Related:

• catatonic adj. Describes a condition of suspended animation in which something is so wedged or hung that it makes no response.
  If you are typing on a terminal and suddenly the computer doesn't even echo the letters back to the screen as you type, let alone do what you're asking it to do, then the computer is suffering from catatonia (possibly because it has crashed)....
• wedged: adj. 1. To be stuck, incapable of proceeding without help.
  This is different from having crashed. If the system has crashed, it has become totally non-functioning....
• wedged adj. 1. To be stuck, incapable of proceeding without help.
  This is different from having crashed. If the system has crashed, it has become totally non-functioning....
• hang: v. 1. To wait for an event that will never occur.
  The system is hanging because it can't read from the crashed drive"....
• deep space: n. 1. Describes the notional location of any program that has gone {off the trolley}.
  Esp. used of programs that just sit there silently grinding long after either failure or some output is expected....
• hung: [from `hung up'] adj. Equivalent to {wedged}, but more common at UNIX/C sites.
  Not generally used of people. Syn. with {locked up}, {wedged}...
• cycle: 1. n. The basic unit of computation. What every hacker wants more of (noted hacker Bill Gosper describes himself as a "cycle junkie").
  One can describe an instruction as taking so many `clock cycles'....
• ay: vt. 1. To type to a terminal. "To list a directory verbosely, you have to say `ls -l'.
  Tends to imply a {newline}-terminated command (a `sentence')....
• xyzzy: /X-Y-Z-Z-Y/, /X-Y-ziz'ee/, /ziz'ee/, or /ik-ziz'ee/ [from the ADVENT game] adj.
  The {canonical} `magic word'. This comes from {ADVENT}, in which the idea is to explore an underground cave with many rooms and to collect the treasures you find there....