:copper: /n./ Conventional electron-carrying network cable with
a core conductor of copper — or aluminum! Opposed to {light
pipe} or, say, a short-range microwave link.
:copy protection: /n./ A class of methods for preventing
incompetent pirates from stealing software and legitimate customers
from using it. Considered silly.
:copybroke: /kop'ee-brohk/ /adj./ 1. [play on `copyright']
Used to describe an instance of a copy-protected program that has
been `broken'; that is, a copy with the copy-protection scheme
disabled. Syn. {copywronged}. 2. Copy-protected software
which is unusable because of some bit-rot or bug that has confused
the anti-piracy check. See also {copy protection}.
:copyleft: /kop'ee-left/ /n./ [play on `copyright'] 1. The
copyright notice (`General Public License') carried by {GNU}
{EMACS} and other Free Software Foundation software, granting reuse
and reproduction rights to all comers (but see also {General
Public Virus}). 2. By extension, any copyright notice intended to
achieve similar aims.
:copywronged: /kop'ee-rongd/ /adj./ [play on `copyright']
Syn. for {copybroke}.
:core: /n./ Main storage or RAM. Dates from the days of ferrite-core memory; now archaic as techspeak most places outside IBM, but also still used in the Unix community and by old-time hackers or those who would sound like them. Some derived idioms are quite current; `in core', for example, means `in memory' (as opposed to `on disk'), and both {core dump} and the `core image' or `core file' produced by one are terms in favor. Some varieties of Commonwealth hackish prefer {store}.
:core cancer: /n./ A process that exhibits a slow but inexorable resource {leak} — like a cancer, it kills by crowding out productive `tissue'.
:core dump: /n./ [common {Iron Age} jargon, preserved by Unix] 1. [techspeak] A copy of the contents of {core}, produced when a process is aborted by certain kinds of internal error. 2. By extension, used for humans passing out, vomiting, or registering extreme shock. "He dumped core. All over the floor. What a mess." "He heard about X and dumped core." 3. Occasionally used for a human rambling on pointlessly at great length; esp. in apology: "Sorry, I dumped core on you". 4. A recapitulation of knowledge (compare {bits}, sense 1). Hence, spewing all one knows about a topic (syn. {brain dump}), esp. in a lecture or answer to an exam question. "Short, concise answers are better than core dumps" (from the instructions to an exam at Columbia). See {core}.
:core leak: /n./ Syn. {memory leak}.
:Core Wars: /n./ A game between `assembler' programs in a simulated machine, where the objective is to kill your opponent's program by overwriting it. Popularized by A. K. Dewdney's column in "Scientific American" magazine, this was actually devised by Victor Vyssotsky, Robert Morris Sr., and Dennis Ritchie in the early 1960s (their original game was called `Darwin' and ran on a PDP-1 at Bell Labs). See {core}.