Categories
Computer Technology

Cruft

The origin of the term is uncertain, but it may be derived from Harvard University Cruft Laboratory, which was the Harvard Physics Department’s radar lab during World War II. As late as the early 1990s, unused technical equipment could be seen stacked in front of Cruft Hall’s windows. According to students, if the place filled with useless machinery is called Cruft Hall, the machinery itself must be cruft. This image of “discarded technical clutter” quickly migrated from hardware to software.

Cruft may also be a play on the old typeface form of the letter “s”, rendering “crust” as “cruſt”.

Another possible origin is that the word evokes the words crust, fluff and scruffy. The latter word is the source of similar words in Jamaican English such as cruff, meaning scurfy, coarse or uncouth.

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruft

Categories
Technology

Multiplexor

A multiplexor is commonly used in the transmission of communication signals, i.e. video and audio signals, and can weave these two components together. It can also be called a “mux” for short.

Categories
Everyday Life Technology

Hello

The word was coined by Thomas Edison as a form of greeting to be used on the telephone.
Alexander Graham Bell’s suggestion was ‘Hoy Hoy’.
Thomas Edison’s suggestion caught on.

Categories
Computer Technology

Bug

ENIAC 1 (first computer)
An engineer trying to power the mainframe could not get enough power to run. there were about 25 technicians trying to figure out the problem, and could not.
Chuck decided to check all the vacuum tubes, and found a moth.
Looked at the supervisor, and said, ‘Hey, there’s a bug in here.’