Luser
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In Internet slang, a luser (sometimes expanded to local user; also luzer or luzzer) is a painfully annoying, stupid, or irritating computer user. It is a portmanteau of "loser" and "user" and is usually pronounced as "loser". The word luser is often synonymous with lamer. In hackish, the word luser takes on a broader meaning, referring to any normal user (in other words not a guru), especially one who is also a loser. This term can also signify the user as a layman, as opposed to power user or administrator; for example, end luser. This term is very popular with technical support staff who have to deal with lusers as part of their job.
The Jargon File states that word was coined around 1975 at MIT. Under ITS, when you first walked up to a terminal at MIT and typed control-Z to get the computer's attention, it printed out some status information, including how many people were already using the computer; it might print "14 users", for example. Someone thought it would be a great joke to patch the system to print "14 losers" instead. There ensued a great controversy, as some of the users didn't particularly want to be called losers to their faces every time they used the computer. For a while several hackers struggled covertly, each changing the message behind the back of the others; any time you logged into the computer it was even money whether it would say "users" or "losers". Finally, someone tried the compromise "lusers", and it stuck. Later one of the ITS machines supported "luser" as a request-for-help command. ITS ceased to be used mid-1990, except as a museum piece; the usage lives on, however, and the term "luser" is often seen in program comments and on Usenet. /lusers is also a common IRC command to get the number of users connected to a server or network. [1]
A Luser Attitude Readjustment Tool (abbreviated LART) is "something large, heavy and painful, used to respond appropriately to particularly annoying lusers." A LART can by definition be anything from a pat on the back, to a small tactical nuclear attack, depending on how much adjustment the attitude needs. Names for specific types of LARTs include cluebat, clue stick, Clueisville Slugger, clue-by-four and Board of Education. The abbreviation was retrofitted to Lumber Assisted Reallocation as Treefood out of respect to the Lumber Cartel. See also Banhammer.
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This article is based in part on the Jargon File, which is in the public domain.
