film at 11
<jargon> (MIT, in parody of US TV newscasters) 1. Used in conversation to
announce ordinary events, with a sarcastic implication that these events are
earth-shattering. "ITS crashes; film at 11." "Bug found in scheduler; film at
11."
2. Also widely used outside MIT to indicate that additional information will be
available at some future time, *without* the implication of anything
particularly ordinary about the referenced event. For example, "The mail file
server died this morning; we found garbage all over the root directory. Film at
11." would indicate that a major failure had occurred but that the people
working on it have no additional information about it as yet; use of the phrase
in this way suggests gently that the problem is liable to be fixed more quickly
if the people doing the fixing can spend time doing the fixing rather than
responding to questions, the answers to which will appear on the normal "11:00
news", if people will just be patient.
[Jargon File]
(1998-03-24)
Nearby terms:
filing system « filk « fill-out form « film at 11
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