When I am crunching (HIPAA compliant) data, or searching though files, deep into a project, I sometimes recall the bizarre "nerd" language of my grad school days at the MIT Lab for Computer Science. Most of these terms can be found at the Hacker's Dictionary Website
These terms are still coming in handy as one analyzes large CRM or PRM data sets and merges many disjointed files:
My favorite, with interpretations.
*Hack: To program for an extended period of time, and really love the creation.
*Munge: To analyze large data sets, and "work your magic" to get insights.
PERL, AWK, and SED: great Unix command line programs I wish I still had, for munging large text files.
*Snarf: To borrow from a colleague a file or document (electronic or paper)
*Grok: To pore deeply over an analysis, a code listing, a book, or a report, and really understand it
Try these terms yourself the next time you are grokking a few thousand rows of anonymized survey responses, or munging a ten-fold larger website click stream data set.
