Back Door

A secret way of getting into a program or a system. They are often
placed there by its programmers in case there are problems with

Back End

A program that takes care of details behind the scenes, performing tasks not directly controlled by the user.

Backbone

The internets high speed data highway that serves as a major access
point to which other networks can connect. 

Background

The area of a window or a display that is not covered by characters or
graphics, often referring to the desktop of an operating system. Also 
describes a process that occurs at the same time as another process

Background Noise

Interference in the form of extra signals in a line or circuit

Background Printing

The ability to print files while still using your computer as normal.
This was first enabled on a Macintosh with PrintMonitor. 

Background Task

A task that runs on its own while the user interacts with the 
computer on another  

Backplane

When referring to PCs, the term backplane refers to the large circuit
board that contains sockets for expansion cards. Backplanes are
usually described as being either active or passive. Active backplanes
contain, logical circuitry that performs computing functions. The oppo-
site is true of passive backplanes which contain almost no computing
circuitry. 

Backup

A copy of a file placed on removable storage (such as a floppy disk)
or another computer via a network. This enables you to recover data
if your Hard Drive crashes. 

Backup and Recovery Test

A test to verify that a system can be reestablished after a
failure. Done by backing up to the point in the processing 
cycle before any errors occurred and reprocessing all 
transactions that occurred after that point  

Backup Copy

An extra copy of a file kept for safety 

Backwards Compatible 

A term used to describe a program's ability to "read" a file 
from an earlier version of the software that created it. 

Bad Sector

Sectors are pie-sliced divisions of a disk. A bad sector means part of the disk is physically damaged and that data cannot be read from or written to that sector. 

Balloon Help

This is the feature that can be enabled from the help menu  (second
from the right), on a Macintosh. When you have this feature selected
and have your mouse over something important, a balloon will pop up
explaining what that item is.

Band

A defined range of frequencies used for transmitting a signal

Bandwidth

The range of frequencies a transmission line or channel can carry:
the higher the frequency the higher the bandwidth and the greater 
the information carrying capacity of a channel. For a digital channel
this is defined in bits per second.   ALSO: expressed in cycles per
second (hertz), the amount of information that can flow through a 
channel. On the less technical side bandwidth is used to measure
the amount of time it takes for a Web page to fully load.  

Bar chart

A graph that uses bars to represent the information provided 

Base Address

Part of a memory address that is used as a reference point for 
other addresses, called relative addresses 

Baseband

A transmission method in which a network uses it's entire
transmission range to send a single transmission.  

BASIC

Stands for "Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code". It
was developed in the 1960s by John Kemeney and Thomas Kurtz.
It is one of the simplest programming languages and variations are
seen today, such as VisualBasic from Microsoft and as macros in 
many applications. 

Bastion Host

On an internal network, the only host which is visible to the internet through the firewall. 

Batch Program

A program which takes commands from a text file rather than from
a user.  

Battery Backup

A battery from which a computer can draw power if AC power fails.
Some last 10-20 minutes while others last long enough for the 
computer to be safely shut down.  

Baud

A unit of measure of transmission speed. Named after J.M.E.Baudot (1845-1903), French engineer. Originally baud was used for telegraph transmissions, and meant one Morse code dot per second. 

Baud Rate

The frequency (not speed) at which bits travel through your modem. 

Bay

A shelf within a computer case for a hard drive, CD-Rom drive, tape drive, floppy drive, etc. The more bays in a case, the more drives can 
be added

BB EDIT

An

BBS

Stands for "Bulletin Board Service". This is a server users can log onto
in order to chat and exchange files. There are many free BBSs which 
can be logged into via TCP/IP connection or a simple phone call. 

BEBOX

A computer system designed by ex-Apple employees. It is
incompatible with both Macintosh and Wintel machines, but
is extremely powerful. It ships with dual processors and BeOS,
its corresponding operating system. 

Benchmark

A number that compares one system (hardware and software) to a
"control" system. 

BeOS

A relatively new operating system designed by Be, Inc. It can 
run on both BeBoxes and PowerPCs. It is extremely powerful,
especially when dealing with media such as music, video, and 
graphics. http://www.be.com 

Beta Test

Follows alpha testing in the software development process. Here, 
the software is almost complete, but bugs may need to be found
and corrected. Beta tests are available to a limited number of
dedicated testers. 

Bezier Curve

A method of describing the path of a curve using control points and
direction lines. This method is used in most typography programs and
design programs such as Fontographer and InfiniD. It's extremely
useful for complicated shapes, and can greatly decrease rendering
time in 3D rendering applications.

BIN

A file extension that identifies files as containing binary data.

Bin Hex or  BINary HEXadecimal

A method for converting non-text files (non-ASCII) into ASCII.  This is needed because some E-mail programs can only handle ASCII. 

Binary

A numbering system that consists only of 1's and 0's. Binary is useful
because it is how information is stored and processed on computers.
However, because most people don't think naturally in binary, tools 
such as assembly language and high level programming languages
were created to help people make computers do what they want.

  BIOS

Stands for "Basic Input/Output System". The BIOS is a set of 
instructions which tell the computer how to act. Most computers
have the BIOS built into a chip plugged into the computer. 

Bit

This is one binary digit (See Binary.) It can be 1 or 0.  

Bitmap

An array of dots which makes up a graphic or a font. This font you are
reading is probably bitmap. If you look closely, you can see the dots or
pixels which make up each letter. 

BMP

Bitmap
A Microsoft Windows image format. The images you see when 
Windows starts up and closes, and the wallpaper used for your
desktop, are all in BMP or bitmap format. 

Blind Carbon Copy (BCC)

Sending a copy of a letter one or more people in addition to the addressee, without showing on the original letter that a copy was sent to someone else.  Usually used to send email out to a group of people, keeping the others on the list's addresses confidential.

Bloatware

Software that uses excessive memory in proportion to the task it performs.

Blue Screen of Death

An error that sometimes appears on computers running Windows. the screen turns blue, and the computer usually freezes

Body

The section of a web page that contains all of the text and graphics
you see in a browser window. In HTML this section is designated by
the use of a tag.

Bookmark

By "bookmarking" a web site while you visit it, you can easily return to
it at a later time with a simple mouse click rather than remembering or
typing in very long and sometimes cryptic url's. 

Boolean Algebra

A system of mathematics developed by George Boole in the 1850s.Boolean algebra uses the operators AND, OR, and NOT; operations are carried out on variables which can have one of two values: 1 (true) and 0 (false). Combinations of AND, OR, and NOT are used to construct the additional functions of XOR, NAND, and NOR. 

Boolean Logic

A system of math that uses operators such as "and," "or," "not,"
"if...then,"  which permit computation. This system is named after
George Boole, an English mathematician who introduced the logic
in 1847. On the Web you will come across boolean logic when using
a  search engine.  These operators, when used in conjunction with 
your keywords enable the search engine to retrieve more specific
results from your query. 

Boolean Operators

And, Or, Not

Boolean Query

A query using one or more of the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT. 

Boot

Slang for starting up a computer. To boot a computer is to turn it on.

Boot Disk

A disk that is used to start a computer

Boot Drive

The drive that contains the operating system and is used to boot
the computer

Boot Sector

A portion of storage media that stores information about its contents. 
It is usually Track 0 on floppies and hard disks. It also contains system
information for bootable disks.

Bootable Disk

A disk that contains a loadable operating system  and can be used to boot up (start)  the computer

Bot

A bot is a program that runs on a computer 24 hours a day 7 days
a week. Bots are used on the  internet  in a variety of ways, most 
popular is its use in IRC and search engines.   IRC bots are pro-
grams that connect to an IRC network and interact with IRC in 
very much the same way a normal user does. Most IRC bots are
used for channel control. Bots have also been called automatons
but that term isn’t used as much as it was in the past. Many long
time users & IRC operators have a strong dislike for bots. Because
of the system resources they use, very few bots are used for much
more than vanity channel control, and many bots have been used
for annoying or trouble making purposes. While it’s true bots have
not lived up to their full potential, new bot coders should try to think
of ways their creation can add value and service to IRC and not just
be a system drag. In the world of Web searching, bots are also called
spiders and crawlers.  They explore the  world wide web  by retrieving 
a document and following all the  hyperlinks in it; then they generate
catalogs that can be accessed by search engines.    Submitted BY: 
Jason

BPS

Stands for "Bits per second." This is the unit used to refer to
a modem's speed. If a modem is 28800 BPS  (or 28.8kbps),
it transmits 28,800 bits per second.

Brick and Mortar

Refers to an organization that has a physical site, rather than a virtual organization. And example would be your local grocery store. 

Bridge

A device that governs the flow of traffic between networks or network segments and forwards packets between them.

Broadband

A high-speed, high-capacity transmission channel. Broadband 
channels are carried on coaxial or fiber-optic cables that have a
wider  bandwidth than conventional telephone lines, giving them
the ability to carry video, voice, and data simultaneously. Broad-
band is used to send different types of signals simultaneously.

Brownout

A temporary drop in electric power without the power going completely off.  A brownout may make the computer screen flicker, and can cause loss of data that has been entered but not saved yet 

Browser

A program used to surf the internet. Some popular browsers today
are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape; which are both major
competitors.

Browser Caching

To make pages load faster , web browsers store recently visited pages on your hard disk.  When you return to the same site,, the browser displays pages from the cache instead of loading them from the server.   Refreshing your browser will bring up the current page from the server.

Browser Compatibility

A term that refers to the way a webpage  looks when using one
browser as opposed to another.. Usually this refers to Internet 
explorer as opposed to Netscape, but can also refer to cross
platform compatibility, which is for example the way a page ren-
ders or displays on a Windows system as opposed to a Mac.
The reason these incompatibilities exist is due to the way a
browser interprets the Web page’s HTML.  

Buffer

A temporary storage place for data, often used to speed up 
multimedia presentations so they can appear seamless even 
with low bandwidth or a low-end processor.

Bug

A problem in an application which can result in a crash or other
malfunction. The term originates from the early days of computing
when actual bugs could get in the machines.

Bulletin Board System

See BBS .

Burn

Slang: To permanently write data onto CD-R discs using a CD-RW
drive.  submitted by Kitty3210

Bus

The circuits on a motherboard through which a stream of electronic
information is sent--usually between the processor and RAM or the
hard drive, or between the system and external devices.

Bullet

A bullet is a large dot used to separate listed items. 

• For example:The circle that appears on the left side of this
  text is called a bullet. 

Button

A defined area or image that will create an action when it is clicked
on by the mouse.

Byte

Eight (8) bits. This is the second smallest unit of measuring data.
(See Binary & Bit.)