Applications Software
that is programmed to perform specific tasks. On your computer right now you probably have a browser application, such as
Netscape, AOL, or MSN, a word processing application, an email application and so on.
Baud The speed of a communications channel, such as a modem
Bookmark Keeps a web address handy on your browser
Browser
Software that allows user to access and view web pages
Cache A temporary holding "area" for recently used documents or applications
Compact
Disc A disc on which a laser has digitally recorded information such as audio, video, or computer
data
CPU (aka microprocessor) The brain of
the computer
Domain
Name of a computer on the Internet (Affinity HB's domain is affinityhb.com)
Email
Electronic mail
Firewall
Security
measures designed to protect a network—can be hardware or software
Floppy Disk
A portable magnetic storage medium
for computer data that allows users to randomly access information
FTP
File Transfer Protocol
Gigabyte Approximately a billion bytes (or 1,000 megabytes)
Graphical
User Interface, GUI (pronounced gooey) Graphical symbols instead of text commands
to control common computer functions such as copying programs and disks
Hacker
Someone who engages in hacking
Hacking Persistent efforts to use a computer to gain illegal or unauthorized entry to another computer system
Hard
Copy A printed copy of computer output
Hard Disk
A fixed, large-capacity magnetic
storage medium for computer data
Hardware
The physical components of the
computer system
Homepage Front page or entry point viewed on a website
HTML
HyperText Markup Language
HTTP
HyperText
Transfer Protocol
Hyperlinks Highlighted
words that take you to another page
Icon
A small picture or symbol representing
a computer hardware function or component
Ink-jet
Printer A type of printer that forms letters on the page by shooting tiny electrically charged
droplets of ink
Input
Device The hardware that is used to pass information into the computer, such as a mouse, keyboard
or scanner
Laser Printer A printer that uses both laser and photographic technology to produce high quality output
Megabyte
Approximately a million bytes
Modem
Device that allows your
computer to talk to other computers over a telephone line
Motherboard A
large printed circuit card that contains the microprocessor, the BIOS, sockets for the CPU's RAM and a collection of slots that auxiliary cards plug into
Network
System
of linked computers and other devices that allows computers to share and exchange information
Output Device The hardware that receives and displays information coming from the computer (monitor, printer, etc.)
RAM
(Random Access Memory) The computer's
working memory
ROM
(Read Only Memory) The permanent
memory that is built into your computer
URL
Uniform Resource Locator, aka internet address
Virus Program designed to attach itself to other programs; can damage data files and
cause system failures
WWW World Wide
Web
