The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
waldo
/wol'doh/, n.
[From Robert A. Heinlein's story Waldo]
1. A mechanical agent, such as a gripper arm, controlled by a human limb.
When these were developed for the nuclear industry in the mid-1940s they
were named after the invention described by Heinlein in the story, which he
wrote in 1942. Now known by the more generic term telefactoring, this
technology is of intense interest to NASA for tasks like space station
maintenance.
2. At Harvard (particularly by Tom Cheatham and students), this is used
instead of foobar as a metasyntactic variable and general nonsense word.
See foo, bar, foobar, quux.
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
waldo
/wol'doh/ [Robert A. Heinlein's story "Waldo"] 1. A mechanical
agent, such as a gripper arm, controlled by a human limb.
When these were developed for the nuclear industry in the
mid-1940s they were named after the invention described by
Heinlein in the story, which he wrote in 1942. Now known by
the more generic term "telefactoring", this technology is of
intense interest to NASA for tasks like space station
maintenance.
2. At Harvard (particularly by Tom Cheatham and students), this is
used instead of foobar as a metasyntactic variable and general
nonsense word.
[Jargon File]
(2015-03-22)
U.S. Gazetteer Counties (2000):
Waldo -- U.S. County in Maine
Population (2000): 36280
Housing Units (2000): 18904
Land area (2000): 729.728767 sq. miles (1889.988750 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 123.013378 sq. miles (318.603172 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 852.742145 sq. miles (2208.591922 sq. km)
Located within: Maine (ME), FIPS 23
Location: 44.474743 N, 69.117983 W
Headwords:
Waldo
Waldo, ME
Waldo County
Waldo County, ME
U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000):
Waldo, WI -- U.S. village in Wisconsin
Population (2000): 450
Housing Units (2000): 174
Land area (2000): 0.849863 sq. miles (2.201134 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.034779 sq. miles (0.090077 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 0.884642 sq. miles (2.291211 sq. km)
FIPS code: 83100
Located within: Wisconsin (WI), FIPS 55
Location: 43.675585 N, 87.946636 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 53093
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Waldo, WI
Waldo
U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000):
Waldo, AR -- U.S. city in Arkansas
Population (2000): 1594
Housing Units (2000): 749
Land area (2000): 2.212800 sq. miles (5.731125 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 2.212800 sq. miles (5.731125 sq. km)
FIPS code: 72350
Located within: Arkansas (AR), FIPS 05
Location: 33.351944 N, 93.294372 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 71770
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Waldo, AR
Waldo
U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000):
Waldo, FL -- U.S. city in Florida
Population (2000): 821
Housing Units (2000): 407
Land area (2000): 1.719481 sq. miles (4.453435 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 1.719481 sq. miles (4.453435 sq. km)
FIPS code: 74925
Located within: Florida (FL), FIPS 12
Location: 29.789831 N, 82.170881 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 32694
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Waldo, FL
Waldo
U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000):
Waldo, OH -- U.S. village in Ohio
Population (2000): 332
Housing Units (2000): 153
Land area (2000): 0.650403 sq. miles (1.684535 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 0.650403 sq. miles (1.684535 sq. km)
FIPS code: 80500
Located within: Ohio (OH), FIPS 39
Location: 40.458481 N, 83.078054 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 43356
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Waldo, OH
Waldo
U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000):
Waldo, KS -- U.S. city in Kansas
Population (2000): 48
Housing Units (2000): 32
Land area (2000): 0.381064 sq. miles (0.986950 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 0.381064 sq. miles (0.986950 sq. km)
FIPS code: 74575
Located within: Kansas (KS), FIPS 20
Location: 39.120162 N, 98.797863 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 67673
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Waldo, KS
Waldo
U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000):
Waldo, AL -- U.S. town in Alabama
Population (2000): 281
Housing Units (2000): 114
Land area (2000): 2.841983 sq. miles (7.360703 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.027533 sq. miles (0.071309 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 2.869516 sq. miles (7.432012 sq. km)
FIPS code: 79488
Located within: Alabama (AL), FIPS 01
Location: 33.393674 N, 86.032763 W
ZIP Codes (1990):
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Waldo, AL
Waldo