Quite simply, the fastest, most stable, text based, and most configurable irc client out there. Written by hop, and not as intrusive or bloated as bitchx. If you're not into scripting epic into exactly how you want it, then its not for you.

n. a ride that must last for at least six hours and include three mechanicals that add at least an extra hour to the ride time. Epics are usually started with a statment like "the trail is buff, should only take three hours." Similar to death march.

From the Dictionary of Mountain Bike Slang

The Electronic Privacy Information Center is a public interest research center in Washington D.C.. It was formed in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy.

Its website can be found at http://www.epic.org

Epic

I have lived in important places, times
When great events were decided, who owned
That half a rood of rock, a no-man's land
Surrounded by our pitchfork-armed claims.
I heard the Duffeys shouting "Damn your soul"
And old McCabe stripped to the waist, seen
Step the plot defying blue cast-steel --
"Here is the march along these iron stones".
That was the year of the Munich bother. Which
Was more important? I inclined
To lose my faith in Ballyrush and Gortin
Till Homer's ghost came whispering to my mind.
He said: I made the Iliad from such
A local row. Gods make their own importance.

Patrick Kavanagh

Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing, used in Merced and developed by Hewlett-Packard. From my humble understanding, this is a type of processor architecture where multitasking arrangement is specified in the software's binary. Ordinarily, the kernel would have to arrange these instructions dynamically. Provided you have a damn good compiler, this speeds things up.

Definition

An epic is a poetic composition in which a series of heroic achievements or events, usually involving a hero, is dealt with at length as a continuous narrative in elevated style.
(Subdivided into the Classical, Oral or Folk, Historical, Literary and even the Mock.)

Characteristics

The Introduction:
Some (most) epics begin with an invocation to a god or to the Muse. There may be a statement of the subject and the author's purpose. The narrative itself begins in media res or in the middle of the story. The epic is a long work divided into sections.

The Characters:
The epic deals with an epic hero and his or her peers. Genealogies are usually given in order that the reader is aware of their background.

The Source:
The narrative is based on legend and/or history.

Epic Conventions

1. Imagery is provided through extended epic similes.
2. Epic epithets are used to describe characters. These are often repeated and are used to fill in the line.
3. Warfare or single combat is central.
4. Epic catalogue or lists.
5. There is epic realism in gory details of battle and detailed description of things such as weapons, armour, etc...
6. Often a journey is involved.
7. There is usually an epic weapon (Beowulf's sword for example)
8. Understatement is used.
9. Supernatural characters are used, probably because fo the conspicuous part played by the gods in the epics of Homer and Virgil.
10. Often the gods interfere with the action on behalf of their favourites.
11. Epics are vast in scope.
12. The epic hero is successful; a successful outcome is never in doubt.
13. Much of the narrative is given in long speeches by the characters. Since war is involved many of these speeches contain taunts, boasts, retorts, and challenges. Since the epic covers a short period of time, earlier events may be revealed this way. Also the long speeches serve to reveal characters. These are refered to as set speeches.
14. Low caste characters are rarely named.
15. The early epic tradition is generally oral.
16. Elevated language is used.

Ep"ic (?), a. [L. epicus, Gr. , from a word, speech, tale, song; akin to L. vox voice: cf. F. 'epique. See Voice.]

Narrated in a grand style; pertaining to or designating a kind of narrative poem, usually called an heroic poem, in which real or fictitious events, usually the achievements of some hero, are narrated in an elevated style.

The epic poem treats of one great, complex action, in a grand style and with fullness of detail. T. Arnold.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Ep"ic, n.

An epic or heroic poem. See Epic, a.

 

© Webster 1913.