The internet and computer technology is notorious for spraying around
acronyms and abbreviations at a rate only marginally more prolific than the
military.
While these linguistic shorthand terms reduce verbiage for the techies, the
rest of us can often be left bewildered.
In a bid to reduce confusion over TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) then, here is
the hieonline quick guide to some of the more common jargonese you are likely to
encounter
ASCII (pronounced
askey)
American
Standard Code for Information Interchange. Plain text to you and me
BASIC
Beginners
All -purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.Language used in writing
computer code
BIOS
Basic Input/Output System. Your PC’s digestive system, so to speak
CAD
Computer Aided Design. Software that enables designers and others to
abandon their drawing boards and pencils
CGI script
(abbrev.)
Common Gateway Interface script. Programming that makes web site pages
interactive. Web developers like to in-joke that they live in a CGI bin
GIF
Graphics Interchange Format. Images on web sites are either formatted as
GIFs or JPEGs
JPEG (pronounced
Jay-peg)
Joint Photographic Experts Group. Format extension for images. Usually
condensed to .jpg
MPEG
Motion Picture Experts Group. Format standard for online video
PDF
(abbrev.)
Portable Document Format. Standard for storing documents that can be read
by almost all computers using Adobe Acrobat. Probably one of the first
downloads you’ll make on the web
PGP
(abbrev.)
Pretty Good Privacy. Software for encrypting and digitally signing email
PIF
Program Information File. Handle with caution if one arrives in your
email. These are commonly, but not exclusively, used as virus agents
PING
Packet InterNet Groper. Not as dodgy as it sounds. A radar-like programme
to test your internet connection by sending out a small text packet from your
computer on a return trip across the internet
SCSI (pronounced
scuzzy)
Small Computers Systems Interface. Computer jack and cabling connection
system now largely replaced by USB (Universal Serial Bus) connections
WORM
Write Once, Read Many. Variant of the computer virus that is usually
transferred via email
Good bookmark sites for acronymn demystification are:
http://whatis.techtarget.com/
http://www.acronymfinder.com/
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