TERMINOLOGY
If you are fairly new to computers you may think you know what these terms mean.
Read them and you might find that you don't.
Computer
- The box with the on/off switch and slots to put disks in. Anything not
physically inside that box is not a computer. Don't point to your monitor and
say, "That's my computer." It's not.
Monitor
- The TV thing you see stuff in. A monitor is not a computer. It is an output device. It outputs information from the
computer so you can see it.
Keyboard
- The thing you type on. It is not a computer. It is an input device used to put
data in the computer.
Mouse
- The little oblong thing with buttons that you click, a roller on the bottom
and a wire that plugs in the back of the computer. It will always have at least
2 buttons, a left one and a right one. It is an input device. More than one
computer mouse are called mice or mouses...no one knows for sure. A mouse
(notice that I'm trying not to use the plural cause I don't know how) may not
have a roller on the bottom.....it may be an optical mouse.
Printer
- The thing that prints. It is a peripheral that plugs in to the computer. It is
an output device used to display (output) data from the computer.
USB -
Stands for Universal Serial Bus, and is a port on a
computer that allows external devices to be connected simply and easily. USB is
a relatively new standard for peripheral connection, however the benefits of
simple installation and high-speed data transfer make it an attractive option.
All new home computers now come with USB ports built in.
USB Flash Drive - A
USB Flash Drive is essentially NAND-type flash memory integrated with a USB 1.1
or 2.0 interface used as a small, lightweight, removable data storage device.
USB flash drives are also known as "pen drives", "chip sticks",
"thumb drives", "flash drives", "USB keys", and a wide
variety of other names.
Program
(application) - Set of instructions that you use to tell the computer what to
do. A Word Processor (Ex. Microsoft Word) is a program. You use a program to
send email and so on. The computer won't do anything without a program to tell
it what to do. When you open a program you see a graphical user interface (GUI)
on the screen..... yes, it's called a GUI.....really. Everything you see
on your screen is a graphic (picture). A GUI allows you to see and use the
instructions in a way humans can understand. In other words, the "user" uses
"graphics" to "interface" with the programs.
Firewall - A
firewall is a hardware or software solution to enforce security policies. In the
physical security analogy, a firewall is equivalent to a door lock on a
perimeter door or on a door to a room inside of the building - it permits only
authorized users such as those with a key or access card to enter. A firewall
has built-in filters that can disallow unauthorized or potentially dangerous
material from entering the system. It also logs attempted intrusions.
Malware -
Short for malicious software,
software designed specifically to damage or disrupt a system, such as a
virus or a Trojan horse.
Trojan Horse - A Trojan is a program that enters your computer
undetected, giving the attacker who planted the Trojan unrestricted access to
the data stored on your computer. Trojans can transmit credit card information
and other confidential data in the background. Trojans are often not caught by
virus scanning engines, because these are focused on viruses, not Trojans.
Catching such threats would require the use of a Trojan scanner (a.k.a Trojan
cleaner, Trojan remover, anti-Trojan).
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Virus - A
self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other
executable code or documents. Thus, a computer virus behaves in a way similar to
a biological virus, which spreads by inserting itself into living cells.
Extending the analogy, the insertion of the virus into a program is termed
infection, and the infected file (or executable code that is not part of a file)
is called a host.
Popup Blocker - A small, effective, and intelligent anti-popup software
product than can kill annoying popup windows and usually resides in the system
tray in the bottom right corner (near the clock) on your PC.
For more information about Popup Stopper - Click Here
Spyware
- Spyware often installs as a third-party
component bundled with a freeware or shareware application, just like adware,
making the distinction between the two somewhat vague. Spyware includes code
used to gather and transmit information about the user or his or her behavior to
a third party. This statistical data often is collected without the knowledge or
consent of the user.
Click
- To tap one of the mouse buttons. If clicking doesn't work, try 2 quick taps
(double-click). In some instructions, click may mean double-click. If one click
doesn't work, try double-clicking. Some mice....mouses....whatever, have more
than 2 buttons.
Right-Click
- Clicking the right mouse button while your pointer is resting on something (an
icon or whatever) will almost always give you a menu that affects whatever your
pointer is resting on. For instance, you can almost always delete something by
right-clicking on it and choosing "Delete" from the menu that appears. Same with
"Copy" and "Paste" and other options depending on what you right-click on.
Windows
- Windows is an OS (operating system). It gives you tools and commands to use on
your computer in the form of pictures you can click on so you don't have to type
C:dir*My Documents/My Pictures/;del:tr/get*back,,comattrib,>disprt
at the dos prompt in order to instruct your computer to open a program.
XP
- The latest version of Windows. It allows you to say, "I have the latest
version of Windows." It can be configured to look and work just like the older
versions of Windows.
Desktop
- When your computer is on, and no programs are open, you are looking at your
Desktop.
Resolution
(screen resolution) - The screen is the front of your TV thing. It shows you
pictures and stuff by making little dots glow in different colors. There are a
lot of dots on there. The dots are called pixels. Older computers had a screen
resolution of 640X480. Then came 800X600. Newer ones are 1024X756. They're
getting bigger every year. That's why you might have to scroll to the right to
see all of some websites that were created to be viewed at higher resolutions
than yours.
Bytes and Bits
- Bytes are pieces of information. We refer to bytes in the thousands (kilo) or
millions (meg) or billions (gig). You may have a 20 gig hard drive. It will
store 20 billion bytes of information. You may have 256 megs of ram that will
keep 256 million bytes of information at the ready instead of having to search
your hard drive for it. You may have a picture or text file saved in a folder
that is 30 kb in size. You may have a 56k dialup internet connection which means
56 thousand bits of information can come from the internet into your computer
every second. Get broadband.
Broadband
- A very fast internet connection. That's all......that's all it means....don't
try to get fancy with the definition. It just means fast download and upload
speeds. Webpages load almost immediately, files that take an hour to download
with a dialup connection only take a few minutes with broadband. Cable and DSL
(digital subscriber line) are broadband connections. With a broadband connection
you never have to logon to the internet - your computer is always connected to
the internet....unless you have AOL (that's another story).
Hard
Drive
- If you remove the hard drive from your computer you will have a computer
without a hard drive in it. All the information in your computer is on your hard
drive....well, sorta. There was a time, not so long ago, when a great hard drive
could store 250 megs of information (bytes) or files. A lot of animals that were
alive then are extinct now. Windows XP is bigger than that and wouldn't fit on
one of those old ones. Today, new computers come with, at least, 20 gig hard
drives. Every time you save something it gets stored on your hard drive. An
operating system (like Windows), 4 or 5 big games, Microsoft Office, a graphics
editor, your grandmother's genealogy program (made out of bytes) can start
filling up a hard drive pretty fast. So, the bigger your hard drive, the
better.
Ram
- (random access memory) Some chips (called memory sticks) that scoop some
information off the hard drive and hold it out front for quick use so the
computer doesn't have to search through the hard drive so much. It only scoops
up stuff related to what you're doing at the time. You can't have too much ram
and you never have enough. Buy more, more, more....it's cheap and just plugs
into the motherboard. You can easily install it yourself.
Motherboard
- If you picture a computer repair man with a soldering iron and little wires
and resisters and capacitors and stuff, forget it. Nowadays, everything in there
is a component....if it goes bad you pull it out and stick in a new one. If you
have a 1/4 inch nut runner and a Phillips screwdriver you can fix anything that
goes wrong with your computer. Most things in there are held in place by one
screw. Just take off the case, pull out every thing that's plugged into the
slots in the motherboard and throw it away, then replace it all with new stuff.
Of course, I would never do that.
Video card
- A video card is a plug in circuit board that makes the video work. Video cards
have those meg things we talked about. More megs equal better display on your
monitor. I have some old computers with 2 meg video cards. If you don't play
games, they're fine but newer computers come with at least 32 meg cards which
show pictures in much better detail. If your video card goes bad, pull it out
and stick in a new one. How do you know which card it is? It's the one your
monitor plugs into.
Sound card
- Like the video card but for sound....it's the one your speakers plug into. If
it goes bad pull it out and put in a new one....hey...changing these cards is
easy...if you think you have a bad one just do it.
Modem
- Another card. It's the one your phone plugs into. It allows you to connect to
the internet at a speed 3 times slower than cold molasses.
LAN
card
(Ethernet card/NIC) - Another card. It allows you to use broadband to connect to
the internet. It also allows you to connect several computers together in a
network. They range in price from about $10 to $200. The ten dollar one works
fine.
Software
- Computer programs.
Hardware
- Physical components of your PC and its peripherals.
Files and folders
- Let's say you have a file cabinet with only one drawer. You want to see the
files from the Jones account. You open the drawer, choose the folder for Jones
and in it you find all the Jones files. Each letter, picture, invoice, every
piece of paper in that folder is a file. If you want to add a file to the Jones
folder, don't just shove it in the drawer. Make sure you put it the Jones folder
or you will have a hard time finding it again. Computers are file cabinets with
one drawer. When you turn your computer on you have opened the drawer. Inside
the drawer you see folders. Inside the folders you see files. Each letter,
picture, everything you save and all the different instructions that make up
programs are files.
Path
- Everything on my computer is on my hard drive. The name of my hard drive is
"C:" The name of my OS is "Windows." I have a folder named "Vacation" on my
"Desktop." In that folder is the picture (file) named "Beach" (same one). If
someone was using my computer and asked me where my beach vacation pictures were
I would tell them the path is C:/windows/desktop/vacation/beach. Someday you may
run across something that requires you to use paths. You probably won't know
how.
Save
- Save As
- You just typed a letter in WordPad. You're finished with it and it's time to
save it. In WordPad, click "File." In the menu that appears click "Save As."
"
A box named "Save As" will appear. Near the top of the box will be a field
(white area with type in it) with the words "Save in" at the left of it. In that
field will be the name of a folder. What you're saving is going to be saved in
that folder. If you don't want it saved in that folder then click the little
arrow button (looks like a tiny upside down triangle) at the right of that
field. Choose the folder you want to save it in. Now......near the bottom of the
box is a field named "File name." Type the name you want it to have or keep the
name that is already there. Now you can click on the "Save' button. If you
download something from the internet you're going to see the same "Save As" box.
Use it correctly and you will never lose a file. So, when do you use just plain
"Save?" If you open an existing file, that's already saved in the folder where
you want it, and you make some changes, you can use just plain "Save" to save
the changes. The file will remain in the folder you opened it from and will keep
the same name.
