I missed the staff meeting but the minutes show "Searcher"
wrote back on Fri, 10 Dec 2004 03:42:17 GMT
in rec.crafts.metalworking :
I see this often and have no clue as to what it means

Many answers, I'll add my two cents.

From the Jargon File 4.2.0:

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 `ping(8)' can be used
to do this manually (note that `ping(8)''s author denies the widespread
folk etymology that the name was ever intended as 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 `ping(8)',
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.


From this came all sorts of other uses, but that's the computer related
use

Thanks
Searcher1


--
pyotr filipivich.
as an explaination for the decline in the US's tech edge, James
Niccol wrote "It used to be that the USA was pretty good at
producing stuff teenaged boys could lose a finger or two playing with."