ping \ping\, v. i. imp.  p. p. pinged; p. pr.  vb. n.
   pinging.
   to make the sound called ping.
   1913 webster
see also:
pinged pinging 

ping \ping\, n. probably of imitative origin.
   the sound made by a bullet in striking a solid object or in
   passing through the air.
   1913 webster

backfire \backfire\, back fire \back fire\
   1. a fire started ahead of a forest or prairie fire to burn
      only against the wind, so that when the two fires meet
      both must go out for lack of fuel.
      webster 1913 suppl.

   2.
      a a premature explosion in the cylinder of a gas or oil
          engine during the exhaust or the compression stroke,
          tending to drive the piston in a direction reverse to
          that in which it should travel; also called a knock
          or ping.
      b an explosion in the exhaust passages of an internal
          combustion engine.
          webster 1913 suppl. +pjc backfire
see also:
knock ping 

ping
     n 1: a river in western thailand; a major tributary of the chao
          phraya syn: ping river
     2: a sharp high-pitched resonant sound as of a sonar echo or a
        bullet striking metal
     v 1: hit with a pinging noise; "the bugs pinged the lamp shade"
     2: sound like a car engine that is firing too early; "the car
        pinged when i put in low-octane gasoline"; "the car pinked
        when the ignition was too far retarded" syn: pink, knock
     3: make a short high-pitched sound; "the bullet pinged when
        they struck the car"
     4: contact, usually in order to remind of something; "i'll ping
        my accountant--april 15 is nearing"
     5: send a message from one computer to another to check whether
        it is reachable and active; "ping your machine in the
        office"
see also:
ping river pink knock 

ping
     packet internet groper icmp, tcp/ip
     
     

ping from the submariners' term for a sonar pulse 1. n. slang term
   for a small network message icmp echo sent by a computer to check for
   the presence and alertness of another. the unix command `ping8' can be
   used to do this manually note that `ping8''s author denies the
   widespread folk etymology that the name was ever intended as an acronym
   for `packet internet groper'. occasionally used as a phone greeting.
   see ack, also enq. 2. vt. to verify the presence of. 3. vt. to get
   the attention of. 4. vt. to send a message to all members of a mailing
   list requesting an ack in order to verify that everybody's addresses
   are reachable. "we haven't heard much of anything from geoff, but he
   did respond with an ack both times i pinged jargon-friends." 5. n. a
   quantum packet of happiness. people who are very happy tend to exude
   pings; furthermore, one can intentionally create pings and aim them at a
   needy party e.g., a depressed person. this sense of ping may appear as
   an exclamation; "ping" i'm happy; i am emitting a quantum of
   happiness; i have been struck by a quantum of happiness. the form
   "pingfulness", which is used to describe people who exude pings, also
   occurs. in the standard abuse of language, "pingfulness" can also be
   used as an exclamation, in which case it's a much stronger exclamation
   than just "ping". oppose blargh.

   the funniest use of `ping' to date was described in january 1991 by
   steve hayman on the usenet group comp.sys.next. he was trying to isolate
   a faulty cable segment on a tcp/ip ethernet hooked up to a next machine,
   and got tired of having to run back to his console after each cabling
   tweak to see if the ping packets were getting through. so he used the
   sound-recording feature on the next, then wrote a script that repeatedly
   invoked `ping8', listened for an echo, and played back the recording
   on each returned packet. result? a program that caused the machine to
   repeat, over and over, "ping ... ping ... ping ..." as long as the
   network was up. he turned the volume to maximum, ferreted through the
   building with one ear cocked, and found a faulty tee connector in no
   time.


see also:
ack enq mailing list blargh 

ping
     
        packet internet groper
     
     
see also:
packet internet groper