Technology Dictionary

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An alphabetical listing of General terms and items.

Taskbar   Dico Tools
In Windows, a bar across the bottom of the screen (usually - you can move it to the top or side if you want to) which contains the Start Button, the System Tray, and icons which represent all the applications currently running. You can switch between applications by calling up the taskbar and clicking on the relevant icon. The taskbar can be set to remain visible all the time (the default), or only to appear when you press the Windows key.


TBH   Dico Tools
(To Be Honest) Internet slang.


TCP/IP   Dico Tools
(Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) A common protocol (language) which a computer can use to communicate with other computers, particularly on the internet.


Terabyte   Dico Tools
Unit of measurement for pieces of information : approximately 1 trillion bytes, 1 billion kilobytes, 1 million megabytes or 1000 gigabytes. That's a lot of data.


Terminal Adaptor   Dico Tools
A piece of hardware similar to a modem, required to operate an ISDN internet connection.


TFT   Dico Tools
(Thin Film Transistor) A technology used mainly in laptop screens for giving a sharp and vibrant colour display. Much less bulky than the CRT system used in most desktop monitors, which it is now slowly beginning to replace, but also more expensive.


Thumb Drive   Dico Tools
A computer storage device about the size of a man's thumb, often carried on a keyring, which plugs into a PC USB port and is seen by the PC as an extra drive - a very convenient way to carry large amounts of data around.


TIFF   Dico Tools
(Tagged Image File Format) A type of graphics (picture) file, often used for photographs. The files are usually huge, as the data is not significantly compressed. Files in this format usually have names ending .tif .


TLD   Dico Tools
(Top Level Domain). The part of an internet address between the last . and the end of the address, excluding the path/address of a specific page if present. TLDs include .com, .org, .net, and all the national domains such as .uk for the UK and .fr for France. 


Torrent   Dico Tools
A method of making data available for download over the internet, where the recipient of data is expected to make the data available to others for download from their PC, rather than all users downloading from a central server. Typically much of the data is bootleg software, audio and video. Because the data is distributed from multiple computers all over the place rather than a central point, it is extremely hard to police.


Touchpad   Dico Tools
A pressure-sensitive pad which replaces the mouse on most laptop computers.


Trojan   Dico Tools
A program similar to a virus which is disguised as something harmless like a game, but when launched actually sabotages the computer on which it is running.


TSR   Dico Tools
(Terminate and Stay Resident) A program, usually loaded automatically on startup, which remains in memory to provide particular functions such as connection to a network or protection against viruses. In Windows 95/98 TSRs presently running are usually represented by icons in the System tray, such as the small loudspeaker which represents the volume control for the soundcard. A few TSRs are essential, but many are installed automatically by a particular application just to improve its own performance, with no thought for anything else you may be doing, and may actually have a negative impact on everything else. Usually (but not always) launched from the StartUp folder in the Windows Start Menu.


TWAIN   Dico Tools
(Technology Without An Interesting Name, according to legend) A standard "language" or protocol which computers use to communicate with scanners.



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