ADOT DoHP
Abbrev. Arizona Department of Transportation, Dept of Highway Poetry. [No doubt in reference to the signs on SR260 near Payson/Kohl's Ranch in Arizona.]
Alphabetical Order
The arrangement of groups of symbols in lexiconic order. Also, the order you assumed this list of words was in. In which case, whatever you do, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, See: TI and TMS380!!
Arizona
A peverted, diverse area in the southwestern United States of America, mainly home to tired elderly, runaway Californians, bizare mountain creatures paired with even more bizare desert creatures, and people who generally ended up there for lack of anywhere better to go.
Cellular Phones, or Cell Phones
See telephone. A particularly nasty form of the wretched telephone, the cellular phone was marketed under the guise of 'yet another better way to talk with people'. And yet again, it was inaptly named. The cell phone was actually sprung of a much higher evil than that. You see, when the talk-with'ers started getting too much control over the entire phone situation, the talk-at'ers decided that if they wanted to fight back, they needed to be mobile. And mobile they became. [Though not as mobile as they think. There are still many, many places (particularly rural areas (particularly rural areas over 9kft)) where the talk-with'ers have already won, and telephone service of all forms has been completely irradicated.] At first, their mobility was burdened by dreadful sound quality and painfully irreliable connections. Though that was all caused by inadequate design (talk-at'ers tend to be too-quick-to-implement, not spending anywhere near enough energy in designing), even the newest "Digital" models have many of the same problems. In conclusion, the product said to be 'another better way to talk with people' turned up yet again to be 'another better way to talk at people'.
CREDITS
A file in the Linux kernel source that lists random people who are arrogant enough to add themselves to the list of contributors to the kernel code. [A very entertaining read, if you have nothing better to do. Or you wish to send Delightfully Creative SPAM to random coders.] See MAINTAINERS.
Delightfully Creative SPAM
A particularly interesting form of SPAM that offers merits above and beyond the required elements of random commerical emailing. [For a particularly humorous article, see 1999/bx14 in DYKSHTWYWW: Vol 15.]
DYKSHTWYWW
Abbrev, Did you know stuff happened today while you weren't watching?. The dilusional ramblings of the various people collectively entitled Adam S Fritzler. These ramblings are only titled such if, and only if, they are written into a publicly accessible location (here) and are labelled appropriately. Please note that anything they say to you in person, on the phone [shudder], or in other private conversation does not necessarily count as part of DYKSHTWYWW, though it doesn't preclude it as such.
DMA
Abbrev, Direct Memory Access. A type of mass data transfer that occurs when a sub-processor directly accesses memory attached to a main processor, with no interaction with the main processor (except for the needed administrative/navigational handshaking). Despite its simple definition, it creates innumerable problems in simple systems, particularly PCs, particularly PCs where the sub-processor is on the opposite side of an ISA bus. See PDMA; compare PIO.
The Guide
See HtFOWtHMiRA.
HtFOWtHMiRA
Abbrev. How to Figure Out What the Hell Mid is Rambling About. See The Guide.
Linux
You should know what Linux is by now.
Madge
Full name: Madge Networks. Also, Madge.connect and Madge.web. A fantastically great manufacturer of token ring and other high-end networking products. The original promoters of 100Mb token ring (HSTR), and the number one name in token ring worldwide. Many of their early boards were based around the TMS380 chipset, and were kind enough to send mid some boards to play with, err write drivers with. Nicely designed boards, they are. Their newest cards (that do support HSTR) are based on their own chipset, codename Knossos, is the best in its class. They have also released the source code to the drivers that support these newer cards. Support for the older TMS380 cards should be in mid's newest releases of tms380tr. Recently, they acquired Olicom Networks, the second largest manufacterer of token ring products.
MAINTAINERS
Similar to CREDITS, however, people listed in MAINTAINERS are actually held responsible for whatever they're listed under. Or at least thats the idea. [I am in MAINTAINERS as of a few releases ago. Leap for joy in my arrogance. I still need to add myself to CREDITS though.] What normally happens here is that someone adds something to the kernel, lists themselves in CREDITS, and then someone in MAINTAINERS ends up taking care of whatever the other guy added. Quite unfair, but its reality.
Need
1. In human terms, an overembelished want. 2. In economic terms, an infinite amount of little bits of green paper.
PDMA
Abbrev, Pseudo-DMA or Pseudo-Direct Memory Access. A severely crippled form of DMA where true DMA is mostly emulated through the use of PIO. The transfer appears to most upper layers (usually including the sub-processor) to be DMA, but in actuality, the data is transfered using PIO (and therefore tying up main processor CPU time in the process). This transfer mode is usually used when a subprocessor that was designed to do true DMA is integrated into a system where true DMA is not possible (ie, where the sub-processor is not allowed to gain control of the system bus), but PIO is. This offers the ease of software-side implementation of DMA, with the dismal speed of PIO. Not recommended for new products, to say the least.
People
1. The name given to a group of humans. 2. The name given to a group of human mindsets and/or cultural groupings. 3. The name given to the unfortunate race of apes who spend their entire lives running about chasing little bits of green paper (See HHGTTG.). 4. Definition 3, with a bit of intelligence and sheer idiocy mixed in.
PIO
Abbrev, Programmed Input/Output. The slowest form of data transfer between non-peer processors. The main CPU manually puts data into the sub-processor, usually byte-wise, taking up severe amounts of CPU cycles in the process. Compare: DMA; see PDMA.
The Simpsons
Also, The Thompsons and The Hurricane. You need not ask what they are. Just believe in them, and the knowledge shall be willed upon you.
Telephone, or Phone
The telephone is rather unfortunate device, and a quite overrated one at that. The phone was created under the premise that people needed a better way of communicating with each other. This worked for many years after the invention. However, sometime later, it came to be seen that there were an entire lot of people around that didn't want to be talked to at all. Of course, this was not brought on naturely. These people were not misfortunes of nature. Nay, these people merely saw that they were getting talked at (forced one-sided conversation) more than they were getting talked with, and that these people hated the talk-at'ers so much that they were rather die than become one. That gave rise to a new profound mission to passively seek out and destroy any device that would let the talk-at'ers get anywhere near them, the talk-with'ers. Telephones are such a device. See Cellular Phones.
TMS380
A very nice line of low- and mid-level communications processors designed and manufactered by TI. TMS380 is a general term, though usually refering to one of the newer, more integrated COMMprocessors such as the TMS380C26 or TMS380C30. Other parts worthy of mention are the TMS38054 (Physical Ring Interface) and the TMS380PCIA (PCI interface for the TMS380C30). These COMMprocessors can run both Ethernet and Token Ring protocols, though only the Token Ring firmware ever caught on. The dual modes of the chip, however, are worth pointing out, even if to do no more than glamorize TI and their engineering abilities. [mid is working on Linux support for various cards using these processors. See here.]
TI
Abbrev, Texas Instruments (www.ti.com). Manufacturers and designers of such products as the TMS380 COMMprocessors and the TI-{8{0,1,2,3,3+,9},9{2,2+}} graphing calculators.