The Techie Glossary
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Letter
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
2nd |
A C D I L N O Q R T U |
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FA    |
FAQs
is an acronym (more or less 'facts') for Frequently Asked Questions. It
is common practice on the web for a webmaster
to put FAQs on a web site to answer common
questions. They are a good place for a user
to start to learn about certain Internet
subjects. They can be found using search
engines by inputting the subject
and the letters FAQ.  
FARNET
stands for Federation
of American Research NETworks. It was founded for researching advanced
network technologies in the USA. FAT
is an acronym
for the File Allocation Table. It is a hidden table that stores information
mapping where all the files are physically
stored on a computer system. They
keep track of which sector of the disc and on which drives
the files are kept. This is separate from the file
management system and directory tree
seen by the user. Favorites
are direct links within a web browser
to a web page or web
site. They can be used to easily relocate a resource on the web
without having to remember the name and address. Favorites are also
known as bookmarks.
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FC
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FCC
stands for the
Federal Communications Commission. This board of commissioners is appointed
by the President of the US. It regulates all interstate communications
including telecommunications that
originate in the US. Public utility commissions in each state deal with
intrastate communications.
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FD
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FDDI
stands for Fiber Distributed Data Interface. A high-speed network
standard for transmitting data on optical
fiber cables at a rate of around 100,000,000 BPS.
The underlying infrastructure is the fiber optics, and the network topology
is a dual-attached, counter-rotating Token
Ring Network. FDDI networks can often be recognized by the usage
of orange fiber cable.
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Fi |
Fiber
Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) is a high-speed
network standard for transmitting data
on optical fiber cables at a rate of around 100,000,000 BPS.
The underlying infrastructure is the fiber optics, and the network topology
is a dual-attached, counter-rotating Token
Ring Network. FDDI networks can often be recognized by the usage
of orange fiber cable. File
Allocation Tables (FAT)
are hidden tables that retain information mapping where all the files
are physically stored on a computer system.
They keep track of which sector of the disc and on which drives
the files are kept. This is separate from the file
management system and directory tree
seen by the user. File
attributes are
pieces of code stored with files
that contain information pertaining to ownership, and read,
write and executable
rights. They are similar to file
permissions. File
extensions are
the characters at the end of a file
name after a dot. The file extension can be used to possibly identify
the file type. It does not necessarily have to be the expected type.
For instance, text.txt should be expected to be a text
file as noted by the dot TXT extension. File
management systems are
programs that organize the files
on the computer system. They usually
show the directory tree and allow
the user to access the file
allocation tables used by the system to manage the files for the
computer. File management systems can be used to delete,
copy, cut
and paste files and to back up files.
The user must be careful not to delete files that may be important to
the operating system. File
managers are utility programs
that are used to organize the files
in the filing system especially user
files. File manager can be used to delete,
copy, cut
and paste files and to back up files.
The user must be careful not to delete files that may be important to
the operating system. File
permissions are
pieces of code stored with files
that contain information pertaining to ownership, and read,
write and executable
rights. They are similar to file
attributes.
File
Transfer Access and Management (FTAM)
is an OSI file
management utility that works remotely
over a network. File
Transfer Protocol (FTP)
is the name of the protocol and the
service for transferring files
over a network or the Internet.
A user can send and receive files by
using a client-side application that
connects to an FTP server. This allows
a user to upload and download
files such as HTML documents or software
applications from a web site to
a local computer system. A
security problem with FTP is that it
sends the user name and password unencrypted.
The SFTP Protocol is more secure. Files
are the main mechanisms for storing user
and program data
on a computer system. Every computer
operating system has a type of file
allocation table that manages the file storage locations on the
drives. Every system has a file
management system or file manager
for the users to manage their files within
the directory tree. Files can be divide
into two categories, text files and
binary files. Finger
is a simple protocol
and utility program
used for retrieving information to identify
current users on a network. FIPS stands for Federal Information Processing Standard, a government data processing standard. Firewalls
are either software
program utilities
or hardware device, or a combination
of both that are used to filter network
traffic and refuse unauthorized access to a computer
system.
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Fl |
Flame
to express strong
criticism of something or someone on the Internet,
usually as a frank inflammatory statement issued in an email,
blog or web
site. Flat
screen monitor is
a display monitor
that uses an LCD display screen and connects
to the computer through either an
analog or digital
port. Floppy
disks are
a three and a half inch square removable storage medium that uses rewritable
magnetic storage and fits in the floppy
drives located on the front of the computer.
A floppy disk can be read and written to more than once. Most have a
write protection feature accessible by sliding a physical switch on
the disk. The capacity is up to 1.4 megabytes
of data. The first floppy disks were five and a quarter inch square.
Floppy
drives these
drives both read
and write data
to floppy disks using magnetic storage.
They are located inside the computer
case facing the front of the system physically
attached by a special floppy IDE cable
to the motherboard. The drives have
slots for inserting three and a half inch square floppy disks and physical
buttons to pop them back out.
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FN
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FNC
stands for the
Federal Networking Council. The group coordinating network
needs among government agencies.
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Fo |
Folders
are special files on a computer
that organize other files. Each folder is a directory in the file
management system for the operating
system. This system organizes a hierarchy for directories where
each directory holds certain files and is part of the directory
tree. Folders and directories usually
refer to the same thing. Fonts
are complete
collections of letters, punctuation marks and special
characters in a consistent typeface designated by font name and
font size. Formatting
of a floppy
disk or hard drive clears the
storage medium and gets it ready for the file
allocation table and then it can be viewed
by the operating system. Each partition
on a hard drive is formatted separately. Floppy
disks usually come out of the box already formatted. Forward
slashes are created with a special key on the computer
keyboard that types this character.
The key is sometimes located below the Enter
key on the right side of the keyboard. This character angles from
upper right to lower left opposite to the backslash.
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FQ
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FQDN
stands for Fully Qualified Domain Name this is the complete URL
of a web site or other resource on the
Internet.
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Fr |
Fragmentation
on a hard
drive is a situation where files
are broken into pieces when saved. This
occurs when the drive is near its capacity. This happens when file data
is stored on separate sectors of the drive.
This slows down the drive's speed. The system starts to use any available
empty space to store files. The opposite of fragmentation is defragmentation.
The process of defragmentation can help speed up a drive encumbered
with a fragmented hard drive. Frames
are units of
data transmitted over a network.
In other contexts frames can have other meanings. For instance, frames
in HTML refer to separate areas on a
web page with information that can
be addressed separately. Freezes
are when a software
application or operating system
no longer responds to input. This is
indicated by the keyboard not working or the mouse
not moving. If an application is not responding the user
can use the control-alt-delete
or other methods to end the task and terminate
the frozen program. FRICC
stands for Federal
Research Internet Coordinating Committee. Now replaced by the FNC that
currently coordinates Internet research.
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FT |
FTAM
stands for File
Transfer, Access, and Management. This OSI
file management utility
works remotely over a network.
FTP
stands for File Transfer
Protocol. This is a protocol and also
the name of the service for transferring
files over a network
or the Internet. A user
can send and receive files by using a client-side
application that connects to an FTP server.
This allows a user to upload and download
files such as HTML documents or software
applications from a web site to
a local computer system. A
security problem with FTP is that it
sends the user name and password unencrypted.
The SFTP Protocol is more secure.
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Fu |
Fu
is a term used in programing usually
as a quick remark referring to any general function. Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN) are the complete URL of web sites or other resources on the Internet. Function
keys are a set
of 10 to 12 programmable keys on the keyboard
usually starting with F1, F2 or F3, etc. They perform various functions
dependent upon the computer system
and software. Functions
in a programming language
are named procedures that can be accessed to perform specific operations.
Once named a function can usually be accessed locally or globally across
the programing environment.
A function can also refer to a specific task or process
performed on a computer system.
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