shriek n.
See excl. Occasional CMU usage,
also in common use among APL fans and mathematicians, especially
category theorists.
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Shub-Internet /shuhb' in't*r-net/ n.
[MUD: from H. P. Lovecraft's evil fictional deity
Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat with a Thousand Young] The harsh
personification of the Internet: Beast of a Thousand Processes,
Eater of Characters, Avatar of Line Noise, and Imp of Call
Waiting; the hideous multi-tendriled entity formed of all the
manifold connections of the net. A sect of MUDders worships
Shub-Internet, sacrificing objects and praying for good
connections. To no avail -- its purpose is malign and evil, and
is the cause of all network slowdown. Often heard as in "Freela
casts a tac nuke at Shub-Internet for slowing her down." (A
forged response often follows along the lines of: "Shub-Internet
gulps down the tac nuke and burps happily.") Also cursed by users
of the Web, FTP and TELNET when the system slows down. The dread
name of Shub-Internet is seldom spoken aloud, as it is said that
repeating it three times will cause the being to wake, deep
within its lair beneath the Pentagon. Compare Random Number God.
[January 1996: It develops that one of the computer
administrators in the basement of the Pentagon read this entry
and fell over laughing. As a result, you too can now poke
Shub-Internet by pinging
_shub-internet.ims.disa.mil_. See also kremvax. - ESR]
[April 1999: shub-internet.ims.disa.mil is no more, alas. But
Shub-Internet lives o^$#$*^ - ESR]