Toaster
noun
1.
an instrument or appliance for toasting bread, muffins, etc.
2.
a person who toasts something.
noun
1.
a person who proposes or joins in a toast to someone or something.
noun
1.
a device for toasting bread, usually electric, and often equipped with an automatic timer
jargon
1. The archetypal really stupid application for an embedded microprocessor controller; often used in comments that imply that a scheme is inappropriate technology (but see elevator controller). “DWIM for an assembler? That’d be as silly as running Unix on your toaster!”
2. A very, very dumb computer. “You could run this program on any dumb toaster.”
See bitty box, Get a real computer!, toy, beige toaster.
3. A Macintosh, especially the Classic Mac. Some hold that this is implied by sense 2.
4. A peripheral device. “I bought my box without toasters, but since then I’ve added two boards and a second disk drive”.
This is not usually to be taken literally but, to show off the expansion capabilities of the Risc PC, Acorn Computers Ltd. built a seven-slice machine (which they called “the rocket-ship”) and installed every imaginable peripheral. In a spare drive bay of the top slice they installed a toaster. This machine was exhibited at various shows where it attracted attention by occasionally ejecting a pizza.
[Jargon File]
(1997-07-18)
Read Also:
- Toasternet
networking 1. A low cost, low tech, publicly accessible local community network. This is probably an extension of the term “toaster” used to mean a small, cheap, slow computer. community networks (gopher://gopher.well.sf.ca.us/00/Community/communets/about.nets). 2. The title of some informal notes on IP addressing, (“Toasternet Part I and II”), circulated on the IETF mailing list during November […]
- Toaster-oven
or toaster-oven noun 1. an electrical appliance that functions as both an oven and a toaster and is small enough to fit on a kitchen counter or table.
- Toasting-fork
noun 1. a long-handled fork used for cooking or toasting frankfurters, marshmallows, bread, etc., usually over an open fire.
- Toastmaster
noun 1. a person who presides at a dinner and introduces the after-dinner speakers. 2. a person who proposes or announces toasts. noun 1. a person who introduces after-dinner speakers, proposes or announces toasts, etc, at public or formal dinners
- Toastmistress
[tohst-mis-truh s] /ˈtoʊstˌmɪs trəs/ noun 1. a woman who presides at a dinner, introduces the after-dinner speakers, and often proposes toasts.