[MUD: from H. P. Lovecraft's evil fictional deity Shub-Niggurath, the
Black Goat with a Thousand Young] The harsh personification of the
Internet: Beast of a Thousand Processes, Eater of Characters, Avatar
of Line Noise, and Imp of Call Waiting; the hideous multi-tendriled
entity formed of all the manifold connections of the net. A sect of
MUDders worships Shub-Internet, sacrificing objects and praying for
good connections. To no avail -- its purpose is malign and evil, and
it is the cause of all network slowdown. Often heard as in "Freela
casts a tac nuke at Shub-Internet for slowing her down." (A forged
response often follows along the lines of: "Shub-Internet gulps down
the tac nuke and burps happily.") Also cursed by users of the Web,
FTP and telnet when the network lags. The dread name of Shub-Internet
is seldom spoken aloud, as it is said that repeating it three times
will cause the being to wake, deep within its lair beneath the
Pentagon. Compare {Random Number God}.
[January 1996: It develops that one of the computer administrators in
the basement of the Pentagon read this entry and fell over laughing.
As a result, you too can now poke Shub-Internet by {ping}ing
shub-internet.ims.disa.mil. Compare {kremvax}. --ESR]
[April 1999: shub-internet.ims.disa.mil is no more, alas. But
Shub-Internet lives, and even has a home page. --ESR]
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {cthulhic}{Random Number God}]