:nastygram: /nas'tee-gram/ /n./ 1. A protocol packet or item of email (the latter is also called a {letterbomb}) that takes advantage of misfeatures or security holes on the target system to do untoward things. 2. Disapproving mail, esp. from a {net.god}, pursuant to a violation of {netiquette} or a complaint about failure to correct some mail- or news-transmission problem. Compare {shitogram}, {mailbomb}. 3. A status report from an unhappy, and probably picky, customer. "What'd Corporate say in today's nastygram?" 4. [deprecated] An error reply by mail from a {daemon}; in particular, a {bounce message}.
:Nathan Hale: /n./ An asterisk (see also {splat}, {{ASCII}}). Oh, you want an etymology? Notionally, from "I regret that I have only one asterisk for my country!", a misquote of the famous remark uttered by Nathan Hale just before he was hanged. Hale was a (failed) spy for the rebels in the American War of Independence.
:nature: /n./ See {has the X nature}.
:neat hack: /n./ 1. A clever technique. 2. A brilliant practical joke, where neatness is correlated with cleverness, harmlessness, and surprise value. Example: the Caltech Rose Bowl card display switch (see "{The Meaning of `Hack'}", Appendix A). See also {hack}.
:neats vs. scruffies: /n./ The label used to refer to one of the continuing {holy wars} in AI research. This conflict tangles together two separate issues. One is the relationship between human reasoning and AI; `neats' tend to try to build systems that `reason' in some way identifiably similar to the way humans report themselves as doing, while `scruffies' profess not to care whether an algorithm resembles human reasoning in the least as long as it works. More importantly, neats tend to believe that logic is king, while scruffies favor looser, more ad-hoc methods driven by empirical knowledge. To a neat, scruffy methods appear promiscuous, successful only by accident, and not productive of insights about how intelligence actually works; to a scruffy, neat methods appear to be hung up on formalism and irrelevant to the hard-to-capture `common sense' of living intelligences.
:neep-neep: /neep neep/ /n./ [onomatopoeic, widely spread
through SF fandom but reported to have originated at Caltech in the
1970s] One who is fascinated by computers. Less specific than
{hacker}, as it need not imply more skill than is required to
boot games on a PC. The derived noun `neeping' applies
specifically to the long conversations about computers that tend to
develop in the corners at most SF-convention parties (the term
`neepery' is also in wide use). Fandom has a related proverb to
the effect that "Hacking is a conversational black hole!".
:neophilia: /nee`oh-fil'-ee-*/ /n./ The trait of being
excited and pleased by novelty. Common among most hackers, SF
fans, and members of several other connected leading-edge
subcultures, including the pro-technology `Whole Earth' wing of
the ecology movement, space activists, many members of Mensa, and
the Discordian/neo-pagan underground. All these groups overlap
heavily and (where evidence is available) seem to share
characteristic hacker tropisms for science fiction, {{music}}, and
{{oriental food}}. The opposite tendency is `neophobia'.