snake oil
Refers to a cryptography or security product that makes exaggerated claims of what the product is capable of, giving the user a false sense of security. The term snake oil, which is credited to Matt Curtin for using in reference to computer security products, comes from the 19th-century American practice of selling cure-all elixirs in traveling medicine shows. Snake oil salesmen would falsely claim that the potions would cure any ailments. The term has been appropriated to mean security and encryption products that make impossible claims, such as unbreakable codes.
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A virtual copy of a device or filesystem. Snapshots imitate the way a file or device looked at the precise time the snapshot was taken. It is not a copy of the data, only a picture in time of how the data was organized. Snapshots can be taken according to a scheduled time and provide […]
- snapshot printer
A color printer designed to print photographic-quality snapshots. Most snapshot printers require special paper and use dye sublimation, thermal transfer technologies to produce vivid 24-bit color. The devices, however, are limited to prints no larger than about 4 by 6 inches.
- semaphore
A hardware or software flag. In multitasking systems, a semaphore is a variable with a value that indicates the status of a common resource. It’s used to lock the resource that is being used. A process needing the resource checks the semaphore to determine the resource’s status and then decides how to proceed.
- sneezer
An online marketing slang term coined by Charles Nicholls, founder of SeeWhy, to describe any customer that spreads your offers and promotions through social networks. Social networking sites make it incredibly easy for your “sneezer” customer to share promotions and positive word-of-mouth marketing about your business in a single click with his or her network […]
- sneakernet
(jargon.) Refers to the channel by which electronic information is transmitted from one computer to another by physically carrying it stored on a floppy disk, CD or other removable medium. This play on words stems from the idea that a person is using their feet, i.e., sneakers, to transfer data instead of through the Internet […]