictly, reserving `K' for multiplication by 1024 (KB
is thus `kilobytes').
K, M, and G used alone refer to quantities of bytes; thus, 64G
is 64 gigabytes and `a K' is a kilobyte (compare mainstream use
of `a G' as short for `a grand', that is, $1000). Whether one
pronounces `gig' with hard or soft `g' depends on what one thinks
the proper pronunciation of `giga-' is.
Confusing 1000 and 1024 (or other powers of 2 and 10 close in
magnitude) -- for example, describing a memory in units of 500K
or 524K instead of 512K -- is a sure sign of the marketroid. One example of this: it is
common to refer to the capacity of 3.5" microfloppies as `1.44 MB' In fact, this
is a completely bogus number. The
correct size is 1440 KB, that is, 1440 * 1024 = 1474560 bytes. So
the `mega' in `1.44 MB' is compounded of two `kilos', one of
which is 1024 and the other of which is 1000. The correct number
of megabytes would of course be 1440 / 1024 = 1.40625. Alas, this
fine point is probably lost on the world forever.
[1993 update: hacker Morgan Burke has proposed, to general
approval on Usenet, the following additional prefixes:
groucho
10^(-30)
harpo
10^(-27)
harpi
10^(27)
grouchi
10^(30)
We observe that this would leave the prefixes zeppo-, gummo-,
and chico- available for future expansion. Sadly, there is little
immediate prospect that Mr. Burke's eminently sensible proposal
will be ratified.]
[1999 upate: there is an
IEC proposal for binary multipliers, but no evidence that any
of its proposals are in live use.]
Node:quantum bogodynamics,
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quantum bogodynamics /kwon'tm boh`goh-di:-nam'iks/
n.
A theory that characterizes the universe in terms of bogon
sources (such as politicians, used-car salesmen, TV evangelists,
and suits in general), bogon sinks
(such as taxpayers and computers), and bogosity potential fields.
Bogon absorption, of course, causes human beings to behave
mindlessly and machines to fail (and may also cause both to emit
secondary bogons); however, the precise mechanics of the
bogon-computron interaction are not yet understood and remain to
be elucidated. Quantum bogodynamics is most often invoked to
explain the sharp increase in hardware and software failures in
the presence of suits; the latter emit bogons, which the former
absorb. See bogon, computron, suit,
psyton.