interrupt character used on many operating systems to abort a
running program. Considered silly. 2. /interj./ Among BSD Unix
hackers, the canonical humorous response to "Give me a break!"

:control-O: /vi./ "Stop talking." From the character used on
some operating systems to abort output but allow the program to
keep on running. Generally means that you are not interested in
hearing anything more from that person, at least on that topic; a
standard response to someone who is flaming. Considered silly.
Compare {control-S}.

:control-Q: /vi./ "Resume." From the ASCII DC1 or {XON}
character (the pronunciation /X-on/ is therefore also used), used
to undo a previous {control-S}.

:control-S: /vi./ "Stop talking for a second." From the
ASCII DC3 or XOFF character (the pronunciation /X-of/ is
therefore also used). Control-S differs from {control-O} in
that the person is asked to stop talking (perhaps because you are
on the phone) but will be allowed to continue when you're ready to
listen to him -- as opposed to control-O, which has more of the
meaning of "Shut up." Considered silly.

:Conway's Law: /prov./ The rule that the organization of the
software and the organization of the software team will be
congruent; originally stated as "If you have four groups working
on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler".

The law was named after Melvin Conway, an early proto-hacker who
wrote an assembler for the Burroughs 220 called SAVE. (The name