In the U.S, a sleeveless dress (or sometimes a skirt with an attached bib front) worn over a blouse.

In the U.K., a knitted garment worn on the upper half of the body (as Iain said, what Americans call a sweater).

A great science fiction novel by Stephen Gould, about a 17 year old boy who finds he has the ability to teleport anywhere he's been, and then has to get through his life being chased by the NSA and dealing with memories of the abuse he suffered from his father.

In basketball parlance, this is short for jump shot.

American slang (especially among law enforcement and/or hospital staff) for a suicidal person.
That's where the name of the song (listed above) comes from:

"wish you would step off of that ledge, my friend,
you have capsized the ship of lies that you've been living in"

Third Eye Blind-Jumper

Dark Humor

A small, rectangular dingus, with innards made of conductive metal (like brass, aluminum, or copper). Used to connect two pins together on a circuit board. Often used to configure ISA cards IRQ, DMA Channel, etc. Also used on some motherboards to configure clock multiplier and bus speed. Amazingly useful, really, these dinguses. Most of them are black, but they can be found in nearly any color of the rainbow.

There's an interesting etymological path from "jumper" as a sweater to PopeFelix's electrical dingus. As near as I can make it out, it goes like this...


Which explains why a small black thingy is named after a colourful woolen article of clothing.

Jumper is a series of platforming games, made by MattMakesGames, which are known for being really, really hard.

The main and only character of the Jumper series is Ogmo—also styled as "OGMO" or "that little red guy"—a small, red, rectangular freak of nature1 that is very cute and very agile. Its eyes and mouth are also large back rectangles, all of different sizes and proportions. No one is sure as of yet whether they are actually eyes or a mouth. Its main weapon against the hordes of platforming levels is its double jump, during which it tends to spin around spastically in the air. Jump arcs are perfectly preserved, though, so everything's cool.

The first installment in the Jumper series, aptly named 'Jumper', is the original that started it all. It was released by Matt in February of 2004, it features Ogmo escaping an unspecified facility. As a platformer, there are really few bells and whistles, just simple physics action. Matt himself has stated that the idea was to strip down all the fluff of platformers, and leave it for what it really was2. Some of the iconic features are the absolutely uneventful landscape of gray floor-wall-ceilings and black background, the Ever-Useful Golden Up-Arrows of Mid-Air Jump Regeneration (EUGUAMAJRs3), and the annoying-as-hell electricity walls. (Red good, yellow bad...)

Then, while you were busy slamming at your keyboard in frustration, Matt came out with 'Jumper 2' in June 2004. In this episode, Ogmo is greeted by a revamped physics engine, allowing for wall jumps and skid jumps. Now, the levels are adorned with fancier dressings: you'll play in some ruins, say, and there will actually be aged columns, cracked stone floors, and shifty runes carved into the walls. The environments are also fresh, too: the sectors now look convincingly like jungles or snow-capped plateaus, as opposed to the monotonicity of the very convoluted and difficult-to-navigate underground facility.

To begin 2005 off, Matt makes 'Jumper: Redux', a recreation of the original Jumper, with updated graphics and music, as well as slightly smoother gameplay. Not enough that it makes it easier to play—that would be just awful—but now Ogmo no longer has the ability to emit jumping sounds in one-block-high hallways, as his head would technically be touching the roof, for instance. Also, lag present in the original game, especially during times when the music finished and had to be looped, was done away with. The game was also extended with a training mode, extra levels, and even an online multiplayer system.

Finally, in 2008, we are graced with 'Jumper 3'. A slight departure from the other games, both in content and in style, Ogmo is now on a strange new planet, and needs to find a home. He does this by splitting up into five different coloured forms, each with their own abilities, such as the ability to grapple, or hovering, to forage a path through this world. A new gimmick in this edition is the collection of the coins dispersed in each level, as opposed to just completing it. The levels are also smaller and easier, and the colours are more pastel-like than the solids and vivids of the other Jumpers. It is no less difficult than the preceding Jumpers, but just went in a new direction.

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|   |           |    |        |    |
|   |___________|    |________|    |
|            __________            |
|           |          |           |
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|__________________________________|
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1  Jumper is in no way related to the Meat Boy of the Super Meat Boy franchise, except in that both are red, rectangular and are capable of jumping. Meat Boy came out in 2008 at the earliest, while Ogmo was already kicking about since '04. Jumper is also a clearly superior game altogether.

2  Mostly to make it easier to code, he says. But give him a break! He was like, sixteen. Be glad he had enough experience behind him to make such beauties as An Untitled Story and Give Up, Robot work out great.

3  Pronounced 'you-GWA-mah-jurs'. N.B.: They are not actually called EUGUAMAJRs (unfortunately).

[IN12#23]

Jumper is a minor science fiction franchise. It started with Steven Gould's 1992 novel Jumper, a sequel in 2004, followed by a 2008 film set in a slightly different universe, with an accompanying novel set in the movie's universe and an accompanying video game. Then one more short story and two more novels in the original universe. This makes it a bit hard to review. However, I have it easy, because the only entities in this collection with the name Jumper are the book and the film, and I have not seen the film. It should be noted that the video game and the novel accompanying the movie are entitled Jumper: Griffin's Story, and might be referred to as Jumper, but for simplicity's sake, we will use the full titles here.

Jumper, the original novel, follows the teenage Davy as he learns that he has an unsuspected ability: he can teleport anywhere, instantaneously, on the condition that he can remember visiting the target destination previously. He initially discovers this in escaping from his abusive father, and gets further chances to practice escaping from other abusers; life is hard for a runaway, even one who can teleport. Davy slowly builds a secret life for himself, stealing when he needs to, playing vigilante when he can, and always remaining on the run, mostly from the US government.

This is very much in the spirit of superhero fiction, although Davy appears to be the only superhero. The plot is a never-ending series of bad guys coming after Davy, and Davy finding clever ways to use his power to escape or protect himself. It is not an ODTAA plot, however, with a romantic subplot, some vengeance, a battle of wits with the government, and an epic battle against evil (spoiler in the link) all intertwined, resulting in a crowded and fast-moving adventure.

Jumper and its sequel, Reflex, are good, fast-paced reads. They are also rather dark, with lots of very bad guys, and a strong the-world-is-out-to-get-you vibe. Davy just happens to run into all the crappy people in the world, and gets a chance to beat them up. The latter books in the series, while still having the same problems in the same setting, start to get more into the dorky lets-find-out-all-ways-we-can-manipulate-this-ability mode, which I tend to enjoy more. Regardless, all the books are engaging reads, and it's worth checking out Jumper; there's a good chance you'll end up enjoying the entire series.


The Series:

SFQ22

Jump"er (?), n.

1.

One who, or that which, jumps.

2.

A long drilling tool used by masons and quarrymen.

3.

A rude kind of sleigh; -- usually, a simple box on runners which are in one piece with the poles that form the thills. [U.S.] J. F. Cooper.

4. (Zoöl.)

The larva of the cheese fly. See Cheese fly, under Cheese.

5. (Eccl.)

A name applied in the 18th century to certain Calvinistic Methodists in Wales whose worship was characterized by violent convulsions.

6. (Horology)

spring to impel the star wheel, also a pawl to lock fast a wheel, in a repeating timepiece.

Baby jumper. See in the Vocabulary. --
Bounty jumper. See under Bounty.

 

© Webster 1913


Jump"er, n. [See 1st Jump.]

A loose upper garment; as:

(a)

A sort of blouse worn by workmen over their ordinary dress to protect it.

(b)

A fur garment worn in Arctic journeys.

 

© Webster 1913


Jump"er, n.

A thing that jumps; esp., any of various tools or other contrivances operating with a jumping motion; as, (Mining, Quarrying, etc.),

an instrument for boring holes in rocks by percussion without hammering, consisting of a bar of iron with a chisel-edged steel tip at one or both ends, operated by striking it against the rock, turning it slightly with each blow.

 

© Webster 1913

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