Related:

• gonkulator /gon'kyoo-lay-tr/ n. [common; from the 1960s "Hogan's Heroes" TV series] A pretentious piece of equipment that actually serves no useful purpose.
  Usually used to describe one's least favorite piece of computer hardware. See gonk....
• BITNET: /bit'net/ [acronym: Because It's Time NETwork] n.
  Everybody's least favorite piece of the network (see {network, the})....
• engine: n. 1. A piece of hardware that encapsulates some function but can't be used without some kind of {front end}.
  Today we have, especially, `print engine': the guts of a laser printer....
• blivet: /bliv'*t/ [allegedly from a World War II military term meaning "ten pounds of manure in a five-pound bag"] n.
  1. An intractable problem. 2. A crucial piece of hardware that can't be fixed or replaced if it breaks....
• dumpster diving: /dump'-ster di:'-ving/ n. 1. The practice of sifting refuse from an office or technical installation to extract confidential data
  especially security-compromising information (`dumpster' is an Americanism for what is elsewhere called a `skip')....
• peedometer: n. A pattern of lights displayed on a linear set of LEDs (today) or nixie tubes (yesterday, on ancient mainframes).
  The pattern is shifted left every N times the operating system goes through its {main loop}....
• gonk: /gonk/ vt.,n. 1. To prevaricate or to embellish the truth beyond any reasonable recognition.
  In German the term is (mythically) `gonken'; in Spanish the verb becomes `gonkar'....
• breath-of-life packet: [XEROX PARC] n. An Ethernet packet that contains bootstrap (see {boot}) code
  periodically sent out from a working computer to infuse the `breath of life' into any computer on the network that has happened to crash....
• footprint: n. 1. The floor or desk area taken up by a piece of hardware.
  2. [IBM] The audit trail (if any) left by a crashed program (often in plural, `footprints')....