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DEADBEEF
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DEADBEEF /ded-beef/ /n./ The hexadecimal word-fill pattern
for freshly allocated memory (decimal -21524111) under a number of
IBM environments, including the RS/6000. Some modern debugging
tools deliberately fill freed memory with this value as a way of
converting heisenbugs into Bohr bugs. As in "Your
program is DEADBEEF" (meaning gone, aborted, flushed from memory);
if you start from an odd half-word boundary, of course, you have
BEEFDEAD. See also the anecdote under fool.
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