Word of The Day

Wed
05
Oct
Dennis Faas's picture

Defrag

DEFRAG or ' Disk Defragmenter ' is a program included with most versions of the MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows operating systems since MS-DOS 5.0, ca 1989. Defrag.exe defragments a file system such as a hard drive. Disk optimization is, briefly, a ... method of optimizing the efficiency of disk caching to minimize head travel and maximize effective speed: Move all the index or directory information to one spot. Move this spot into the center of the data, e.g. one third of the way in, so that head travel to data is halved compared to having directory information at the front. Cluster files around ... (view more)

Tue
04
Oct
Dennis Faas's picture

Defragmentation

In the context of administering computer systems, defragmentation (or defragging) is a process that eliminates fragmentation in file systems. It does this by physically reorganizing the contents of the disk in order to store the pieces of each file ... close together and in order (contiguously). It also attempts to create large regions of free space using compaction, to impede the return of fragmentation. Aims of defragmentation Reading and writing data on a heavily fragmented hard drive is slowed down as the time for the heads to move between fragments on the disk surface can be substantial. The ... (view more)

Thu
29
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

Reboot

In computing, a reboot refers to restarting a device. A reboot can be a soft reboot or a hard reboot. Soft Reboot A soft reboot (also known as a warm reboot, in contrast to a cold reboot) is restarting a computer under software control, without ... removing power or (directly) triggering a reset line. It usually, though not always, refers to an orderly shut-down, rather than a "reboot". The Control-Alt-Delete key combination on the original IBM PC was designed to allow a soft reboot for a quicker and more convenient (and, some argue, less stressful on system components) restart than ... (view more)

Wed
28
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

Stereophonic Sound

Stereophonic sound , commonly called stereo, is the reproduction of sound, using two independent audio channels, through a pair of widely separated speaker systems, in such a way as to create a pleasant and natural impression of sound heard from ... various directions as in natural hearing. The word "stereophonic", from Greek stereos = "solid" and phone = "sound", was coined by Western Electric, by analogy with the word "stereoscopic". Western Electric first demonstrated it at an SMPTE meeting in 1937, then to the general public at Carnegie Hall in 1940. In popular usage, stereo usually means 2- ... (view more)

Tue
27
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

Screensaver

A screensaver is a computer program originally designed to conserve the image quality of computer displays by blanking the screen or filling them with moving images or patterns when the computers are not in use. Today, screensavers are primarily for ... entertainment or security purposes. Until recently, most computer screens depended on cathode ray tubes (CRTs). CRT images are generated using electron beams which are "launched" from the back of the monitor and "draw" images continuously on the screen. Most computer programs paint images in the screen. Some of these images (letters, pictures, ... (view more)

Fri
23
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

Blog

A weblog (now more commonly known as a blog ) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles (normally in reverse chronological order). Although most early weblogs were manually updated, tools to automate the maintenance of ... such sites made them accessible to a much larger population, and the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging". Blogs range in scope from individual diaries to arms of political campaigns, media programs, and corporations. They range in scale from the writings of one occasional author, to the collaboration of a ... (view more)

Wed
21
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer , abbreviated 'IE' or 'MSIE', is a proprietary web browser made by Microsoft and currently available as part of Microsoft Windows. Internet Explorer is an integrated component of all current versions of Microsoft Windows. Microsoft ... has shipped Internet Explorer as the default browser in all versions of Microsoft Windows since Windows 95 OSR1. Features of Internet Explorer Internet Explorer has been designed to view the broadest range of web pages and to provide certain features within the operating system, including Windows Update. During the heydays of the historic browser ... (view more)

Sun
18
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

Modem

A modem (a portmanteau word constructed from modulator and demodulator) is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal (sound) to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The ... goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. The most familiar example of a modem turns the digital '1s and 0s' of a personal computer into sounds that can be transmitted over the telephone lines of Plain Old Telephone System (POTS), and once received on the other side, converts ... (view more)

Sat
17
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

Dial Up Access

Dial-up Internet access is an inexpensive but relatively slow form of internet access in which the client uses a modem to dial the internet service provider's (ISP) node, a dialup server type such as the Point-to-Point Protocol and TCP/IP protocols ... to establish a modem-to-modem link, which is then routed to the Internet. It is now regarded as legacy technology given the advent of widely available broadband Internet access in the Western world. Dial-up Access: Availability Dial-up requires no additional infrastructure on top of the telephone network. As telephone points are available ... (view more)

Thu
15
Sep
Dennis Faas's picture

Fax

Fax (short for facsimile - from Latin "fac simile", "make similar", i.e. "make a copy" - or telefacsimile) is a telecommunications technology used to transfer copies of documents, especially using affordable devices operating over the telephone ... network. The words telecopy and telefax are also used as synonyms. Fax: Overview A fax machine is essentially an image scanner, a modem, and a computer printer combined into a highly specialized package. The scanner converts the content of a physical document into a digital image, the modem sends the image data over a phone line, and the printer at the ... (view more)

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Word of The Day