Jargon Buster M-R
M
MB
Megabyte = 1,048,576 bytes. A unit of
computer memory, data storage capacity, or data
Modem
Modulator, DEModulator. A device you
connect to your computer and phone line that enables your computer
to communicate with other computers through the phone system.
Modems convert the computer's digital signals into analog waves
that can be transmitted over standard voice telephone lines. Modem
speeds are measured in bits per second (bps) or Kilobits (Kbps), or
thousands of bits, per second.
N
Network
Two or more computers that are
connected together to share resources such as hardware, data, and
software. Most common are the local area network (LAN) and the wide
area network (WAN).
O
ODBC Support
Object Database Connectivity (ODBC)
support allows ODBC compliant applications to connect to an ODBC
database and extract data without requiring that the user have
programming skills. For example, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access,
and mySQL are ODBC compliant applications. Using ODBC and mySQL a
user can import data directly into an Excel spreadsheet once mySQL
ODBC drivers have been installed on the user's computer.
OPEX or Opex (Operating expenditures)
An on-going cost for running a product,
business, or system. Its counterpart, a capital expenditure
(CAPEX), is the cost of developing or providing non-consumable
parts for the product or system.
P
Packet
Data is generally transmitted within networks in the form of
data packets. These packets contain the Header,
the actual data (user data) and redundant data (CRC)
for error correction on the receiving end.
Page
A document, or collection of information, available by way of
the World Wide Web. To make information available over the WWW, you
organize it into pages. A page may contain text, graphics, video,
and/or sound files.
PC
Personal Computer. In recent years, the term 'PC' is used most
often to describe personal computers based on an Intel or
Intel-compatible microprocessor.
PERL
Practical Extraction and Report
Language. Perl is a server-side, interpreted language that provides
much of the web's interactivity.
PGP
Pretty Good Privacy. An encryption
program that allows users to exchange files and messages, with both
privacy and authentication, over all types of networks. The
messages are unreadable unless the receiver has an encryption
key.
PHP
A server-side, HTML-embedded, open source scripting language
used to create dynamic webpages. For more information: http://php.net/.
PING
A TCP/IP service that lets you check
that you can reach another network node from your local host.
Portal
A site designed to act as an entryway
to the World Wide Web.
PPC
Pay Per Click. - This is a marketing
campaign that is specific to search engines where you pay to
advertise on the right hand side of the search for key terms. e.g.
When a customer types in a key word then our ad appears in the
search. If the customer clicks the ad then we pay the search engine
for 'referring' the customers to our site.
Propagation
The process of disseminating
information throughout a system. Example 1 - After you register a
new Internet domain name, the information is propagated across the
Internet when local DNS servers update their databases from a
central file. Note: Not all local DNS databases are updated with
the same frequency (hourly, daily, every other day, etc.). Example
2 - Password changes often must be made on several different
servers and will not complete propagation until all affected
servers update their databases. Updating (rehashing) a given
server's database is usually an automated process that is performed
at specific intervals.
Protocol
A set of rules that regulate the way
data is transmitted between computers over a network.
Jargon Buster
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