Dragonball Syndrome (n): When an anime series based on a concurrently running manga series actually catches up to the manga, leaving the anime producers scrambling for filler material until such a time when there is more manga to adapt. In reference to the relationship between the Dragonball Z series and the manga by Akira Toriyama.
dumpster clocking (n) [Douglas Coupland, Generation X, 1992]: The tendency when looking at objects to guesstimate the amount of time they will take to decompose.
dumpster diving (n): The practice of raiding garbage dumpsters for contents other than food. Items sought after include discarded technology, furnishings, and information.
Dungeon Master (n) [Dungeons and Dragons]: Synonymous with Game Master, the Dungeon Master (DM) controls the world the Player Characters (PC's) interact with, including all the Non-Player Characters (NPC's) and dynamic effects of their actions, as well as those of the PC's. It is his or her responsibility to keep the role playing experience running smoothly. The DM also controls the distribution of Experience Points (or their equivalent units of advancement), and being the DM is generally considered the most difficult of all role playing tasks.
Dyson sphere (n): Originally proposed in 1959 as a way for an advanced civilization to utilize all of the energy radiated by their sun. It is an artificial sphere the size of an planetary orbit. The sphere would consist of a shell of solar collectors or habitats around the star, so that all (or at least a significant amount) energy will hit a receiving surface where it can be used. This would create a huge living space and gather enormous amounts of energy.
easter egg (n): A small item, usually an inside joke, hidden in a program which is accessed by performing a certain sequence of commands. The first easter egg was found in the Atari 2600 game Adventure. By following a special sequence of commands, the character could pass through a wall into a hidden room that contained the programmer's initials. Easter eggs are present in almost every program, from QuarkXPress to Microsoft Windows.
egosurfing (n): The pastime of feeding your name to search engines to see how widely your fame, or infamy has spread on the Internet.
emailingering (n) /1: A particular and common style of avoiding getting anything done at work, using your computer and the Internet as both cause and justification. /2: A work-shirking method where one claims and believes that by being physically present (in the chair), occasionally talking to other people (especially if you can find something to tell them to do, whether or not it makes sense), and spending time senselessly decorating Powerpoint presentations that will be used only for internal discussion, one is being an important contributor despite spending upwards of 85% of one's time engaged in web browsing ("but I'm reading relevant stuff!") and goofing off in email (having Really Important Discussions in slow motion as opposed to just making a decision). A key to emailingering is that the more you do, the more email you produce, which means that your fellow emailingerers will fill up your inbox with their own emailingering-generated fluff. For this reason emailingerers like to travel in herds.
emulation (n): A mode which enables a computer to simulate the operation of another computer. The universal computing nature of modern computers means that any computer (given enough time and storage space) can emulate any other computer. In game terms, many classic games are being released for next generation systems in emulated form. That is, instead of rewriting a game for PlayStation, you simply write an emulator of the original computer or arcade board for the PlayStation and let the emulator run the original code. For classic games, this is considered preferable than rewrites of the games, since some of the most warmly remembered "features" of classic games were actually bugs.
Eris (n) [Gk]: The Greek goddess of Chaos, Discord, Confusion, and Things You Know Not Of; her name was latinized to Discordia and she was worshiped by that name in Rome. Not a very friendly deity in the Classical original, she was reinvented as a more benign personification of creative anarchy starting in 1959 by the adherents of Discordianism and has since been a semi-serious subject of veneration in several fringe cultures, including hackerdom.
face mail (n): Technologically backward means of communication, clearly inferior to voicemail or e-mail. Involves actually walking to someone's office and speaking to him or her face to face. Considered highly inefficient and declasse.
face time (n) /1: Time spent interacting with somebody face-to-face (as opposed to via electronic links). /2: the potential of facilitating one's meeting other people. "The steps outside the mall have great face time."
fan (n) /1: An ardent admirer or enthusiast (as of a celebrity or pursuit). /2: A person possessing a strong interest in something of the mainstream, that which is accepted and well-known. The object of study is common in everyday society, and obsessive behavior is tolerated and sometimes praised.
fanboy (n) /1: A person whose obsession involves an inordinate amount of collecting. They will buy almost any item associated with their interest, no matter the usefulness or the price. /2: A comic book fan who will buy every title featuring their favorite character, and every part of a crossover regardless of whether they buy those titles regularly or not.
fandom (n): All of the fans of a particular subject, sometimes considered as a community or society onto itself. Individuals can belong to various realms of fandom and often do.
fan masturbation (n): In productions of genre fiction, the presence of in-jokes or outside references that can be understood only by fans familiar with the history of the movie or television show, including any prequels, source material, or previous work by the cast or crew. Examples include the presence of R2-D2 and C3P0 in Star Wars: Episode 1.
fan service (n): Usually used in reference to a scene or camera angle designed to emphasize a (usually) female character's anatomy. Nudity isn't necessarily involved, although it can be. Generally, any series or movie with popular female characters will probably have at least a little fan service from time to time. At the other extreme there are series where the amount of fan service can reach ridiculous proportions and is half the fun.
fantasy-world fantasy (n): A common geek daydream in which the individual is transported to an alternate universe, one that is populated with various mythical creatures as featured in most fantasy novels and role-playing games. In most cases the individual becomes a person of heroic respute in the fantasy world, gaining powers and abilities contrary to their present disposition. A common topic of discussion in many geek circles.
Fatality (n) [Mortal Kombat, 1993]: A special move that can be executed in some fighting videogames, notably the Mortal Kombat series, after a match is over, which results in (usually) the graphic death of the losing character. Variations include Animalities (where the character turns into an animal before killing its opponent), Babalities, where the loser turns into a baby, and "friendship" moves, where the character does something goofy, like signs an autograph for the loser.
fen (n) /1: Fairy folk as a whole. /2: More than one fan. /3: The regular attendees of fantasy and gaming conventions, familiar with all the related rules and customs of each.
filk (adj) /1: Filk is a subset of folk music that is practiced within the science fiction and fantasy community. The term 'filk' was originally a typographic error on the program for a science fiction convention and the term stuck. People who write or sing filk are 'filkers'. /2: A mixture of song parodies and original music, humorous and serious, about subjects like science fiction, fantasy, computers, cats, politics, the space program, books, movies, TV shows, love, war, and death.
flatlander (n) /1 [Larry Niven, Known Space series]: Mildly derogatory term for someone who has never been off a planetary surface, i.e. into space. /2 [Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland]: A two-dimensional creature unaware of the third dimension of space.
frag (v) ["fragmentation grenade"] /1: A kill, from the multiplayer version of the Doom games, where one would be awarded a 'frag' for each enemy player killed. /2: A synonym for 'f-ck' used by the intergalatic bounty hunter Lobo in all Comics Code-friendly titles published by DC.
frimp (v) [Robert A. Heinlein, I Will Fear No Evil, 1970]: A term denoting every possible way to copulate- every possible way to hook up two or more bodies - and number - of any sex, or combinations of all six sexes. Includes far-out combinations that are shocking and outrageous.
f*ck-you money (n) [Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon, 1999]: That sum of money which will allow you to say the above phrase, but unbowderlized, to your boss.
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