scag vt.
To destroy the data on a disk, either by corrupting the
filesystem or by causing media damage. "That last power hit
scagged the system disk." Compare scrog, roach.
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scanno /skan'oh/ n.
An error in a document caused by a scanner glitch, analogous
to a typo or thinko.
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scary devil monastery n.
Anagram frequently used to refer to the newsgroup
_alt.sysadmin.recovery_, which is populated with characters
that rather justify the reference.
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schroedinbug /shroh'din-buhg/ n.
[MIT: from the Schroedinger's Cat thought-experiment in
quantum physics] A design or implementation bug in a program that
doesn't manifest until someone reading source or using the
program in an unusual way notices that it never should have
worked, at which point the program promptly stops working for
everybody until fixed. Though (like bit
rot) this sounds impossible, it happens; some programs
have harbored latent schroedinbugs for years. Compare heisenbug, Bohr
bug, mandelbug.
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science-fiction fandom n.
Another voluntary subculture having a very heavy overlap with
hackerdom; most hackers read SF and/or fantasy fiction avidly,
and many go to `cons' (SF conventions) or are involved in
fandom-connected activities such as the Society for Creative
Anachronism. Some hacker jargon originated in SF fandom; see
defenestration, great-wall, cyberpunk, h, ha ha only serious,
IMHO, mundane, neep-neep, Real Soon Now. Additionally, the
jargon terms cowboy, cyberspace, de-rezz, go
flatline, ice, phage, virus, wetware, wirehead, and worm
originated in SF stories.
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scram switch n.
[from the nuclear power industry] An emergency-power-off
switch (see Big Red
Switch), esp. one positioned to be easily hit by
evacuating personnel. In general, this is not something
you frob lightly; these often initiate
expensive events (such as Halon dumps) and are installed in a
dinosaur pen for use in case
of electrical fire or in case some luckless field servoid should put 120 volts
across himself while Easter
egging. (See also molly-guard, TMRC.)
A correspondent reports a legend that "Scram" is an acronym
for "Start Cutting Right Away, Man" (another less plausible
variant of this legend refers to "Safety Control Rod Axe Man";
these are almost certainly both backronyms). The story goes that in the
earliest nuclear power experiments the engineers recognized the
possibility that the reactor wouldn't behave exactly as predicted
by their mathematical models. Accordingly, they made sure that
they had mechanisms in place that would rapidly drop the control
rods back into the reactor. One mechanism took the form of `scram
technicians'. These individuals stood next to the ropes or cables
that raised and lowered the control rods. Equipped with axes or
cable-cutters, these technicians stood ready for the (literal)
`scram' command. If necessary, they would cut the cables, and
gravity would expeditiously return the control rods to the
reactor, thereby averting yet another kind of core dump.
Modern reactor control rods are held in place with claw-like
devices, held closed by current. SCRAM switches are circuit
breakers that immediately open the circuit to the rod arms,
resulting in the rapid insertion and subsequent bottoming of the
control rods.