What is OCR?
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Optical Character Recognition is software that converts text scanned as a graphic into text a word processing program can use.
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What is ODBC?
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Stands for "Open Database Connectivity." With all the different types of databases available, such as Microsoft Access, Filemaker, and MySQL, it is important to have a standard way of transferring data to and from each kind of database. For this reason, the SQL Access group created the ODBC standard back in 1992. Any application that supports ODBC can access information from an ODBC-compatible database, regardless of what database management system the database uses.
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What is OEM?
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Stands for "Original Equipment Manufacturer." This refers to a company that produces hardware to be marketed under another company's brand name. For example, if Sony makes a monitor that will marketed by Dell, a "Dell" label will get stuck on the front, but the OEM of the monitor is Sony. You can also use the term as a verb, such as, "That Dell monitor over there is OEM'd by Sony." That should impress your friends.
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What is Offline?
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When a computer or other device is not turned on or connected to other devices, it is said to be "offline." This is the opposite of being "online," when a device can readily communicate with other devices. For example, if you try to print to your printer and you get one of those frustrating errors saying, "The specified printer could not be found," the printer is probably offline. You should check to see if the printer is connected properly and, yes, turned on as well.
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What is OLAP?
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Stands for "Online Analytical Processing." OLAP allows users to analyze database information from multiple database systems at one time. While relational databases are considered to be two-dimensional, OLAP data is multidimensional, meaning the information can be compared in many different ways. For example, a company might compare their computer sales in June with sales in July, then compare those results with the sales from another location, which might be stored in a different database.
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What is OLE?
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Stands for "Object Linking and Embedding." It can be pronounced as "O-L-E," or "Oh-lay!" if you are feeling Spanish. OLE is a framework developed by Microsoft (way back in Windows 3.1) that allows you to take objects from a document in one application and place them in another. For example, OLE may allow you to move an image from a photo-editing program into a word processing document.
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What is Online?
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In general, when a machine is "online," it is turned on and connected to other devices. For example, when a network printer is online, computers connected to that network can print from it. Other devices, such as scanners, video cameras, audio interfaces, and others are said to be online when they are running and connected to a computer system.
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What is Open Source?
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Open source or open-source software (OSS) is any computer software distributed under a license which allows users to change and/or share the software freely. Many programs use a specific license agreement satisfying the Open Source Definition.
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What is OpenGL?
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OpenGL, or the Open Graphics Library, is a 3D graphics language developed by Silicon Graphics. Before OpenGL was available, software developers had to write unique 3D graphics code for each operating system platform as well as different graphics hardware. However, with OpenGL, developers can create graphics and special effects that will appear nearly identical on any operating system and any hardware that supports OpenGL. This makes it much easier for developers of 3D games and programs to port their software to multiple platforms.
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What is Operating system?
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The master control program that runs the computer. It is the first program loaded when the computer is turned on, and its main part, called the kernel, resides in memory at all times.
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What is Optical Drive?
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In the real world, "optical" refers to vision, or the ability to see. In the computer world, however, "optical" refers to lasers, which can "see" and read data on optical discs. These discs include CDs and DVDs, which are made up of millions of small bumps and dips. Optical drives have lasers that read these bumps and dips as ones and zeros, which the computer can understand.
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What is Optical Media?
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In reference to computer hardware, media refers to various types of data storage. For example, hard drives, CDs, DVDs, and USB drives are all different types of media. Optical media refers to discs that are read by a laser. This includes CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, and all the variations of the two formats -- CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R, Blu-ray, and many others.
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What is OSPF?
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Stands for "Open Shortest Path First." OSPF is a method of finding the shortest path from one router to another in a local area network (LAN). As long as a network is IP-based, the OSPF algorithm will calculate the most efficient way for data to be transmitted.
If there are several routers on a network, OSPF builds a table (or topography) of the router connections. When data is sent from one location to another, the OSPF algorithm compares the available options and chooses the most efficient way for the data to be sent. This limits unnecessary delays in data transmission and prevents infinite loops.
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