Pages

RAS EXAM WORLD

Discussion Forum for RAS Aspirants

Total Pageviews

Thursday, April 5, 2012

COMPUTER TERMINOLOGY


COMPUTER TERMS GLOSSARY:-
Terms Beginning with "A"
Short for "Abnormal end." An abend is an unexpected or abnormal end to a process. In computer software, it typically...
Microsoft Access, often abbreviated "MS Access," is a popular database application for Windows. Access allows users to...
An access point provides wireless access to a network. Devices connected to an access point can communicate with other...
Stands for "Access Control List." An ACL is a list of user permissions for a file, folder, or other object. It...
Active-matrix technology is used in high-quality flat-panel displays, such as laptop screens and thin computer...
This Microsoft-based technology was built to link desktop applications to the World Wide Web. Using ActiveX...
"Ad Hoc" is actually a Latin phrase that means "for this purpose." It is often used to describe solutions that are...
Stands for "Analog-to-Digital Converter." Since computers only process digital information, they require digital...
An add-on is a software extension that adds extra features to a program. It may extend certain functions within the...
Stands for "Automatic Document Feeder." An ADF is used in copiers and scanners to feed pages into the machine. It...
Stands for "Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line." ADSL is a type of DSL, which is a method of transferring data over...
Adware is free software that is supported by advertisements. Common adware programs are toolbars that sit on your...
Website affiliates are what drive Internet marketing. Companies run affiliate programs to generate leads and sales...
Stands for "Accelerated Graphics Port." This is a graphics card expansion port designed by Intel that resides on the...
Stands for "Audio Interchange File Format." AIFF is an audio format originally developed by Apple Computer for storing...
Stands for "Advanced Interactive Executive," though some Linux fans have been known to refer to it as "Ain't UNIX...
An alert box, sometimes called a message box, is a small window that pops up on your screen to warn you that your...
An algorithm is a set of instructions, sometimes called a procedure or a function, that is used to perform a certain...
As humans, we perceive the world in analog. Everything we see and hear is a continuous transmission of information to...
Android is Google's mobile (operating system|operating_system) (OS) that is used by several smartphones, such as the...
Stands for "American National Standards Institute." ANSI's primary goal is to enhance the global competitiveness of...
Stands for "Application Program Interface," though it is sometimes referred to as an "Application Programming...
Apple is the company that makes Macintosh computers, such as the iMac, Mac mini, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and...
This a Java program that can be embedded in a Web page. The difference between a standard Java application and a Java...
An application, or application program, is a software program that runs on your computer. Web browsers, e-mail...
Archie is a program used for finding files stored on FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers. Archie is not used very...
An archive contains multiple files and/or folders within a single file. Archives can be saved in several different...
Stands for "Address Resolution Protocol." ARP is a protocol used for mapping an IP address to a computer connected to...
An array is a data structure that contains a group of elements. Typically these elements are all of the same data...
Stands for "American Standard Code for Information Interchange." ASCII is the universal standard for the numerical...
Just to confuse ordinary people like you and me, there are two equally important definitions of ASP. The term can...
ASP.NET is a set of Web development tools offered by Microsoft. Programs like Visual Studio .NET and Visual Web...
Stands for "Advanced Technology Attachment." It is a type of disk drive that integrates the drive controller directly...
Stands for "Asynchronous Transfer Mode." Most people know of ATMs as automated teller machines -- those friendly boxes...
An autoresponder is a program or script on a mail server that automatically replies to e-mails. Though it is run from...
An avatar is an online character that represents a person. For example, games like World of Warcraft and the Sims...
Terms Beginning with "B"
Just like the human backbone carries signals to many smaller nerves in the body, a network backbone carries data to...
There are two types of buses that carry data to and from a computer's CPU. They are the frontside bus and backside...
Backup is the most important computer term you should know. A backup is a copy of one or more files created as an...
Bandwidth refers to how much data you can send through a network or modem connection. It is usually measured in bits...
Whether you like it or not, much of the Web is run by advertising. Just like television or radio, websites can offer...
The term "base station" was first used to refer to the towers you see on the side of the road that relay cell phone...
A baseband signal is an original transmission signal that has not be modulated, or has been demodulated to its original...
Stands for "Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code." BASIC is a computer programming language that was...
A batch file is a type of script that contains a list of commands. These commands are executed in sequence and can be...
As most computer users know, some computing tasks can be tedious and repetitive. Fortunately, if a task is indeed...
Contrary to popular belief, baud is not a direct measurement of data transfer speed, but instead it measures how many...
Stands for "Blind Carbon Copy." When you send an e-mail to only one person, you type the recipient's address in the...
The term "bespoke" comes from England where it originally referred to custom or tailor-made clothing. In recent years...
Before a commercial software program is released to the public, it usually goes through a "beta" phase. During this...
Binary is a two-digit (Base-2) numerical system, which computers use to store data and compute functions. The reason...
Biometrics refers to technologies used to detect and recognize human physical characteristics. In the IT world...
Stands for "Basic Input/Output System." Most people don't need to ever mess with the BIOS on a computer, but it can be...
The computer term "bit" comes from the phrase "Binary DigIT," which is different than that thing you put around a...
Most images you see on your computer are composed of bitmaps. A bitmap is a map of dots, or bits (hence the name...
Bitrate, as the name implies, describes the rate at which bits are transferred from one location to another. In other...
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing protocol designed to reduce the bandwidth required to transfer files...
If you're like me, you picture a blob as a enigmatic green object that lacks a defined shape or size. In the computer...
Short for "Web Log," this term refers to a list of journal entries posted on a Web page. Anybody who knows how to...
Blu-ray is an optical disc format such as CD and DVD. It was developed for recording and playing back high-definition...
This wireless technology enables communication between Bluetooth-compatible devices. It is used for short-range...
Short for "Bitmap." It can be pronounced as "bump," "B-M-P," or simply a "bitmap image." The BMP format is a commonly...
Similar to a real-life bookmark, an Internet bookmark acts as a marker for a Web site. (In Internet Explorer, they're...
This is the logic that computers use to determine if a statement is true or false. There are 4 main boolean operators...
When you boot a football, you kick it really far. When you boot a computer, you simply turn it on. Kicking your...
A boot disk is actually not a computer disk in the shape of a boot. If it was, most disk drives would have a difficult...
A boot sector is the first section of a hard drive or other data storage media. It contains the master boot record...
Each time a computer boots up, it goes through an initial series of processes. This sequence of events is aptly named...
This is an automated software program that can execute certain commands when it receives a specific input (like a...
A botnet is a network of computers that are controlled from a single source. While some botnets are used for...
The term "bounce" has several different IT related meanings, yet none of them include bouncy balls. The most common...
Stands for "Bits Per Second." (The "b" is lowercase because it stands for bits, not bytes.) Bits per second is the...
When a road needs to extend across a river or valley, a bridge is built to connect the two land masses. Since the...
This refers to high-speed data transmission in which a single cable can carry a large amount of data at once. The most...
You are probably using a browser to read this right now. A Web browser, often just called a "browser," is the program...
A buffer contains data that is stored for a short amount of time, typically in the computer's memory (RAM). The...
In the computer world, a bug is an error in a software program. It may cause a program to unexpectedly quit or behave...
When you "burn a disc," you write data on it. If you were taking an SAT test, the analogy would look something like...
While the wheels on the bus may go "round and round," data on a computer's bus goes up and down. Each bus inside a...
A byte is a set of 8 bits that represent a single character in the computer's memory. Do not confuse this term with...
Terms Beginning with "C"
C is a high-level programming language that was developed in the mid-1970s. It was originally used for writing Unix...
A cable modem is used for connecting to the Internet and is much faster than a typical dial-up modem. While a 56K...
This term is pronounced like "cash" -- not "catch," and definitely not "cashé." There are many different types...
Stands for "Computer-Aided Design." Also known by engineers and architects as the best invention of all time. Today...
Most digital cameras process and compress the pictures you take immediately after capturing the image. This can be...
Caps lock is a feature nearly all keyboards have that, when active, capitalizes each letter typed on the keyboard...
A captcha is a challenge-response test that determines whether a user is human or an automated bot. A typical captcha...
"Card reader" is the generic term for an input device that reads flash memory cards. It can be a standalone device...
Stands for "Carbon Copy." The term comes from carbon copying, in which a piece of carbon paper copies writing from one...
Stands for "Charged Coupled Device." CCDs are sensors used in digital cameras and video cameras to record still and...
Stands for "Compact Disc." CDs are circular discs that are 4.75 in (12 cm) in diameter. The CD standard was proposed...
Stands for "Compact Disc Recordable." CD-R discs are blank CDs that can record data written by a CD burner. The word...
Stands for "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory." A CD-ROM is a CD that can be read by a computer with an optical drive...
Stands for "Compact Disc Re-Writable." A CD-RW is a blank CD that can be written to by a CD burner. Unlike a CD-R...
Stands for "Code Division Multiple Access." CDMA is a wireless transmission technology that was developed during World...
A cell is a location in a spreadsheet defined by the intersection of a row and column. For example, cell C7 is the...
An SSL certificate, or secure certificate, is a file installed on a secure Web server that identifies a website. This...
CGI stands for "Common Gateway Interface" and is a standard set of rules that define how scripts and programs can be...
A character is any letter, number, space, punctuation mark, or symbol that can be typed on a computer. The word...
A checksum is a calculated sum used to check the integrity of a file. It can be generated from one of many algorithms...
Technically speaking, a computer chip is a piece of silicon with an electonic circuit embedded in it. However, the...
A chipset describes the architecture of an integrated circuit. This includes the layout of the circuitry, the...
Stands for "Complex Instruction Set Computing." This is a type of microprocessor design. The CISC architecture...
A clean install is an (operating system|operating_system) (OS) installation that overwrites all other content on the...
A simple definition of this would be "the opposite of my bedroom." But technically speaking, a clean room is a highly...
In the real world, businesses have clients. In the computer world, servers have clients. The "client-server...
Clip art is a collection of pictures or images that can be imported into a document or another program. The images may...
The clipboard is a section of RAM where your computer stores copied data. This can be a selection of text, an image, a...
CLOB is short for "Character Large Object." It is a data type used to store large amounts of character data. CLOBs...
A clock cycle, or clock tick, is one increment of the CPU clock, during which the smallest unit of processor activity...
Clock speed is the rate at which a processor can complete a processing cycle. It is typically measured in megahertz or...
What do sheep, droids, and computers all have in common? They can all be cloned! Of the three, computer clones are by...
Cloud computing is a general term used to describe Internet services. These include social networking services like...
In the computer world, a cluster can refer to two different things: 1) A group of sectors on a disk. While a sector...
Stands for "Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor." This technology is typically used in making transistors. The...
Stands for "Cyan Magenta Yellow Black." These are the four basic colors used for printing color images. Unlike RGB...
No, this is not just a cheap rip-off of Kodak. The name "codec" is short for "coder-decoder," which is pretty much...
A command prompt is used in a text-based or "command-line" interface, such as a Unix terminal or a DOS shell. It is a...
Computer software comes in three different flavors: freeware, shareware, and commercial software. Freeware is free to...
Often abbreviated as simply "CF," Compact Flash is a type of flash memory. Compact flash cards are most commonly used...
When programmers create software programs, they first write the program in source code, which is written in a specific...
A compiler is a software program that compiles program source code files into an executable program. It is included as...
Computers are made up of many different parts, such as a motherboard, CPU, RAM, and hard drive. Each of these parts...
Technically, a computer is a programmable machine. This means it can execute a programmed list of instructions and...
Ethics is a set of moral principles that govern the behavior of a group or individual. Therefore, computer ethics is...
In the computing world, when people talk about their computer configuration, they are referring to the technical...
A contextual menu is a pop-up menu that appears when you right-click on a certain area of the screen. It is...
The Control Panel is a feature of the Windows operating system that allows the user to modify system settings and...
The controller card, or simply "controller," is a piece of hardware that acts as the interface between the motherboard...
It seems like everyone who tries to explain what a cookie is just has to make a joke out of it (because of the name...
Many software programs allow you to copy data, such as text in Microsoft Word or an image in Adobe Photoshop. To copy...
Copyright protects an author's original work from being copied and republished by others. It gives the author...
Stands for "Cost Per Action," and is used in online advertising. CPA defines how much revenue a publisher receives...
Stands for "Cost Per Click," and is used in online advertising. CPC defines how much revenue a publisher receives each...
Stands for "Cost Per Lead," and is used in online advertising. CPL defines how much revenue a publisher receives when...
Stands for "Cost Per 1,000 Impressions," and is used in online advertising. CPM defines the cost an advertiser pays...
Stands for "Classroom Performance System." CPS refers to a technology system that is used for educational purposes...
Stands for "Central Processing Unit." This is the pretty much the brain of your computer. It processes everything...
Stands for "Customer Relationship Management." This is a business term that started somewhere in the deep abyss of the...
Also known as a "cron job," a cron is a process or task that runs periodically on a Unix system. Some examples of...
When you crop an image or photo, you remove part of the image. This may involve cutting some of the image from the...
Cross-browser means that a website is compatible with multiple Web browsers. This means the Web pages show up...
Software that can run on multiple types of computer systems. For example, the graphics program Adobe Photoshop and the...
Stands for "Cathode Ray Tube." CRT is the technology used in traditional computer monitors and televisions. The image...
Stands for "Cascading Style Sheet." Cascading style sheets are used to format the layout of Web pages. They can be...
Stands for "Composite Theoretical Performance." CTP is used to measure the performance of computer processors. The...
Stands for "Click-Through Rate," and is used in online advertising. Web publishers typically generate revenue from...
The cursor on your screen can indicate two things: 1) where your mouse pointer is, or 2) where the next character typed...
The Cut command removes a selected object and copies it to the clipboard. It performs both a Delete and Copy operation...
Cyberbullying involves harassing, embarrassing, or threatening a young person via cyberspace. It encompasses several...
Cybercrime is criminal activity done using computers and the Internet. This includes anything from downloading illegal...
Unlike most computer terms, "cyberspace" does not have a standard, objective definition. Instead, it is used to...
A cybersquatter, or "domainer," is someone who registers a domain name without intending to create a website for it...
Terms Beginning with "D"
Stands for "Digital-to-Analog Converter" and is often pronounced "dac." Since computers only recognize digital...
The word "daemon" actually comes from the Greek language, meaning an "inner or attendant spirit" (Oxford American...
Dashboard is a user-interface feature Apple introduced with the release of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. It allows access to...
Computer data is information processed or stored by a computer. This information may be in the form of text documents...
Data management refers to the way individuals, companies, and organizations manage computer data. It includes micro...
The data transfer rate is commonly used to measure how fast data is transferred from one location to another. For...
A data type is a type of data. Of course, that is rather circular definition, and also not very helpful. Therefore, a...
A database contains data stored in a structured format. It includes one or more tables, which each contain multiple...
Stands for "Database Management System." In short, a DBMS is a database program. Technically speaking, it is a...
DDL is short for "Data Definition Language." It is used to define the structure of a database, including the tables...
Stands for "Double Data Rate." It is an advanced version of SDRAM, a type of computer memory. DDR-SDRAM, sometimes...
Stands for "Double Data Rate 2." DDR2 RAM is an improved version of DDR memory that is faster and more efficient. Like...
Computer programmers, like everybody else, are not perfect. This means the programs they write sometimes have small...
Even the most experienced software programmers usually don't get it right on their first try. Certain errors, often...
This term is used to describe a preset value for some option in a computer program. It is the value used when a...
Defragmenting your hard disk is a great way to boost the performance of your computer. Though the term "defragment...
Ever wonder what that "degauss" button on your monitor does besides make a buzzing noise and cause the screen to go...
Del.icio.us, pronounced simply "delicious," is a community bookmarking website in which users can save Web pages they...
Delete is computer terminology for remove or erase. You can delete text from a document of delete entire files or...
Your computer's desktop is much like a physical desktop. You probably keep a number of commonly used items on your...
When documents and images are printed, they are "published." Before computers became commonplace, the publishing...
Stands for "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol." A network server uses this protocol to dynamically assign IP...
A dial-up connection uses a modem to connect to an ISP or another computer. It uses standard analog phone lines to...
As the name implies, a dialog box serves to initiate a dialog with the user. It is a window that pops up on the screen...
Digital information is stored using a series of ones and zeros. Computers are digital machines because they can only...
A digital camera is an electronic device that captures images in a digital format. It works in a similar way to a...
A digital signature is a block of data that can be attached to documents such as PDFs, word processing files, and...
When you "digitize" something, you convert it from analog to digital. For example, if you import a VHS tape from a VCR...
Stands for "Dual In-Line Memory Module." It is a type of computer memory. A DIMM is a small circuit board that holds...
Direct Digital Marketing, or DDM, is a type of marketing that is done through a digital medium. Common DDM mediums...
Direct3D is an application program interface (API) developed by Microsoft that provides a set of commands and functions...
A directory is another name for a folder. Files on your hard disk are organized into various folders, or directories...
DirectX is a set of standard commands and functions that software developers can use when creating their programs...
The term "disk drive" is a general term that describes a device that reads and/or writes data to a disk. It is often...
A disk image is a software copy of a physical disk. It saves the entire data from the disk, including the file...
Dithering is a process that can be applied to both digital images and audio files. For digital images, dithering adds...
Stands for "Dynamic Link Library." A DLL (.dll) file contains a library of functions and other information that can be...
Stands for "Direct Memory Access." DMA is a method of transferring data from the computer's RAM to another part of the...
Stands for "Domain Name System." The primary purpose of DNS is to keep Web surfers sane. Without DNS, we would have...
DNS records are stored in zone files and are used for translating domain names to IP addresses. They also contain...
The Dock is a feature of the Mac OS X Finder that provides quick access to programs, files, and folders. By default...
While the term "domain" is often used synonymously with "domain name," it also has a definition specific to local...
This is the name that identifies an Web site. For example, "microsoft.com" is the domain name of Microsoft's Web site...
A domain suffix is the last part of a domain name. Common examples include ".com," ".net," and ".org," though many...
This funny-sounding computer term has two widely different definitions that are completely unrelated: 1. A security...
Stands for "Disk Operating System." DOS was the first (operating system|operating_system) used by IBM-compatible...
A dot matrix is a 2D matrix of dots that can represent images, symbols, or characters. They are used for electronic...
This is the measurement used to determine how sharp the display of a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitor is. It is measured...
Double clicking involves clicking your mouse button quickly two times. To perform a double click, and not just two...
This is the process in which data is sent to your computer. Whenever you receive information from the Internet, you...
Stands for "Dots Per Inch." DPI is used to measure the resolution of an image both on screen and in print. As the...
You can use your mouse to drag icons and other objects on your computer screen. Dragging icons from your desktop or an...
Stands for "Dynamic Random Access Memory." DRAM is a type of RAM that stores each bit of data on a separate capacitor...
This term usually refers to the person behind the wheel of a moving car. In the computer world, however, a driver is a...
Stands for "Digital Rights Management." DRM refers to a collection of systems used to protect the copyrights of...
A drop down menu is a horizontal menu that displays a list of options when one of the primary menu items is selected...
Stands for "Digital Subscriber Line." It is medium for transferring data over regular phone lines and can be used to...
Stands for "Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer." A DSLAM is a device used by Internet Service Providers (ISPs...
Stands for "Document Type Definition." A DTD defines the tags and attributes used in an XML or HTML document. Any...
A dual-core processor is a CPU with two processors or "execution cores" in the same integrated circuit. Each processor...
Stands for "Digital Video." Unlike traditional analog video, which is captured frame by frame on a tape, digital video...
Stands for "Digital Versatile Disc." It can also stand for "Digital Video Disc," but with the mulitple uses of DVDs...
Stands for "Digital Versatile Disc Recordable." DVD+R discs look the same as regular DVDs, but can be used to record...
Stands for "Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable." A DVD+RW is like a DVD+R, but can be erased and rewritten. DVD+RWs...
Stands for "Digital Versatile Disc Recordable." A DVD-R looks the same as a regular DVD, but like a CD-R, it can be...
DVD-RAM stands for "Digital Versatile Disc - Random Access Memory." It is one of three rewriteable DVD formats, along...
Stands for "Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable." A DVD-RW is like a DVD-R but can be erased and written to again. Like...
Stands for "Digital Video Interface." DVI is a video connection standard created by the Digital Display Working Group...
Stands for "Digital Video Recorder." A DVR is basically a VCR that uses a hard drive instead of video tapes. It can...
A dynamic website contains Web pages that are generated dynamically. Each time a user accesses a page within a dynamic...
Terms Beginning with "E"
E-commerce (electronic-commerce) refers to business over the Internet. Web sites such as Amazon.com, Buy.com, and eBay...
It's hard to remember what our lives were like without e-mail. Ranking up there with the Web as one of the most useful...
In this day and age, most of us receive several e-mails a day. Depending on your job, you may even receive dozens of...
Stands for "Error Correction Code." ECC is used to verify data transmissions by locating and correcting transmission...
Stands for "Electronic Data Interchange." EDI is a standardized method for transferring data between different...
Edutainment is one of those combo words, like "guesstimate," that combines two regular words into one term that really...
EIDE is short for "Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics" and is an improved version of the IDE drive controller...
These are the little text-based faces and objects that you often see in e-mail and online chat. They help give the...
The term "emulation" comes from the verb "emulate," which means to imitate or reproduce. Therefore, computer emulation...
Encryption is the coding or scrambling of information so that it can only be decoded and read by someone who has the...
An end user is the person that a software program or hardware device is designed for. The term is based on the idea...
Stands for "Encapsulated PostScript." EPS is a PostScript image file format that is compatible with PostScript...
Just to be clear, the first syllable is pronounced "eath" as in "Heath Bar," not like "eth" as in Bethany. Some people...
Stands for "Enterprise Unified Process." EUP is a software development methodology that helps companies create...
An exabyte is 2 to the 60th power, or 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes. It can be estimated as 10 to the 18th power...
A exbibyte is a unit of data storage that equals 2 to the 60th power, or 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes. While a...
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program for Windows and Macintosh computers. It is part of the Microsoft Office...
An expansion card is a printed circuit board that can be installed in computer to add functionality to it. For...
Nearly all personal computers come with an internal hard drive. This drive stores the computer's operating system...
If you know the difference between the Internet and an intranet, you have an above average understanding of computer...

No comments:

Post a Comment