:salt mines: /n./ Dense quarters housing large numbers of programmers working long hours on grungy projects, with some hope of seeing the end of the tunnel in N years. Noted for their absence of sunshine. Compare {playpen}, {sandbox}.
:salt substrate: /n./ [MIT] Collective noun used to refer to
potato chips, pretzels, saltines, or any other form of snack food
designed primarily as a carrier for sodium chloride. Also
`sodium substrate'. From the technical term `chip substrate',
used to refer to the silicon on the top of which the active parts
of integrated circuits are deposited.
:same-day service: /n./ Ironic term used to describe long
response time, particularly with respect to {{MS-DOS}} system
calls (which ought to require only a tiny fraction of a second to
execute). Such response time is a major incentive for programmers
to write programs that are not {well-behaved}. See also
{PC-ism}.
:samizdat: /sahm-iz-daht/ /n./ [Russian, literally "self publishing">[ The process of disseminating documentation via underground channels. Originally referred to underground duplication and distribution of banned books in the Soviet Union; now refers by obvious extension to any less-than-official promulgation of textual material, esp. rare, obsolete, or never-formally-published computer documentation. Samizdat is obviously much easier when one has access to high-bandwidth networks and high-quality laser printers. Note that samizdat is properly used only with respect to documents which contain needed information (see also {hacker ethic}) but which are for some reason otherwise unavailable, but *not* in the context of documents which are available through normal channels, for which unauthorized duplication would be unethical copyright violation. See {Lions Book} for a historical example.
:samurai: /n./ A hacker who hires out for legal cracking jobs, snooping for factions in corporate political fights, lawyers pursuing privacy-rights and First Amendment cases, and other parties with legitimate reasons to need an electronic locksmith. In 1991, mainstream media reported the existence of a loose-knit culture of samurai that meets electronically on BBS systems, mostly bright teenagers with personal micros; they have modeled themselves explicitly on the historical samurai of Japan and on the "net cowboys" of William Gibson's {cyberpunk} novels. Those interviewed claim to adhere to a rigid ethic of loyalty to their employers and to disdain the vandalism and theft practiced by criminal crackers as beneath them and contrary to the hacker ethic; some quote Miyamoto Musashi's "Book of Five Rings", a classic of historical samurai doctrine, in support of these principles. See also {sneaker}, {Stupids}, {social engineering}, {cracker}, {hacker ethic}, and {dark-side hacker}.
:sandbender: /n./ [IBM] A person involved with silicon lithography and the physical design of chips. Compare {ironmonger}, {polygon pusher}.
:sandbox: /n./ 1. (also `sandbox, the') Common term for the R&D department at many software and computer companies (where hackers in commercial environments are likely to be found). Half-derisive, but reflects the truth that research is a form of creative play. Compare {playpen}. 2. Syn. {link farm}.
:sanity check: /n./ 1. The act of checking a piece of code (or anything else, e.g., a Usenet posting) for completely stupid mistakes. Implies that the check is to make sure the author was sane when it was written; e.g., if a piece of scientific software relied on a particular formula and was giving unexpected results, one might first look at the nesting of parentheses or the coding of the formula, as a `sanity check', before looking at the more complex I/O or data structure manipulation routines, much less the algorithm itself. Compare {reality check}. 2. A run-time test, either validating input or ensuring that the program hasn't screwed up internally (producing an inconsistent value or state).
:Saturday-night special: /n./ [from police slang for a cheap handgun] A {quick-and-dirty} program or feature kluged together during off hours, under a deadline, and in response to pressure from a {salescritter}. Such hacks are dangerously unreliable, but all too often sneak into a production release after insufficient review.
:say: /vt./ 1. To type to a terminal. "To list a directory verbosely, you have to say `ls -l'." Tends to imply a {newline}-terminated command (a `sentence'). 2. A computer may also be said to `say' things to you, even if it doesn't have a speech synthesizer, by displaying them on a terminal in response to your commands. Hackers find it odd that this usage confuses {mundane}s.