bounce

1. (Perhaps by analogy to a bouncing check) An electronicmail message that is undeliverable and returns an error

notification (a "bounce message") to the sender is said to

"bounce".

2. To play volleyball. The now-demolished D. C. Power Lab

building used by the Stanford AI Lab in the 1970s had a

volleyball court on the front lawn. From 5 PM to 7 PM was the

scheduled maintenance time for the computer, so every

afternoon at 5 would come over the intercom the cry: "Now hear

this: bounce, bounce!", followed by Brian McCune loudly

bouncing a volleyball on the floor outside the offices of

known volleyballers.

3. To engage in sexual intercourse; probably from the

expression "bouncing the mattress", but influenced by Roo's

psychosexually loaded "Try bouncing me, Tigger!" from the

"Winnie-the-Pooh" books.

Compare boink.

4. To casually reboot a system in order to clear up a

transient problem. Reported primarily among VMS users.

5. (VM/CMS programmers) Automatic warm-start of a computer

after an error. "I logged on this morning and found it had

bounced 7 times during the night"

6. (IBM) To power cycle a peripheral in order to reset it.

[Jargon File]

(1994-11-29)