RE: [microsound] Composers using "glitch" need to just do it!

[Kenric McDowell <jrvarsity@xxxxxxx>]

from the Jargon File

glitch /glich/

[very common; from German `glitschig' to slip, via Yiddish `glitshen', to
slide or skid] 1. n. A sudden interruption in electric service, sanity,
continuity, or program function. Sometimes recoverable. An interruption in
electric service is specifically called a `power glitch' (also power hit),
of grave concern because it usually crashes all the computers. In jargon,
though, a hacker who got to the middle of a sentence and then forgot how he
or she intended to complete it might say, "Sorry, I just glitched". 2. vi.
To commit a glitch. See gritch. 3. vt. [Stanford] To scroll a display
screen, esp. several lines at a time. WAITS terminals used to do this in
order to avoid continuous scrolling, which is distracting to the eye. 4.
obs. Same as magic cookie, sense 2.

All these uses of `glitch' derive from the specific technical meaning the
term has in the electronic hardware world, where it is now techspeak. A
glitch can occur when the inputs of a circuit change, and the outputs change
to some random value for some very brief time before they settle down to the
correct value. If another circuit inspects the output at just the wrong
time, reading the random value, the results can be very wrong and very hard
to debug (a glitch is one of many causes of electronic heisenbugs).

glassfet = G = glob


-----Original Message-----
From: R. Ecalcitrance [mailto:Akira@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2000 3:54 PM
To: microsound
Subject: Re: [microsound] Composers using "glitch" need to just do it!



> Yeah, the term glitch

glitch (glItS). slang. [Etym. unknown.] a. A surge of current or aspurious
electrical signal (see quots.); also, in extended use, asudden short-lived
irregularity in behaviour. b. Astronauts slang. A hitch or snag; a
malfunction.

1962 J. Glenn in Into Orbit 86 Another term we adopted to describe some of
our problems was glitch. Literally, a glitch is a spike or change in voltage
in anelectrical circuit which takes place when the circuit suddenly has a
new load put on it... A glitch..is such a minute change in voltage that no
fuse could protect against it. Ibid. 245 Glitch, amomentary change in
voltage in an electrical circuit; (slangahitch).

1962 R. F. Graf Mod. Dict. Electronics (1963) 124 Glitch,low-frequency
interference in a television picture. It is seen asa narrow bar moving
vertically.1969 Product Engineering 27 Jan. 15/3 It generated digital
transients that caused the abortguidance to send false signals. Phillips
said it took aninordinately long time to find this glitch.

1969 Funk & Wagnalls Dict. Electronics 70 Glitch, a stray current or signal,
usually one that interferes in some way with the functioning of a system.

1969 Daily Tel. 15 Nov. 1/3 [Apollo moon flight] Thinking back to when we
had our big glitch, I remember seeing it get light outsidethe window after
we were in the clouds, and Im pretty sure we gothit by lightning.

1971 Nature: Physical Sci. 14 June 146/2 Two pulsars have exhibited a sudden
increase in frequency (glitch), after which the usual slowing down has been
resume

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