Related:

• Helen Keller mode n. 1. State of a hardware or software system that is deaf, dumb, and blind, i.
  e., accepting no input and generating no output, usually due to an infinite loop or some other excursion into deep space....
• demo mode: [Sun] n. 1. The state of being {heads down} in order to finish code in time for a {demo}, usually due yesterday.
  2. A mode in which video games sit by themselves running through a portion of the game, also known as `attract mode'....
• demo mode n. 1. [Sun] The state of being heads down in order to finish code in time for a demo, usually due yesterday.
  2. A mode in which video games sit by themselves running through a portion of the game, also known as `attract mode'....
• ill-behaved: adj. 1. [numerical analysis] Said of an algorithm or computational method that tends to blow up because of accumulated roundoff error or poor convergence properties.
  2. Software that bypasses the defined {OS} interfaces to do things (like screen, keyboard, and disk I/O) itself, often in a way that depends on the hardware of the machine it is running on or which is nonportable or incompatible with other pieces of software....
• ill-behaved adj. 1. [numerical analysis] Said of an algorithm or computational method that tends to blow up because of accumulated roundoff error or poor convergence properties.
  2. Software that bypasses the defined OS interfaces to do things (like screen, keyboard, and disk I/O) itself, often in a way that depends on the hardware of the machine it is running on or which is nonportable or incompatible with other pieces of software....
• 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....
• die: v. Syn. {crash}. Unlike {crash}, which is used primarily of hardware, this verb is used of both hardware and software.
  See also {go flatline}, {casters-up mode}. -- The AI Hackers Dictionary...
• 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....
• bare metal n. 1. [common] New computer hardware, unadorned with such snares and delusions as an operating system, an bit bashing needed to create these basic tools for a new machine.
  Real bare-metal programming involves things like building boot proms and BIOS chips, implementing basic monitors used to test device drivers, and writing the assemblers that will be used to write the compiler back ends that will give the new machine a real development environment....