With the growing popularity of computers, the spread of the Internet and Web,
and the success of Linux, terms from hacker jargon are increasingly going
mainstream, though not always in the correct perspective.

The New Hacker's Dictionary is a fascinating compendium of words from the
worlds of computing, computer networks, and the people who inhabit them.
Last week's citation of Murphy's Law brought enthusiastic responses with
requests for more examples from this book which is available at
http://www.jargon.org.

This week we have terms from this lexicon that give us glimpses of the hacker
culture. Enjoy this geek-week and remember - hackers, though often maligned,
are good guys, they are not crackers.

I'm not a betting person, but I'm certain that today's citation for 'spam' (Monty Python) does not refer to computer-speak but to a ubiquitous staple British foodstuff "Spam" (R): a tinned meat product consisting chiefly of ham, and loosely, any tinned luncheon meat.

I'm not sure how widespread it is today -- any British foodlovers care to enlighten us?

I'm certain that today's citation for 'spam' (Monty Python) does not refer to computer-speak

I found it to be equally suspect. In fact, I tried (unsuccessfully) to clearly identify exactly what line of text that bracketed sentence referred to.

I'd say that the list of definitions for spam has been cobbled together from several online sources, many of which have the offending bracketed comment. here, for the betterment of all, is a link to the complete (compleat?) MP Spam Skit:
http://www.detritus.org/spam/skit.html

it's pretty obvious, ron, that this skit did give a whole new twist to the word spam, although it originally had nothing to do with computers -- but hackers in the 70s were *huge MP fans, so I can accept the connection.

How do others feel about the variability on the use of plural abbreviations of this sort:

640 megabytes being referred to in speech as 640 meg vs 640 megs.

Hackers of the world (and the rest of us, because we surely talk of megabytes of RAM so we can maximize our AWAD-Talk), whatcha think?

I think it matters not two whit; and I say this because meg is already an abortive formation, so what matter how we try to pluralize it? but that's just my opinion...

"Two whit..to who-oo"?, she said owlishly!