bit bucket

jargon 1. (Or "write-only memory", "WOM") The universal

data sink (originally, the mythical receptacle used to catch

bits when they fall off the end of a register during a

shift instruction). Discarded, lost, or destroyed data is

said to have "gone to the bit bucket". On Unix, often used

for /dev/null. Sometimes amplified as "the Great Bit Bucket

in the Sky".

2. The place where all lost mail and news messages eventually

go. The selection is performed according to Finagle's Law;

important mail is much more likely to end up in the bit bucket

than junk mail, which has an almost 100% probability of

getting delivered. Routing to the bit bucket is automatically

performed by mail-transfer agents, news systems, and the lower

layers of the network.

3. The ideal location for all unwanted mail responses: "Flames

about this article to the bit bucket." Such a request is

guaranteed to overflow one's mailbox with flames.

4. Excuse for all mail that has not been sent. "I mailed you

those figures last week; they must have landed in the bit

bucket." Compare black hole.

This term is used purely in jest. It is based on the fanciful

notion that bits are objects that are not destroyed but only

misplaced. This appears to have been a mutation of an earlier

term "bit box", about which the same legend was current;

old-time hackers also report that trainees used to be told

that when the CPU stored bits into memory it was actually

pulling them "out of the bit box".

Another variant of this legend has it that, as a consequence

of the "parity preservation law", the number of 1 bits that go

to the bit bucket must equal the number of 0 bits. Any

imbalance results in bits filling up the bit bucket. A

qualified computer technician can empty a full bit bucket as

part of scheduled maintenance.

In contrast, a "chad box" is a real container used to catch

chad. This may be related to the origin of the term "bit

bucket" [Comments ?].

(1996-11-20)