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wormhole
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wormhole /werm'hohl/ /n./ [from the `wormhole'
singularities hypothesized in some versions of General Relativity
theory] 1. obs. A location in a monitor which contains the
address of a routine, with the specific intent of making it easy to
substitute a different routine. This term is now obsolescent;
modern operating systems use clusters of wormholes extensively (for
modularization of I/O handling in particular, as in the Unix
device-driver organization) but the preferred techspeak for these
clusters is `device tables', `jump tables' or `capability
tables'. 2. [Amateur Packet Radio] A network path using a
commercial satellite link to join two or more amateur VHF networks.
So called because traffic routed through a wormhole leaves and
re-enters the amateur network over great distances with usually
little clue in the message routing header as to how it got from one
relay to the other. Compare gopher hole (sense 2).
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