Drop-outs

2 definitions found

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  drop-outs n. 1. A variety of `power glitch' (see {glitch}); momentary 0
     voltage on the electrical mains. 2. Missing characters in typed input
     due to software malfunction or system saturation (one cause of such
     behavior under Unix when a bad connection to a modem swamps the
     processor with spurious character interrupts; see {screaming tty}). 3.
     Mental glitches; used as a way of describing those occasions when the


     mind just seems to shut down for a couple of beats. See {glitch},
     {fried}.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  drop-outs
       
          1. A variety of "power glitch" (see {glitch}); momentary 0
          voltage on the electrical mains.
       
          2. Missing characters in typed input due to software
          malfunction or system saturation (one cause of such behaviour
          under {Unix} when a bad connection to a modem swamps the
          processor with spurious character interrupts; see {screaming
          tty}).
       
          3. Mental glitches; used as a way of describing those
          occasions when the mind just seems to shut down for a couple
          of beats.  See {glitch}, {fried}.
       
          [{Jargon File}]
       
          (2001-02-22)