pnambic
pnambic: /p*-nam'bik/ [Acronym from the scene in the film
version of "The Wizard of Oz" in which the true nature of the wizard
is first discovered: "Pay no attention to the man behind the
curtain."] 1. A stage of development of a process or function that,
owing to incomplete implementation or to the complexity of the
system, requires human interaction to simulate or replace some or
all of the actions, inputs, or outputs of the process or function.
2. Of or pertaining to a process or function whose apparent
operations are wholly or partially falsified. 3. Requiring
prestidigitization.
The ultimate pnambic product was "Dan Bricklin's Demo", a program
which supported flashy user-interface design prototyping. There is
a related maxim among hackers: "Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from a rigged demo." See magic, sense 1, for
illumination of this point.
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