tweak vt.
1. To change slightly, usually in reference to a value. Also
used synonymously with twiddle. If
a program is almost correct, rather than figure out the precise
problem you might just keep tweaking it until it works. See frobnicate and fudge factor; also see shotgun debugging. 2. To tune or bum a
program; preferred usage in the U.K.
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tweeter n.
[University of Waterloo] Syn. perf,
chad (sense 1). This term (like woofer) has been in use at Waterloo since
1972 but is elsewhere unknown. In audio jargon, the word refers
to the treble speaker(s) on a hi-fi.
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TWENEX /twe'neks/ n.
The TOPS-20 operating system by DEC
-- the second proprietary OS for the PDP-10 -- preferred by most
PDP-10 hackers over TOPS-10 (that is, by those who were not ITS or WAITS
partisans). TOPS-20 began in 1969 as Bolt, Beranek & Newman's
TENEX operating system using special paging hardware. By the
early 1970s, almost all of the systems on the ARPANET ran TENEX.
DEC purchased the rights to TENEX from BBN and began work to make
it their own. The first in-house code name for the operating
system was VIROS (VIRtual memory Operating System); when
customers started asking questions, the name was changed to SNARK
so DEC could truthfully deny that there was any project called
VIROS. When the name SNARK became known, the name was briefly
reversed to become KRANS; this was quickly abandoned when someone
objected that `krans' meant `funeral wreath' in Swedish (though
some Swedish speakers have since said it means simply `wreath';
this part of the story may be apocryphal). Ultimately DEC picked
TOPS-20 as the name of the operating system, and it was as
TOPS-20 that it was marketed. The hacker community, mindful of
its origins, quickly dubbed it TWENEX (a contraction of `twenty
TENEX'), even though by this point very little of the original
TENEX code remained (analogously to the differences between
AT&T V6 Unix and BSD). DEC people cringed when they heard
"TWENEX", but the term caught on nevertheless (the written
abbreviation `20x' was also used). TWENEX was successful and very
popular; in fact, there was a period in the early 1980s when it
commanded as fervent a culture of partisans as Unix or ITS -- but
DEC's decision to scrap all the internal rivals to the VAX
architecture and its relatively stodgy VMS OS killed the DEC-20
and put a sad end to TWENEX's brief day in the sun. DEC attempted
to convince TOPS-20 users to convert to VMS, but instead, by the late 1980s, most of the
TOPS-20 hackers had migrated to Unix.
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twiddle n.
1. Tilde (ASCII 1111110, ~). Also called
`squiggle', `sqiggle' (sic -- pronounced /skig'l/), and
`twaddle', but twiddle is the most common term. 2. A small and
insignificant change to a program. Usually fixes one bug and
generates several new ones (see also shotgun debugging). 3. vt. To
change something in a small way. Bits, for example, are often
twiddled. Twiddling a switch or knobs
implies much less sense of purpose than toggling or tweaking it;
see frobnicate. To speak of
twiddling a bit connotes aimlessness, and at best doesn't specify
what you're doing to the bit; `toggling a bit' has a more
specific meaning (see bit
twiddling, toggle). 4.
Uncommon name for the twirling
baton prompt.
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twilight zone n. //
[IRC] Notionally, the area of cyberspace where IRC operators live. An op
is said to have a "connection to the twilight zone".