0-9A-Z Computer Jargon Dictionary
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Nameserver
An internet server which translates the alphabeticweb addresses favoured by humans into the numeric ones used by computers.
Napster
A pioneering peer-to-peer internetfile-sharing system. Because much of the data shared was copyrighted,and thus beingdistributedillegally, the operators of Napster were hit with a number of large lawsuitsby the music industry, and later closed down. The name was bought andis now used by a legal pay-to-download service.
Network
A way of linking several computers together so that their users can shareresources such as printers and documents, often via a central computercalled a server. See also LAN, WAN, Ethernet.
Network card, Network Interface Card
An Expansion card which lets a PC communicate with a network,required for broadband Internet access. See also Ethernet, NIC.
Newbie
(New beginner) Internetslang for someone who hasn’t been using computers or the internet long.
Newsgroup (or just News)
A public area where you can read and post messages on a particular topicor theme, allowing public discussion, either on the Internet or a BulletinBoard. Similar to a forum. Most newsgroups cover a specific topic,and newsgroup users get very annoyed if people post messages which areoff-topic, ie not relevant to the topic under discussion. See also Usenet.
NIC
(Network Interface Card) An Expansion card which lets a PC communicate with a network or use a broadband internet connection. Almost all modern NICs are Ethernet cards.
Notebook
A portable PC, with system unit, screen and keyboard crammed into onesmall package. They can do absolutely anything a desktop PC can do, butare substantially more expensive because of the extra miniaturisationrequired. Also called a laptop.
OCR
(Optical Character Recognition) A program which attempts to convert a scanned image (ie a picture) of textinto text that can be edited in a word processor. The result is rarely 100%accurate and must be carefully proofread, but it can save a lot of retyping.
OEM
(Original Equipment Manufacturer) A company that actually builds computers, as opposed to just retailingthem.”OEM software” is ordinary software bought in bulk at a discountby the OEM and pre-installed on a new machines, usually without printedmanuals. OEM software cannot legally be sold separately froma computer, so when offered for sale at huge discounts iseither pirated, or not what it claims to be.
Office Suite
A related group of programs for businessuse, usually including a word-processor, spreadsheet, database and anumber of other programs. The best known is Microsoft Office.
Off-topic
A message which is not relevant to a particular newsgroup or forum on the Internet is said to be “off-topic”. Posting off-topic messagesin newsgroups annoys people intensely, as they make it harder to followthe discussion properly.
Online
Connected to the internet, or of the internet.
Open Source
Software (usually) that is created and distributedwith either relaxed or no copyright restrictions.
Operating System
Every computer has an operating system, which is a sort of master programthat runs automatically when you switch the computer on, and continuesrunning till you switch off. It is responsible for the many routine tasksrequired to keep a computer running : moving the pointer when you movethe mouse, providing icons and menus, running other programs such as aword processor or a game which you may request, controlling the variousdisk drives, the screen and so on. The most widely used PC operating systemis Microsoft Windows.
OS/2
(Operating System 2) A rivalPC operating system to Microsoft Windows, produced by IBM in the1990s. It still has a small, dedicated core of supporters, but didn’t catch onand for most purposes is obsolete.
Overwrite
Replace a computer file such as a document or picture with a newer version,destroying the earlier version. If you make changes to a document andsave it with the same filename, the previous version is overwritten andusually cannot be restored.
P2P
See peer-to-peer
Palmtop
A small computer which fits into the palm of your hand. They run similarsoftware to conventional PCs, but (unlike notebook PCs) are morelimited in what they can do than desktop PCs, because of the constraintsof miniaturisation. See PDA.
Parallel Port
A special socket for plugging a printer into a computer.The computer usuallyrefers to the parallel port as LPT1.
Patch
A program which makes updates to computer software, usually to fix bugswhich had not been detected when the software went on sale. The best placeto look for a patch is on the software manufacturer’s website.
PC
(Personal Computer) Originallyjust short for “personal computer”, PC is now an industry standard, partlyevolved in the marketplace, partly agreed by a committee of the major playersin the computer industry.
PC 2005 (2004, 2003 etc)
An agreed standard for new PCs, set each year by a committee of the majorplayers in the computer industry.
PCI
(Peripheral Component Interconnect) A standard for PC expansioncards, currently the most popular.A “PCI slot” is a socket onthe motherboard for such cards.
PCI Express
A special type of PCI slot for the latest graphics cards, now replacing AGP innew computers.
PCMCIA
(Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) A typeof PC expansion card, the size of an ordinary credit card, mainlyintended for use with notebooks.
PDA
(Personal Digital Assistant) A small handheld computerused for taking notes on the move, keeping contact information and so on.See also palmtop.
PDF
(Portable Document Format) A popular document format,used mainly for online computer manuals, which retains the look of a printed book onscreen. PDFs are created usingAdobe Acrobat, but can be read and displayed by many different programsincluding Internet Explorer.
Peer-to-peer
A type of network where computers are connected together directly,rather than via a server, allowing them to access each other’shard disk etc.
Pentium
The best known PC processor (or CPU), manufactured by Intel.
Peripheral
Anything that plugs into the computer, such as keyboard, printer etc.
Phishing
An internet scam in which a forged message from a bank provides a linkfor you to go to their website and “confirm your details” -but the website is a fake, and if you do enter your details they willbe used to steal all your money. Note that a legitimate email from your bank should beaddressed to you personally rather than “Dear customer” etc,and will never ask you to enter your PIN.
Pixel
(PICture ELement) All computer screen or printed images are made up of pixels, smallsquare dots – the smaller the pixels, the higher the image quality.
pixelated
A picture that has been compressed so muchthat the pixels that make it up are large and visible to the naked eye,making the image look like it is made out of square blocks (which itis, but they shouldn’t be visible).
Plasma
A type of very large screen, either TV or computer monitor. At presentplasma screens aren’t very suitable for computing because the images,although bright and colourful, aren’t very sharp, especially when depictingmotion.
Platform-independent
If something is platform-independent, you don’t need a particular typeof computer or particular software to use it. Perhaps the best exampleis the internet, which you can access from a PC, Mac or just about anyother type of computer, and using a huge range of different software.
Plug’n'play
(Plug and Play) A systemwhere Windows automatically detects any new hardware that is plugged intothe PC and adjusts to it without human intervention.
Podcast
An audio file that can be downloaded to aportable audio player or computer, usually speech.
POP3
(Post Office Protocol version3; pr. “pop 3″) A protocol for transmitting and receiving email,but mostly used just for receiving. (Transmitting is still mostly handledby it’s less powerful predecessor, SMTP).
Pop-up
A form of online advertising where the advertpops up in a separate browser window when you go to a particular webpage.Many people find it intensely irritating, and most browsers now havethe ability to block pop-ups from opening.
Port
A socket on the back (usually) of a computer which allows you to plugin extra hardware such as a printer or modem.
Portal
A virtual gateway between computer systems, or a website that provideslinks to lots of useful sites on a particular theme, eg shopping or news.
POST
(Power On Self Test; pr.”post”) A routine PCs go through when first switched on, before loadingthe operating system, to make sure the hardware is working properly.
Power-on password
A password which the computer will prompt you for whenever the computeris switched on, a good security measure provided you don’t forget thepassword. Power-on passwords can usually only be bypassed by taking thecomputer to bits.
Powerpoint
A popular program for creating graphicalpresentations, mostly for business use. Available separately or as partof Microsoft Office, Microsoft’s office suite.
Processor
The nerve centre of the computer : everything flows through it. Alsocalled the CPU. The best known are Intel’s Pentium and AMD’s Athlon. The most importantsingle specification on any PC is the speed of its processor, usuallymeasured in megahertz (MHz), or gigahertz (GHz).
Program
A program is essentially a list of instructions that tell a computerhow to do something. Any word processor, spreadsheet, database,game or any other tool you may use on a computer is a program (often agroup of programs). Also referred to as software.
Protocol
Any “language” used by computers to communicate with each other for particulartasks.
Proxy server
A computer used to store copies of popular webpages at an ISP and provide them on request, to save having to fetch them from the websiteeach time.
PS/2
The type of connector used to plug in mouse and keyboard on most modern PCs, now gradually beingsuperseded by USB. PS/2 wasoriginally the name of a PC from IBM with a number of innovativebut non-standard features, including special connectors for mouse andkeyboard. The PC didn’t catch on particularly well, mainly becauseits unusual architecture meant that it could not accept standard expansioncards, but its mouse and keyboard connectors proved popular and werewidely adopted.
PS2 (without the /) is often used to refer to Sony’s PlayStation2, a popular games console.
PVR
(Personal Video Recorder) A TV videorecorder which records to a hard disk. Typically a standaloneunit, but you can also get software which allows you to use your PC’shard disk for this purpose.
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