What is Video Card?

BY DINESH THAKUR
The video card, as its name indicates is the component the computer whose role is to
transmit data on the screen in the control of a microprocessor dedicated and integrated
into the card. It is this microprocessor that calculates the position of points on the screen
and processes the texture of restitution algorithms for display complex images such as
those generated by video games.

What is Browsers?
BY DINESH THAKUR
A Browser is a piece of software that everybody needs if they want to surf the Internet for
useful or interesting websites. Web pages are designed to be read by Browsers and
Browsers are designed to read web pages. Fortunately, acquiring a Browser is slightly
easier than catching the common cold. They are everywhere. Most computers now come
with one pre-installed. A great many CD-ROMs are now designed to be read like a
website and so include a Browser which can be installed onto a computer's hard drive
and ISPs give them away free to anyone who signs up for their service. There is nothing
difficult about acquiring a Browser.

What is Plug-Ins?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Essentially these are extra programs that can be installed and used as part of a Browser
i.e. they plug into it. Typically these would provide extra facilities like the ability to
handle sound files or advanced graphics. What this means in practice is that, should a
web page incorporate sound as well as text, the relevant plug-in will be needed before it
can be read by any Browser and the sound played through the computer's own speakers.

What is Cookies?
BY DINESH THAKUR
In American homes, or so the story goes, when visitors arrive they are given a cookie
which in Britain would be a biscuit. This philosophy has now been extended to the
Internet. Whenever a visitor, better known as a Browser, arrives at certain sites a cookie is
sent down the line and saves itself to the local computer's hard disk.
What is Search Engines?
BY DINESH THAKUR
As all search engines are different they all operate in slightly different ways. The good
news is that the same search techniques can be applied to them all, but, as might be
expected, each one is a variation around the same theme. To make it even worse not all
search engines actually search the Internet, some are what is known as web directories.
Then, just to confuse the picture even more some engines do keyword searches while
others are concept based.

What is Error Code 404?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Of all these error codes by far the most common is 404 which is also one of the few that
can be worked around - always assuming the website has not simply ceased to exist.
Everything else can be fixed although it would help to explain the difference between
web names as they appear in the press and as they appear in a Browser.

What is USENET?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Derived from Users Network this is, again, totally separate from the WWW. Briefly, the
Internet is also home to what are called news groups which are broadly divided into
several categories and which cater for every topic imaginable.

What is AirDrop?
BY DINESH THAKUR
"AirDrop" is a very handy feature and easy to use for wireless file transfer between Mac,
even outside the context of a home network. AirDrop arrived on the iPad and iPhone with
iOS 7 and on Mac with Mac OS X Lion. Indeed not need a router or even connect to an
existing Wi-Fi or Bluetooth network to use "AirDrop". There is nothing to set up, all you
need is a recent Mac ("AirDrop" indeed requires a recent Mac to be activated) and
communication will be made directly between Wi-Fi cards Mac (ad-hoc mode).

What is Defragmentation?
BY DINESH THAKUR
To understand what defragmentation IS, a person must first understand how data files are
saved onto magnetic storage disks. Whether on a floppy disk or a hard disk, data is
stored in a certain format. Formatting consists of dividing a disk into organized sections
so that data can be located by the computer. Formatting organizes disks into concentric
rings called tracks. Tracks are divided into sectors (pie shaped wedges) in which files and
parts of files are stored.

What is MIMD (Multiple-instruction multiple-data)?

BY DINESH THAKUR
(Multiple-instruction multiple-data) A generic description that can be applied to any
MULTIPROCESSOR computer architecture in which each processor is able to execute a
different program, as distinct from a SIMD architecture in which each processor executes
the same program on a different data item. With MIMD architecture, the deployment of
the program code onto the different processors and the interconnection TOPOLOGY of
the processors become visible to the programmer, and complicate the writing of
programs.

What is Microprocessor?
BY DINESH THAKUR
A computer integrated onto a single piece of silicon or CHIP, often referred to
informally as a microchip, or the silicon chip. The microprocessor was the invention that
sparked the revolution in computing and communications which began in the late 1970s.
The first commercial microprocessor was the Intel 4004 launched in 1971, which was
designed to be used in a Japanese desk calculator.

What is DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Module)?

BY DINESH THAKUR
(Dual In-line Memory Module) A small PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD with RAM chips
mounted on both sides and a single edge connector, via which it can be plugged into a
computer MOTHER BOARAD. DIMM differs from a SIMM in that the chips on either
side have separate pins on the edge connector, permitting a wider 128-bit data path for
faster access to the memory; hence they tend to be used in more expensive systems like
servers.

What is Trackball?
BY DINESH THAKUR
A trackball is an alternative to a mouse or a stylus. It looks kind of like a mouse upside-
down, and you use it by rolling the ball around with your fingers. It has one or more
buttons to click, just like a mouse.

What is SIMM (single inline memory module)?

BY DINESH THAKUR
SIMM stands for single inline memory module. Before you try to understand what a
SIMM is, you should read and understand RAM and memory.

What is Serial port?

BY DINESH THAKUR
A serial port is the socket (also known as an "input/output connector") where you plug in
the cables to attach to a serial device, such as a printer or modem.

What is Disk Sector?

BY DINESH THAKUR
A disk has two sides (a top and a bottom). Each side of the disk has tracks (concentric
rings) on the surface. Each ring is divided into arc-shaped sectors, little units of storage
space on the disk, usually 512 bytes on a floppy disk and up to several thousand bytes on
a hard disk. Whatever the size, a sector is the smallest unit the computer can read or
write at a time; it cannot deal with portions of a sector.

What is SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface)?

BY DINESH THAKUR
SCSI (pronounced "scuzzy," not "sexy") stands for small computer systems interface.
SCSI is a standard for interfacing, or connecting, personal computers to peripheral
devices (like scanners, hard disks, or CD-ROM players) and having them send
information to each other.

What is Scanner?
BY DINESH THAKUR
A scanner is a device that takes a picture of an image that exists outside the computer,
such as a photograph or a drawing on paper. As the scanner takes the picture, it digitizes
the image (breaks it up into dots that can be recreated on the computer screen with
electronic signals), and send this digital information to the computer as a file. Then you
can take this file of the scanned image and use it in your work.

What is RS-232, RS-232-C, RS-422, RS-423, RS-449?

BY DINESH THAKUR
These spoonfuls of alphabet-number soup designate different standards for connecting
serial devices (like modems, mice, and printers) to the computer by plugging their
cables into serial ports. Through a serial port, the computer exchanges information with
the device back and forth "serially," or one bit at a time.

What is Plotter?
BY DINESH THAKUR
A plotter is a graphics printer that literally uses ink pens to draw the images. The pens
move around on the surface of the paper like something out of The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Plotters can only draw data in vector graphics format, graphics that are made of straight
lines (the curved forms are actually drawn with many tiny straight lines). There are
flatbed plotters where the pen moves across the page in the x and y axes.

What PCL (printer command language)?

BY DINESH THAKUR
PCL, short for printer command language, consists of a large set of commands for
controlling the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet and DeskJet families of printers, and compatible
printers from other manufacturers. PCL commands are used to tell the printer where to
place text or graphics on the page, which font to print, whether to print bold, italic or
underlined text, and so on.

What is Parallel port?

BY DINESH THAKUR
You have probably heard of printer ports and modem ports and perhaps ADB ports or
some other kind of port. A port is a plug, or receptacle (known in other computer
dictionaries as an input/output connector). Once you insert one end of a cable into a port,
information can flow between your computer and whatever device is attached to the
other end of the cable.

What is Optical Disc?

BY DINESH THAKUR
A CD, such as the kind you play to listen to music, is an example of an optical disc. So is
a "video disc" (properly called a laser disk), such as the kind you can rent at the video
store that has an entire movie on it. Optical discs for your computer can hold an
incredible amount of information- up to 6,000 megabytes (which is 6 gigabytes) of data.
Entire encyclopaedias, Shakespeare's works, or representations of the art in the Louvre
have been recorded onto optical discs.

What is a LPT (Line Printer Terminal) Printer port?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Dos use the acronym LPT to refer to its three printer ports: LPT1, LPT2, and LPT3.
The acronym is a contraction of line printer.

What is Laser Disc?

BY DINESH THAKUR
A laser disc (also known as a "video disc") is similar to a music CD, but it holds visual
images as well as music. In fact, laser discs can store entire movies, concerts, operas,
recordings of live theatre, and a wide variety of educational material. Its signal gets fed
right into your television or video monitor, just like the video tape movies you rent. Laser
discs are typically 12 inches wide, just like a standard long-playing phonograph record
(remember those?).

What is Freeware?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Freeware is software made available for public use by the author, and it's free. You're not
under any obligation to pay for it. Freeware is usually distributed in the same places you
find shareware and public domain software: on bulletin boards, at user groups, and by
commercial shareware distributors.
What is Format (a disk)?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Before a disk can be useful in a computer, the disk must be formatted. Formatting, also
called initializing, organizes the storage area on the disk-it magnetically marks the disk
with tracks and sectors, each with indicated boundaries, so that the information you
store can later be located easily. The process involves erasing all that is on the disk,
testing the disk to make sure all of its sectors are reliable, and creating a directory-an
internal address system used for locating information later.

What is File Allocation Table (FAT)?

BY DINESH THAKUR
File Allocation Table (FAT). A data structure employed in the FILESYSTEMS of
Microsoft's MS-DOS and Windows operating systems to locate individual files stored on
hard and floppy disks. When a disk is FORMATTED it is divided up into many physical
SECTORS of equal size grouped together into CLUSTERS. Whenever a new file is
created, the file system allocates a number of these clusters to hold that file's data - the
FAT is a table that contains the name of each file and the addresses of the clusters that it
occupies. When a file is deleted, only its FAT entry, rather than the data itself, is erased,
which is why UNDELETE utilities can usually recover the file.

What is EGA (enhanced graphics adapter)?

BY DINESH THAKUR
An EGA is a video adapter for IBM-type personal computers. This means it has the
electronic circuits your computer needs to display images on the screen. EGA stands for
enhanced graphics adapter, but don't be fooled by the name: EGAS came out in about
1985, and what was "enhanced" then (compared to a CGA) is obsolete now. Yes, they still
work, and if you get a computer that has one, don't throw the EGA board away.

What is Driver?
BY DINESH THAKUR
A driver is a piece of software that tells the computer how to communicate with or
operate another piece of hardware, such as a printer, scanner, or mouse.

What is Drive?
BY DINESH THAKUR
A drive is the part of the computer that takes the disks or tapes you insert into the slot
and spins them to make them work. You probably have at least two different kinds of
drives in your system: floppy disk drives are the ones with the little slots where you
insert floppy disks; the standard type of hard disk drive comes sealed inside a case, which
in turn is stuck inside your computer or inside a separate box-you never even see the disk.

What is Digital?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Information that is digital is information represented by numbers (digits) or more
broadly, information that can be measured in discreet, exact values. The opposite term is
analog, which describes information represented along a continuous range, where there
are an infinite number of possible values. Trite as it may be, the best way to understand
the difference between digital and analog is to compare a digital clock to a traditional
round clock with hands.

What is Device Driver?

BY DINESH THAKUR
A device driver is a piece of software designed for a particular device (printer, mouse,
monitor, or what have you) and the particular application program or environment you're
working with. The driver serves as a go between for the program (or environment) and
the device, translating the software's desires into commands the device understands.

What is Device independent, device dependent?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Device independent components work right no matter what model of device you use
them with. For example, if the graphic file format in your publication is device
independent, the results you see on paper will look about the same whether you print to
an HP DeskJet, an Apple LaserWriter, or a high-resolution Linotronic image setter (the
graphic will be printed at whatever resolution the printer uses).

What is Device?
BY DINESH THAKUR
A device just means any kind of component that's part of or attached to your computer.
It can be located inside or outside the computer. A mouse, for example, is a device that
sits outside the computer, while an internal disk drive (another device) is inside the
computer. Devices need instructions on how to communicate with the printer or the rest
of the computer, and sometimes those instructions aren't part of the computer's standard
operating system.

What is Desktop Publishing?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Desktop publishing (DTP) is the process of creating printed documents that look
professionally produced, using page layout software running on a personal computer,
along with a high-quality, yet affordable, printer. To publish something with the
traditional method, you would send typed or handwritten text to a typesetter, who would
turn it into typeset text called "galleys," which took a couple of days. If there were
corrections, it took another couple of days to get those back. If you didn't know how to
layout the pages yourself, you'd take the galleys to a print shop, along with your art
(illustrations and photographs).

What is Desktop level?

BY DINESH THAKUR
The Desktop level is called a "level" because there is a hierarchy of different levels, kind
of like different floors in a tall building. When you can actually see the Desktop, you can
double-click to open folders and then you see that folder's window, right? That window is
one level of the hierarchy. If you open another folder that is within that window, you go
down one more level into the hierarchy. Well, the Desktop level is the very top of the
hierarchy (or the root, some might say) because the first window (including the hard disk
window) sits on the Desktop.

What is Desktop?
BY DINESH THAKUR
The Desktop is the background on your screen when you're using a Macintosh, Microsoft
Windows, and similar graphical user interfaces. The idea is that this screen background
is sort of like the top of your real desk, and your program windows are all lying on the
desktop in a pile. Some programs may refer to their own "desktops." In this case, the
desktop is what you see on the screen when the program is running but no document is
open.
What is debug or debugger?
BY DINESH THAKUR
A bug is a problem in software or hardware; to debug is to diagnose and correct said
problem. Software programs inevitably develop bugs due to mistakes in planning or
simply from accidentally typing the wrong command. Before a program can run properly,
all bugs have to be found and corrected. A debugger is an application developed for the
specific purpose of finding these problems; it lets the programmer run the program one
step at a time so that she can see exactly where the mistake occurs.

What is Daisy chain?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Sometimes, like in a school computer lab or in an office, you need to hook up several
computers to one printer, or several computers need to connect to one file server, or
maybe you have several devices (such as a scanner and a CD-ROM player) that you need
to hook into one computer. Well, the only way to connect all these devices together, since
there is only one port, or connecting place, on the back of the computer, is to connect
each object (each device) to the next one in line, making a daisy chain.

What is Cylinder?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Cylinder The set of all the TRACKS on a HARD DISK drive with multiple PLATTERS
that may be read at the same time. All the tracks are the same distance from the central
spindle, so they can be imagined as tracing a cylinder in space. The HEADS on all the
platters move together in a parallel motion - a sequence of data stored within the same
cylinder can be read at optimum speed without requiring any movement.

What is cold boot?

BY DINESH THAKUR
cold boot To restart (that is REBOOT) a computer from its completely powered-off
state when all its memory contents have been lost, as compared with a WARM BOOT in
which the RESET BUTTON is pressed without turning the power off, so that some
memory contents may be retained. Certain rare error conditions may for this reason not
be cleared by a warm boot, and require a full cold boot to correct.
What is CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor)?
BY DINESH THAKUR
CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) The most popular fabrication
process for modern INTEGRATED CIRCUITS, which employs LOGIC GATES made
out of complementary pairs of FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTORS called the P-
CHANNEL and N-CHANNEL respectively. The p-channel transistor is made within a
well of n-type silicon, while the n-channel is made directly in the doped silicon
SUBSTRATE. These two transistors are arranged so that a current flows only
momentarily while the gate is switching, and none flows in its on or off states, which
enormously reduces power consumption as compared with older BIPOLAR processes. It
is this benign property that permits the phenomenal improvement in chip performance
over recent decades that is referred to as MOORE'S LAW.

What is clock cycle and clock signal?

BY DINESH THAKUR
clock cycle The basic unit of timing within a computer system, consisting of one of the
stream of regular pulses generated by the SYSTEM CLOCK. Most of a computer's
components, in particular its processor, bus and memory systems, operate in strict step
with the clock, so the number of clock cycles their various actions occupy is of crucial
importance to a computer designer.

What is CD-R (Compact Disc Recordable)?

BY DINESH THAKUR
CD-R (Compact Disc Recordable) AWRITE-ONCE version of the CD-ROM disc, which
can be used to distribute and back up computer data or to copy music CDS. Though it
follows the same data format and can be read in standard CDROM drives, CD-R employs
quite a different physical storage process, based on an organic dye film that is selectively
bleached by a laser beam, which explains the blue or green colour of the recording
surface.

What is computer on a chip?

BY DINESH THAKUR
A microprocessor is a single chip that is the central processing unit, or the brains of a
computer. To function as a complete computer, it also needs memory, a clock) and a
power supply. Well, a computer on a chip has its own built-in clock and its own
memory, so all it needs is a power supply to function. These tiny things are used in all
kinds of things, from car parts to children's toys.

What is COMMAND.COM?
BY DINESH THAKUR
COMMAND.COM is the program that serves as the DOS command processor, or the
DOS shell if you prefer. Like any operating system, DOS itself is simply software,
albeit software that has a very special role in running your computer. Dos consists of a
conglomeration of programs, utilities, and device drivers, but at its core are three key
pieces of software. They must be present on the disk you use to start your computer, or
the computer won't work. Of these three pieces of software, the only one you're likely to
run across is COMMAND.COM-you'll see it in the list of files on your screen when you
display the directory of that start-up disk, by typing DIR and pressing Enter. (The other
two essential DOS files are hidden files, so you won't see them in the directory list.)

What is COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4?

BY DINESH THAKUR
COM1, COM2, and so on are the names of the serial ports in an IBM PC or compatible
computer. You can use these names in DOS commands to configure the ports (tell them
how fast to transfer data, and what method to use in doing so). In most programs that
utilize a serial port, you can pick the port you're working with by name from a menu. You
probably have only COM1, or just COMI and COM2.

What is cluster?
BY DINESH THAKUR
A cluster is the smallest single unit of the space on a disk (a hard disk or a floppy or even
an optical disc) that your computer's operating system keeps track of separately. The
operating system keeps systematic records of which clusters are occupied by each file
stored on the disk (in DOS, this is called the file allocation table, or FAT). Clusters
usually consist of more than one sector, a sector being the smallest unit of disk space that
the computer can read data from or write data on. There are too many sectors on a hard
disk to keep track of them all individually, so the operating system deals with them in
groups called clusters instead.
What is Clock Speed or Clock Rate?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Clock speed refers to how fast the system clock drives the computer's CPU (central
processing unit, the chip that runs the computer) which determines how fast the system as
a whole can process information internally. Clock speed is measured in megahertz; a
speed of one megahertz (l MHZ) means the system clock is sending out its electric
current one million times per second. The higher the clock speed of a computer, the faster
the computer can operate, assuming all other factors are equal. However, clock speed isn't
the only factor that determines your computer's overall performance, or even how fast the
microprocessor (another term for the cpu) gets things done. Two different
microprocessors may run at the same clock speed, and still take different amounts of time
to finish a given job.

What is CD-ROM?
BY DINESH THAKUR
CD-ROM (pronounced "see-dee rom") stands for compact disk, read only memory. A
NON-VOLATILE OPTICAL DISK STORAGE medium based on the same physical disk
format as the audio Compact Disc (CD), developed by Philips and Sony. A CD-ROM
actually looks just like the CDs we play music with. To use one with your computer, you
need a CD-ROM player, also called a CD-ROM reader. A CD-ROM can hold up to about
600 megabytes of information, which is the equivalent of about 700 regular floppy
disks. There are CD-ROMs that hold the entire works of Shakespeare, complete
dictionaries, histories, images of the works in the Louvre, etc., etc., ete. You can search
the CD for the particular information you want to work with, copy it, then paste it into
your own documents on your hard disk to do with what you will. You can only read from
a CD-ROM, though-you can't store information onto it. The biggest complaint about CD-
ROMs is that they are relatively slow.

What is Card?
BY DINESH THAKUR
A card, or printed circuit board, also known as a board, is a piece of plastic with chips
attached to it. Chips are the tiny little circuits that run the computer. You buy a card and
stick it inside the computer box. You can get accelerator cards (boards) that make your
computer run faster, video cards that give your computer more graphic capability, and
clock cards and printer cards or whole computers on a card. They range in price
depending on what they do, who makes them, and so on. For instance, an accelerator card
can cost $300-$1500.

What is Bootstrap and Bootstrap Loader?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Bootstrap: To start a computer by loading its OPERATING SYSTEM from disk storage
into memory. The name alludes to the seeming absurdity of trying to lift oneself off the
floor by pulling on one's own bootstraps - since it is the operating system that enables a
computer to read disks, then loading itself from disk would seem to be a similar
impossibility. This paradox is resolved by the presence of a small program called the
BOOTSTRAP LOADER, which resides permanently in the computer (stored in a ROM
chip) and contains just sufficient code to read the rest of the operating system from disk.
This process is informally called 'booting' or 'booting up' the computer.

What is Boot Sector Virus?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Boot Sector Virus: A computer VIRUS program that hides its code within the BOOT
SECTOR of a FLOPPYDISK, so that the virus code is executed before the operating
system itself has loaded, making countermeasures difficult to apply. Once loaded into
memory, such a virus infects the boot sectors of any other floppy disk that is placed in
the drive, hence ensuring its spread.

What is Boot Sector?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Boot Sector The first sector on a FLOPPY DISK or HARDDISK formatted for the MS-
DOS operating system, which records the number of HEADS,CYLINDERS and
SECTORS per cylinder used on that disk. This information is needed by the disk
controller to access data on the drive, and the boot sector is located at head 0, cylinder 0,
sector 0, so the controller can always find it regardless of how the drive is formatted.
Other operating systems such as UNIX also reserve a special sector for such initialization
information, but it is typically in a different form, so one operating system can rarely boot
from another's disk.
What is Boot Record?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Boot Record: A set of crucial data written on the BOOTSECTOR of a HARDDISK or
FLOPPYDISK that contains the information required by the INITIAL PROGRAM
LOADER to locate a copy of the operating system on the disk and load it into
memory. Damage to the boot record can prevent the computer from booting from that
disk, and render the disk's other contents inaccessible; many disk repair utilities work by
preserving and restoring backup copies of the boot record. Some types of VIRUS hide
themselves within the boot record.

What is Boot Image?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Boot Image: An exact bit-for-bit copy of a computer's OPERATING SYSTEM as it
exists in memory immediately after the initial BOOT operation. Such an image may not
be identical to the operating system executable file stored on disk, as it will probably
have had various drivers and other configuration options applied during boot up. Boot
images are sometimes stored on disk to speed up a lengthy start-up process.

What is Boot Drive?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Boot Drive: The disk drive of a computer system from which the operating system is
loaded when the computer is first started up. Many operating systems allow the identity
of this drive to be altered: for example on IBM compatible pcs it is determined by a
setting in the machine's BIOS parameter area.

What is Biometrics?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Biometrics: The measurement of parts of a person's body, for example fingerprints, voice
timbre or unique patterns in the iris of the eye, to identify the person for security
purposes. Computers can now process such data sufficiently fast for biometric methods to
be used in real time as keys to gain access to a system. For example, when a finger is
placed on a scanning pad, the print is immediately compared with one stored in a
database of authorized persons.
What is Biocomputing?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Biocomputing: A generic term that describes various experimental uses of biological
systems and compounds to construct computing machines: for example the use of
proteins to build integrated circuits, rhodopsin pigment as a memory medium, or DNA
replication as a computing mechanism. The last of these has been demonstrated
experimentally by encoding text strings as synthetic DNA strands and then using the
ability of DNA strands to bind to their complementary form to search for a particular
string from among millions in parallel. However, there have not as yet been any
commercial applications of biocomputing.

What is bug or buggy?

BY DINESH THAKUR
The B word. If something is wrong with a piece of software or hardware so that it stops
working or destroys your data or just acts weird, the product is said to have a bug, or to
be buggy. The term actually comes down to us from the real live crawling and flying
bugs that used to get into those old giant-sized computers .

What is bleed?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Bleed refers to any element on a page that is printed beyond the edge of the paper.
Whenever you see anything (text, graphics, photographs) that is printed right up to the
edge of the paper, it was actually printed onto larger paper over the margin guidelines,
and the paper was trimmed.

What is beta, beta tester, beta version?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Computer products go through extensive testing before they can be released to the
unsuspecting and trusting public. When a product has passed the in-house testing stage
(see alpha testing), it goes into beta testing, often just called beta. Beta versions of the
product are sent out for beta testing to "normal" people who don't work for the company.
(These people are then, logically, called beta testers or beta sites.) The beta testers work
with the software or hardware in real-life situations and report back the things that go
wrong or that need improvement.
What is beep?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Beep is the generic term for whatever sound a computer makes when it's trying to tell
you something. If you press the wrong key or click on something you shouldn't, the
computer will beep at you. Sometimes it beeps just to let you know that it has started or
finished doing something (like copying a file). You can customize the beep sound in some
computers. In particular, newer Macs and pcs with Windows 3.1 come with several
sounds you can assign to various types of "events" in the system. Hundreds can be added,
and you can even make your own sounds.

What is bandwidth?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Bandwidth measures the amount of information that can flow between two points in a
certain period of time. The "broader" the bandwidth, the faster the information flow. You
can use the term to describe how quickly information moves from the hard disk into
memory, or from the computer to an add-in board on the expansion bus, or from one
modem to another across a telephone line. Depending on whether the transmission is
digital or analog, the rate is measured in bits per second (bps) or in hertz (cycles per
second).

What is Seek Time?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Seek Time refers to how long it takes the read/ write head on a hard disk to move from
one track to another. Technically, seek time is only one factor affecting "average" access
time, and is not the same as access time. Because it sounds faster, certain disk vendors
may try to woo you by quoting seek time specifications for their disks, but you should
really base your comparisons on average access time.

What is Automated Teller Machine (ATM)?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Automated Teller Machine (ATM) Also called a CASH POINT, a combined computer
terminal and cash dispensing machine connected via a WAN to a bank's central
computers, that enables customers to make cash withdrawals and inspect account details
from public sites such as streets, airports, shops and petrol stations. ATMs typically
provide a small display screen that presents menus to the user, surrounded by a small
number of buttons to make menu selections, and a numeric keypad for entering the
customer's PIN number - the latter is checked against that stored on the customer's cash
card, which must be inserted into a slot as a means of AUTHENTICATION.

What is Application Program and application software?

BY DINESH THAKUR

Application Program: Applications programs are programs written to solve specific

problems, to produce specific reports, or to update specific files. A computer program
that performs useful work on behalf of the user of the computer (for example a word
processing or accounting program) as opposed to the SYSTEM SOFTWARE which
manages the running of the computer itself, or to the DEVELOPMEN software which is
used by programmers to create other programs.

What are address space?

BY DINESH THAKUR
1.Most generally, the range of values within which an ADDRESS has meaning and can
be guaranteed to be unique. In everyday life, for example, each street constitutes a
separate address space so that the same number, 12, might be used to describe different
houses in Acacia Avenue and Laburnum Grove.

What are address line and address mapping?

BY DINESH THAKUR
address line One of the parallel conductors that make up a processor's address bus, and
by extension the data bit that corresponds to that particular conductor: used as in 'we
decode only the lower 17 address lines'.

What is Adaptive Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM)?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Adaptive Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM): A class of algorithms used for
compressing "digital audio data, which work by storing the differences between one
SAMPLE and the next: for example with 16-bit samples, only a 4-bit difference might be
stored, thus achieving 4:1 compression ratio. The popular WAV sound file format
employs variants of the ADPCM scheme.

What is assembly language?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Machine language is generally referred to as first-generation language, assembly
language is known as second-generation language, and high-level languages such as C,
C++, Java, etc., are called third-generation languages.

What is Assembler?
BY DINESH THAKUR
An assembler is a software program that takes what the programmer wrote in assembly
language and translates it into a program the computer can run. (Actually, the output of
the assembler must be processed by a "linker" to produce the finished program.)

What is artificial intelligence?

BY DINESH THAKUR
Artificial intelligence (AI) A branch of computer science that was pursued with great
optimism in the 1960s and 70S, in an attempt to make computers think more like human
beings. It analyzes data and draw conclusions in a way that makes them appear to be
"intelligent." Now of course, computers can't think or do anything without being told
what to do. So AI programs use complex formulas which attempt to arrive at an answer in
a method similar to how a human might do it.

What is architecture?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Similar to the architecture of a building, the architecture of a computer refers to the
design structure of the computer system and all its details: the system, the circuits, the
chips, the busses, the expansion slots, the system firmware, BIOS, etc. The architecture
largely determines how fast the computer is and what it can do. It also decides whether
one computer is compatible with another. Can the same boards be used? Yes, if the
architecture is compatible. Different models will have basically the same uses, but with
varying degrees of performance. The architecture is what ensures backward
compatibility, which means that your old software can run on a new computer.

What is application?
BY DINESH THAKUR
There are several varieties of computerprograms,but the ones most of us are familiar
with are theapplications. An application is software with a specific use, such as writing,
dealing with numbers, organizing large amounts of data, etc. Popular types of
applications include word processors, database managers, spreadsheets, graphics
applications, money managers, and games. Other types of computer software include
utilities (programs designed to tune the performance of the computer), and system
software (basic programs, such as DOS, which are required to operate the PC).

What is antistatic device?

BY DINESH THAKUR
If there is too much static electricity hanging around, it can actually disrupt your
computer, causing the screen to freeze or creating various other unpleasant disturbances
that can destroy data. Static can even destroy the circuits inside your computer. Extra
static can develop from the weather or from certain kinds of clothing or from activities
like petting your cat while working on your computer, shuffling around on the carpet, or
rubbing a balloon on your head. So a variety of antistatic devices have been developed
to help prevent this, devices such as wrist bands, floor mats, sprays, and little metal pads
that say "Touch Me."

What is ANSI.SYS?
BY DINESH THAKUR
ANSI.SYS (pronounced "ansee dot sis") is adriver file a little software module,
orcontroller used by MSDOS and OS/2, ANSI.SYS tells the computer how to display
information based on the standard codes adopted by the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI). Each code in the ANSI table represents either a character (like the letter
S) or a number (such as the number 5), and other keys found on the keyboard (such as the
Enter key). Some codes in the table are not found on the keyboard, but programs use
them for specific purposes (such as making the PC beep, or moving the cursor to the next
line on-screen).
What is ANSI?
BY DINESH THAKUR
ANSI is the acronym for the American National Standards Institute. This institute creates
standards for a wide variety of industries, including computer programming languages.
ANSI standards currently exist for vast numbers of such seemingly unrelated items as
refrigerators, industrial carpet, mayonnaise, and computer parts, among others.

What is analog?
BY DINESH THAKUR
Analog is the opposite of digital, and I can only explain analog in relation to digital.
Analog refers to things that are in a continuous flow or that have an infinite number of
values-things that are "analogous" to real life.

What is Address?
BY DINESH THAKUR
An address on your computer is similar to the address on your house it's a way for the
computer to know where to send its messages, and a way for the information or the
device to know it is being called upon.

What is 32-bit clean ROM, clean application, memory and

mode?
BY DINESH THAKUR
32-bit clean ROM is a read-only memory chip (the ones that are installed in the
computer and you can't change) in which the software engineers did not monkey with
the top eight bits.

What is abort?
BY DINESH THAKUR
To stop a program or computer command, before it has finished naturally. The term also
covers an unexpected termination by the computer because of a bug or malfunction.