Shub-Internet
:Shub-Internet: /shuhb' in't*r-net/ n. [MUD: from H. P. Lovecraft's evil
fictional deity Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat with a Thousand Young]
The harsh personification of the Internet: Beast of a Thousand
Processes, Eater of Characters, Avatar of Line Noise, and Imp of Call
Waiting; the hideous multi-tendriled entity formed of all the manifold
connections of the net. A sect of MUDders worships Shub-Internet,
sacrificing objects and praying for good connections. To no avail -- its
purpose is malign and evil, and is the cause of all network slowdown.
Often heard as in "Freela casts a tac nuke at Shub-Internet for slowing
her down." (A forged response often follows along the lines of:
"Shub-Internet gulps down the tac nuke and burps happily.") Also cursed
by users of the Web, FTP
and telnet when the system slows down. The
dread name of Shub-Internet is seldom spoken aloud, as it is said that
repeating it three times will cause the being to wake, deep within its
lair beneath the Pentagon. Compare Random Number God
[January 1996: It develops that one of the computer administrators in
the basement of the Pentagon read this entry and fell over laughing. As
a result, you too can now poke Shub-Internet by ping
ng
shub-internet.ims.disa.mil. See also kremvax
--ESR]
[April 1999: shub-internet.ims.disa.mil is no more, alas. But
Shub-Internet lives o^$#$*^ --ESR]
Jargon File Version 4.3.1, 29 JUN 2001 =
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