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18-letter words containing t, g, w

  • light welterweight — an amateur boxer weighing 60–63.5 kg (132–140 pounds)
  • long hundredweight — a hundredweight of 112 pounds (50.8 kg), the usual hundredweight in Great Britain, but now rare in the U.S.
  • low-start mortgage — a mortgage in which interest only is repaid for a fixed period at the outset, to make it more affordable
  • magic switch story — Some years ago, I was snooping around in the cabinets that housed the MIT AI Lab's PDP-10, and noticed a little switch glued to the frame of one cabinet. It was obviously a homebrew job, added by one of the lab's hardware hackers (no-one knows who). You don't touch an unknown switch on a computer without knowing what it does, because you might crash the computer. The switch was labelled in a most unhelpful way. It had two positions, and scrawled in pencil on the metal switch body were the words "magic" and "more magic". The switch was in the "more magic" position. I called another hacker over to look at it. He had never seen the switch before either. Closer examination revealed that the switch had only one wire running to it! The other end of the wire did disappear into the maze of wires inside the computer, but it's a basic fact of electricity that a switch can't do anything unless there are two wires connected to it. This switch had a wire connected on one side and no wire on its other side. It was clear that this switch was someone's idea of a silly joke. Convinced by our reasoning that the switch was inoperative, we flipped it. The computer instantly crashed. Imagine our utter astonishment. We wrote it off as coincidence, but nevertheless restored the switch to the "more magic" position before reviving the computer. A year later, I told this story to yet another hacker, David Moon as I recall. He clearly doubted my sanity, or suspected me of a supernatural belief in the power of this switch, or perhaps thought I was fooling him with a bogus saga. To prove it to him, I showed him the very switch, still glued to the cabinet frame with only one wire connected to it, still in the "more magic" position. We scrutinized the switch and its lone connection, and found that the other end of the wire, though connected to the computer wiring, was connected to a ground pin. That clearly made the switch doubly useless: not only was it electrically nonoperative, but it was connected to a place that couldn't affect anything anyway. So we flipped the switch. The computer promptly crashed. This time we ran for Richard Greenblatt, a long-time MIT hacker, who was close at hand. He had never noticed the switch before, either. He inspected it, concluded it was useless, got some diagonal cutters and diked it out. We then revived the computer and it has run fine ever since. We still don't know how the switch crashed the machine. There is a theory that some circuit near the ground pin was marginal, and flipping the switch changed the electrical capacitance enough to upset the circuit as millionth-of-a-second pulses went through it. But we'll never know for sure; all we can really say is that the switch was magic. I still have that switch in my basement. Maybe I'm silly, but I usually keep it set on "more magic".
  • negative cash flow — the situation when income is less than payments
  • neighborhood watch — a neighborhood surveillance program or group in which residents keep watch over one another's houses, patrol the streets, etc., in an attempt to prevent crime.
  • network management — (networking)   The process of controlling a network so as to maximise its efficiency and productivity. ISO's model divides network management into five categories: fault management, accounting management, configuration management, security management and performance management. Fault management is the process of identifying and locating faults in the network. This could include discovering the existence of the problem, identifying the source, and possibly repairing (or at least isolating the rest of the network from) the problem. Configuration management is the process of identifying, tracking and modifying the setup of devices on the network. This category is extremely important for devices that come with numerous custom settings (e.g. routers and file servers). Security management is the process of controlling (granting, limiting, restricting or denying) access to the network and resources thereon. This could include setting up and managing access lists in routers (creating "firewalls" to keep intruders out), creating and maintaining password access to critical network resources, identifying the points of entry used by intruders and closing them. Performance Management is the process of measuring the performance of various network components. This also includes taking measures to optimise the network for maximum system performance (periodically measuring of the use of network resources).
  • new storage system — (storage)   (NSS) A major Multics implementation project during the 1970s. The initial Multics file system design had evolved from the one-huge-disk world of CTSS. When multiple disk units were used they were just assigned increasing ranges of disk addresses, so a segment could have pages scattered over all disks on the system. This provided good I/O parallelism but made crash recovery expensive. NSS redesigned the lower levels of the file system, introducing the concepts of logical volume and physical volume and a mapping from a Multics directory branch to a VTOC entry for each file. The new system had much better recovery performance in exchange for a small space and performance cost.
  • now you're talking — at last you're saying something agreeable
  • oil of wintergreen — methyl salicylate.
  • operating software — software used in the operation of a computer system, typically by performing such tasks as memory allocation, job scheduling, and input/output control
  • overtime work(ing) — work at a regular job done in addition to regular working hours
  • owen stanley range — a mountain range in SE New Guinea. Highest peak: Mount Victoria, 4073 m (13 363 ft)
  • plate-glass window — a window that has glass which has been formed by rolling
  • resistance welding — welding utilizing pressure and heat that is generated in the pieces to be welded by resistance to an electric current.
  • right-to-work laws — a state law making it illegal to refuse employment to a person for the sole reason that he or she is not a union member.
  • schleswig-holstein — two contiguous duchies of Denmark that were a center of international tension in the 19th century: Prussia annexed Schleswig 1864 and Holstein 1866.
  • self-tapping screw — a screw designed to tap its corresponding female thread as it is driven.
  • song without words — a song which only consists of a tune or melody and does not have any lyrics
  • sow dragon's teeth — to take some action that is intended to prevent strife or trouble but that actually brings it about
  • super middleweight — a boxer weighing up to 168 pounds (75.6 kg), between middleweight and light heavyweight.
  • swarm intelligence — the collective behaviour of a group of animals, esp social insects such as ants, bees, and termites, that are each following very basic rules
  • swedish gymnastics — a system of passive and active exercising of muscles and joints
  • sweet vernal grass — a Eurasian meadow grass, Anthoxanthum odoratum, found throughout North America, having clusters of brownish-green flowers.
  • sweptwing aircraft — an aircraft which has wings that are swept (usually) backwards
  • to get wind of sth — If you get wind of something, you hear about it, especially when someone else did not want you to know about it.
  • to plough a furrow — If you say that someone ploughs a particular furrow or ploughs their own furrow, you mean that their activities or interests are different or isolated from those of other people.
  • treaty of waitangi — a treaty signed in 1840 by Māori chiefs and a representative of the British Government, providing the basis for the British annexation of New Zealand
  • two-minute warning — a time-out called by an official to notify both teams that two minutes remain in a half.
  • two-tier financing — a form of lending in which the debt is divided into two separate parts, as in a first and second mortgage held by an individual on a single property
  • ultrasonic welding — the use of high-energy vibration of ultrasonic frequency to produce a weld between two components which are held in close contact
  • wage determination — the process of setting wage rates or establishing wage structures in particular situations
  • wandering minstrel — travelling performer
  • warning coloration — a bold, distinctive pattern of color characteristic of a poisonous or unpalatable organism, as the skunk or the monarch butterfly, that functions as a warning to and defense against predators.
  • watchdog committee — a committee responsible for monitoring standards of behaviour
  • wedge-tailed eagle — a large brown Australian eagle, Aquila audax, having a wedge-shaped tail and a wingspan of 3 m
  • welwyn garden city — a town in SE England, in Hertfordshire: established (1920) as a planned industrial and residential community. Pop: 43 512 (2001)
  • westinghouse brake — a railroad air brake operated by compressed air.
  • whitewater rafting — the sport of rafting down fast-flowing rivers, esp over rapids
  • wingback formation — single wingback formation.
  • winged everlasting — a bushy composite plant, Ammobium alatum, of Australia, having winged branches, javelin-shaped leaves, and white flowers.
  • with flying colors — with flying colors, with an overwhelming victory, triumph, or success: He passed the test with flying colors.
  • without obligation — In advertisements, if a product or a service is available without obligation, you do not have to pay for that product or service until you have tried it and are satisfied with it.
  • wood-burning stove — cooker: fueled by wood
  • work your guts out — If you say that you are working your guts out or slogging your guts out, you are emphasizing that you are working as hard as you can.
  • work-study program — a program enabling high-school or college students to combine academic work with actual job experience.
  • working hypothesis — See under hypothesis (def 1).
  • wrangell mountains — a mountain range in SE Alaska, extending into the Yukon, Canada. Highest peak: Mount Blackburn, 5037 m (16 523 ft)
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