Related:

• boot v.,n. [techspeak; from `by one's bootstraps'] To load and initialize the operating system on a machine.
  This usage is no longer jargon (having passed into techspeak) but has given rise to some derivatives that are still jargon....
• oftware rot n. Term used to describe the tendency of software that has not been used in a while to lose
  uch failure may be semi-humorously ascribed to bit rot....
• Software that's harder to patch." -John Jacobs -- ...understanding Firmware...
• Firmware: hardware that's starting to melt.
• blow an EPROM: /bloh *n ee'prom/ v. (alt. `blast an EPROM', `burn an EPROM') To program a read-only memory, e.
  g. for use with an embedded system. This term arose because the programming process for the Programmable Read-Only Memories (PROMs) that preceded present-day Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memories (EPROMs) involved intentionally blowing tiny electrical fuses on the chip....
• bit rot: n. Also {bit decay}. Hypothetical disease the existence of which has been deduced from the observation that unused programs or features will often stop working after sufficient time has passed
  even if `nothing has changed'. The theory explains that bits decay as if they were radioactive....
• bit rot n. [common] Also bit decay. Hypothetical disease the existence of which has been deduced from the observation that unused programs or features will often stop working after sufficient time has passed
  even if `nothing has changed'. The theory explains that bits decay as if they were radioactive....
• oaster n. 1. The archetypal really stupid application for an embedded microprocessor controlle
  often used in comments that imply that a scheme is inappropriate technology (but see elevator controller)....
• dongle /dong'gl/ n. 1. A security or copy protection device for proprietary software consisting of a serialized EPROM and some drivers in a D-25 connector shell
  which must be connected to an I/O port of the computer while the program is run....