| ABBREVIATIONS, TERMS AND DEFINITIONS | ||
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| - A - | ||
| A-level - advanced level
(examination) A1A - Continuous wave telegraphy, Morse code. A2A - Telegraphy by the on-off keying of a tone modulated carrier, Morse code: double sideband. A3E - Telephony using amplitude modulation: double sideband. A9W - Composite emission: double sideband eg. a combination of telegraphy and telephony. AAA - Amateur Athletics Association; American Automobile Association AAIC - Accounting Authority Identification Code. AB - (GB) Able Seaman; (US) Bachelor of Arts ABC - Australian Broadcasting Commission ac - alternating current a/c - account acc(t) - account ack(n) - acknowledge(d) ad(vt) - advertisement AD - Anno Domini in the year of the Lord ADC - Aide-de-camp Afr - Africa(n) AFTN - Aeronautical fixed telecommunications network. Agcy - Agency AGM - Annual General Meeting AID - (US) Agency for International Development Alert data - Generic term for COSPAS-SARSAT 406 MHz and 121.5 MHz alert data derived from 406 MHz and 121.5 MHz distress beacon information. Alert data may contain beacon position and other beacon information such as beacon identification data and coded information. ALGOL - algorithmic orientated language aliasing - The unwanted jagged appearance that may affect diagonals in images displayed on the computer. Low-resolution graphics in particular can produce aliasing when they are enlarged. Removing the notchy effect is called anti-aliasing. Allg. - Allgemein(e) ALOHANet - An early set of networked computers at the University of Hawaii ALRS - Admiralty List of Radio Signals. 
See the ALRS Publicationsam - ante meridiem before noon AMA - (US) American Medical Association amp - ampere(s) analogue - An equivalent but not a replica of something else. In computing, it's everything that isn't digital. Analogue computing relies on numbers that represent some measurable thing in the real world, such as a sound wave or frequency of light anon - anonymous AOR-E - Atlantic Ocean Region (East), coverage area of INMARSAT satellite. AOR-W - Atlantic Ocean Region (West), coverage area of INMARSAT satellite. AM - Amplitude modulation. AMVER - Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue System. anonymous - Most FTP sites support anonymous logins where you do not have to have an actual account on the system in order to access the system to transfer files. Normally, the userid is the word anonymous and the password is your full e-mail address. Usually, you can place a minus (-) sign as the first character of your e-mail address to reduce the number of messages that come from the host FTP process. AP - Associated Press APB - (US) All Points Bulletin (for missing or wanted person) Apple - The people who developed the first mass-market graphical computer appro - approval approx - Approximate. Apr - April ARPA - Automatic Radar Plotting Aids; Advanced Research Projects Agency ARPANet - The first internetworked system arr - arrival; arrives asap - as soon as possible ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange that uses 8 bits per character. It uses seven bits for the character and one bit for information handling ASEAN - Association of South-East Asian Nations assoc - associate; association Assn - Association Associated Rescue Co-ordination Centre - A centre nominated by the national SAR agency to which an INMARSAT Coast Earth Station (CES) normally routes distress calls. asst - assistant ATAPI - Advanced Technology Attachment Packet Interface. As standard for connecting a CD-ROM drive to an Enhanced IDE adapter, which is what most modern computers use for handling their hard disks. Since the introduction of the ATAPI standard, installation of CD-ROM drives has become much simpler. ATM - Asynchronous Transfer Mode for transmitting scads of data at once, and "the next big thing" in networking. At least it might be. Aug - August. Automatic DSC operation at a ship station - A mode of operation employing automatic tunable transmitters, suitable for unattended operation which provide for automatic call acknowledgements upon reception of a DSC. AV - Audio-Visual; Authorised Version (of the Bible) Av(e) - Avenue AWACS - Airborne Warning and Control System AWOL - absent without leave |
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| - B - | ||
| b - born; bowled b&b - bed and breakfast BA - (GB) Bachelor of Arts; British Airways BAK - A suffix for filenames indicating a backed-up file. You can usually delete bak files, provided you make sure you have the most recent version and won't be needing the backup at any stage. Barr - Barrister BASIC - beginners' all-purpose symbolic instruction code Baud - A measure of the rate of transfer of binary messages (1 bit/second = 1 baud for most purposes). Baud - A unit of signalling speed, which came from inventor Emile Baudot who introduced a five-bit code system in the 19th cantury. BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation BC - Before Christ; British Council Bcst - Broadcast. BD - Bachelor of Divinity Beacon identification data - Information which is digitally coded into the distress beacon and corresponds to the identity of the vehicle in distress. Binary code - A numbering system that relies on a mere two digits, unlike decimal which needs 10, or hexadecimal which needs 16. Binary transfer code - Used for non-TEXT file transferring. Executable programs, word processing documents, spreadsheets, databases, graphics files, and sound files are some examples of files that must be transferred in BINARY mode. If you know that the host that you are transferring to or from is the same as your local host, you can always use BINARY mode and never use ASCII. BinHex - An encoding system that turns Mac binary files into ASCII. BIOS - Basic Input Output System. A bit of software (usually held on ROM) which effectively tells your operating system exactly what hardware components your PC has. So the BIOS advises MS-DOS or Windows 95/98 about the presence and type of hard drives, keyboard, processor and so on. Bit - A single unit of binary data. Bits - Binary digits, the basic unit of calculation for a computer, the smallest item of information it can cope with, an open or closed switch. Budles of eight bits are called bytes. bk - book Bldg(s) - building(s) Blvd - Boulevard BM - British Museum BMA - British Medical Association B Mus - Bachelor of Music Bn - Beacon bps - Bits per second (transmission rate). Br - Brother brg - bearing Brig - Brigadier Brit - Britain; British Broadcasting-satellite service - A radiocommunication service in which signals transmitted or retransmitted by space stations are intended for direct reception by the general public. Broadcasting service - A radiocommunication service in which the transmissions are intended for direct reception by the general public. Bro(s) - Brother(s) Browser - Web content viewing software BS - (US) Bachelor of Science BSc - (GB) Bachelor of Science BST - British Summer Time Bt; Bart - Baronet BThU - British Thermal Unit bus - The internal pathway for signals moving around inside a computer, transferring data between various components. In practice the bus is a collection of very fine wires or metal etchings on the system board which also appears as the connector for plug-in boards and other devices. So the bus type decides what extras you can slot in. Buses for PCs come in three main flavours: ISA (outdated now), VESA (more modern, permits faster movement of data, but now effectively supplanted) and PCI (top dog at the moment. Any computer which does not have this type should be avoided). BVM - Beata Virgo Maria Blessed Virgin Mary Byte - The collection of bits that make up a binary word; eight bits, and used to reprent a single character. Eight bits (binary digits - 0 or 1, on or off, yes or no) form one byte, and different patterns of eight bits give you enough combinations to represent most of the standard alphanumeric and punctuation characters. A kilobyte is 1,024 bytes (and not 1,000 bytes), which makes a megabyte 1,048,576 bytes. |
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| - C - | ||
| C - Centigrade; Roman 100 c - cent(s); century; circa about; cubic ca - circa about, approximately CA - Chartered Accountant cache - This is a chunk of chunk of computer memory which is intended for speeding up everyday operations. A printer cache temporarily stores any information to be output, so that it can match the relatively slow print speed to the PC's much faster rate of delivery. The cache controller tries to anticipate what you'll do next and has a program instruction or two at the ready. Calb - Calibration Call attempt - One or limited number of call sequences directed to the same station on one or more frequencies and within a relatively short time period (eg a few minutes). A call attempt is considered unsuccessful if no acknowledgement is received in this time interval. CAN - Cancelled with effect from...(date) Cantab - Cantabrigiensis of Cambridge University Capt - Captain CARE - Co-operative for American Relief Everywhere Cath - Catholic CBC - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBI - Confederation of British Industry CBS - (US) Columbia Broadcasting System cc - cubic centimetre(s) cc - capita chapters; centuries CCIR - International Radio Consultative Committee. CD - Corps Diplomatique Diplomatic Service Cdr - Commander Cdre - Commodore CERT - Computer Emergency Responce Team cert - certificate; certified cf - confer compare cg - centigram CG - Coastguard CGI - Common Gateway Interface; a bridge created with a little script or set of instructions that sits between http servers and the world beyond. ch - central heating Ch - Channel CH - Companion of Honour ch(ap) - chapter Ch B - Bachelor of Surgery CI - Channel Islands CIA - (US) Central Intelligence Agency CID - (GB) Criminal Investigation Department cif - cost, insurance, freight C-in-C - Commander-in-Chief CISC - Complex Instruction Set Computer. A slightly meaningless phrase that distinguishes (for instance) the current Intel chip architecture from faster, cleverer RISC chips. cl - class; centilitre(s) Client-server computing - A powerful computer providing services to a less powerful one. Big, complicated machines provide services to smaller, easier-to-use machines. cm - centimetre(s) Co. - Company CO - Commanding Officer c/o - care of COBOL - common business orientated language COD - Cash on Delivery code - see ASCII; Binary code; Encryption; Tags; HTML C of E - Church of England COI - (GB) Central Office of Information Col - Colonel Coll - College COM - Beginning with effect from...(date) compressed/decompressed files - data in a compressed file has been specially coded to take less space and so take less time to transmit. concl - concluded; conclusion Cons - (GB) Conservative (political party) cont - contents; continued Co-op - Co-operative (Society) Co-ordinator surface search - A vessel, other than a rescue unit, designated to co-ordinate surface search and rescue operations within a specified search area. Coast Earth Station (CES) - An earth station in the fixed-satellite service or, in some cases, in the maritime mobile-satellite service, located at the specified fixed point on land to provide a feeder link for the maritime mobile-satellite service. The generic term 'Land Earth Station' (LES) also applies to a station with services in both maritime and land-mobile communications. There is no operational difference between a CES and an LES. Coast station - A land station in the maritime mobile service. Coded information - Information which is digitally coded into the equipment by the user to provide information related to distress. Cont - Continuous Continuous Watch - Means that the radio watch concerned shall not be interrupted other than for brief intervals when the ship's receiving capability is impaired or blocked by its own communications or when the facilities are under periodical maintenance or checks. Contracting Government - A signatory to the 1974 Safety of Life at Sea Convention. Corp. - Corporation COSPAS - Space system for search and distress vessels. COSPAS-SARSAT system - A satellite-aided search and rescue system based on low-altitude near-polar-orbiting satellites and designed to locate distress beacons transmitting on the frequencies 121.5 MHz and 406 MHz. Coy - (mil) Company cp - compare CP - Cape Province; Communist Party Cpl - Corporal cps - cycles per second CPU - central processing unit. This is basically a microprocessor chip. The speed and capability of the CPU don't exactly define the performance of the PC, because there are many other significant components in the mix, but they are still important. Cres(c) - Crescent CRS - Coast Radio Station CS - Civil Servant; Civil Service CSE - (GB) Certificate of Secondary Education CST - Central Standard Time cu - cubic cwt - hundredweight |
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| - D - | ||
| D - Roman 500 d - died D-day - day on which a course of action is planned to start DA - (US) District Attorney DARPA - Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency DC - (US) District of Columbia dc - direct current DD - Doctor of Divinity DDT - Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane insecticide Dec - December dec - deceased deg - degree(s) Dem - Democratic dep - departs; departure; deputy Dept - Department device driver - A chunk of software that will let the operating system (and programs running with it) control a particular hardware device, such as a monitor or a printer. DF - Direction-finding DG - Dei Gratia by the grace of God; Director General DGPS - Differential Global Positioning System Digital - Of digits, signifying the use of two states: on or off, like your state of mind. Digital Selective Calling (DSC) system - A technique using digital codes which enables a radio station to establish contact with, and transfer information to, another station or group of stations, and complying with the relevant recommendations of the International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR). diag - diagram diff - difference; different Dip - Diploma Dip Ed - Diploma in Education DIP SWITCH - A miniature switch (usually a whole bunch of them) used to set hardware configurations for accessories such as modems and printers. Dir - Director Direct-printing Telegraphy - Automated telegraphy techniques which comply with the relevant recommendations of the International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR). Distress Alerting - Rapid and successful reporting of a distress incident to a unit which can provide or co-ordinate assistance. Distress Call - A part of the distress communication procedure, which includes a transmission of the distress-priority request message, and the reception of the coast earth station answerback followed by the Rescue Co-ordination Centre answerback. Distress Channel - An integrated channel between a ship in distress and a Rescue Co-ordination Centre. The channel consists of the ship's teletype or telephone set, Ship Earth Station, satellite channel, Coast Earth Station, land line and the end terminal at the Rescue Go-ordination Centre. Distress Message - The contents of the message is defined by the Radio Regulations, RR3093, and may be formatted as defined by INMARSAT and IMO GMDSS for the Distress Message Generator (INMARSAT Ship Earth Station Technical Bulletin No 19, February, 1987 and Annex IV to COM 29/10). Distress-Priority Request Message - A ship-to-shore request message containing priority indication 3, the highest priority of ship-to-shore calls. This is a signalling message to be processed within the INMARSAT-A access and control system in order to secure a proper assignment of the satellite (maritime distress) channel for ship and coast earth stations. DIY - do it yourself DJ - dinner jacket; disc jockey D Litt - Doctor of Letters/Literature DLL - Dynamic Link Library. A nifty way of writing programs so that bits of them - the functions in the 'library' - can be shared between several tasks at the same time (rather than each task containing copies of the routines it uses). In practice, a DLL is simply an essential component without which the relevant application program or device driver can't run. DM - Deutschmark - German currency DNA - deoxyribonucleic acid basic constituent of the gene DNS - Domain Naming System, the Internet's address system, using domains and subdomain hierarchies. download - Transferring a file to your local workstation from a remote host or workstation. doz - dozen D Phil - Doctor of Philosophy Dr - Debtor; Doctor; Drive (ie small road) DRAM - Dynamic Random Access Memory. It is currently the cheapest, and therefore the most commonly used, technology for providing a PC with memory. D Sc - Doctor of Science DSB - Double sideband DT; (the) dts - delirium tremens 'trembling delirium' (extreme state of alcoholism) See also: 'Effects of Alcohol Abuse' Dumb terminals - Windows into the brains of a brainier beast, usually a mainframe dupl - duplicate DUT1 - Is the value of the predicted difference between UTC and UT1. DV - Deo Volente God being willing |
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| - E - | ||
| E - east ECT - electroconvulsive therapy Ed - edited by; editor; edition; education; educated EDP - Electronic Data Processing EEC - European Economic Community (the Common Market) EEG - Electro-encephalo-gram/graph EFTA - European Free Trade Association eg - exempli gratia for example, for instance EGC - Enhanced Group Calling Emergency position-indicating radiobeacon (EPIRB) - A station in the mobile service, the emissions of which are intended to facilitate search and rescue operations. EMM - Expanded Memory Manager. A utility allowing DOS programs to access memory above the 1MB limit that constrained early versions of DOS. The most common example of the breed is EMM386, included with DOS 5.0 and above. Windows 95 has built-in memory management and doesn't need EMM386 or the alternatives. Emoticon - Concatenation of characters designed to appear like a graphic. This is also known as a smiley. An emoticon is used to convey emotions such as joking, sarcasm or boredom by using keyboard characters. For instance, :-) might indicate a joke, :-( might be unhappiness. enc(l) - enclosed ENE - east-northeast Eng - Engineer(ing); England; English Enhanced IDE - A description of the control electronics used to run large hard disks on most modern PCs. Also known sometimes as Fast ATA or high performance ATA, EIDE is an expansion of the IDE (Integraded Drive Electronics) standard; an EIDE controller (which is usually an on-board component, or possibly a plug-in adapter board) can handle up to four hard drives and other devices: for example, a CD-ROM drive or a tape drive. Ent. - Enterprise(s) EP - extended-playing (record) Ephemeris data -Tabulated information from which the location of a COSPAS-SARSAT satellite relative to the earth may be determined for any time within a specified time interval. Equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) -The product of the power supplied to the antenna and the antenna gain in a given direction relative to an isotropic antenna. ER - Elizabeth Regina Queen Elizabeth error correction protocol - A technique used in modems to cancel out extraneous electrical noise and repeat online transmissions when an error is made. ESE - east-southeast ESP - Extra-Sensory Perception Esq - Esquire EST - (US) Eastern Standard Time Est. - Establishment et al - et alii and other people; et alia and other things et seq - et sequens and the following ETA - Estimated time of arrival Ethernet - A network protocol that allows computers to connect with each other in a LAN such as an office. etc; &c - et cetera and the rest, and all the others ETD - Estimated time of departure eve - evening excl - excluding; exclusive ext - Extension; exterior; external extended memory - Any amount of memory beyond the 1MB limit of the original PC design (circa 1983). Also known as XMS. |
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| - F - | ||
| F - Fahrenheit; Fellow f - foot; feet; female; feminine F1B - Telegraphy using frequency modulation: Narrow band direct printing (Telex) F3E - Telephony using frequency modulation FA - Football Association FAO - Food and Agricultural Organisation FAQ - Frequently Asked Question(s). Generally a document posted on the Internet or elsewhere for the specific purpose of assisting new users. FAT - File Allocation Table. This is a feature of the MS-DOS operating system that keeps track of what's where on the PC's hard and floppy disks. This is the only means DOS can use to find data on disk. DOS doesn't necessarily store programs and data in consecutive chunks on disk, instead taking the next available cluster. It's the FAT that maintains the link addresses for subsequent but physically separated clusters. Fax - Facsimile FBA - Fellow of the British Academy FBI - (US) Federal Bureau of Investigation Fcst - Forecast FD - Fidei Defensor Defender of the Faith Feb - February FEC - Forward Error Correction Fed. - Federal; Federated; Federation Feeder link - A radio link from an earth station at a specified fixed point to a space station, or vice versa, conveying information for a space radiocommunication service other than for the fixed-satellite service. fem - female; feminine FIFA - Federation Internationale de Football Association International Football Federation fig - figurative - figure Filtered alert data - The reduction of redundant alert data messages from the same beacon in the COSPAS-SARSAT system when two or more identical messages are received. Firewall - Some organizations have chosen to separate their networks from the rest of the world while still allowing certain users the ability to access resources outside of that organization's network. This access is provided through a "gateway" or "firewall" host system and is generally uni-directional. There is another kind of firewall, which is not specifically configured. A router-based firewall is one which allows connections to be established in one direction only. The router itself is invisible to the user. To work with a router-based firewall requires using the PASV Mode of FTP. fl - fluid; floor flaming - sending aggressive messages. fm - fathoms(s) FM - Frequency modulation FM synthesis - Frequency Modulation synthesis is a cheap, but very reliable means of producing sound on your PC. The only problem with it is that any music that's produced this way does tend to sound artificial. Wavetable synthesis gives much better reproduction. FO - (GB) Foreign Office fob - free on board for - foreign FORTRAN - formula translation fr - Father; Franc; France; French Fr. - Gold Franc(s) Fri - Friday FRS - Fellow of the Royal Society FSK - Frequency shift keying ft - foot; feet ftp - file transfer protocol; a protocol for transferring files point-to-point over TCP/IP networks, i.e. the Internet. fur - furlong(s) furn - furnished fwd - forward Fx - Frequency FXX - Frequency modulation of main carrier other than F1B, F3E and frequency modulation facsimile. |
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| - G - | ||
| g - acceleration due to gravity;
gram(s) G1D - Phase modulation with a single channel containing quantized or digital information without the use of a modulating sub-carrier for data transmission etc. G3E - Telephony using phase modulation gal(l) - gallon(s) GATT - General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade GB - Great Britain GC - George Cross GCE - (GB) General Certificate of Education GCSE - (GB) General Certificate of Secondary Education Gdn(s) - Garden(s) Gen - General General communications - Those communications between ship stations and shore-based stations which concern the management and operation of the ship, normally taken to mean public correspondence to the exclusion of safety, distress and urgency messages. These communications may be conducted on the appropriate frequencies. Ger - German(y) GHQ - General Headquarters GHz - Gigahertz GI - (US) enlisted soldier GIF - Graphics Interchange Format. An image file format common on CompuServe and for small images on the Internet. It's limited to 256 colours but does produce compact files. Gk - Greek GLC - Greater London Council gm - gram(s) GMDSS - Global Maritime Distress and Safety System GMT - Greenwich Mean Time GNP - Gross National Product gopher - document retrieval system for the Internet that uses menus and its own protocols. gov(t) - government Gov - Governor GP - General Practitioner (Medical Doctor) GPF - Genearal Protection Fault. Windows' way of warning you that a program has tried to access a portion of RAM that is protected from unauthorised intrusion. In practice this means your program has probably died on you, and you may even have to reboot. GPO - General Post Office GPS - Global Positioning System gr - grade; grain; gross; group GRT - Gross Registered Tonnage gt - great GUI - Graphical User Interface. A 'user interface' is the catch-all term for the way in which you interact with the computer (or more specifically the operating system) - the kind of commands you enter, how you're told what's available and so on. A GUI does this by using a lot of visual elements, like icons, rather than text-based commands. |
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| - H - | ||
| h - height; Hours H+... - Commencing at...minutes past the hour H24 - Continuous H2A - Telegraphy by the on-off keying of a tone modulated carrier, Morse code: single-sideband, full carrier H2B - Selective calling signal using a single frequency code, single-sideband, full carrier H3E - Telephony using amplitude modulation: single sideband, full carrier H8(16) - Hours equivalent to those of a Ship Station of the 3rd (2nd) category ha - hectare(s) Hacker - people who break into digital systems for purposes of burglary or entertainment. Hayes command set - A set of instructions for controlling basic modem functions, such as dialling and hanging up, devised by the modem manufacturer Hayes. You probably won't have to know anything about them; your comms program will let you select a plain-English option like 'dial now' and will then translate that into the relevant Hayes command code. h & c - hot and cold (water) H-bomb - Hydrogen bomb HE - high explosive; His/Her Excellency; His Eminence HF - High Frequency (3 - 30 MHz) HH - His Holiness HJ - Day service only HM - His/Her Majesty HMS - His/Her Majesty's Ship HMSO - His/Her Majesty's Stationery Office HN - Night service only Hon - Honorary; Honourable hosp - hospital HP - Hire Purchase; Horse Power HQ - Headquarters hr - hour(s) Hr - Harbour Hr Mr - Harbour Master HRH - His/Her Royal Highness HTML - Hypertext Markup Language, the Document Type Definition used for displaying composed documents on the Internet. These pages are laid out to look like normal printed pages, with images and typographic composition making them easier to read and use. http - Hypertext Transfer Protocol, a TCP/IP protocol used to link hypertext documents and for hopping about between HTML pages. HYPERTEXT - This is a method of presenting information that allows the user to jump between places in the document, typically by clicking on either a highlighted word or an icon, rather than being forced to navigate it in a linear fashion. Both the Help files and Web pages make extensive use of this technique. HX - No specific hours or fixed intermittent hours Hz - Hertz |
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| - I - | ||
| I - Island; Roman 1 ib; ibid - ibidem in the sampe place IBA - (GB) Independent Broadcasting Authority i/c - in charge ICAO - International Civil Aviation Organization ICBM - Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile ID - Prefix indicating station identity in conformity with Appendix 43 to the RR IDE - Integrated Drive Electronics. The most popular type of hard drive for the PC. The controller electronics are included inside the device, so you don't need a separate adapter card (as you do with SCSI controller). Cheaper than SCSI, IDE drives are also easier to install. Ident - Identification Signal Identifying - Receipt of sufficient information in order to determine without ambiguity the unit in distress. ie - id est which is to say, in other words IHO - International Hydrographic Organization IHS - Iesous (Greek for) Jesus (Christ) ILO - International Labour Organisation IMF - International Monetary Fund IMO - International Maritime Organization IMP - Interface Message Processor. The first means through which two disparate computing devices communicated. in - inch(es) Inc. - Incorporated, Incorporation incl - including; inclusive Ind - India(n); Independent Ind. - Industry(ies) inf - infra below info - information infra dig - infra dignitatem beneath one's social dignity INMARSAT - The Organization established by the Convention on the INternational MARitime SATellite Organization (INMARSAT) adopted on 3 September 1976. Inop - Inoperative INRI - Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews Inst - Institute Int - International; interior; internal International DSC frequencies - Frequencies designated in the Radio Regulations for exclusive use for DSC on an international basis. International NAVTEX Service - The co-ordinated broadcast and automatic reception on 518 kHz of maritime safety information by means of narrow-band direct-printing using the English language. See also: NAVTEX. Internet - This is a non-commercial, self-governing network with the ability to link up many thousands of computers and at least 100 million users worldwide. A computer joins the Internet simply by adopting the standards and software setups which tell the Internet that it's available to take part in the range of Internet services: such as email between users, the Web, FTP file transfers and newsgroups, among others. intro - introduction I/O port - A connector on the computer where you plug in a cable from another device. IOR - Indian Ocean Region, coverage area of INMARSAT satellite IOU - I owe you IQ - Intelligence Quotient comparative measure of intelligence IRA - Irish Republican Army IRC - Internet Relay Chat, communications protocol that mimics speech, except with characters on screen. Ire - Ireland Is - Islands ISA - Industry Standard Architecture. The original PC setup which allows extras to be added to a system by inserting plug-in adapter cards into slots on the motherboard. ISDN - Integraded Services Digital Network. The high-bandwidth, high-speed point-to-point telephone network. This is a way of transmitting digital, rather than analogue, signals down standard phone lines. The results are faster, and there is more chance of an error-free connection being made. In practice, ISDN is an extra-cost service offered by providers which will require an ISDN modem and perhaps some special software at your end. ISP - Internet Service Provider. A company that owns a bunch of servers and sells time on them to subscribers, allowing them to access the larger community of servers, the Internet. It(al) - Italy; Italian ITU - International Telecommunication Union ITV - (GB) independent television |
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| - J - | ||
| J3E - Telephony using amplitude
modulation: single sideband, suppressed carrier Jan - January JANet - Joint Academic Network Java - Operating system independent scripting language. JC - Jesus Christ Jnr; Jr - Junior JP - Justice of the Peace JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group - the term usually refers to a graphic image format defined by this group that has become an alternative to GIF for small, compact images. All JPEG images (identified by the suffix jpg) can use 16.7 million colours at a much higher compression rate than GIF. Jul - July JUMPER - This is a simple and rather crude way of switching a switch, typically on an adapter card, by plugging a small connector across two terminals. Jun - June; Junior |
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| - K - | ||
| kg - kilogram(s) KGB - Intelligence Agency of the USSR kHz - Kilohertz km -Kilometre(s) KO - knock-out kW - Kilowatt(s) |
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| - L - | ||
| L - lake; little; Roman 50; (GB)
Liberal (political party) l - left; length; line L-band EPIRB system - A satellite EPIRB system operating in the 1.6 GHz frequency band through the INMARSAT geostationary space segment. LA - Legislative Assembly; Los Angeles Lab - (GB) Labour (political party) LAN - local area network Land Earth Station (LES) - See: Coast Earth Station (CES) and Mobile Earth Station (MES) Land Mobile Earth Station (LMES) - See: Mobile Earth Station (MES) lang - language Lat - Latin lat - latitude lb - pound(s) (weight) lbw - leg before wicket (cricket term) Ld - Lord LEA - Local Education Authority letterbombs - email that contains viruses that could mess up your computer's functions. LF - Low Frequency lh - left hand Lib - (GB) Liberal (political party); Liberation ListServ - A mailing list manager that processes email requests. lit - literal(ly); literature; literary ll - lines LLB - Bachelor of Laws LMT - (US) Local Mean Time LNG - Liquefied Natural Gas LOA - Length Over All loc cit - loco citato in the place mentioned Local user terminal (LUT) - A ground receiving station which receives alert data from COSPAS and SARSAT satellites, derives the position of the beacon, retrieves and checks coded information and forwards the resultant information. Locating - The finding of ships, aircraft, units or persons in distress. Locating signals - Transmissions intended to facilitate the finding of a ship in distress or the location of survivors. long - longitude LP - long-playing (record) LPG - Liquefied Petroleum Gas LSD - lysergic acid diethylamide drug inducing hallucinations �sd - librae, solidi, denarii pounds, shillings, pence (former GB currency system) LST - (US) Local Standard Time LT - Local Time Lt - Lieutenant Ltd - Limited |
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