cybercrud

jargon /si:'ber-kruhd/ 1. (Coined by Ted Nelson) Obfuscatory

tech-talk. Verbiage with a high MEGO factor. The computer

equivalent of bureaucratese.

2. Incomprehensible stuff embedded in e-mail. First there

were the "Received" headers that show how mail flows through

systems, then MIME (Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions)

headers and part boundaries, and now huge blocks of hex for

PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail) or PGP (Pretty Good Privacy)

digital signatures and certificates of authenticity. This

stuff all has a purpose and good user interfaces should hide

it, but all too often users are forced to wade through it.

[Jargon File]

(1995-04-04)