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| Most SEO experts will use this redirect as it can forward PageRank (and other SE rankings) to the new page. |
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| Active - Matrix is a term used to describe the thousands of diodes layed over a grid of film like wires, that make up the screens on flat screen monitors. They work by lighting up in hundreds of different colours when an electrical current passes through them. Transistors are used to keep these diodes on or off and together they form a high quality image on the screen. It is these transistors that give Active - Matrix screens a higher quality than Passive - Matrix screens. |
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| ActiveX is a technology used to view desktop documents in Web browsers as it links interactively with the World Wide Web. In order for ActiveX to work correctly so you can view all Web content, you must make sure you have the latest version of ActiveX installed on your computer. |
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| Adsense is a Google run advertsing program that places Google approved adverts on your website. The adverts are placed based on your sites content and other elements. They create profit for the site owner through a pay per click system, and those wanting to use Adsense have to sign up through Adwords. |
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| ADSL or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line is the use of copper lines for transfering data. Unlike SDSL ADSL has different upload and download rates, with the upload speeds being slower, if you have a high upload rate ADSL is not the best option. |
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| Adware is the name used for any free software that needs the user to watch adverts for it to function. The most common forms of Adware are advanced toolbars, games and similar applications. |
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| Adwords are text based Pay for Perfomance adverts that are Google branded. They can be found on Google's site or on other sites which agree to host them. They are hard to block on Googls sites but by using Mozilla extension Adblock they can be blocked from external sites as they are within an IFRAME tag. |
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| An affiliate is someone who has a relationship with an indivdual, larger company or business but is not exclusively governed by them. |
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| An affiliate network is a network of affiliates and vendors who work together to sell goods. The affiliates market the vendors goods and get financial compensation from them in the form of commisions. The more sales affliates make on a whole range of vendor goods then the more vendors get paid. |
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| AGP or Accelerated Graphics Port is an internal expansion port that is situated on the motherboard. It runs more than twice as fast as a PCI graphics port and creates more realistic images that do not loose quality even when they are moving. As they store graphics in the computers system memory instead of the video memory they improve the computers graphics and increase performance. |
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| AIFF or Audio Interchange File Format was created by Apple as a means of storing audio data that was sampled and of a high-quality. The data can be burned onto a CD and is similar to Windows WAVE files. |
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| AIX or Advanced Interactive Executive is an IBM developed operating system that is Unix-based. It has strong security optoins and is normally used by enterprise servers where operators can divide CPU, disk access and memory between several different tasks.It is backwards compatible and it supports the 62-bit POWER processor from IBM, as well as running the majority of LINUX applications it can support Java 2. |
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| Ajax or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is a website development method used to make a webpage's speed and interactivity faster by only exchanging small amounts of data with a server. As it this is carried out behind the users browser the whole webpage does not have to reload every time there is a requested change. |
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| An Alert box is a message in a box that pops onto the screen when you are about to do something which could have a damaging effect. For example if you are going to delete a file an Alert Box will appear asking if you want to continue with the operation, you then have to click on wither 'yes' or 'cancel' to continue. |
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| Humans see everything in analog and all our senses are tuned in to it as our daily lives are a constant stream of analog data. In digital terms analog is estimated in ones and zeros. |
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| Applications are software programmes that run on a computer. Applications are specific to the function they are meant for, Word for example is a word processing application. |
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| ANSI or American National Standards Institute is a non-profit, private organisation with members who's aim is to improve Americasn businesses competitiveness globally and bring about improvements in the quality of life for Americans. It facilitates conformity assessment systems which are used to test products and services to see if they meet a predetermind standard. If products or services pass these tests their producers are then accredited. |
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| API or Application Program Interface or Application Programming Interface is a system which programmers use to build software for certain operating systems. It uses a series of protocols, commands and functions which are predefined and can work with the operating system in order to save themselves time writing everything fresh. |
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| Apple are a computer development company that make Macintosh computers, they also make a wide range of other products such as iMacs, Power Macs, iBooks and probably the most well known MP3 player in the world the iPod. Apple also have a large range of software programmes like iMovie and iTunes. |
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| An Applet is a Java program that is often embedded within a Web page. Applets can't access system files, resources or devices on a local computer so cannot do any damage if you access Web pages that contain a malevolent Applet. |
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| An application is a piece of software that performs a specific function. For example a game is an application that only allows you to do one specific thing - play games. |
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| Archie is a little used program that found files in FTP servers, the reason it is not used any more is that in order for it to find the files you had to know the exact name of the file. Netscape and Internet Explorer are now more commonly used for this. |
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| ASCII or American Standard Code for Information Interchange is the numerical code that all computers use to represent all letters, both upper and lower case, punctuation and numbers. This prevents computers from using different sets of letters and causing confusion with programmers. |
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| ASP or Active Server Pages is the server side Microsoft developed technology used to create dynamically-generated Web pages. |
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| ATA or Advanced Technology Attachment is the term used to describe a standard interface used to connect CD-ROM drives and hard disks inside a computer without the need of a a specific controller supporting the drive. The motherboard still has to support an ATA connection but there is no requirement for a SCSI card normally used for a SCSI hard drive, for example. |
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| ATM or Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a term that is used to describe a method of sending, or transfering, packets and cells of data that are a fixed size through a network. |
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| An Authoring Tool is an application used to write multimedia content destined for the World Wide Web |
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| Autoresponder is most commonly used on email accounts to send an automatic response to any emails sent to a certain email address. It can be run through a mail server or a Web-based interface. Individuals often use an autorepsonder if they will not be checking their emails for a while and anyone who sends one to them will be automatically sent a reply informing them that the individual is not able to respond. |
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| B2B or Business to Business is electronic commerce that takes place in very high volumes and is usually made up of automated processes between different vending partners. |
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| B2C or Business to Consumer is ecommerce that occurs publically through Teleshopping or webshops. |
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| Backbone is system used to carry data to the smaller transmission lines in a network. A local backbone is made up of network lines that connect several LANs together, this creates a wide area network which is linked by the backbone connection. |
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| Backlinks are the incoming links to a website from other websites. |
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| Backside and Frontside buses are used to carry data back and forth from a computers CPU. The Frontside bus does this between the memory and CPU whilse the Backside bus moves data in and out of the computer's L2 cache. As this data is frequently used it is stored near to the processor, and as a result the computer's CPU can work much faster. Often the Backside bus is as fast as the processor. |
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| Bandwidth is a word used to describe the amount of data that can be sent down a digital connection is a certain time period i.e how many bytes can be sent per second. |
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| Banner Ads are the advertising links that are often across the top or down the sides of a webpage. They create revenue for the website owner and they can then offer free content. |
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| Base Stations are used by wireless computers as an access point. Base Stations are made by Apple Computer, Netgear and others. Every wireless card in a computer can work with any Base Station regardless of manufacturer. |
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| BASIC or Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code was developed in the 1960s and is a computer programming language that enables people to write simplified programs. Now it has changed and grown and can be used to create more complex programs. |
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| Baud is a unit of measurement that states how many electrical signals per second, are sent to networks, modems and other data transfer devices. |
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| Beta Software is software that is still in it's testing phase, it can contain bugs,errors and other problems which are ironed out before the software becomes availble to the general public. If there is a b in a program's properties it is beta software. |
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| The Binary system is a numerical system with only two digits and all computers use it to function. It is favoured because the switches inside a computer can be either on or off (1 or 0) in order to work correctly. |
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| BIOS is pre-installed on every Windows computer and means Basic Input/Output System. It is used when the computer starts up and it checks all the devices and hardware connections on a computer. If everything is functioning the boot up process will begin. |
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| A Bit is the smallest unit of stored computer data. It is a single digit number and normally a page that is full of just text will contain around 16,000 Bits. |
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| A Bitmap is a collection of dots (or bits) that when viewed together form a picture. JPEG, GIF, PCX and TIFF are all commonly known forms of Bitmaps. The only downside to a Bitmap is that on closer inspection they are very blocky, so for more detailed work it may be better to use CoralDraw or other Vector graphics packages. |
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| A blog is an online diary or journal that is usually in chronlogical order that is normally about one topic. The entries are known as posts and people can comment on these posts on a blog. |
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| Blu-ray is a recently developed optical disk format which can be used for holding huge amounts of data in HD format. One disk is capable of containing 25GB of data - a CD can only hold 700MB of data while a DVD can hold 4.7GB. |
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| Bluetooth is a wireless connection that is used to transmit data between Bluetooth enabled devices at short range. Laptops, PDAs and mobile phones as well as scanners and printers use Bluetooth frequently. |
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| BMP is the shortened version of Bitmap and is used for saving images and is a raster graphic format. |
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| A Bookmark is function used very much like a tradional bookmark except it is used to bookmark Websites. These are more commonly known as 'favourites' on Internet Explorer and they enable a user to go directly to a website at the click of the mouse. |
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| Boolean is the artifical logic that a computer uses to decide if something is true or false. Boolean uses 4 operators AND, NOT, OR and XOR and it is the combination of true and false within these operators that allows a computer to come to a true or false decision. |
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| Boot is the word used to describe turning a computer on. By turning on your computer you are 'booting' it up. |
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| A Boot Disk is the term used to describe a disk which a computer can boot up from. They are usually an internal hard drive which is loaded as the computer boots. |
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| Bots are usually used online and they are software programs that are automated and perform specific functions when ordered to. For example they can monitor online chat rooms and can throw people who do not abide by the rules of the chat room out. |
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| Bridges connect LANs together and allow for faster transmission of data between them. A bridge is much faster than a router, but it cannot act as a firewall like the majority of routers do. |
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| Bridge Pages are used on the Internet and are Web pages which are desinged to be high ranking for certain keywords or phrases which once entered trick you into viewing a different Web page. There are many different names for them including: gateway pages, zebra pages and jump pages. |
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| Broadband is the term used to describe the high speed transmission of data through a single cable. Cable modems are the most popular connection to Internet broadband with DSL being secondary as they use a phone line and are falling out offavour as they are not as fast as Broadband. |
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| A browser is a program that allows a person to access and view pages the Internet. It deciphers the HTML code and presents it neatly formatted on your screen. |
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| Buffer is the term used to describe a method of holding a tiny amount of data before it is needed, and it is usually held in the computer's RAM. The best example of this is when you want to watch a video clip on the Internet the buffer will hold the first 15-20% of the video and then begin to play it. The remaining 75-80% of the video will load as it plays allowing for reduced stalling or skipping. |
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| Burn is term used to described how a CD-writer writes data on a CD. The laser used is highly powered and 'burns' the surface of the CD with the data that is being written to it. |
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| A Bus inside a computer is used to transfer data up and down and is made up of sets of wires. There are several buses inside a computer and they are all different sizes (32 bit or 64 bit for example) and this has an impact on how much data can be transfered at any time. |
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| A byte is a single character made up of a set of eight bits that is inside a computer's memory. These bytes are used to measure the size of files, the space remaining on a hard disk or RAM. One kilobyte is equal to 1024 bytes. |
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| C was created in the 1970s and is a high-level language for programming. It was initially used for UNIX programs however it is now used for most kinds of application writing. It is easy to use and read and is very memory efficient. C++ or C plus plus as it is pronounced is very similar to C but it contains features that are object-oriented and this means the programmer can also create objects in the coding. As a result C++ makes programming easier and many would say more pleasurable. |
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| Cable Modems are used to connect computers to the Internet and are over 500 times as fast as dial up modems. ISPs however limit their users transfer rates to maintain bandwidth. |
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| A Cache is used to store recent information in order for it to be re-accessed very quickly. Internet Explorer for instance will cache information from recently viewed Web pages and sites without the need to download the information again. This speeds up browsing as you are accessing the computer's hard disk and not the Internet. |
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| CAD or Computer Aided Design is software that is used for almost all 3D designing and engineers and architects swear by it as it can rotate, resize and move images quickly and has taken over from pencil and paper as the best designing tool. |
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| Professional photographers like to photo graph in camera RAW as it does not automatically correct and compress files as most digital cameras do. It allows them to make their own corrections as they are unprocessed. |
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| CD is the term used for the circular disk that was created in the 1980s. CDs can hold 700MB of data and this data (stored in the form of notches) is read by a laser in a CD player's optical drive. |
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| CD-R (Compact Disk Recordable) is a CD which is able to have data written to it. A CD burner must be used for this. Although they can hold audio data they can also be used to store other data such as Power Point presentations and Word documents. |
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| CD-ROM or Compact Disk Read-Only Memory are CDs that are able to be read by a computer as long as it has an optical drive. CD-ROMs cannot be changed or wiped and contain a large amounts of different data as they are not formatted the same way as CDs. They are usually retail software. |
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| A CD-RW (Compact Disk Re-Writable) is a Rewritable CD that can have data burned onto it. The difference between a CD-R and a CD-RW is that a CD-RW can be written on countless times, it cannot however be overwritten and needs to be erased first. Due to their nature CD-RW are not the best way of backing up data so it would be better to use a CD-R. |
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| CDMA or Code Division Multiple Access was developed in WW2 as a form of wireless transmission. It was later patented by Qualcomm and is used by many mobile phone companies. |
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| Certificate or SSL or secure certificate is an installed file on a Web server and is there to prove the identity of the site and ensure it is secure. This gives consumers added security when shopping online and they are verified by Thawte or other third party companies. |
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| CGI or Common Gateway Interface is a way of passing requested information from a program that has been executed on a Web server to a client. |
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| A Character is anything that can be created from a computer keyboard. This means all letters, symbols, numbers, punctuation etc. Characters are always one byte long. |
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| Chipset is the term used to describe the construction of integrated circuits. Chipsets in devices are all different, even different Pentium 2 and 3 Processors have different Chipsets. |
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| CISC or Complex Instruction Set Computing is a microprocessor that contains a huge number of computer instructions which start off as extremely simple and go up to highly complex and specific. The idea behind the design was originally to process complex orders and instructions in the best way, however trial and error proved that by using small and short instructions this process would happen much faster. As a result the RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing was developed and now PowerPCs are entirely RISC - based. Pentium processors on the other hand are CISC -based with some RISC features. |
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| A Clean Room is a room where highly sensitive equipment is produced in order for it to stay free from contamination. Microprocessors are made in clean rooms and the air in them is constantly filtered. |
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| Client is the term used to describe a system that can access a service, which is usually remote on another computer via a network. |
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| Clip Art is a collection of different images and pictures that can be imported onto documents. They are usually arranged into files that show the type of images within them for example - animals, flowers, boats etc. |
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| A Clipboard is part of your computer's RAM that stores images or sections of text to be placed elsewhere. When you use the copy or cut command the item you have selected will be put on the clipboard until you click paste and place it where you want it. You can also copy and paste web addresses. |
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| Clock Speed is the term used to measure the rate that a processor can complete it's processing cycles. They are normally measured in Megahertz (1,000,000 cycles per second) and Gigahertz (1,000,000,000 cycles per second). |
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| The term Clone was first coined in the 1980s when rival computer companies began to produce Windows - based computers. These ran exactly the same as IBM computers and used much of the same hardware and software. There are now many companies who make Windows-based personal computers, or PCs as they are now known. |
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| A Cluster can mean two different things. The first meaning refers to sectors on a disk, the smallest sectors can be identified and accessed on a hard dick but a cluster is a group of these that identifies a file and typically a file will be made up of several clusters. The second meaning refers to groups of computers that are connected, usually by Ethernet and they are often used for processing data (normally scientific). As all the computers are performing the same function (complex scientific calculations or decryption) they are known to be engaging in parallel computing. |
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| CMOS (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) is a term used to describe the means of creating transistors. The word complimentary relates to how they will produce a positive or negative charge. Transistors that are CMOS-based only use one charge per time so they are very efficient and are only in use when a charge goes through them. Processors that have these CMOS -based transistors can run incredibly fast without overheating and the CMOS memory in a computer (the part of the memory that remembers the date and time) runs on a such low power that a Lithium battery can sustain it for years. |
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| CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow Black) these colours are the four main colours used for printing documents. Computers screens use Red, Blue and Green, CMYK colours can be blended to make various colours and shades and are known as subtractive. |
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| Codec or Coder Decoder is the term used to describe the method in which audio and video files are compressed to save space and then decompressed in order to be played. MPEG and AVI are two of the most popular forms of video files with WAV and AIFF being the most popular for audio files. |
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| ColdFusion is a middleware programming language that is tag-based and mainly used in the writing of Web -based applications. |
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| Compact Flash (CF) is a form of memory that tends to be used in digital cameras. |
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| A Computer in the strictest sense is a programmable machine that will act under instruction. Nowadays a computer is thought of as a PC, laptop or Mac, but in truth the monitor, mouse and keyboard are not part of this. |
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| Computer Ethics are an unwritten set of rules and morals that surround the use of computers. Popular topics of computer ethics are privacy and the concerns that arise from it and other things such as how computers fit into society. |
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| Configuration is the term used to describe the more technical aspects of a computer, the RAM, processor, hard drive and other such parts. |
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| A Controller Card is the interface between a computers motherboard and the other parts of the computer. All devices attached to a computer such as a mouse or printer need a controller to work. If you are looking to add a SCSI drive to your computer you will need to use a controller card (these normally fit into a PCI slot). |
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| Cookies are data that is sent to your computer when you have visited a Website. If you revisit the site the cookie will load particular pages depending on what information is contained in it. |
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| Copy is the term used when a document or image is copied and placed on the computers clipboard ready to be pasted elsewhere. |
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| A Counter is usually placed on a Website to record the number of visitors to the site. |
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| CPA or Cost Per Action is the term used to describe the fee that is charged each time a desired action is completed by a user, this can take the form of reading a number of pages or downloading particular software. |
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| CPC or Cost Per Click is the term used to describe the fee that is charged each time a banner ad or HTML link is clicked by a user. |
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| CPL or Cost Per Lead is a lead that needs to be fulfilled in order to get a credit, this can be a valid email address or a survey fully filled out. |
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| CPM or Cost Per 1000 Impressions is the term used to describe the buying of advertising space in a particular media. |
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| CPS or Cost Per Sale is the term used when a fee is charged for every purchase a user makes. |
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| CPU or Central Processing Unit is sometimes thought of as a computers brain. And like a brain it controls everything that the computer does from the most complex task to the most basic function. |
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| A Crawler or Web spider is a type of bot that searches the Internet in a specific, automated way and they are often used by search engines to refine searches. |
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| CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is the method used to try to create a personable feeling between an Internet company and it's customers. And many online companies are now buying into the idea that they need a strategy to help them to create a more friendly, customer orientated online experience |
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| A Cron is a Unix system task that is periodically run. These can take the form of an email sent out once a week or a directory being backed up every two weeks. |
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| Crossplatform is any software application that can be successfully run on any computer. Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop are two examples of this. |
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| CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) is a method of firing electrons from a tube onto phosphors on the front of a TV or monitors display. When the phosphors are hit they light up and the result is then projected onto the screen in a mixture of blue, green and red. As the electrons are magnetically guided you can get interference on the screen if there are any magnetic devices nearby. LCD displays are now replacing CRT as they don't have the problem with magnetic interference and they are thinner. |
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| CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a term of computer language that describes any structured document and it's presentation in HTML, XML or XHTML. This blueprint is upheld by the World Wide Web Consortium. |
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| CTP (Composite Theoretic Performance) is a way of measuring a computer processors performance. The resulting calculations are used to benchmark performance and computer companies use them to measure the number of theoretical operations can be performed by their computers in one second. |
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| CTR (Click Through Ratio) means the number of times (ratio) that a person has clicked through a banner ad during the time it has been live. |
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| A Cursor has two meanings. The first is the pointer of your mouse that is shown on the computer screen, and it can be used to open documents or go into programs by double clicking the mouse. The second is the flashing line which will show you where you have typed to in a body of text. This line can be moved around and repositioned in order to highlight sections of text and cut and paste them elsewhere. |
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| Cyberspace does not really have an exclusive definition, instead it refers to the virtual world that computers inhabit. It now also encompasses the Internet and people refer to an email being sent through cyberspace when it is sent. |
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| A Daemon is a program that is always running on a computer and it is responsible for sending actions to devices when it receives input. For example a printer daemon sends information to a printer when someone wants something printing. |
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| Dashboard was first introduced with the arrival of the Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and it is a user interface that enables access to 'widgets' which show many different things such as the time, date and personal information like phone numbers and addresses. There are also collections of widgets that do other thingssuch as allow the user to play games and keep up to date with sports news etc. To view the dashboard you must click the dashboard icon or press F12, to activate the dashboard widgets you simply drag or click them onto the desktop, to deactivate them click the close box. |
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| A Database is a structured way of holding data, and this data is usually organised in rows and columns although some more modern databases can contain images and audio/video files. |
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| DBMS (Database Management System) is a software system which standardises the storage of data for easy retrieval, cataloging and questioning of data. Examples of DBMSs are Microsoft Access and FileMaker although there are many different versions. As these databases must be able to communicate with each other it is important that you install Open Database Connectivity software to enable connectivity. |
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| DDR or Double Data Rate is an up to date version of SDRAM (computer memory) that is twice as fast as it's predecessor. It is also called DDR-SDRAM and due to its efficient performance (it can both send and receive signals in half the time) it is often used in notebook computers. |
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| DDR2 (Double Data Rate 2) is a faster, advanced version of DDR memory and like DDR it can send data on the rising and falling edges of the processors clock cycles although it is twice as fast. DDR2 RAM has an improved design to DDR RAM and this gives the DDR2 RAM a larger bandwidth and this allows a greater volume of data to be passed through the RAM chip. |
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| A Deadlink is a link to a Web page (or server) that is continually unavailable. They are very common on the Internet but very unprofessional. |
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| Debug is the term used to describe the process of getting rid of any 'bugs' in a computer program. When in development these bugs can occur in the programming but before a program can be released to the public they must be debugged so that any problems are eliminated. |
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| A Debugger is a program that enables programmers to find bugs in their programs. Debuggers run the program and highlight any codes which are causing the problems so the programmer can alter them. Often they run through the program step by step and provide detailed descriptions of what ahs gone wrong and when. |
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| Default is a preset computer program option, for example if you are creating a text document using Netscape Communicator the default text would be 'Times'. The default option in any program is normally the one that a person would choose, but you can customise the program by choosing different options if you like. |
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| Defragment, or defragmenting is a method of increasing the performance of your computer by defragmenting the hard disk. |
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| The Deguass button on a computer monitor demagnetises the screen and thus improves the colour. Modern monitors don't have the degauss button as they automatically demagnetise themselves. Flat screen monitors don't have this as magnetism doesn't occur in them. |
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| Delete in computer terms means get rid or erase. You can delete files, text and whole documents, this is done from text by pressing the delete button when the cursor is behind the text, or you can delete from inside a body of text by highlighting a section then pressing delete. |
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| Desktop is the term used to describe your computer's first screen that contains your icons. Many people put frequently used programs and files on their desktop, much like a real desktop so they have easy access to them. |
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| Every time a document is printed is published. Desktop Publishing it the term used to describe this act, it also enables images and text to be placed on the same page ready for publishing without the need of large printing presses and cutting and placing of images on sheets of paper. |
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| DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is used by a network server to appoint IP addresses to computers that are networked. Large networks that need setting up are vastly helped by DHCP as it will automatically assign an IP address from a master list to any computer connected to it. |
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| DHTML (Dynamic HTML) is a mixture of HTML, a scripting language (such as JavaScript) which is client side and Cascading Style Sheets to create interactive Web sites. |
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| Dialog Box is the term used to describe the window that will appear on the screen when dialog with the user needs to occur. These boxes will usually have options to choose from in them such as save or cancel. Once you have selected your option the changes will be saved and the box will disappear. |
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| Digital is the term used to describe the 1s and 0s that all data is made up of. As computers are digital machines that use the binary system they will only read on or off, but this is translated into music or video (in the case of CDs and DVDs). |
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| To Digitise anything you will turn it from analog to digital. To create a digital file it must be sampled and the higher the sampling rate the better quality the result. A CD for instance will sample at a rate of 44.1kHz which means it samples audio 44,100 times per second. |
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| DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Module) is a tiny circuit board holing memory chips. DIMMs are able to transfer a great deal of data at once as the use a 64-bit bus to the memory. |
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| Direct3D is a Microsoft developed API that contains a collection of functions and commands used to operate 3D objects. It enables programmers to write much less code and makes managing 3D objects easier. |
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| A Directory is a system that is used for storing information such as files rather like an electronic filing system. A subdirectory is a directory that is inside another one. |
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| DirectX is used by developers to create software that is normally used in video games and can control sound effects and video playback. This makes a game for instance look a lot more controlled and uniform. |
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| DLL (Dynamic Link Library) is a file that has a range of information and functions accessed through a Windows program. Once the program starts links are created to the .dll files that will be needed. If the link is static it will only operate whilst the program runs, if it is dynamic it will run when needed, making the task more efficient. |
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| DNS (Domain Name Server) is a storage system that contains domain and host names on a sort of allocated database on the Internet and other networks. Its most crucial function however is appointing IP addresses for every host name and creates a list of each e-mail accepting mail exchange servers for every domain. |
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| DNS Records are text that is stored in zone files and used for the translation of domain names to IP addresses. As the information is purely text is of key importance that the correct text is written otherwise mistakes can occur. |
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| Domain Name is the name used (which is unique) to define and identify a computer that is on the Internet from the other systems also on the Internet. |
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| Dongle has two meanings. The first means a type of security key which is plugged into a USB port on a computer or laptop and allows only the authorised owner of the dongle to use the computer. The second is an Ethernet card adaptor for a laptop. They are sued because an Ethernet cable is usually too big to fit into a network interface card. |
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| Doorway Pages fake Web pages that are SEO optimised in order to rank very highly in a search engine, they then trick you into watching another Web page. |
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| Dot Pitch is the term used to describe how sharp the picture on a Cathode Ray Tube monitor is. They are organised in millimetres and the finer the picture the lower the number. Most CRT monitors are around .25 - .28 and anything larger would make a fuzzy picture. A dot pitch is different to a pixel as they are smaller and pixels are mapped onto the dots. |
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| Double Click means clicking your mouse twice. It usually has to be done in quick succession, although most computers in the System Preference or Mouse Control Panal allow you to lengthen the amount of time needed to double click successfully. By performing a double click you are asking the computer to do something specific such as open a file. |
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| Download is the term used when one computer collects any information form another computer. |
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| Drag is the term used when you drag an item on your computer screen, you can do this with icons to move them around or you can drag things from one folder to another. Drag is a very useful feature when using Graphical User Interfaces . |
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| A computer Driver is a file (which is normally small) that enables a computer to communicate with specific hardware devices. Drivers are in .dll files in Windows based computers. |
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| DRM (Digital rights Management) is the term used to describe the systems related to the copyright of electronic media. This helps companies who publish electronic media such as video and audio files monitor who is accessing them and can prevent unauthorised plays. |
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| DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is the term used to describe the technology used to transfer data over a telephone line and connect to the Internet. It is faster than a normal telephone connection which helps transference. |
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| DTD (Document Type Definition) is a term used to define the attributes and tags used in XML or HTML documents. |
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| DV (Digital Video) is different to analog video as it records in binary (1s and 0s) rather than frame by frame and as a result can be edited on a computer. Digital video camcorders and other such devices can, using a Firewire (IEEE 1394) cable export the footage directly to a computer. An analog to digital converter must be used to transfer analog video to a computer. |
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| DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) is an optical disc that is able to store a great deal more information than a CD, this makes large applications and films to be stored on one disk. |
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| DVD+R (Digital Versatile Disc Recordable) is a DVD that is able to be recorded on and the single sided discs can store 4.7GB of data and the double-layered can store 8.5GB. DVD+R is not as common as DVD-R but can still be played on the majority of DVD players and DVD-ROM drives. |
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| DVD+RW (Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable) is similar to a DVD+R only it can be rerecorded and rewritten on (as long as the disk has had all data removed first) they are only available as a single sided disk but can still hold 4.7GB of data. They are the perfect choice for anyone wishing to make backups of data and they can be written onto using a burner supporting DVD+RWs. |
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| DVD-R (Digital Versatile Disc Recordable) is a DVD which can be written or burned onto. They hold 4.7GB of data and can only be recorded onto once. |
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| DVD-RAM (Digital Versatile Disc Random Access Memory) are very much like DVD-RW and DVD+RW however they need to be put into a enclosing cartridge before they can be played, but these will not fit into a normal DVD player. |
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| DVD-RW (Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable) is very similar to a DVD-R except the data on it can be wiped in order for it to be written on again. DVD-RW area good choice to use to backup data and they are capable of holding 4.7GB, however they are not double sided and in order to write anything to a DVD-RW you must have a burner that supports DVD-RW. |
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| DVI (Digital Video Interface) is a term used for the video connection port that will support analog and digital displays. |
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| DVR (Digital Video Recorder) is a video recorder that instead of using video cassettes uses a hard drive to record, play back, fast forward etc. DVRs however have one feature that a video recorder does not and that is that it can put live TV on pause and record whatever the current program is in real time. |
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| A Dynamic Page is a Web page that is constantly changing or being updated. Many search engines will favour these kind of pages. |
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| E-Commerce is a term used to describe any business conducted over the Internet. There are two main forms of E-Commerce and they are B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer) |
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| E-Mail is a way of sending messages to other people with E-Mail addresses via the Internet. |
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| Edutainment is a mixture of two words education and entertainment and it is a form of electronic learning that is also entertaining. |
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| Emoticons are mixtures of symbols that are used to represent other things in text : ) for example is meant to show a smiley face. |
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| Encryption is the term used when data is mixed up and scrambled so it cannot be read without it first being decoded by the correct decoding key. |
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| When computer hardware or software is developed it is developed for an end user (the person who will be using it). |
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| EPC is the term used that means for Earnings Per Click. |
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| EPS (Encapsulate PostScript) is a format of image files that is only compatable with PostScript printers. It is mainly used for file transference between different graphics applications. |
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| EPV stands for Earnings Per Visitor. |
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| Error 400 (Bad Request) is the term used when a person tried to get a computer to perform an invalid demand. |
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| Error 401 (Unauthorised) is the term used when a client does not have the required amount of authorisation to enter a site. |
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| Error 403 (Forbidden) is the term used when a request is not allowed as the requester does not have access. |
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| Error 404 (Not Found) is the term used when something that has been requested no longer exists. |
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| Error 500 (Internal Server Error) is the term used when the server found an unknown problem and cannot continue with a request to a URL. |
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| Error 501 (Not Implemented) is the term used when a server doesn't support a called protocol or service type. |
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| Error 503 (Service Unavailable) is the term used when a connection times out because the server took too much time to answer. |
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| Ethernet is the term for the most popular connection computers in a LAN utilise. Ethernet ports are slightly bigger than a normal phone jack. |
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| EUP (Enterprise Unified Process) is the software development method that enables the production of software in an organised way. EUP is made up of six phrases: Inception in which the project begins and its merits looked at. Elaboration in which costs and other development issues are discussed and evaluated. Construction in which the software is created, tested and written. Transition in which the software is put on public release and any problems from the end users are noted and acted upon. Production in which the software is maintained and kept active by the developers and supporting staff. And finally retirement in which the software is decommissioned or retired and production ceases, this usually happens when a newer version is created. |
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| An Exabyte is expressed as 2 to the 60th power or 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes, however it is so big that it is seldom used. |
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| An Exbibyte is expressed as 2 to the 60th power, or 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes and an exbibyte is a single unit of data storage. |
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| FAA (Free For All link page) is a term used to describe a Web page that is specifically created to rank highly for a Web site. |
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| FAQ is a term that means Frequently Asked Questions and is a text list of commonly asked questions and their answers that a user may have about software |
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| FAT32 (File Allocation Table) is the term used for the method that Windows uses to store data on a hard drive. It helps your computer to find files even if they have been fragmented. As it uses a greater number of bits in order to recognise a cluster it is a better version of FAT. FAT32 has a serious amount of storage space - 2 terabytes on a hard disk which is more than enough for a home computer user. |
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| Favicon (Favourites Icon) is a term used to describe an icon that has been designed for a particular website, which if you put the web address into your favourites will put the icon next to the name of the web site. |
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| Fibre-Optic Cables are cables that are made of extremely thin strands of glass or other material which is transparent and capable of carrying beams of light. Data can be sent through fibre-optic cables at the speed of light, due to the fact that they are light-based. A laser transmitter sends the signal and it is translated back into data when it reaches the end and this is used by a computer. Fibre-optic cables are useful as they are not able to be interfered with by noise or vibrations, the only downside to them is that they are very fragile. Due to this they are usually installed underground but this is expensive and mending broken fibre-optic cables is a difficult, expensive and time consuming process. |
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| A File is an accumulation of data that is stored together under one name. Files can contain text files, images, audio and video clips and even applications. Applications can also be files, such as iTunes and Microsoft Internet Explorer. |
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| A File Extension is a letter code at the end of a file name that shows what type of file it is. The code .txt shows that it is a text document. The majority of file extensions are three characters long however they can be one to five long. A file extension will also provide information to the computer about which operating system should be used to open it. |
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| A File System is located on a computers hard drive and they contain all the files in a directory. This root directory will be created when you format the hard disk and every time you add a new file to it, it will be put in the appropriate directory. |
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