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Accelerated Graphics Port

A fast type of video monitor technology.

Access Provider

A company which provides its customers a service whereby the can access the Internet. The user normally connects to the Access provider's computer via a modem using a dial up connection.

Acrobat Reader

Standalone program or Web browser plug-in from Adobe that lets you view a PDF file in its original format and appearance. The Acrobat Reader is free and can be downloaded from Adobe.

ActiveX

ActiveX is a Microsoft technology used on the Internet. ActiveX controls can be downloaded from the Internet. These controls are "activated" by the web browser & perform a variety of different functions. There are Active X controls which allow you to view Microsoft word documents via the web browser, play animated graphical effects, display interactive maps. As the name suggests they make the web page "active". ActiveX controls provide similar functionality to Java Applets

Active Matrix Display

A type of Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) technology used in Laptop & notebook PC's. Synonymous with TFT

Active Server Pages

Also known as ASP. Microsoft technology created to allow easy combination of HTML, JavaScript and ActiveX.

Active Window

In Windows, the front-most window on the desktop. The window which accepts any keyboard input

Advanced Power Management

An API whose purpose is to monitor and control power supply usage - particularly useful in Laptop computers.

Advanced Research Projects Agency Network

Developed by the US Department of Defense during the cold war. ARPANET was designed to survive nuclear attacks: the authority was distributed over a large number of geographically dispersed computers, so that - even if most servers were destroyed - the remaining servers would be able to continue on. This computer network concept was the basis of the Internet.

AGP

Accelerated Graphics Port

American Standard Code for Information Interchange

It is a standard way of representing ordinary text as a stream of binary numbers. A code set of 128 characters. The first 32 characters are control codes & the remaining 96 are upper & lower case letters, numbers, punctuation marks & special characters.

Anchor

Also known as a "hot spot," a "link" or a "hyperlink," an anchor is a part of text that a user can click on to connect to another part of the same page, another page on the same site or a new Web page entirely.

Animated GIF

A special type of GIF File. They give the impression of a video. A collection of GIFS, presented one after the other each picture slightly different from the previous. Same principle as a film.

Anti Virus Software

A program that is written specifically to locate & remove harmful viruses from your PC. These programs constantly have to be updated to cater for new viruses as they become known.

API

Application Programming Interface

APM

Advanced Power Management

Applet

Small (Java) program embedded in an HTML page. When you access that Web page, the browser downloads the applet and runs it on your computer. For security reasons applets cannot read or write data onto your computer. The applet can only be executed if your browser supports Java.

Application Program

A Program that has been created to perform a specific task that is useful to the user - unlike the operating system that is a program that controls the PC. Most people buy PC's so that they can run application programs. Examples include: Word processor; Spreadsheet; Home Finance Package; Drawing Package

Application Programming Interface

Program code that allows the application program to interact directly with the operating system.

Archive

A backup copy of data designed to be kept long term - often for security or audit reasons. The verb for doing this is also archive.

ARPANET

Advanced Research Projects Agency Network

ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ASCII Text File

The most common File Format found on PC's. They are basically text files that contain no formatting information at all. They do not require special programs to access them

ASP

Active Server Pages

Aspect Ratio

The Ratio of the screens width to its height so if you are using 640 X 480 the Aspect ratio is 4:3

Audio Video Interleave

Digital video file format created by Microsoft (Video for Windows). An avi file contains picture and sound elements stored in alternate (interleaved) chunks.

avi

Audio Video Interleave