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Argument => This is what you have with your girlfriend when she wants you to stop using your computer so much. Actually, argument refers to the value you call a procedure with. For example, if you wrote a line of code that said "goto 140," telling yo...
ASIC => (Application-specific Integrated Circuit) An ASIC is a circuit designed for a very specific purpose, such as the processors in PDAs or the chips on a motherboard chipset. ASICs contrast with more general-purpose devices such as memory chips o...
Aspect Ratio => This is the ratio of the width by the height on a monitor or television screen. Most TVs and monitors have a 4 x 3 aspect ratio. The screens are 4 units wide and 3 units high. A movie screen has an aspect ratio of 16 x 9 (about 5 x 3)...
Asynchronous Communication => This method of transferring data does so without a specific timing mechanism between the two communicating parties. The party receiving data isn't expecting more data at any set interval.
ATA => (AT Attachment) More commonly known as IDE, the "AT" refers to the IBM-AT computer where this interface was first used.
ATA-33 => An extension to the ATA interface (IDE) that will effectively double the top data transfer speed up to 33 Mbps. Also known as Ultra-IDE.
ATM => (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) A networking protocol designed to move multimedia data around with high reliability and speed. Some ISPs use ATM as the protocol for their backbones.
ATX Form Factor => The ATX form factor specification takes the original baby AT-sized motherboard, rotates it 90 degrees, and calls for a power supply with a side-mounted fan that cools not only the power supply, but also the processor and add-in boa...
AUI => This is a synonym for the 10Base-5 Thicknet Ethernet standard.
Availability => This is a measure of how much time a network or a connection is running. Generally, the equation is: Time Running / Time Measured (time running divided by time measured). Thus, if you measured something for 20 minutes, and it was only...
Backbone => A segment of a network that's often a higher speed than therest of the network and connects all the other segments. If you don'thave a fast backbone, your network will lag. That's why a lot of ISPs areconstantly restructuring their backbo...
Bandwidth => This is a measure, in some amount of bits per second, of theamount of data that can be sent over a particular cable, interface, orbus.
BASIC => (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) Thisprogramming language was developed in the mid '60s. The language wasconstructed of simple English-like commands that were run through aninterpreter, line by line, each time the program w...
Batch => A group of commands that are executed one at a time. Same asscript.
Baud => The measure of how frequently sound changes on a phone line. Thisused to be the measure of speed of modems because they worked by bruteforce and actually made a sound for each bit of information. Now, modemswork on a more sophisticated level....
Bilinear and Trilinear Filtering => This is used to smooth flat surfacesby averaging the colors of adjacent pixels, which blurs them and removesblockiness when viewed up close.
Binary code => Binary consists of a string of bits, i.e. 01010111000000001
BIOS => (Basic Input Output System) This makes your computer speak thesame language as every other computer, making accessing video and thekeyboard standard.
Bit => This is the smallest unit of measure in a computer. It isrepresented by a 0 (off) or 1 (on). You can think of a bit as a switch.If it's in the on position, it's a 1, and if the switch is off, it's a 0.All parts of your computer communicate in ...
Bit depth => How many bits it takes to represent the color in one pixel.The larger the bit depth, the more colors you can display and the morepower it takes to display.
Black box => Anything that you put input into and get output from, butdon't know what's inside or how it works.BLOB (Binary Large OBject) => A BLOB is a data type used in a relationaldatabase that can contain any type of binary data, including sound,...
Boolean logic => This is the form of logic where every answer is eithertrue or false. Alternately, you can think of it as either 0 or 1, where 0= false and 1 = true.
Boot => This is a verb meaning to load. You can say thatyou are booting your machine, or that your operating system is bootingup.
BPS => (bits per second) This is generally a measure of how fast somedevice communicates, usually in thousands of bits per second (Kbps) ormillions of bits per second (Mbps).
Bridge => Bridges link two or more network segments that use the samenetwork technology. The network topologies do not have to be the same,i.e. you can bridge Ethernet and Token Ring. If the protocols are not thesame on segments, then you've got a ro...
Browser => Most commonly used to refer to a software program used to lookat World Wide Web pages.
Bug => This is commonly an error in design or programming in a hardwaredevice or piece of software. The effects of a bug may be as harmless asan extra graphic on the screen, or as harmful as a system crash or lossof data. See also Feature.
Bus => A bus is simply a data path between devices. The computer's systembus is what peripherals use to send and receive data from the processorand main memory.
Bus mouse => A mouse that uses the smaller 6-pin connector instead of yourcomputer's serial port. Also referred to as a PS/2 mouse because of itsearly adoption by the IBM PS/2 series of computers.
Bus speed => This is a measurement, usually in MHz, of how many times datacan be transferred over the bus per second.
Bus Topology => This network topology has computers connected to a strandof network cabling that is connected to network repeaters at one end andterminated at the other. If you break part of the cable or remove theterminator, all machines on that seg...
Byte => Simply put, it's 8 bits. Think of it as a string of 1s and 0s thatrepresents a number from 0 to 255. For example '01100101' is one byte ofinformation.
C => This is a programming language developed in the late '70s. It became hugely popular due to the development of UNIX, which was written almost entirely in C. C was written by programmers for programmers and it lets you write code in sloppy ways th...
C++ => This is an extension of the C programming language that adds object-oriented concepts.
Cable Modem => Cable companies are working to provide Internet access over coaxial cable. That's right, the cable that you plug into your VCR or TV. A cable modem accepts this coaxial cable and can get data from the Internet at up to and above 1.5 Mb...
Cache memory => Generally a small chunk of fast memory that sits between either 1) a smaller, faster chunk of memory and a bigger, slower chunk of memory, or 2) a processor and a bigger, slower chunk of memory. This is to provide a bridge from someth...
Cat 3, 4, 5 => See Category 3, 4, or 5 cable standards.
Category 3 cable standard => Cat 3 cable is certified to run at up to 16 MHz. You can achieve speeds of up to 10 Mbps on Cat 3 cable. This cable maxes out with standard 10 Mbps Ethernet.
Category 4 cable standard => Cat 4 cable is certified to run at up to 20 MHz. You can achieve speeds of up to 16 Mbps, such as with the 16 Mbps token-ring standard.
Category 5 cable standard => This is the latest and greatest copper wire standard. It uses an RJ-45 plug like Cat 3, and 4, and 4-pair wire, but it is certified to run up to 100 MHz and is suitable for 100 Mbps wiring standards. The guys that wired u...
CAV => (Constant Angular Velocity) This refers to a spinning disk. As data is read from the disk, the drive motor spins at the same speed. For example, CD-drives that work at CAV will read data at 12x towards the center and 20x towards the edge, wher...
CD-R => (Compact Disk Recordable) CD-R drives will record up to 650 MB of data onto specialized CD-R media. The media is expensive compared to the mass-produced CDs that software is generally distributed on, but cheap for the amount of data you can s...
CD-ROM => (Compact Disk Read Only Media) CD-ROM media is read-only media that holds 650 MB of data. It's generally accepted as the easiest way to distribute software. CD-ROM drives can also read music CDs even though they are in a different format th...
CGI => (Common Gateway Interface) This interface allows scripts or programs to run on a Web server. All Web servers support CGI scripting. You can make a CGI script do pretty much anything a computer program can. Most commonly, they are implemented t...
Channel => This refers to the group of resellers that supply most companies with software, hardware, and support. The channel is a force to be reckoned with, and it competes directly against companies like Gateway 2000 and Dell. A channel can also be...
CIR => (Committed Information Rate) This term is used by ISPs to represent an amount of data that you should, on the average, be able to draw through your connection to them. This is measured in kilobits or megabits per second.
CISC => (Complex Instruction Set Computer) Intel x86 chips are CISC chips because of the complexity of the instruction set. On the other side of the coin, you have RISC chips that use a reduced instruction set. RISC chips split big operations into lo...
Client/Server => Client server technology came about when computers began to cost less. Mainframes are very expensive, and didn't give users much personal freedom. The client/server model promised to change that scenario and it's much more popular to...
Clock chipping => Synonym for over-clocking.
Clock Cycle => Think of a clock cycle as one tick of the second hand (but generally at a much higher speed). Computer clocks run voltage through a tiny crystal that oscillates at a predictable speed to give a meaningful timing method to the computer....
Clustering => Clustering is an up-and-coming technology using two or more computers that function together as a single entity for fault tolerance and load balancing. This increases reliability and up-time in a client/server environment. One computer ...
CLV => (Constant Linear Velocity) In terms of disk drives, it means that the rate of data being read off of the disk stays the same from center to outer edge. To accomplish this, the drive motor speeds up and slows down as data is read from different...
CMOS => (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) This is the common reference for the BIOS preferences in your computer. Actually, it is a low power version of a chip. The low power comes into play because it is what commonly holds your BIOS prefere...
Coaxial cable => This is the original Ethernet cable. It consists of a single, insulated copper wire, surrounded by a copper braid or foil. The wire is then coated with plastic. Coaxial cable is used in bus topology.
COBOL => (COmmon Business-Oriented Language) This is a programming language developed in the '60s by several computer companies and the US Department of Defense. COBOL is still used today for programming business applications and COBOL programmers ar...
Code => A series of instructions that make up a program.
Code generator => A code generator is part of a compiler. It takes intermediate code and translates it into the final workable code in the target language.
Coily => Enemy of Q-Bert.
COM => (Component Object Model) This is a Microsoft specification that describes methods of communication between components. For example, if you were to drag an item over a window, the item and window would have some rules of communication that they...
Compiler => A compiler translates a computer program from one language into another, catching any errors in syntax along the way. Most commonly, you translate some high level language, such as C++ or COBOL, into optimized machine language. This form ...
Compression => Takes something large and makes it smaller. Compression generally comes in two forms, lossy and lossless. Lossy compression is best used on graphics files and sound files. It crunches down the data at a much higher ratio, at the expens...
Computer => Technically, this is anything that inputs data, processes it in some way, and outputs it.
Control Program for Microprocessors (CP/M) => CP/M was THE operating system before IBM created the PC. IBM was shopping for an OS for the PC, ended up going with Microsoft, and Bill Gates created DOS. CP/M is not really used on anything but fossils a...
Convergence => The ability of the three electron beams (red, green and blue) in a CRT monitor to meet at a single point and produce one dot. If a monitor is mis-converging, you will notice shadows of blue or red around any white images. Often, this w...
Cookie => Web sites send these to your browser so that the site is customized based on your previous actions on that site. For example, someday UGeek may send a cookie to your browser to let us know whether you are a new visitor or if you've been her...
Core => In UNIX systems this term is commonly used in reference to core dumps.
Core Dump => In UNIX systems, when a program crashes, it "dumps" out an image of the memory and registers so that you may go through and see what caused the problem. This is almost as useful as the Netware and Windows NT memory dumps (which is not ve...
CP/M => see Control Program for Microprocessors.
CPU => (Central Processing Unit) Think of this as the brains of the computer. When most people think of processors, they think of Intel. The Pentium and Pentium Pro are CPUs.
CRC => (Cyclic Redundancy Check) A mathematical calculation that produces a number that can be used to check the integrity of a file by regenerating the number and comparing the results.
CRT => (Cathode Ray Tube) This is one of the main components of monitors and TVs. A beam of electrons is shot towards the CRT and as they collide with phosphors on the inside surface, they produce light. Today, other technologies are performing bette...
CTI => (Computer Telephony Integration) Simply put, this represents the integration of your computer and telephone. Its serious uses include dial-up registration, fax-back systems, and other systems that record your information by telephone access. A...
Cyberspace => This term was coined to refer to the vast expanses of the Internet. Just as space is infinite, the Internet is, well, pretty darn big. It just sounded cooler than "Internet" to the news media. 
Daisy Wheel printer => A printer that uses a wheel with all the characters on it to produce output. These printers generally aren't used much any more due to the decreased cost of other printers that can produce graphics as well as text. The one good...
DAT => (Digital Audio Tape) This type of magnetic tape at one point threatened to supplant the normal audio cassette with a better quality alternative. Unfortunately, it never really took off due to idiotic licensing issues that kept its price high. ...
Data => Information. Any series of bits, characters or objects that has meaning. Data is stored and transmitted by computers.
Data type => This refers to the type of data that is being used in a computer program. Different types of data take up different amounts of space. Some common data types are integer, float (for floating point numbers), or string (for a text string). ...
Database => An ordered set of data.
DB-25 => This is the name for the connector used for parallel ports on PCs.
DCOM => (Distributed COM (Component Object Model)) This is yet another Microsoft technology. It is a version of the COM that is designed to work across networks and, specifically, the Internet.
Desktop Case => A computer case designed to sit on your desktop. It's wider than it is tall.
Device Bay Interface Specification => This is a new specification designed to provide a simple and generic way of interfacing computers and their components. Device Bay devices will be about the size of a VCR tape and will interface via the USB or Fi...
Diamondtron => This is Mitsubishi's answer to Sony's Trinitron. Instead of rectangular pixels, Diamondtron used diamond-shaped ones which supposedly offer crisper text.
DIB => (Dual Independent Bus) This is the bus architecture between Intel's Pentium II processor, memory, and L2 cache. One bus connects the processor to L2 cache and a second connects the processor to main memory. Having two buses instead of one incr...
Die size => Simply put, this is the two dimensional (length by width) measurement of a microprocessor. The thickness of the processor is not considered. For example, a die size may be 384 square millimeters.
Digital => Digital implies a value represented by a group of discrete steps. Some claim that digital representations of images and sound are more accurate; others that the translation of analog sounds and pictures into digital representations causes ...
Digital Control => This is a control that doesn't directly cause a physical change in something, but rather sends a signal that a processor interprets. The processor then makes the change. An example of a digital control would be a television set wit...
DIMM => (Dual In-Line Memory Module) Very much like a SIMM except that they are larger and you need only one in place of two SIMMs. DIMMs are 64-bit memory devices, so you just need a single DIMM for a processer with a 64-bit memory path to work prop...
DirectDraw => A set of APIs for Windows 95 and NT that allow programmers to directly access the video controller, allowing for faster graphics response.
DirectPC => TCP/IP over satellite. This is a system for going on the Internet by satellite at about 800 Kbps. Unfortunately, you also need a modem to be able to send anything to the Internet because the satellite is one way only.
DirectX => A Microsoft technology that works under Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.x. Basically, it's a set of APIs that allow programmers to access more directly sound and graphics capabilities of the computer allowing for, among other things, great gam...
Disk Duplexing => See RAID 1
Disk Mirroring => See RAID 1
Disk Striping => See RAID 0
Disk Striping with Parity => See RAID 5
DLL => (Dynamic Link Library) This is a library of procedures that programs can call with input. The DLL produces output related to that input.
DLT => (Digital Linear Tape) A technology designed by DEC and sold to Quantum used for backing up huge amounts of data (up to 35 GB per tape without compression, 70 GB with compression). The drives are very expensive and so is the media, but they are...
DMA => (Direct Memory Access) PCs have DMA channels that allow certain devices to directly access memory in order to speed up the process.
DMI => (Desktop Management Interface) This interface standard is designed to allow PCs to intelligently broadcast information on their system configurations and support remote management so that they can be managed more easily.
DMTF => (Desktop Management Task Force) This motley crew was assembled to create the DMI standard.
DNS => (Domain Name Service) This service maps TCP/IP numbers such as 123.12.4.245 to a more easily remembered name, such as www.ugeek.com. Thus, when you type www.ugeek.com into your browser, it goes out to the DNS server you specified when you inst...
DNS Entry => The DNS routing tables are filled with DNS entries that map TCP/IP addresses to more easily recognized names. If your browser says it can't find a particular DNS entry, here are some possible reasons: => You may not be able to communicat...
Domain name => Domain names are used to represent more complex TCP/IP addresses. For example, we purchased the UGeek.com domain name so we could use it to represent our server's address. You purchase domain names through the InterNIC. They can be rea...
Domain Name Service => See DNS.
DOS => (Disk Operating System) This OS is what got it all started for PCs.
Dot Matrix Printer => This type of printer prints out little dots that can form graphics or characters. This type of printer was popular a while back because the only other choice was a daisy-wheel printer that didn't print any graphics. These printe...
Dot Pitch => The smaller the better, as it relates to monitors. The dot pitch is a measure of distance between phosphor dots of the same color on a CRT monitor. A high dot pitch generally produces a blurred and unclear picture. Smaller dot pitches pr...
Double Buffering => This shows you that the graphics engine uses two layers, or buffers, to produce an image: one for display and one for rendering. Since the viewer only sees the finished image, this allows for smooth-motion animation. (Again, play ...
DPMA => (Dynamic Power Management Architecture) This architecture allows computers to have a variety of advanced power management features.
DRAM => (Dynamic Random Access Memory) The standard and cheapest memory available. The fastest DRAM is about 60 nanoseconds. This is the most common form of computer memory. It needs to be continually refreshed in order to properly hold data, thus th...
Drive Bay => Usually a 5.25"-wide 1"-tall hole in a computer case, suitable for the installation of some sort of drive. Some are exposed so that a removable drive (e.g., floppy, CD-ROM) can fit. Some are not exposed and are meant for hard drives, tap...
Driver => A driver is software that works to communicate between an operating system and a peripheral. Think of it as a translator. If you use a crappy driver, your OS won't understand your video card and may become unstable and crash. Hardware manuf...
DS-0 => (Digital Signal level 0) This is the signal used to carry a standard analog or digital phone line connection. 24 DS-0 connections can be carried on a T1 line. The speed of the signal is either 64 Kbps, or 56 Kbps if the eighth bit is used for...
DS-1 => (Digital Signal level 1) Synonym for T1.
DS-3 => (Digital Signal level 3) Synonym for T3.
DS-4 => (Digital Signal level 4) Synonym for T4.
DSP => (Digital Signal Processor) A DSP is a microprocessor designed to work with analog signals such as video or audio that have been digitally encoded. The DSP then takes these digital representations and performs operations on them. DSPs are used ...
DSTN => (Double-layer Supertwist Nematic) This is a form of passive matrix LCD screen. It is an improved version of the standard supertwist nematic passive matrix LCD screen where the display is divided into two sections and addressed separately to d...
Dual boot => This describes a system that can boot to two different operating systems. Some OSs, such as Windows NT and OS/2, allow for dual booting when installed. Of course, you can also use other methods such as commercial programs that install a ...
Dualscan => Refers to a passive matrix LCD screen that uses a better method of displaying graphics, producing a sharper, more vivid image than normal passive matrix screens.
Dumb Terminal => These are hooked up to mainframes, and are little more than a monitor attatched to a keyboard. All they are good for is running programs using the mainframe's hard drive and memory.

factpacks/techdict.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

Javascript => A simple scripting language designed by Netscape to be embedded into HTML documents. It is unrelated to Java.
JDAP => (Java Directory Access Protocol) This is the Java answer to LDAP. It really means Java implementation of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol.
Joystick => This is an input device first found on arcade game machines, then home game systems, and finally on computers. It consists of any stick-like object that can be moved in four or more directions. Usually, there's a button in the vicinity of...
JPEG => (Joint Photographic Experts Group) This is a method of storing graphic images. It was specifically made for storing more than 256-color images. It compresses pictures much better than the GIF way (GIF is meant to store graphics of 256 colors ...
Jumper => A jumper fits on two metal connectors. It provides an electrical connection between the two wires to enable a semi-permanent hardware configuration. The Plug and Play initiative was designed to eliminate jumpers, but so far this hasn't work...
Karnaugh Mapping => A means to show the relationship between logic inputs and desired output. Generally, a truth table is mapped to a smaller, more workable grid of output values (1's and 0's). Karnaugh Mappings are often used when working with elect...
KB => see Kilobyte.
Kbps => (Kilo Bits Per Second) A measure of data transfer. A 14.4 Kbps modem transfers data at about 1.8 kilobytes per second or about 100 KB per minute.
Keyboard => The main input device on PCs, it consists of all the letters in the alphabet and the numbers 0 through 9. Usually, especially on computer keyboards, there are extra keys like cursor keys and function keys.
Kilobit => 1024 bits (2^10 bits)
Kilobyte => 1024 bytes (2^10 bytes) 
L1 cache => (Level 1 Cache) The cache that's on the CPU, usually meant for holding instructions as they get executed. Sort of a death row for instructions.
L2 cache => (Level 2 Cache) This is cache memory that sits between the L1 cache of the processor and main memory.
LAN => (Local Area Network) A small isolated network at one office location. Most office computers are connected to a LAN, but may also be connected to the Internet, or a WAN.
Laptop => A computer small enough to fit completely on your lap.
Laser Printer => A printer that uses a laser to etch out what is to be printed. Toner goes on this etching and then the toner is heated to bond with the print material.
Latency => This is a measure of how long, on the average, it takes to get a response from something. This term usually refers to network response speed, and also to storage devices (hard drives, CD-ROM drives).
LCD Panel => (Liquid Crystal Display Panel) This is just a slab of specially treated glass which is used to sandwich liquid crystal. You can then send electricity through the treated glass to change the phase of the liquid, which then changes color. ...
LCD Projector => The same thing as an LCD panel, except it does not have any back so that you can put it on an overhead projector and shine a light through it.
LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) => This is a client/server protocol for accessing a directory service. It is a lightweight version of the X.500 protocol.
Leased Line => A phone line that can be purchased from the telephone company that is yours only. With the assurance that you are the only one on the line you can work at faster speeds and stay connected 24 hours a day.
LED => (Light Emitting Diode) A piece of electronics that emits light when a current is passed through it. It does not work the same way as a light bulb so it does not have the problem of burning out. It also only emits a few frequencies of light so ...
Legacy device => This is a type of device or peripheral that is not plug-and-play-compatible.
Legacy System => This is any old computer system that was set up before your time, and now continues to work and need support. Often, legacy systems are problematic to upgrade because the people that put them together aren't around any more. One grea...
LFN => (Long file name) Since DOS only allows eight letters then a period then three more letters, there is a separate distinction for it. Almost all other file systems allow for longer names. With Windows 95 now so prevalent, long file names have be...
Linux => Linux is a free personal computer operating system based on the UNIX operating system. It has almost all of the functionality of UNIX but has no official support. The code and the support come from the users and developers of the operating s...
Log => This is a record of events.
Log File => This is a file that records events. Many programs produce log files. Often, tech support will ask you to look at a log file to determine what is happening when problems occur. Log files usually record much "grittier" events than are shown...
Logical Parity => Fake parity that always agrees. In other words, when something checks to see if the data is in error the logical parity always says that it is not. 
M2020 riser => This board holds a Pentium Pro processor and fits into a Slot 1 slot on a motherboard. This provides a sort of backwards compatibility of Pentium Pro chips with the newer Pentium II motherboards.
Mainframe => Basically, a large and powerful computer designed to be very fault tolerant. Historically, mainframes with lots of memory and disk space are hooked to a bunch of dumb terminals that can be used to access data on the mainframe, but can do...
MB => see Megabyte; also an abbreviation for Motherboard.
Mbps => (Mega-bits per second) This is a measure of throughput in millions of bits per second.
MDRAM => (Multibank DRAM) This is a form of graphics RAM created by MoSys that allows transfers of up to 1 GB/second. Tseng Labs' popular ET6000 2D graphics chipset uses this form of graphics RAM to help achieve its high performance.
Mechanical Control => A mechanical control is a dial or knob whose physical setting directly affects some measurement. For example, the power button on your PC is a mechanical control. By pushing the button you are physically making an electrical con...
Megabit => (One million bits) 1,048,576 bits (that's 2^20 bits).
Megabyte => (One million bytes) This is 1,048,576 bytes (that's 1024 x 1024, or 2^20).
Memory => Chips in a computer that remember data. Also commonly referred to as RAM.
MHz => (Megahertz) One million hertz.
Microcontroller => This is like a scaled-down computer designed for a very specific task, unlike a desktop computer, which has many uses. An example of an application for a microcontroller would be a traffic light, or the chip that controls the suspe...
Micron Process => This refers to the size of lines capable of being etched onto a chip. A fabrication plant with a .25 micron process can create smaller chips that consume less power, and can run faster than a fab with a .35 micron process.
Microprocessor => (MPU) This is a chip containing a large amount of gates. It contains the CPU.
Mid Tower case => A metal box about 2 feet high that has special fittings to hold computer components like drives, motherboards and such.
MIDI => (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) This is the way to connect musical instruments (traditionally a piano keyboard) to your computer. To connect them to your computer, you need a MIDI cable and a MIDI port. The MIDI port usually doubles as...
Millisecond => (One thousandth of a second) Usually used to measure the access speed of hard drives .
MIME => see Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions.
MIP Mapping => (Multum in Parvam--"many in few") This stores a copy of the bitmap used as a texture in different sizes to minimize the distortion caused by shrinking or enlarging the textures during perspective correction.
MIPS => (Million Instructions Per Second) This is a rating of how quickly a processor can process instructions. A processor rated at 100 MIPS can process 100,000,000 instructions per second.
Mirror => This can refer to many things in the land of technology. Most often, it is used to describe a method of redundancy where data is mirrored across two devices, whether they are physically separate devices or not. Basically, the same data is w...
MIS => (Management Information Systems/Services) This is the department at most companies that everyone loves to hate. These are the people that work with Information Technology.
Mission-Critical Application => This is any application that is critical to the proper running of a business. If this application fails for any length of time, you may be out of business. For example, an order-entry system may be considered mission c...
MMX => (Matrix Math Extensions / Multi Media Extensions) 64 additional instructions for matrix math operations that are commonly used to process multimedia data. A slight improvement of the Pentium and Pentium Pro chip designs that is supposed to mak...
MODEM => (Modulator/Demodulator) A device to turn digital signals to analog ones and back again, so they can be transmitted and translated back to digital at another modem without loss. Used for communication through means of audio, telephone, CB, et...
Moiré => An interference pattern that gets created when small dots are placed in a tight pattern.
Monitor => A device for viewing the output from a computer, traditionally a much more precise TV set.
Moore's Law => Former Intel chairman Gordon Moore is credited with predicting the trend that transistor counts in processors double every 18 months. This law has held true since the 1970s. The law can also be applied to other technologies and works f...
Motherboard => The circuit board that your CPU, IO chips and all the peripheral cards plug into.
MotherGlass => The sheet of silicon that the wafers are stamped out of to make computer chips.
Mouse => A pointing device that uses a roller ball on the bottom to detect motion.
Mousepad => A pad that has a surface made for use with a mouse.
MP3 => (MPEG 3) This is a compression standard for music. It enables you to fit over 100 full length songs on a single CD with almost no loss of quality. You can find MP3 players and MP3 files on the Web--you just have to look. The music industry is ...
MPEG => (Moving Pictures Expert Group) This is a format for compressing video in a format similar to JPEG. It works.
MTBF => (Mean Time Between Failures) This is a time normally given in hours that predicts the failure of a device. The larger the number the better.
Multi-Threaded => Some operating systems allow multiple parts, or threads, of a single process to run simultaneously. These OSs are referred to as multi-threaded. UNIX is a multi-threaded OS, as is Windows NT.
Multi-tier client server => This is a form of client/server application that uses the multi-tiered architecture.
Multi-tiered architecture => This is the most scalable application architecture (over 2-tier and 3-tier). This architecture refers to 4-, 5-, or even higher-tiered architectures. It is the most complex type of architecture, splitting the application ...
Multicast IP => This is a form of TCP/IP being proposed that will allow for high-bandwidth transmissions (like television channels) to be broadcast over the Internet to all the routers in the world (possibly) that are connected to someone watching th...
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions => (MIME) This refers to functions used for the attachment of binary files to an e-mail message. MIME is the most common group of functions used to make this translation, and allows us to tack on graphics, sound,...
n-tuple => ((pronounced en-too-pull)) This is a mathematical term for a finite sequence of n terms. For example, the set {1, 2, 3, 4} is a 4-tuple. The set {Frank, Jane, Ed} is a 3-tuple. Any time there is a list of n things in a certain order, you c...
Nanosecond => (One billionth of a second) Used most often to measure the speed of memory.
NC => (Network Computer) This is a concept that came from the old days of dumb terminals. They are supposed to reduce the cost of standardized computers in the office environment.
NDIS => (Network Driver Interface Specification) This spec was designed by Microsoft to allow multiple protocols to easily communicate with Network Interface Cards (NICs) without knowing anything about those cards. In theory, you just have to install...
Network => This refers to a group of interconnected computers. The computers must be capable of transferring data to form a true network--you can't just weld a bunch of computers together.
Newsgroups => See Usenet newsgroups
Nibble => Four bits or half a byte.
NIC => (Network Interface Card) The NIC is an add-in board that enables a computer to connect to some form of computer network.
NLX => This is a form factor similar to ATX. The difference is that NLX machines contain a riser card that the other expansion cards are plugged into. This allows for a shorter desktop case.
Non-parity Memory => DRAM that has no error correction or tracking, called parity.
Normal SCSI => This term is commonly used to refer to non-wide versions of SCSI that interface with 50-pin connectors.
NOS => (Network Operating System) This is an operating system designed to run across a network. It refers to the operating system that runs on a server, not the client.
Notebook computer => A computer the size of a notebook. Usually smaller and lighter than a laptop.
Null modem => There really is no "null modem" per se, but usually a null modem cable. This is a cable that connects two computers together via serial port and allows them to communicate. Some hardware manufacturers of network hardware, such as hubs a...
NVRAM => (Non-Volatile RAM) A small amount of RAM that stores information even after you turn off your computer. Used in modems (for storing your settings) and in hardware keys for protecting software. 
Object => Objects can refer to the objects in object-oriented programming or the objects in OLE (Object Linking and Embedding). In OLE, an object is a piece of a document, a graphic, or some multimedia. In object-oriented programming, an object can b...
Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) => Object Linking and Embedding => aka OLE. This is a standard for sharing data between applications. It has been around since Windows 3.1 and continues to get better. For example, if you cut a picture out of Paint ...
Object-oriented Programming => This term usually refers to programming languages that allow you to work with objects. These objects can contain not only data type and data structure information, but also information about how the object can be used b...
Object-oriented technology => This refers to technology, usually programming languages, designed to work with objects.
OC12 => see Optical Carrier 12.
OC3 => See Optical Carrier 3.
OCR => (Optical Character Recognition) This is the technology that allows computers to "read" the text from physical objects. It requires a graphical representation of text to interpret. This usually comes from a scanned image.
OEM => (Original Equipment Manufacturer) This acronym is used to denote equipment that is sold to other companies or resellers for integration into systems. For example, a hard drive manufacturer may sell an OEM hard drive in bulk quantities and no m...
Office Suite => The set of software products that are required by an office. Most often comprised of a spreadsheet program, a word processor, a scheduler, and a presentation manager. Sometimes they will include a financial package and a database prog...
OLE => (see Object Linking and Embedding) see Object Linking and Embedding
Online => The term refers to anything that's on the Internet, as in "I've got this great online magazine for you to check out at www.ugeek.com."
OpenGL => (Open Graphics Language) This is a 3D graphics language developed by Silicon Graphics. OpenGL support is built into Windows NT. You can see some examples by checking out the NT screen savers. Some 3D graphics accelerators have OpenGL accele...
Optical Carrier 12 => (OC-12) This stands for the 622 Mbps ATM protocol. Some large Internet providers are using OC-12 for their backbones.
Optical Carrier 3 => (OC-3) Synonym for the 155 Mbps ATM protocol.
Optical Drive => A storage device that uses light to store data instead of magnetism. To write it (usually) uses a laser to change a tiny portion of an optical disk so that it can be read later by checking the state of that portion.
OS => (Operating System) The program that allows you to access the basic functions of your computer. It is the minimum software required to run a program. The best one by far is the MacOS.
Output => Anything that comes out of a computer or system. As in, "Watch out for that pile of OUTPUT on the sidewalk."
Over-clocking => This is the act of running a chip at a higher clock speed than it was specified for. Very often, chips are capable of running faster than they are specified for, and can be safely over-clocked. 
P54C => This is the official part number for the Pentium processor from Intel.
P55C => This is the official part number for the Pentium processor with MMX technology from Intel.
Packet => A collection of information. It's often used to refer to the chunks of information sent over computer networks.
Packet Filter => This is anything that filters out network traffic based on sender's address, receiver's address, and the type of protocol being sent. Some routers support packet filtering, all firewalls do, and some proxy servers will as well.
Packet InterNet Gopher => (PING) Part of the standard TCP/IP suite of protocols that allows you to check your connectivity with other devices, or to check whether your own TCP/IP stack is working properly. Normally, you type in something like "ping 2...
Page Fault => This is not an error. It means that the computer had to resort to using the swap file as memory.
Parallel => Meaning in unison, or many things at the same time. Most commonly refers to a computer with multiple processors that can execute multiple instructions at the same time.
Parallel Port => The parallel port is found on just about all PCs. It's a 25-pin interface cable (DB-25) that is designed for connection to a printer. Normally, it will take up IRQ 7. In addition to printers, you can connect many other devices such a...
Parity => Meaning that there is an equality. Usually for the purpose of safety, so that if one goes bad there is still the other.
Parity Memory => Not quite memory that has a twin, but instead, more like a summary. The parity does not exactly have a copy of the original, but rather enough information to verify the integrity of the original.
Partition => You can partition your hard drive by breaking it up into one or more pieces, or "partitions." Partition
Pascal => This is a programming language that was designed to teach computer science students the concepts of programming. It's almost like C for dummies. In fact, the two languages are very similar, but the stoic brackets of C are changed to happy a...
Passive Matrix => LCD panels that are passive matrix have a duller, dimmer image than those with active matrix screens. Visibility and clarity decrease at greater angles off of central viewing.
Patch cable => This is the common name for any 10BaseT network cable that is used to connect, or "patch," any two network ports.
Patch panel => This is a group of network ports stuck together for easy accessibility. Usually, this panel resides in a wiring closet or server room. Connections are made between this panel and ports on a hub to enable a network connection at a remot...
PC Card => This is a newer synonym for PCMCIA Card.
PCI => (Peripheral Connect Interface) This interface was designed to supplant the VL-Bus architecture and provide a standard slot with a reduced size for high-speed peripherals. It normally runs at 33 MHz on a PC, but can run faster. PCI slots are 32...
PCMCIA => (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) Aside from winning the award for being the longest and most-annoying-to-pronounce technology acronym, PCMCIA is a credit card-sized interface card standard. PCMCIA cards are most com...
PDA => (Personal Digital Assistant) PDAs are basically beefed-up organizers. They have small LCD screens, some form of pen or keyboard input, and software for organization, OCR, and contact management. Some have even more features, such as Web browsi...
Peripherals => Any device that is not part of the motherboard, aside from memory and the CPU. For example, video card, sound card, modem, hard drive.
Perspective Correction => This correctly alters the textures in a scene to give a sense that all the images on the screen converge on one central point way out in the distance. It's why things far away look smaller.
Petabyte => One thousand terabytes / one million gigabytes / one billion megabytes / one trillion kilobytes / one quadrillion bytes (approximately)
PGA => (Pin Grid Array) This is a form of chip with a group of pins in concentric rectangles, designed to fit into a PGA slot. Most x86 compatible chips are designed in this format.
PGA slot => This slot accepts a PGA chip. See PGA.
Pincushioning => This is one form of image distortion on a monitor. Good monitors have controls to deal with this problem. Basically, the top and bottom of the screen are wider than the middle (convex), or vice versa (concave). When corrected properl...
PING => see Packet InterNet Gopher.
PIO => See Programmed Input/Output.
Pipeburst Cache => See Pipeline Burst Cache. This is an abbreviation, or contraction, for it, just like "ain't" is an abbreviation for "am not."
Pipeline => This refers to the technique of processing multiple parts of an instruction at the same time. Many processers have two or more instruction pipelines. Think of it as an automobile assembly line. As one instruction is executed, the next ins...
Pipeline Burst Cache => This is a form of L2 cache that uses pipelining to speed data access by being able to feed data to the CPU at the same time it pulls data from memory. The burst mode also allows the cache to fetch additional data from main mem...
Pixel => The smallest dot that a computer can display at a particular resolution. Screen size is often referred to in pixels: 800 x 600, for example. This means that the screen is 800 pixels across and 600 pixels vertically.
Platform => This is a means of generically grouping like computers. Macintosh computers are a platform; so are PCs running DOS. It's not very specific, and multi-platform support can mean many things. If someone says to you "this application supports...
PNP => (Plug and Play) This is a standard that was supposed to make adding peripherals to your system as easy as plugging them in and using them. Its biggest contribution, aside from headaches, is the removal of jumpers from many devices.
Point to Point Tunneling Protocol => (PPTP) This is a remote access protocol that allows people to make a connection to easily connect to their local network through the Internet or some other large network. Conversations are kept private through enc...
POP => (Point Of Presence) This is a local telephone number through which you can access your ISP. The largest national ISPs have POPs all over the country.
Port => To port something, you translate the code for a program from one platform to another. You could port a program you wrote on a PC over to a Macintosh, for example. Port
Portable Computer => Technically, any computer that is self-contained to allow easy moving. Most often refers to a computer that can work away from an outlet.
Power Supply => A device attached to the case that converts 120 AC to DC at voltages that a computer needs to run. They come rated by wattage.
PPP => (Point to Point Protocol) The mode of transport used to connect a computer to the Internet via a dial-up adapter (a/k/a a modem).
PPTP => see Point to Point Tunneling Protocol
Precision => Precision is how well you define a value. For example, if the value you are representing is 4.321 and you say it's 4.3, you are precise to two places. Numerically, precision is the amount of decimal digits that you are capable of measuri...
Precision vs. Accuracy => See Accuracy vs. Precision
Primary partition => Primary partitions are partitions that are bootable. You cannot have more than four primary partitions per drive.
Processor => Short for Microprocessor. See Microprocessor.
Processor cycle => This is what occurs during one tick of the processor clock.
Programmed Input/Output (PIO) => This refers to IO standards on IDE hard disk drives. If you have a hard drive that supports one PIO mode, you need your interface to support it as well for maximum performance. The data transfer rates for the various ...
Protocol => This is the behavior that computers must follow in order to understand one another. Think of it as a language. If two computers don't use the same network protocol, then they cannot communicate.
Proxy => This is commonly a form of Internet security. You can use a proxy or proxy server to pass data between your internal network and the Internet. A machine on your network sends a request to the proxy. The proxy sends the request to a server on...
PS/2 => This is a PC made by IBM. It can run OS/2 and DB/2. Of course, it can run anything a normal PC can run, but it's just a nifty IBM naming convention that caught on.
PS/2 port => This is a standard serial port connector used to plug mice and keyboards into PCs. It's got 6 pins and is small and round 
Q-Bert => A mid '80s arcade game that involved a fuzzy red creature jumping from cube to cube, trying to avoid a purple snake named Coily.
Quake => Quake is a revolutionary 3D, first person perspective game full of blood and gore. Designed by ID software, it only runs well on fast P5 chips or better. 
RAID => (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives) A manipulation of SCSI technology that allows you to combine several hard drives for use as one. The benefits can be either speed increase or failsafe (so that if one drive dies or crashes you don't los...
RAID 0 => Also known as disk striping, this form of RAID combines two or more hard drives into a single logical drive. Any data is written in blocks first to one drive, then the next, and so on. A RAID 0 configuration sacrifices redundancy for raw sp...
RAID 1 => There are two forms of RAID 1: disk duplexing and disk mirroring. Disk mirroring involves two hard drives that are on the same drive controller. The same data is written to both drives, so write operations are slower because you must write ...
RAID 10 => This form of RAID was originally called RAID 1+0 and is now commonly referred to as RAID 10. This is basically a bunch of RAID 1 drives linked together with RAID 0. Hence, you get the speed benefits of RAID 0 with the redundancy benefits o...
RAID 5 => A RAID 5 configuration utilizes three or more hard drives and stripes the data across them, much like RAID 0. The difference is that parity information is striped across the drives as well, so if you lose any one drive, the information can ...
RAM => (Random Access Memory) The place in your computer that programs reside when running.