brain-damaged

2 definitions found

brain-damaged - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  brain-damaged
  
     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]
  

brain-damaged - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  brain-damaged
   adj.
  
     1. [common; generalization of "Honeywell Brain Damage" (HBD), a
     theoretical disease invented to explain certain utter cretinisms in
     Honeywell Multics] adj. 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. [esp. 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 product it is intended to sell. Syn. crippleware.