What is C C++?
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C is a high-level programming language that was developed in the mid-1970s. It was originally used for writing Unix programs, but now is used to write applications for nearly every available platform. Some nice things about the language are that it is easy to read, it is flexible (can be used for a wide variety of purposes), and C programs typically use memory very efficiently.
C++, pronounced "C plus plus," is a programming language that was built off the C language. The syntax of C++ is nearly identical to C, but it has object-oriented features, which allow the programmer to create objects within the code. This makes programming easier, more efficient, and some would even say, more fun. Because of the power and flexibility of the language, most programs today are written in C++.
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What is Cable Modem?
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A cable modem is used for connecting to the Internet and is much faster than a typical dial-up modem. While a 56K modem can receive data at about 53 Kbps, cable modems support data transfer rates of up to 30 Mbps. That's over 500 times faster. However, most ISPs limit their subscribers' transfer rates to less than 6 Mbps to conserve bandwidth.
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What is Cache?
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This term is pronounced like "cash" -- not "catch," and definitely not "cashé." There are many different types of caches but they all serve the same purpose. A cache stores recently-used information in a place where it can be accessed extremely fast. For example, a Web browser like Internet Explorer uses a cache to store the pages, images, and URLs of recently visted Web sites on your hard drive. With this neat strategy, when you visit a page you have recently been to, the pages and images don't have to be downloaded to your computer all over again. Because accessing your computer's hard disk is much faster than accessing the Internet, caching Web sites can speed up Web browsing significantly. Most Web browsers allow you to adjust the size of the cache in in browser preferenecs.
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What is CAD?
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Stands for "Computer-Aided Design." Also known by engineers and architects as the best invention of all time. Today, CAD software is used for nearly all three-dimensional designing. Designers can turn an object into an electronic representation more quickly and accurately than by diagraming it with a pencil and paper. Better yet, objects created with CAD software can be moved, resized, and rotated instantly. With a pencil and paper, you can only erase so much before it starts to smudge.
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What is Camera RAW?
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Most digital cameras process and compress the pictures you take immediately after capturing the image. This can be helpful, as it keeps the file sizes low (using JPEG compression) and takes care of color correction, including white-balance, tint, and exposure, so you don't have to. However, some people, such as professional photographers, prefer to have more control over how each image is processed. Therefore, many high-end cameras have the ability to shoot in RAW mode. This mode does not compress the images at all and leaves them completely unprocessed.
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What is CD?
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Stands for "Compact Disc." CDs are circular discs that are 4.75 in (12 cm) in diameter. The CD standard was proposed by Sony and Philips in 1980 and the technology was introduced to the U.S. market in 1983. CDs can hold up to 700 MB of data or 80 minutes of audio. The data on a CD is stored as small notches on the disc and is read by a laser from an optical drive. The drives translate the notches (which represent 1's and 0's) into usable data.
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What is CD-R?
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Stands for "Compact Disc Recordable." CD-R discs are blank CDs that can record data written by a CD burner. The word "recordable" is used because CD-Rs are often used to record audio, which can be played back by most CD players. However, many other kinds of data can also be written to a CD-R, so the discs are also referred to as "writable CDs."
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What is CD-ROM?
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Stands for "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory." A CD-ROM is a CD that can be read by a computer with an optical drive. The "ROM" part of the term means the data on the disc is "read-only," or cannot altered or erased. Because of this feature and their large capacity, CD-ROMs are a great media format for retail software. The first CD-ROMs could hold about 600 MB of data, but now they can hold up to 700 MB. CD-ROMs share the same technology as audio CDs, but they are formatted differently, allowing them to store many types of data.
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What is CD-RW?
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Stands for "Compact Disc Re-Writable." A CD-RW is a blank CD that can be written to by a CD burner. Unlike a CD-R (CD-Recordable), a CD-RW can be written to multiple times. The data burned on a CD-RW cannot be changed, but it can be erased. Therefore, you have to completely erase a CD-RW every time you want to change the files or add new data. While it may be somewhat inconvenient, this capability makes CD-RWs a good choice for making frequent backups. However, because CD-RWs can be erased, they don't store data reliably for as long as CD-Rs do. Therefore, you should use regular CD-Rs for long-term backups.
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What is CDMA?
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Stands for "Code Division Multiple Access." CDMA is a wireless transmission technology that was developed during World War II by the English allies to avoid having their transmissions jammed. After the war ended, Qualcomm patented the technology and made it commercially available as a digital cellular technology. Now CDMA is a popular communications method used by many cell phone companies.
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What is Certificate?
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An SSL certificate, or secure certificate, is a file installed on a secure Web server that identifies a website. This digital certificate establishes the identity and authenticity of the company or merchant so that online shoppers can trust that the website is secure and reliable. In order to verify that these sites are legitimate (they are who they say they are), the companies and their websites are verified by a third party, such as Verisign or Thawte.
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What is CGI?
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Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is an important World Wide Web technology that enables a client web browser to request data from a program executed on the Web server. CGI specifies a standard for passing data between the client and the program.
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What is Character?
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A character is any letter, number, space, punctuation mark, or symbol that can be typed on a computer. The word "computer," for example, consists of eight characters. The phrase "Hi there." takes up nine characters. Each character requires one byte of space, so "computer" takes up 8 bytes. The list of characters that can be typed is defined by the ASCII and extended ASCII set. Some of the symbols available are pretty strange and may even make you say, "That's quite a character!"
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What is Chipset?
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This term is used to describe the architecture of an integrated circuit. For example, the chipset of a modem card would be much different than the chipset of a computer's CPU. Processors themselves also have different chipsets. For example, a Pentium II and Pentium III have slightly different chipsets, and the PowerPC processors have other kinds.
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What is CISC?
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Stands for "Complex Instruction Set Computing." This is a type of microprocessor design. The CISC architecture contains a large set of computer instructions that range from very simple to very complex and specialized. Though the design was intended to compute complex instructions in the most efficient way, it was later found that many small, short instructions could compute complex instructions more efficiently. This led to a design called Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC), which is now the other major kind of microprocessor architecture. Intel Pentium processors are mainly CISC-based, with some RISC facilities built into them, whereas the PowerPC processors are completely RISC-based.
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What is Clean Room?
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A simple definition of this would be "the opposite of my bedroom." But technically speaking, a clean room is a highly purified and regulated room for producing equipment sensitive to contamination. For example, the production of microprocessors is done in a clean room, since the smallest amounts of dust could create flaws in their production. Therefore, the air in a clean room is constantly filtered. Other aspects such as temperature, humidity, and pressure may be regulated as well.
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What is Client?
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In computing, a client is a system that accesses a (remote) service on another computer by some kind of network. The term was first applied to devices that were not capable of running their own stand-alone programs, but could interact with remote computers via a network. These dumb terminals were clients of the time-sharing mainframe computer.
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What is Clip Art?
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Clip art is a collection of pictures or images that can be imported into a document or another program. The images may be either raster graphics or vector graphics. Clip art galleries many contain anywhere from a few images to hundreds of thousands of images.
Clip art is typically organized into categories, such as people, objects, nature, etc., which is especially helpful when browsing through thousands of images. Most clip art images also have keywords associated with them. For example, a picture of a female teacher in a classroom may have the keywords "school," "teacher," "woman," "classroom," and "students" associated with it. Most clip art programs allow you to search for images based on these keywords.
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What is Clipboard?
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The clipboard is a section of RAM where your computer stores copied data. This can be a selection of text, an image, a file, or other type of data. It is placed in the clipboard whenever you use the "Copy" command, which is located in the Edit menu of most programs.
Data from the clipboard can be pasted into a document or program using the "Paste" command, which is also located in most programs' Edit menu. For example, an image copied to the clipboard from your photo album may be pasted into an image editing program such as Photoshop. A Web address can be copied to the clipboard from an e-mail and pasted into your Web browser's address field.
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What is Clock Speed?
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Clock speed is the rate at which a processor can complete processing cycles. It is typically measured in Megahertz or Gigahertz. One megahertz is 1 million cycles per second, while one gigahertz is 1 billion cycles per second. This means a 1.8 GHz processor has twice the clock speed of a 900 MHz processor.
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What is Clone?
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The term "clone" arose in the mid-1980s to describe DOS or Windows-based computers made by companies other than IBM. The machines were often referred to as "IBM clones," or "IBM compatible" computers. They were called clones because the computers functioned exactly the same way as the ones made by IBM. They used similar hardware and ran the same software.
PC clones are still around today. In fact there are dozens more manufacturers of Windows-based computers now than there were in the 1980s. Companies like Dell, Gateway, HP, Compaq, and Sony all make Windows-based computers, as well as many other manufacturers. Today, the term "PC," which technically stands for "Personal Computer," is often used to refer to IBM clones. Macintosh clones were made for a few years in the late 1990s, but Apple forced the end of their production by making the Macintosh operating system only run on the Apple-branded machines.
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What is Cluster?
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In the computer world, a cluster can refer to two different things:
1) A group of sectors on a disk. While a sector is the smallest unit that can be accessed on your hard disk, a cluster is a slightly larger unit that is used to organize and identify files on the disk. Most files take up several clusters of disk space.
Each cluster has a unique ID, which enables the hard drive to locate all the clusters on the disk. After reading and writing many files to a disk, some clusters may remain labeled as being used even though they do not contain any data. These are called "lost clusters" and can be fixed using ScanDisk on Windows or the Disk Utility program on the Mac. This is why running a disk utility or defragmentation program may free up space on your hard disk.
2) A group of connected computers. A cluster can also refer to several machines grouped together, all performing a similar function. For example, a cluster may consist of eight PCs, all connected via high-speed Ethernet, processing scientific data. This type of setup is often referred to as "parallel computing," since all the computers in the cluster are acting as one machine. Clusters are typically used for high-end processing, such as performing scientific calculations or decrypting algorithms.
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What is CMOS?
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Stands for "Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor." This technology is typically used in making transistors. The "complementary" part of the term unfortunately does not mean these semiconductors are free. Instead, it refers to how they produce either a positive or negative charge. Because CMOS-based transistors only use one charge at a time, they run efficiently, using up very little power. This is because the charges can stay in one state for a long period of time, allowing the transistor to use little or no power except when needed. Because of their wonderful efficiency, processors that use CMOS-based transistors can run at extremely high speeds without getting too hot and going up in flames. You may also find CMOS memory in your computer, which holds the date and time and other basic system settings. The low power consumption of CMOS allows the memory to be powered by a simple Lithium battery for many years.
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What is CMYK?
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Stands for "Cyan Magenta Yellow Black." These are the four basic colors used for printing color images. Unlike RGB (red, green, blue), which is used for creating images on your computer screen, CMYK colors are "subtractive." This means the colors get darker as you blend them together. Since RGB colors are used for light, not pigments, the colors grow brighter as you blend them or increase their intensity.
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What is Codec?
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No, this is not just a cheap rip-off of Kodak. The name "codec" is short for "coder-decoder," which is pretty much what a codec does. Most audio and video formats use some sort of compression so that they don't take up a ridiculous amount of disk space. Audio and video files are compressed with a certain codec when they are saved and then decompressed by the codec when they are played back. Common codecs include MPEG and AVI for video files and WAV and AIFF for audio files. Codecs can also be used to compress streaming media (live audio and video) which makes it possible to broadcast a live audio or video clip over a broadband Internet connection.
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What is ColdFusion?
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In computing, ColdFusion is a tag-based, middleware programming language used chiefly for writing web-based applications. The language was created by JJ Allaire and his brother Jeremy Allaire, but the product is currently owned by Macromedia.
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What is Compact Flash?
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Often abbreviated as simply "CF," Compact Flash is a type of flash memory. Compact flash cards are most commonly used for storing pictures in digital cameras, but are also used in devices such as PDAs and portable music players.
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What is Computer?
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Technically, a computer is a programmable machine. This means it can execute a programmed list of instructions and respond to new instructions that it is given. Today, however, the term is most often used to refer to the desktop and laptop computers that most people use. When referring to a desktop model, the term "computer" technically only refers to the computer itself -- not the monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Still, it is acceptable to refer to everything together as the computer. If you want to be really technical, the box that holds the computer is called the "system unit."
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What is Computer Ethics?
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Ethics is a set of moral principles that govern the behavior of a group or individual. Therefore, computer ethics is set of moral principles that regulate the use of computers. Some common issues of computer ethics include intellectual property rights (such as copyrighted electronic content), privacy concerns, and how computers affect society.
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What is Configuration?
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In the computing world, when people talk about their computer configuration, they are referring to the technical specifications, or the "tech specs" of their computer. These specs typically include processor speed, the amount of RAM, hard drive space, and the type of video card in the machine. While there are many other advanced specifications that you could list, if you know the four mentioned above, most computer geeks will grant you acceptance into their conversation.
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What is Controller Card?
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The controller card, or simply "controller," is a piece of hardware that acts as the interface between the motherboard and the other components of the computer. For example, hard drives, optical drives, printers, keyboards, and mice all require controllers to work. Most computers have all the necessary controllers built in the motherboard as chips, not full-sized cards. However, if you add additional components such as a SCSI hard drive, you may need to add a controller card as well. Controller cards are typically installed in one of the computer's PCI slots.
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What is Cookie?
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It seems like everyone who tries to explain what a cookie is just has to make a joke out of it (because of the name), so I'm not even going to bother. In computer terminology, a cookie is data sent to your computer by a Web server that records your actions on a certain Web site. It's a lot like a preference file for a typical computer program. When you visit the site after being sent the cookie, the site will load certain pages according to the information stored in the cookie.
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What is Copy?
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Many software programs allow you to copy data, such as text in Microsoft Word or an image in Adobe Photoshop. To copy a piece of data, you need to first select it (or highlight it) and choose "Copy" from the Edit menu within the program. Most programs allow you to use the keyboard shortcut "Control-C" for Windows or "Command-C" for the Mac OS.
When you copy a piece of data, it is moved to a buffer in the system's memory called the "Clipboard." This is a temporary storage area in your computer's RAM that holds the most recent item that has been copied. Of course, copying isn't very helpful if you can't use the data somewhere else. To insert the copied data into a document, choose "Paste" from the Edit menu and the data will be pasted into the document.
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What is Counter?
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Counters are (usually) numerical counters displayed on some Internet web pages. Once set up, these counters will be incremented one every time the web page is retrieved (viewed on a web browser).
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What is CPA?
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Cost Per Action (CPA) for banner ads; the fee charged every time a user completes a desired action, such as filling out a form, downloading software, or viewing a series of pages.
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What is CPC?
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Cost Per Click (CPC) for banner ads; the fee charged every time a user clicks on a banner ad or HTML link.
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What is CPL?
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Cost Per Lead (CPL). A lead can be anything from an e-mail address for a newsletter to a complete survey that needs to be completely filled out and verified in order to get credit.
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What is CPM?
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Cost Per 1000 Impressions (CPM), of buying advertising space in a given media vehicle. For example, $100 CPM means each impression cost 10 cents. "1" CPM mens "1000" Impressions.
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What is CPS?
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Cost Per Sale (CPS); the fee charged every time a user completes a purchase.
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What is CPU?
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Stands for "Central Processing Unit." This is the pretty much the brain of your computer. It processes everything from basic instructions to complex functions. Any time something needs to be computed, it gets sent to the CPU. Every day, it's compute this, compute that -- you'd think the CPU would need a break after awhile. But no -- it just keeps on processing. The CPU can also be referred to simply as the "processor."
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What is Crawler?
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A web crawler (also known as web spider) is a program which browses the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner. A web crawler is one type of bot. Web crawlers not only keep a copy of all the visited pages for later processing - for example by a search engine but also index these pages to make the search narrower.
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What is CRM?
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Stands for "Customer Relationship Management." This is a business term that started somewhere in the deep abyss of the IT (Information Technology) world. CRM refers to solutions and strategies for managing businesses' relationships with customers. (I suppose that's why they call it customer relationship management). With the advent of Web retailing, companies have found it hard to develop relationships with customers since the e-commerce interface is so impersonal. After all, don't you miss the firm handshake and sparkling smile of the salesperson who just sold you the most expensive computer system in the store? Well, whether or not you miss the personal experience of the retail store, the goal of CRM is to give you that feeling when you buy products over the Internet. When it comes to CRM, customer service is the number one priority. Yes, all companies seem to make that claim, but when online businesses create CRM models, it really is the case.
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What is Cron?
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Also known as a "cron job," a cron is a process or task that runs periodically on a Unix system. Some examples of crons include syncing the time and date via the Internet every ten minutes, sending an e-mail notice once a week, or backing up certain directories every month.
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What is Crossplatform?
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Software that can run on multiple types of computer systems. For example, the graphics program Adobe Photoshop and the word processor Microsoft Word are both available for the Windows and Macintosh operating systems. Therefore, Photoshop and Word are considered to be crossplatform applications.
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What is CRT?
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Stands for "Cathode Ray Tube." CRT is the technology used in traditional computer monitors and televisions. The image on a CRT display is created by firing electrons from the back of the tube to phosphors located towards the front of the display. Once the electrons hit the phosphors, they light up and are projected on the screen. The color you see on the screen is produced by a blend of red, blue, and green light, often referred to as RGB.
The stream of electrons is guiding by magnetic charges, which is why you may get interference with unshielded speakers or other magnetic devices that are placed close to a CRT monitor. Flat screen or LCD displays don't have this problem, since they don't require a magnetic charge. LCD monitors also don't use a tube, which is what enables them to be much thinner than CRT monitors. While CRT displays are still used by graphics professionals because of their vibrant and accurate color, LCD displays now nearly match the quality of CRT monitors. Therefore, flat screen displays are well on their way to replacing CRT monitors in both the consumer and professional markets.
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What is CSS?
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Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a computer language used to describe the presentation of a structured document written in HTML, XHTML or XML. The CSS specification is maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
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What is CTP?
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Stands for "Composite Theoretical Performance." CTP is used to measure the performance of computer processors. The values returned by CTP calculations are used for benchmarking purposes, which compare the performance of different processors. For example, Intel and AMD use CTP calculations to measure how many millions of theoretical operations per second (MTOPS) their processors can perform. An Intel Pentium M 770, which runs at 2.13 GHz, has a CTP of 7100 MTOPs, while an AMD Opteron 146, which runs at 2.0 GHz, has a CTP of 7168 MTOPS.
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What is CTR?
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Click Through Ratio (CTR); the ratio of click-throughs to impressions for a given ad run. For example, if a banner has a CTR of 40:1, it means that 1 out of 40 people have clicked on it.
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What is Cursor?
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The cursor on your screen can indicate two things: 1) where your mouse pointer is, or 2) where the next character typed will be entered in a line of text.
The mouse cursor is most often an arrow that you can use to point to different objects on your screen. When the cursor is over an object, you can click or double-click the mouse button to perform an action on that object (such as opening a program). The mouse cursor can change into other images, such as a small hand (when you roll over a link in a Web page), or an hourglass (when Windows is "thinking" so hard, it won't let you click on anything).
The text cursor is typically a straight vertical line or I-shaped object that flashes in a line of text. Typically, when you are typing a paper, the cursor will be at the end of the line, because you are adding new text to the uncharted white area of the page. However, if you want to insert a word or phrase somewhere else in a line of text, you can use the mouse cursor to click the position where you would like to insert the text. In most word processing programs, once you start typing, the text cursor continues to flash, but the mouse pointer disappears until you move the mouse again. This is to avoid "cursor confusion," since most people can't type and click on things at the same time.
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What is Cyberspace?
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Unlike most computer terms, "cyberspace" does not have a standard, objective definition. Instead, it is used to describe the virtual world of computers. For example, an object in cyberspace refers to a block of data floating around a computer system or network. With the advent of the Internet, cyberspace now extends to the global network of computers. So, after sending an e-mail to your friend, you could say you sent the message to her through cyberspace. However, use this term sparingly, as it is a popular newbie term and is well overused.
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