ABBREVIATIONS, TERMS AND DEFINITIONS | ||
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- M - | ||
m - Metre(s); male; married;
mile(s); million MA - Master of Arts Macintosh computer - A device and operating system, now superseded by PowerMac models and the Mac OS. mailbombs - some person of limited imagination sends a huge number of emails to someone, in the hope that the volume of data will crash their machine. Maj - Major MajorDomo - A mailing list manager that processes email requests. Man. - Management Mans - Mansions Mar. - March; Maritime Maritime Distress Channel - An INMARSAT satellite channel between a ship in distress and a coast earth station assigned in response to a distress-priority request message. Maritime mobile satellite-service - A mobile-satellite service in which mobile earth stations are located onboard ships; survival craft stations and emergency position-indicating radiobeacon stations may also participate in this service. Maritime mobile service - A mobile service between coast stations and ship stations, or between ship stations, or between associated on-board communication stations; survival craft stations and emergency position-indicating radiobeacon stations may also participate in this service. Maritime Safety Information (MSI) - Navigational and meteorological warnings, meteorological forecasts, distress alerts and other urgent safety related information broadcast to ships. Maritime SAR plan - A plan developed by coastal States following formal agreement between the parties concerned, based on SAR facilities previously declared, and including appropriate arrangements for providing SAR services in accordance with the 1979 SAR Convention. masc - masculine math - (US) mathematics maths - (GB) mathematics max - maximum MB - Bachelor of Medicine MC - (US) Marine Corps; Master of Ceremonies; (US) Member of Congress; (GB) Military Cross MCC - (GB) Marylebone Cricket Club (the governing body of English cricket) Mc - Megacycle(s) MD - Doctor of Medicine Med(it) - Mediterranean MES - Mobile Earth Stations - For maritime use they are termed Ship Earth Stations (SES) and on land they are termed Land Earth Stations (LES) or Land Mobile Earth Stations (LMES). MF - Medium frequency (300 - 3000 kHz) mg - milligram(s) Mgr - Monsignor MHz - Megahertz MI5 - (GB) National Security Division of Military Intelligence Microsoft - Software company that produce Windows & Windows NT OS. MID - Maritime identification digits MIDI - Musical Instrument Digital Interface. This refers to the industry standard for the physical connection of a musical instrument to a computer. If you see a sound file with the suffix mid, then it will probably have been produced via this method. min - Minute(s); minimum misc - miscellaneous Mission Control Centre (MCC) - A COSPAS-SARSAT ground system element which receives alert data from its local user terminal(s) and distributes that information to affiliated SAR points of contact or forwards it to other MCCs. The MCC may also receive alert data from another MCC and receive and distribute COSPAS-SARSAT system information. mkt - market ml - mile(s); millilitre(s) mm - millimetre(s) MMSI - Maritime Mobile Selective-call Identify code (as in DSC) MO - Mail Order; Medical Officer; Money Order mod cons - modern conveniences mod - moderate; modern modem - a contraction of modulator/demodulator. An analogue to digital signal converter. Mon - Monday MP - Member of Parliament (House of Commons); Military Police MPEG - Motion Picture Experts Group. A compression format for video enabling high-quality picture sequences to be stored on disk. The more common version, MPEG II, offers even higher compression rates than its predecessor, which means that more images can be stored in less space. mpg - miles per gallon mph - miles per hour Mr - Mister Mrs - Mistress Ms - Miss; Ms Title prefixed to the (first name and the) surname of a woman, whether married or unmarried. Ms may be used if we do not know whether the woman to whom we are writing is single or married. If we are writing to a married woman who prefers to use her maiden name, then we should address her as Ms or Miss, followed by her own Christian name or initials. MS(S) - Manuscript(s) ms - Millisecond(s) MSc - Master of Science MT - Motor Tanker Mt - Mount MUDs - Multiuser Dimensions, other worlds where you can create characters and environments in a shared, distributed digital space. Fantasy lands. multimedia - This term refers to the use of sound and graphics. If you bought a "multimedia PC", you would probably find that it comes with a sound card, speakers or headphones, a CD-ROM drive (to store sound and images) and will have enough memory and disk space for sound and image files. multithreading - An operating system feature which allows an appropriately-designed program to run several tasks concurrently. |
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- N - | ||
N - north NAAFI - Navy, Army and Air Force Institute nat - national; native; natural National DSC frequencies - Frequencies assigned to individual coast stations or groups of stations on which DSC calling is permitted (this may include working frequencies as well as calling frequencies). The use of these frequencies must be in accordance with Radio Regulations. NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization Nav. - Navigation NAVAREA - Short title of an area in the world-wide navigational warning service. NAVAREA warning - Long-range warning broadcasts issued by an area co-ordinator of the world-wide navigational warning service for his area and broadcast by powerful station or stations to cover the whole of the area, for which the area co-ordinator is responsible, and parts of adjacent area. Navigation safety communications - Intership VHF radiotelephone communications for the purpose of assisting the safe movement of ships. NAVTEX - Narrow-band direct-printing telegraphy system on 518 kHz for transmission of navigational and meteorological warnings and urgent information to ships. See also: International NAVTEX Service. NB - nota bene take special note of NBDP - Narrow Band Direct Printing NCO - Non-Commissioned Officer NCS - Network Go-ordination Station (for INMARSAT) NE - northeast NHS - (GB) National Health Service N MILE - International nautical mile NM - Notice to Mariners NNE - north-northeast NNW - north-northwest NON - Unmodulated continuous wave emission no(s) - number(s) non-U - not upper class; vulgar Nov - November nr - near NRT - Net Registered Tonnage NSF - The American National Science Foundation NSFNet - The NSF's network of five supercomputers NSPCC - (GB) National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children NT - New Testament NW - northwest NY(C) - New York (City) NZ - New Zealand |
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- O - | ||
O & M - organisation and method OAP - (GB) old-age pensioner OAS - (US) Organisation of American States OAU - Organisation of African Unity ob - obiit died OCC - Operations Control Centre (for INMARSAT) Occas - Occasional Oct - October OECD - Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OHMS - On His/Her Majesty's Service O-level - (GB) Ordinary level (examination) On-scene commander - The commander of a rescue unit designated to co-ordinate surface search and rescue operations within a specified search area. On-scene communications - Communications between the ship in distress and assisting units. ono - or nearest offer op cit - opere citato in the work mentioned op - opus; operation OPEC - Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries opp - opposite orch - orchestra(l); orchestrated OS - Ordinary Seaman OSI - Open Systems Interconnect OT - Old Testament Oxon - Oxoniensis of Oxford University; Oxfordshire oz - ounce(s) |
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- P - | ||
P - Parking p - page; penny, pence; per PA - Position Approximate; Personal Assistant; Press Association; Public Address (System) pa - per annum per year PACKET - This is a unit of data, which is typically a part of a file, prepared for transmission across a network. Packet switching - Transmission technique for routing slices of data between destinations between which there is no predefined path. para(s) - paragraph(s) Paired frequencies - Frequencies which are associated in pairs; each pair consisting of one transmitting and one receiving frequency. parallel port - This refers to a plug-and-socket connection that can transfer a complete byte of data at a time (serial ports transfer only one bit at a time). Mainly used for plugging a printer into your PC. PASV Transfer Mode - PASV Mode forces "data" connections to be established by the client, rather than the server (which is the default). PASV Mode may be required for users who are behind a router-based firewall. PAYE - pay as you earn PC - (GB) Police Constable; (GB) Privy Councillor; (US) Peace Corps PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect. This is a standard bus design for computer motherboards and expansion slots that can transfer 32 or 64 bits of data at one time. Its expansion slots are compatible with ISA cards, too. PCI has taken over as the standard format for modern PCs. PCMCIA - Now called PC card, this refers to a method of expanding your computer's capabilities via a credit card-sized connection. Despite the elegance and simplicity of this approach, particularly by comparison with the somewhat crude plug-in adapter card, high costs mean PC cards are used mainly on portable computers. pd - paid PDSA - People's Dispensary for Sick Animals PE - physical education PEN - International Association of Writers PG - Paying Guest Ph D - Doctor of Philosophy Pk - Park pkt - packet Pl - Place PLC, Plc, plc - public limited company PM - Prime Minister pm - post meridiem after noon; per month PO - Personnel Officer; Petty Officer; Post Office; Postal Order PO Box - Post Office Box POE - Port of Entry Polar Orbiting Satellite Service - A service which is based on polar orbiting satellites which receive and relay distress alerts from satellite EPIRBs and which provides their position. POP - Point of Presence. An Internet server accessible to a community of subscribers. pop - popular; population POR - Pacific Ocean Region, coverage area of INMARSAT satellite Positioning - Establishing the geographical place of the unit in distress (normally expressed in degrees and minutes of latitude and longitude). poss - possible; possibly POW - Prisoner of War pp - pages pp - per procurationem on behalf of (precedes name of person signed for) PPP - Point to Point Protocol. Sends data packets over serial lines and supports asynchronous and synchronous systems. PPS - post postscriptum additional postscript pr - pair; price PR - Public Relations Pres - President Preventive actions - Collecting, sorting and disseminating information or taking other actions which will either help to reduce the number of distress incidents or, when they occur, will facilitate rescue or expedite the SAR operation. pro tem - pro tempore for the time being; temporarily PRO - Public Records Office; Public Relations Officer pro - professional Prof - Professor pron - pronounced; pronunciation Prot - Protestant Prov - Province Ps - Psalm PS - Postscript PSBR - public sector borrowing requirement PST - (US) Pacific Standard Time pt - part; payment; pint; point PT - Physical Training PTA - Parent-Teacher Association Pte - (GB) Private (soldier) PTO - Please turn over Pty - Proprietary PV - Pilot Vessel Pvt - (US) Private (soldier) pw - per week PX - post exchange (US equivalent of NAAFI) |
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- Q - | ||
QC - Queen's Counsel QED - quod erat demonstrandum which had to be proved qt - quart qv - quod vide which may be referred to |
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- R - | ||
R - River; Royal r - radius; right R3E - Telephony using amplitude modulation: single sideband, reduced carrier. R & D - research and development RA - Rear-Admiral; Royal Academy; Royal Academician RADA - Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Radio Regulations - Means the Radio Regulations annexed to, or regarded as being annexed to, the most recent International Telecommunication Convention which is in force at any time. Radiotelegraph auto alarm - An automatic alarm receiving apparatus which responds to the radiotelegraph alarm signal and has been approved. RAF - Royal Air Force RAM - Random Access Memory where anything can happen, depending on the software and the imagination that bags it. RAM - Royal Academy of Music RC - Red Cross; Roman Catholic RCM - Royal College of Music Rd - Road rec(d) - received ref - referee; reference; refer(red) Rep - Repertory; Representative; Republic(an) Repd - Reported res - residence; resigned; reserved Rescue Co-ordination Gentre (RCC) - A unit responsible for promoting efficient organization of search and rescue (SAR) services and for co-ordinating the conduct of search and rescue operations within a search and rescue region. Rescue unit - A unit composed of trained personnel and provided with equipment suitable for the expeditious conduct of search and rescue operations. resp - respectively Responsible Operator Position (ROP) - A point of the distress-priority call destination from which an operator handles the call in compliance with national instructions. This position may be under the authority of either the national SAR Agency or Telecommunications Administration. A responsible operator position (ROP) may be located at the CES, telecommunications switching centre, SAR agency/RCC or remote from any listed locations. ret(d) - retired rev - revolution Rev(d) - Reverend rh - right hand RIP - requiescat/requiescant in pace may he/they rest in peace RISC - Reduced Instruction Set Computer. This is a type of CPU which can reduce to a minimum the number of instructions that are processed simultaneously, thereby increasing the computer's efficiency. rly - railway rm - room RM - Royal Marines RN - Royal Navy ROM - Read Only Memory, where the only instructions carried out are those for which the memory has been programmed. A chunk of memory containing prewritten instructions, typically in the form of chips on circuit boards or as non-rewritable instructions on a CD-ROM. Stored in ROM are basic functions like the power-on procedures for your PC. ROT13 - A substitution cypher which warns you that a newsgroup's discussion could well offend you, in case you are of a sensitive disposition. router - In packet-switching network, such as the Internet, a router is a device which examines packets of data and sends them to their appropriate destination. rpm - revolutions per minute RSM - Regimental Sergeant Major; Royal School of Music RSPCA - Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals RSVP - repondez s'il vous plait please reply RT - Radio telephony rt - right Rt Hon - Right Honourable Rt Rev - Right Reverend R(S)V - Revised (Standard) Version (of the Bible) RU - Rugby Union Rx - Receiver |
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- S - | ||
S - south s - Second(s) SA - South Africa sae - stamped addressed envelope SALT - Strategic Arms Limitation Talks SAR - Search And Rescue SAR co-ordinating communications - Communications necessary for the co-ordination of ships and aircraft participating in a search resulting from a distress incident. SAR point of contact (SPOC) - In the COSPAS-SARSAT system mission control centres (MCCs), rescue co-ordination centres (RCCs) and other established and recognized national points of contact which can accept responsibility for the co-ordination of the rapid and effective transfer of alert data to enable the rescue of people in distress. SARSAT - Search and rescue satellite aided tracking. Sat - Saturday Satellite emergency position-indicating radiobeacon - An earth station in the mobile-satellite service, the emissions of which are intended to facilitate search and rescue operations. SAYE - save as you earn sc - scilicet namely s/c - self-contained Sch - School sci - science SCSI - Small Computer Systems Interface. This is a method of attaching storage and other devices to a PC. It's versatile, because a single SCSI adapter can handle a mix of up to eight different devices - generally these will be such things as hard drives, CD-ROM drives, and scanners. But the cheaper solution tends to be EIDE for disks and a separate adapter for other devices. SDR - Special Drawing Right. 1 SDR = 3.061 gold francs SE - southeast Sea area Al, A3, A3 and A4 - See Basic Concept of GMDSS. Search and rescue (SAR) region - An area of defined dimensions within which search and rescue services are provided. sec - second(ary); secretary SEN - State Enrolled Nurse Sen - Senate; Senator; Senior Sept - September Seq - Sequence serial port - A socket that can transfer one bit of information at a time (parallel ports can transfer an entire byte at a time). Used primarily for modems, occasionally for a mouse, sometimes for other devices. Service area - A part of the world within which a COSPAS-SARSAT alert data distribution service is provided by the mission control centre (MCC). SF - Science Fiction sgd - signed SGML - Standardized General Markup Language Sgt - Sergeant SHAPE - Supreme Headquarters of Allied Powers in Europe SHAREWARE - This is software that's available on a try-before-you-buy basis. Typically, the prospective purchaser downloads the product from the Internet or loads it from a disk, and gets a specified period of use before having to buy and register it. This will be enforced by either your own moral values or by "nag" screens which pop up at regular intervals. Ship Earth Station (SES) - A mobile earth station in the maritime mobile-satellite service located on board ship. Ship station -A mobile station in the maritime mobile service located on board a vessel which is not permanently moored, other than a survival craft station. SI units - Systeme International d'Unites International System of Units Sig - Signal SIMM - Single In-line Memory Module - small circuit boards holding a row of memory chips; you plug them into special sockets on the motherboard. It's a simple and compact way to add memory to a PC. Single frequency - The same frequency used for transmission and reception. SLIP - Serial Line Interface Protocol. A protocol for sending data packets over serial lines. SLIP/PPP - Serial Line Interface Protocol/Point to Point Protocol. These are standards for connecting directly to the Internet rather than simply logging on to it via a host computer. SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol that defines the rules by which computers transfer mail messages. Sn(r) - Senior Soc - Society Sol - Solicitor SOLAS - Safety of Life at Sea SOS - international distress signal sp gr - specific gravity sp - special; spelling Sp - Spain; Spanish spamming - sending often useless messages to vast numbers of people. Sq - Square Sr - Senior; Sister SRN - State Registered Nurse SS - Steamship SSB - Single SideBand SSE - south-southeast SSFC - Sequential Single-Frequency Code System SSW - south-southwest St - Saint; Street Sta - Station STD - subscriber trunk dialling (telephone); sexually-transmitted disease => VD below Stn - Station Str - Strait; Street sub(s) - subscription; substitute Sum - Summer Sun - Sunday SUN Microsystems - The people who developed and still sell general-purpose computers running under the Unix operating system. Supt - Superintendent Survival craft - A craft capable of sustaining the lives of persons in distress from the time of abandoning the ship. Survival craft station - A mobile station in the maritime mobile service or in the aeronautical mobile service intended solely for survival purposes and located on any lifeboat, lifecraft or other survival equipment. SW - southwest swap file - Also known as virtual memory, this is a portion of your hard disk drive set aside for windows to use as a cache, basically to speed up transfers to and from disk. System information - In the COSPAS-SARSAT system tabulated data (ephemeris and time calibration) that affect the determination of distress beacon locations using the satellite sub-track; current status of all system elements; information related to interference. |
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- T - | ||
T - temperature t - time; ton(s) TB - Tuberculosis TCP/IP - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. Together these two dialects comprise the universal language for the digital word, or at least its vowel set. They are the glue that holds the Internet together. Tech - Technical (College) Tel - Telephone Telnet - Internet Protocol that allows one machine to appear on a remote screen. temp - temperature; temporary (secretary) temp inop - Temporarily inoperative Ter(r) - Terrace; Territory Thurs - Thursday Time calibration - Data used to relate the SARSAT satellite time code in an alert message to the actual elapsed time from a known satellite time epoch. In association with the ephemeris data, the corrected satellite time information in each satellite processed beacon transmission is used to determine the location of the transmitting beacon. Time of closest approach (TCA) - The time that the satellite is closest to the beacon during a satellite pass. TKO - technical knock-out TNT - Tri-nitro-toluene explosive trans - translated treas - treasurer Trspn - Transportation TSS - Traffic Separation Scheme TU - Trade Union TUC - (GB) Trades Union Congress Tues - Tuesday TV - television Tx - Transmitter; Transmission |
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- U - | ||
U - Union; Upper; upper class,
fashionable, polite, => non-U above UART - The Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter chip controls the transfer of data over a serial port, which in practice means the information that has to pass between your modem and PC. For modern modems, you will need at least a 16550 (or, even better, a 16650) UART chip rather than the older, and more limited, 8550 type that is still encountered on some PCs. UDI - unilateral declaration of independence UDP - User Datagram Protocol. A poor relation to TCP, used for transmitting a measly 1500 characters. ufn - Until further notice UFO - unidentified flying object UHF - ultra high frequency UK - United Kingdom UN - United Nations UNCTAD - United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNICEF - United Nation's Childrens Fund UNINSTALLER - when you want to get rid of a program, if you simply delete it, you will you leave files scattered throughout the hard drive, and they take up valuable disk space. An uninstaller utility logs what happened when the program was originally installed so it can backtrack to remove all files and restore the original parameters in key functions like the Windows 95 registry. Univ - University Unix - A multi-tasking operating system widely used on the Internet. UNO - United Nations Organisation UNRWA - United Nations Relief and Works Agency UPI - United Press International upload - Transferring a file from your local workstation to a remote host or workstation. URL - Universal Resource Locator, or Uniform Resource Locator as it's now known; specifies an Internet resource. US - United States USAF - United States of America; United States Army UseNet - Contraction of User's Network, a bulletin board system for newsgroups which can operate independently of the Internet, although this is by far the most common means of access. USN - United States Navy USS - United States Ship USSR - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics USF - United States Air Force UT - Universal Time UTO - Uncorrected Universal Time UT1 - UTO corrected for polar variation UT2 - UTO corrected for polar and seasonal variation UTC - Co-ordinated Universal Time |
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- V - | ||
V - Roman 5; victory; volt v - very; verse; versus; vide see, refer to V & A - Victoria and Albert (Museum in London) vac - vacation VAT - Value Added Tax VC - Vice Chairman; Vice Chancellor; Vice Consult; Victoria Cross; Vietcong VD - Venereal Disease => STD above VDU - visual display unit VE Day - Victory in Europe (end of Second World War in Europe: 8.5.1945) Ven - Venerable VHF - Very High Frequency (30 - 300 MHz) VIP - very important person Virus - A digital invader propagated by rogue software programmers. viz - videlicet namely VLCC - Very Large Crude Carrier VLF - Very Low Frequency vol - volume VP(res) - Vice-President VRAM - Video Random Access Memory. This term refers to a special type of DRAM that is commonly used on video controllers in order to speed up the rate at which images are displayed, thus improving the visual quality of graphics-intensive applications. v(s) versus VS - (US) Veterinary Surgeon VSO - (GB) Voluntary Service Overseas VTM - Vessel Traffic Management VTS - Vessel Traffic Service |
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- W - | ||
W - Watt; west w - week; width; with WAIS - Wide Area Information Servers that let you retrieve content using natural language searches, indexed searching and very clever protocols. WARC - World Administrative Radio Conference WASP - (US) White Anglo-Saxon Protestant wavetable synthesis - This is the successor to FM synthesis. Wavetable synthesis can store samples of instruments and is able to use them to generate quite realistic-sounding music. wc - water closet WCC - World Council of Churches Wed - Wednesday wef - With effect from WHO - World Health Organisation WI - West Indian; West Indies; Women's Institute Win - Winter Windows - Operating system sold by Microsoft, running on Intel chips. Windows NT - Microsoft's answer to Unix, but designed by Microsoft alone. Winsock - is a specification that network software providers use as a guideline for the standard application programming interface to their network software. wk - week; work WMO - World Meteorological Organization WNW - west-northwest WO - Warrant Officer World-wide Navigational Warning Service (WWNWS) - A service established by the International Maritime Organization and International Hydrographic Organization for the purpose of co-ordinating the transmissions of radio navigational warnings in geographical areas. Worm - Self-replicating piece of computer code that grows as it moves across a network. wpb - waste paper basket wpm - words per minute WRAC - Women's Royal Army Corps WRAF - Women's Royal Air Force WRNS - Women's Royal Naval Service WSW - west-southwest WT - Radio Telegraphy wt - weight www - World Wide Web. A hypertext-based information retrieval system; the collection of Internet servers that use http protocols; the bit of the internet with pictures. Wx - Weather |
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- X - | ||
X - Roman 10; a kiss; an unknown
number; thing, name, etc Xmas - Christmas XML - Extensible Markup Language |
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- Y - | ||
Y - Yen (Japanese currency) YHA - Youth Hostels Association YMCA - Young Men's Christian Association yr - year; your YWCA - Young Women's Christian Association |
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Ends |