BUZZWORD COMPLIANT DICTIONARY
H

hack: In the programming world, it usually identifies a programmer who has less experience than George W and boasts more than Al Gore.  In other words, it's not a flattering term. Not to be confused with hacker, which can be considered a compliment.
Nominated by Bob Garrett

hacker: Despite what the general news media says, hackers are not the "bad guys." They're clever programmers admired for their ability to write and decipher computer code. The bad guys, the ones who break into other peoples computers with malicious intent, are called "crackers."

hacktivist: Someone who combines hacking skills with activism to attack, shut down or deface target Web sites as a form of political protest. It's a form of "electronic" civil disobedience. They're experts of the "virtual sit-in."
Nominated by Claire Colvin

hairball: Any tangled mess. Often refers to poorly written computer code with Microsoft's name frequently invoked, but could simply be any organization's maze of rules and regulations.
Nominated by Michael Kotch

ham: Legitimate e-mail messages that get filtered or block-deleted in your attempt to separate the "real meat" from the spam.
Nominated by Steve Hannaford

hamsterize: To use manual labor in lieu of technology. Instead of spending money on technology, a company will employ a bunch of $8.00-an-hour "hamsters" to do the job.
Nominated by Chrisa Hickey

handraulics: A manual process. "We loaded the software handraulically -- we did it by hand."
Nominated by Andrew Smith

hang-time: With Michael Jordan retired, the term has been appropriated by the computer crowd. It’s when your computer freezes and you can’t do anything.
Nominated by Earline Hughes

heavy lifting: The "heavy lifting" is the hard work. As in: "The venture capitalists did the heavy lifting, we just developed and sold the product."
Nominated by Todd Dollinger, www.trendlines.com

helicopter mom: An overprotective and overly-involved mom. Helicopter moms can't simply drop their kids off at school. They must visit their children's classroom daily to hover and see how they are doing – embarrassing the child and irritating the teacher.
Nominated by Marc Hoopingarner

helicopter view: A synonym for overview. "Let's get together and take a helicopter view of the situation." Also known as "the 10,000-foot view."
Nominated by Thom Menzies

herding cats: Any frustrating or near impossible task. "Jeez, trying to get corporate approval is like herding cats."
Nominated by L. Lepori

high level: To focus on the "big picture," as in "Let's keep this discussion on a high level." Frequently used as a way to avoid discussing the details of a project by those who really don't really know what's going on.
Nominated by Walter Hull

hijackware: Any software or plug-in that whisks you from the Web site you're perusing and takes you to a competitor's site. Also known as scumware.
Nominated by David Ross

hillbilly heroin: Nickname for OxyContin, a cheap prescription pain-killer that has become the recreational drug of choice in Appalachia. Also known as "poor man’s heroin," its abuse has reached epidemic proportions.
Nominated by Mark Worden

HiPo list: A group of generally younger employees thought to have High Potential (HiPo) and possessing the right stuff to become future corporate execs – after appropriate brainwashing, er, training, of course.
Nominated by Scott Richardson

hip-pop: Hip-hop that's become so commercialized it appeals more to suburban mallrats than urban youth. Puff Daddy may have started out as hip-hop, but P. Diddy (and now Diddy) is pure hip-pop.
Nominated by Vik Chopra

hiptop: A multifunction wireless device that's part cell phone, camera, game console, Internet browser, PDA, etc., which is spawning its own blogs, web portals and a culture known as the Hiptop Nation.
Nominated by Mark Worden

homeshoring: The growing practice of having call center or customer service reps work from their homes. Also called homesourcing. There are more than 100,000 such employees in the U.S. alone.
Nominated by Tyrone Slothrop

homing from work: While some people are working from home, most of us are using the latest technology for "homing from work" – keeping in touch with our kids using cell phones, text messages, virtual networks, etc. Once frowned upon as doing "personal business on company time," it's now encouraged so employees don't feel guilty about working late. Of course, some of us are simply tapping into our home computers so we can update our resumes.
Nominated by Rhys Wilkins

hoovering: The fine of art of sucking up. (Note: Hoovering, adapted from the name of a vacuum cleaner, has numerous definitions -- including a few dirty ones. This just happens to be our favorite.)
Nominated by Signy Freyseng

horked: Broken, confused or trashed. Generally describes software or hardware that no longer works. "The router is horked!"
Nominated by Mike Fratini

hot desking: When workers have no permanent workstation or desk and are assigned temporary workspace based on current need. The "official" corporate term is "location independent working." Among workers it's known as being homeless.
Nominated by Saman Jebeli-Javan

human capital: Increasingly, it's how companies refer to their employees. Some Human Resource execs are even calling themselves Human Capital Managers and there's a magazine for them by that name. In some corners, human capital is also referred to as "living assets."
Nominated by Kevin Gillogly

human gateway: An annoying person who constantly posts "news" from one e-mail discussion list to another whether it's relevant or not.
Nominated by Joachim Ritschmann

humanilebrity: A celebrity who is a humanitarian and uses his or her fame  to bolster a cause. Angelina Jolie is the current queen of humanilebrities.
Nominated by Jeffery Price

Hummer house: A huge and architecturally inappropriate house built in an existing neighborhood destroying the aesthetic integrity of said neighborhood
Nominated by James Heron

100% zero: An expression that emphatically states the ultimate negative. "The chances of this project succeeding are 100% zero. It's just not going to happen."
Nominated by Tim Ewbank

hydraulics of the situation: An MBA buzzword meaning to understand how something works in order to make the necessary adjustments.
Nominated by Michael Taylor

hyperinfrastructure: A complicated, contained, and often large, interconnected system of dependencies, primarily a computer network or a facility, in which all systems are collocated and interdependent. In other words, a fancy way of saying you having all your eggs in one basket.
Nominated by Charles Starkey

hypertasking: While we’re frequently forced to multitask just to keep up at work, hypertasking is a choice for those who thrive on doing more than one thing at a time. A hypertasker combines many tasks into one in order to experience more. He may exercise, play tourist and conduct business at the same time by riding his bike through the Blue Ridge Mountains while running a business meeting via his wireless headset.