ACID3: The third standard (after ACID & ACID2), actually a test, from the Web Standards Project that measures how well a web browser follows certain Web standards, especially relating to the Document Object Model and Javascript. 

ACPI: Advanced Configuration and Power Interface. An engineering specification that defines power modes or sleep states.  Developed by Intel, Microsoft and Toshiba (and part of later Windows systems) ACPI enables the operating system to control the amount of power given to each device attached to the computer, also allowing the system to turn off devices not being used to save power and to enable the computer to power up as soon as the keyboard is touched.   See also, Sleep.

ACTION SCRIPT: The scripting language built into Adobe’s Flash.  When combined with JavaScript, cybercriminals can craft malware attacks using this.

ACTIVE: Working, as opposed to off-line or off.  Also, referencing equipment, refers to devices which are powered by AC current, as opposed to “passive,” which relies only on whatever power comes through the cable itself.

ADAPTER (OR ADAPTOR): A device, the purpose of which is to convert the attributes of a device to another otherwise incompatible device.  For example, an adapter allows WebTV to convert a standard TV into an Internet device, and a serial port adapter enables connections between computer ports having 25 pins and cables having only 9 pins without affecting power or signal attributes.

ADDRESS: An identifier for a computer or other device (e.g. printer) on a TCP/IP network, used to route messages based on the IP address of the destination.  The format of an IP address is a 32-bit numeric written as four blocks of three numbers between 0 and 255, separated by periods.  For example, 198.162.1.23 could be an IP address.  Private network address can be random, but internet (public) addresses are assigned and registered to avoid duplicates and permit security.  Different ranges of IP addresses are owned by different ISPs.  Click HERE for more.  See also, Network, Host, Internet, Icann, IP, ISP.

Ad Hoc: A type of wireless network established for the duration of one session only, requiring no base station.  Instead, devices usually discover others within range to form a network for those computers.  Not very secure.

ADOBE SYSTEMS: A US corporation located in San Jose CA,  founded by Charles Geschke and John Warnock in December, 1982 which specializes in various graphic and web programs and add-ons.  The name comes from the Adobe Creek which ran behind Warnock’s home in Los Altos, CA.  Apps include Flash (displays animation on web pages) Reader (encrypts and displays documents on line), Photoshop (editing photos and graphics) and many other products.

ADOBE READER: A program (symbolized by the symbol at left) which is free from Adobe Systems (above) used to read encrypted files (like your bank statement) over the Internet.  You can’t edit them, though, unless you purchase the full program and have permission from the sender.

Advanced Persistent Threat (“APT”):   A cybercrime category primarily directed at businesses and high profile individuals which utilitizes the full spectrum of intrusion technologies over a prolonged period in order to seek financial gain and information theft.

AERO: A graphic feature introduced with Windows 7 which features a translucent glass design, among other design changes (e.g. Windows Flip, taskbar previews of open windows).  It uses quite a bit of graphic processing power, though, and should be turned off on lesser powered computers. 

AES: Advanced Encryption Standard.  See, encryption. AES is the successor to the older DES (“Data Encryption Standard”), and is used by the U.S. government for encrypting secret and top secret documents at 128-bit and 256-bit strengths, respectively.

AGGREGATOR: A type of internet software that collects specific areas of  information (e.g. news or reviews) from multiple online sources and displays the results on a website or delivers them to a computer via feeds.

AGP:  Accelerated Graphics Port (See also, PCI):  A motherboard port which provides a high bandwidth connection between the graphics device and the system memory, especially 3-D graphics cards which come in 4X and 8X (previously 1X and  2X) transfer rate configurations to fit the main board.

AI: Artificial Intelligence.  The ability of machines, especially computers, to perform activities normally thought to require complex human thought.  See, Watson, neural network.  The term was coined by MIT researcher John McCarthy at MIT in 1956 when he was detailing plans for the first AI conference at Dartmouth college.  He also invented the computer language LISP, used by the AI programming community.

AIFF: Audio Interchange File Format.  A audio format originally developed by Apple Computer for storing high quality sampled audio data, similar to Windows WAVE files.

AIR:  This is a new program introduced by Adobe, provider of Adobe Flash, the program that provides animation and interactive content on web sites.  The difference between Flash and Air is that Air is designed to run outside of the browser, making it very attractive to developers.  See the LINKS page for download information. Don’t confuse this with AirPort, which is Apple’s family of Wi-Fi products conforming to the 802.11 wireless standard.

AJAX: Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.  A web development technique on the client side to create interactive web applications.  Actually a combination of technologies as opposed to a single technology.

AL GORE: See Gore.

ALGORITHM: In mathematics and computer science, a step-by-step procedure used to solve a problem.  The word "algorithm" [or sometimes "algorism"] comes from the name Al-Khwārizmī (c. 780-850), a Persian mathematician & astronomer, who first popularized the procedure.  Algorithms can be expressed in many forms, including natural languages, flowcharts, decision trees and grids, mathematical formulas and programming languages, although most computer programs are composed in programming languages.  Here’s a simple example:  The problem: Find the largest number in a list of numbers.  The algorithm: Look at the first number.  Assume it is, in fact, the largest number in the list.  Then look at each of the remaining numbers on the list.  If it is smaller than the largest number on the list, ignore it.  If it is larger than the largest item so far, remember it.  The last noted item is the largest in the list when the process is complete! See also, pseudocode.

ALPHA: See also, BETA.  Very early, usually internal, release of developmental software.  Typically quite buggy, not ready for even limited public “BETA” release for review.  Usually introduced just before the developer release, which is the very first introduction of some software.

ALT KEY: A modifier key, much like the CTRL and Shift keys on a standard computer keyboard.  It is used to change (“alternate”) the function of the other keys on the keyboard when pressed in combination with them.  The alternate function will vary from program to program.  On some keyboards, both ALT keys act in unison; on others they can control different alternates.  On a Mac, since the 1990s, it has been called the “Option” key.  Also, it is sometimes used as a meta key for Linux.

ALTA VISTA:  The first search engine to index every word on a web page and provide a retrieval system to exact relevant information, using it’s search robot (“Scooter”) and indexer (“Ni2”).  Developed by the now defunct Digital Research Labs of DEC in 1995, acquired by Overture in 2003, and now  owned by Yahoo.  Started one of the first web page language translators, “Babel Fish”, still operated by Yahoo/Altavista (See also Google’s language translator).   Why AltaVista?  The name was chosen in relation to the surroundings of the company in Palo Alto, CA.  The Babel Fish, however, is a fictional species in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams which could instantly translate any language into any other language.

AMAZON: If I’ve got to explain this one to you, you must’ve been living in a cave for the past ten years.  Started in 1994 by Jeff Bezos (named after the Amazon River, of course,  because it is one of the largest rivers in the world), and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, a company often called the “world’s largest online retailer.”  It would take pages to describe the multiple products and hardware items (Kindle, Fire) that it makes.  But one thing is certain:  Because of its awesome analytics, virtually every interaction and product is geared toward learning as much as possible about its customers and driving even more purchases.

ANALOG: The predecessor to digital technology, analog signals transmitted data as electronic signals of varying frequency or amplitude as opposed to 0s and 1s.  Older broadcast and telephone technology used analog technology.

ANALYTICS: Commonly used with respect to the Web (“Web Analytics”) this term refers to the use of science and statistics in order to solve problems in business and computing, such as what the usage figures from a web server show a company with respect to the success of its web site.  See also, Metrics, and Internet Marketing.

ANDROID: An open mobile phone platform that was developed by Google and later by the Open Handset Alliance.  It’s actually an “open” software stack, based on the Linux operating system, allowing users to write their own phone applications, as opposed to the “closed” Apple system, which requires all users to go through the iTunes web portal.  In less than one year, it has rivaled Apple.  Each Android operating system is named after a pastry:  Cupcake (V. 1.5, released 4/30/09); Donut (V. 1.6 rel. 9/15/09); Eclair (V. 2.0/2.1, Rel. 10/26/09); FroYo (V. 2.2, Rel. 5/10/10); Gingerbread (V. 2.3, 2.3.3, 2.34; Honeycomb (V. 3.0/3.1, 2/24/11); Ice Cream Sandwich (2012), each adding more capabilities.  Look for Android to pop up in lots of other areas as well: Google Maps Navigation (which uses voice guidance and 3-D views), Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-book reader, MS Outlook compatibility are all offered by Android. [An android is a robot which emulates a human.]

ANGLE BRACKETS: These are the “<” and “>” symbols on the keyboard, meaning less than and greater than, respectively.  When pointed upwards, the mark is called a “carat”.

ANSI: The American National Standards Institute, founded in 1918, and having over 1300 members, including all of the major computer companies.It’s purpose is to create standards for the computer industry, intended to be applicable to any practice which is typical or broadly done.

ANTENNAGATE: Problems encountered by Apple iPhone 4 users when they held the phone while touching the antenna rim, dampening reception. Apple issued bumpers shortly thereafter to correct the problem.

ANTI ALIASING: The technology used by computers and digital cameras to reduce the visibility of Jaggies, the visible “steps” of diagonal lines or edges in a digital image that become more apparent as the resolution of the image decreases (or conversely, as the magnification increases).  Think about it like this:  If you take a magnifying glass and enlarge the photo on the front page of your newspaper, you begin to see less definition.  The lines and curves on the graphic are less defined, slightly “wavy”.  Enlarge it even more, you see lots of black and white dots, and the edges of the items in the graphic become “bumpy”, showing the curved edges of each dot defining it.  Anti-aliasing makes this appearance “smoother”. 

AOL:  Short for America On Line, one of the largest ISPs ever.  Started in 1989 by Steven Case, its goal was to offer internet access to the technically illiterate, so users could click on text and graphics, rather than type code.

APACHE:  One of the most popular web server software programs available. It is distributed under an open source license and is operable under both Mac (Unix) and Windows server systems.

APEX:  A programming language briefly used by Salesforce.com as an experiment to customize its social networking tools.  It didn’t work.

API:  ”Application Programming Interface”.  A language and message format used by an application program to communicate with an operating system, communication protocol or other control program (i.e. a DBMS).  The API is used by programmers, who write function calls in the program which provide the linkage (“interface”) to the required subroutine in the o/s or other software  for execution.  Quite often, APIs are used to provide interoperability between web services; for example, WSDL is a standardized format for expressing an API. Common API examples:  PC BIOS call interface, Java API, Direct X for MS Windows, Windows API, iPhone API, etc.

APK:  The extension for the android application package, the file that is used to download the application to smart phones.

APM:  Short for Apple Partition Map.  Unlike PCs, Apple computers don’t use an MBR.  Rather, earlier (non-Intel) Macs use the APR partition scheme, which partitions the disk into blocks, which also include the partition map in the first block.  See File System.

APP:  Short for “application”.  As in “e-mail is the killer app on the Internet.”  Also, the name Apple gives to it’s widgets for the iPhone, available from the Apple App Store on the Internet.

APPLETALK:  The built-in networking support built into Apple computers.  LocalTalk is Apple’s cabling scheme for AppleTalk networks.

APPLIANCE:    Generally a hardware device with its own firmware software, pre-integrated and closed and sealed in order to provide a specific service to a customer, which cannot modify the device.

APPLICATION:  A software program or group of programs designed for end users.

APPLE:  The computer company founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak (“Woz”) and Ronald Wayne on April Fool’s Day in 1976.  See photo of (L to R) Jobs, Wayne & Wozniak at right. [Ron Wayne was a little known partner who helped Jobs convince Wozniak to form the company.  However, only days after the contract was signed, Wayne sold his 10% share in the company because he had failed business ventures in the past and didn’t want to be responsible for the debt if Apple failed.  Had he kept his share, it would be worth about $3.6 billion. The contract was purchased in January, 2012 in a Sotheby’s auction by Eduardo Cisneros, CEO of miami-based Cisneros Corp for $1.6 million, .  The first Apple computer to use GUI and a mouse was named “Lisa”, but due to its high cost and limited software, it was eclipsed scarcely 2 years later by the launch of the Macintosh, shortened to “Mac”.  Jobs “resigned” from Apple in 1985, was replaced by John Sculley from Pepsico, but came back in 1993 to revamp the company, which was teetering on insolvency, and turn it into the consumer electronics powerhouse that it is today, along with self-promotion rivaled only by Donald Trump.  During his tenure, the company branched out into music players, cell phones, pads and other electronic devices, as well as a website (iTunes) to purvey them.  Unfortunately, Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011.  By way of comparison, while Bill Gates invented an operating system (DOS) that made PCs available to the masses, the iconic Jobs and Apple created a (GUI) interface and a simple and beautiful design that made computers intuitive and easy to use for ”the rest of us” [1984 ad for the first Macintosh], along with a clean, simple, basic design that has become Apple’s trademark.  See the MAC link for more history and information.

APPLET:  A small program, quite often written in Java (script), which usually runs in a web browser, as part of a web page.

APPLOCKER:  A Microsoft application that limits the programs that can be run to only those “white listed” in an attempt to avoid malware unwittingly installed by viruses and spyware.  To do this, the program defines sets of rules by publishers, hash and path rules in order to create a whitelist of acceptable programs.  Included on some but not all versions of Windows 7.

ARIN:  American Registry for Internet Numbers, the RIR for the U.S.

ARM:  Advanced RISC Machine. A 32-bit RISC (“reduced instruction set computer”) architecture which is the most widely used ISA (“instruction set architecture”) used in mobile phones today.  It was originally conceived as a desktop processor for personal computers by Acorn Computers, but was later adapted for cell phones.  See also, SoC.

ARP: Address Resolution Protocol. This is a crucial component of IP networking on any operating system.  It links ethernet (IP) addressing to hardware (MAC) addressing, without which a computer couldn’t communicate to the outside world because one addressing scheme couldn’t communicate with the other.  See also ARP Cache, a collection of mostly dymanic entries created when a hostname is “resolved” to an IP address and then the IP is resolved to a MAC address.  Sometimes a bad entry can cause issues with Internet connectivity and web page loading, so it must be “flushed” and rebuilt.

ARPANET: The precursor to the Internet.  See, DARPA.

ARTIFACTING:  The distortion that is introduced into audio, video or graphic files by the compression algorithm (codec). The compressed image, say a .jpg, may have stray pixels (often white dots) that were not present in the original image.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: See, AI, above.

ASCENDANT:  A word often used before the word “technology,” as in the technology we are pursuing is ascentant (or descendant).  Basically, this means that your peers are either adopting the newer technology or adandonning it.  It is one measure of the trend away from legacy technology and toward cutting-edge.

ASCII: Acronym for American Standard Code For Information Interchange.  This is a code for representing English characters as numbers, with each letter assigned a number from 0 to 127 (including upper and lowercase and other characters; e.g. capital M would be “77”).  Created in 1967 by the American Standards Association, ASCII is the “lowest common denominator” representing text on a computer, making it easier to transfer data files between different computers. In addition, there are several methods available for converting non-text files (non-ASCII) into ASCII, necessary because internet e-mail can only handle ASCII.  Examples:  Binhex, Mime, UUENCODE.

ASP:  Application Service Provider.  See also SaaS, Cloud Computing.  A hosted software contractor, providing customers software at its data center through a service contract.

ASPECT RATIO: See, Display Format.

ASP.NET:  Often this shows up as an additional Windows user in User Accounts, to the confusion of users who didn’t recall setting it up.  You can remove it.  ASP.net is a remnant of now-obsolete software, the original version of “.net” which added the account to avoid permissioning problems.  

ASR:  Automated System Recovery.  A feature of Windows XP and later Windows operating systems that can be used to simplify recovery of a computer’s system or boot volumes.  For a further explanation of exactly what is or is not backed up or restored, click HERE.

ASTERISK: The star (“ * “) typographical symbol or glyph on a computer or telephone keyboard, sometimes also called a “splat”.  It is said that the asterisk originally derives from the need of the printers of family trees in feudal times for a symbol to indicate the date of birth.  It has many uses: On calculators, it means “multiplication” or sometimes “total”.  In computers, it may mean a “wildcard” character, which can stand for any string of characters.  In HTML it may demote “fields” and in other languages it can denote exponentiation, or a corrupt file.  In telephony, the symbol is also sometimes called a “palm” or “sextile” which is used to navigate touch tone voice mail options.

ASYNCHRONOUS:  Occurring at different times, not simultaneously.   E-mail is an excellent example of asynchronous communication - the sender and receiver do not have to be connected at the same time.

ASYNCHRONOUS TRANSFER MODE (“ATM”):  A dedicated connection switching technology that organizes digital data into 53-byte cell units and processes them asynchronously before being multiplexed over the transmission path.  Because ATM is hardware-based (vs. software-based), faster processing and switch speeds are possible, between 155,520Mbps to as high as 10Gbps.  ATM is a key component of broadband ISDN (also of SONET (Synchronous Optical Network)).

AT COMMAND SET: See, Modem.

ATI: The subsidiary of AMD (see above) that manufactures computer graphics cards.

ATTENUATION:  A fancy word for “reduction,” usually applied to signals (analog or digital).  We way that the signal is attenuated when it becomes weaker.

ATX:  A motherboard specification developed by Intel  in which the board has been rotated in the computer’s chassis so that the CPU and RAM sockets have been relocated away from the expansion slots so that all of the slots can now support full-length cards and also allow more space on the back of the computer for connectors. Full size is 305mm x 244mm; mini is 284mm x 244mm. An improvement over the older LPX motherboards.

AUGMENTED REALITY:  A technology half way between the real world and virtual reality (none of which is real), augmented reality adds graphics, sounds and other feedback to “augment” the natural world.  For example, cell phones can overlay information (say subway stops, restaurants, schools) over your map of an area; soldiers can view overlays to their camera views of enemy territory.

AUTHENTICATION: A way to authenticate that the person attempting access to computer is, in fact, that person.  It includes passwords, smart cards, tokens, biometrics and other types of security and encryption.

AUTOCOMPLETION vs. AUTORESOLUTION: These definitions are related and often confused, usually in MS Outlook.  Autoresolution attempts to match the first few letters typed into a new email with address entries stored in the Contacts folder that is registered with your Outlook profile.  Autocompletion attempts to match the first characters of the e-mail with entries stored in the NK2 file (autocomplete cache) and does not try to match entries in the Contacts (“address book”) file or the MRU (“most recently used”) file.  Both are enabled or disabled by going to Outlook>Tools>Options>Preferences Tab>email Options>, then check “automatic name checking” (for autoresolution) or “suggest names while completing...” (for autocompletion).

AZURE:  Microsoft’s 2009 entry into the cloud computing arena.  Now, along with Amazon, one of the biggest cloud players.  See, SaaS.

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