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ping
[from the submariners' term for a sonar pulse] 1. n.
Slang term for a small network message (ICMP ECHO) sent by a
computer to check for the presence and alertness of another. The
Unix command ping(8) can be used to do this manually (note
that ping(8)'s author denies the widespread folk etymology
that the name was ever intended as an acronym for `Packet INternet
Groper'). Occasionally used as a phone greeting. See ACK,
also ENQ. 2. vt. To verify the presence of. 3. vt. To get
the attention of. 4. vt. To send a message to all members of a
mailing list requesting an ACK (in order to verify that
everybody's addresses are reachable). "We haven't heard much of
anything from Geoff, but he did respond with an ACK both times I
pinged jargon-friends." 5. n. A quantum packet of happiness.
People who are very happy tend to exude pings; furthermore, one can
intentionally create pings and aim them at a needy party (e.g., a
depressed person). This sense of ping may appear as an
exclamation; "Ping!" (I'm happy; I am emitting a quantum of
happiness; I have been struck by a quantum of happiness). The form
"pingfulness", which is used to describe people who exude pings,
also occurs. (In the standard abuse of language, "pingfulness"
can also be used as an exclamation, in which case it's a much
stronger exclamation than just "ping"!). Oppose blargh.
The funniest use of `ping' to date was
described in January 1991 by Steve Hayman on the Usenet group
comp.sys.next. He was trying to isolate a faulty cable
segment on a TCP/IP Ethernet hooked up to a NeXT machine, and got
tired of having to run back to his console after each cabling tweak
to see if the ping packets were getting through. So he used the
sound-recording feature on the NeXT, then wrote a script that
repeatedly invoked ping(8), listened for an echo, and played
back the recording on each returned packet. Result? A program
that caused the machine to repeat, over and over, "Ping ...
ping ... ping ..." as long as the network was up. He
turned the volume to maximum, ferreted through the building with
one ear cocked, and found a faulty tee connector in no time.
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