Ada A Pascal-descended language that has been made mandatory for Department of Defense software projects by the Pentagon. Hackers are nearly unanimous in observing that, technically, it is precisely what one might expect given that kind of endorsement by fiat; designed by committee, crockish, difficult to use, and overall a disastrous, multi-billion-dollar boondoggle (one common description is ``The PL/I of the 1980s''). Hackers find Ada's exception-handling and inter-process communication features particularly hilarious. Ada Lovelace (the daughter of Lord Byron who became the world's first programmer while cooperating with Charles Babbage on the design of his mechanical computing engines in the mid-1800s) would almost certainly blanch at the use to which her name has latterly been put; the kindest thing that has been said about it is that there is probably a good small language screaming to get out from inside its vast, elephantine bulk.
Bug An error in the design or implementation of a program, that causes the program to do something unintended. The original bug was a moth stuck in a relay of ENIAC.
CPU or Processor
The brain of the computer system. CPU controls the operation of a
computer system and performs all the thinking.
Cracker
On USENET, calling someone a ``cracker'' is an unambiguous statement that some
person persistently gets his/her kicks from breaking from into other peoples'
computer systems, for a variety of reasons. S/He may pose some weak
justification for doing this, usually along the lines of ``because it's
possible'', but most probably does it for the ``buzz'' of doing something which
is illicit/illegal, and to gain status amongst a peer group.
Particularly antisocial crackers have a vandalistic streak, and delete
filestores, crash machines, and trash running processes in pursuit of their
``kicks''. The term is also widely used to describe a person who breaks copy
protection software in microcomputer applications software in order to keep or
distribute free copies. (See also, Hacker)
[From FAQs of comp.security.misc]
Elephantine
Used of programs or systems that are both conspicuous hogs (owing perhaps to
poor design founded on brute force and ignorance) and exceedingly hairy in
source form. An elephantine program may be functional and even friendly, but
(as in the old joke about being in bed with an elephant) it's tough to have
around all the same (and, like a pachyderm, difficult to maintain). In extreme
cases, hackers have been known to make
trumpeting sounds or perform expressive proboscatory mime at the mention of the
offending program. Usage: semi-humorous. Compare `has the elephant nature' and
the somewhat more pejorative monstrosity. See also second-system effect and
baroque.
Hacker
On USENET, calling someone a ``hacker'' is usually a statement that said person
holds a great deal of knowledge and expertise in the field of computing, and is
someone who is capable of exercising this expertise with great finesse.
In the ``real world'', various media people have taken the word ``hacker'' and
coerced it into meaning the same as ``cracker'' -- this usage occasionally appears on
USENET, with disastrous and confusing results.
[From FAQs of comp.security.misc]
Interrupt
Intrusion
Any set of actions that attempty to compromise the integrity, confidentiality,
or avaliability of a resource.
Process
A program in execution; Execution of an
executable file stored in the file system.
Click here for detailed information.
Program
Supervisory Call
Switch mode from user mode to kernel mode. Transfers control to
a routine that is part of the operating system code. Generally, the
supervisory call places the user process in a blocked state.
Task
Execution of a process in its own
address space.
A hardware or software signal that indicates to the operating system the
occurence of some event such as a keystroke. Interrupt is typically taken care
of by an interrupt handler that services the event.