1. To defeat a selection mechanism by introducing a (sometimes
temporary) device that forces a specific result. The word is used in
several industries; telephone engineers refer to spiking a relay by
inserting a pin to hold the relay in either the closed or open state,
and railroaders refer to spiking a track switch so that it cannot be
moved. In programming environments it normally refers to a temporary
change, usually for testing purposes (as opposed to a permanent
change, which would be called {hardwired}).
2. [borderline techspeak] A visible peak in an otherwise rather
constant graph (e.g. a sudden surge in line voltage, an unexpected
short "high" on a logical line in a circuit). Hackers frequently use
this for a sudden short increase in some quantity such as system load
or network traffic.
[glossary]