funny money

Notional units of computing time and/or storage handed to students at the beginning of a computer course; also called "play money" or "purple money" (in implicit opposition to real or "green" money).

In New Zealand and Germany the odd usage "paper money" has been recorded; in Germany, the particularly amusing synonym "transfer ruble" commemorates the funny money used for trade between COMECON countries back when the Soviet Bloc still existed.

When your funny money ran out, your account froze and you needed to go to a professor to get more. Fortunately, the plunging cost of time-sharing cycles has made this less common. The amounts allocated were almost invariably too small, even for the non-hackers who wanted to slide by with minimum work. In extreme cases, the practice led to small-scale black markets in bootlegged computer accounts. By extension, phantom money or quantity tickets of any kind used as a resource-allocation hack within a system.

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

References in periodicals archive

It is performances like those in "Funny Money'' that prove that a theater doesn't have to be large or far away to be considered a worthwhile place to spend an early spring evening.

The lies pile up in London

Yea, though I accumulate debt higher than the mountains of Gilboa, and the deadbeats skip like rams, I shall not want, for Bernanke maketh funny money, and the president smiles upon the land.

Psalm XXIII

FUNNY MONEY: Kieran Leahy and Lisa Bennett of Oakmoor Deeley present a cheque for pounds 1,762 to Baby Lifeline's Tim Ledger.

Laughter the best medicine

Directed by Leslie Lawton of Funny Money fame, Ladies Night tells the story of five Scouse blokes who, inspired by an ECHO report of a forthcoming Dreamboys show, hit on the idea of stripping off to raise some cash.

Review; LADIES NIGHT Royal Court

History, however, has taught us that these monies somehow fade into funny money and get lost some where in general revenue.

Are you kidding?

Now, Dubai, the seven-star playground of the rich and famous, has been exposed as a mirage built on the shifting sands of funny money and false hopes.

Mirage of Dubai is a lesson; OPINION: Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away

Williams characterized the men as drug users who utilized a stolen printer/scanner/copier machine to produce funny money. It is not known whether they passed any of the bills locally, Williams said.

Police say counterfeit bills were low quality

The self-styled anti-capitalist preacher (he exorcises the tills at Tesco containing "Wall Street funny money") gave a blistering free performance in Oozells Square with his funky backing singers, the Gospel Choir of Life After Shopping.

Street art is truly uplifting

If you were to find a large amount of cash, you might assume it were funny money or crime related; and if you carne across, say, a cashier's check or money order for an exorbitant amount, you may be hesitant to take it to a bank to cash it for fear of raising suspicion.

Honesty in the little things

CHILDREN from an Erdington school are taking off on a Funny Money Bus Tour to help raise funds for Comic Relief.

Children find a funny way to raise cash

"I don't want to say it was funny money back then, but it was a stock swap and not a cash deal," said the spokesman, Pat Cooper.<p>Kerravala said some reports at the time of the Alteon purchase actually put value of the deal at more than $7 billion.

Nortel sells Alteon technology to Radware

Other methods of fraud involve the use of telephone calls, SMS, forgery and unauthorized transfer deals, and abuse of ATMs or credit cards and other processes involving currency counterfeiting, robbery, embezzlement, funny money offers and money laundering.

Saudi banks launch campaign against frauds