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GIF => (Graphical Interface Format) Invented by CompuServe for efficient transmission of graphics. The format can only support 256 colors, or 8 bits. The newer revision, 89a, allows for multiple images in one file to simulate animation.
Gigabyte => (1 billion bytes) There are a few different ways of getting to this number. No one uses the same exact number, but they are all around 1 billion. One way of deriving the number is by multiplying 1 byte by 1024 for 1 KB then again by 1024 ...
GIS => (Geographic Information System) This is a system for capturing and manipulating data relating to the Earth.
GlidePad => A touch-sensitive pad about 2" x 2" that will track the touch of a finger. It is not a pressure sensor so there is no need to press down, only to touch. This device acts like a mouse for pointing.
Gouraud Shading => This method analyzes the color at each corner of the triangle and takes an average of the colors where the corners meet. This causes the triangles to "bleed" together, making for a smoother, clearer, more colorful image.
Graphics => The pictures that computers display. Not text, but just about everything else.
Graphics card => The graphics card is generally an add-in board that plugs into the motherboard. It sends signals out to the monitor to represent what should be shown on the screen. A graphics card can send only simple text, or it can be designed to ...
Graphics Device Interface => (GDI) This is a standard set of programming functions provided by Microsoft for the production of graphic output in Windows. Microsoft provides these functions in its Software Development Kits. The functions are device in...
GroupWare => This term is used to describe any form of software designed to allow a group of people to easily share ideas and data. Examples include Lotus Notes, Novell GroupWise, and Microsoft Exchange.
GUI => (Graphical User Interface) Any system that uses graphics to represent the functions of a program. All Windows operating systems are GUI.
HAL => (Hardware Abstraction Layer) This is the portion of the operating system that lets programs deal with hardware directly. This allows programs needing more speed from the computer to bypass the standard OS calls to hardware. So instead of calli...
Hard Drive => A device that physically stores data in your computer. Much like a floppy disk, but the system is closed and the disks are hard (usually metal, although some glass versions have been developed). The closed system gives the possibility o...
Hash table => A table that contains "hash values," generally used for speeding up searching algorithms on sorted data. For example, a hash table for a dictionary might contain all the letters of the alphabet and the page numbers where each letter sta...
HEL => (Hardware Emulation Layer) This provides software-based emulation of features that are not directly available in hardware.
Help Desk => If you've ever worked in an office environment, you've probably done some help desk work, or at least called them. The help desk is the support organization designed to take care of your computer and phone problems. They work long hours,...
Hertz => A rental company, formerly represented by O.J. Simpson. Also a measure of speed. One Hertz means one time per second, so one megahertz (MHz) means 1 million times per second. This is the common measure of speed for processors and electronic ...
Heterogeneous Data sources => This is a data-warehousing term that describes the idea of drawing data from several different (heterogeneous) data sources on different platforms and computers.
Hidden Surface Removal => See Z-buffering.
Hierarchical relationship => This relationship is one where elements at lower levels are submissive to elements at higher levels. Just think of a hierarchy, where the King is above the Duke, who is above a peasant.
High Color => The name given to 16-bit or 65,536 colors.
Hit => When a user requests an HTML document on the World Wide Web, the server records that request as a "hit." The problem with measuring "hits" is that some Web servers also count each graphic on that page as a hit. For example, if you look at a pa...
Hop => A small jump. In reference to the Internet, the route that a computer needs to take in order to get its information from here to there. Think of all the main computers in the world that are physically connected (by T1 and T3 and M1 and such) a...
Hot Spare => This refers to a drive in a RAID configuration that sits idle until one of the RAIDed drives fails. The hot spare then assumes the role of the dead drive. When the dead drive is replaced, you can make it the hot spare. (The old hot spare...
Hot-pluggable => Same as hot-swappable, but also connotes a simple plug-in mechanism for easy swapping.
Hot-swappable => This type of mechanism implies that you can remove or add things while the system is running. For example, hard drives and power supplies are often candidates for this term. Normally, they come in special proprietary form factors in ...
HTML => (Hyper Text Markup Language) A standard language made for typesetting, currently up to Version 3.2. It is mainly used for creating documents on the World Wide Web. Included in the language are provisions for including pictures and links to ot...
HTTP => (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) The way the data in an HTML document is transferred. What it really is is what tells the program looking at the data what to use it as. So, a document coming in HTTP is read as an HTML document.
Hub => A central connection point. Standard terminology for a device that connects multiple computers in a network. 
I/O => (Input/Output) This abbreviation refers to any operation in a computer where data is transferred in or out of the computer. I/O may seem like a vague concept, but it refers to the basic throughput power of a computer.
I2O => The I2O standard is designed to simplify and speed up I/O operations on servers. It will eliminate the need for different drivers for each OS, and for each SCSI card and network card. The speedup is achieved by using an Intel 960 chip on the s...
IA-32 => (Intel Architecture-32 bit) This is Intel's 32-bit instruction architecture that runs on their 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, and Pentium II chips.
IA-64 => (Intel Architecture-64 bit) Intel's 64-bit instruction architecture that will feature EPIC and run on the Merced processor when it is released.
IDE => (Integrated Device Electronics) IDE is the standard hard drive interface for PCs. You can connect a maximum of two hard drives to an IDE connection or channel. IDE hard drives are cheaper than SCSI drives, but IDE is generally slower than SCSI...
Impression => When a user looks at a page on the World Wide Web, that visit is counted as one impression regardless of how many images are on that page. Most access log analysis tools remove server requests that reference ".gif", or ".jpg" (image tag...
Inkjet Printer => The next generation of dot matrix printers. It uses a head that sprays tiny droplets of ink onto print material. There are three major benefits to this method: 1) it is quieter than standard dot matrix printers, 2) it is able to mak...
Input => Anything entered into a computer or system. This includes keystrokes, mouse movement, and talking into a microphone.
Instruction => The simplest direction that you can give to a processor. Programs are made up of these, but you usually don't go down to such nitty-gritty levels. An example of what a single instruction would do is incrementing a piece of data by one,...
Intermediate Code => This is code that is generated by the first step in a compiler. Rather than translating code directly from one language to another, it first translates it to this more generic and easier to manipulate language and then spits it a...
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) => This is a Swiss organization that decides on international telecommunications standards. Currently, they are working on the 56K standard.
Internet => The global network of computers constantly connected to each other using standardized communications protocols, specifically TCP/IP.
Intranet => Local network of computers using TCP/IP as the standard communications protocol. Usually an Intranet features some sort of HTML content that you can use a browser to look at. Think of it as a mini, private Internet.
IP Address => The specific network address of a computer on a network using TCP/IP as its network protocol.
IRDA => (InfraRed Data Association) These people developed the IRDA port standard that transfers data through the use of infrared light. Of course, you must have two IRDA devices to get any real use out of this technology. Most notebooks today come s...
IRQ => (Interrupt request) This is a gateway for devices to request time from the processor to do their jobs. For instance, every time you hit a key on your keyboard an interrupt is generated on the keyboard IRQ. This is mainly only a concern for PC ...
IS => (Information Services) This refers to the field of computer technology but has been replaced by the newer and sexier term, "IT."
ISA => (Industry Standard Adapter) The 8- and 16-bit original connectors used in PCs. They run at a bus speed of 8 MHz. You can plug ISA expansion cards into an ISA slot. Modems and sound cards are ISA cards due to their low bandwidth requirements.
ISAPI => (Internet Server API) This is an API proposed by Microsoft to replace CGI. Programs written to ISAPI are compiled as DLLs and stored in memory so they can be run faster than CGI scripts.
ISDN => (Integrated Services Digital Network) This is a digital line that is often used to connect to the Internet. It generally come in two flavors: one is a 56 Kbps version, which in actuality only uses half of the ISDN line's bandwidth; the other ...
ISP => (Internet Service Provider) An ISP provides Internet access to people or corporations. ISPs generally have pools of modems awaiting dial-up connections. Smaller ISPs buy bandwidth from larger ISPs. There are two basic ways of connecting: one i...
IT => (Information Technology) This term refers to the field of work dealing with computers and technology.
ITU => see International Telecommunications Union. 
Java => This is a platform-independent programming language designed by JavaSoft. Java is much like C++, but includes some restrictions. Java mainly runs on Web browsers at the moment, but it can also run natively on operating systems or in a Java vi...
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...