Tech Terms and Definitions

• 1394 IEEE - this is Firewire, used especially for digital video camera

• AGP - advanced graphics port, used for video cards, small brown slot
• ANSI - American National Standards Insitution, develops standards (ex: ANSI C)
• ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange, standard for representing characters
• ATA - also known as IDE, stanard way to connect hard drives, named from IBM-AT computer

• burn - write stuff to some media, for example write some music to a cd, or write a movie to a dvd

• CAD - computer aided design, used to construct and model objects such as buildings, vehicles, etc.
• Cat5 - common copper wire, used for ethernet or high speed internet like cable internet
• CD-R - burnable cd, save data or music, one time only though
• CD-RW - burnable cd, save data or music, re-writable though
• CF - compact flash, small memory cards used in cameras & pda's
• codec - coder/decoder or compression/decompression, used a lot in videos and music
• CRT - cathode ray tube, your standard big, ugly monitors that take up lots of space
• cracker - these are bad people, they break into computers (hackers are the good guys)

• daemon - a program that runs all the time, but does nothing unless a request is sent to it
• DDR SDRAM - double data rate SDRAM, standard to speed up conventional SDRAM
• DeCSS - linux program that reads DVD movies that were scrambled w/ Content Scrambling System
• DHCP - dynamic host configuration protocol, a method of automatically giving each client computer a TCP/IP address
• DIMM - dual inline memory module, most common memory today, larger and better than SIMM
• DMCA - digital millennium copyright act, attempt to update laws to current date technology, very controversial
• DOCSIS - Data over cable service interface specification, the standard for cable modems nowadays
• DoS - denial of service, an attack that sends large amounts of repeated requests and crashes a server
• DOS - disk operating system, it got pc's started, you get similar version if you run the "cmd" command under windows
• DPI - dots per square inch, used on printers...ex: 1200x600dpi, 1200 dots horizontally, 600 vertically
• dual boot - a computer that boots two operating systems, you choose at startup, most commonly Windows and Linux
• DVD-RAM - old style DVD's, don't fit in today's dvd drives, almost non-existent now
• DVD+R - burn a dvd, music, or data one time only, hp and dell support the + format
• DVD+RW - burn a dvd, music, or data several times, rewritable, hp and dell support the + format
• DVD-R - burn a dvd, music, or data one time only, apple and gateway support the - format
• DVD-RW - burn a dvd, music, or data several times, rewritable, apple and gateway support the - format
• DVD+/-RW - a dvd burner that supports both formats of dvd's

• EIDE - enhanced IDE, used for hard drives and CD-ROMS
• EMACS - extremely powerful text editor, but also complicated to learn, primarily linux based, but also on windows
• ethernet - fast internet, as opposed to dial-up
• EULA - end user license agreement, on most software packages, tells you what you can and cannot do with it

• FAQ - frequently asked questions
• FIFO - first in first out
• Firewire - also known as 1394 IEEE, this is common on digital video cameras
• floppy disk - can store up to 1.44MB of data, getting out of date, new pc's and laptops don't have floppy drives
• FTP - file transfer protocol, used to move files from one comptuer to another (ex: wsftp, etc.)

• GIMP - open source photo editing program, rivals with adobe photoshop, primarily on linux, but also on windows
• GPL - GNU Public license, it's simple, if you based your code off a GPLed program, you must provide your source
• GNU - GNU's not for unix, free software movement, free of cost, free to distribute, to modify, to distribute after modified

• HTML - hypertext markup language, used to create websites
• HTTP - hypertext transfer protocol, the way a information on a website is transferred to your pc
• hub - device that connects several computers to a network

• IDE - integrated device electronics, connects hard drives to your computer
• IIS - internet information server, microsof's webserver
• inkjet - printer that uses tiny droplets of ink
• IP address - internet protocol address, each computer gets a unique id on the internet
• IRC - internet relay chat, a protocol that allows clients to connect to an IRC server and chat
• IRQ - interupt request, devices in your computer send this to request processor time

• java - platform independent programming language developed by Sun Microsystems
• javascript - simple scripting languages used on websites, designed by Netscape, JAVA does not equal JAVASCRIPT

• kernel - guts of an operating system (like linux and windows), it's defines how the hardware and software communicate
• KVM switch - keyboard video mouse switch, connects or more computers to the same input devices

• laser - a printer that uses laser to heat a drum and etch out the print job
• LIFO - last in first out
• linux - a very popular operating system (competes with Windows and OS X)

• MAC address - unique number for each network device, unique to the company and device
• MBR - master boot record, first sector on hard drive that a comptuer uses to boot up the operating system
• Mozilla - open source web browser based off Netscape, competes with Interent Explorer, Netscape, and Opera

• NIC - network interface card, enables a computer to connect to a network (ethernet)

• open source - software that can be freely distributed, must be distributed with its source code
• OS - operating system, such as Windows, Linux, and OSX

• PC100 SDRAM - standard memory runs at 100MHz
• PC133 SDRAM - standard memory runs at 133MHz
• PC333 DDR SDRAM - same as PC2700 DDR SDRAM
• PC2100 DDR SDRAM - standard DDR memory runs at 266MHz
• PC2700 DDR SDRAM - standard DDR memory runs at 333MHz
• PCI - white slot inside computer, used for video cards, sound cards, modems, NIC cards, etc.
• PCMCIA - card slot on side of most laptops used to expand the laptop with NIC cards, etc.
• PDF - portable document format, use this file format to send files across the internet

• queue - a FIFO data structure

• RAID - redundant array of inexpensive drives, method of linking hard drives
• RCA - radio corporation of america cables, typically the red, white, and yellow cables on your vcr or video game
• RJ-11 - standard phone jack
• RJ-45 - standard ethernet jack
• root - in unix, the main user that has access to everything

• SCSI - prounounced scuzzy, used for hard drives and cd-roms, more expensive than IDE but faster
• SD - secure digital memory cards are used in pda's and cameras
• SDRAM - synchronous dynamic random access memory
• SIMM - single in-line memory module, they've been replaced by DIMM's
• SMTP - simple mail transfer protocol, how email is sent on the internet
• slashdot - news for nerds
• Smart Media - memory cards used in digital cameras
• spoof - mislead a computer to think you're somebody else
• STL - standard template library, common C++ library with many useful programming tools
• Svideo - connection on high end tv's and vcr's and on most dvd players, watch your pc on TV!
• swap - your computer uses swap space on your hard drive when it's main memory is filled up

• TCP - transfer control protocol, used to form data connections between nodes on the internet

• Unix - an operating system created in 1969, it's what today's linux distributions are based upon
• USB - universal serial bus, connection used for printers, cameras, pdas, scanners, etc.
• USB 2 - newer and faster version of USB, completely backwards compatible

• VPN - virtual private network, connect computers over the internet and encrypt their communication

• W3C - world wide web consortium, industry group to design and promote standards in computing

• XD - xd memory card used in digital cameras, smallest on the market

• zip - a compressed file, takes up less space but still holds the same data!
• Zip Drive - similar in shape to a floppy disk, but a bit thicker and holds almost 100 times more data