...Compare this with the unit of facial beauty, the Helen, first defined by C. Marlowe. A milliHelen, of course, will launch just one ship.

cursor address, n: Hello, cursor!

default, n.: [Possibly from Black English De fault wid dis system is you, mon.] The vain attempt to avoid errors by inactivity. Nothing will come of nothing: speak again. -- King Lear.

flowchart, n. & v.: [From flow to ripple down in rich profusion, as hair + chart a cryptic hidden-treasure map designed to mislead the uninitiated.] 1. n. The solution, if any, to a class of Mascheroni construction problems in which given algorithms require geometrical representation using only the 35 basic ideograms of the ANSI template. 2. n. Neronic doodling while the system burns. 3. n. A low-cost substitute for wallpaper. 4. n. The innumerate misleading the illiterate. A thousand pictures is worth ten lines of code. -- The Programmer's Little Red Vade Mecum, Mao Tse T'umps. 5. v.intrans. To produce flowcharts with no particular object in mind. 6. v.trans. To obfuscate (a problem) with esoteric cartoons.

MAFIA, n: [Acronym for Mechanized Applications in Forced Insurance Accounting.] An extensive network with many on-line and offshore subsystems running under OS, DOS, and IOS. MAFIA documentation is rather scanty, and the MAFIA sales office exhibits that testy reluctance to bona fide inquiries which is the hallmark of so many DP operations. From the little that has seeped out, it would appear that MAFIA operates under a non-standard protocol, OMERTA, a tight-lipped variant of SNA, in which extended handshakes also perform complex security functions. The known timesharing aspects of MAFIA point to a more than usually autocratic operating system. Screen prompts carry an imperative, nonrefusable weighting (most menus offer simple YES/YES options, defaulting to YES) that precludes indifference or delay. Uniquely, all editing under MAFIA is performed centrally, using a powerful rubout feature capable of erasing files, filors, filees, and entire nodal aggravations.

Science is to computer science as hydrodynamics is to plumbing.

The more data I punch in this card, the lighter it becomes, and the lower the mailing cost.

Theorem: All programs are dull.
Proof: Assume the contrary; i.e., the set of interesting programs is nonempty. Arrange them (or it) in order of interest (note that all sets can be well ordered, so do it properly). The minimal element is the "least interesting program", the obvious dullness of which provides the contradictory denouement we so devoutly seek.

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