|
Dictionaries
- WordNet
- Jargon File
- Computing Dictionary
- Moby Thesaurus
|
Created by
www.noamnet.com
|
 Definitions for The Network: Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)
:
the network n. 1. Historically, the union of all the major
noncommercial, academic, and hacker-oriented networks, such as Internet,
the pre-1990 ARPANET, NSFnet, BITNET, and the virtual UUCP and
Usenet `networks', plus the corporate in-house networks and commercial
time-sharing services (such as CompuServe, GEnie and AOL) that gateway
to them. A site is generally considered `on the network' if it can be
reached through some combination of Internet-style (@-sign) and UUCP
(bang-path) addresses. See Internet, bang path, {{Internet
address}}, network address. 2. Following the mass-culture discovery of
the Internet in 1994 and subsequent proliferation of cheap TCP/IP
connections, "the network" is increasingly synonymous with the Internet
itself (as it was before the second wave of wide-area computer
networking began around 1980).
3. A fictional conspiracy of libertarian hacker-subversives and
anti-authoritarian monkeywrenchers described in Robert Anton Wilson's
novel "Schro"dinger's Cat", to which many hackers have subsequently
decided they belong (this is an example of ha ha only serious).
In sense 1, `the network' is often abbreviated to `the net'. "Are you
on the net?" is a frequent question when hackers first meet face to
face, and "See you on the net!" is a frequent goodbye.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)
:
The Network
{network, the}
Related Sites
|
