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Geek Talk
By Jeff Bourque
www.thecomputergeek.ca
Geeks have their own unique language when talking about computers and we often forget that our clients have no idea what we are talking about!
Here is good example of 'geek speak'. "I un-mounted the hard disk and re-partitioned it to a logical NTFS drive. I over clocked the CPU speed and increased the DDR ram to 512 Kb. This increases the upload time through the DSL Router provided by my ISP."
If you understood what I was talking about, then you are indeed a geek! For all the non-geeks, I have put together a basic dictionary of the more common words and phrases used by geeks when discussing computers and the Internet.
Computer Words
PC: Acronym for personal computer. The first personal computer produced by IBM was called the PC, and increasingly the term PC came to mean IBM or IBM-compatible personal computers, to the exclusion of other types of personal computers, such as Apple's ' Macintosh' or 'Mac' as it is commonly known.
OS: Acronym for operating system. Every general-purpose computer must have an operating system to run other programs. Operating systems perform basic tasks, such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on the disk, (Win98 or Windows XP are examples of operating systems)
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RAM: Acronym for random access memory, a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly.
RAM is the most common type of memory found in computers and other devices, such as printers.
USB: Acronym for Universal Serial Bus, an external bus standard that supports data transfer.
A single USB port can be used to connect up to 127 devices, such as a mouse, modem, keyboard, or file storage device.
Hard Drive: The mechanism that stores all your files and folders. Hard disk drives are sometimes called Winchester drives - Winchester being the name of one of the first popular hard disk drive technologies developed by IBM in 1973.
CD-RW: Acronym for Compact Disc Rewrite-able, a type of CD that enables you to write or store information on it in multiple sessions.
CD-RW drives and disks, can be used just like a floppy or hard disk - copying data onto it multiple times.
Desktop: Desktop is the metaphor used to portray file systems. A desktop consists of pictures called icons, representing cabinets, files, folders, and various types of documents
(i.e. letters, reports, pictures and spreadsheets).
Network: A group of two or more computer systems linked together
Internet Words
Internet: A global network connecting millions of computers.
More than 100 countries are linked into exchanges of data
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news and opinions. Unlike online services, which are centrally controlled, the Internet is decentralized by design. Each Internet computer, called a host, is independent. Its operators can choose which Internet services to use and which local services to make available to the global Internet community. Remarkably, this anarchy by design works exceedingly well.
Browser: Short for Web browser, a software application used to locate and display Web pages.
The two most popular browsers are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Both of these are graphical browsers, which means that they can display graphics as well as text.
In addition, most modern browsers can present multimedia information, including sound and video, though they require plug-ins for some formats.
E-mail: Abbreviation for electronic mail, the transmission of messages over communications networks.
The messages can be notes entered from the keyboard or electronic files stored on disk.
Most mainframes, minicomputers, and computer networks have an e-mail system. Some electronic-mail systems are confined to a single computer system or network, but others have gateways to other computer systems, enabling users to send electronic mail anywhere in the world. Companies that are fully computerized make extensive use of e-mail because it is fast, flexible, and reliable.
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Cookies: A message given to a Web browser by a Web server. The browser stores the message in a text file. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.ISP: Acronym for Internet Service Provider, a company that provides access to the Internet. For a monthly fee, the service provider gives you a software package, username, password and access phone number. Equipped with a modem, you can then log on to the Internet and browse the World Wide Web and USENET, and send and receive e-mail.
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Issue: 005 - July 2005
