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micro-: pref. 1. Very small; this is the root of its use as a quantifier prefix.
2. A quantifier prefix, calling for multiplication by
10-6 (see
quantifiers). Neither of these uses is peculiar to
hackers, but hackers tend to fling them both around rather more freely than
is countenanced in standard English. It is recorded, for example, that one
CS professor used to characterize the standard length of his lectures as a
microcentury — that is, about 52.6 minutes (see also
attoparsec, nanoacre, and
especially microfortnight). 3. Personal or human-scale — that is, capable of being
maintained or comprehended or manipulated by one human being. This sense
is generalized from microcomputer,
and is esp. used in contrast with macro- (the corresponding Greek prefix meaning
‘large’). 4. Local as opposed to global (or macro-).
Thus a hacker might say that buying a smaller car to reduce pollution only
solves a microproblem; the macroproblem of getting to work might be better
solved by using mass transit, moving to within walking distance, or (best
of all) telecommuting.
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