Related:

• drop-ins n. [prob. by analogy with drop-outs] Spurious characters appearing on a terminal or console as a result of line noise or a system malfunction of some sort.
  Esp. used when these are interspersed with one's own typed input....
• drop-outs: n. 1. A variety of `power glitch' (see {glitch})
  momentary 0 voltage on the electrical mains. 2....
• drop-outs n. 1. A variety of `power glitch' (see glitch)
  momentary 0 voltage on the electrical mains. 2....
• fried: adj. 1. Non-working due to hardware failure
  burnt out. Especially used of hardware brought down by a `power glitch' (see {glitch}), {drop-outs}, a short, or some other electrical event....
• dirty power: n. Electrical mains voltage that is unfriendly to the delicate innards of computers.
  Spikes, {drop-outs}, average voltage significantly higher or lower than nominal, or just plain noise can all cause problems of varying subtlety and severity (these are collectively known as {power hit}s)....
• fried adj. 1. [common] Non-working due to hardware failure
  burnt out. Especially used of hardware brought down by a `power glitch' (see glitch), drop-outs, a short, or some other electrical event....
• line noise: n. 1. [techspeak] Spurious characters due to electrical noise in a communications link, especially an RS-232 serial connection.
  Line noise may be induced by poor connections, interference or crosstalk from other circuits, electrical storms, {cosmic rays}, or (notionally) birds crapping on the phone wires....
• legal: adj. Loosely used to mean `in accordance with all the relevant rules', esp.
  in connection with some set of constraints defined by software....
• dirty power n. Electrical mains voltage that is unfriendly to the delicate innards of computers.
  Spikes, drop-outs, average voltage significantly higher or lower than nominal, or just plain noise can all cause problems of varying subtlety and severity (these are collectively known as power hits)....