BACKSLASH:  A typographical mark (glyph) chiefly used in computing.  Sometimes also called a “reverse solidus”, an “oblique”, a “bash”, a “backslat”, a “reverse virgule”, a “reverse slant” or a “hack” .  It was added into the ASCII character set in 1961.  It is said that it was introduced so that the ALGOL boolean operators “ = “ (AND) and “\/” (OR) could be composed in ASCII as “ /\ “ and “ \ / “ respectively.  In computers, it has many uses:  It is used to separate the directories in components of a path (e.g. “C:\Documents\My files”), indicate “switches” (e.g. “config\u\w”) and in HTML at the end of a line of code indicates that the following new line should be treated as if it were also part of the current line.  It also has uses in several programming languages.

BAND:  See spectrum. 

BANDWIDTH:  In computers, this term is generally used as a synonym for “data transfer rate”.  This is the amount of data that can be carried from one point to another (usually in bits or megabits) within a given time period, usually a second.  Thus, 57,600Mpbs.   See also Pipe and Spectum for more explanation.

BAR CODE:  A small image of 59 black and white bars (30 black and 29 white lines which convey 12 bits of data in binary code) of varying thicknesses usually attached to retail items, id cards, postal mail, etc. which, when read by a bar code reader identifies information about a particular item, person or location. The 12 digits really give nothing more than address to look up information in a database.  A bar code consists of five parts: a quite zone, a start character, data characters (including an optional check character) a stop character and finally another quiet zone. The original bar code was first used on June 26, 1974 to read the price on a 10-pack of Juicy Fruit gun (67 cents, if you must know).  It was invented by George J. Laurer, a veteran engineer for I.B.M., who was asked to lead a team assigned to devise a checkout system for grocery stores.  Presently, after 35 years, there isn’t just one standard bar code but several standards (known as “symbologies”) for various uses; UPC (“Uniform Product Code”) is primarily retail; EAN (“European Article Numbering”), developed by Joe Woodland, is also quite common; and POSTNET for use in U.S. zip code bulk mailing. A standard, one dimensional bar code looks like this (But see also, QR Codes, for two-dimensional codes):

Barcodes have been supplemented but not superceded by radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, which allows businesses to identify and track specific items without a direct line of sight, such as on shipping palettes.  But barcodes are still used much more - scanned upward of 10 billion times a day throughout the world, and cost only about a half cent each, as opposed to the electronic RFID tags at about 5 cents each.  See also QR Codes.

BARE METAL:  Generally refers to a computer without any operating system installed.  This term is also used with the qualifier “restore” or “recovery.”  It means the process of rebuilding a computer from scratch after a catastrophic failure.

BASE/BASEBAND:  A type of data transmission over an ethernet network cable where the signal is sent over a single channel. See Ten Base for further explanation.  Compare to broadband, over which a single cable can carry several channels at once.  Cable TV or DSL, for example, can carry television, telephone and internet at once.

BASH:  The shell program for command line processing used by Linux.

BASIC:  Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.  One of the earliest and simplest programming languages, originally designed as an interactive mainframe timesharing language by John Kenneney and Thomas Kurtz of Dartmouth in 1964.  Quite quickly it became widely used on personal computers, such that it was a popular add-on to IBM’s PCs, starting with the PCJr.  Because of its simplicity, BASIC is easy to learn and support is still widely available for most operating systems today. Microsoft developed its own dialect of BASIC (from BASICA, originally for Compaq), known as GW-BASIC (“Gee Whiz-BASIC”) which was disk based and did not require the resources of the ROM included on IBM’s machines (although it lacked many of the programming structures and executed rather slowly).  Starting with DOS 5.5, Microsoft included a version of BASIC known as QBASIC that included REMLINE.BAS, a program that helped convert GW-BASIC to QBASIC.  Microsoft also produces Visual Basic, which adds object-oriented features and a graphical user interface to the standard BASIC.

BASIS POINT:  Jargon for 1/100 of a percent.

BAT FILE:  Shorthand for a batch file (see below), because in DOS systems,  their filenames end in a .bat extension.

BATCH FILE:  A text file that contains a sequence of instructions for a computer operating system to execute.  It’s called a batch file because it batches (collects) into a single file a group of commands that would otherwise have to be entered into the system one at a time by keyboard.  When run, the “shell” program (usually cmd.com as a command interpreter) executes the commands, one line at a time.  Usually batch files are reserved for repetitive tasks, and are initiated by typing the name of the file and the appropriate extension; in DOS, for example, the extension is .bat (as in autoexec.bat, the batch file that initiates DOS itself); in UNIX it’s a shell script; in IBM’s VM, it’s called an EXEC.  For more information, see Part III of this LINK.

BATTERIES:  As in laptop batteries, usually lithium ion.  For a discussion about this, see FAQs; also see UPS for battery backup.

BAYESIAN:  A type of logic named after English mathematician Thomas Bayes.  It is a branch of logic applied to decision making that deals with probability inference; that is, using the knowledge of prior events to predict future events.  It is used frequently in anti-virus programs to preduct future permutations of current viruses.  See also, Spyware.

BAUD:  A unit of signaling speed equal to the number of discrete signal elements transmitted per second.  Synonomous with bits-per-second (bps).  Named after Emile Baudot, inventor of the Baudot code for telegraphy, it is commonly used to measure the transmission rate of modems in terms of how many bits it can send or receive per second.  Technically, baud is the number of times per second that the carrier signal shifts value: For example a 1200 baud modem actually runs at 300 baud, but it moves 4 bits per baud (4 x 300 = 1200 bps).

BBS:  See Bulletin Board, below.

BEAMFORMING:  An optional feature of the 802.11n MIMO array under which wireless access points dynamically switch antenna combinations to focus wireless transmissions on a particular wireless client in a home or office network while reducing SNR (“signal-to-noise ratio”) interference, in order to maximize reception for that station.  There are three types of beamforming: Transmit (TxBF), which propagates two or more phase-shifted copies of a signal on a frame-by-frame basis such that they reinforce one another at specific locations.  There are actually two forms of TxBF, “implicit” and “explicit,” which determine how the phase shift angle between the client and the access point is determined.  And then there’s Cisco’s proprietary ClientLink, which also uses multiple signal paths to reinforce the (download only) signal.  Static beamforming uses an array of directional antennas to form a spherical RF pattern to focus the signal, but at the cost of some performance in various situations.  Dynamic beamforming also uses an array of directional antennas, but adds onboard processing to enable the access point to intelligently select and dynamically change the antenna beam pattern from frame to frame in response to individual client conditions.   In addition to the above, many routers embed real-time spectrum analyzers looking for and eliminating interfering signals.  Because many homes and businesses still have legacy hardware in addition to 802.11n, technologies have been developed which prevent conflicts.  ATF (“Airtime Fairness”) allocates time slices for each client so that the slower legacy protocols don’t hog the spectrum and “band steering” steers the slower clients to perhaps the 5GHz band, providing a form of “spectrum load balancing”.

BEAT: A type of distortion caused by improper or deteriorating cable connections, characterized by little white “dots” on a screen.  See ingress, cable connector photos.

BEBO: An acronym for “blog early, blog often”.  A social networking site, founded in January, 2005 by husband and wife team Michael and Xochi Birch, sold to AOL in 2008.  In April, 2010, AOL announced that it was planning on selling or closing BEBO.

Bell-LaPadula Model, a/k/a/ “BLP”: A “state machine” model (i.e., a “special purpose” machine designed with the operational states and hardware required to solve a specific problem) used for establishing access control in government and military applications.  It uses security labels (i.e. “unclassified” or “top secret”) on objects as well as clearances for subjects.  It is a model where there is no clear distinction between protection and security.  It is a competitive model to the Biba Integrity Model, which describes rules for data integrity, which uses the notion of “secure state(s)” within a machine, between which users transition through a series of “functions”.

BENCHMARK: As you would expect, a standard by which something can be measured by comparison.  In computers, the benchmark is usually a test comparing the qualities and performance of the function of a device.

BETA: “TEST” version of software not quite ready for commercial release.  As in “Microsoft has released the beta version of Windows 2000 for review”.  It is usually released after the ALPHA version  of developmental software, which is typically very buggy and released only to a few people internal to the organization.

BEZIER PATH:  A tool used in CAD, Photoshop and other graphic design programs, characterized by following the outline around a graphic by plotting a “path” around the object through the use of direction lines (often called “handles”), end points and angles.  It is particularly useful for following the line of curves.  This is done through the use of mathematical cubic equation developed by Pierre Bezier, who invented it in the 1970s.

BHO:  This means “Browser Helper Object”.  It is a program that runs automatically every time that your browser is launched.  BHOs enable your browser to display items such as Acrobat, various toolbars and specific types of files to be displayed.  BHOs are intended to extend the functionality of the browser, but it can also track how you use the Internet.

BIBA:  See also MLS (“Multi-Level Security”). The “Biba Model” or “Biba Security Model” or “Biba Integrity Model” is a set of access control rules, developed by Kenneth J. Biba of Mitre Corp. in 1977, to ensure data integrity.  At the time, the model was developed to circumvent a weakness in the Bell-LaPadula Model (see above), which at that time addressed only the issue of data confidentiality, not levels of integrity.  The Biba model groups data into ordered levels of integrity, then makes it so that subjects may not corrupt data in a level ranked higher than the subject or conversely be corrupted by data from a lower level than the subject.  Biba is characterized by the phrase “no write up, no read down”; Bell-Lapadula by “no write down, no read up”.

BIG DATA:  About what you’d expect it to be, but still a “word of art” in computing.  Big data is sets of data (often in the terabytes and exabyte range) which are gathered, stored, searched and analyzed, and which are so large and evolving that standard local computers and software cannot handle them.  (See Quants for more about how this is done.)  It has been predicted since Isaac Asomov in the 1960s (his “Foundation” series) and more recently by the U.S. Govenment  and academia (IARPA; Center for Collective Intelligence at MIT) that mining the vast storehouses of data from such sources as web searches, Twitter messages, Facebook and blogs, traffic and other cams, financial market indicators, changes in Wikipedia entries, visa and passport information, telephone calling records, travel data, credit card transactions, GPS and the like will enable the prediction of political crises, revolutions, political and social instabilities, even pandemics.  It is postulated that following these patterns of communication, consumption and population movement will provide a more accurate indicator of things to come.  All of this is proposed to be done without human intervention through an automatic “eye in the sky”. 

However, privacy advocates and past experience point out that this may not really work.  The Total Information Awareness program that the Pentagon sought after 9-11 met with resistance from privacy advocates like EPIC and the ACLU, which also forced the cancellation of the Pentagon’s Project Camelot in the 1960s as well.  Carnivore and Echelon and DARPA projects similarly met with public resistance against the Government’s spying on its own citizens.  9-11 softened the public view somewhat, as the catch phrases “for your protection” and “to stop terrorists” became a mantra by the Government.  By 2008, the resistance has faded somewhat:  In 2008, the Pentagon’s Minerva Initiative, an array of studies didn’t create much of a stir.  Moreover, it hasn’t been quite proven that big data analysis actually crosses the gap between statistical inference into meaningful and accurate results any more accurately than previous attempts.

But as the private sector uses quants to perfect the analysis of big data commercially, the Government will likely purchase the results of that technology.  Right now, private companies use the technology to predict everything from box office sales, jet fuel consumption and future purchases, but analysis is rapidly evolving. For more detail, see QUANTS.

BIG IRON COMPUTERS:  See Mainframe computers.  The term came about because the early mainframes were housed in enormous, room-sized metal frames of boxes.

BIN FILE:  Stands for BINary File.  A file with the .bin extension, which can be used for a variety of files, including graphics, some CD images, game ROMs, emulators, some Windows files, even AVG anti-virus files as well as other non-text files. But, unlike other files like .exe, .wpd or .xls files, bin files don’t have a program used to specifically open them.  So, when you use Windows, Nero, AVG or the like, the files will be read by that program.

BING:  (Formerly Microsoft Live Search, Windows Live Search and MSN Search):  An Internet search service, introduced in mid-2009 by Microsoft.  This search engine, which modifies and improves Microsoft’s relatively unsuccessful Live Search, claims to do more than just provide promising web links as does Google or Yahoo, but will provide categories or results to make it easier for users to make more complex decisions.  For example, if you search for “Cadillac,” it will arrange the “Table of Contents “ for the search results by “new”, “used”, “reviews”, “specs”, etc.  Click HERE for more information.  The name Bing is intended by Microsoft to capture the sound effect of a “lightbulb” or “aha!” or “Eureka!” moment.

BINHEX: See, ASCII.

BIOS:  Refers to the Basic Input/Output System which actually starts up your computer and communicates between all of the hardware devices in your computer (such as your hard drive, graphics card, sound card, keyboard, mouse, etc.) to make sure that they are all available and working.  Then it loads your operating system so that you can use your computer.  The BIOS is written onto a read-only memory chip (known as an EPROM) which is soldered onto your computer’s main printed circuit board.  When you first turn on your computer, the initial “beeps” that you hear represent the running of the BIOS; their number and timing have definite meaning for each board manufacturer and are often used in troubleshooting start-up problems.  See, Flashing the BIOS.  See also, UEFI, a replacement for BIOS introduced in 2011 which will enable rootkit detection before starting the operating system.  After all, BIOS has been around since the first PC, over 30 years.

BIT BUCKET:  Jargon for “recycle bin.”  Comes from the network jargon where it refers to the place where a firewall, router or proxy has discarded a packet.

BITLOCKER:  A  feature first introduced in Windows Vista which can encrypt a hard drive or other drives as security to protect sensitive data.  Windows 7 added to this feature with “BitLocker To Go,” extending the protection to USB storage devices.  The recovery process has also been simplified in Windows 7.  See also:  Encryption, EFS.

BIT.URL:  Like TINY.URL, these are free programs that reduce the size of a lengthy URL, so that it can easily fit into a webphone browser.

BITCOINS:  A virtual currency popular among geeks, used to make purchases over the Internet.  While digital transactions normally require a trusted intermediary such as Paypal, the difference with bitcoins is that there is no such middleman.  Rather, the system works more like a peer-to-peer music sharing network.  Transactions are encrypted, logged by a decentralized network running on thousands of home computers, and recorded in a public ledger by a “miner” who processes the transaction.  The project was started in 2009 by someone who identified himself as Satoshi Nakamoto, and was later taken over by Gavin Andresen.  Bitcoin’s worth fluctuates with demand, and can be bought and sold on several online exchanges, prompting its investment opportunity.

BITS and BYTES: A bit (short for BInary digiT) is the smallest unit of data in a computer.  A bit has a single binary value, either 0 or 1. A byte is composed of 8 bits.  A kilobyte is 1024 bytes, a megabyte 1024 kilobytes and a gigabyte 1024 megabytes.  These are the most common units of storage on computers.  For example, your hard drive may be measured by its size of 120Gb, RAM by 500Mb or 1Gb, or file size by kilobytes.  These are the basics.  For a complete and  detailed discussion, including the difference between a 32-bit and 64-bit system, please click HERE.

BITTORRENT:  A content P2P distribution protocol used for the sharing of very large files, such as entire movies and TV shows, by allowing users to serve as network redistribution points. Rather than having a server fulfill the entire download request, BitTorrent clients share pieces of the download back and forth until everyone has the complete download.  This way, the server can handle multiple requests without consuming great bandwidth.  Also, the name of the American company that uses this protocol over the Internet.

BLACKBERRY:   A brand of “smart phone” originally introduced by the Canadian company Research In Motion (“RIM”) in 1999 as a two-way pager and popularized by President Obama during his campaign.  By 2002, the Blackberry was introduced as a convergent device (like Apple’s iPhone), supporting e-mail, mobile telephone, text messaging, internet faxing and web browsing using a multi-touch interface.  It is quite popular for corporate enterprises because it can be integrated into an orgnization’s e-mail system (such as MS Exchange) using Blackberry Enterprise Server.  BES acts as an e-mail relay for corporate accounts as “push e-mail” as opposed to user-synchronization.  The name Blackberry (Crackberry to its addicts) was derived by Lexicon Branding after someone pointed out that the tiny buttons on the RIM device looked like berry seeds.  After experimentation with various fruits and vegetables, they decided upon Blackberry as the most pleasing name.

BLACKLISTING:  A software process in an operating system, application software of Internet application which creates a list of unacceptable programs or connections on that particular computer.

BLADE SERVERS:  A computer on a motherboard, which is self-contained and slides into a chassis.  Often, the blade server has had some components removed to save space, so that they can be stacked, vertically, side-by-side in a rack, as opposed to stacking separate server computers together, which would take up considerably more space.  For example, one rack of blade servers might hold 24 computers in a space the size of a small bookshelf; 24 computers would probably take up an entire wall of a server room, and cause additional cable, heat, space and administrative problems that a blade server will not.  There is also a PC known as a Blade PC or PC Blade, which is a complete computer (including the microprocessor, memory chips, hard drive, video and network cards) which is connected to a network user’s display, keyboard and mouse.  This is in contrast to a Thin Client, which is not a complete computer, but rather a limited (“lean”) centrally-managed computer devoid of CD players, diskette drives and expansion slots, even software limitations.

BLANKING PANEL: An empty “spacer” or “filler” panel used in computer equipment enclosures to facilitate movement of cool air flow in the cabinet.

BLAST:  Refers to an “e-mail blast” which is an electronic mailing, often advertising, sent all at once to a large mailing list, e.g. through Twitter.

BLAVATAR: See Avator.  An avator associated with a blog.

BLEEDING EDGE: Beyond cutting edge, this is technology that is so new that it hasn’t yet been widely accepted or adopted and it may therefore involve a high degree of risk and a possibility of never being adopted by the mainstream.

BLIPPING: The process of posting a “Blip” (using Blippy.com), which automatically posts the details of a members credit card purchases on the Internet to immediately share with their friends and others. (e.g. Joe spent $10.09 at Starbucks on Rt. 41 at 12.21pm for a moccha latte.”).

BLOB: Binary Large Object.  This is a large file (typically an image, video or sound file) that must be handled (i.e. uploaded, downloaded or stored in a database) in a special way because of its size.

BLOG:  Derived from “weB LOG”.  An interactive website over which the author shares, usually in chronological order, a frequently updated journal or diary containing whatever information the author (the “blogger”) wishes to share with the online world.  Blogging used to be the domain of individuals fulfilling their desire to publish their thoughts; as it has grown up, however, blogging has become used more in the enterprise, not just for job searching and listening to the customer, but also for out-of-the-box group conferencing, creating internal corporate relationships, and developing and promoting new ideas and products. The term “weblog” was first used in 1997 on Jorn Barger’s “Robot Wisdom Weblog,” which was shortened two years later when Peter Merholz playfully shortened it to just “blog”.  It’s also spawned a series of derivatives - blogosphere, blogrolls, blogiversaries, blogorrhea, blawgs (law blogs), blegs (begging blogs), vlog (video blog) and splog (spam blog).

The blogging world can be even further subdivided:  Mobile Blogging is updating a blog from a cell phone.  Microblogging is the updating of an activities blog (microblog) that distributes the text to a list of names. Twittering lets users send short text messages (140 characters maximum - they’re called Tweets) from their cellphones or computers to a group of friends.  They’re like a cross between a blog and a chat room. (Twittering is named after the web site (www.twitter.com), launched in 2006).  For those who are looking for a fast way to share links, photos and videos without the bells and whistles of a regular blog, there’s Miniblogging (see, e.g. Tumblr). On the negative side, there are Splogs (Spam Blogs), but ISP filters catch the majority of them.  [In May, 2008, MySpace won a $230 million judgment against so-called spam king Sanford Wallace for allegedly creating phony MySpace accounts and hijacking existing accounts to send out hundreds of thousands of spam messages.]  And, like IM has its own language, so does blogging and twittering:  e.g. “Doocing”, an expression used when someone loses a job because of blogging.  For more, see Texting, e-mail, Twitter.  Also, blogosphere, a term encompassing all blogs on the Internet and their interconnections, viewing blogs as a connected ”community” or social network.

BLU-RAY: Also sometimes called “BD,” developed by the Blu-ray Disk Association.  An optical storage disk with the same physical dimensions as standard DVDs and CDs that use a blue laser (actually, violet) to read and write the disk.  Because of the shorter wavelength of the blue laser (405 nanometers, vice the standard red 650 nm wavelength), substantially more data can be stored on a Blu-ray disk (up to to 50 Gb, as opposed to 10.5 times that of a single-layer DVD, and six times that of a two-layer DVD).  HD-DVD format, which was the primary competitor to Blu-ray, pretty much lost the format war in 2008 wen Toshiba announced its decision to to with Blu-ray technology.  See also, CDs, DVDs, etc.  The Blu-ray logo is shown above. 

BLUETOOTH: An open wireless protocol, developed in 1994 by Ericsson Telecom, used to exchange data between fixed and mobile devices over a short distance (i.e. 30 feet or less), by creating a secure personal area network (“PAN”).  Widely used with cellphone technology now, it was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS-232 data cables and was immediately popular because it’s relative ease of use and compatibility .  It is distinguished by its use of a radio technology called “frequency hopping spread spectrum” which chops up the data being sent and transmits chunks of it on up to 79 frequencies.  Bluetooth’s claim to fame is that it can unite various communication protocols into one universal standard, so that synchronizing between multiple devices is much easier and it requires no additional infrastructure for cell phone implementation.  The Bluetooth Special Interest Group manages the specifications, product qualifications and tradmark protection for the technology.  The name Bluetooth is an anglicized version of the Old Norse name for the tenth century King Harald I of Denmark, who is reputed to have united the dissonant Danish tribes into a single kingdom (much like Bluetooth unites differing wireless devices, get it?).  (I’ve always wondered, though, if you have multiple Bluetooth devices, if you then have Blueteeth?  The plural seems to lose some of its cachet, doesn’t it?)  Like other devices, Bluetooth comes in various updated versions (starting at v. 2.1, now at v, 4,0), using options EDR and SSP. Competing with Bluetooth in one area is NFC (“Near Field Communications), which is increasingly used for RFID tage and on site payments through cell phones, but the range is extremely short (< 2 ft.) so it is not useful for most devices.  See also, Wibree, for BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) technology.   Bluetooth symbol is at right:

BNC:  See also, CABLE.  A type of connector used in older computer networks known as 10Base2 (or 5 or T) or Thin-Net networks.  The connectors are shaped like the letter T, having two male and one female connector each.  Depending on who you ask, the term BNC stands for British Naval Connector, British Nut Connector or possibly Bayonet Neill-Councelman (Neill and Councelman being the inventors of the BNC) connector.  Too slow for more modern computer networks any more, it is still used for various professional video connections.  Click HERE for photos of BNC cable and connectors.

B2B: Business to Business.  A B2B web site sells products and services to other businesses.

B2C: Business to Consumer.  A B2C web site sells products and services to consumers and the general public.

BOARD: Generally refers to a printed circuit board.  See main board for definitions of boards.  When a board fits into a physical slot on the main board, it is generally referred to as a card, as in video card, audio card, etc.

BONJOUR: Formerly named Rendezvous, this is Apple’s trade name for its implementation of Zeroconf, a service discovery protocol, which is built in to Apple Mac OS X Ver. 10.2 onwards and can be installed on Windows operating systems as well.  Its purpose is to discover services (printers, computers and other devices) on a local network.  It is used by iTunes to find shared music, iPhoto to find shared photos, TiVo to find DVRs and shared media libraries, etc.

BOOKMARK: Sometimes (as with AOL) called a “favorite”. A feature in a browser that supports the saving of a web page so that you can easily visit it again at a later time.

BOOKMARKLET: A program that is installed in your web browser just by dragging its button onto your toolbar.  See, for example, Readability.

BOOLEAN: Referring to a type of logic developed by George Boole, an English mathematician, in the 19th century, in which he combined certain concepts and excluded others when searching through large amounts of data.  The logic “operators” AND, OR, NOT and NEAR [math equivalents +, -, “or”, and “---”] when combined with words and phrases allow you to define, limit or widen the search.  Most Internet search engines default to Boolean search parameters anyway, but they’re still good to know.  Sometimes said to be considered “the father of computer science”.

BOOSTER: To Start.  See also, Reboot.

BOOT: See signal booster.

BOOT AGENT:  An Intel utility used by larger enterprises to boot a diskless workstation or to install an operating system onto a new computer.  The computer receives the boot image over ethernet through an Intel network adapter.  Compliant with the Intel PXE standard.

BOOT SECTOR: (Sometimes called a bootblock) is a sector of a hard disk, floppy disk or similar data storage device that contains code for booting programs, usually the operating system, stored in other parts of the disk.  For greater detail about boot sectors, see MBR; about hard drives, click HERE.

BOT: Short for robot. A BOTNET is a collection of bots that run automatically and autonomously through remote direction, usually for nefarious purposes. The bots are referred to as zombie computers, which are compromised through software infections and directed remotely (through so-called “bot herders”) over the Internet.  See also, SPYWARE.

BRACES AND BRACKETS: Both are used to separate text (explanation and alternatives) and mathematical arguments or formulas (order of precedence).  Brackets look like this:  “[  ]” and braces look like this:  “{  }”.  A similar symbol is the parenthesis, which looks like this:  “(  )” (often used for negative amounts in accounting).  See also angle brackets, which look like this “<  >” and are often used to enclose computer code of some type (e.g. HTML tags).

BRANCH: Any line (telephone, coaxial, cat) off of the incoming trunk line into a location.

BRANCH CACHE: A Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 component intended to reduce bandwidth consumption on branch-office-wide WANs.  The first time someone at a branch office of the organization downloads a file from the central server, it is cached locally, so that the next person at that office gets the file from the cached location, saving time.  It has two modes:  Distributed, which simply requires running on the feature through Group Policy; and Hosted, which requires a separate server to cache and serve files for the remote office.

BREADCRUMB: A type of folder or web “navigation” which specified the “path” that took you to the folder or page that you are viewing (following the breadcrumbs backwards, get it?), as opposed to the pre-Windows 7 “UP” button, which simply displays the folder hierarchy showing you where you are. 

BRIDGE: A piece of network hardware that that’s used to connect two networks so that they act as one.  They can be used to connect two different types of networks (e.g. ethernet to token ring) or to partition one large network into two smaller ones for performance purposes.  A bridge is a smart repeater.  While a repeater listens to signals coming down one network cable, amplifies it, then sends it down the cable on the other side, a bridge has the capability of listening to the network and automatically figuring out the address of each computer on both sides of it.  The bridge then broadcasts the signal on the other side only if it is intended for a computer on that side. 

BRITTLE: As used with the terms “technology”  and “energy” it is synonymous with  “vulnerable.”  Derived from the 1982 Energy Strategy for National Security (book) by Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins and widely quoted after 9/11/2001, it posits that the U.S. energy infrastructure is extremely vulnerable to disruption by accident or malice, and should be “hardened” into a more “resilient” system for our protection.

BROADBAND: See, baseband, above. High speed data transmission over coaxial or fibre optic cable (FIOS), usually for Internet, TV and phone.  The FCC uses the term “broadband services” to refer to those services that deliver an information carrying capacity in excess of 200 kbps in at least one direction [47 U.S.C. § 157 nt]. These services are also described as “high-speed services” in Commission reports issued pursuant to section 706. The OECD definition of broadband is at least 256 kbps downstream and at least 64 kbps upstream.  See spectrum for more.

BROGRAMMER:  A contraction of “programmer” and “bro” (the stereotypical fraternity house salute), this term sprung up in around 2012 as a reference to denote the change from technical geeks as programmers into less technical but much cooler guys who code in a party atmosphere.

BROWSERS:  These are programs that interpret HTML, the programming language of the Internet (see definition  below), into the words and graphics that you see when viewing a web page.  The most popular current browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer; Firefox; Google’s Chrome; Apple’s Safari; and Opera.  A relatively complete listing of current browsers for Windows (about 37), Macintosh and Linux can be seen if you click HERE.  Some browsers specialize in answering actual questions, such as Ask.Com (formerly AskJeeves), Answers.com, Formspring, ChaCha & Quora as well as Yahoo, Google and FaceBook services.  Every browser has an “engine” which is the software that handles the screen rendering and other browser functions and determines the look and feel of the interface and its speed.  The engine for Firefox is Gecko, Safari is WebBit, Opera is Presto, Internet Explorer is Trident, Google Chrome is WebKit.  Some engines are better at some tasks than others.  For example, Gecko works better for pages where JavaScript speed is important, WebKit is useful for sites that have lots of images, Trident is best for those sites that only work well with Internet Explorer.  Interestingly, a browser called Lunascape actually allows you to incorporate the major browser engines and swap among them, based on the tasks at hand.

BRUTE FORCE:  Refers to the relatively unsophisticated method of breaking (“attacking”) computer encryption by bombarding the program with tons of possibilities until one works. See encryption, rainbow tables, Hellman for more information.

BSOD:  “Blue Screen of Death”.  Peculiar to Microsoft Windows, this screen with a dark blue background and white writing generally informs you that your system has “crashed” due to a page fault, general protection fault or the like.  This is one of the worst things that can happen to your computer, because you have probably lost everything you were working on.  The screen in Windows Vista is known as the PSOD (Purple Screen of Death); Mac calls it the SPOD (Spinning Ball of Death); and XBox calls it the RROD (Red Ring of Death, the three flashing red lights around the power switch).

BSM:  “Business Service Management”.  Another popular buzzword (like CRM), this phrase defines a strategy for linking key IT components to the goals of the business, to determine how IT impacts the business and vice versa.

BUFFER:  A temporary data storage area shared by programs or hardware that operate at different speeds or with different priorities.  A buffer exists to allow each device or process to operate without being held up by others by holding data or streaming video that will be later read, written or viewed and to compensate for possible momentary delays.  A buffer exists not so much to accelerate the speed of an activity as to support the coordination of separate activities.  See, for example, streaming video.

BULLETIN BOARD:  Sometimes called “BBSs”.  Essentially an electronic message center, on the Web, onto which users pose messages and review messages left by others.  Usually each BBS supports a specific interest group.

BUROTICS:  Applies the fusion of several technologties that are mainly covered by the term Business Technology.  It includes data organization, word processing, fax, teletext and videotext, reproduction equipment, time registration and business management systems.  Also called technological fusion or telematics.

BUS: Generally speaking, a BUS is main communication avenue in a computer; an electrical pathway (like a highway) along which signals are sent from one part of the computer to another.  For example, the main board of the computer has a “system” (a/k/a “frontside” or “local”) bus, measured in megabites, such as 66, 100, 333, etc. which is often (somewhat incorrectly) used as a measure of computer performance.  This is the speed of the “highway” over which the instructions are carried between the CPU and the memory controller hub (known as the Northbridge).  The higher the speed, the “wider” the highway, the more data can be carried per second.  Depending on the implementation, some boards may also have a “back side” bus that connects the CPU to the cache, this bus is faster than accessing the system memory (“RAM”) via the front side-but, increasing system performance. This front side/back side distinction was created by Intel in the early Pentium machines with ATX boards, but went out of favor in boards produced after 2008.  Finally, another type of bus, called a “peripheral” bus, represents the pathway to devices such as printers or disks.  This type of bus connects peripheral devices perpendicular to the computer’s motherboard on riser cards that plug into the motherboard in various types of slots - PCI, AGP CNR, MCA, ISA, EISA, etc.  (See, PCI for more explanation). Another common bus is the USB (“universal serial bus”) bus which is cabled to a (serial) port on the computer. Click HERE to see photos of types of buses.

BUSINESS INFORMATICS (“BI”):  Sometimes “Organizational Informatics.”  A discipline created in Germany and academically popular throughout Europe which combines business administration, information systems and computer science into one field.  As opposed to Information Systems, which concentrates on the analysis of business problems after their impact, BI concentrates on the development of solutions for business problems before they occur.

BUS MASTERING:  Refers to a feature of some bus architectures that enables a controller connected to that bus to communicate directly with other devices on that bus without going through the CPU.  PCI, for example, supports bus mastering because it improves performance.

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