Essential Tech Terms: A Comprehensive Glossary

RAM (Random Access Memory)

Random Access Memory is one of two basic types of memory. Portions of programs are stored in RAM when the program is launched so that the program will run faster. Though a PC has a fixed amount of RAM, only portions of it will be accessed by the computer at any given time. Also called memory.

Scrolling

Scrolling allows lines displayed on the screen to be moved up or down by one line as a new line is added and an existing one is removed.

Shooter

A shooter is a game whose main focus is combat involving guns or other projectile weapons such as missiles.

Shopping Cart

A shopping cart is software that keeps track of what you buy on a site.

Software Engineer

A software engineer is a person that writes computer programs.

Speech Recognition

Speech recognition is the ability of a computer to recognize spoken words. Speech recognition can be used to dictate text or to give commands to the computer, and is helpful for people who are unable to type. The way it works is that spoken words are converted into digital data and matched to words already in the computer's dictionary.

SQL Server

Generically, any database management system (DBMS) that can respond to queries from client machines formatted in the SQL language.

Strategy Game

A strategy game is a game that requires careful planning and tactics to achieve victory, often from a godlike perspective over the game world.

Tags

Tags are codes in HTML that give instructions for formatting or other actions. World Wide Web documents are set up using HTML tags which serve various functions such as controlling the styling of text and placement of graphic elements and providing links to interactive programs and scripts.

Terabyte

A terabyte is one trillion bytes.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

A Uniform Resource Locator is: 1. The protocol for identifying a document on the Web. 2. A Web address (e.g., www.census.gov). A URL is unique to each user. See also domain.

VBScript

Short for Visual Basic Scripting Edition, a scripting language developed by Microsoft and supported by Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser. VBScript is based on the Visual Basic programming language, but is much simpler.

Video Card

A video card, also called a graphics adapter, display adapter, or video adapter, is a circuit board that enables a computer to display information on its screen. The resolution, number of colors, and refresh rate of a monitor is determined by the kind of video card used, plus the limitations of the monitor itself.

Voxel

A voxel is a volume element, analogous to pixels.

WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)

A secure specification that allows users to access information instantly via handheld wireless devices such as mobile phones.

Webmaster

The webmaster is the one that designs and maintains websites.

Winchester Disk

A Winchester disk is a high-precision hard disk permanently mounted and sealed in its drive.

World Wide Web (WWW or “the Web”)

A network of servers on the Internet that use hypertext-linked databases and files. It was developed in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, and is now the primary platform of the Internet. The feature that distinguishes the Web from other Internet applications is its ability to display graphics in addition to text.

WYSIWYG

What you see is what you get. A WYSIWYG application is one that enables you to see on the display screen exactly what will appear when the document is printed.