chuntey

noun

1. (humorous, slang, uncountable)A supposed aura surrounding the cassette loading mechanism of the ZX Spectrum computer, highly sensitive to disruption, which will cause the loading process to fail.

   “The hardware itself is largely indifferent to the happy little chuntey particles, as it focuses it's^([sic]) energy on flinging sub-atomic and extra-atomic particles across it's^([sic]) transistors and capacitors. These particles are miserable, unlike the happy chuntey and will try to harm unlucky chuntey particles as they hurtle past.”

   “It interfaces with the latent chuntey receptors built into all PCs since the PC-AT, but rarely used these days. Via clever use of the Windows DDK I've managed to provide a means of detecting the level of chuntey in the room thus simulating a virtual wobble at the precise moment a real ZX81 would. Alternatively, after a random number of keypresses, it may decide to either corrupt one row, one column or just a single byte of the 4116 RAM chips - but that's mere hearsay.”

   “Are you seriously trying to force a disruption of the chuntey? I have a bad feeling about this.....”

   “What a time to return, eh? Are you psychic? Felt a disturbance in the chuntey?”

   “And think of the chuntey. There you are, quietly setting up your shiny new ZX Methuselah, your mum walks into the room and suddenly you're 112 and she wants you to read her a story about ponies.”