The Devil’s IT Dictionary Definitions

(I take no responsibility whatsoever for anyone taking any of these definitions seriously).

Data Base Administrator, DBA

This is the guy who controls the database and stops you doing anything even half-way useful with it. This is a very territorial position and best allocated to a really pedantic control freak. Within months the programmers will be up in arms and will have driven him into another job with another company. You don’t need that kind of guy working in an IT department.

Deadline

A humourous prophecy of the date when a computer project will complete. Also; “immovable deadline” - a reasonably accurate prediction of exactly when a computer project will fail.

Demon (Or Daemon)

One of the few remaining technical terms that indicates computing’s origins in black magic and satanism. A demon is an independent process that sits invisibly in the background on a Unix computer doing unspeakable things.

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