The DICT Development Group

  FUBAR
       Fouled / Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition / Repair
       (telecommunication-slang, Usenet, IRC)
       
       

  FUBAR n. The Failed UniBus Address Register in a VAX. A good example of
     how jargon can occasionally be snuck past the suits; see foobar, and
     foo for a fuller etymology.
  
  

  FUBAR
       
          1. (WWII military slang) Fucked up beyond all
          recognition (or repair).
       
          See foobar.
       
          2.  The Failed UniBus Address Register in a
          VAX.  A good example of how jargon can occasionally be snuck
          past the suits.
       
          Larry Robinson  reports the following
          nonstandard use for FUBAR:
       
          One day somebody got mad at the card reader (or card eater
          that day) on our Univac 3200.  He taped a sign, "This thing
          is FUBAR", on the metal weight that sits on the stack of
          unread cards.  The sign stayed there for over a year.  One
          day, somebody said, "Don't forget to put the fubar on top of
          the stack".  It stuck!  We called that weight the fubar until
          they took away the machine.  The replacement card reader had
          two spring loaded card clamps, one for the feed and one for
          the return, and we called THOSE fubars until we dumped punch
          cards.
       
          Incidently, the way he taped the sign on the weight made up
          for the lack of a little nylon piece that was missing from it,
          and fixed the card reader.  That's why the sign stayed there.
       
          [{Jargon File]
       
          (1997-03-18)