75 lines
4.8 KiB
Markdown
75 lines
4.8 KiB
Markdown
---
|
||
title: "Computer humour"
|
||
chunk: 1/1
|
||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_humour"
|
||
category: "reference"
|
||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:02:13.937938+00:00"
|
||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||
---
|
||
|
||
Computer humour, also known as hacker humour, is humour on the subject of computers or their users.
|
||
|
||
|
||
== Examples ==
|
||
Examples of computer humour include:
|
||
|
||
"Any key", taken to mean pressing the (non-existent) "Any" key rather than any key
|
||
April Fools' Day Request for Comments
|
||
Bastard Operator From Hell, a fictional rogue computer operator
|
||
Blinkenlights, a neologism for diagnostic lights
|
||
Bogosort, a portmanteau of the words bogus and sort
|
||
COMEFROM, an obscure programming language control flow structure, originally as a joke
|
||
"The Complexity of Songs", a journal article published by computer scientist Donald Knuth in 1977 as an in-joke about computational complexity theory
|
||
The Computer Contradictionary, a non-fiction book by Stan Kelly-Bootle that compiles a satirical list of definitions of computer industry terms
|
||
The Daily WTF, a humorous blog dedicated to "Curious Perversions in Information Technology"
|
||
Dilbert, an American comic strip
|
||
Easter egg, an intentional inside joke, hidden message or image, or secret feature of a work
|
||
List of Google Easter eggs
|
||
List of Easter eggs in Microsoft products
|
||
The Book of Mozilla
|
||
Elephant in Cairo, in computer programming, a piece of data inserted at the end of a search space, which matches the search criteria, in order to make sure the search algorithm terminates; it is a humorous example of a sentinel value
|
||
Epigrams on Programming, a humorous article by Alan Perlis in 1982.
|
||
Evil bit, a fictional IPv4 packet header field
|
||
Eyeball search, humorous terminology
|
||
FINO (first in, never out) (sometimes seen as "FISH", for first in, still here), a humorous scheduling algorithm, as opposed to traditional first in, first out (FIFO) and last in, first out (LIFO)
|
||
Garbage in, garbage out (GIGO), the concept that flawed, or nonsense input data produces nonsense output
|
||
J. Random Hacker, an arbitrary programmer (hacker)
|
||
Halt and Catch Fire (HCF), an idiom referring to a computer machine code instruction that causes the computer's CPU to cease meaningful operation
|
||
Hex, a fictional computer featured in the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett
|
||
Hexspeak, like leetspeak, a novelty form of spelling using the hexadecimal digits
|
||
Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP), a facetious communication protocol for controlling, monitoring, and diagnosing coffee pots
|
||
Interactive EasyFlow, a diagramming and flow charting software package that included a humorous software licence This is where the bloodthirsty licensing agreement is supposed to go...
|
||
Internet Oracle, an effort at collective humor in a pseudo-Socratic question-and-answer format
|
||
IP over Avian Carriers, a joke proposal to carry IP traffic by birds such as homing pigeons
|
||
It's Geek 2 Me, a tech cartoon
|
||
Jargon File, a glossary and usage dictionary of slang used by computer programmers
|
||
The Joy of Tech, a webcomic
|
||
Kitchen Table International, a fictitious computer company
|
||
Kremvax, originally a fictitious Usenet site at the Kremlin, named like the then large number of Usenet VAXen with names of the form "foovax"
|
||
lp0 on fire (also known as Printer on Fire), is an outdated error message generated on some Unix and Unix-like computer operating systems in response to certain types of printer errors
|
||
Magic smoke (also factory smoke, blue smoke, angry pixies, or the genie), a humorous name for the caustic smoke produced by burning out electronic circuits or components
|
||
Ninety–ninety rule: "the first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time"
|
||
Null device, in programmer jargon, the bit bucket or black hole
|
||
PC LOAD LETTER or PC LOAD A4, a printer error message that has entered popular culture as a technology meme referring to a confusing or inappropriate error message
|
||
Slowsort, a humorous, not useful, sorting algorithm
|
||
The Tao of Programming, a 1987 book by Geoffrey James
|
||
TPS report, Testing Procedure Specification, has come to mean pointless, mindless paperwork
|
||
User error, an error made by the human user of a complex system. Related slang terms include PMAC ("problem exists between monitor and chair"), identity error or ID-10T/1D-10T error ("idiot error"), PICNIC ("problem in chair, not in computer"), IBM error ("idiot behind machine error")
|
||
User Friendly, a former daily webcomic
|
||
Working Daze, a comic strip
|
||
Write-only memory (joke)
|
||
xkcd, a webcomic
|
||
Zaltair, a fictional computer created by Steve Wozniak
|
||
|
||
|
||
== See also ==
|
||
Computational humor, a branch of computational linguistics and artificial intelligence which uses computers in humor research
|
||
Humor on the internet
|
||
Mathematical joke
|
||
Geek
|
||
Esoteric programming language
|
||
List of humorous units of measurement
|
||
|
||
|
||
== References == |