COMPUTER GLOSSARY Z - COMPUTER COACH, SARASOTA, FL




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NOTE: Items highlighted in RED are defined elsewhere in this Glossary, while items highlighted in BLUE are site links for further information.

ZEEBO: A device funded in great part by chipmaker Qualcomm (creator of the CDMA technology for cell phones) that downloads video games over fast 3G cellphone networks. Introduced only in emerging markets so far.

ZERO DAY EXPLOIT: A virus, malware or intrusion that takes advantage of a security vulnerability in an operating system or program on the same day that the vulnerability becomes known. To be distinguished from those exploits that become known through software developers or users so that they may be patched before the exploit may actually be attacked. See, Exploit, SPYWARE.

ZIGBEE: A low cost, low power, secure wireless mesh IP networking communication protocol using small low-power digital radios to connect to cell phones via short-range radio. It boasts longer battery life, longer range and higher reliability than Bluetooth or other WPAN protocols. Used for wireless light switches, electrical meters with in-home displays and other consumer home automation and industrial remote control equipment that require stable RF (“radio frequency”) capabilities. The name Zigbee is said to refer to the “waggle dance” of honey bees upon their return to the bee hive. Recently eclipsed by Dash7 for most commercial and military uses.

ZIP: A file that has been compressed (“zipped”) using a popular program named PKZip. Other popular programs include WINRAR, SecureZip and WinZip. Macs use Stuffit.

ZOMBIE: A computer attached to the Internet that has been compromised by a hacker, computer virus, trojan horse or the like so that it can be used to remotely perform malicious attacks. Because the users of the infected computers are generally unaware that they are being controlled remotely, they are metaphorically compared to Zombies. Zombies are generally part of botnets, which are groups of zombies, remotely controlled to achieve their means, such as DDOS attacks on web servers. See, SPYWARE.


	ZONE FILE: A group of files that reside on the domain host or name server for a website. The zone file designates a domain, the subdomains and mail servers.


	ZUCKERBERG, MARK: For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, the founder of Facebook.


	ZUCKERBERG’S LAW: That each year, Internet users will share twice as much information as they share this year, and twice as much information as they did the year before. Therefore, he postulates, that people are using Facebook, and its applications and the ecosystem, more and more. This “law” was stated by Zuckerberg at the Web 2.0 Summit on September 15, 2011.


	ZUNE: Microsoft’s contender against Apple’s iPod as a portable music player. Both a hardware player and a software download site. In October, 2011, the hardware was discontinued by Microsoft, but the software app remains active.


	Z-WAVE: A wireless communications standard designed primarily for home automation, used in virtually all household remote controls. Because it operates apart from the 2.4Ghz frequency of 802.11 wireless systems, it is impervious to interference from common household or computer wireless systems.


	ZYNGA: A social network game developer from San Francisco, which develops browser-based games (CityVille, FarmVille) that work both stand-alone or on social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace. It was founded in July 2007 by Mark Pincus and was named after his American Bulldog.

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