Bozo bit

From iGeek
Revision as of 11:20, 13 May 2020 by Ari (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search
Bozo.jpg
Bozo bit

The 1984 Macintosh Filing System had a special attribute called the "bozo bit". If this bit was set, the file would be ignored when a user copied the disk, folder or the file itself in the Mac Finder. It was a simplest form of copy protection. Anyone with the slightest technical savvy could fix it (by resetting the bit before copying), but bozo's would fall for it. Thus a person "setting the bozo bit" had the double meaning that this person could be ignored (like a copy protected file), or a person falling for what this person said was a complete bozo (neophyte). The term Bozo likely goes back to an old TV show, Bozo the Clown.


GeekPirate.small.png

📚 References