| ISP Dictionary - ISP Glossary Definitions for 'c' |
| C Sharp - An object-oriented programming language from Microsoft based on C/C++ that contains functionality similar to that found in the Java programming language.... |
| C# - An object-oriented programming language from Microsoft based on C/C++ that contains functionality similar to that found in the Java programming language.... |
| C++ - An extension of the C programming language that adds object-oriented concepts. |
| Cab file - A compressed file with the extension .cab. Cabinet files are used to store installation files for Microsoft applications, most commonly Windows 9x operating... |
| Cabinet file - A compressed file with the extension .cab. Cabinet files are used to store installation files for Microsoft applications, most commonly Windows 9x operating... |
| Cable Modem - The device that you attach a coaxial cable from your cable company directly into that can provide you with high speed Internet access. The cable modem... |
| Cable Select - This is basically Plug-and-Play ATA. You plug in your ATA/IDE hard drives, set them to CSEL (Cable Select), and they determine whether they are master... |
| cache - Browsers such as Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer hold copies of recently visited web files, both HTML and binary files, in disk memory. This disk... |
| Cache memory - Generally a small chunk of fast memory that sits between either 1) a smaller, faster chunk of memory and a bigger, slower chunk of memory, or 2) a microprocessor... |
| cache poisoning - the corruption of an Internet server's domain name system table by replacing an Internet address with that of another, rogue address. When a Web user seeks... |
| CAD - Oh, you cad! This refers to the use of computers to design things. There are specific CAD programs like AutoCAD that are generally resource-intensive,... |
| Cannon Cable - An analog audio cable normally used to connect microphones to professional audio devices. It has three pins and provides a balanced input, as opposed to... |
| Capacitor - An electronic component that stores up an electrical charge to a certain level and then releases it. A capacitor stores energy between two conducting plates... |
| Carbon Copy - A method of sending a copy of an e-mail to someone, but implying that the person is not the direct recipient. For example, you send an e-mail with instructions... |
| Cardbus - The 32-bit PCMCIA card slot and cards that can work in this slot. Standard PCMCIA, or PC Card, slots were originally 16-bit slots. This caused problems... |
| CAS - see Column Address Strobe, CAS 2, and CAS 3 |
| CAS 2 - This implies that two clock cycles are needed to address a column of a memory chip. CAS 2 SDRAM memory is preferable to CAS 3 SDRAM memory, but is often... |
| CAS 3 - This implies that three clock cycles are needed to address a column on a memory chip. |
| CAS latency - see CAS 2 and CAS 3 |
| Cascading Style Sheets - You can use CSS to define one or more styles on a single Web page or group of Web pages. The styles determine how information is displayed in browsers.... |
| Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) - Cascading Style Sheets is a technique built into version 4.0 and later browsers that support styles for pages. For example, you can set up styles for fonts... |
| case sensitive - When matching a string of letters, it is case sensitive if capital and lower case letters must match exactly. If an operating system or a piece of software... |
| Cat 3 - Cat 3 cable is certified to run at up to 16MHz. You can achieve speeds of up to 10Mbps on Cat 3 cable. This cable maxes out with standard 10Mbps Ethernet.... |
| Cat 4 - Cat 4 cable is certified to run at up to 20MHz. You can achieve speeds of up to 16Mbps, such as with the 16Mbps token-ring standard. |
| Cat 5 - This was a very common copper wire standard between 1996-2002 and today. It uses an RJ-45 plug and four-pair wire like Cat 3 and Cat 4, but it is certified... |
| Cat 5e - A copper wire cable standard that contains four twisted copper wire pairs, like earlier versions such as Cat 3, 4, and 5. It allows connection speeds of... |
| Cat 6 - A cable standard for cable that contains four twisted copper wire pairs, just like earlier copper cable standards. It was designed with Gigabit Ethernet... |
| Cat 7 - A cable standard for cable that contains four twisted copper wire pairs. It is not yet fully ratified. It typically allows transmission speeds of up to... |
| Category 3 cable standard - Cat 3 cable is certified to run at up to 16MHz. You can achieve speeds of up to 10Mbps on Cat 3 cable. This cable maxes out with standard 10Mbps Ethernet.... |
| Category 4 cable standard - Cat 4 cable is certified to run at up to 20MHz. You can achieve speeds of up to 16Mbps, such as with the 16Mbps token-ring standard. |
| Category 5 cable standard - This was a very common copper wire standard between 1996-2002 and today. It uses an RJ-45 plug and four-pair wire like Cat 3 and Cat 4, but it is certified... |
| Category 5e cable standard - A copper wire cable standard that contains four twisted copper wire pairs, like earlier versions such as Cat 3, 4, and 5. It allows connection speeds of... |
| Category 6 cable standard - A cable standard for cable that contains four twisted copper wire pairs, just like earlier copper cable standards. It was designed with Gigabit Ethernet... |
| Category 7 cable standard - A cable standard for cable that contains four twisted copper wire pairs. It is not yet fully ratified. It typically allows transmission speeds of up to... |
| Cathode Ray Tube - One of the main components of most monitors and TVs. A beam of electrons is shot towards the CRT, and as the electrons collide with phosphors on the inside... |
| CAV - A method of reading (or writing) data from (or to) a spinning disk. As data is read from the disk, the drive motor always spins at the same speed. For... |
| CCD - Photosensitive CCDs are used in scanners, digital cameras, and video cameras. The CCD basically reads the image by storing a group of charges based on... |
| CD-R - CD-R drives record up to 650 MB of data onto specialized CD-R media. The media is more expensive compared to the mass-produced CDs that software is generally... |
| CD-ROM - CD-ROM media is read-only media that holds about 650 MB of data. It's generally accepted as the easiest way to distribute software. CD-ROM drives can also... |
| CD-RW - A CD-ROM format that not only reads standard CD-ROMs, but can read and write CD-R disks, and also read and re-write CD-RW media. CD-RW media is more expensive... |
| CDMA - A 2G digital wireless technology that allows multiple calls to share a radio frequency 1.23MHz wide in the 800MHz-1.9GHz band without causing interference.... |
| CDMA2000 - The multiplexed version of the IMT-2000 standard developed by the ITU, and it's part of 3G wireless technology. It increases wireless data transmission... |
| CDSL - Acronym for Consumer Digital Subscriber Line. Rockwell's new technology for digital modems that will use regular telephone lines and run at speeds up to... |
| Cell - A coverage area around a specific transmitter that communicates with cellular telephones and enables phone calls to the same or other cells. If a cellular... |
| Cellphone - A mobile, wireless telephone that communicates with a local transmitter using a short-wave analog or digital transmission. Cellular phone coverage is limited... |
| Cellular Telephone - A mobile, wireless telephone that communicates with a local transmitter using a short-wave analog or digital transmission. Cellular phone coverage is limited... |
| censorship - Issues frequently arise online about censorship. When does a service provider or a mail discussion list host or a message base host have a right to delete... |
| Central Processing Unit - Think of this as the brains of the computer. When most people think of processors, they think of Intel, AMD, Motorola, or IBM. The Pentium 4 and Athlon... |
| CERN - the European Organization for Nuclear Research where the web was born. See Internet History. The original name in French was Conseil Européen pour la Recherche... |
| Certificate Authority - A trusted third-party organization or company that issues digital certificates. The CA guarantees that the holder of the digital certificate is who he... |
| Certified Novell Administrator - The title of an individual who has passed tests on networking using Novell products. This certification is aimed at network administrators who oversee... |
| Certified Novell Engineer - A certification similar to the CNA but requiring the passing of more tests. It is aimed at people interested in installing and planning the rollout of... |
| CF+ - An extension to the CompactFlash standard that allows for use of devices other than plain storage Flash memory and microdrives. With CompactFlash+, devices... |
| CFM - A measure of airflow, and you can use it to compare the efficiency of fans designed to cool computers or computer components. Higher CFM rates are better.... |
| CGA - A video standard that allowed a resolution of 320x200 with a whopping four colors. It was replaced byEGA. You can get 16 colors on CGA if you go down to... |
| CGI - Common Gateway Interface. A method used by WWW pages to communicate with programs run on the web server.
|
| Chad - The piece of paper that is removed from a punch card when holes are punched into it. Problems with chads that don't punch through were seen quite a bit... |
| chain letter - A form of spam which asks you to distribute the letter to many other people. They are against the policies of most Internet service providers, and almost... |
| Channel - The group of resellers that supply most companies with software, hardware, and support. The channel is a force to be reckoned with, and it competes directly... |
| Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit - A piece of hardware that you use to translate the digital data frames of a T1 line into a 10BaseT connection where Internet connectivity is concerned.... |
| Character - A single letter, number, or symbol. This term applies to data typed into a computer, shown on computer screens, or printed (or written) on paper. |
| Characters Per Second - The amount of text characters printed in a second. This term was used more when daisy wheel and dot matrix printers were common. Nowadays, printers are... |
| Charge Coupled Device - Photosensitive CCDs are used in scanners, digital cameras, and video cameras. The CCD basically reads the image by storing a group of charges based on... |
| charset - Short for character set. Different character sets are used for different purposes such as the different characters used by different languages.
|
| Chassis - Pronounced "chassy," this is the frame or case which holds your computer components. |
| chat - A form of real-time electronic communications where participants type what they want to say, and it is repeated on the screens of all other participants... |
| Chat room - Any Web address, IRC channel, or other virtual space where two or more users can get together and exchange synchronous remarks. Most chat rooms have a... |
| Checksum - A value that is calculated from a group of data and often passed along with the data when it is transferred. The receiver of the data will compare it to... |
| Chief Information Officer - An executive title, usually at a medium or large-sized company. The person that bears this title is in charge of the flow of information in and out of... |
| Chief Technology Officer - An executive title related to CIO, usually at a medium or large-sized company. The CTO is, however, more focused on the use of technology in products developed... |
| Chip - short for microchip. This term is commonly used to describe the CPU. More specifically, it refers to the part of the CPU that actually does the work, since... |
| Chipkill - A technology developed by IBM for servers and other systems that demand high availability. It allows a computer motherboard and BIOS to detect problems... |
| Chipset - The chips that control the functions and features on a motherboard. The chipset determines how much memory you can put into a motherboard and what processors... |
| chkdsk - A Microsoft program that checks your hard drive for logical errors as opposed to physical defects. This program is supported in DOS and all versions of... |
| churn - Rate of change, usually high; instability caused by frequent unplanned and hard to control changes. The word evolved from its use to mean agitation in... |
| CICS - Not to be confused with CISC, CICS is online transaction processing application server software originally written by IBM for mainframes for dealing with... |
| CIDR - Classless Inter-Domain Routing. This is a change in specifying ranges of IP addresses from the old Class A, B, and C address blocks. IP addresses consist... |
| CIO - An executive title, usually at a medium or large-sized company. The person that bears this title is in charge of the flow of information in and out of... |
| CIR - This term is used by ISPs to represent an amount of data that you should, on the average, be able to draw through your connection to the ISP's servers.... |
| Circuit - Most commonly, this describes an electrical device with a defined path of electrical current that can receive input voltages in a 0 range and a 1 range,... |
| Circuit breaker - A device that interrupts the flow of electricity if an excessive level of current is detected. It's a better design than the fuse, as it can just be reset... |
| CISC - Microchips that support a large amount of instructions of varying length. On the other side of the coin, you have RISC chips that use a smaller instruction... |
| Class A IP - A group of IP addresses where the first number remains the same, and the last three can vary. It could be represented by w.x.y.z, where the x, y, and z... |
| Class B IP - A group of IP addresses where the first two numbers remain the same and the last two can vary. It could be represented by w.x.y.z, where the y and z can... |
| Class C IP - A group of IP addresses where the first three numbers remain the same and the last one can vary. It could be represented by w.x.y.z, where the z can be... |
| CLEC - Competitive Local Exchange Carrier. See LEC.
|
| client - An individual computer on a network that runs its own programs and processes information received from a central server.
|
| client-server architecture - In client-server architecture, the computing load is distributed among the many clients (individual computers) in a network, drawing information from central... |
| Client/Server - Client server technology came about when computers began to cost less. Mainframes are very expensive, and didn't give users much personal freedom. The... |
| Clip Art - Graphics/artwork distributed for use in word processors, Web pages, or desktop publishing. Graphic designers often use clip art as a shortcut to developing... |
| Clock chipping - Synonym for overclocking. |
| Clock Cycle - Think of a clock cycle as one tick of the second hand (but generally at a much higher speed). Computer clocks run voltage through a tiny crystal that oscillates... |
| Clock Speed - The speed in MHz of a microprocessor. It is one way of gauging the performance of a microprocessor; however, different processor architectures dictate... |
| Cluster - A group of computers connected over a network that are running software that allows them each to work on individual pieces of one greater task. |
| Clustering - Clustering is a technology using two or more computers that function together as a single entity for fault tolerance and load balancing. This can increase... |
| CLV - In terms of disk drives, this means that the rate of data being read off of the disk stays the same from center to outer edge. To accomplish this, the... |
| CMOS - A method of constructing transistors which produces microchips that run with relatively low power consumption compared to other methods. Most of the chips... |
| CMYK - An alternate color scheme to the RGB color scheme. Combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black are used to represent colors. The CMYK scheme is used... |
| CNA - The title of an individual who has passed tests on networking using Novell products. This certification is aimed at network administrators who oversee... |
| CNE - A certification similar to the CNA but requiring the passing of more tests. It is aimed at people interested in installing and planning the rollout of... |
| Co-Location - The practice of having your webservers, or other servers, hosted at another location by another company. Often, companies will co-locate their webservers... |
| coax, coaxial cable - A type of cable which contains two conductors, one inside and the other outside around it, separated by an insulating layer. They share the same axis,... |
| Coaxial cable - The type of cable used by the 10Base2 Ethernet standard, and also in most home cable television. It consists of a single, insulated copper wire, surrounded... |
| COBOL - A programming language developed in the '60s by several computer companies and the U.S. Department of Defense. COBOL is still used today for programming... |
| Code - A series of instructions that make up a program. |
| Code Division Multiple Access - A 2G digital wireless technology that allows multiple calls to share a radio frequency 1.23MHz wide in the 800MHz-1.9GHz band without causing interference.... |
| Code generator - A code generator is part of a compiler. It takes intermediate code and translates it into the final workable code in the target language. |
| Codec - Codecs are standard methods of coding and decoding data. Typically, the data is coded and/or compressed to save space. Usually, this is done with multimedia... |
| Coily - Enemy of Q-Bert. |
| ColdFusion - A server side extension developed by Allaire that allows documents similar to HTML, usually with the .cfm extension, to be parsed and run on a webserver.... |
| Collision - What happens on a piece of networking equipment, usually a shared hub, that is being asked to transfer more data than it can handle. Collisions occur when... |
| Colo - Short for co-location. |
| Column Address Strobe - An electrical signal that determines which column is read or written to on a DRAM chip. You must combine a column address strobe with a row address strobe... |
| COM Port - An abbreviation for communications port, this generally refers to a serial port. |
| Comma Separated Values - A file extension used for a flat text data file consisting of items of data separated by commas. Each line of data is separated by a carriage return. |
| Command Prompt - Any blinking cursor waiting, or prompting, for user input. In DOS the C: prompt greets you on most systems--this is a type of command prompt. As well,... |
| Committed Information Rate - This term is used by ISPs to represent an amount of data that you should, on the average, be able to draw through your connection to the ISP's servers.... |
| COmmon Business-Oriented Language - A programming language developed in the '60s by several computer companies and the U.S. Department of Defense. COBOL is still used today for programming... |
| Common Gateway Interface - This interface allows scripts or programs to run on a webserver. Most webservers support CGI scripting. You can make a CGI script do pretty much anything... |
| Common Object Request Broker Architecture - A standard that allows programs or objects to communicate even though they may have been written by different vendors. CORBA is defined by a group of 800... |
| Compact Disc Read Only Media - CD-ROM media is read-only media that holds about 650 MB of data. It's generally accepted as the easiest way to distribute software. CD-ROM drives can also... |
| Compact Disc Recordable - CD-R drives record up to 650 MB of data onto specialized CD-R media. The media is more expensive compared to the mass-produced CDs that software is generally... |
| CompactFlash - A 50-pin connection standard used in some PDAs, digital cameras, hardware MP3 players, and other small hardware devices. It was initially designed to offer... |
| CompactFlash+ - An extension to the CompactFlash standard that allows for use of devices other than plain storage Flash memory and microdrives. With CompactFlash+, devices... |
| Competitive Local Exchange Carrier - The Telecommunications Act of 1996 sought to create this type of service company that would offer local calling, long distance, international calling,... |
| Compiler - A compiler translates a computer program from one language into another, catching any errors in syntax along the way.Most commonly, you translate some... |
| Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor - A method of constructing transistors which produces microchips that run with relatively low power consumption compared to other methods. Most of the chips... |
| Complex Instruction Set Computer - Microchips that support a large amount of instructions of varying length. On the other side of the coin, you have RISC chips that use a smaller instruction... |
| Component Object Model - A Microsoft specification that describes methods of communication between components. For example, if you were to drag an item over a window, the item... |
| compression - Compression is a technique to make a file or a data stream smaller for faster transmission or to take up less storage space. There a number of programs... |
| Computer - Simply put, this is anything that inputs data, processes it in some way, and outputs it. |
| Computer Aided Design - Oh, you cad! This refers to the use of computers to design things. There are specific CAD programs like AutoCAD that are generally resource-intensive,... |
| Computer Graphics Adapter - A video standard that allowed a resolution of 320x200 with a whopping four colors. It was replaced byEGA. You can get 16 colors on CGA if you go down to... |
| Computer model - A computer model is a recreation of a static scene, be it a house or a complex CAD design. |
| Computer simulation - A prediction of the outcome of events by using actual data and attempting to mimic the environment on a computer. Computer simulations are used often in... |
| Computer Telephony Integration - Simply put, this represents the integration of a computer and telephone. Its serious uses include phone registration, fax-back systems, and other systems... |
| Conditional Statement - In programming, this is a type of command that controls the flow of a program based on whether certain conditions are met. The statement is normally set... |
| Console - This term can be used generally to describe a computer, a terminal, or, more recently, a dedicated gaming system. |
| Console Game - A game designed to be played on a game console. |
| Constant Angular Velocity - A method of reading (or writing) data from (or to) a spinning disk. As data is read from the disk, the drive motor always spins at the same speed. For... |
| Constant Linear Velocity - In terms of disk drives, this means that the rate of data being read off of the disk stays the same from center to outer edge. To accomplish this, the... |
| content - Generally, the information provided on a web page, as opposed to its design and layout. Content can take the form of text, graphics, audio, video, or a... |
| Content Scrambling System - This is a method of scrambling DVD movie content so that DVD movies will not be played on unlicensed DVD player hardware. CSS is part of a complex group... |
| Contrast Ratio - This ratio is equivalent to the brightness of the white level divided by the brightness of the black level of a display. A higher contrast ratio makes... |
| Control Program for Microprocessors - CP/M was THE operating system before IBM created the PC. IBM was shopping for an OS for the PC, ended up going with Microsoft, and Bill Gates created DOS.... |
| Convergence - The ability of the three electron beams (red, green, and blue) in a CRT monitor to meet at a single point and produce one dot. If a monitor is mis-converging,... |
| cookie - A cookie is a short file put on your system by a web page which includes information about your usage and facilitates the current interaction. For example,... |
| cookie poisoning - the modification of a cookie by an attacker to gain unauthorized information about the user for purposes such as identity theft. |
| Copper Barrier - An assumption that limits the amount of data that can be sent through a single copper wire as used in DVI connections, and thus why there are two types... |
| copy-and-paste, cut-and-paste - The technique of copying text from one location or file to another. If the text in the original location is deleted, it is called cut-and-paste. Whether... |
| copyright - The legal protection against copying and the specific rights allowing copying given to original works, which may be in printed or photographically or electronically... |
| CORBA - A standard that allows programs or objects to communicate even though they may have been written by different vendors. CORBA is defined by a group of 800... |
| Core - In UNIX systems this term is commonly used in reference to memory, and the crash dump "core" files you will find if you do something naughty in UNIX. The... |
| Core Dump - In UNIX systems, when a program crashes it "dumps" out an image of the memory and registers so that you may go through and see what caused the problem.... |
| country code - Most countries in the world that are connected to the Internet have been assigned two-letter country codes by the international standard ISO 3166. These... |
| CP/M - CP/M was THE operating system before IBM created the PC. IBM was shopping for an OS for the PC, ended up going with Microsoft, and Bill Gates created DOS.... |
| CPM - This term is used when buying and selling Internet advertising banners, buttons, or text ads. CPM refers to the cost of displaying an ad impression 1,000... |
| CPS - The amount of text characters printed in a second. This term was used more when daisy wheel and dot matrix printers were common. Nowadays, printers are... |
| CPU - Think of this as the brains of the computer. When most people think of processors, they think of Intel, AMD, Motorola, or IBM. The Pentium 4 and Athlon... |
| CPU Terminator - A card that ensures that electrical signals on a CPU bus are terminated properly in multiprocessor systems where not all CPU slots are filled with CPUs.... |
| cracker - A person who attempts to break into a network or computer system, often with the intent to steal material or perform malicious destruction of files--or... |
| cram, cramming - Cramming is the practice by some phone companies, yours or others, to add false charges to your phone bills for calls you never made.
|
| crawler - See spider.
|
| CRC - Acronym for Cyclic Redundancy Check, a technique of providing a data string added to packets of information that can be used to detect errors in the data... |
| CRM - A class of enterprise software that enables a large company to manage all contact (or "touches") that it has with its customers. It would track, for example,... |
| Cron - A UNIX/Linux daemon that allows tasks to be scheduled on a regular basis. The crontab command is used to schedule and view jobs. |
| Crontab - A UNIX/Linux command that allows you to view (crontab -l) or make changes (crontab -e) to the list of jobs scheduled to be run by the cron daemon. |
| Cross Platform - A term given to software that can be used on multiple hardware platforms, such as the x86 PC, the Macintosh, or Sun's Solaris systems. One such piece of... |
| Crossover Cable - An Ethernet cable using RJ-45 connectors, where one end of the cable has the order of the second two pairs of the 8 wires (green and orange) swapped. Instead... |
| CRT - One of the main components of most monitors and TVs. A beam of electrons is shot towards the CRT, and as the electrons collide with phosphors on the inside... |
| Crypto - The study of decryption and encryption technologies. |
| Cryptography - The study of decryption and encryption technologies. |
| Csel - This is basically Plug-and-Play ATA. You plug in your ATA/IDE hard drives, set them to CSEL (Cable Select), and they determine whether they are master... |
| CSS - See Cascading Style Sheets.
|
| CSU/DSU - A piece of hardware that you use to translate the digital data frames of a T1 line into a 10BaseT connection where Internet connectivity is concerned.... |
| CSV - A file extension used for a flat text data file consisting of items of data separated by commas. Each line of data is separated by a carriage return. |
| CTI - Simply put, this represents the integration of a computer and telephone. Its serious uses include phone registration, fax-back systems, and other systems... |
| CTO - An executive title related to CIO, usually at a medium or large-sized company. The CTO is, however, more focused on the use of technology in products developed... |
| Ctrl - A key on a computer keyboard that typically adds 64 bits to the ASCII value of a key being pressed. Based on the program that is running, it can have different... |
| cul - Chat shorthand for "see you later".
|
| Cursor - This is often represented by a blinking line or square on your computer screen. The cursor is there to let you know where information will be displayed... |
| Customer Information Control System - Not to be confused with CISC, CICS is online transaction processing application server software originally written by IBM for mainframes for dealing with... |
| Customer Relationship Management - A class of enterprise software that enables a large company to manage all contact (or "touches") that it has with its customers. It would track, for example,... |
| CXT Core - AMD added a feature to its K6-2 processor, running at 400MHz, called write combining, that queues up memory requests until there is a sufficient amount... |
| cyberspace - A term coined by author William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer. It represents the totality of all connected computer networks and their contents in a... |
| cybersquatting - The act of registering a company name as a domain name by someone outside the company in hopes of selling it to the company for a profit. Anti-cybersquatting... |
| Cyborg - A person who is partially flesh and bone, but has one or more robotic appendages electronically linked to his or her nerves. Often, a cyborg is said to... |
| Cyclic Redundancy Check - A test to see whether data has been transferred properly over a modem or to and from disk media. The sender of the data adds a check number to the end... |
| Cylinder - This term is somewhat synonymous with the tracks on a hard disk drive. However, instead of a single track, a cylinder refers to the location of all the... |
