As we continue in this Endless Journey for Technology, we could not resist to encounter such odd terms and weirdness. Here are some of those:
GoogleWhack
We all know what Google is, but why would you want to whack it around? Let’s face it, even techie folk need a break every now and then and GoogleWhacking is a fun way to take a few minutes out of your wired day to play. The goal of a Googlewhack is to perform search queries that will produce only one single search result in the Google search engine. Imagine &$151; if it catches on in a big way we just might end up with a whole new Internet sporting event!
BLOB
In the tech world BLOB is not used to describe a green oozing spatter of who-knows-what, it’s actually the abbreviation for binary large object, a collection of binary data stored as a single entity in a database management system.
Blowfish
If you’ve ever seen a picture of a blowfish then I am sure you too are wondering why in 1993 Bruce Schneier decided to call his symmetric encryption algorithm "Blowfish". We still haven’t found an answer to that one…
zombie
While many think the term zombie is in reference to one of the many 3D PC games out there, a zombie is actually a bit more serious than that. In the world of UNIX, a zombie refers to a "child" program that was started by a "parent" program but then abandoned by the parent. Zombie is also used to describe a computer that has been implanted with a daemon that puts it under the control of a malicious hacker without the knowledge of the computer owner. No matter what definition you choose for the word zombie, it is still pretty scary stuff!
choke packet
One can’t help but to picture an irate system administrator trying to choke their router when you see this term. While we think this should be used in reference anger management seminars for network administrators, unfortunately the term choke packet is already taken and being used to describe a specialized packet that is used for flow control along a network.
Cuckoo Egg
Not only is the term itself odd but so is the definition in the case of a Cuckoo Egg. For those who download copy protected songs, one day you may come across Cuckoo Egg yourself. As you sit back to enjoy the tune, within the first 30 seconds you may hear something other than the initial song; usually cuckoo clock sound effects or a series of random sounds and noises that are free of any copyright ownerships. Cuckoo on you for not buying the CD in the first place!
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