(Que Publishing) The Whatiscom Encyclopedia of Technology Terms.pdf

whatis?com

Encyclopedia

Technology

Terms

Whatis?com

A Division of Pearson Technology

201 W. 103rd Street

Indianapolis, Indiana 46290

The

Associate Publisher

Greg Wiegand

transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,

without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to

the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the

preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or

omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the informa-

tion contained herein.

Acquisitions Editor

Greg Wiegand

Proofreader

Juli Cook

Team Coordinator

Sharry Lee Gregory

International Standard Book Number: 0-7897-2552-5

Interior Designer

Anne Jones

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 20-01092851

Printed in the United States of America

Cover Designer

Alan Clements

First Printing: September 2001

Page Layout

Michelle Mitchell

4 3 2 1

Trademarks

All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or service marks have been

appropriately capitalized. Que cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term

in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.

Warning and Disclaimer

Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible, but no

warranty or fitness is implied. The information provided is on an “as is” basis. The author and

the publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect

to any loss or damages arising from the information contained in this book.

About the Author and Whatis.com

This book is based on a Web site, whatis.com, created by

Lowell Thing in September, 1996, as an experiment in hyper-

text and also as a place for some information he was always

forgetting. The original idea was to see how many useful

hypertext links could fit on a Web page, and he wrote the

first few topics in order to see what the idea would look like.

One topic led to another and, by mid-2001, Lowell and some

freelance contributors had written 3,500 definitions.

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank Deborah Kaufman, Greg Correll, and Joseph

Flanigan for being the first great fans of whatis.com and for

helping to build a Web site that became something of an

institution. I also seize this opportunity to hug and kiss my

wife, Suzanne, in print for her absolute support, love, and

good humor without which even the first 10 definitions

would never been written.

I would also like to thank Jim Connolly for being the first to

see how whatis.com could fit into TechTarget; Ken Berquist

and Bob Taylor for making it happen; Paul Gillin, Editor-in-

Chief, for his overall guidance; and Don Hawk and Greg

Strakosch for folding whatis.com into their own great idea

while extending its possibilities. I would also like to thank

Margaret “Peggy” Rouse for demanding that I hire her and

for making our jobs so much fun.

In February 2000, Whatis.com was purchased by TechTarget,

a diversified media company providing targeted IT media to

technology professionals. Lowell continues to play an active

role as Editor of the site. Whatis.com currently serves more

than one million visitors each month.

Lowell lives in Kingston, New York, with his wife, Suzanne.

Their daughter, Emily, created the logo that was used during

whatis.com’s first three years, and their daughter, Hillary,

contributed some of the first definitions. Lowell was former-

ly a technical writer and information planner for IBM. He is

a senior member of the Society for Technical Communi-

cation.

Finally, I would like to thank the thousands of people world-

wide who contributed to whatis.com during the first five

years of its existence. In the first days, it was users from such

places as Riga, Nairobi, and Ulan Bator who made the Web

such an exciting place to be and who spurred us on with

their thanks and suggestions. Turning whatis.com into a

book seems like the end of Phase One. I invite the users of

this book and the Web site to help us build Phase Two of

what we like to hope will become the world’s greatest men-

tal construct about information technology.

Credits

TechTarget Co-Founders: Greg Strakosch and Don Hawk

Editor-in-Chief, TechTarget: Paul Gillin

Editor, whatis.com: Lowell Thing

Lowell Thing

Assistant Editor: Margaret Rouse

Cover Copy: Lisa Johnson

Cover Design: Frank Remick

Project Coordinator: Ed Montes

Senior Contributing Writers: Stan Gibilisco, Ivy Wigmore,

and Sherri Wilson

Other Contributors: Megan Brady, Sean Brooks, Teresa

Buday, Christine Campbell, Gordon Carrolton, Joyce

Chutchian, Marilyn Cohodas, William W. Collier, Jim

Connolly, Patricia Ellis, Crystal Ferraro, Sean Ford, David

Gabel, Cathy Gagne, Kara Gattine, Joda Glossner, Karen

Guglielmo, Paul Healey, Michele Hope, Jennifer Hubley,

Laura Hunt, Joann Ives, Steve Jacobs, Dick Kennedy,

Catherine Ketcher, Mark Lewis, Heather McCarthy, Fred

McIntyre, Mary Michaud, Joseph Oliver, Jon Panker, Eric

Parizo, Borys Pawliw, BJ Rama, Matt Savage, RJ Schille,

Jeremy Selwyn, Jim Shaughessy, Stephen Simpson, Simon

Smith, David Spenard, Sean Tierney, Steven Vagle, and many

others.

Whatis?Com’s Encyclopedia of Technology Terms

How to Use This Book

You can look up any term by the alphabetical listing.

You can test your knowledge of IT vocabulary by picking out

a term and seeing if our definition matches yours.

You may also be able to find the information you need in our

“Fast References” section (for example, DSL, transmission

speeds, prefix multipliers, fundamental physical units, and

so forth).

For a term so new that it may not be in this book, visit the

whatis.com Web site. We may have it and, if we don’t, you

can suggest that we add it.

For a given term, you may also want to visit whatis.com to

see the Web sites we recommend for more information about

the term.

Some notes about our definitions:

We report which terms are being used in information tech-

nology and what they currently mean. We report usage, and,

only when it seems helpful, do we recommend a preference.

Because information technology changes rapidly, a defini-

tion can become outdated. If in doubt, the best source is

always an authority such as the IEEE, the IETF, and similar

standards or technology-sponsoring organizations.

We try to describe a term uniquely in the first sentence or

two as you would in a dictionary. The rest of the definition is

an elaboration that describes the term as you would in an

encyclopedia.

We describe pronunciation only for terms we think some

users will want to know how to pronounce.

FAST REFERENCES

Chat Abbreviations

Chat abbreviations are commonly used in e-mail, online

chatting, instant messaging, and conference postings.

Abbreviation Meaning

ADN

Abbreviation Meaning

FYI

For your information

Grin

Go ahead

GAL

Get a life

Any day now

GD&R

Grinning, ducking, and running

GIWIST

Gee, I wish I’d said that

AFIK

As far as I know

GMTA

Great minds think alike

AFK

Away from keyboard

GOL

Giggling out loud

ARE

Acronym-rich environment

GTRM

Going to read mail

A/S/L?

Age/sex/location?

HTH

Hope this helps

B4N

Bye for now

IAC

In any case

BAK

Back at the keyboard

IANAL

I am not a lawyer (but)

BBIAB

Be back in a bit

I see

BBL

Be back later

IHA

I hate acronyms

BEG

Big evil grin

IIRC

If I recall/remember/recollect correctly

BFD

Big f***ing deal

ILU or ILY

I love you

BFN

Bye for now

Immediate message

Big grin

IMHO

In my humble opinion

BIOYIOP

Blow it out your I/O port

IMing

Chatting with someone online usually

while doing other things such as

playing trivia or other interactive game

Belly laughing

BOTEC

Back-of-the-envelope calculation

BRB

Be right back

IMNHO

In my not so humble opinion

BTA

But then again...

IMO

In my opinion

BTW

By the way

IOW

In other words

BWTHDIK

But what the heck do I know...?

IPN

I’m posting naked

See you

IRL

In real life (that is, when not chatting)

CUL

See you later

IYSWIM

If you see what I mean

CUL8ER

See you later

JBOD

Just a bunch of disks (like redundant

array of independent disks, etc.)

CYA

Cover your ass

CYO

See you online

JIC

Just in case

DBA

Doing business as

Just kidding

DFLA

Disenhanced four-letter acronym

(that is, a TLA)

KOTC

Kiss on the cheek

KWIM?

Know what I mean?

Dead link

L8R

Later

DIKU

Do I know you?

Later, dude

DITYID

Did I tell you I’m distressed?

LDR

Long-distance relationship

DQMOT

Don’t quote me on this

LLTA

Lots and lots of thunderous applause

Evil grin

LOL

Laughing out loud

EMFBI

Excuse me for butting in

LRF

Little Rubber Feet (the little pads on

the bottom of displays and other

equipment)

EOM

End of message

EOT

End of thread (meaning: end of

discussion)

LTM

Laugh to myself

ETLA

Extended three-letter acronym

(that is, an FLA)

LTR

Long-term relationship

LULAB

Love you like a brother

F2F

Face to face

LULAS

Love you like a sister

FAQ

Frequently-ask question(s)

MorF

Male or female

FISH

First in, still here

MOSS

Member of the same sex

FLA

Four-letter acronym

MOTOS

Member of the opposite sex

FMTYEWTK

Far more than you ever

wanted to know

MUSM

Miss you so much

NFG

No f*****g good

FOMCL

Falling off my chair laughing

NFW

No feasible way or no f*****g way

FUBAR

F***ed up beyond all repair or

recognition

NIFOC

Naked in front of computer

NP or N/P

No problem

FUD

Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

NRN

No response necessary

FWIW

For what it’s worth

OIC

Oh, I see

OLL

Online love

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