plaid screen

[XEROX PARC] A "special effect" that occurs when certain kinds

of memory smashes overwrite the control blocks or image

memory of a bit-mapped display. The term "salt and pepper"

may refer to a different pattern of similar origin. Though

the term as coined at PARC refers to the result of an error,

some of the X demos induce plaid-screen effects deliberately

as a display hack.

[Jargon File]