:dinosaur pen: /n./ A traditional {mainframe} computer room
complete with raised flooring, special power, its own
ultra-heavy-duty air conditioning, and a side order of Halon fire
extinguishers. See {boa}.

:dinosaurs mating: /n./ Said to occur when yet another {big
iron} merger or buyout occurs; reflects a perception by hackers
that these signal another stage in the long, slow dying of the
{mainframe} industry. In its glory days of the 1960s, it was
`IBM and the Seven Dwarves': Burroughs, Control Data, General
Electric, Honeywell, NCR, RCA, and Univac. RCA and GE sold out
early, and it was `IBM and the Bunch' (Burroughs, Univac, NCR,
Control Data, and Honeywell) for a while. Honeywell was bought out
by Bull; Burroughs merged with Univac to form Unisys (in 1984 ---
this was when the phrase `dinosaurs mating' was coined); and in
1991 AT&T absorbed NCR. More such earth-shaking unions of doomed
giants seem inevitable.

:dirtball: /n./ [XEROX PARC] A small, perhaps struggling
outsider; not in the major or even the minor leagues. For example,
"Xerox is not a dirtball company".

[Outsiders often observe in the PARC culture an institutional
arrogance which usage of this term exemplifies. The brilliance and
scope of PARC's contributions to computer science have been such
that this superior attitude is not much resented. --ESR]

:dirty power: /n./ Electrical mains voltage that is unfriendly
to the delicate innards of computers. Spikes, {drop-outs},