TANSTAAFL
TNSTAAFL

   /tan'stah-fl/ (From Robert Heinlein's classic "The
   Moon is a Harsh Mistress") "There Ain't No Such Thing As A
   Free Lunch".

   Often invoked when someone is balking at the prospect of using
   an unpleasantly heavyweight technique, or at the poor
   quality of some piece of free software, or at the
   signal-to-noise ratio of unmoderated Usenet newsgroups.
   "What? Don't tell me I have to implement a database back end
   to get my address book program to work!"  "Well, TANSTAAFL you
   know."  This phrase owes some of its popularity to the high
   concentration of science-fiction fans and political
   libertarians in hackerdom.

   [Jargon File]

   (1995-02-28)