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Marc Horowitz \\
21.512
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\Large\bf Nerd Tropes
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% Demonstrate and analyze the relevance and importance of a set of
% tropes in some aspect or domain of contemporary American life.  Your
% material may come from personal experience, the mass media, or other
% written sources.  So long as you uncover an interesting set of tropes
% and discuss them in ways that are both revealing and connected with
% the course, and the aspect of life you choose can be trivial or
% profound.
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% 2 pages

% back door
% backbone
% bells and whistles
% boat anchor
% bomb
% brain-damaged
% bulletproof
% 
% cookie
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% Devil Book
% Dragon Book
% Red/Green/Blue Books
% Wizard Book
% 
% firefighting
% firewall
% 
% handshaking
% heavyweight
% 
% like nailing jelly to a tree
% link farm
% 
% magic
% magic cookie
% 
% nybble/byte/dynner
% 
% pizza box
% 
% suit
% 
% wizard

In the field of computer science, there is a rich vocabulary used to
describe concepts and objects which are common in the hacker's world.
Examples of all kinds of tropes, including metaphors, metanyms, and
synecdoche, can be found.

The most common kind of trope in computer science is the metaphor.
There are many things which are unique to this field, but are easily
compared to more common objects.  For instance, a secure computer
system may have a design which allows a user (sometimes legitimate,
sometimes not) to bypass the security systems.  The part of the design
which makes this possible is called a ``back door''.  There are a few
examples of body-related metaphors.  In a large computer network, the
main circuit or set of circuits over which signals travel is referred
to as the ``backbone'' of the network, in the same way that a person's
backbone is the main pathway for signals traveling between the brain
and the body.  A system which is so poorly designed as to be nearly
unusable will be described as ``brain-damaged''.  A technique in
programming which is so obscure or complicated that few, if any,
people understand it is usually called ``magic''.  Many of these
tropes, while unusual-sounding at first, are common in hacker
vocabulary.  They provide a vehicle for communicating information
which English does not have any other way of expressing.

Metanyms are most commonly found when referring to certain common
books in the hacker literature.  The technical name for a certain part
of a common operating system is called a daemon (pronounced like
``demon'').  The standard reference book on this operating system has
a picture of a ``daemon'' on the front.  This book is often referred
to as ``the Devil Book''.  A classic book on compiler design has a
picture of a dragon, hence it is called ``the Dragon Book''.  There is
a common graphics system which has a three-volume reference.  Since
red, green, and blue are the fundamental colors in graphics, the
publisher cleverly gave the books red, green, and blue colors.  Rather
than referring to these books by their titles, hackers refer to them
as ``the Red Book'', ``the Green Book'', and ``the Blue Book''.  These
names are often used by ``wizards'' (someone who practices ``magic'')
since the titles are usually long and cumbersome.

There are also examples of synecdoche in the hacker jargon.  One very
common example is ``suit''.  Hackers have considerable disdain for
managers, salesdroids, and other industry members who aren't
technically trained.  Since you can identify them by their clothing
(as compared to hackers, who will avoid suits at all costs), they are
referred to as ``suits'', since there is nothing else worth mentioning
about them.

The various forms of tropes one can find in everyday speech among
hackers demonstrates many of the values of their culture.  Many words
have positive or negative connotations or nuances of meaning which are
made explicit by the trope used.  But to an outsider (or a suit),
these meanings may be difficult or impossible to distinguish.  Or,
they may be very clear.

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