down

1. Not operating. "The up escalator is down" is considered a

humorous thing to say, and "The elevator is down" always

means "The elevator isn't working" and never refers to what

floor the elevator is on. With respect to computers, this

term has passed into the mainstream; the extension to other

kinds of machine is still hackish.

2. "go down" To stop functioning; usually said of the

system. The message from the console that every hacker

hates to hear from the operator is "System going down in 5

minutes".

3. "take down", "bring down" To deactivate purposely, usually

for repair work or PM. "I'm taking the system down to work

on that bug in the tape drive." Occasionally one hears the

word "down" by itself used as a verb in this sense.

See crash; opposite: up.

[Jargon File]

(1994-12-07)