PC Glossary: The minimum tech terms you should know:

Rik Nilsson

Abstract

Because you are reading this, you are an owner-operator of a powerful tool called the Personal Computer. You owe it to yourself and to the rest of us on The Information Super Highway to become familiar with some of the more common computer and internet related tech language (what you call "jargon" if you don't understand it...)

Anti-Virus Software: software that automatically detects virus attacks and/or infections on your computer. Effective against worms, viruses, trojan horses, and most recently, spyware.
Application: an application is a software program you run to do something specific like write or draw on your computer. For instance, when you are writing a letter, you are most likely using the application Microsoft Word.
Bandwidth: the speed of your connection. "Broadband" means fast, what you get on cable or DSL ("digital subscriber line") service. "Dialup" means slow (up to 56 thousand bytes per second [kbps], but usually 36kbps or less.)
Browser: An application program that you run on your computer to search for and view special files on the Internet, called HTML files.
Byte: unit of measuring PC memory or disc capacity. Equivalent to a single character of information. One or more bytes equal a computer "word".
Compression: a means of combining picture elements (pixels) by arithmetic to make the file smaller but keep nearly the same image quality.
Cookies: relatively harmless information files that enable some Web pages to "remember" your previous visits - for example, an e-commerce site might use a cookie to remember which items you've placed in your online shopping cart.
Download: to copy or receive a file, message, program or picture onto your PC from another computer or the internet. See also, "Upload".
Excel: accounting program that does fancy math in columns and rows.
Firewall: software that helps prevent infection of your PC by worms while connected to the internet.
File: a file is a collection of bytes arranged to store information on your computer. When you write a letter, you are creating a file of characters (represented by bytes) in memory, probably using the application Microsoft Word. Until you save the file on your harddrive, it is fleeting and can be lost if the power goes off.
Gif: stands for "graphic interchange format". The filename extension on a compressed image file that ends in ".gif" or ".GIF". Also a brand of peanutbutter.
Image: most commonly, an electronic picture file.
Internet: a vast network of high speed cabling, satellites and computers interconnected for sharing information.
Internet Explorer: the application program on your Windows computer that displays web pages (that big blue "E" icon on your Windows Desktop). On Macs you probably use Safari or Firefox.
JavaScript: a computer programming language primarily used to activate features on web pages. Yes, it's all one word.
JPEG: an electronic picture file compresed in the JPEG format. Its name ends in ".jpg" or ".JPG". The most widely viewable image format.
Bits, bytes, kilobytes (Kb), megabytes(Mb), gigabytes(Gb): measures of disc space or memory in your computer. A bit is one binary digit, which can be either "0" or "1" representing the two states of a memory cell. In microcomputers (PCs) a byte is an 8-bit word. (kilo = thousand, mega = million, giga = billion). The more "megabytes" of memory or disc space your computer has, the smoother and faster it will run.
PDF: portable document format, which means the file is in a format that can be read on any PC or Mac with the free Acrobat reader. The neat thing about PDF documents is that they include fonts and formatting information that makes them look the same on any computer.
Pixel: short for "picture element". Observe a photo in a newspaper with a magnifying glass; notice how it is made of dots. Computer images are also made up of "dots" or pixels of different colors. The number of dots per inch (dpi) determines how big the image looks on your monitor, and to some degree, how big the image file is.
Resolution (monitor): how many pixels wide and high your monitor screen has or is configured to display. The minimum size currently is typically 1024 across by 768 down on a 17-inch screen. Most modern PCs give you several resolution choices to accomodate your visual capacity.
Spyware, Adware: malicious software installed without your knowledge (and therefore without your consent) that creates "pop-up" advertising on your computer, whether you're browsing the internet or not. In spite of all the megabytes of memory and disc space you have in your PC, this stuff can really bog it down.
Trojan horse: a not-so-innocent virus disguised as an innocent program. Most often spread as an email attachment (see Anti-Virus Software). Never open attachments you didn't ask someone to send to you.
Upload: to mail, send or otherwise transmit a file, picture, message or progam from your PC to another or to the internet. See also, "Download".
Virus: program that infects PCs like germs infect people; makes them slow, cranky and can leave vulgar residues around. One of the reasons you should have ant-virus software installed.
World Wide Web: a part of the internet consisting mostly of HTML files on a distributed network of servers. It uses only a small collection of software protocols to display multi-media web "pages" in your browser.
Worm: a virus that can infect your computer directly from your internet connection. One of the reasons your firewall should be turned on.