Unit 19: Vocabulary

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code monkey
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someone who sits and programs all day; someone who is only valued for their programming skills
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"The bad software architect said, "Tell the developers to stop thinking and start typing like good little code monkeys!""
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early adopter
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a person who likes new things and often buys them before they are proven
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"A geek is a typical early adopter, often trying the latest and greatest technology before their peers have even heard of it."
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EOL (end of life)
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the point when something is no longer supported or viable
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"Operating systems typically reach their EOL about 3 years after release, but some people continue using them for decades."
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fanboy
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someone obsessed or devoted to a particular item or genre
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"Tom is such a fanboy, he still uses his old Commodore Amiga as his main computer."
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flame
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to write an intentionally abusive reply to a comment or social media post
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"Joe, the sysadmin, got sent to counseling because he started too many flame wars on the company intranet."
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geek
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an individual with a passion for computers, to the exclusion of other normal human interests
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"The geek did not have a girlfriend, but he did have a computer named Lisa which he programmed to sing him love songs before bedtime."
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horked
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completely broken in some mysterious way; corrupted
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"The websites crashed because the server was completely horked."
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killer app
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a piece of software which redefines the industry, often causing people to rush out and buy new hardware so they can use it
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"Email was the first killer app of the Internet. "
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leading edge
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at the forefront of a new technology; also referred to as "state-of-the-art"
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"Kyle's company is so leading edge that they buy everyone new computers every six months."
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pita (pain in the ass)
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this is nerd slang for anything annoying
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"Installing and configuring a Linux wireless network card can be a real pita."
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PHB (pointy haired boss)
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a derogatory reference to a stereotypical IT manager who chooses their technology platforms based on the latest TV commercial and has no practical knowledge at all of what their employees actually do
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"This is how the PHB is described on the Dilbert website: "He wasn't born mean and unscrupulous, he worked hard at it.""
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spaghetti code
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a derogatory term for poorly organized programming code
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"The lead programmer threw his hands up in the air and screamed when he saw the 10,000 lines of spaghetti code that management asked him to debug by tomorrow."
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trendsetter
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someone who successfully defines a path for the rest of the industry to follow
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"Apple is a company of trendsetters, whom everyone else is just following like lemmings."
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troll
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a person who writes intentionally controversial posts on a user forum in order to start a flame war
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"The forum's popularity among serious users went down when the system operator refused to banish the trolls."
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whatever
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something sarcastic you can say to non-technical people when they repeatedly give you misguided technical instructions that are impossible, impractical, dangerous, or overly time-consuming
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""Whatever, dude," replied the programmer when his manager asked him to work overtime to recover his deleted files."
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