*BSD News Article 95808


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From: "Håvard Fosseng" <havardf@usit.uio.no>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.x,alt.os.linux,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.unix.solaris
Subject: Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list?
Followup-To: gnu.misc.discuss
Date: 20 May 1997 17:51:29 +0200
Organization: University of Oslo, Norway
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sjuneau@bnr.ca (Steve Juneau) skriv:

> : biff ?? Does it mean anything?
> 
> It's the name of the program's author dog which used to bark
> when the postman was delivering mail.

Not the author's dog. Peter H. Salus' "A Quarter Century of UNIX",
states that biff was written by John Fodero. Biff the dog belonged to
Heidi Stettner, according to whom "the story of Biff barking at the
mailman is scurrilous canard".



- Håvard Fosseng