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17 lines
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>TANSTAAFL</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../T.html" title="T"/><link rel="previous" href="tanked.html" title="tanked"/><link rel="next" href="tape-monkey.html" title="tape monkey"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">TANSTAAFL</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="tanked.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">T</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="tape-monkey.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="TANSTAAFL"/><dt xmlns="" id="TANSTAAFL"><b>TANSTAAFL</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/tan<61>stah<61>fl/</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [acronym, from Robert Heinlein's classic SF novel <i class="citetitle">The
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Moon is a Harsh Mistress</i>.] “<span class="quote">There Ain't No Such Thing As
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A Free Lunch</span>”, often invoked when someone is balking at the prospect
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of using an unpleasantly <a href="../H/heavyweight.html"><i class="glossterm">heavyweight</i></a> technique, or
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at the poor quality of some piece of software, or at the
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<a href="../S/signal-to-noise-ratio.html"><i class="glossterm">signal-to-noise ratio</i></a> of unmoderated Usenet
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newsgroups. “<span class="quote">What? Don't tell me I have to implement a database
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back end to get my address book program to work!</span>” “<span class="quote">Well,
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TANSTAAFL you know.</span>” This phrase owes some of its popularity to the
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high concentration of science-fiction fans and political libertarians in
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hackerdom (see <a href="../appendixb.html" title="Appendix<69>B.<2E>A Portrait of J. Random Hacker">Appendix B</a> for
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discussion).</p><p>Outside hacker circles the variant TINSTAAFL (“<span class="quote">There is No Such
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Thing...</span>”) is apparently more common, and can be traced back to 1952
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in the writings of ethicist Alvin Hansen. TANSTAAFL may well have arisen
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from it by mutation.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="tanked.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../T.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="tape-monkey.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">tanked<EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>tape monkey</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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