90s Terms
Perot: To quit unexpectedly, as in, "My cellular phone just perot'ed."

Starter Marriage: A short-lived first marriage that ends in divorce with no kids, no property and
no regrets.

Swiped Out: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is
worn away from extensive use.

Treeware: Hacker slang for documentation or other printed material.

Going Postal: Euphemism for being totally stressed out, for losing it. Makes reference to the
unfortunate track record of postal employees who have snapped and gone on shooting rampages.

Assmosis - The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up
to the boss rather than working hard.

Chips and Salsa - Chips = hardware, salsa = software. "Well, first we gotta figure out if the
problem's in your chips or your salsa."

Dancing Baloney - Little animated GIFs and other Web F/X that are useless and serve simply to
impress clients. "This page is kinda dull. Maybe a little dancing baloney will help."

Depotphobia - Fear associated with entering a Home Depot because of how much money one might
spend. Electronics geeks experience Shackophobia (Fry's-ophobia in Southern California and the
Bay area).

Flight Risk - Used to describe employees who are suspected of planning to leave a company or
department soon.

Generica - Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is.
"We were so lost in generica, I actually forgot what city we were in."

GOOD Job - A "Get-Out-Of-Debt" job. A well-paying job people take in order to pay off their
debts, one that they will quit as soon as they are solvent again.

Irritainment - Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying, but you find yourself unable
to stop watching them. The O.J. trials were a prime example.

Midair Passenger Exchange - Grim air-traffic-controller-speak for a head-on collision. Midair
passenger exchanges are quickly followed by "aluminum rain."

PEBCAK - Tech support shorthand for "Problem Exists Between Chair and Keyboard." (Techies are a
frustrated, often arrogant lot. They've submitted numerous acronyms and terms that poke fun at
the clueless users who call them up with frighteningly stupid questions. Another variation on
the above is ID10T: "This guy has an ID-Ten-T on his
system.")

Percussive Maintenance - The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it
to work again.

Seagull Manager - A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, sh-ts over everything and then
leaves.

Square-headed Girlfriend - Another word for a computer. The victim of a square-headed girlfriend
is a "computer widow".

Telephone Number Salary - A salary (or project budget) that has seven digits.

Umfriend - A sexual relation of dubious standing. "This is uh.. Dale, my...um...friend..."

Uninstalled - Euphemism for being fired. Heard on the voicemail of a vice president at a
downsizing computer firm: "You have reached the number of an uninstalled vice president. Please
dial our main number and ask the operator for assistance." See also Decruitment.

Vulcan Nerve Pinch - The taxing hand position required to reach all of the appropriate keys for
certain commands. For instance, the warm re-boot for a Mac II (!!!!) computer involves (ed)simultaneously
pressing the Control key, the Command key, the Return key and the Power On key.

Yuppie Food Stamps - The ubiquitous $20 bills spewed out of ATMs. Often used when trying to split
the bill after a meal: "We all owe $8 each, but all anybody's got is yuppie food stamps."



category: cultural  date entered: 2006-03-26