Tuesday’s Technology Tips
Geek Terms M-Z
A Guide to Simplifying Geek Speak
Hey everyone, welcome back to another Technology Tips for Friday, April
22, 2016. In this week’s newsletter, we continue more on the “Geek
Speak” guide using letters “M” to letter “Z”.
This continues like last week’s newsletter to share some common geeky
type terms that we computer techs like to use and discuss when we gather
around the table eating fat free and sugar free donuts and drinking low fat
low sugar decaffeinated coffee. (I misspelled decaffeinated last week and
just noticed those red squiggly lines.)
Please note before we go to the letters M-Z we need to take a quick break to
remind you as our wonderful teachers, amazing support staff, and equally amazing
and wonderful administrators to be sure and back up your files off the C drive
that may be stored on the local computer.
We like to remind you of this because over the summer your dedicated and
friendly IT support employees will be updating software and trying to be sure your
computers are running in excellent shape when you return to school in the fall.
We don’t anticipate any bad things happening to your laptops or computers over
the summer but just in case we want to remind you a great insurance (or is it
ensurance) plan that will keep you from losing your valuable files and documents
you have on your local C drive of the computer. We want you to back up your
files off the computer onto the server and Google documents.
Please back up your files by removing them from your local C drive Downloads
and Documents folder on your C drive and copying them to your teacher home
folder. You can access your teacher home folder by going to Start, Computer, and
looking for the letter F which is the drive letter usually where your teacher home
folder is located. You can simply Copy and Paste documents into your teacher
home folder. This way you can be sure the documents and files you have that are
very important are backed up on the server. I’m also a huge fan of Google
documents as a way of storing and saving files under your Google drive.
Google drive is very nice because it’s portable. You can access your files and
documents anywhere you have an internet connection. And it has plenty of storage
space for your files and documents. Please consider copying your important
files and backing them up before the end of the school term. The files you
save and back up could be important in Fall of 2016 when you start back to
school.
Now off to the “Geek Speak” from letters M to letter Z.
Malware--Short for "malicious software," malware refers to software programs designed to
damage or do other unwanted actions on a computer system. Common examples of malware
include viruses, worms, trojan horses, and spyware. Viruses, for example, can cause havoc on a
computer's hard drive by deleting files or directory information. Spyware can gather data from a
user's system without the user knowing it. This can include anything from the Web pages a user
visits to personal information, such as credit card numbers.
Maximizing a window makes it larger. In Windows, a maximized window fills the entire
screen, while on a Mac, it takes up only as much space as needed. The maximize button in
Windows is located in the upper-right corner of the window, next to the close button. If you
double-click the title bar, it will also maximize the window. On a Mac, the maximize button is
three green button located next to the red and yellow buttons in the upper-left corner of the
window.
A megapixel is one million pixels. It is commonly used to describe the resolution of
digital cameras. For example, a 7.2 megapixel camera is capable of capturing roughly 7,200,000
pixels. The higher the megapixel number, the more detail the camera can capture. Therefore, the
megapixel count is a significant specification to look for when buying a digital camera.
A motherboard is the main circuit board of your computer and is also known as the
mainboard or logic board. If you ever open your computer, the biggest piece of silicon you see is
the motherboard. Attached to the motherboard, you'll find the CPU, ROM, memory RAM
expansion slots, PCI slots, and USB ports. It also includes controllers for devices like the hard
drive, DVD drive, keyboard, and mouse. Basically, the motherboard is what makes everything in
your computer work together.
Netiquette
Netiquette, or net etiquette, refers to etiquette on the Internet. Good netiquette involves
respecting others' privacy and not doing anything online that will annoy or frustrate other people.
Three areas where good netiquette is highly stressed are e-mail, online chat, and newsgroups. For
example, people that spam other users with unwanted e-mails or flood them with messages have
very bad netiquette. You don't want to be one of those people. If you're new to a newsgroup or
online chat room, it may help to observe how people communicate with each other before
jumping in.
NIC
Stands for "Network Interface Card." Pronounced "nick," this is the card that physically makes
the connection between the computer and the network cable. These cards typically use an
Ethernet connection and are available in 10, 100, and 1000 Base-T configurations. A 100 Base-T
card can transfer data at 100 Mbps. The cards come in ISA and PCI versions and are made by
companies like 3Com and LinkSys. So if you want to connect your computer to a network, you
better get yourself a NIC.
OEM
Stands for "Original Equipment Manufacturer." This refers to a company that produces hardware
to be marketed under another company's brand name. For example, if Sony makes a monitor that
will marketed by Dell, a "Dell" label will get stuck on the front, but the OEM of the monitor is
Sony. You can also use the term as a verb, such as, "That Dell monitor over there is OEM'd by
Sony." That should impress your friends.
Outbox
An outbox is where outgoing e-mail messages are temporarily stored. While you are composing
a message, most mail programs automatically save a draft of your message in the outbox. The
message is then stored in the outbox until it is successfully sent to the recipient. Once the
message has been sent, most e-mail programs move the message to the "Sent" or "Sent
Messages" folder. While the terms "Outbox" and "Sent Messages" are often used synonymously,
technically they have different meanings.
Phishing
Phishing is similar to fishing in a lake, but instead of trying to capture fish, phishers attempt to
steal your personal information. They send out e-mails that appear to come from legitimate
websites such as eBay, PayPal, or other banking institutions. The e-mails state that your
information needs to be updated or validated and ask that you enter your username and
password, after clicking a link included in the e-mail. Some e-mails will ask that you enter even
more information, such as your full name, address, phone number, social security number, and
credit card number. However, even if you visit the false website and just enter your username
and password, the phisher may be able to gain access to more information by just logging in to
your account.
Plug and Play
Plug and Play, sometimes, abbreviated PnP, is a catchy phrase used to describe devices that work
with a computer system as soon as they are connected. The user does not have to manually install
drivers for the device or even tell the computer that a new device has been added. Instead the
computer automatically recognizes the device, loads new drivers for the hardware if needed, and
begins to work with the newly connected device.
Processor
This little chip is the heart of a computer. Also referred to as the "microprocessor," the processor
does all the computations such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. In PCs, the
most popular microprocessor used is the Intel Pentium chip, whereas Macintosh computers use
the PowerPC chip (developed by Motorola, IBM, and Apple).
The speed of a computer's processor is measured in megahertz, or cycles per second. But higher
megahertz doesn't always mean better performance. Though a 600-MHz chip has a clock speed
that is twice as fast as a 300-Mhz chip, it doesn't mean that the computer with the 600-Mhz chip
will run twice as fast. This is because the speed of a computer is also influenced by other factors,
such as the efficiency of the processor, the bus architecture, the amount of memory available,
and the software that is running on the computer. Some processors can complete more operations
per clock cycle than other processors, making them more efficient than other processors with
higher clock speeds. This is why the PowerPC chip is typically faster than Pentium chips at that
are clocked at higher megahertz.
Queue
To avoid any confusion, this term is pronounced exactly like the letter "Q". A queue is a list of
jobs that are awaiting to be processed. When a job is sent to a queue, it is simply added to the list
of jobs. Computer programs often work with queues as a way to order tasks. For example, when
the CPU finishes one computation, it will process the next one in the queue.
A printer queue is a list of documents that are waiting to be printed. When you decide to print a
document, it is sent to the printer queue. If there are no jobs currently in the queue, the document
will be printed immediately. However, if there are jobs already in the queue, the new document
will be added to the list and printed when the others have finished. Most printers today come
with software that allows you to manually sort, cancel, and add jobs to the printer queue. While
this may not seem like a great benefit for the typical home user, it can be a helpful tool for
businesses where many people share one printer.
RAM
Stands for "Random Access Memory," and is pronounced like the male sheep. RAM is made up
of small memory chips that form a memory module. These modules are installed in the RAM
slots on the motherboard of your computer.
Every time you open a program, it gets loaded from the hard drive into the RAM. This is because
reading data from the RAM is much faster than reading data from the hard drive. Running
programs from the RAM of the computer allows them to function without any lag time. The
more RAM your computer has, the more data can be loaded from the hard drive into the RAM,
which can effectively speed up your computer. In fact, adding RAM can be more beneficial to
your computer's performance than upgrading the CPU.
Registry
This is a database used by Microsoft Windows to store configuration information about the
software installed on a computer. This information includes things like the desktop background,
program settings, and file extension associations.
Safe Mode
Safe Mode is a way for the Windows operating system to run with the minimum system files
necessary. It uses a generic VGA display driver instead of the vendor-specific driver, which
means you will likely be working with only 16 colors in a resolution of 640x480. Safe Mode also
turns off all third-party drivers for other peripherals such as mice, keyboards, printers, and
scanners. In basic Safe Mode, networking files and settings are not loaded, meaning you won't be
able to connect to the Internet or other computers on a network.
Spoofing
The word "spoof" means to hoax, trick, or deceive. Therefore, in the IT world, spoofing refers
tricking or deceiving computer systems or other computer users. This is typically done by hiding
one's identity or faking the identity of another user on the Internet.
SSD
SSD is short for "Solid State Drive." An SSD serves the same purpose as a (hard drive|hard
drive), but uses flash memory rather than spindle of magnetic disks. It is called a "solid state
drive" because it has no moving parts. Since SSDs do not need to move a physical drive head to
read data, they can access data faster than hard drives. They also do not need to be
defragemented, since their performance does not depend on where data is stored on the disk.
Since solid state drives have a number of advantages over hard drives, they have begun to
replace hard drives in laptops and other devices.
System Requirements
Whenever you purchase software or hardware for your computer, you should first make sure
your computer supports the system requirements. These are the necessary specifications your
computer must have in order to use the software or hardware. For example, a computer game
may require you computer to have Windows XP or later, a 2.0 GHz processor, 512 MB or RAM,
a 64 MB graphics card, and 500 MB or hard drive space. If your computer does not meet all of
these requirements, the game will not run very well or might not run at all.
Upload
While downloading is receiving a file from another computer, uploading is the exact opposite. It
is sending a file from your computer to another system. Pretty straight forward. It is possible to
upload and download at the same time, but it may cause slower transfer speeds, especially if you
have a low bandwidth connection. Because most files are located on Internet servers, people
generally do a lot more downloading than uploading.
Video Card
Most of the processing done on a computer is done via the computer's central processing unit, or
CPU. So in order to give the CPU a break and help it run more efficiently, a video card can be
used to process the graphics portion of the processing load. Because most of today's programs
are graphically oriented, the video card can help almost any program run more efficiently.
However, the difference in performance is especially noticeable in image editing applications
and 3D games.
Worm
A computer worm is a type of virus that replicates itself, but does not alter any files on your
machine. However, worms can still cause havoc by multiplying so many times that they take up
your entire computer's available memory or hard disk space. If a worm consumes your memory,
your computer will run very slowly and possibly even crash. If the worm affects your hard disk
space, your computer will take a long time to access files and you will not be able to save or
create new files until the worm has been eradicated.
Worms are hard to detect because they are typically invisible files. They often go unnoticed until
your computer begins to slow down or starts having other problems. Unlike viruses and Trojan
horses, worms can replicate themselves and travel between systems without any action from the
user. For these reasons, it is good to have an antivirus program installed on your system that can
detect and remove worms before they have a chance to replicate or spread to other computers.
Security updates such as Windows Update also patch security holes that allow worms to infect
your computer. So keep your security updates and virus definitions up-to-date and you should be
able to keep your computer worm-free.
Zip
Windows users will see this term a lot when looking for files on the Internet. A zip file (.zip) is a
"zipped" or compressed file. "Zipping" a file involves compressing one or more items into a
smaller archive. A zipped file takes up less hard drive space and takes less time to transfer to
another computer. This is why most Windows files that you find on the Internet are compressed.
And next…some world renowned super duper amazingly thought provoking quotes…(see next page.)