Buzzwords

ACCESS ARM: This is a piece of hardware found on any magnetic disk, including hard drives or removable media disks like Iomegas Zip, that holds the read/write heads that actually read or write data onto the disk.

ACCESS BUS: Inside computers there are bus slots that accept printed circuit cards which allow accessories or devices to be attached to the computers motherboard. Access Bus is a bus standard that provides two-way communications between peripherals and the systems Central Processing Unit (CPU.) The use of the Access Bus standard eliminates the need for the user to install files or drivers to accomplish these goals.

ACCESS TIME: The performance of fixed or removable drives is measured by seek time or the amount of time required for the access arm of a storage device to position itself over the appropriate data track.

ADP: Automatic Data Processing.

ADSL: Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line is the most familiar for home and small business users. Its called asymmetric because most of its two-way or bandwidth is devoted to sending data to the useroften called downstream in the lingo of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Using ADSL, up to 6.1MB per second of data can be sent downstream and up to 640 Kbps upstream or uploading. The downstream part of the connection can be used for voice communications, so you are really getting two lines for the price of one: One for data, one for voice.

ADVANCED PHOTO SYSTEM: Sometimes erroneously called APS. (APS is a registered trademark of Alliance Peripheral Systems of Kansas City, a manufacturer of hard disks and removable media drives.) This is a 24mm cartridge based film format that was developed by an international consortium including Canon, Fuji, Kodak, Nikon, and Minolta. The cartridge uses a drop-in loading system that ensures that a photographer never actually touches the film. After processing, the film is returned rewound into the original cartridge. The film features a full-frame image size of 16.7x30.2mm, compared to a standard 35mm films 24x36mm. Advanced Photo System film has sprocket holes on one side, instead of both sides as is typical for 35mm film. The film is coated with transparent magnetic material that allows an Advanced Photo System camera to shoot three different image formats. Processing equipment reads the data encoded on the magnetic material and can produce prints in three different sizes from a single roll of film. What does this film format mean to the digital imager? Kodak and Fuji offer digital imaging services that turn these analog images into digital ones and the quality is surprisingly high. The magnetic material on the film may hold the key to future digital services as well.

AI: Artificial Intelligence.

ALGORITHM: In mathematical terms, this is a set of defined rules (or part of a program) that solves a problem.

ALIAS: A feature of the Macintosh operating system which allows users to create a small file that acts as a substitute (or pointer) which, when double clicked, launches the original application or document. This allows users to keep original files buried deep in folders, or even stored on removable media or a network, and launch them without a lot of muss or fuss. In Microsoft Windows, the alias concept is implemented as a shortcut. Dont confuse alias this feature with aliasing following.

ALIASING: Sometimes when a graphic image is displayed on a monitor, youll see jagged edges around some part of the object. These rough edges are caused by an effect called aliasing. Techniques that smooth out the jaggies are called anti-aliasing.

ALPHA VERSION: This is the first version of new software that preceded Beta and is typically only used within the environment in which it was created, e.g. is rarely seen outside the developers company.

ANCHOR: A spot on your web site that is linked to places on the same web page or on another web page.

ANSI: The American National Standards Institute is an organization that determines and distributes data processing standards that may be adopted on a voluntary basis by the industry. ANSI is the USAs member in the International Standards Organization (ISO.)

API: Application Program Interface. A format used by a software program to communicate with another program that provides services for it. APIs carry out lower-level services performed by the computers operating system. In Microsoft Windows, an API helps applications manage windows, menus, icons, and other graphic user interface elements.

ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASCII is a standardized computer code for representing text data. The code has 96 displayed characters (characters you can see on the screen) and 32 non-displayed characters (some of which you can see, others that you cant).

ANALOG: Information presented in continuous form, corresponding to a representation of the real world. A traditional photographic print is an analog image, but when this same image is scanned, it is translated into digital form and becomes bits of information.

APPS: Shorthand for applications. Adobe Photoshop and PageMaker may properly be called applications, but often are just called APPS.

ASYNCHRONOUS: This is a common form of two-way data transmission in which each character is transmitted as a discrete unit having its own start and stop characters. This allows for the sending and receiving units modems, not in synchronization.

ATM: Adobe Type Manager. Since not all printers can handle PostScript fonts, Adobe developed ATM software, which lets you print PostScript fonts on non-PostScript printers as well as display fonts smoothly on screen.