ActiveX is a series of computer program distribution and runtime technologies. Developed by Microsoft, ActiveX technologies have been incorporated into almost all of Microsoft's products released in recent years including Windows, Word, Excel, and In... [more]
Adware is software that is distributed without charge in exchange for the user's consent to view advertisements. The name "adware" is a portmanteau of the words "advertisement" and "software". As computer users turn to FOSS or pirate software to redu... [more]
Ajax is an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Ajax is a technique whereby a website can update part of a page without refreshing the whole content. This saves bandwidth and provides for a more interactive user experience. In other words, ch... [more]
Apache HTTP Server is a webserver developed and maintained by The Apache Software Foundation. The stated objective of Apache is to create an open source HTTP server that will run on any modern operating system and hardware. In addition to it's wide p... [more]
Apple, Inc. is an electronics and software company based in California, USA. Originally known as Apple Computer, the company is familiar to most people as innovators of the personal computer as it is known today. Apple Computer had introduced many of... [more]
BIOS is an acronym for Basic Input / Output System. It is the first part of the computer to boot, and usually decides from where to boot the operating system. The BIOS is also responsible for some of the most basic computer interfaces such as keyboar... [more]
A buffer overflow is a type of computer security exploit which allows a program to perform functions that it is not designed to do. The responsibility for preventing the possibility of exploit lies in the programmer, however this requires proper plan... [more]
A bug is an error in a computer program or hardware. While usually the result of programmer error or oversight, bugs can also be introduced into a program through compiler error, incorrect assumptions about hardware or software interfaces, or can be ... [more]
A client is a computer program that depends upon another program to function. Usually, client software receives data or instructions from a remote program called a server. Some thin clients actually have critical software components execute on the re... [more]
A computer program is a file or collection of files that instruct a computer what to do. Just like a program at a play or concert, a computer program at the most basic level is a list of events. The computer iterates through the list and performs fun... [more]
CSS is an acronym for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS is a language used to define the layout and appearance of webpages. The primary purpose of Cascading Style Sheets is to separate the content of a webpage from its layout, therefore facilitating an eas... [more]
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. The term refers to a series of technologies aimed at preventing the unauthorized transfer of software, music, games, and other electronic media from a legal user to anybody else. When one "purchases" DRM-enab... [more]
Email is abbreviation for "Electronic Mail". It is one of the most common uses of the Internet today, secondary only to the World Wide Web. Although originally spelled with a dash (E-mail) popular use has seen the dash eliminated. This is evidence to... [more]
EULA is an acronym for End User License Agreement. It defines the relationship between the provider of software and the end user. Usually, the EULA restricts the way a user can use software, such as prohibiting the redistribution of the software or r... [more]
Fedora Core is a Linux distribution based upon Red Hat Linux. Fedora Core is available for free download, and free support is provided by the Fedora community. Fedora Core is considered a test bed for upcoming Red Hat releases, specifically RHEL. Thu... [more]
Firefox is Mozilla Corporation's popular open source web browser. Firefox was originally intended to be a lightweight version of Mozilla's Netscape (Seamonkey) browser, intended for those who need a web browser only and do not need the rest of the so... [more]
A firewall is a system that prevents unauthorized access to and from a network. On personal computers, the network protected is often a single computer. These systems typically rely upon a software firewall, that is, a computer program operating in t... [more]
FOSS and FLOSS are two acronyms describing the same thing: software that permits end users to examine its source code, modify it, and redistribute any modifications. The acronyms stand for "Free/Open Source Software" and "Free/Libre/Open Source Softw... [more]
Gator was a computer program by Claria Corporation. Notorious as one of the first widespread spyware applications, Gator had inadvertently created a revolution in consumer backlash against irresponsible computer program design and malware proliferati... [more]
Go-oo is a community-developed fork of Sun's Open Office office suit. Go-oo contains features and improvements that for technical or legal reasons cannot be included in Sun's version of Open Office. Most Linux distributions today use Go-oo instead of... [more]
The GPL is the Free Software Foundation's General Public Licence. The GPL is considered the standard open source software licence, and many non-software works are published under the GPL as well. The purpose of this license is to ensure that a work c... [more]
HTML is the language in which webpages are written. The acronym stands for HyperText Markup Language. The term "Hypertext" refers to the links inside of HTML pages, which allow the user to quickly jump from page to page, and even to different places ... [more]
HTML Email is a type of email message formatted with the HTML markup language. This means that instead of writing plain text, the authors of email messages formatted in HTML can change the font size and colour of their text, and can add pictures, tab... [more]
Internet Explorer is Microsoft's integrated web browser. Known by its acronym IE, the program is referred to as an integrated web browser, rather than as a standard web browser, because of the heavy reliance between it and Microsoft's Windows operati... [more]
Jabber is the trade name of the XMPP instant messaging protocol. XMPP, or Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, is an open source IM protocol designed to facilitate email using similar resources. Any email server or other webserver can be modif... [more]
Java is a programming language. Java differs from most other programming languages in that programs written in Java can generally be run on many different types of computers, not only the type of computer it was written on. This is because Java is ru... [more]
Javascript is a programming language. Javascript was engineered at Sun Microsystems with the intention of creating a method of manipulating webpages on a user's computer, without the need for refreshing the page. The first web browser that supported ... [more]
Joost in an Internet television distribution system. Created by the founders of Kazaa and Skype, Joost uses P2P technology similar to those two applications. However, whereas Kazaa was designed primarily for delivering unmoderated content and Skype w... [more]
Kazaa is a popular P2P file sharing client. Originally based upon the proprietary Morpheus P2P client and it's FastTrack network, Kazaa diverged from Morpheus compatibility in early 2002 due to licensing disputes. After the split, Kazaa had become th... [more]
KDE is a graphical desktop environment for Unix and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux. In addition to a basic desktop, KDE includes many popular types of software including a text editor, a web browser, an office suite, an email client, a PIM... [more]
The kernel is the central part of an operating system, that directly controls the computer hardware. Usually, the kernel is the first of the user-installed software on a computer, booting directly after the BIOS. Operating system kernels are specific... [more]
Linux is an open source operating system. Although traditionally used on servers, Linux has recently been gaining acceptance on home desktop computers. Linux is often perceived as an 'alternative' operating system to Microsoft Windows or Apple OS-X d... [more]
The term distribution refers to a complete GNU/Linux operating system. Commonly shortened to just "distro", a distribution includes the Linux kernel, hundreds of small GNU programs and tools, and usually a windows manager or three. The term Linux tec... [more]
Malware is a portmanteau of "malicious software". The term refers to any computer program that harms the computer running it, or the user of that computer. Typically, malware is installed without the user's knowledge or consent, though it is often pa... [more]
Microsoft Corporation is a software company based in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft's flagship product, the Windows operating system, is the single most popular operating system for home desktop use. Its other desktop products, namely Microsoft Offic... [more]
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems and environments developed and marketed by Microsoft Corporation. The first version of Windows was released in 1985 as a graphical user interface to MS-DOS, providing multiple document support, mouse... [more]
Netscape Navigator was the dominant web browser during the early years of the Internet. Developed and marketed by Netscape Communications Corporation as an easy to use product, Netscape Navigator is credited with bringing the Internet within easy rea... [more]
NTFS is a Microsoft file system. It was introduced in Windows NT and has been the default file system for every version of Microsoft Windows since. NTFS replaced the aged FAT file system and addresses most of FAT's shortcomings. NTFS has been continu... [more]
Open Office is a free office suit intended to replace Microsoft Office. It is distributed free of charge via download and is available for most popular operating systems. The GPL license under which Open Office is distributed allows unlimited use of ... [more]
Open source is a programming philosophy whereby all aspects of a program are open for review. The term usually refers to the source code of the program, but can also refer to files created by the program, which would be readable in other applications... [more]
Opera is an internet suite consisting of a web browser, an email client, a chat client, and a contact manager. The Opera web browser is usually hailed as an innovative and secure web browser, with many popular features of modern web browsers being Op... [more]
An operating system is the lowest-level program running on a computer. The operating system provides software interfaces for the computer hardware, basic input and output functions, file and network management, and memory allocation. On top of ... [more]
P2P is an acronym for Peer To Peer. Like VOIP, the term P2P describes the goal of a class of technologies, not any particular method, protocol, or individual technology. P2P has been the focus of much controversy since the first P2P network, Napster,... [more]
PhiML is a general-purpose semantic markup language. PhiML 1.0 was released in August 2007, with the first bugfix coming less than a week later. Unlike XML, PhiML is not derived from SGML and is therefore not burdened with the repetitive syntax typi... [more]
PHP is an open source programming language. As PHP is very simple to learn it is often associated with amateur website construction, however professional PHP developers are capable of producing code rivaling that of more complex languages such as Per... [more]
A protocol is a system of rules that define how something is to be done. In computer terminology, a protocol is usually an agreed-upon or standardized method for transmitting data and/or establishing communications between different devices. Just as ... [more]
Python is an object-oriented high-level programming language. Although Python is an interpreted language, like PHP or Perl, Python code can be compiled into standalone executables or cross-platform bytecodes run by a Python Virtual Machine. This make... [more]
Quicken is a financial management program developed and distributed by Intuit. In addition to standard financial management functions such as bill sorting, investments organization, and printing expense reports, Quicken also allows users to write che... [more]
QuickTime is a digital audio and video suite developed by Apple. Available for free download from Apple's website, the QuickTime Player is a media player available bundled with or without iTunes for the Apple OS-X and Microsoft Windows operating syst... [more]
A rootkit is a type of computer program that hides its presence from the administrator of the machine. Usually installed as malware, rootkits are very difficult to detect and remove because they erase all evidence of their presence. Often, the only v... [more]
Skype is one of the original free VOIP applications available for consumer use. Available for free download for every major operating system, Skype quickly founded itself as the leading consumer VOIP application and a technological pioneer. In additi... [more]
Software is the non-tangible aspect of a computer that is necessary for it to perform any function. Software includes the programs that instruct the computer what to do, the configuration files where important system information is stored, and user f... [more]
Spam refers to both the process of sending unsolicited messages via the Internet, and to the messages themselves. However, the term "unsolicited messages" is open to debate, and as such what is considered spam varies widely. In the strictest sense, s... [more]
Spyware is any computer program that reports usage patterns or specifics of the computer on which it is installed to a third party. Spyware is a type of malware that generally does not adversely affect the performance of the computer on which it is r... [more]
SQL injection is a type of computer security exploit in which an attacker can gain access to remote database systems. Using a carefully-constructed value for a form field, such as a name or email address, an attacker can fool the application into req... [more]
A text editor is a program for displaying, editing, and saving plain text documents with no formatting. Formatted documents are not considered text, and are displayed and edited with a word processor. Common examples of text editors are VI on Linux c... [more]
Ubuntu is a popular Linux distribution, designed with the intent of overthrowing Microsoft Windows as the world's most widely-used operating system. The distro is composed entirely of open source components, which have been heavily modified for easy ... [more]
Unix is an operating system designed by Bell Labs to handle time sharing on their DEC mainframe computers. After abandoning the Multics OS project, Bell was in need of an operating system to power it's DEC mainframes. A notable Bell Multics developer... [more]
A virtual machine is a computer application which presents simulated hardware to an operating system running as a process on a host system. Virtual machines are useful for testing or deploying multiple independent operating systems on a single physic... [more]
A virus is a computer program that is capable of self-replicating and executing copies of itself on remote systems. In this sense, the computer virus is similar to a biological virus, from whence it draws its name. While a virus by definition does no... [more]
Microsoft Windows Vista is the current version of Microsoft's Windows operating system series. Windows Vista Business and Enterprise Editions replaced Windows XP Professional Edition in November 2006 and Vista Home Basic/Premium replaced XP Home Edit... [more]
VOIP is an acronym for Voice Over Internet Protocol. The acronym accurately describes the purpose of the technology, yet hints at the difficulties in implementation to those familiar with IP (Internet Protocol). The term VOIP refers to no particular ... [more]
A webpage is a document that is designed to be displayed in a web browser. A webpage usually contains text and images formatted in HTML. Occasionally, other types of content are also embedded in webpages, such as Flash videos and music files. Webpage... [more]
A web browser is a program that lets a human access webpages on the World Wide Web. At a bare minimum, a web browser must be able to make HTTP requests and to present parsed HTML to the user in a form that he can understand. Most modern browsers pres... [more]
WiFi is a family of communication protocols developed for wireless local area networks. The protocols are largely based upon the IEEE's 802.11 standard and subsequent revisions to it, though several proprietary extensions to the standard are in wides... [more]
XMP is an acronym for "Extensible Metadata Platform". XMP defines a standard, uniform way for applications to describe and store the metadata of files. Based on XML, XMP is designed specifically for describing files that is easily parsed, understood,... [more]
XSS is an abbreviation for Cross Site Scripting. This refers to a type of computer security vulnerability where malicious users can add carefully-constructed comments to webpages with the intention of fooling web browsers. While most websites have fi... [more]
Y2K was the abbreviated name of the Millennium Bug. Short for "Year 2000", Y2K refers to a bit-saving technique used in antiquated computer systems in which two digits were used to represent years, instead of the usual four digits. Thus, for example,... [more]
A zero-day exploit is a computer security vulnerability that is being actively practiced before knowledge of the exploit becomes public information. Usually, two groups of experts research and discover new security exploits: those who are interested ... [more]
Zip is a compressed file archive format. Zip files, called archives, are container files that usually contain a number of files compressed for portability or long term storage. Depending on the compression level specified at the time the zip file was... [more]
Zonealarm is a software-based firewall for the Microsoft Windows operating system. It is produced by Zone Labs and released under several different versions, each providing different features and cost. Some of these versions include anti-virus protec... [more]
Zune is Microsoft's portable media player. Introduced in late 2006, the Microsoft Zune was expected to compete with the popular Apple iPod for dominance in the portable media player market. In addition to standard media player features such as audio,... [more]
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