random
1. Unpredictable (closest to mathematical definition); weird.
"The system's been behaving pretty randomly."
2. Assorted; undistinguished. "Who was at the conference?"
"Just a bunch of random business types."
3. (pejorative) Frivolous; unproductive; undirected. "He's
just a random loser."
4. Incoherent or inelegant; poorly chosen; not well organised.
"The program has a random set of misfeatures." "That's a
random name for that function." "Well, all the names were
chosen pretty randomly."
5. In no particular order, though deterministic. "The I/O
channels are in a pool, and when a file is opened one is
chosen randomly."
6. Arbitrary. "It generates a random name for the scratch
file."
7. Gratuitously wrong, i.e. poorly done and for no good
apparent reason. For example, a program that handles file
name defaulting in a particularly useless way, or an assembler
routine that could easily have been coded using only three
registers, but redundantly uses seven for values with
non-overlapping lifetimes, so that no one else can invoke it
without first saving four extra registers. What randomness!
8. A random hacker; used particularly of high-school students
who soak up computer time and generally get in the way.
9. Anyone who is not a hacker (or, sometimes, anyone not
known to the hacker speaking). "I went to the talk, but the
audience was full of randoms asking bogus questions".
10. (occasional MIT usage) One who lives at Random Hall. See
also J. Random, some random X.
[Jargon File]
(1995-12-05)
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RAM drive « RAMIS II « RAMTRON « random » random-access memory » Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter » randomness
random-access memory
<storage> (RAM) (Previously "direct-access memory"). A data
storage device for which the order of access to different
locations does not affect the speed of access. This is in
contrast to, say, a magnetic disk, magnetic tape or a
mercury delay line where it is very much quicker to access
data sequentially because accessing a non-sequential location
requires physical movement of the storage medium rather than
just electronic switching.
The most common form of RAM in use today is built from
semiconductor integrated circuits, which can be either
static (SRAM) or dynamic (DRAM). In the 1970s magnetic
core memory was used. RAM is still referred to as core by
some old-timers.
The term "RAM" has gained the additional meaning of
read-write. Most kinds of semiconductor read-only memory
(ROM) are actually "random access" in the above sense but are
never referred to as RAM. Furthermore, memory referred to as
RAM can usually be read and written equally quickly
(approximately), in contrast to the various kinds of
programmable read-only memory. Finally, RAM is usually
volatile though non-volatile random-access memory is also
used.
Interestingly, some DRAM devices are not truly random access
because various kinds of "page mode" or "column mode" mean
that sequential access is faster than random access.
(1995-12-05)
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RAMIS II « RAMTRON « random « random-access memory » Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter » randomness » random numbers
Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter
<hardware> (RAMDAC) A combination of three fast DACs with a
small SRAM used in graphics display adapters to store the
colour palette and to generate the analog signals to drive a
colour monitor. The logical colour number from the display
memory is fed into the address inputs of the SRAM to select a
palette entry to appear on the output of the SRAM. This entry
is composed of three separate values corresponding to the
three components (red, green, and blue) of the desired
physical colour. Each component value is fed to a separate
DAC, whose analog output goes to the monitor, and ultimately
to one of its three electron guns (or equivalent in
non-CRT displays).
DAC word lengths range usually from 6 to 10 bits. The SRAM's
wordlength is three times the DAC's word length. The SRAM
acts as a colour lookup table. It usually has 256 entries
(and thus an 8-bit address). If the DAC's word length is also
8 bits, we have a 256 x 24-bit SRAM which allows a selection
of 256 out of 16777216 possible colours for the display. The
contents of the SRAM can be changed while the display is not
active (during display blanking times). The SRAM can
usually be bypassed and the DACs can be fed directly by
display data (for true colour modes).
(1996-03-24)
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RAMTRON « random « random-access memory « Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter » randomness » random numbers » random testing
randomness
1. An inexplicable misfeature; gratuitous inelegance.
2. A hack or crock that depends on a complex combination
of coincidences (or, possibly, the combination upon which the
crock depends for its accidental failure to malfunction).
"This hack can output characters 40--57 by putting the
character in the four bit accumulator field of an XCT and then
extracting six bits - the low 2 bits of the XCT opcode are
the right thing." "What randomness!"
3. Of people, synonymous with "flakiness". The connotation is
that the person so described is behaving weirdly,
incompetently, or inappropriately for reasons which are (a)
too tiresome to bother inquiring into, (b) are probably as
inscrutable as quantum phenomena anyway, and (c) are likely to
pass with time. "Maybe he has a real complaint, or maybe it's
just randomness. See if he calls back."
[Jargon File]
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random « random-access memory « Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter « randomness » random numbers » random testing » range
random numbers
1. <programming> pseudorandom number.
2. <jargon> When one wishes to specify a large but random
number of things, and the context is inappropriate for N,
certain numbers are preferred by hacker tradition (that is,
easily recognised as placeholders). These include the
following:
17 - Long described at MIT as "the least random number"; see
23.
23 - Sacred number of Eris, Goddess of Discord (along with 17
and 5).
42 - The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the
Universe, and Everything, as revealed in Douglas Adams'
"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxly". Note that this answer is
completely fortuitous :-) (US pronunciation). It has been
observed that in the little-used number base 13, the answer to
the ultimate question, "What is 6 x 9?", is indeed 42, showing
that in six dimensions white mice have 13 digits.
69 - From the sexual act. This one was favoured in MIT's
ITS culture.
105 - 69 hex = 105 decimal and 69 decimal = 105 octal.
666 - The Number of the Beast.
For further enlightenment, study the "Principia Discordia",
"The Joy of Sex", and the Christian Bible (Revelation 13:18).
See also Discordianism or consult your pineal gland. See
also for values of.
(1997-02-10)
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random-access memory « Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter « randomness « random numbers » random testing » range » Rapid Application Development
random testing
<programming, testing> A black-box testing approach in which
software is tested by choosing an arbitrary subset of all
possible input values. Random testing helps to avoid the
problem of only testing what you know will work.
(2001-04-30)
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Random Access Memory Digital-to-Analog Converter « randomness « random numbers « random testing » range » Rapid Application Development » RapidCAD
This article was derived from the Free Online Dictionary of Computers and is available under ther terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
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