film at 11

film at 11


   [MIT: in parody of TV newscasters]

   1. Used in conversation to announce ordinary events, with a sarcastic
   implication that these events are earth-shattering. "{ITS} crashes;
   film at 11." "Bug found in scheduler; film at 11."

   2. Also widely used outside MIT to indicate that additional
   information will be available at some future time, without the
   implication of anything particularly ordinary about the referenced
   event. For example, "The mail file server died this morning; we found
   garbage all over the root directory. Film at 11." would indicate that
   a major failure had occurred but that the people working on it have no
   additional information about it as yet; use of the phrase in this way
   suggests gently that the problem is liable to be fixed more quickly if
   the people doing the fixing can spend time doing the fixing rather
   than responding to questions, the answers to which will appear on the
   normal "11:00 news", if people will just be patient.

   The variant "MPEGs at 11" has recently been cited (MPEG is a
   digital-video format.)
    

film at 11

   <jargon> (MIT, in parody of US TV newscasters) 1. Used in
   conversation to announce ordinary events, with a sarcastic
   implication that these events are earth-shattering.  "{ITS}
   crashes; film at 11."  "Bug found in scheduler; film at 11."

   2. Also widely used outside MIT to indicate that additional
   information will be available at some future time, *without*
   the implication of anything particularly ordinary about the
   referenced event.  For example, "The mail file server died
   this morning; we found garbage all over the root directory.
   Film at 11." would indicate that a major failure had occurred
   but that the people working on it have no additional
   information about it as yet; use of the phrase in this way
   suggests gently that the problem is liable to be fixed more
   quickly if the people doing the fixing can spend time doing
   the fixing rather than responding to questions, the answers to
   which will appear on the normal "11:00 news", if people will
   just be patient.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1998-03-24)