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brain-damaged

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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]

(2011-01-04)

Nearby terms: Braille embosser « Braille printer « Brain Aid Prolog « brain-damaged » brain-dead » brain dump » brain fart

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