19-letter words containing f, s

nasty piece of work — malicious person
neats vs. scruffies — (artificial intelligence, jargon) The label used to refer to one of the continuing holy wars in artificial intelligence research. This conflict tangles together two separate issues. One is the relationship between human reasoning and AI; "neats" tend to try to build systems that "reason" in some way identifiably similar to the way humans report themselves as doing, while "scruffies" profess not to care whether an algorithm resembles human reasoning in the least as long as it works. More importantly, neats tend to believe that logic is king, while scruffies favour looser, more ad-hoc methods driven by empirical knowledge. To a neat, scruffy methods appear promiscuous, successful only by accident and not productive of insights about how intelligence actually works; to a scruffy, neat methods appear to be hung up on formalism and irrelevant to the hard-to-capture "common sense" of living intelligences.
network file system — (networking, operating system) (NFS) A protocol developed by Sun Microsystems, and defined in RFC 1094, which allows a computer to access files over a network as if they were on its local disks. This protocol has been incorporated in products by more than two hundred companies, and is now a de facto standard. NFS is implemented using a connectionless protocol (UDP) in order to make it stateless. See Nightmare File System, WebNFS.
neufchâtel (cheese) — a soft white cheese prepared from whole milk or skim milk and eaten fresh or cured
non-transferability — to convey or remove from one place, person, etc., to another: He transferred the package from one hand to the other.
nordrhein-westfalen — German name of North Rhine-Westphalia.
norfolk island pine — a coniferous evergreen tree, Araucaria heterophylla (or A. excelsa), having whorled branches and needlelike foliage, widely cultivated as a houseplant.
north-west frontier — the area roughly equivalent to the present North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, which is the days of the British Raj was regarded as one of the most remote and dangerous outposts of the British Empire
nothing of the sort — not at all as described
objectfuscated code — (humour, programming) Object-oriented code which has been abstracted to so many levels that no-one can understand it anymore. A play on obfuscated code.
of one's own accord — to be in agreement or harmony; agree.
on (or off) course — moving (or not moving) in the intended direction
on cue/as if on cue — If you say that something happened on cue or as if on cue, you mean that it happened just when it was expected to happen, or just at the right time.
on first name terms — If two people are on first-name terms, they know each other well enough to call each other by their first names, rather than having to use a more formal title.
on someone's behalf — in / on behalf of, as a representative of or a proxy for: On behalf of my colleagues, I address you tonight.
on the threshold of — If you are on the threshold of something exciting or new, you are about to experience it.
one of those things — something that cannot be avoided, helped, changed, etc.
open the floodgates — If events open the floodgates to something, they make it possible for that thing to happen much more often or much more seriously than before.
out of the question — a sentence in an interrogative form, addressed to someone in order to get information in reply.
own flesh and blood — If you say that someone is your own flesh and blood, you are emphasizing that they are a member of your family.
oysters rockefeller — oysters topped typically with cooked spinach, cream sauce or butter, bacon, and seasonings, and broiled in a bed of rock salt: served on a half shell
pancreatic fibrosis — cystic fibrosis.
parainfluenza virus — any of a group of viruses that cause respiratory infections with influenza-like symptoms, esp in children
paraphase amplifier — an amplifier that produces a push-pull output from a single input.
parting of the ways — When there is a parting of the ways, two or more people or groups of people stop working together or travelling together.
paschen-back effect — a splitting of spectral lines observed when the source of a radiation is subjected to a strong magnetic field, caused when the vectors associated with the spin and orbital angular momentum exhibit individual rather than common precession.
perfect progressive — a verb form including the auxiliary have followed by been and a present participle, noting the continuation of an activity or event, its incompleteness or interruption, and its connection to the temporal point of reference, as in I've been waiting for over an hour, They had been talking about her before she came into the room, or In July, he will have been living here for two years.
performance figures — the statistics that indicate how well or badly a company or organization has performed
performance targets — the expected or predicted success level of an individual, company or organization
peroxysulfuric acid — persulfuric acid (def 1).
persian gulf states — group of Arab sheikdoms along the Persian Gulf: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, & United Arab Emirates
persistent offender — a person who repeatedly breaks the law
personal watercraft — a jet-propelled boat ridden like a motorcycle.
phacoemulsification — the removal of a cataract by first liquefying the affected lens with ultrasonic vibrations and then extracting it by suction.
phakoemulsification — the removal of a cataract by first liquefying the affected lens with ultrasonic vibrations and then extracting it by suction.
pillars of hercules — the two promontories at the E end of the Strait of Gibraltar: the Rock of Gibraltar on the European side and the Jebel Musa on the African side; according to legend, formed by Hercules
pirates of penzance — an operetta (1879) by Sir William S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan.
pistol-handle knife — a table knife, especially of the 18th century, having a slightly curved handle resembling the grip of a flintlock pistol.
plastic deformation — In plastic deformation a material changes shape when a stress is applied to it and does not go back to its original state when the stress is removed.
play fast and loose — a dramatic composition or piece; drama.
play footsie (with) — to touch feet or rub knees (with) in a caressing way, as under the table
post office problem — (algorithm) Given a set of points (in N dimensions), find another point which minimises the sum of the distances from that point to each of the others.
post-and-rail fence — a fence constructed of upright wooden posts with horizontal timber slotted through it
potassium bisulfate — a colorless, crystalline, water-soluble solid, KHSO 4 , used chiefly in the conversion of tartrates to bitartrates.
presumption of fact — a presumption based on experience or knowledge of the relationship between a known fact and a fact inferred from it.
private first class — a soldier ranking above a private and below a corporal or specialist fourth class in the U.S. Army, and above a private and below a lance corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps.
process performance — Process performance is a measure of how efficient or effective a process is.
professional advice — advice given by someone trained in a particular and relevant profession or job
professional school — a postgraduate school or college which trains students for a particular profession
professionalization — to give a professional character or status to; make into or establish as a profession.

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