Commonly Used Tech Terms and Acronyms

- A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z -

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A

AGP slot - (Accelerated Graphics Port) This is a high speed graphics card expansion port designed by Intel that is designed for the display adapter (video card) only, and resides on the motherboard of a computer. It provides a direct connection between the card and memory.
If you’re installing an AGP or PCI card in your computer, the AGP slot is usually the shortest and should be brown. The PCI slots are slightly longer and are colored white. The actual size of the cards can vary as much as a few inches, though the pins on the bottom of the card should match the correct slot.
PCI graphics ports typically run at 33 MHz and have a maximum transfer rate of 132 MB/sec. AGP ports, on the other hand, run at 66 MHz and can transfer data up to 528 MB/sec.

ALU - (Arithmetic Logic Unit) The high-speed CPU circuit that does calculating and comparing.

ANSI - (American National Standards Institute) History
The first American Standard Safety Code was approved in 1921 and covered the protection of heads and eyes of industrial workers. Today there are over 1,200 ANSI-approved safety standards designed to protect the workforce, consumers and the general public. Overall, there are approximately 10,500 ANSI-approved American National Standards.

ATA - (Advanced Technology Attachment) A type of disk drive that integrates the drive controller directly on the drive itself. Computers can use ATA hard drives without a specific controller to support the drive. The motherboard must still support an ATA connection, but a separate card (such as a SCSI card for a SCSI hard drive) is not needed. Some different types of ATA standards include ATA-1, ATA-2 (a.k.a. Fast ATA), ATA-3, Ultra ATA (33 MBps maximum transfer rate), ATA/66 (66 MBps), and ATA/100 (100 MBps).
The term IDE, or “Integrated Drive Electronics,” is also used to refer to ATA drives. Sometimes (to add extra confusion to people buying hard drives), ATA drives are labeled as “IDE/ATA.” Technically, ATA uses IDE technology, but the important thing to know is that they refer to the same thing.
An ATA data cable pic

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B

BIOS - (Basic Input Output System) An essential set of routines in a PC, which is stored on a chip and provides an interface between the operating system and the hardware. The BIOS supports all peripheral technologies and internal services such as the realtime clock (time and date).

byte - (BinarY TablE) The common unit of computer storage from desktop computer to mainframe. It is made up of eight binary digits (bits).

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C

CMOS - (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) Pronounced “c-moss.” The most widely used integrated circuit design. CMOS semiconductors use both NMOS (negative polarity) and PMOS (positive polarity) circuits. Since only one of the circuit types is on at any given time, CMOS chips require less power than chips using just one type of transistor. This makes them particularly attractive for use in battery-powered devices, such as portable computers. Personal computers also contain a small amount of battery-powered CMOS memory to hold the date, time, and system setup parameters.

Codec - (1) Short for compressor/decompressor, a codec is any technology for compressing and decompressing data. Codecs can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of both. Some popular codecs for computer video include MPEG, Indeo and DivX. Most audio and video formats use some sort of compression so that they don’t take up a ridiculous amount of disk space. Audio and video files are compressed with a certain codec when they are saved and then decompressed by the codec when they are played back. Common codecs include MPEG2 and AVI for video files and WAV and AIFF for audio files. Codecs can also be used to compress streaming media (live audio and video) which makes it possible to broadcast a live audio or video clip over a broadband Internet connection.
(2) In telecommunications, (short for coder/decoder) a device that encodes or decodes a signal. For example, telephone companies use codecs to convert binary signals transmitted on their digital networks to analog signals converted on their analog networks.
A good codec guide : free-codecs.com

CPU - (Central Processing Unit) The part of a computer that interprets and carries out the instructions contained in the software.

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D

DHCP - (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) DHCP is an Internet protocol for automating the configuration of computers that use TCP/IP. DHCP can be used to automatically assign IP addresses, to deliver TCP/IP stack configuration parameters such as the subnet mask and default router, and to provide other configuration information such as the addresses for printer, time and news servers. DHCP’s purpose is to enable individual computers on an IP network to extract their configurations from a server (the ‘DHCP server’) or servers, in particular, servers that have no exact information about the individual computers until they request the information. The overall purpose of this is to reduce the work necessary to administer a large IP network. The most significant piece of information distributed in this manner is the IP address.

DLL - (Dynamic Link Library) An executable program module in Windows that performs one or more functions at runtime. Every time you open a program on your computer, it loads certain processes into your system’s RAM (random access memory). Some programs - in an effort to save RAM space - group those same processes into a dll file. Then, when the program needs to execute a particular process, it can dynamically link the process from this ‘library’ into the system RAM.
DllDump.com

DMCA

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, passed by Congress in 1998 amends existing US copyright law to make it a crime to bypass any copy protection mechanism, thus making it illegal to copy protected DVDs and CDs, mod your Xbox or PS/2, or in any way defeat a copy protection scheme regardless of your intent. Many have protested this law, saying it effectively eliminates fair use and represents an (unintended?)instrusion into Americans’ homes. Visit EFF for more information.

DNS - (Domain Name System) is a system that stores information about hostnames and domain names in a kind of distributed database on networks, such as the Internet. Most importantly, it provides an IP address for each hostname.

dpi - (dots per inch)

DSL - (Digital Subscriber Line) is an always-on internet connection that normally terminates in a socket on your wall, one that looks much like a phone socket. In the US, the socket is exactly a phone socket, and, for the popular residential DSL, (ADSL), the same housewiring carrys both phone and data. There are two main categories of DSL service. Asymmetric DSL (ADSL) is for Internet access, where fast downstream is required, but slow upstream is acceptable. Symmetric DSL (SDSL, HDSL, etc.) is designed for connections that require high speed in both directions.

DSP - (Digital Signal Processor) A special-purpose CPU used for digital signal processing and ultra-fast instruction sequences. The first DSP chip used in a commercial product was believed to be from TI, which was used in its very popular Speak & Spell game in the late 1970s.
Intel’s MMX instruction set was the first attempt to make the x86 processors (specifically the Pentium processor line) more capable of DSP operations.

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F

FAT - (File Allocation Table) The original file system used in DOS, Windows and OS/2. A file allocation table (FAT) is a table that an operating system maintains on a hard disk that provides a map of the clusters (the basic units of logical storage on a hard disk) that a file has been stored in. When you write a new file to a hard disk, the file is stored in one or more clusters that are not necessarily next to each other; they may be rather widely scattered over the disk. A typical cluster size is 2,048 bytes, 4,096 bytes, or 8,192 bytes. The operating system creates a FAT entry for the new file that records where each cluster is located and their sequential order. When you read a file, the operating system reassembles the file from clusters and places it as an entire file where you want to read it. For example, if this is a long Web page, it may very well be stored on more than one cluster on you hard disk.
The FAT system for older versions of Windows 95 is called FAT16, and the one for new versions of Windows 95 and Windows 98 is called FAT32.
FAT is supported by virtually all existing operating systems for personal computers, and because of that it is often used to share data between several operating systems booting on the same computer (a multiboot environment). It is also used on solid-state memory sticks and other similar devices.

Filename extension - In DOS, Windows and some other operating systems, one or several letters or numbers at the end of a filename. Filename extensions usually follow a period (dot) and indicate the type of information stored in the file. Most applications provide extensions for the files they create.

Firewall

a program or device that blocks network access either incoming or outgoing from the computers on your local area network. Most of the time firewalls are useful for keeping unwanted intruders out of your home network. For most people a broadband router will work very well as a firewall. Windows XP also comes with an adequate firewall. For more power I recommend the free Sygate Personal Firewall. Linux and Mac OS X come with built-in firewalls.

Firefox

An alternative web browser to the dominant Microsoft “Internet Explorer.” Firefox is a development of the Mozilla foundation, a group of programmers who took over where Netscape left off, in terms of web browser and program writing. Firefox’s main strength and advantage over Internet Explorer is that it’s simply not Internet Explorer - security holes that abound in Internet Explorer just don’t exist in Firefox. As well, Firefox has the ability to use “extensions” - add-ons to the browser that can be downloaded and installed, and which enable small bits of extra functionality to the browser. The Firefox movement has gained an extraordinary increase in popularity within the last year, particuarlay after the full-page ad in the “New York Times” that professed about its features. Firefox is completely free of charge, and can be downloaded from http://www.getfirefox.com

FTP - (File Transfer Protocol) A protocol used to transfer files over a TCP/IP network.

Firewire - (also known as IEEE-1394) FireWire is a cross-platform implementation of the high-speed serial data bus — defined by the IEEE 1394–1995, IEEE 1394a-2000, and IEEE 1394b standards at speeds of up to 800 megabits per second (on machines that have a Firewire card installed).
4 pin Firewire plug pic
6 pin Firewire plug pic
Firewire vs. USB: A Comparison

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G

GHz - (gigahertz) A gigahertz is a billion hertz or a thousand megahertz, a measure of frequency. Each cycle is one nanosecond. As of 2003, most of the commonly sold microprocessors work with clocks that have frequencies ranging from one to three gigahertz.

GB - (gigabyte) The basic unit is a byte. If you have 1000 bytes, you can then call it 1 kilobyte, (KB). If you have 1000 kilobytes, you can then call it 1 megabyte, (MB). The same happens when you go up from megabytes to gigabytes, (GB) = One billion bytes.

GPS - (Global Positioning System) GPS is a worldwide radio-navigation system formed from a constellation of 24 satellites placed into orbit by the U.S. Department of Defense. GPS was originally intended for military applications, but in the 1980s, the government made the system available for civilian use. GPS uses these “man-made stars” as reference points to calculate positions accurate to a matter of meters. In fact, with advanced forms of GPS you can make measurements to better than a centimeter! In a sense it’s like giving every square meter on the planet a unique address. The basis of GPS is “triangulation” from satellites. To “triangulate,” a GPS receiver measures distance using the travel time of radio signals. To measure travel time, GPS needs a very accurate timing clock which it achieves with some tricks. Along with distance, you need to know exactly where the satellites are in space. High orbits and careful monitoring are the secret.
A nice GPS tutorial
A GPS Glossary

GPGPU - (General-Purpose computation on GPUs). With the increasing programmability of graphics processing units (GPUs), these chips are capable of performing more than the specific graphics computations for which they were designed. They are now capable coprocessors, and their high speed makes them useful for a variety of applications.

GPU - (Graphics Processing Unit) Graphics Processing Unit is a single-chip processor. However, the GPU is used primarily for computing 3D functions. This includes things such as lighting effects, object transformations, and 3D motion. GPUs form the heart of modern graphics cards, relieving the CPU (central processing units) of much of the graphics processing load. GPUs allow products such as desktop PCs, portable computers, and game consoles to process real-time 3D graphics that only a few years ago were only available on high-end workstations.
August 31, 1999 marks the introduction of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) for the PC industry by NVIDIA Inc. Its GeForce 256 GPU is capable of billions of calculations per second, can process a minimum of 10 million polygons per second, and has over 22 million transistors, compared to the 9 million found on the Pentium III. The technical definition of a GPU is “a single chip processor with integrated transform, lighting, triangle setup/clipping, and rendering engines that is capable of processing a minimum of 10 million polygons per second.”

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H

Hertz - The unit of measurement for frequency of electrical, electromagnetic (radio), and sound vibrations in cycles per second. Abbreviated “Hz,” one Hz is equal to one cycle per second.

HTML - (HyperText Markup Language) The document format used on the Web.

http - (HyperText Transport Protocol) The communications protocol used to connect to servers on the Web.

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I

ICANN - (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Pronounced “I can”. A non-profit, international association founded in 1998 and incorporated in the U.S. It is the successor to IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), which manages Internet addresses, domain names and the huge number of parameters associated with Internet protocols (port numbers, router protocols, multicast addresses, etc.). ICANN provides a list of accredited registrars.

ICMP - (Internet Control Message Protocol) A TCP/IP protocol defined by RFC 792. Used to send error and control and informational messages. For example, a router uses ICMP to notify the sender that its destination node is not available. A ping utility sends ICMP echo requests to verify the existence of an IP address.

IDE - (Integrated Drive Electronics) IDE, ATA & ATAPI Refers to the three names used by various hard drive manufacturers for the same drive technology. With IDE, the controller electronics are built into the drive itself, requiring a simple circuit in the PC for connection. IDE drives were attached to earlier PCs using an IDE host adapter card. Subsequently, two Enhanced IDE (EIDE) sockets were built onto the motherboard, with each socket connecting two drives via a 40-pin ribbon cable for CD-ROMs and similar devices and an 80-wire cable for fast hard disks

IEEE - (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Pronounced I-triple-E. Founded in 1884 as the AIEE. IEEE is an organization composed of engineers, scientists, and students. The IEEE is best known for developing standards for the computer and electronics industry.

IRC
About
IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. IRC is used for group communication without any registration.
IRC was created by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988. IRC is used by many people from many demographics.

Here is a great article on the history and use of IRC

IP Address - (Internet Protocol address) The address of a device attached to an IP network (TCP/IP network). Every client, server and network device must have a unique IP address for each network connection. An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique number, a kind of telephone number, a four-element number with three decimal points.

ISDN - (Integrated Services Digital Network) A system of digital phone connections which has been available for over a decade. This system allows voice and data to be transmitted simultaneously across the world using end-to-end digital connectivity. Most recently, ISDN service has largely been displaced by broadband internet service, such as xDSL and Cable Modem service. These services are faster, less expensive, and easier to set up and maintain than ISDN. Still, ISDN has its place, as backup to dedicated lines, and in locations where broadband service is not yet available.

ISO - The International Organization for Standardization is a network of national standards institutes from 151 countries, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in February 23, 1947, the organization produces world-wide industrial and commercial standards.
The organization is usually referred to simply as ISO (pronounced eye-so). It is a common misconception that ISO stands for International Standards Organization, or something similar. ISO is not an acronym; it comes from the Greek word isos, meaning equal. In English its name is International Organization for Standardization, while in French it is called Organisation Internationale de Normalisation; to use an acronym would result in different acronyms in English (IOS) and French (OIN), thus the founders of the organization chose ISO as the universal short form of its name.

ISO image - An ISO image (as prescribed by ISO standard ISO 9660) is a file that represents a one-to-one copy of a specific computer filesystem, most widely used for the compact disc medium (i.e an entire CD or DVD-ROM). There are many different ISO image formats to choose from. The most common include the .cue/.bin and .iso image formats. Many Linux, BSD, or other free operating systems are distributed for download using an ISO image.
The .iso format is a single data file containing all the data in the image. It is the most common format used, especially in the distribution of linux operating systems software.

ISP - (Internet Service Provider) An organization that provides access to the Internet.

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K

KVM switch - (Keyboard Video Mouse switch) A device used to connect a keyboard, mouse and monitor to two or more computers.

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L

LAN - (Local Area Network). Normally refers to a network confined to a tightly defined area, usually the same floor or building. Or your home computer & connected devices such as your printer if you are behind a router.
Each single-user workstation or personal computer is called a node. A LAN can have from two to several hundred such nodes, each separated by distances of several feet to as much as a mile, and should be distinguished from connections among computers over public carriers, such as telephone circuits, by a router or a server that acts as a router. Because of the relatively small areas involved, the nodes in a LAN can be connected by special high-data-rate cables.
I say this to help clarify the terms used on the set-up pages of small routers for home use : With a router installed you and your machine become a LAN…..the rest of the world out there (including your ISP) is the WAN.
Without a router, your home computer is a node on your ISP’s LAN.

LCD - (Liquid-Crystal Display) LCDs are super-thin displays that are used in laptop computer screens and flat panel monitors. Smaller LCDs are used in handheld TVs, PDAs, and portable video game devices. The image on an LCD screen is created by sandwiching an electrically reactive substance between two electrodes. The color of this substance can be changed by increasing or reducing the electrical current. Since LCD screens are based on the principle of blocking light (rather than emitting it), they use up much less power than standard CRT (Cathode-Ray Tube) monitors.

Linux

An alternative to the Windows and OS/2 operating systems that is open source and free. A few examples are Mandrake, Fedora, SuSE, Slackware, Gentoo, Red Hat, and Debian. Linux is widely used on production and enterprise level servers, where it is known for stability and low maintenace costs. These qualities also make it ideal for the desktop; however, it can initially be more difficult to set up than other desktop OSes. There is a vast amount of free software available for Linux, that can do almost anything that you can buy expensive software for in other OSes.

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M

MB - (megabyte) The basic unit is a byte. If you have 1000 bytes, you can then call it 1 kilobyte, (KB). If you have 1000 kilobytes, you can then call it 1 megabyte, (MB) = About a million bytes.

Mhz - (MegaHertZ) One megahertz equals one million cycles per second. Used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer’s internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc.) are manipulated one million times per second. A one-gigahertz clock (1GHz) means one billion times.

megapixel - A megapixel is 1 million pixels, and is usually used to express the resolution capabilities of digital cameras. For example, a camera that can take pictures with a resolution of 2048×1536 pixels is commonly said to have “3.1 megapixels” (2048 × 1536 = 3,145,728).

MP3

A digital music format that offers CD quality sound at about 1/10th the size.

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N

NTFS - (New Technology File System) The standard file system of Microsoft Windows NT and its descendants Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. It allows for larger disk drives with smaller cluster sizes.
NTFS replaced Microsoft’s previous FAT32 file system, used in MS-DOS and early version of Windows. For large applications, NTFS supports spanning volumes, which means files and directories can be spread out across several physical disks.

NTFS vs FAT

How NTFS Works - When a hard disk is formatted (initialized), it is divided into partitions or major divisions of the total physical hard disk space. Within each partition, the operating system keeps track of all the files that are stored by that operating system. Each file is actually stored on the hard disk in one or more clusters or disk spaces of a predefined uniform size. Using NTFS, the sizes of clusters range from 512 bytes to 64 kilobytes. Windows NT provides a recommended default cluster size for any given drive size. For example, for a 4 GB (gigabyte) drive, the default cluster size is 4 KB (kilobytes). Note that clusters are indivisible. Even the smallest file takes up one cluster and a 4.1 KB file takes up two clusters (or 8 KB) on a 4 KB cluster system. The selection of the cluster size is a trade-off between efficient use of disk space and the number of disk accesses required to access a file. In general, using NTFS, the larger the hard disk the larger the default cluster size, since it’s assumed that a system user will prefer to increase performance (fewer disk accesses) at the expense of some amount of space inefficiency. When a file is created using NTFS, a record about the file is created in a special file called the Master File Table (MFT). The record is used to locate a file’s possibly scattered clusters. NTFS tries to find contiguous storage space that will hold the entire file (all of its clusters). Each file contains, along with its data content, a description of its attributes (its metadata).

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O

OEM - (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The equipment & software as it was originally supplied by the manufacturer when your machine was new.
In the automotive trade, OEM parts are parts from the dealerships of the various brands. In computing, computer makers receive special distributions of operating system software to include with their machines. This “OEM’ software is often slightly different than the same brand of software bought “ala-carte.”

O/S - (Operating System) The job of an operating system is to orchestrate the various parts of the computer — the processor, the on-board memory, the disk drives, keyboards, video monitors, etc. — to perform useful tasks. The operating system is the master controller of the computer, the glue that holds together all the components of the system, including the administrators, programmers, and users. When you want the computer to do something for you, like start a program, copy a file, or display the contents of a directory, it is the operating system that must perform those tasks for you.
More than anything else, the operating system gives the computer its recognizable characteristics. It would be difficult to distinguish between two completely different computers, if they were running the same operating system. Conversely, two identical computers, running different operating systems, would appear completely different to the user.

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P

partition - the dividing of a hard disk’s storage space into independent parts called “partitions”.

PCI - (Peripheral Component Interconnect) A hardware bus designed by Intel and used in both PCs and Macs. Most add-on cards such as SCSI, Firewire, and USB controllers, use a PCI connection. Some graphics cards use a PCI slot, but most new graphics cards connect to the AGP slot. PCI slots are found inside of your computer on the motherboard and are about 3.5″ long and about 0.5″ high.

PDF - (Portable Document Format file) The file format in Adobe’s Acrobat document exchange technology.

php

Recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. A widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML.

pixel - (PIX [picture] ELement) Generally, the smallest addressable unit on a display screen or bitmapped image. Screens are rated by their number of horizontal and vertical pixels; for example, 1024×768 means 1024 pixels are displayed in each row, and there are 768 rows (lines). Likewise, bitmapped images are sized in pixels: a 350×250 image has 350 pixels across and 250 down. With color systems, each pixel contains red, green and blue subpixels, and the subpixel is actually the smallest addressable unit. The monitor’s circuits address subpixels, and the software may also.
Each pixel can only be one color at a time. However, since they are so small, pixels often blend together to form various shades and blends of colors. The number of colors each pixel can be is determined by the number of bits used to represent it. For example, 8-bit color allows for 2 to the 8th, or 256 colors to be displayed. At this color depth, you may be able to see “graininess,” or spotted colors when one color blends to another. However, at 16, 24, and 32-bit color depths, the color blending is so smooth that you won’t notice any graininess unless you use a magnifying glass.

Podcast - An audio broadcast that has been converted to an MP3 file or other audio format and made available via an RSS syndication feed. Podcasting is similar in nature to RSS, which allows subscribers to subscribe to a set of feeds to view syndicated Web site content. The term podcasting plays upon the terms broadcasting and webcasting and is derived from the name of the iPod portable music player, the playback device of choice of many early podcast listeners. While not directly associated with Apple’s iPod device or iTunes jukebox software, the company did contribute both the desire and the technology for this capability. Podcasting is similar to time-shifted video software and devices like TiVo, which let you watch what you want when you want by recording and storing video, except that podcasting is used for audio and is currently free of charge. Note, however, that this technology can be used to pull any kind of file, including software updates, pictures, and videos.

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R

RAM - (Random Access Memory) Pronounced “ramm”. RAM is made up of small memory chips that are connected to the motherboard of your computer. The “random” in RAM means that the contents of each byte of storage in the chip can be directly accessed without regard to the bytes before or after it. This is also true of other types of memory chips, including ROMs and PROMs. However, unlike ROMs and PROMs, RAM chips require power to maintain their content, which is why you must save your data onto disk before you turn the computer off.
Everytime you open a program, it gets loaded from the hard drive into the RAM. This is because reading data from the RAM is much faster than reading data from the hard drive. Running programs from the RAM of the computer allows them to function without any lag time. The more RAM your computer has, the more data can be loaded from the hard drive into the RAM, which can help speed up your computer. In fact, adding RAM can be more beneficial to your computer’s performance than upgrading the CPU.
When personal computers first came on the market in the late 1970s, 64KB (64 kilobytes) of RAM was the upper limit. Today, 64MB (64 megabytes) of RAM is entry level for a desktop computer, and 255MB, 512MB or 1024MB of RAM is common.

registry - The configuration database in all 32-bit versions of Windows. The Registry is made up of the SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT files. In the Microsoft Windows operating systems beginning with Windows 95, the registry is a single place for keeping information such as what hardware is attached, what system options have been selected, how computer memory is set up, and what application programs are to be present when the operating system is started. It contains information and settings for all the hardware, software, users, and preferences of the PC. Whenever a user makes changes to “Control Panel” settings, or file associations, system policies, or installed software, the changes are reflected and stored in the registry.

router - A network device that forwards packets from one network to another.

RSS - (RDF Site Summary) but is commonly referred to as (Really Simple Syndication). A file format, RSS is method of providing website content such as news stories or software updates in a standard XML format.

runtime - Occurring while a program is executing. For example, a runtime error is an error that occurs during program execution and a runtime library is a library of routines that are bound to the program during execution.
For a number of years, technical writers resisted “runtime” as a term, insisting that something like “when a program is run” would obviate the need for a special term. Gradually, the term crept into general usage.

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S

Shareware

Shareware is software that is distributed without payment ahead of time as is common for small software companies. Typically shareware is obtained free of charge by downloading from the net, allowing one to try out the program ahead of time. A shareware program is usually accompanied by a request for payment, and often payment is required per the terms of the license past a set period of time or to unlock certian features. The term shareware was coined by Bob Wallace to describe his word processor PC-Write in the mid-1980s.

Spyware

A program that hides on your system with the intent of collecting marketing information about you and your surfing habits, and/or displaying pop-ads on your screen. Also referred to as Adware.

S-Video - (Super-video) Transmitting analog video by keeping luma (Y) and chroma (C) on separate channels. Designated as Y/C, S-video improves picture quality over composite video because the luma and chroma are not combined. Component video provides even better quality by keeping the two chroma signals separate.
The terms Y/C video and S-Video are the same.
S-Video connector

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T

TCP - (Transmission Control Protocol) is responsible for verifying the correct delivery of data from client to server. Data can be lost in the intermediate network. TCP adds support to detect errors or lost data and to trigger retransmission until the data is correctly and completely received. TCP is “connection oriented” and requires a handshake before the session can begin.

TFT - (Thin-Film Transistor) These transistors are used in high-quality flat panel liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). TFT-based displays have a transistor for each pixel on the screen. This allows the electrical current that illuminates the display to be turned on and off at a faster rate, which makes the display brighter and shows motion smoother. LCDs that use TFT technology are called “active-matrix” displays, which are higher-quality than older “passive-matrix” displays. So if you ever see a TFTAMLCD monitor at a computer store, it is a “thin-film transistor active-matrix liquid crystal display.” That’s just a fancy way of saying it is a good flat-screen display.

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U

UDP - (User Datagram Protocol) A protocol used to transmit data over the internet. It is part of the TCP/IP suite of protocols that is used in place of TCP when a reliable delivery is not required. There is less processing of UDP packets than there is for TCP. UDP is a known as a “stateless” protocol, meaning it doesn’t acknowledge that the packets being sent have been received. UDP is connectionless and does not guarantee delivery of your data, but uses less overhead than TCP. For this reason, the UDP protocol is typically used for streaming audio and video, voice over IP (VoIP) and videoconferencing, because there is no time to retransmit erroneous or dropped packets. While you might see skips in video or hear some fuzz in audio clips, UDP transmission prevents the playback from stopping completely.

UNIX - An operating system that evolved from an effort by a group of computer scientists from MIT, Bell Labs and GE in 1965 called the Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service) mainframe timesharing system, in an effort to provide a multiuser, multitasking system for use by programmers. The philosophy behind the design of UNIX was to provide simple, yet powerful utilities that could be pieced together in a flexible manner to perform a wide variety of tasks. Today’s Unix systems are split into various branches, developed over time by AT&T, several other commercial vendors, as well as several non-profit organizations.
The UNIX operating system comprises three parts: The kernel, the standard utility programs, and the system configuration files.
UNIX history

URL - (Uniform Resource Locator) The address that defines the route to a file on a Web server (HTTP server). For example, the full URL for this page is http://leoville.tv/radio/pmwiki.php/Main/Glossary

USB - (Universal Serial Bus) A widely used hardware interface for attaching peripheral devices.

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V

Virus

A computer virus is a file designed to replicate itself while avoiding detection. A virus may cause problems and make the computer work in a diffrent way. Viruses are often rewritten and adjusted by diffrent hackers so that they will not be detected. Anti-virus programs must be updated continuously to look for new and rewritten viruses. Viruses are the number 1 method of computer vandalism.

VoIP - (Voice over Internet Protocol) Telephone communications using your internet connection instead of the usual phone company switches.

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W

WAN - (Wide Area Network) A WAN interconnects LANs, which then provide access to computers or file servers in other locations. A network device called a router connects LANs to a WAN. In IP networking, the router maintains both a LAN address and a WAN address.
I say this to help clarify the terms used on the set-up pages of small routers for home use : With a router installed you and your machine become a LAN…..the rest of the world out there (including your ISP) is the WAN.
Without a router, your home computer is a node on your ISP’s LAN.

WEP - (Wired Equivalent Privacy) An old IEEE standard security protocol for wireless 802.11 networks. Superseded by WPA, WPA2 and 802.11i.

Wi-Fi

A shortened version of the words “Wireless Fidelity,” Wi-Fi is a method of allowing internet access wirelessly by means of waves through the air. The technical name for the standard is “IEEE 802.11.” The main use of Wi-Fi is found in homes by means of wireless access points or routers, by such companies as “Linksys”, “Netgear”, and “Belkin,” for the main reason of sharing internet access amongst multiple computers in your household. Another popular use of Wi-Fi is in public shops, cafes, and the like. Starbucks coffee chains are now set up for Wi-Fi. To access a Wi-Fi network, a special adapter is needed to enable reception of the signal. This can be in the form of a PC card for notebooks, ora USB adapter(external) or PCI adapter(internal) for desktop computers. Modern operating systems, such as Windows XP, usually work quite well with most Wi-Fi setups. In some stores, access to the wireless network is for a small fee; at others, access is completely free.

WPA - (Wi-Fi Protected Access) A security protocol for wireless 802.11 networks from the Wi-Fi Alliance that was developed to provide a migration from WEP. The WPA logo certifies that devices are compliant with a subset of the IEEE 802.11i protocol. WPA2 certifies full support for 802.11i.

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X

XML - (Extensible Markup Language) A metalanguage written in a simplified SGML that allows one to design a markup language. Used to allow for the easy interchange of documents on the World Wide Web. XML is a data file that uses tags (like HTML) to define objects and object attributes; a text-based database.

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