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Welcome to our Technical Glossary. Here you can find the definitions of many of the technical terms that you may hear when dealing with computers, in plain English. This is by no means a complete glossary, nor is it intended to be, but it should be able to help you with most common computer related situations.
If you keep a sharp eye out, you will also find many helpful and useful tips about that particular term that you may not have known. Also, take note that many terms you hear are acronyms or slang of some sort. If a word is underlined and in blue, you can click on it to learn more about it.
Note: You will notice only some of the definitions have clickable terms. We are currently working in this feature. IF a word is linked and when you click on it, nothing happens, that means the word is currently not in the Glossary but it will be soon.
This Glossary will be a constant work in progress since new terms are coined almost everyday as new technologies are created and discovered. The Glossary is organized in alphabetical order. Use the Alphabar below to navigate. If you don't see a term listed and you would like to know what it means, contact us and we will add it to this section. Also feel free to link to any of these definitions if you would like.
Please note: all of the definitions located here were written by us. The ideas, facts, and information in these definitions were obtained through various public printed works, whether on paper or on the Internet, or from our experiences and education. If you have any questions about the validity of a definition, where we got it from, or a correction or addition to something we have posted, please contact us. Thank you.
| Number of current terms: |
264 |
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 | 0-9
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| Active Matrix |
| Active Matrix, also called TFT (thin film transistor), is type of flat panel display or monitor that has a very high refresh rate, thus creating smooth video. The display itself is a grid of wires and where each wire intersects, there is a pixel. In Active Matrix displays, each pixel is controlled by an individual transistor. There are thousands of transistors in an Active Matrix display. Active Matrix displays are used mostly on laptop screens and are currently an industry standard. |
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| AGP |
acronym for: Accelerated Graphics Port
AGP has become the standard for connecting video expansion cards (graphics cards) to computers. AGP itself is simply the standard by which graphics cards must perform and be physically created to fit the slot on the motherboard. It is a high speed way for data to be sent from the hard drive to the graphics card and then be interpreted and sent to the monitor. |
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| AIFF |
acronym for: Audio Interchange File Format
AIFF is used mainly by Apple computers to store audio files. It is the audio file standard for Macintosh computers, however; PCs running Windows 95 and higher can run AIFF files using Windows Media Player, or some other compatible player. AIFF files will have a file extension of .aiff or .ief |
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| Analog |
| You may hear the term analog when people are talking about audio or video, however, analog has everything to do with computers. Analog refers to the type of signal that is being transmitted over some type of medium, whether it is a wire or through the airwaves. For example, your telephone is an analog signal, which is why you need a Modem to modulate the analog signal to a digital signal that your computer can understand. Analog signals mean that the electrical signal on the wires increases and decreases in waves. The problem with analog is that because the signal is can have some fluctuation, the data traveling across it can be corrupted. Digital signals fix this problem because the signal is not in waves but rather pulses which are more distinct and less likely to be recieved incorrectly. |
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| ANSI |
acronym for: American National Standards Institute
ANSI is similar to the IEEE except they create standards for the computer industry and several other technical areas other than computers. Their standards cover almost all comptuer programming languages, communications protocols, and nanotechnologies to name a few. ANSI is comprised of approxiamtely 1,000 organizations that constitute many of the major industry leaders in each area that ANSI creates the standards for. |
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| ASCII |
acronym for: America Standard Code for Information Interchange, pronounced Ask-E
ASCII simply put is a character set for the English language which includes numbers and symbols such as the ! sign. ASCII is a standardized code in which each letter, number, and symbol has a corresponding code and this code is a standard so all computers can communicate properly. The code can be 7 or 8 bits long depending on what operating system you have. For example, DOS used the 8-bit ASCII code, so there were 255 different symbols. You can still use them today in Windows as well. Open up Notepad or Microsoft Word if you have it, now hold down the ALT key and type 0167, then release the ALT key. Watch what you get, then try it with different numbers from 0001 to 0255. |
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| AT |
| An older style computer case form factor in which the motherboard did not have the PS/2 keyboard ports on-board and the power supply needed a physical switch to turn the computer on and off. The power connector to the motherboard was a two-piece connector and the power could not be controlled by the software. AT is rarely used today. |
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| ATX |
| The current computer case form factor that most systems use today which typically involves on-motherboard PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports and the power supply can be controlled by the motherboard, so no physical switch is needed to turn the computer on or off. The power connector is also one piece as apposed to two as it was in the form factor. |
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| Backup |
| This terms refers to the process of taking data and copying it on to some other media, whether it is a tape backup drive, another computer, or to a network for redundancy. Most businesses backup their data on a daily basis as a preventative means, in the situation of a complete computer system failure, so they do not loose important data. The term itself literally means to revert to a previous version of data. |
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| Bandwidth |
| This is a term used to describe the throughput of data over a certain medium. The higher the bandwidth, the faster the connection. Bandwidth is usually measured in Megabytes per second or Mbps for short. Typically bandwidth is used when referring to Internet or data connections. For example, a dial-up Internet connection is considered to have very low bandwidth, while a cable or DSL Internet connection is considered to have high bandwidth. |
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| Baud |
| Baud is a unit of measure for data being sent between two devices, not just modems. The word baud comes from its founders name, who was J.M.E. Baudot. Baud is typically measured as bps or Bits Per Second. Bps and baud are directly relational, most of the time. For example, 600 baud means data is being sent at 600bps. This is always the same until you get in to higher baud speeds, such as 4,800 baud or higher. At these speeds, it is possible to transmit more than 1bit per baud, so you might a device operating at 2,400 baud but sending data at 9,600bps. |
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| Binary |
| Binary is the counting system that almost all computers are based on. It is a Base 2 system (0,2,4,8,16,32...etc.). The value are calculated on an exponential basis. For example, 2^1=1, 2^2=4, 2^3=8, 2^4=16, 2^5=32, etc. The U.S. system is a Base 10 counting system (0,1,2,3,4....etc.) Binary uses two symbols, 1's and 0's, to describe a unit of data. Combinations of these symbols equal other larger values called Bits and Bytes. A Bit and a Binary digit are the same thing and a Byte is comprised of 8 Bits. Therefore, Binary is most commonly viewed in groupings of 8 values which can be calculated to equal some character. For example, 10101101 is equal to 346 in decimal notation. See Bit and Byte |
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| BIOS |
acronym for: Basic Input Output System
The BIOS is the very first piece of software that loads when a computer is turned on, before any other software including the operating system. This software is built-in to the motherboard and almost always comes with a new computer. It tells the motherboard what type hardware is in the computer and how to communicate with it. On most computers, the BIOS is masked by the manufacturers logo when the BIOS loads, such as the Hewlett Packard symbol that shows up when an Hewlett Packard computer is turned on or Award written in plain text across the top of the screen for Award brand BIOS's. The two most commonly seen companies for BIOS's are Phoenix and Award. |
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| Bit |
| A bit is a measurement of data. A bit is the smallest unit of data used in computers and can only have one of two values, 0 or 1; or off or on respectively. The on or off sets the value of a microscopic transistor located on the CPU to either on or off. Combinations of these settings result is actual data, such as the number 1 or the letter A. Bits are usually grouped together in combinations of 8, which is called a Byte. |
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| Bluetooth |
| Bluetooth is a newer technology that has never really taken off to its full potential. It is essentially a short-range radio standard that allows Internet devices, such as laptops, PDAs and cellphones, to communicate wirelessly. The original purpose of Bluetooth was to simplify synchronization between these Internet devices and other Internet devices. Today Bluetooth has expanded to keyboards, mice and soon, even full-time networking, instead of the small segmented networks that can use bluetooth now. Did you know that many new cell phones now have Bluetooth technology built in which allows for wireless earpieces? |
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| Boolean |
pronounced boo-lee-ann
Boolean refers to several things, however, the most common is boolean logic. Named for its creator, George Boole, boolean is a form of mathematics where all sums and values are reduced to either ones or zeros. These values of 1 or 0 happen to fit very nicely with the binary system in place for most computers where a 1 equals ON or TRUE and a 0 equals OFF or FALSE. It is the latter of the two values, True and False, that boolean logic uses to define an equation. This is a very large premise in computer programing, especially when creating loop statements that repeat the same functions until a Boolean expression of true or false is established, then the expression terminates. For example, an IF, THEN, ELSE program function uses boolean. It states that IF condition A exists, THEN do condition B. If condition A does not exist (ELSE), do condition C. It can also be stated DO A until B is TRUE or FALSE, then DO C. There are many ways this type of logic can be implemented, however this is all we are going to say about this definition to keep it simple. |
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| Boot |
slang
This term is derived from the phrase, "To pull ones self up by his boot-straps". This meant to pull up ones boots using a leather strap. In this same manner, to boot a computer is pull the computer up or simply, to turn a computer on. There are two types of booting:
1) A cold-boot completely removes power from the computer. Once it is completely turned off, it is then powered back on.
2) A warm-boot does not remove power from the computer, it simiply drops the voltage enough to reset the circuitry, which causes the system to restart. |
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| Bps |
abbrevation for: Bits Per Second
Bps is the standard measure of data transmition. Simply put, it is the measure of how long it takes one bit of data to be transferred from one node on a network to another node, measured in seconds. |
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| Browser |
abbreviation for: Internet Browser
A browser is a computer program that is used to locate and then display web sites. The main type of browser is a graphical browser. Internet Explorer and Netscape are both graphical browsers. They can both display graphics and text. Newer versions of each can also display various forms of multimedia including video, audio, and animations. Some mutlimedia requires additional software called plug-ins to be installed in order to view this multimedia. |
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| Bus |
| This term is usually used when describing the speed of circuity, such as a motherboard or RAM. The bus itself is the channel through which data flows on the circuitry. The bus speed refers to the maximum data throughput that a certain component can support and is usually expressed in Megahertz (MHz). There are several types of buses, the most common is the front-side bus, which is used when describing motherboards. For example, a new computer with an Intel Pentium 4 processor might have a front-side bus of 800MHz which means that the RAM for that computer should also support an 800MHz bus. A bus can also described in width, which is measured in bits. Most buses are either 8 or 16 bits wide, meaning that 8 or 16 bits of data can flow through the bus at one time. The wider the bus, the faster it is. Think of a Bus like an interstate highway. The more lanes a highway has, the more traffic can flow freely without congesting. The idea holds true for a Bus. The more bits wide it is, the faster data can move through it. |
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| Byte |
| A byte is the second smallest unit of measure for data. A byte is comprised of exactly 8 bits. A byte is technically represented by a series of 1's and 0's, when it is viewed as binary. Typically, a byte is represented as a single character, such as a letter of the alphabet or a number, but not a double number. For example, the letter F is exactly 1 Byte of data as is the number 9, but the number 35 is two Bytes of data that are combined. In the Microsoft Windows XP operating system, when viewing the properties of files, the size of the file is expressed in bytes. A byte is not the same as kilobyte. |
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| Cable |
| A cable is commonly called a wire which is incorrect. When dealing with computers, it is important to realize the difference between the two. A cable is a group of wires (more than 1) bound together, usually in a rubber sheathing that has at least one connector on either end of it. For example, the cable going to your keyboard is a cable and not a wire because there are many wires inside of it, even though you can not see them individually. There are only a few actual wires when dealing computers, since most are cables. This holds true for most electronics. |
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| Cable Modem |
| A cable modem is a device used for converting signals from a coaxial cable (the cable that Cable TV is carried over) from an analog signal to a digital signal that the computer can understand. Cable modems are used typically for high-speed Internet connections that are "always on". Cable modems typically have a maximum throughput or bandwidth of 10Mbps. |
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| Cache |
pronounced Cash
Cache is high-speed temporary memory that a computer uses to store small amounts of data as it is written to and from the CPU and hard drive. Think of cache as a type of ultra-short term memory like a person has when they cram for a test just minutes before it starts and then completely forget the information they studied once they answer the question on the test. Cache is constantly being written to, cleared, and re-written during the normal operation of the computer and requires no interaction from the user. There are three levels of cache; L1 and L2 which are usually on the processor itself and L3 which is usually on the motherboard. The more cache a computer has, the faster it can process commands. Most new computers have a total of 512Kb of cache. |
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| CAT Cable |
acronym for: Category Cable
CAT cable is usually referred to as CAT3,CAT5,CAT5e, or CAT6 cable. The most frequently used it CAT5. CAT5 cable is used when networking computers together and consists of 8 wires bundled together in a rubber sheath in four pairs of colors (usually orange, orange-white, blue, blue-white, green, green-white, and brown, brown-white) with an 8-pin RJ-45 plug on either end that looks very similar to the plugs on a telephone. The wires are twisted inside the cable. The number after the cable (i.e. CAT3, CAT5) refers to the number of twists in the wires per foot. For example, in CAT5, for 1 foot of cable, the wire inside the cable has five twists. CAT3 = 3 twists per foot. If a CAT cable has too few or too many twists per foot, then it will not perform properly or not at all. CAT cable is also somtimes called UTP cable for Unshielded Twisted Pair cable. The unshielded part of the name refers to shielding against EMI. CAT cable is rarely shieled against EMI, so UTP is acceptable when referring to most CAT cable. |
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| CD Burner |
| A special type of disk drive that can write to (create) CD-Rs (Recordable) and usually to CD-RWs (ReWritable). It is called a "burner" because it literally burns small grooves in to the CD using a laser. Most CD burners can burn at 32x (150KB per second x 32 or 4800KB/s) or faster, which is the same speed that data can be read from a hard drive and sent to the CD burner. A burner that is faster that 32x is typically overkill and is already writing to the blank CD as fast as the computer can handle, unless your hard drive is faster than 5,400 RPMs (Revolutions per Minute), which in most computers is not the case. |
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| CD-R |
abbreviation for: CD-Recordable
A CD-R is a disc that can be used with a CD Burner to write data on to it. A CD-R can only be used once. Once the data has been written or burned to the disc, it can not be removed. The great thing about CD-Rs are they are now very cheap; you can typically buy 100 brand name discs for around $40USD. AVOID NO-NAME BRAND CD-Rs!!! A good quality CD-R will last 100 years if treated right, these no-name brand CD-R that can be bought for pennies are garbage. They will last weeks if you are lucky. The polycarbonate and metal layers tend to fall off over time on cheap CD-Rs very quickly. A good test to see if a CD is good quality is to take a peice of Scotch brand tape or similar, a apply it firmly to the label side of a blank disc. Let it sit overnight, then the on the next day, rip it off quickly. If the polycarbonate does not come off, then it is a well made CD. |
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| CD-RW |
abbreviation for: CD-ReWritable
A CD-RW is very similar to a CD-R. The only difference is that a CD-RW can be written to, erased, and written to again. These are great for backing up data. The only downfall of these discs is that most audio CD players do not support CD-RWs so they make poor audio discs. Instead, use a CD-R, they work great for audio. |
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| CD-ROM |
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abbreviation for: Compact Disc - Read Only Memory, abbreviated to CD
A CD-ROM can be one of two things:
- This refers to a piece of hardware for a computer that can read the data stored on a CD and send the data to the controller to be processed. This data can be in any format, such as a document or music or video. The ability to decipher to data depends on the software installed on the computer. CD-ROMs can be located either internally in a computer or externally on the outside of computer as a separate component.
- This refers to a circular, thin, plastic disc that is used to store data on it. CD-ROMs, also called CDs or Discs for short, can hold a maximum of up to 650MB or 700MB depending on the CD itself and are used for a wide variety of applications, such as music, movies, and of course, raw data, such as a text document.
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| Character |
| A character is NOT a person in a novel or play. It is a single digit or Byte of data that is comprised of exactly 8 Bits of data. The letter Q is a character, as is the number 6. A blank space is also technically a character. The spaces between all of these words are characters as is the punctuation of these sentences. Characters can be in any language or any symbol just as the + or ? symbols. A character can most easily be defined as any single symbol that you can type from your keyboard. |
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| Client |
| A client is a program that runs on a workstation or PC, which needs to be attached to a server to run properly. A client is the users side of a network program. For example, many businesses use e-mail clients, such as Microsoft Outlook, to allow their users to send and recieve e-mail through their system. Clients will run on their own, however fuctionality may be limited if there is no server present. A client is also another name given to any user or program that accesses a host to use its resources. A host is the counterpart to a client. |
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| CMOS |
acronym for: Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor, pronounced See-Moss
The CMOS is usually the type of chip that a computers' BIOS is stored on. It uses a small battery that allows the CMOS chip to store system information such as hardware configuration and date and time. The information stored on this chip is also known as the computer's firmware. This allows a computer to store this information even when not hooked up to a power source for long periods of time. |
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| Command Line Interface |
| A command line interface, also called a C-L-I is an interface in which the user must type commands after some type of prompt to execute and interact with programs. DOS and UNIX both utilize this type of interface. There are no mice and no graphics in a CLI and some people will agrue that a user has more control over a computer system using a CLI rather than a GUI (graphical user interface), such as the Windows operating system. |
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| Computer |
| A piece of electronic equipment that combines many pieces of circuitry and different components to take structured input from a user and output useful information and formatted data. A computer was original a person who performed mathematical equations. The term computer was not used to define a machine until the early part of the 20th century when the first computer was built by Alan Turing to perform mathematical equations quickly and without error. Today, computers are everywhere. They are in cell phones, cars, trains, planes, even some household appliances have computers in them. |
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| Controller |
| A controller is piece of hardware that can either be integrated with a motherboard or a separate expansion card that controls drives, such as hard drives, CD-ROMs, or disk drives, that are connected to a computer. Most computers have three built-in controllers; a primary, a secondary, and a floppy disk controller. Typically, each controller can handle up to two devices, however, additional controllers can be added for more capacity. |
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| Cookie |
| A cookie is small text file that is sent to your Internet browser from a web site that contains information about the user. For example, when you use a online banking service and you log in, it is very likely that that website has now created a cookie with your login information in that cookie, so if you choose to, the web site can "remember" you and login you in automatically. The cookie will be stored on your computer until you decide to delete it or it expires, whichever happens first. Everytime you visit a site that has sent you a cookie, that same cookie is sent back to the server, so it can identify you. The most common usage for cookies are to remember frequent users of web site, such as Yahoo.com or Hotmail.com. Both sites use cookies to keep track of their users. Despite popular belief, cookies do not invade your privacy. They are simply text files that can be deleted at any time and they can not spread viruses, access your hard drive, or run programs. The only way it could threaten your privacy is if it stores your credit card number when you buy something online, but even in this case you can just delete your cookies, hence removing the threat. |
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| CPU |
acronym for: Central Processing Unit, pronounced C-P-U
The CPU is the "brain" of the computer. The CPU is typically a small piece of silicon wafer that has millions of microscopic transistors on it that can be turned on or off by variations in electrical current. Combinations of these transistors being turned on and off allows the CPU to perform basic mathematical and logical equations which powers the "thinking" aspect of a computers capabilities. Most CPU's have three parts to them, the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), the control unit, and registers. Most computers only have one CPU. Some computers, called Servers, can have 64 CPU's or more.
See Microprocessor |
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| Crash |
slang
Crash is a term used to describe that state of a computer when it is not longer responsive to user commands. This term is commonly used to decribe any computer failure, however it actually specifically refers to only one type of hardware failure. When the reading heads in a hard drive actually the touch the internal disk, called the platter, it is said that head has "crashed" in to the platter. These heads are not supposed to actually touch they disk ever, they ride on a cushion of air. When they do touch, this is an actual, physical crash. When software fails, it is simply and software error or bug. When a hard drive crashes, typically all data is lost on that disk. |
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| CRT |
acronym for: Cathode Ray Tube
This is what most Televisions and older monitors have inside of them. It refers to the type of glass tube that a screen is made out of and the cathode ray that is in the back of the monitor. The Cathode Ray draws line across the screen from right to left and top to bottom so fast, you can not see it. By overlapping these lines, the Cathode Ray draws the pictures that you see on the screen. If your TV or monitor is not an LCD, flat panel, or High-Definition, then it is a CRT. See, computer terms don't just apply to computers. ;-) |
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| Cyberspace |
slang
Cyberspace is another term used to describe the Internet. Cyberspace is the Internet. |
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| Data |
| Data is anything that is stored on a disk. It does not have to be formatted in any specific way. 1 byte is considered data. This web site is comprised of data. In fact, everything on a computer is data. Data is what computers are designed to handle and manage. Data can also mean a file, however a file is data that has been formatted for use, where plain data does not have to be formatted in any specific manner. Data can also be infomation entered in to a computer, such as statistics or numbers. This is the type of data that is used by most. They enter words, numbers and sentences. This is all considered. The plural form of data is datum, however it is accepted to use data as the plural form as well. |
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| Database |
| A database is a heirarchal system where data is collected and stored where it is organized and can be pulled by another program or a user easily and quickly. Databases are everywhere in computers. The Windows operating system is run from a database called the registry. Credit cards companies maintain databases of all of their customers and accounts. In fact every company that obtains customer, product, or other mass amounts of data stores this data in a database for easy access and utilization. Databases make utilizing data much easier. A database does not need a lot of data to work efficently, however they work better when more data is available. |
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| DDR |
acronym for: Double Data Rate
DDR is a term used when talking about computer memory or RAM, specifically DDR-SDRAM (Double data rate synchronous dynamic RAM). It refers to the speed at which data can be transferred both to and from the memory to the CPU which is twice the speed of normal SDRAM. To do this, both sides of the connector on the motherboard can send and receive data, as apposed to the traditional chips, in which only one side can do this. DDR memory can also be called DDRAM for short. Ther is also a newer type of DDR, called DDR-2. The major difference between the two is DDR-2 is capable of faster bus speeds. |
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| Defrag |
abbreviation for: Defragmentation
A process in which the data on a hard drive is reorganized so that files that were broken up and stored on physically different location on the hard drive are made contiguous. Defrag also refers to the Microsoft utility that does this. As a computer is used (i.e. files are created, deleted, modified) pieces of individual files tend to become scattered, this is normal. The files themseleves actually get broken up in to small pieces that get scattered across the hard drive, even thougth the user would never know the difference. Defragmenting put these files back together to improve the speed at which the files are accessed, since the hard drive does not have to go all over the disk to find the pieces of one file. Defragmentation is a routine maintenance procedure that should be done at least once every couple months, depending on usage. |
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| Degauss |
| Degaussing is a process in which magnetism is removed from a device, usually computer CRT monitors or Televisons. A monitor creates a magnetic field inside of the tube and sometimes the Earths magnetic fields or a magnet can cause distortion within the magnetic field in the tube. Degaussing re-aligns these inside magnetic fields to corrcet problems in the picture (i.e. discoloration, wavey lines). Degaussing uses a very strong magnetic field to do this. Most modern monitors have a built-in freature to do this, however, there are external degaussers that you can purchse, or even make on your own, although we do not recommend this. When deguassing, be careful not to put any disks too close because it will erase all of th data on the disk. |
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| Delete |
| Delete means to remove data from a storage medium such as a hard drive. It can be used as an adjective or verb. Deleting data means to erase it. In some operating systems, when you delete something, it is gone forever and unretrievable. However, in most operating systems, when you execute the delete command on a single file or a set of data, the data is not actually compeletely erased. It is simply marked by the operating system as available free space so other data can be written over that same section of the disk. It is only when this data is over written that it is truely erased. Some operating system even give you a chance to not delete the data moving it to another location. The Windows operating system, for example, intially moves deleted data to a "Recylce Bin" and in order to completely remove the data, it must be again deleted from the Recycle Bin. There are programs out there that are capable of recovering data that has been marked as deleted by an operating system, although it is tedious to do since the entire volume must be scanned. We can retrieve most data from a disk if it has been marked as deleted, not over written, and the disk is not physically damaged. If you are interested in the service, please contact us. |
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| Digital |
| Digital can be called the technical opposite analog. Digital refers to the way a signal is sent from one device to another. Prior to the 1980's almost everything was analog. Television, radio, and even cars. Now everything is considered "Digital". What this really means is the signals are sent from one device to another are sent in pulses instead of waves. It is still sent in the same manner they used to be, which is variations in electrical current that look like waves, except now, instead of rounded waves, the pulses are boxes and are more defined. If you were to look at a digital signal on an oscilliscope, the would appear like the teeth of a zipper, where as analog would look like the rolling waves of the ocean. Digital signal are easier to determine extactly is being sent, which results in less data loss and a stronger, clearer signal. This allows digital television and radio to be possible. The signals sent to these devices is much more clear than it used to be which is why the clarity and quality of the output it so much better. The same goes for data being sent on circuitry. |
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| Disk |
Also spelled "disc"
This term can refer to many things. Primarily it refers to a round storage medium to which data can be stored. All disks are either magnetic or optical. Examples of magnetic disks are; hard drives, removable disks (such as a ZIP disks) and floppy disks (the brown or black plastic piece under the metal part of the disk). These disks are encoded by magnetism by arranging tiny "needles" in different ways. This is why computers are so sensitive to magnets, NEVER bring a magnet near a disk or you many destroy the data on the disk. Optical discs store data just like a record. A laser burns tiny "holes" on to the disc in patterns that a computer can decipher. Optical discs include CD's and DVD's and are read by lasers. They are not affected by magnetism. |
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| Disk Drive |
also called: a Drive
A disk drive is simply a device that spins a disk and can read and usually write to a disk. A Floppy Disk Drive, for example, can read and write to floppy disks; however, a CD-ROM drive can only read CDs and not write to them. To do that, you would need a CD burner. Most disk drives contain heads that can read and/or write to a disk. |
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| DHCP |
acronym for: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
This is a complicated subject, however, to keep things simple we will say that DHCP is protocol which usually runs as a type of computer program on a server that can distribute and keep track of IP addresses on its network. The protocol determines how the IPs address are assigned and handled. |
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| DIMM |
acronym for: Dual Inline Memory Module
A DIMM refers to a specific type of RAM chip. The circuity physically has memory chips on both sides, instead of one, thus increasing its capcity and speed. Almost all modern computers use DIMMs. |
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| DNS |
acronym for: Domain Naming Service
DNS simply put is the software that runs on servers that converts IP addresses to domain names. Every website on the Internet actual has one or more IP address that actually points to it. DNS allows users to type in a domain name, such as www.dccon.com, and have it point them to that site. This makes it a lot easier for users to remember how to get to a web site. Try memorizing 66.11.130.191 instead of dccon.com. It is not that easy. This is the purpose of DNS, to make it easier to go back to the same resource that you were once at, which out having to memorize long series of IP addresses. |
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| Dongle |
| This is a funny sounding term, and it refers to two seperate things. First and most commonly, a dongle is an adapter that was used for expansion cards on laptop computers. It usually had a small connector that went to the expansion card on one end, and a jack on the other for an ethernet cable or a telephone cable. These were cumbersome, since they would become lost or broken very easily due to their small size. This is why they are more rare today.
Dongle can also refer to a device that attaches to any computer, usually via the parallel port, to prevent unauthorized use of an application. If the program can not find the hardware on the port, thr program will not run. This is a very effective means of preventing software piracy and is typically used to lock high end software. For that reason, these dongles are usually fairly expensive.
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| DOS |
abbreviation for: Disk Operating System
Originally used in the 1960's as an acronym for IBM's Disk Operating System, DOS is more widely known as Microsoft's first operating system, also called Disk Operating System. IBM bought DOS from Microsoft in 1981 to put on their personal computers and thanks to IBM, Microsoft is what it is today. A little known fact is that the very first version of DOS, called QDOS (for Quick and Dirty Operating System) was purchased from Tim Patterson by the then Seattle Computer Products which would later become Microsoft. |
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| Dot Pitch |
also called: Phosphor Pitch
This is an important measurement when it comes to determining the quality of monitor. It refers to the distance between the like-colored phosphor dots on the screen and is a good measure of an images clearness. The closer together the dots, the clearer the image. A typical dot pitch for a good monitor is between .23mm and .26mm. Dot Pitch is measured in millimeters |
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| Download |
| Download is the opposite of upload. People will sometimes use the term download to describe copying data to or from a disk to a computer, which is correct; but more often you will hear people use the term when they are referring to downloading data from the Internet, which is correct. To download is to copy and/or move data from another computer or server to your computer. Thats all there is to it. |
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| DPI |
acronym for: Dots per Inch
This term is used in reference to the image quality of monitors and printers. This applies to CRT monitors and flat panel monitors and all printers. The larger the number, the more dots of the image are packed in to one square inch of the display, the higher the resolution and the clearer the image. A typical DPI for many monitors is .26 or .27 and most printers print at 600dpi. Most color photo printers print at 1200dpi. At this dpi, a picture looks like it was processed at a photo lab. |
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| Driver |
| A driver is not a golf club, it a program installed on a computer that controls a piece of hardware. Every single piece of hardware that is connected to a computer, both internally and externally, must a have a driver installed in order to work properly. The driver tells the operating system how to communicate with a particular device and without the driver, the device is useless, hence the driver software drives the hardware device. Every device has one, even the mouse, keyboard, and even the monitor, although these drivers are usually a generic driver that is installed with the operating system, making the installation invisible to the user. |
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| DSL |
abbreviation for: Digital Subscriber Line
DSL simply put is a normal telephone line, except the electricity sent over the line is split in to a high area and low area, or high and low bandwidth. The upper part, or high bandwidth section of the line becomes dedicated to data, as in an Internet connection. The lower part, or low bandwidth, is dedicated to voice communications or fax transmissions only, as it is much slower than the high bandwidth section of line. DSL is typically used for an "always on" Internet connection that has a maximum throughput of data of about 10Mbps for most people. |
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| DVD Burner |
| This drive is exactly the same as a CD Burner except that it can burn DVDs. DVDs have two different formats, plus and minus. Some burners can only do one or the other, while newer ones are capable of doing both. |
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| DVD-ROM |
abbreviation for: Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc
These discs are exactly the same as CD-ROMs; however, data is encoded to them differently than CDs and they have a totally capacity of 4,700MB to 17,000MB depending on the format and if data compression is used. Most DVD-ROMs are used for movies since 4,700MB or 4.7GB is just enough for 2.5 hours of video. There are also many formats in which DVDs can be formatted in; such as, plus, minus, DVD-RAM, DVD-RG, and DVD-RA, but mostly only plus or minus discs are used. Did you know that the video signal from digital cable and DVDs is just data that is interpreted as video which is why dark blacks on the screen from DVDs and digital cable may not always appear perfectly dark black. |
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| DVD-R |
abbreviation for: DVD-Recordable
DVD-Rs are just like CD-Rs except that they have a greater capacity . There are also two types of DVD-Rs you may hear or see of. They are DVD minus Rs (DVD-R) and DVD plus Rs (DVD+R). The difference, for the most part, is simply compatibility with different manufacturers equipment. It should be noted that DVD ± burners are quickly becoming a standard so it will soon make no difference which type of disc you buy. Did you know that the ± sign is ASCII code ALT+0177, when using the Arial character set ;-) |
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| DVD-RW |
abbreviation for: DVD-ReWritable
These discs are exactly the same as DVD-Rs except they can be written to, erased, and written to again. They also have two different formats, the plus and minus standards. Again, that is just a compatibility issue with different manufactures of DVD Burners. |
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| DVI |
acronym for: Digital Video Interface
DVI is a standard for hardware interfaces that allows analog video signals to be converted to digital signals in order to accomodate both analog and digital monitors from the same interface. The standard requires a single plug and connector to be able to connect both newer, all digital interfaces, as well as older, legecy VGA interfaces. DVI is quickly becomming the video standard for computer displays. It even supports HDTV for combination monitors that double as a computer monitor and a television! |
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| Echo |
| Echo is exactly what it says it is. Echo was used mostly in the days of DOS and was used so that when you typed in a command, DOS outputted what you were typing. It echoed the users input. It is also used today on some computers, in the computers startup files, so that the user does not see what is happening in the background. The command that is used is to do this is usually ECHO OFF, so the system does not display what is happening. Did you know that Microsoft used this in earlier versions of DOS, and now they use a graphic called a splash screen instead to hide what is happening during startup? In Windows 98 and lower, you can hit the ESC key to clear this splash screen, but in Windows 2000 and higher, you can not clear the splash screen. |
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| E-commerce |
abbreviation for: Electronic-Commerce
E-commerce is every where today. This web site is an e-commerce site. E-Bay is an e-commerce site. E-commerce is simply business that is conducted over the Internet using a wide variety of means, including HTTP, FTP, shopping carts, and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange, which is used mostly for business to business transactions). As such, e-commerce is not limited to just business to comsumer (B2C) transactions. It also includes business to business (B2B), and consumer to consumer (C2C), like E-Bay. E-commerence in no way implies that a business is solely web-based either. Many companies are called clicks-and-bricks companies that have a physical office or store and a web site. An example of this would be Best Buy. |
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| E-Mail |
acronym for: electronic mail
E-mail is a form of communication that has revolutionized the world. It has changed the way we live forever. The premise behind E-mail is the same as that of traditional mail, which is now sometime referred to as "snail mail" due to its slow speed compared to E-mail. In E-mail, a formatted message is sent from one computer to another utilizing a computer network, most commonly the Internet, and an E-mail address. The E-mail address acts the same as an address on a traditional envelope and tells the computers that recieve the mail where to sent it. This is done using a universal and large database on the Internet. For example, if your ISP is Optimum Online (optonline.net) and you want to send an E-mail to sales@dccon.com, here is how it works. First you write your E-mail and put sales@dccon.com in the To: field in your E-mail client, then you click the send button. That message then gets sent to Optimum Online's servers which look at the 'dccon.com' part of the message and send that to on to the Internet to the next server or router also called a "hop", and then that hop sends it to the next one and so on and so forth. On every "hop" that the message takes, the server or router that recieves the message looks up the domain, the dccon.com part of the address, on the Internet master database and sends the message onward until it reaches it destination on our server which is located in Chicago. The message could make as many as 60 hops, and all of this could happen in less than 10 seconds. Of course you can send almost anything you want through e-mail and it always usese this same method to get to its destination. This is why E-mail will be the preferred communication methos for a while to come. Its fast, cheap, and now its portable, thanks to E-mail enhanced cellphones and devices like Blackberry's. |
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| EMI |
acronym for: Electromagnetic Interference
EMI is interference that is cause by a magnetic field. The field is generated by wires or cables that have a lot of electricity flowing through them. When you move one of those cables near a cable carrying data, such as a CAT cable, the data flowing through the cable can be lost or distorted by the magnetic fields. Did you know the most common cause for this problem is the ballasts that florescent lights use, such as those in offices or schools. |
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| Emoticon |
| An emoticon is this: :-) The word comes from two different words, emotion and icon, that were smeared together to get emoticon. These little symbols are used usually in electronic conversations between people, called Instant Messages, to express feelings and emotion without having to type it out. They can also be used in other forms of communication, such as E-mail and web sites. There is a whole slew of emoticons that people use, an they can be used in different contexts depending on the conversation at hand. A few examples are:
:-) smiling/happy
:-P sticking my tounge at you
:-( sad
:-/ uncertain about something
;-) winking
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| ESD |
acronym for: Electrostatic Discharge
Have you ever dragged your feet along a carpet and then touched a metal door knob and gotten shocked? That is ESD. ESD is when one object, such as your body, becomes charged with a positive electric charge and then comes in contact with something that has a weaker negative charge. The two objects then exchange charges to equal each other. This is called discharging or grounding out. ESD can damage a computer when someone is working on it without having grounded themselves first. When they touch an IC (integrated circuit, such as a motherboard), the shock delivered to the board is more than enough to short out the circuits and destroy the board. The easiest way to avoid this is to wear an ESD wrist strap which grounds from building a high charge and then ruining your equipment. NEVER work on the inside of your computer if you are not familiar with what you are doing. Instead, call the experts and let us do it for you! |
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| Ethernet |
| Ethernet is a computer networking standard that is the most widely used today. It sets the standard for the hardware, the cabling, and the software that is used to build a computer network. Ethernet networks include Ethernet networking cards (NICs), switches, routers, hubs, and will work on any Windows computer that has Windows 95 or higher installed. |
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| Expansion Card |
| An expansion card, or just card for short, is a circuit board that has a connector on one side that is inserted in to a matching slot on a motherboard, which then expands the capabilities of the computer. Expansion cards are typically associated with three common types of cards: AGP, PCI, and the obsolete version, ISA; however, any circuit board that is not permenantly attached to a motherboard, that can be removed is considered an expansion card, including memory (RAM). |
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| FAT |
acronym for: File Allocation Table
Think of the File Allocation Table or FAT, as it is more commonly refered to, as a table of contents for a computer. When a computer is first built, the hard drive must be initalized. To accomplish this, the hard drive is partitioned in to section, which creates the FAT. The FAT simply tells the operating system where on the hard drive data is physically stored. Data is rarely stored on a drive in a contiguous manner and is usually scattered throughout the drive at random. If the FAT is corrupted or damaged, usually all data on that disk is lost, but not always. Windows 2000 and XP have ways to recover the FAT. There are three main types of FATs used for Windows based computers, FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS (New Technology File System). |
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| FDISK |
abbreviation for: Fixed Disk
FDISK is a DOS based utility for Windows computers that is used to paritition a hard drive. It is the program that creates the FAT. In newer versions of Windows, such as Windows XP, FDISK is no longer used during the installation of Windows. Instead, it is done automatically during the installation process, however, it can still be used instead of the installer if you want to. |
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| File |
| A file is data that is stored in a group that has formatting in some way so it can be used by a program or user. Any formatted data can be considered a file. File sizes can be 1 byte or 1 gigabyte, it does not matter. If that data is to be used by a program or a user in some way then it can be categorized as a file. Even plain data can be callled a file as long as it is usable by some program. Data that is loose or random on a disk can not be considered a file since it has no meaning to a program or a user. Everything useful on a computer is stored in a file in one way or another, from this web site to a Word document, to the operating system itself, everything is stored in files. |
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| File Extension |
| A file extension is the three letters, numbers, and/or symbols that appear after a file name that associates that file with a certain program or programs. Every file has one, although in Windows XP by default, you don't see file extensions because Windows hides them. An example of a file extension would be filename.txt. The ".txt" is the extension that tells the user and the computer that this is a text file that can opened with whatever program is associated by the operating system to do so. However, the associated program is not the only program that can open the file. You can try to open any file with almost any program, the program just might not know what to do with the file and give you an error, or it might not even let you try. For example, a common file extension is .doc for Microsoft Word documents. It can be opened with a multitude of programs other than Word; however, some of the formatting contained in the file itself may not appear properly or appear at all in any other program other than Word. |
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| Firewall |
| A firewall is called such because, like a firewall in a car, it is meant to keep bad stuff out and good stuff in. A computers firewall is a peice of hardware and/or a software program that only lets data pass through it if it is authorized to do so. Firewalls are typically associated with Internet connections and are used to keep unauthorized users out, while allowing users "behind" or on a computer protected by the firewall to receive data and send data. There several ways firewalls can do this but the most common type, the type that many people are now buying, is to share a hi-speed Internet connection. This works by basically closing all unused ports and hides all of the IP addresses of connected computer behind the firewall so that no one can make a connection directly to any of the computers it protects, thereby making it very difficult to break in to these protected systems. Did you know that Windows XP has a built-in firewall that does just that, and can be turned on in a matter of seconds? In Windows XP, service pack 2, this feature has be expanded upon and is now turned on by default. |
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| FireWire |
synonymous with: 1394
Firewire is another name for the IEEE1394 standard of data transfer. The name firewire refers to the very high speed data transfer rates that can be achieved through the 1394 standard. It got the name firewire becuase the data is moving so fast, the wire should be on fire, hence firewire (hey, we are not making this stuff up). Most digital video cameras and some MP3 players use firewire to transfer data to and from these devices. Firewire is also used for some external hard drives. Firewire has an average throughput of up to 800Mbps, can support up to 63 devices at the same time. The name firewire was first coined by the Apple Computer Company. |
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| Firmware |
| Firmware, which is a piece of hardware - usually a ROM, EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory) or EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) chip, that has a program or peice of software that has been written as read-only memory (ROM). Many hardware components now use firmware so that the user can update it with the newest software available. A computer's BIOS is a good, commom example of firmware. |
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| Flash Memory |
| Flash memory is becoming more and more popular. It refers to a type of programmable memory that can be written to and re-written to when exposed to higher than normal surges of electricity. Originally, it was only used for the BIOS chips on computers, however, in the last few years, removable flash memory sticks that have a USB connector attached to them have become increasingly popular. These allow a person to copy data to and from these USB flash memory sticks very quickly and very easily thus giving the user the ability to go from computer to computer with ease. These flash sticks are as small as a silver dollar and can hold data up to 8GB of data (at the time of this writing, 8GB flash sticks are $1,200USD) They have come a long way from when they could only hold 512Kb. |
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| Font |
| A font is a way of categorizing the look of text. Fonts allow many different style of text, all with different looks and sometimes, even different characters, to be stored and the used effectively by a user. For exmaple, Windows XP comes preloaded with several dozen fonts. When the user selects, for example the "Times New Roman" font, the text looks like all of the writing on this page. Everything you see written here is in Times New Roman. There thousands of fonts available, all with different looks. Our logo is done in the "BankGothic Md BT" font. These fonts are also referred to as font faces, since it puts a "face" on the plain text. You will also hear the term font size, which obviously refers to the size of the font. Fonts can also be modified to have different colors, and attributes such as italics or bold or underline, as well as various others. These attributes apply to almost any Windows-based programs and they are fairly universal. |
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| Format |
Format can refer to two seperate things:
- The term format is used when talking about preparing a disk for use. Floppy disks, hard drives, CDs, and DVD must all be formatted in some way before data can be written to them. Formatting is done once a disk is partitioned. The format utility then writes address information to the disk, as well as tests the disk to make sure it is usable. It also marks parts of the disk that may be unusable due to physical imperfections, so no data is written to that part. Did you know that there are two types of formatting and that most formatting that people do is called high-level formatting and does not actually erase any data off the disk, instead it simply erases the addresses pointing to the data. The data is still on the disk! Low-level formatting, on the other hand, wipes everything clean and writes zeros to the entire disk, effectively erasing all data that was on the disk.
- Format can also be used when refering to text, as in to format the text of a Microsoft Word document by adding color or aligning the margins.
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| Form Factor |
| Form factor refers to the way a computers case is designed and how a motherboard must be designed to fit inside the case. Current there are 4 major form factors in use. They are: ATX, which is the most common and most widely used; baby-ATX, which is used for smaller versions of full size PCs; AT, which is pretty much obsolete; and ITX which is used for dedicated workstation PCs. Each form factor is standardized and dictactes the physical dimensions of a motherbarod, the shape of the power plug and how the PC's power is controlled (whether by the motherboard or the power supply). |
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| Freeware |
| Freeware is a type of computer software that is copyrighted and given out free of charge by its author. Typically, the author will maintain the copyright and forbid other to modify the software. Sometimes the software is distributed under the GNU and/or GPL, which specifies the Do's and Dont's of using freeware in resepect to redistribution, modifying the software, copyright disclaimers, etc. |
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| FTP |
acronym for: File Transfer Protocol
FTP is the networking protocol that specifies how files are to be transferred directly from one computer to another using a server, similar to the way HTTP works. It utilizes the TCP/IP protocol to perform these functions. The most common use of FTP is for file downloading from a web site or uploading files to a server, such as when making a web site, like this one ;-) |
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| Game Pad |
| Game pads are used by only a small perecent of most computer users, although you can find them in just about any computer store. A game pad is simply a controller for computer games. It is very similar to the controllers you might find on a console gaming system, like Nintendo or Play Station. It is simply another type of input device for a computer that allows the user to control the computer without the keyboard. |
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| Gateway |
| A gateway can be a piece of hardware or a computer that allows one computer network to connect to another computer network. Gateway used to refer to what is now called a router. They both do the same thing. When someone goes out and buys a router so they can split their hi-speed Internet connection, such as a cable or DSL modem, that router is functioning as a gateway. Any computer that is connected to the router is on one network, and the Internet the other network. |
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| GHz |
abbreviation for: Gigahertz
You hear this term almost always when someone describes a computer. "Yeah, I have a 2.2GHz computer." A gigahert also abbreviated as GHz which describes the speed of the frequency of a CPU cycle. For example, a computer that runs at 1.0GHz has a computing cycle of 1,000,000,000 cycles per second. 1GHz = 1,000,000,000 cycles per second. The abbreviation giga means 1,000,000,000. Just like a gigabyte is 1,000,000,000 bytes, a gigahert is 1,000,000,000 cycles. The 2.2GHz is actually describing the speed at which the CPU can compute data in cycles. You may also hear GHz when describing wireless networks. For example, a 2.4GHz wireless router is the most common type sold today. What that means is that the radio frequency that the router operates at is at least 2,400 Megahertz. It is the same thing for the radio in your car except instead of being in the low frequencies, like 100.3 FM which is 100.3 Megahertz, it is in the higher end of the frequency spectrum. In otherwords, if your router was a radio station, it would be operating at 2400 FM or 2.4 GHz. Did you know that 2.4GHz cordless telephones and 2.4GHz wireless routers sometimes operate on a very close frequency and can cause interference between eachother? To prevent this most new routers have a "channel" feature that lets you select between 12 channels, all of which are in the 2.4Ghz range. |
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| GIF |
acronym for: Graphics Interchange Format, pronounced like "if" only with a hard g
The gif format is the most popular fomat used for graphics on the Internet. It is capable of representing pictures in 256 colors and also supports compression, making it optimal for producing graphics with a small file size. A gif has the file extension of .gif. Did you know our logo as well as almost all of the graphics on this site are in the gif format? |
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| Gigabyte |
| A gigabyte is the second largest commonly used unit of measure for data. A gigabyte is 1,000 megabytes or 1,000,000,000 bytes and is abbreviated GB. Most computers that are sold today come with hard drives that are anywhere from 40GB to 250GB. That's a lot of storage capacity. Most people never use anything over 50 or 60GBs, unless you are making digital movies, since they take up a lot of space. To put this in perspective, when you watch a DVD movie, the movie (which is usually in high definition and surround sound) takes up no more than 5GB, so if you were to make 4 home movies on your computer that were 2 hours in length, you would have 20GBs just in video. This is usually the only time normal users need more storage than the average 60GBs. Windows XP alone usually occupies approximately 2GB of space, where as most other programs use less than 500MB. |
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| GNU |
| The term is self-referential. GNU really stands for GNU's Not Unix. GNU is the name of a software program. This is a little strange, but what is refers to is a software developed by the Free Software Foundation who had the philosiphy to created and distribute software that anyone can download, modifiy, and redistribute. The GNU itself is just that philosiphy and people who wirte their own programs, who create and distribute their software based on the GNU typically say so somewhere with in the program. The Linux operating sytem relies heavily on the GNU for most of its software and typically, the Linux kernel falls under the GNU so anyone can modifiy it an customize Linux. |
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| Gopher |
| Gopher is a system that was around before the World Wide Web, which is now obsolete. It was developed at the University of Minnesota and was named for the school's mascot. It was started when the Internet was first gaining steam with the general public.Gopher was a system for organizing and displaying files on Internet servers. Much like the way Windows Explorer, displays information, Gopher servers also displayed its contents as a hierarchically structured list of files and directories. When the WWW started to gain popularity, many of the gopher systems were converted from raw data to web sites which are more easily accessible to Internet search engines. |
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| Gbps |
acronym for: gigbytes per second
Gpbs is the fastest standard by which data can be transferred. 1Gbps is equal to approximately1,000 mbps. Most networks never surpass 100 mpbs. To put it in perspective, the fastest cable or DSL line available to the general public runs at only 10 mbps. Networks that can transfer data this fast are usually fiber optic networks that are specialized for high speed data processing. There is currently a new new standard called gigabit ethernet which will allow consumers to have in home networks that can transfer data up to 1 gbps. This new technology is already on the market, however it is still expensive. In time though, these prices will drop. |
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| GPL |
abbreviation for: General Public License
The GPL is a software licensing agreement that states software written under the GPL is free for distribution, copying, and modification. Any software that is written under the GPL is called Open Source, meaning the programs underlying code is free for anyone to look at. The most popular version of the GPL is the GNU GPL which covers most versions of Linux. As in the GNU philosiphy, the GNU GPL states that whomever aquires software that was written under the GNU GPL must make the software available to anyone else under those same terms. As a play on words, the GPL is somtimes called a copyleft instead of a copyright. :-D |
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| GPU |
acronym for Graphical Processing Unit
A GPU is very similar to a CPU except that a GPU is for a graphics adapter. Almost all AGP cards and all higher end graphics cards have one. A GPU is a CPU for a graphics adapter. Its purpose it so take the load off of a computers CPU so that it can process graphics at much faster speeds while not burdening the CPU with graphics rendering. This increases the graphics adapters performance, especially when rendering a lot of frames per second; such as in done in 3D games and video editing. |
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| Graphic |
| The term graphic has several meanings. First, a graphic can be a picutre or image. For exmaple, pictures that a user may take with a digital camera and then copy to their computer is considered a graphic. All pictures and images on a computer are considered graphics. The term graphics can also refer to a computers overall ability to display images, both the quality and the perforamce of the images. The faster the computer can display images, the better graphics the computer is said to have. The same applies to the quality of the images. |
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| Graphics Adapter |
| synonomous with: Graphics Card or Video Card or | |
