Tech Glossary

Here you will find brief and easy to understand definitions for common tech terms. Clicking on the item will take you to it's Wikipedia entry where you can get even more information.

Audio/Video:

• HD- High Definition. Most commonly used when referring to very high quality video on a television or computer monitor.
• Mp3- The most common format for saving music files. Mp3 files are listened to using a computer or Mp3 player such as a Apple iPod or Microsoft Zune.

Computers:

• O.S.- Operating System. The main software of a computer that allows the user to control the hardware and software applications. Examples: Windows, Mac OS, Linux
• RAM- Computer memory. This is what a computer's operating system uses every time you open an application. The more of it the more applications you can open at one time without your computer slowing down.
• PC- Personal Computer. Most commonly used to describe a computer sold by various manufacturers that uses the Windows operating system
• Mac- a computer sold my Apple Inc. that uses the Mac OS X operating system
• Linux- a operating system developed and managed by a community of computer programmers/enthusiast instead of a corporation. Microsoft=Windows, Apple=Mac OS X, Open source community=Linux.
• KB- Kilobyte. a unit of measurement for computer files. Smaller than a megabyte. 1024KB=1MB
• MB- Megabyte. a unit of measurement for computer files. Bigger than a kilobyte. Smaller than a gigabyte. 1024MB=1GB
• GB- Gigabyte. a unit of measurement for computer files. Bigger than a megabyte. Smaller than a terabyte. 1024GB=1TB
• WiFi- a wireless network most commonly used to share an internet connection between computers or mobile devices.

Gaming:

• FPS- First Person Shooter. A video game genre which centers the gameplay around gun or projectile weapon-based combat played through the first person perspective i.e. action is seen through the eyes of the game character. Examples: Military or science fiction games
• MMORPG- Massively Multipayer Online Role-playing Gamer. Huge online worlds where thousands of players compete simultaneously. Examples: World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies
• Platformer- Platform Game. A video game genre where players must move to and from platform style obstacles while defeating enemies in order to reach the end of the level. Example: Adventure games
• RPG- Role-playing Game. A single player experience heavy on the story. Examples: Final Fantasy, Fable, Fallout 3, Oblivion
• RTS- Real-time Strategy. A player maneuvers units or structures in order secure areas of the map and/or destroy their opponents' assets. Examples: Starcraft, Halo Wars

The Internet:

• Blog- A website maintained by an individual or corporation that is updated frequently with individual posts focusing on one category or subject.
• RSS- Really Simple Syndication. A format commonly referred to as a "feed" used to publish frequently updated works such as blog posts, news headlines, audio, or video.
• RSS Reader- a software application or website used to subscribe to RSS "feeds" in order to receive updates from multiple "feeds" in one place. Also referred to as a aggregator.

Messaging:

• IM- Instant Messaging. This could be a variety of tools used to communicate instantly with a group of friends or individual. Examples: AOL, Yahoo!, or Gtalk
• SMS- Text messaging. Short messages containing 160 characters or less sent between mobile phones