condom: n. 1. The protective plastic bag that accompanies
3.5-inch microfloppy diskettes. Rarely, also used of (paper) disk
envelopes. Unlike the write protect tab, the condom (when left on)
not only impedes the practice of SEX but has also been shown to
have a high failure rate as drive mechanisms attempt to access the
disk -- and can even fatally frustrate insertion. 2. The protective
cladding on a light pipe. 3. `keyboard condom': A flexible,
transparent plastic cover for a keyboard, designed to provide some
protection against dust and programming fluid without impeding
typing. 4. `elephant condom': the plastic shipping bags used inside
cardboard boxes to protect hardware in transit. 5. n. obs. A dummy
directory `/usr/tmp/sh', created to foil the Great Worm by
exploiting a portability bug in one of its parts. So named in the
title of a comp.risks article by Gene Spafford during the Worm
crisis, and again in the text of "The Internet Worm Program: An
Analysis", Purdue Technical Report CSD-TR-823.
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