by Steve Lussing

Created on: May 26, 2008

As with FIDO (First In, (Damned Order)), LIFO (Last In, First Out), and FIFO (First In, First Out) constitute quite adequate names for your dog. Also popular are the timeless and overused SPIKE (Stupid Partially Imbued Kinetic Entity), ROVER (Running Over Virtually Empty Ranges), BUTCH (Basically Uninterested Tired Canine Herculite), and FANG (Feline Aversive Natural Gatophobiac).

None of these others have anything to do with computer science or electronics or in the way that people are lined up in a queue, of course. On these I will concentrate my discussion, where the LIFO and FIFO variants are concerned. Let it not go unsaid that anything to do with accounting or bookkeeping is a preoccupation of that side of the brain with which I do not have a very meaningful relationship. Swhoosh, etc.

When people are lined up in a queue, such as waiting to be served at a kosher bakery, or to be called to have their picture taken at the licensing bureau, they are dealt with in a FIFO manner, i.e. first come, first served, or First In, First Out. In this modus operandi, the next in line waits until the first is served, whereupon the next becomes the first, and so on down the line until all are served, or the bell sounds to signal the end of the shift, or someone rushes in to resume the FIFO order of selection. It follows, then, that the last person in the line is the last one to be served, or LILO. LIFO does not apply here, in all fairness to those who have been waiting, barring any forms of nepotism or the presence of any buttinskies (there are exceptions to every rule).

In computer science, FIFO refers to the way that data which are stored in a queue are processed. A good example of a FIFO application is the keyboard buffer into which I am typing the characters that make up the sentences in this article. The size of the keyboard buffer can be predetermined by the registered owner of the personal computer's operating system by resetting a variable in the system registry. It is usually set to about 64 bytes but very fast typists can actually overrun the buffer if it is set any lower. When this happens, as when you inadvertently place something down on the keyboard causing a key to be repeated, a constant annoying beeping sound emits from the PC's speaker. This tells you that you've either placed something down on the keyboard or that your cat is walking around on it, or you're typing too fast. The keyboard buffer is then said to be overflowing. In any event, the last key

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