Computer & Internet Glossary

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Computer Technically, a computer is a programmable machine. This means it can execute a programmed list of instructions and respond to new instructions that it is given. Today, however, the term is most often used to refer to the desktop and laptop computers that most people use. When referring to a desktop model, the term "computer" technically only refers to the computer itself -- not the monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Still, it is acceptable to refer to everything together as the computer. If you want to be really technical, the box that holds the computer is called the "system unit." Some of the major parts of a personal computer (or PC) include the motherboard, CPU, memory (or RAM), hard drive, and video card. While personal computers are by far the most common type of computers today, there are several other types of computers. For example, a "minicomputer" is a powerful computer that can support many users at once. A "mainframe" is a large, high-powered computer that can perform billions of calculations from multiple sources at one time. Finally, a "supercomputer" is a machine that can process billions of instructions a second and is used to calculate extremely complex calculations. Broadband This refers to high-speed data transmission in which a single cable can carry a large amount of data at once. The most common types of Internet broadband connections are cable modems (which use the same connection as cable TV) and DSL modems (which use your existing phone line). Because of its multiple channel capacity, broadband has started to replace baseband, the single-channel technology originally used in most computer networks. So now when you see companies like AT&T and SBC pushing those fancy "broadband" ads in your face, you'll at least know what they are talking about. Burn This term is used to describe writing data to a CD or DVD. If you were taking an SAT test, the analogy would look something like this: Hard Disk : Write :: CD/DVD : Burn The reason the term "burn" is used is because the CD-writer, or burner, literally burns the data onto a writable CD. The laser in a CD-writer can be cranked up to a more powerful level than an ordinary CD-ROM laser. This enables it to engrave thousands of 1's and 0's onto a CD. So that is why people talk about "burning" songs or files to CDs. They could just say they are "writing" the data to a CD, and it would make sense, but people seem to think "burning" sounds cooler. Bitmap The images you see on your computer are composed of bitmaps. A bitmap is a map of dots, or bits (hence the name), that looks like a picture as long you are sitting a reasonable distance away from the screen. Common bitmap filetypes include BMP (the raw bitmap format), JPEG, GIF, PICT, PCX, and TIFF. Because bitmap images are made up of a bunch of dots, if you zoom in on a bitmap, it appears to be very blocky. Vector graphics (created in programs such as Freehand, Illustrator, or CorelDraw) can scale larger without getting blocky. Cable Modem Though a cable modem serves the same purpose as a typical analog, or dial-up modem, a cable modem is different in many ways. The biggest difference is that a cable modem is much faster. While a 56K modem can receive data at about 53 Kbps, a cable modem can haul it in at about 1.5 Mbps (Megabits per second). That's about 30 times faster. The actual Internet bandwidth over a cable line can be as high as 27 Mbps downstream and 2.5 Mbps upstream. However, most cable modems connect to the ISP's T1 connection, which maxes out at 1.5 Mpbs, so that will be the maximum transfer rate for the suscriber. Another important way that a cable modem is different than a dial-up modem is that it doesn't connect to a phone line. Instead, the cable modem connects to a local cable TV line, hence the term "cable modem." This allows computers equipped with a cable modem to have a continuous connection to the Internet. Therefore, there is no need to dial up the ISP everytime you want to check your e-mail. Cable modems, which have a much more complex design than dial-up modems, are usually external devices, but there are some models that can be integrated within a computer. Instead of connecting to a serial port like a dial-up modem, cable modems attach to a standard Ethernet port so that they can transfer data at the fastest speed possible. Cookie It seems like everyone who tries to explain what a cookie is just has to make a joke out of it (because of the name), so I'm not even going to bother. In computer terminology, a cookie is data sent to your computer by a Web server that records your actions on a certain Web site. It's a lot like a preference file for a typical computer program. When you visit the site after being sent the cookie, the site will load certain pages according to the information stored in the cookie. For example, some sites can remember information like your user name and password, so you don't have to re-enter it each time you visit the site. Cookies are what allow you to have personalized web sites like "My Excite" or "My Yahoo," where you can customize what is displayed on the page. While cookies have many benefits, some people don't like to have their information recorded by Web sites that they visit. For this reason, most Web browsers have an option to accept or deny cookies. Personally, I like cookies -- I think they taste great too. CPU Stands for "Central Processing Unit." This is the pretty much the brain of your computer. It processes everything from basic instructions to complex functions. Any time something needs to be computed, it gets sent to the CPU. Every day, it's compute this, compute that -- you'd think the CPU would need a break after awhile. But no -- it just keeps on processing. The CPU can also be referred to simply as the "processor." Cyberspace Unlike most computer terms, "cyberspace" does not have a standard, objective definition. Instead, it is generally used to describe the virtual world of computers. For example, an object in cyberspace is a block of data floating around on some computer system or network. With the advent of the Internet, cyberspace is now also used to refer to the global network of computers. So, after sending an e-mail to your friend, you could say you sent the message to her through cyberspace. However, use this term sparingly, as it is a popular newbie term and is already well overused. Database This is a data structure used to store organized information. A database is typically made up of many linked tables of rows and columns. For example, a company might use a database to store information about their products, their employees, and financial information. Databases are now also used in nearly all e-commerce sites to store product inventory and customer information. Database software, such as Microsoft Access, FileMaker Pro, and MySQL is designed to help companies and individuals organize large amounts of information in a way where the data can be easily searched, sorted, and updated. While the first databases were relatively "flat" (limited to simple rows and columns), today's relational databases allow users to access, update, and search information based on the relationship of data in one database to another. Certain databases even let users store data such as sound clips, pictures, and videos. Domain Name This is the name that identifies an Web site. For example, "microsoft.com" is the domain name of Microsoft's Web site. A single Web server can serve Web sites for multiple domain names, but a single domain name can point to only one machine. For example, Apple Computer has Web sites at www.apple.com, www.info.apple.com, and store.apple.com. Each of these sites could be served on different machines. Then there are domain names that have been registered, but are not connected to a Web server. The most common reason for this is to have e-mail addresses at a certain domain name without having to maintain a Web site. In these cases, the domain name must be connected to a machine that is running a mail server. Download This is the process in which data is sent to your computer. Whenever you receive information from the Internet, you are downloading it to your computer. For example, you might have to download an upgrade for your computer's operating system in order to play a new game (especially if you're using Windows). Or you might download a demo version of a program you are thinking about buying from the software company's Web site. The opposite of this process, sending information to another computer, is called uploading. Driver This term usually refers to the person behind the wheel of a moving car. In the computer world, however, a driver is a small file that helps the computer communicates with a certain hardware device. It contains information the computer needs to recognize and control the device. In Windows-based PCs, a driver is often packaged as a dynamic link library, or .dll file. In Macs, most hardware devices don't need drivers, but the ones that do usually come with a software driver in the form of a system extension, or .kext file. E-mail It's hard to remember what our lives were like without e-mail. Ranking up there with the Web as one of the most useful features of the Internet, e-mail has become one of today's standard means of communication. Billions of messages are sent each year. If you're like most people these days, you probably have more than one e-mail address. After all, the more addresses you have, the more sophisticated you look... E-mail is part of the standard TCP/IP set of protocols. Sending messages is typically done by SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and receiving messages is handled by POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3), or IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). IMAP is the newer protocol, allowing you to view and sort messages on the mail server, without dow