blivet definition
/bliv'*t/ [allegedly from a World War II military term meaning
"ten pounds of manure in a five-pound bag"] 1. An intractable
problem.
2. A crucial piece of hardware that can't be fixed or replaced
if it breaks.
3. A tool that has been hacked over by so many incompetent
programmers that it has become an unmaintainable tissue of
hacks.
4. An out-of-control but unkillable development effort.
5. An embarrassing bug that pops up during a customer demo.
6. In the subjargon of computer security specialists, a
denial-of-service attack performed by hogging limited
resources that have no access controls (for example, shared
spool space on a multi-user system).
This term has other meanings in other technical cultures;
among experimental physicists and hardware engineers of
various kinds it seems to mean any random object of unknown
purpose (similar to hackish use of frob). It has also been
used to describe an amusing trick-the-eye drawing resembling a
three-pronged fork that appears to depict a three-dimensional
object until one realises that the parts fit together in an
impossible way.
[Jargon File]
Nearby terms:
BLISS-36 « blit « blitter « blivet » bloat » bloatware » BLOB
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