Acronym that stands for nerve attenuation syndrome. A fictional disease found in the movie Johnny Mnemonic. It's caused by information overload and too much technology. Also called the black shakes, for its symptoms that make you shake (doesn't make you black). Johnny holds the cure for it, discovered by Pharmakom, in his head. It is treated by the NAS underground, a group of rebelling doctors.

Also an acronym for Network-Attached Storage, a term used for "smart" devices that provide high-level data storage services through a network. Different from SAN in that a NAS device usually provides at least a filesystem-like interface while SAN devices are accessed at block level, and that NAS usually uses the normal communication network while SAN uses a separate, dedicated storage network.

Basically, any NFS or SMB file-sharing server provides an NAS service, but the term is more often used for plug and play - like devices than for general-purpose workstations that just happen to be dedicated to file sharing.

Nucleo Anti-Sofisticazione, the Italian carabinieri's drug squad. At present seemingly mainly concerned with enforcing Italy's new harsh laws against the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport, including large scale raids on the riders in the Giro d'Italia this year.

(Ahhh TLA overload is fun isn't it?)

NAS is known, to some, as the Network Audio System. NAS was developed by NCD, the makers of some really kick ass X Terminals.

From the NCD sample implementation release notes (version 1.2p4):

an audio protocol for networks...for playing, recording, and manipulating audio data over a network. Like the X Window System, it uses the client/server model to separate application code from the specific drivers needed to control audio input and output devices attached to the X terminal or workstation.

I must admit to never having seen it in use. I found it when playing with X terminals, and that was it. It apears to have never really caught on for anything except piping sound to X terminals.

Also an acronym for network access server. What these are basically high end routers connected to several leased lines and/or containing digital modems with which to make or host individual connections. Typical NAS uses might include:
  • Providing dialup access to a network (like an ISP)
  • Providing dialout access to users (like with CDU)
  • Network access to leased lines and other routing functions
To get away from the myriads of computer acronyms, I present yet another version of NAS:

Naval Air Station

NAS North Island (NASNI), located off of San Diego on the semi-island of Coronado, is a major hub of US Navy aircraft. In particular, there are many squadrons of helicopters, including Helicopter Anti-Submarine Light 43 (HSL-43), where I was stationed for a while. When the President visits southern California, they typically land Air Force One on NASNI. This causes much strife for the folks who live in Coronado, since the Secret Service closes down the Coronado Bay Bridge so the motorcade can traverse it.

Nas (Nasir Jones) is a rapper from Queensbridge, New York, also the home of Mobb Deep. When people talk about the best lyricists, Nas' name invariably comes up, both as someone who's put out amazing material, and as someone who's totally fallen off. He's often compared to two other kings of New York, Biggie Smalls (Christopher Wallace), and Jay-Z (Sean Carter).

My take is that he has put out some of the best material ever produced by anyone, and while it'd be hard to make each album that good, he's been able to keep producing at least some good material. Even at a short 10 songs, Illmatic is one of the greatest rap albums ever. It's lyrically on point, witty, violent, insightful, and has some fucking dope beats put down by the likes of DJ Premier and Large Professor. It's his best album. The rest are certainly spottier than Illmatic, some more than others. But Each album has some standouts. It Was Written has The Message (which actually samples a Sting song, Shape of My Heart, not the Grandmaster Flash song), Affirmative Action, Take It in Blood, Live Nigga Rap, and If I Ruled The World. The Firm album (with Canibus, Foxy Brown, Dr. Dre, and Nature) has Phone Tap and Desperados. I Am has Nas Is Like, Favor for a Favor, and Undying Love. Nastradamus has Come Get Up. Stillmatic has Got Urself a Gun (which uses that line, but doesn't actually sample A3's song), the fantastic One Mic, and an excellent (as usual) collaboration with DJ Premier (2nd Childhood).

Ironically, I Am, while solid, had some of the album's best cuts leaked to the internet and dropped from the final release of the album (Poppa Was a Player, Blaze a 50, Drunk By Myself, Hardest Thing to Do is Stay Alive), though some of those tracks eventually made it to the Lost Tapes album. In addition, it's somewhat ridiculous to claim that Nas became more materialistic, as Illmatic had a pretty materialistic bent at times. It wasn't totally out of line for him to use the "Nas Escobar" personality on his middle two albums. He was the same person, just a little farther along, a little richer and a little less hungry. It's good to see that some of that hunger returned on Stillmatic and later albums (songs like One Mic merge the later more laid back production with his aggressive rhyme style of earlier). E.g., "Made You Look" (from God's Son) is grimier than anything Nas had done for a while before it. Street's Disciple, his current latest album, is a double-disc. He appears with his father (jazz musician Olu Dara) on the single "Bridging the Gap".



Album Listing:
*Live At the BBQ (Single, 1993)
*Illmatic (1994)
*It Was Written (1996)
*I Am (1999)
*Nastradamus (1999)
*Stillmatic (2001)
*God's Son (2002)
*The Lost Tapes (2002)
*Street's Disciple (2004)


Film Listing:
*Rhyme and Reason (1997)
*Belly (1998)
*In Too Deep (1999)

Nas (?). [For ne was.]

Was not

. [Obs.]

Chaucer.

 

© Webster 1913.


Nas [Contr. fr. ne has.]

Has not.

[Obs.]

Spenser.

 

© Webster 1913.

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