Technology Terms Glossary, Technological Terms

PHP

2006-03-20T09:42:00.001-08:00

PHP is short for Hypertext Pre-processor. It is a open source, server-side, HTML-embedded scripting language that lets you create dynamic Web pages. It is usually used to connect databases to Web sites. Pages using PHP end with a .php file extension rather than the .htm extension used in HTML pages

DVI or Digital Visual Interface.

2006-03-13T20:17:00.000-08:00

DVI means Digital Visual Interface. A connection standard developed to connect computers to digital monitors such as flat panels and digital projectors. These connectors offer better colour and pictures as compared to older counterparts

CMYK

2006-03-09T09:25:00.000-08:00

CMYK is an abbreviation for cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black) - the four colours that form the ink-sets of many photo-quality printers. When combined together in varying proportions, CMYK can be made to produce the full colour spectrum. Some printers use six ink colours to achieve smoother, more photographic prints. The two additional colours are often lighter shades of cyan and magenta.

Thin Client

2006-03-08T10:30:00.000-08:00

Thin Client is a stripped down PC designed specifically to be a 'dumb terminal' in a client/server network. These terminals tend to cost less than fully-equipped computers especially since it uses software from - and processing power of - a remote server. Thin clients have no need for full software or internal devices of its own.

UWB

2006-03-05T20:34:00.002-08:00

UWB or Ultra-Wideband is short-range radio technology that complements other longer range radio technologies such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX and cellular communications. It is used to relay data from a host device to other devices in the immediate area of up to 30 feet. It also boasts of a higher transfer rate when compared to other short-range wireless technologies such as Bluetooth.

Flash!

2006-03-05T20:34:00.001-08:00

Flash is a type of memory in computing that can continue to store information in the absence of a power source. Flash memory gets its name because the microchip is organised in such a way so as to erase a section of memory cells in a single action or “flash”. This type of memory is used in cell phones, digital cameras, USB pen drives, MP3 players, etc.

Surround sound

2006-03-05T20:34:00.000-08:00

Surround sound is the concept of expanding audio playback from 1 dimension – mono Left or Right, to 2D or 3D, in other words, the sound ‘surrounds’ you. This illusion of multi-directional sound is achieved through multiple speaker placement and audio signal processing.

Boolean Search

2006-02-27T21:35:00.000-08:00

.. is a search formed by joining simple terms with AND, OR and NOT. This is done so the user can find exactly what they are looking for without having to scroll through pages of relevant information. The term Boolean comes from the name of the person George Boole, who first Devised the System

RCA

2006-02-20T23:13:00.000-08:00

.. or the Radio Corporation of America connector is the most common audio connector. Used for evry sort of analog input and output, these come in colour-coded pairs (usually red for right and black or white for left). They are the cable that connect your TV with your DVD players.

HSCSD

2006-02-20T04:16:00.000-08:00

.. or High Speed Circuit Switched Data is a dta communication technology for GSm which boosts data throughput upto 14.4 Kbps in a single channel, and by aggregating channels, upto 57.6 Kbps.

SAR

2006-02-14T21:49:00.000-08:00

.. aka Specific Absorption Rate is a measure of the rate at which radio frequency (RF) energy is absorbedby the human body when using a cellular telephone. Studies of SAR and their adverse effects on other living species, however, remains an untouched topic in research.

Ethanol

2006-02-14T00:51:00.000-08:00

Ethanol is a alcohol-based alternative fuel produced by fermenting and distilling starch crops such as corn, barley and wheat that have been converted into simple sugars. It is most commonly used to increase Octane and improve the emission quality of Gasoline. its blend with Gasoline is called E85; 85 per cent Ethanol and 15 per cent Gasoline

EDGE

2006-02-12T02:33:00.000-08:00

.. is Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution. It's technology that gives GSM phones a capacity to handle services for the third generation of mobile telephony. EDGE was developed to enable the transmission of large amounts of data at a high speed - 384 Kilobits per second. It can increase data rates even over existing wireless networks and is also known as ENhanced GPRS or E-GPRS.

JPEG

2006-02-11T07:04:00.000-08:00

.. short for Joint Photographic Experts Group, is a lossy image compression technique that reduces files sizes by discarding photo information that the human eye cannot detect. JPG images are best suited for photgraphs. It does not work well on line drawings or simple graphics because there is not a lot of the image that can be thrown out in the lossy process - the image therefore loses clarity and sharpness.

Wardriving

2006-02-04T23:09:00.000-08:00

.. is a act of driving in a vehical with a portable computer, an antenna, and wireless LAN adapter to exploit exisiting wireless networks. Set on promiscuous mode, the adapter recieves data packets within its range. "Wardriving" is usually done in a bid to exploit wireless networks for free Internet Access or to illegally access an organisation's data.

GigaByte

2006-02-04T23:00:00.000-08:00

A GigaByte contains approximately 1024 MegaBytes or 1,024,741,841 bytes of data. One thousand billion Bytes or approximately 1024 gigaBytes make a TeraByte. In turn, approximately 1024 TeraBytes make a PeraByte. While an ExaByte is approximately 1024 PeraBytes.

Red-Eye

2006-02-04T22:55:00.001-08:00

.. in photography is an effect caused by an electronic flashreflecting off the retina making it look red. Cameras with flash located close to the lens suffer the most from this problem. Professional photographers hence hold an external flash unit above and off to the side of the lens to eliminate red-eye. Red-eye can also be dited by using most photo-editing software. In fact many digital cameras come with inbuilt capabilities of reducing Red-eye.

QVGA

2006-01-28T10:14:00.000-08:00

..aka quarter Video Graphics Array is a camera and display standard that measures 320(w) x 240(h) pixels. QVGA at a tiny 0.08 megapixel resolution does not promise great picture quality but is an excellent resolution to use for sending digital pictures via MMS or e-mail, as the image files are small in size - thus saving on bandwidth - but, yet, big enough to view on another handset.

TFT

2006-01-20T06:16:00.000-08:00

TFT.. which stands for thin film transistor is a type of LCD flat-panel display screen. TFT technology provides the best display of all the flat-panel techniques, but it is also very expensive. TFT screens are sometimes called active-matrix LCDs.

eAAC+

2006-01-17T08:02:00.000-08:00

eAAC+ is a short for Enhanced Advanced Audio Coder, and formerly known as Enhanced Mpeg-4 AAC. This codec is the continuation of the original MP3 codec created by Fraunhofer- Gesellscahft, but due to advances in technology, AAC files encoded at 96 kbps bit rate sound slightly better than MP3s encoded at 128 kbps.

Pixels

2006-01-16T10:11:00.000-08:00

Pixels is a amalgamation of picture element. A pixel is one of the main tiny dots/tiny squares that make up the representation of a picture in a computer's memory. Each pixel is essentially given colour and brightness value. More the Pixels, the higher the resolution of the picture. Everything you see on your monitor is displayed using Pixels.

Modem

2006-01-08T07:03:00.000-08:00

Modem is a short for Modulator / demodulator. A communications device that converts one form of a signal to another that is suitable for transmission over communication circuits, typically from digital to analogue and then from analogue to digital. Modems are mostly used to access the Internet by sending and recieving digital signals over telephone lines.

VGA and SVGA

2006-01-06T05:45:00.000-08:00

VGA is an acronym for the Video Graphics array display mode. A VGA-sized Display or Video will have unlimited colour reproduction at a standard resolution of 640 x 480.

SVGA is a Super Video Graphics array display mode. A SVGA-sized display or video will have unlimited colour reproduction at a standard resolution of 800 x 600.

SVGA has now replaced VGA as the default standard for computer monitors.

WiBro

2006-01-05T05:52:00.000-08:00

WiBro represents Wireless Broadband. Wibro is an Internet Technology that is currently being developed by Korean telecoms industry. When implemented, A WiBro base station will offer a transfer speed of 30 to 50 MBit per second, and cover a radius of about 1 to 5 kms. The standard is believed to be compatible and better than WiMax Standards

Abandonware

2006-01-02T22:24:00.001-08:00

This is the term used to describe software that is still available but is no longer being sold or suported by its original creator. Some believe the life of a software is five years after which it is termes as Abandonware.

Blog

2006-01-02T00:43:00.000-08:00

A blog is a short for Web log, which is basically a journal that is available online. The activity o updating a blog is blogging and someone who keeps a blog is a blogger. Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.

P2P

2005-12-30T09:15:00.000-08:00

.. or Peer-to-peer networking is an application that runs on a personal computer and shares files with other users across the internet. P2P networks work by connecting individual computers together to share files instead of having to go through a central server. Napster was the first mainstream P2P software that enabled large scale file sharing.

RAR

2005-12-29T07:41:00.000-08:00

RAR is a proprietary data compression formatthat is similar to ZIP. The software to compress and decompress files to ot from RAR format is available for several operating systems thus making it a very popular compression format. The most popular program for RAR is WINRAR, available at www.winrar.com.

Web Cache

2005-12-27T22:02:00.000-08:00

Web browsers usually store images and recurring files from the website on to the hard drive. This done so that the browser can load the webpages quicker when the page is revisited. The storaged information is termed as 'Cache'. Cached Web pages can also be viewed when not connected to the internet.

RJ (Registered Jack)

2005-12-25T23:20:00.000-08:00

Short for Registered Jack are interface ports used in computers. You may have seen these transparent clip-in connectors as they are also commonly used to connect telephones to sockets in many offices and residences. RJ connectors come in two variations RJ-45 and RJ-11. The RJ -45 is an eight-wire connector used commonly to connect computers onto a local-area network (LAN). RJ-11, on the other hand, is a four- or six wire connector primarilyused to connect telephone equipment. RJ-11 connectors are also used to connect some types of Local-area networks. RJ-45s are wider than RJ-11s and are more commonly used.

Flash Memory

2005-12-25T03:37:00.000-08:00

Flash Memory is a non-volatile memory format that retains its data even without electrical current. This type of memory is currently used in a number of digital devices such as cameras, PDAs, Cell Phones, MP3 Players, USB drives, etc. Both the iPod Nano and the iRiver iFP 795 are flash memory-based devices. Since Flash Memory - unlike harddisk storage - does not have moving parts, it also manages power more effectively. Examples of Flash Memory include Compact Flash (CF), Smartmedia, Memory stick, etc.

ATRAC

2005-12-25T03:31:00.000-08:00

ATRAC (Adaptive TRansform Acoustic Coding), an audio storage format like MP3, is Sony's Proprietary audio compression algorithm. The latest version, ATRAC3plus, gives FM quality at 64 Kbits and CD quality at 256 Kbits. ATRAC3plus, however, does not support a recording at around 128 Kbits which was offered by older ATRAC3.

HDTV (High-Defination Television)

2005-12-25T02:28:00.000-08:00

HDTV is also known as High-Defination Television. HDTV is a digital TV broadcasting Format where the broadcast transmits widescreen pictures (16:9 ratio) with more detail and quality than standard analog television, or other digital television formats. Types of HDTV include direct-view, plasma, rear screen, and front screen projection.