Buzzwords

IBM: International Business Machines. They may not have invented microcomputers but they made the use of small computers in business more acceptable and in doing so forever changed the face of computing.

ICC: The International Color Consortium is a group of the largest manufacturers in the computer and digital imaging industries. The consortium works to advance cross-platform color communications and has established base-level standards and protocols in the form of ICC Profile Format specifications to build a common foundation for communication of color information between devices.

ICCP: The Institute for the Certification of Computer Professionals. A professional organization that does what its name says. Visit their web site at www.iccp.org.

ICON: Those little pictures that represent files and programs that are used by Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) for operating systems such as the Mac OS or Microsoft Windows.

IDE: Integrated Drive Electronics. Computer motherboards accept several kinds of circuit boards to control hard disks, the most common standard was originally called IDE, but the more commonly used current term is ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment). ATA drives are found in Windows and Mac OS computers and have the advantage of being reasonably fast (7.5MB/second transfer speed) and inexpensive.

IEEE: The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is an organization thats involved in setting standards for computers and data communications, such as the popular IEEE 1394 a.k.a. FireWire a.k.a. iLink.

IMAGEBASE: Database programs that keep track of digital photographs, video clips, graphic files, and even sounds are sometimes referred to as imagebase programs. Photographers, designers, and artists have always needed a method for organizing their images. In the past this was, more often than not, accomplished by using filing cabinets that nobody could ever keep organized. When computers began storing pictures as data, many graphics professionals stuffed the images on their hard disks inside folders or directories, often labeled with cryptic names. The problem then became not just where did I put that artwork, but what did I call that file? Image databases can help answer both questions.

IMAGE EDITING PROGRAM: The broad term for software that allows digital photographs to be manipulated and enhanced to improve and change images much as you would produce similar effects in a traditional darkroom and then some.

IMAGE PAC: The system that Eastman Kodak uses to write photographic image files onto a Photo CD disc. This is a single file that contains multiple image files stored at different resolutions depending on whether it is Photo CD Master or Pro Photo CD disc.

INDEXED COLOR: Photographic files using this color mode contain many different levels of color or gray and a palette that specifies which color is used at any given level. Indexed color image files tend to have color depths of 8-bits per pixel allowing them to produce 256 colors. CompuServes GIF (Graphic Interchange Format) is an indexed color file. The first kind of indexed color file typically contains 256 or fewer colors. The second, called pseudocolor is gray scale images that displays the variations in gray levels in color rather than shades of gray and is typically used for scientific and technical work.

INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY: A term created by pundits and politicians that refers to an interconnected telecommunications networka.k.a. the World Wide Web.

INITIALIZE: The process of setting all values on a hard disk, removable media, or floppy disk to zero; in other words, erasing all of the data thats currently stored.

INITIALIZING A DISK: Also called formatting a disk. (And yes, the formatting process initializes the disk by setting all values at zero and erases all existing data.)

INK JET: This kind of printer works by spraying tiny streams of quick-drying ink onto paper to produce high-quality output. Circuits controlled by electrical impulse or heat determine exactly how much inkand what colorto spray creates a series of dots or lines that form a printed photograph. Canon, HP, and Lexmark utilize the thermal approach, while Epsons piezoelectric technology uses mechanical vibrations, instead of heat, to fire ink onto paper.

INPUT: (verb) (noun) Information entered via keyboard or other peripheral device is called input. Data entered into a computer is said to have been input. A photograph scanned into an image-enhancement program is input into it.

INPUT DEVICE: Any computer peripheral such as a keyboard, memory card reader, or scanner that converts analog data into digital information that can in turn be handled by your computer.

INTEL: The leading manufacturer of microprocessor chips used in Windows-based computers, although certainly not the only one as AMD is currently matching them chip-for-chip for processor speed.

INTELLIGENT AGENT: This latest computer buzzword refers to software thats been taught something of your desires or preferences and acts on your behalf to do things for you. The Artificial Intelligence community refers to this as heuristic learning. While Intelligent Agent programs exist, none of them have scratched the surface on what is shown in films such as Steven Spielbergs Artificial Intelligence.

INTEGRATED CIRCUIT: A self-contained electronic device contained in a single semi-conductor computer chip.

INTERLACED: Broadcast television uses an interlaced signal, and the NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) standard is 525 scanning lines, which means the signal refreshes the screen every second line 60 times a second, and then goes back to the top of the screen and refreshes the other set of lines, again at 60 times a second. The average non-interlaced computer monitor refreshes its entire screen at 60 to 72 times a second, but better ones refresh the screen at higher rates. Anything over 70 Hz is considered flicker-free.

INTERFACE: The real world connection between hardware, software, and users. This is the operating systems method for directly communicating with you. Its also any mechanical or electrical link connecting two or more pieces of computer hardware.

INTERLEAVE: Is a factor that determines how computers read and write data to and from a hard disk. If the computer reads or writes one sector of the hard disk, then skips one, that interleave factor is referred to as 2:1. If the controller writes one sector and then skips two, the interleave is called 3:1. The interleave factor is typically established by the hard disks manufacturer.

INTERNET: Originally developed for the military, it is comprised of many thousands of interconnected computer networks in more than 70 countries, connecting academic, commercial, government and military networks for higher education and commercial research. It is also used as a worldwide electronic mail system. The fastest growing part of the Internet is the World Wide Web. On the day I wrote this sentence Telcordia Technologies (www.netsizer.com) estimates there are 100,589,000 hosts on the Internet. Check their site for the latest number. When I wrote the first edition of The Photographers Internet Handbook (www.allworth.com) there were only two million hosts on the Internet.

INTERNET ADDRESS: The format for addressing a message to any Internet user is recipient@location.domain. The recipient is the persons name or handle, the location is the place where the recipient can be found, and the suffix tells the kind of organization the address belongs to. Locations outside the United States have an additional extension identifying their country. In 1971 computer engineer Ray Tomlinson sent the worlds first e-mail message in the world to himself. He picked the @ symbol because he says, I scanned the keyboard for a sign that wouldnt appear on anyones name, and couldnt therefore create any confusion.

INTERPOLATED RESOLUTION: Scanners are measured by their optical as well as their interpolated resolution. Optical resolution refers to the raw resolution thats inherently produced by the hardware, while interpolated resolution is software that adds pixels to simulate higher-resolution.

INTERRUPT: A break in a programs execution that can be caused by a signal that directs the computer to leave the softwares natural sequence in such a way that the normal flow can be resumed after the break.

I/O DEVICE: Input/Output device. This is another way to refer to peripheral devices such as CD-RW drives, printers, scanners, etc.

IRQ: An interrupt request line is a communication channel between any card installed in a Windows compatible computer and its Central Processing Unit (CPU.)

ISA: Industry Standard Architecture. This is another buzzword identifying the expansion slots found on the computer motherboards of Windows-based computers. Unlike older slot designs, ISA slots allows the installation of plug-in boards that can transfer data 16 bits at a time. They will also accept 8-bit cards, but the speed is limited by the boards original design.

ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network. This is a broadband communications system concept that provides an international standard for voice, data, and signaling. Because this is a purely digital system, modems are replaced by simpler terminal equipment connecting computers to the Internet.

ISO: International Standards Organization. Founded in 1946 with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the ISO sets international standards for many fields, excluding electronics, which is controlled by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The ISO comprises more than 160 committees and 2300 subcommittees and working groups, and is made up of standard organizations from more than 75 countries.

I-WAY: Yet another acronym for the Information Superhighway. (Are we there yet?)