worm n.
[from `tapeworm' in John Brunner's novel "The Shockwave
Rider", via XEROX PARC] A program that propagates itself over a
network, reproducing itself as it goes. Compare virus. Nowadays the term has negative
connotations, as it is assumed that only crackers write worms. Perhaps the best-known
example was Robert T. Morris's Great
Worm of 1988, a `benign' one that got out of control and
hogged hundreds of Suns and VAXen across the U.S. See also cracker, RTM,
Trojan horse, ice.
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wormhole /werm'hohl/ n.
[from the `wormhole' singularities hypothesized in some
versions of General Relativity theory] 1. [n.,obs.] A location in
a monitor which contains the address of a routine, with the
specific intent of making it easy to substitute a different
routine. This term is now obsolescent; modern operating systems
use clusters of wormholes extensively (for modularization of I/O
handling in particular, as in the Unix device-driver
organization) but the preferred techspeak for these clusters is
`device tables', `jump tables' or `capability tables'. 2.
[Amateur Packet Radio] A network path using a commercial
satellite link to join two or more amateur VHF networks. So
called because traffic routed through a wormhole leaves and
re-enters the amateur network over great distances with usually
little clue in the message routing header as to how it got from
one relay to the other. Compare gopher hole (sense 2).
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wound around the axle adj.
In an infinite loop. Often used by older computer types.
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wrap around vi.
(also n. `wraparound' and v. shorthand `wrap') 1. [techspeak]
The action of a counter that starts over at zero or at `minus
infinity' (see infinity) after its
maximum value has been reached, and continues incrementing,
either because it is programmed to do so or because of an
overflow (as when a car's odometer starts over at 0). 2. To
change phase gradually and
continuously by maintaining a steady wake-sleep cycle somewhat
longer than 24 hours, e.g., living six long (28-hour) days in a
week (or, equivalently, sleeping at the rate of 10 microhertz).
This sense is also called phase-wrapping.
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write-only code n.
[a play on `read-only memory'] Code so arcane, complex, or
ill-structured that it cannot be modified or even comprehended by
anyone but its author, and possibly not even by him/her. A Bad Thing.
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write-only language n.
A language with syntax (or semantics) sufficiently dense and
bizarre that any routine of significant size is automatically
write-only code. A
sobriquet applied occasionally to C and often to APL, though
INTERCAL and TECO certainly deserve it more. See also Befunge.
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write-only memory n.
The obvious antonym to `read-only memory'. Out of frustration
with the long and seemingly useless chain of approvals required
of component specifications, during which no actual checking
seemed to occur, an engineer at Signetics once created a
specification for a write-only memory and included it with a
bunch of other specifications to be approved. This inclusion came
to the attention of Signetics management only when regular customers
started calling and asking for pricing information. Signetics
published a corrected edition of the data book and requested the
return of the `erroneous' ones. Later, in 1972, Signetics bought
a double-page spread in "Electronics" magazine's April issue and
used the spec as an April Fools' Day joke. Instead of the more
conventional characteristic curves, the 25120 "fully encoded,
9046 x N, Random Access, write-only-memory" data sheet included
diagrams of "bit capacity vs. Temp.", "Iff vs. Vff", "Number of
pins remaining vs. number of socket insertions", and "AQL vs.
selling price". The 25120 required a 6.3 VAC VFF supply, a +10V
VCC, and VDD of 0V, +/- 2%.