Eighth of Seven's definitions

handle jammed forward

To push an aircraft's engines to emergency full power. May cause permanent engine damage if prolonged beyond a few minutes.

Used to denote someone who is going all-out.

"You busy ?"
"Yup, got the handle jammed forward"

by Eighth of Seven January 8, 2007

Big Red Reset Switch

The main power switch, often on computer equipment but applicable to any piece of equipment. Used to stop the system when all other control inputs have failed, often because of a system crash or lockup.

Tech 1: "Buggeration, we have the Blue Screen Of Death yet again !"

Tech 2: "Shit. Give me a sec, I shall apply my digital extremity to the Big Red Reset Switch"

<Click>

<Click>

Tech 1: "Ok, it's rebooting now".

by eighth of seven February 6, 2010

five and five

In R/T (radio telephone) parlance, a report on signal strength (1 - 5) and quality (1 - 5).

Hence, "I ready you two and four" means "your signal is weak, but I can hear you clearly".

By inference, "five and five" means "really good" ?

"How's the pizza ?"
"Five and five."

"We dropped into <drinking establishment> - the beer was crap, but the scenery was five and five."

by Eighth of Seven January 9, 2007

floor show

1. A minor fight or fracas, usually in a drinking establishment or other place of public entertainment. The actual level of violence is low, due to the participants being inept, inebriated or both. Hence the incident is entertaining rather than frightening to the onlookers.

"I was in <drinking establishment> last night - there was a terrific floor show. Some drunk guy got chucked out by the doormen."

by Eighth of Seven January 15, 2007

pegging the gauge

All systems wound up beyond the safe limit; literally, the needle on an analog dial has gone right round the dial, so far round that it's hit the peg marking the Zero poistion from the back.

Also known as redlining.

"I got the job done, but I was pegging the gauge by the end."

by Eighth of Seven January 8, 2007

running on impulse engines

In the original Star Trek series, whenever the main engines (warp drive) broke down (which was pretty frequent) the Enterprise would only be able to move using "impulse engines" - a low power, sub-lightspeed manouvering system based on a small fusion ram/ion drive.

By inference, someone described as "running on impilse engines" or "impulse power only" is either:

1. Very tired (a.k.a. 'running on empty')

2. Genuinely ill

3. (derog.) Slow and/or stupid.

"Jesus, I've just had to brief the sales guys on the new product.... they're all running on impulse engies up there".

"You want to go for a beer ?"

"No, man, I'm running on impulse engines... got to go home and grab some sleep."

by Eighth of Seven May 24, 2007

carbon unit

A low-grade worker; a peon. A dumb person doing a dumb job, often in retail, food service, or warehousing.

"I'll get a couple of carbon units to come round tonight and take that junk away."

"One of the carbon units in Goods Inwards tripped over a cable and smashed his arm. "

by Eighth of Seven January 15, 2007