Linux Definitions

Peter's Law of Substitution:
        Look after the molehills, and the
        mountains will look after themselves.

Peter's Principle of Success:
        Get up one time more than you're knocked down.

Peterson's Admonition:
        When you think you're going down for the third time --
        just remember that you may have counted wrong.

Peterson's Rules:
        (1) Trucks that overturn on freeways are filled with something sticky.
        (2) No cute baby in a carriage is ever a girl when called one.
        (3) Things that tick are not always clocks.
        (4) Suicide only works when you're bluffing.

petribar:
        Any sun-bleached prehistoric candy that has been sitting in
        the window of a vending machine too long.
                -- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"

        Phases of a Project:
(1)     Exultation.
(2)     Disenchantment.
(3)     Confusion.
(4)     Search for the Guilty.
(5)     Punishment for the Innocent.
(6)     Distinction for the Uninvolved.

philosophy:
        The ability to bear with calmness the misfortunes of our friends.

philosophy:
        Unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.

phosflink:
        To flick a bulb on and off when it burns out (as if, somehow, that
        will bring it back to life).
                -- "Sniglets", Rich Hall & Friends

Pickle's Law:
        If Congress must do a painful thing,
        the thing must be done in an odd-number year.

pixel, n.:
        A mischievous, magical spirit associated with screen displays.
        The computer industry has frequently borrowed from mythology:
        Witness the sprites in computer graphics, the demons in artificial
        intelligence, and the trolls in the marketing department.