brain-damaged
1. [generalisation of "Honeywell Brain Damage" (HBD), a theoretical disease
invented to explain certain utter cretinisms in Honeywell Multics] Obviously
wrong; cretinous; demented. There is an implication that the person responsible
must have suffered brain damage, because he should have known better. Calling
something brain-damaged is really bad; it also implies it is unusable, and that
its failure to work is due to poor design rather than some accident. "Only six
monocase characters per file name? Now *that's* brain-damaged!"
2. [especially in the Mac world] May refer to free demonstration software that
has been deliberately crippled in some way so as not to compete with the
commercial product it is intended to sell. Synonym crippleware.
[Jargon File]
Nearby terms:
Braille embosser « Braille printer « Brain Aid
Prolog «
brain-damaged » brain-dead » brain dump » brain
fart
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