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Computing jargon
C
omputing is filled with jargon that we only understand because we’ve grown up knowing what the words mean. Yet in many cases, there’s no clear logical reason why these specific terms took off. ‘Keyboard’ may seem like an easy word to trace the root of – a board covered with keys. But why ‘keys’? This was a term first applied to the mechanics of musical instruments such as the piano, and only applied to other mechanical devices in the late 19th century. ‘Keystroke’, which the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines as ‘the act or an instance of depressing a key on a keyboard’ hails from 1910. 72
279 March 2009
Most computing terms follow this pattern: borrowing words and then embedding them into the language until the original meaning is either forgotten or irrelevant. Take the word ‘computer’ itself. Computers of some form have been around since the mid-19th century – Charles Babbage created what most people agree was the first in 1837. The original computers weren’t machines at all, but people hired to perform calculations – literally ‘to compute’. Babbage referred to his creation as the ‘Analytical Engine’ instead.
Word geekery ‘Geek’ and ‘nerd’ are two of the more interesting computing words floating around. ‘Geek’ is easy enough to trace back to the freak-shows of classic American
Computing jargon
AAA AAA n. A high-profi
le game release intended to appe al to a mass audie of high quality, nce and rake in phenomenal am ounts of money. Origin: Since no publishers want to ad working on anyth ing other than gre mit they’re rating simply de atness, the ‘A’ termines how gre at a game is in their eyes. In prac tice, ‘A AA’ mean s a blockbuster while ‘A’ means shov up by gamers the elware. It’s since been picked mselves.
Analog 1. n. Not dig ital.
after removing an insect from the workings of a computer in 19 46. current meaning However, the term had its as far back as the 19th century. Byte n. A basic unit of me asu rement for storag traditionally eig e, ht bits. Origin: IBM, cir ca 1956, intende d to describe the smallest amount of data a compute r could bite off at once. Renamed ‘byte’ to avoid co nfusion with ‘bi ts’. C++ n. An object-o riented programm that’s been an eff ing lan gu ag e ective mainstay in application development sin ce its release. Origin: A mathe matical pun. In C, variable means ‘add one’. Therefor adding ‘++’ to a e, ‘a bit more C’. Codec n. A progra m that encodes and decodes a signal into a usab le format, typica lly used in regard to audio and vid eo media. Origin: A short ened combinatio n of ‘compressor and ‘decompres ’ sor’.
2. a. A device in which at variable levels . Apache n. The mo st popular open server on the In -source web ternet. Origin: ‘A patch y’ web server, na med for its beginnings as pa tches on an exist ing code base. BSOD n. A fatal W ind ow s cra sh – the ‘Blue Screen of Death ’. Th ‘infinite beach ba e Mac equivalent is the ll’, widely believed because the anim to ation that it migh be worse t return to life. Origin: Not blu e in its original for m, it was the Black Screen of Command prom Death that was pt 1. n. C:\ 2. n. C:\SP a sure for Windows 3.1 3. n. C:\SPOT\R OT . Luckily, the acron sign of doom UN ym still works. Beta 1. a. Whatever Compile v. Convert Go ogle says it mean ing a program week. 2. n. Unfin computer langu s this ished software, age into another, written in one often made available as a pu lowerThe compiler tra blic or semi-pub ns lates and optimise level one. lic test version. allowing the pro s the code, Origin: An intern gra mmer to type in al IBM code name human-friendly relatively systems back in for testing code without los the days of punc ing h mu ca out on too meant testing fro rds. ‘Beta’ ch speed at the oth m outside the de er end. velopment team to check perform ance and comm Clone 1. v. To copy ercial feasibility. (as in hard drive Photoshop). 2. n. s, or pixels in Binary 1. n. As easy A computer ma as 1, 10, 11. 2. n. de by a third-pa such as an indep describe a system Used to rty, endent Mac. No that’s either on or t as relevant with the PC’s open for off. mat, but an increa BIOS 1. n. Basic In sin Ap g ple tho ’s rn sid in e pu in the high-end t/Output System. 2. n. Built-In Op market. erating System. Cyberspace n. A Origin: Early PC wo rld that exists ele s (‘70s/‘80s) where notably the Inter ctronically, operating system the net. was stored in RO Origin: Created M instead of installed onto by the hard drive. Neuromancer, alt William Gibson for his novel ho Bit n. A binary digit, just thought it ma ugh he later admitted that he either 0 or 1 (on de a nice buzzw or off ). Origin: Vanneva ord. r Bush (‘the patro Cross-platform n saint of American comp a. Pr uting’) is said to ob ably buggy on all compatible opera have to describe the ‘bi ting systems. ts of information used ‘bit’ ’ stored on punch cards. M ore specifically, Cu rsor 1. n. The icon de it was Turkey of Bell La picting the curre bs who first short John W location of the us nt er’s ened ‘binary digit’ into its curre computer user fiv control method. 2. n. A nt form. e femtoseconds aft ‘I r er eally should save thinking Bitmap n. One of this…’ the most comm Origin: The tra on image formats. The eff nsparent cursor ective opposite of with a hairline vector files, on it used on tra bitmaps are saved ditional slide ru as a raster imag les. e instead of a series of points that can be resize D ay -0 1. n. A pirate rel d at will. Origin: Literally ease of a product hits the shelves. ‘a map of bits’, or before it 2. n. a spatiallymapped array of pixels. released on the sam An exploit for a vulnerability e day that it beco mes known. Broadband 1. n. Hi Digital 1. a. Not an gh-speed Interne 2. n. Conclusive alo t access. g. 2. a. A sys proof that there’ tem that uses discrete values rat s no su her than a conti as ‘fast enough’ wh nuous range. en it comes to the ch thing Internet. D og fo od ing v. ‘Ea Bug n. A glitch in sof means using your ting our own dog food’ tware or hardwa ow prevents operatio re that problems with the n products to find either the n or introduces mistakes. m before custome Origin: Unknow ways of using the rs do or new n. Often ascribed m. Very popular to Grace Hopper from Ha in the tech world rvard’s Computa Origin: First see . tional Laboratory n in television co mmercials , claiming that the dog food was so good, the host even fed it to his own pet. Really, you’d hope so. data can be stored
carnivals: they were the ones biting the heads off live chickens and other such family-friendly stuff. ‘Nerd’ is tougher, and nobody is entirely sure where it comes from. The word was first seen in the Dr Seuss book If I Ran The Zoo back in 1951, but only as one of his many gibberish names. Supposedly, it raised its head again in 1957 as an abbreviation for the Northern Electric Research and Development Laboratories, or NERD Labs. Another oft-suggested possibility comes from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, which claims ownership of ‘knurd’ – ‘drunk’ backwards – as a term used to describe the kind of student who would have given up their Dungeons and Dragons manuals to avoid breaking a rule, had Dungeons and Dragons existed at that point. What makes the whole thing even more intriguing is that ‘geek’ and ‘nerd’ are now synonymous, even though
their origins place them at different ends of what pejorative science refers to as ‘the freak spectrum’. As with many pejoratives, including the Japanese equivalent ‘otaku’, the idea of being a ‘geek’ has largely been reclaimed by the community. It now means an enthusiast, or someone who knows a lot about a niche subject. Conversely, few geeks want to be identified as a nerd, because it implies they’re boring and antisocial.
E.T.Y.M.O.L.O.G.Y More recent terms can be tricky, thanks to a doublewhammy of student whimsy and, later, backronyms (where originators come up with something that looks 3 279 March 2009 73
Computing jargon Piracy
ment for the replace Minix’, named . ite wr Origin: ‘Linus’ to t iginally set ou via Microsoft as OS Torvalds or the tech world cause trouble, your own cat g Introduced to tin ‘ea as are written to n e so know alware n. Softw oy data or som g your own M str an analogy. Al kin de , in on ‘dr d ati m an , are infor edits s include spyw steal financial n’t much like nt food’ for fussier do ria o Va wh e. es os ni rp s pu ding compa other nefariou horses (preten n champagne’ by oja Tr , . u) on yo on selves), mparis (reporting back leashing them the original co g else before un e Internet! ies of and bots (arm ping, but on th to be somethin ) op ks Sh or n. tw to 1. ne s ar ce on ing Ecommer ingly obvious idea that took ye be). worms (spread glo e th ss ro ac . ris read 2. n. A surp er online fraud ‘zombie’ PCs sp due to fears ov tes. 2. n. establish itself e inu nt n. 1,000,000 by t way for co 1. to e s yt kid Megab 1. n. A way for t A convenien ool, en n. sch 3. . nm for es ai is yt y ut 6 b all Ed re e amount 1,048,57 to cut down th new computer s. manufacturers eir products while still the lie that their is behind their parents’ back ge ra sto ys eir ovide in th while playing Cr nts to continue the lie that th g idelines. they need to pr lin advertising gu pare 2. n. A way for school, while tel g within all the for yin is sta y million bytes. all a re ns em ea ter pu am let th kids’ new com chnically, meg end £1,000 to Te : sp t in power-of-two e jus ig th n’t Or it’s x s did ffi m themselves they ftware with a ‘–tainment’ su in computing ter rent versions. r, ve we Ho So n. ing us the two diffe play Crysis. 3. to be entertain closest, giving ds up too bland ucational. n. Unit for that usually en ed be to gh illion pixels. 2. ou en al apixel 1. n. Oneesemnsors on a digital camera. and not practic eg to the world M d rte po im u antea imag as sound much the number of Origin: A portm television, particularly from to make camer m n. An easy way oviding an 3. pr of computing fro by e . ar y ey all sn tu ac Walt Di better than they mber instead of waffling companies like nu v. A way of easy-to-swallow tops and similar. tronic mail. 2. ally, , f-s Email 1. n. Elec ergency (‘No, re on about CCDs em an in rk wo er to a particular postponing u…’). 1. n. A newcom ed ailed that to yo tory term appli Newbie/Noob ga I definitely em ro de a. A me/subject. 2. they were ga at ld/ th n fie :-( tte n. go 2. le who’ve for Emoticon 1. n. :-) mostly by peop of the me position. d portmanteau d ‘bar’. in exactly the sa ar ce nd on sta A n. an o’ so ‘hexit’). ‘fo Foobar es m na r decimal digit (al ceholde n. A single hexa e two standard pla pseudocode. bl on ‘bites’. d yb se N n ba in itable official pu n Frequently used igin: The inev ilitary expressio Or m e th ly h ed ug os ut usually Origin: Supp l Repair’), altho gy of almost (b d Up Beyond Al th the other. n. The technolo to digital format. 2. n. 1. CR O FUBAR (‘F***e wi e erting text in nnecting the on not quite) conv there’s little co ition. aracter Recogn t. Ch Ou al e tic ag rb Op Ga , age In rb Ga e’s n. ag O bb Hz chipset GIG Charles Ba tel’s 60-300M e ern response to Pentium 1. n.anInd 1999. 2. n. The effective endto Origin: A mod g asked if a computer could giv e in between 1993 ed upgrades du frustration at be even if given the wrong w number-bas er g them. ined by of easy-to-follo co kin s ar wa m the correct answ m de ny tra ro of ity e GIGO ac e. the impossibil information. Th is very magazin on y, veteran of th ssing informati the late Wilf He The art of acce v. ng hing’ for e hi ‘fis is gin – en e Ph ch els ar ne se eo to be som world’s biggest by pretending as the bait. Google 1. n. Tht’se most important advertiser. ived authority data using perce g’ – itself a and the Interne something on the Internet. nt of ‘phreakin e for a Origin: A varia one’ and ‘freak’. Doesn’t mak 2. v. To search – 1 followed by ol’ og ‘go ‘ph of of g . llin rn teau e pe an tte th iss pa h m rtm e uc A th po : m e w in Orig just ho cept to continu tended to show a lot of sense, ex hundred 0s. In t network able to handle. be uld wo tool used to tes m syste 1. n. A network t of testing for a connection. unced ng no Pi ro (p e fac ac e ter v. Th hical User In pt, connections. 2. und made by GUI 1. n. Grap command prom for the ‘ping’ so e opposite of a ed into ‘Packet Origin: Named m ‘gooey’). 2. n. Th r access to the system. 3. n. ny ro ck sie ose ystems. Later ba remains obscure even th r s for na , so pt built to allow ea om pr er”, but that a command Internet Grop The opposite of al computing. ndards. can’t handle re backronym sta by weaklings who ter pu m co a ht, whether by of rt fringing copyrig stributing The physical pa last-resort Piracy 1. v. In-in Hardware n. as a ns or di er tio m ec m ot ha pr a th wi e breaking built . that can be hit on or a trip to th ommercial gain n better operati e copies for free/c gamble betwee nty card full of lies. ement form, th ng fri -in ht rra copyrig store with a wa th the label Origin: In its wi , 03 16 to ck tes ba ilty of doing it. term piracy da perhighway n. those found gu Informatione,su 1990. rates’ applied to d on copying rather than ‘pi ca cir ac sp er g base t the See Cyb The crime bein le annoyed abou rvald’s akes many peop n’t really care. rnel of Linus To actual theft m do ts ur co e Linux 1. n. Theerkeating system. 2. n. A generic th , but use of the term sed. open-source op flavour of it relea name for every
3 like an acronym, then fit words into it later on). For
an example, look no further than the word ‘daemon’. Supposedly it means ‘Disk And Execution MONitor’, but it’s really just named after Maxwell’s Daemon – a thought experiment created by a Scottish physicist in 1867 to explore the Second Law of Thermodynamics. So, if you still think that the creator of the Security Analysis Tool for Auditing Networks typed out the short version and gasped in surprise, think again. Not all names that look like acronyms actually are. ICQ, for instance, is meant to be read out – ‘I Seek You’. The term ‘i18n’ is just a way of saving 18 characters when typing ‘internationalisation’. And TWAIN doesn’t stand for
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279 March 2009
Technology Without An Interesting Name; it’s just a word, as in ‘never the twain’. That said, even its creators are resigned to its acronym status. Recursive backronyms don’t make things any easier. This is where the acronym also appears as one of its own words, most famously in ‘GNU’s Not Unix’ and ‘WINE Is Not an Emulator’. These can evolve over time, as happened with the email client PINE. It was originally named in homage to Elm, before being backronymed as Pine Is Nearly Elm, later adapted by the community as Pine Is Not Elm, before being renamed Pine Internet News and Email.
You know their names It’s not just people that get confused by this. Yahoo! is named after the ‘yahoos’ – a race of deformed creatures from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels – but its official
Computing jargon Pixel Pixel n. The smallest possible piece of data (a dot)
as it was written ‘spam’ instead of ‘SPAM ’, and its product wasn’t put alongside it.
on a visual display medium. Origin: A contraction of ‘pix’ (pictu re) and ‘el’ for element. Also seen in ‘voxel’, the 3D equivalent that largely disappeared with the introd uction of 3D graphics cards built to render triang les.
SPIT n. One of many variants on spam that
nobody’s ever heard of or cared about , this time to describe spam sent over Internet telephony. (See also SPIM for the instant mess aging version). Also proof that a marketing person is or has recently been in the room.
Podcast n. A syndicated, regular, downloada ble
audio and video file intended for porta ble devices (although watching/listening on comp uters is just as simple, and often better when it come s to video). Most podcasts are free, and amateur rather than commercial, although this is slowly changing. Origin: Not actually an Apple creat ion, although this is being forgotten. The name is a portmanteau of ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcast’, but was inven ted by early adopters, including Dave Slusher, Adam Curry and Dave Winer. iTunes is however by far the most popular podcast aggregator and direc tory.
Pseudocode 1. n. Ultra-high-level code mean t
entirely for the human eye. Perfect for sketching out what a program does, before sitting down to fill in the real thing. 2. n. A Visual Basic progr ammer’s day job, at least in the eyes of C++/.NET coders. Recursion n. See ‘recursion’.
RAM / ROM n. Random Access Memory.
Temporarily stores data that can be accessed in any order at any time, as opposed to cassettes and optical discs which have to seek for it. Comes in either read-only form (ROM) or readwrite.
RSA n. One of the most common algorithms
for public-key cryptography, used for signin g data to demonstrate its authenticity as well as encrypting it. Involves a three-step process combining public keys (can be known to everybody) and a private key (secret). Currently believed to be secur e.
Scunthorpe problem n. Over-zealous
anti-obscenity checks that can’t tell the difference between a rude word and a rude word hidden away in a perfectly respectable one. Speci fically, words like [CENSORED], [BLEEP] and ‘gible t’. SEO n. Search Engine Optimisation. The polite way of saying ‘gaming Google for bette r rankings’. Achieved through good site design (or shady tweaks, depending on who’s in charg e).
Social networking 1. n. An excellent way
of meeting up with old friends and meet ing new people in the wide-open universe that is the Internet. 2. n. An excellent way of wasti ng time at work that might otherwise have to be spent on more worthwhile pursuits. Like work .
Spam 1. n. The standard name for what’s offici
ally referred to as Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE). 2. a. A generic term for unwa nted mail. Origin: The infamous SPAM sketc h from Monty Python gave it its name – no matter what you wanted, you were going to get SPAM . Trademark owner Hormel was smarter than many , and agreed to let people use it (not that it had a choice) as long
SSH n. Secure Shell. The standard way to secur
ely connect two systems over networks, particularly the Internet. Uses public-key cryptograp hy (see RSA). Streaming 1. v The ability to watch, listen to or otherwise access… buffering… buffe ring… content over your… buffering… buffering… standard Internet connec 2. n –tion.
Syntax 1. n. The structure of words used in
computer instructions. ‘Syntax error ’ means ‘I don’t understand’. 2. n. The price of being lonely on Friday night with access to the Internet and a credit card. Origin: Ancient Greek for the study of the principles and rules for constructin g sentences. Telnet 1. n. The program and client-server netw ork protocol that lets you connect to a serve r to perform tasks remotely. 2. v. ‘To telnet’ mean s to connect to a server, not necessarily via Telnet itself.
Tweak v. To improve the operation of a progr am
or system via a simple process, witho ut direct access to its code – for instance, speeding up Windows boot times. Programs like TweakUI cross the line between official and unofficial tweak s, although you’re inevitably on your own if thing s go wrong. Web 1. n. A worldwide collection of interlinked documents and applications that bring s the power of information to the masses and shake s up every industry it approaches. 2. n. The great est security threat mankind has ever known, filled with sordid content, scheming terrorists and the true horror of humanity’s unbridled id. 3. n. Fanta stic.
Windows 1. n. Microsoft’s nigh-ubiquitous PC
operating system in its various forms (primarily 3.1 to Vista, ignoring ME). 2. n. Fram es within an operating system containing running applications. These run within a ‘windowing system ’, of which Windows is simply the most popular. Origin: A concept first invented at Stanford as part of WIMP – Window, Icon, Menu, Point ing device. WYSIWYG 1. n. What You See Is What You Get. 2. a. The fantasy of web developers everywhere. Origin: Flip Wilson’s 1960s drag act ‘Geraldine’; ‘what you see is what you get’ was a catchphrase. ZIP n. The standard compression system on PCs, despite challenges from the likes of RAR. Used in Windows under the name ‘compresse d folders’. Origin: Nothing to do with zipping files up into a smaller space, the name actually come s from the speed at which the process was initia lly sold as being. And pretty zippy it is too.
history still claims it stands for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle. You’d think they’d come up with something snappier. Many company names go the other direction, their history making them sound more impressive than they really deserve. Games company Lionhead may have a roaring lion as its mascot, but it’s actually named after a dead hamster. Likewise, Atari borrowed its name from Japan. You might think that was because of the country’s proud gaming heritage, but the change was at least in part due to the fact that ‘Syzygy’ (the company’s name at the time) was a nightmare to spell and pronounce. Other interesting starting points include Lotus Notes (named after a meditation position practiced by its founder), Ebay (Echo Bay Technology Group, which would have launched
echobay.com had it not been taken by a gold mining company) and Red Hat (there are at least three different stories about this one, all about as official as the tale of how the Joker got his facial scars). There’s a story behind every name, every product and every bit of slang. In most cases, they’re not that important. Sometimes though, they’re an easy way into the minds of the people who make the world what it is, and the true reason things are what they are. Aside from that, they make excellent trivia questions too. n The origin of Richard Cobbett’s name is shrouded in myth, though it probably hails from Yorkshire. feedback@pcplus.co.uk 279 March 2009 75