The Techie Glossary
Version 2.0 By The WIDM Technology Transference Project

Letter
1st

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 E G H I L N O P R S U Y

Pa

Packet refers to units of data used for network communications. Protocols such as TCP/IP use packets to send and receive information where each packet is sent separately then reassembled at the destination. The TCP packet is sent bundled with the IP packet that designates the network address. TCP packets have header information with the data that includes source and destination information, checksum error detection and condition flags. A hacker can use a packet sniffer to access any public network communications from the Internet and can easily view the information sent, unless the data is encrypted .

Packet sniffers are hardware devices or software utilities that grab packets off a network or the Internet from a designated IP address. This address can be from a router, gateway, web site, or a computer system. Packet sniffers are used to monitor or collect data about network communications. A hacker can use a sniffer to access any public network communications from the Internet and can easily view the information sent, unless the data is encrypted.

Packet switching is the method used to move data around on a network or the Internet. In packet switching all the data coming out of a computer is broken up into pieces, sorted, addressed and then sent along different routes to the same destination. This allows multiple users access to the same line at the same time without packet collisions.

Page down key refers to a key on the keyboard that says Page Down or PG DN on it. It is a directional key that initiates cursor movement on the screen.

Page up key refers to a key on the keyboard that says Page Up or PG UP on it. It is a directional key that initiates cursor movement on the screen.

Parallel ports are hardware ports on a computer system. These physical ports support synchronous data flow to peripheral devices. Printers are sometimes connected with parallel cables to the system's parallel ports.

Parity bits are used in asynchronous communications and data storage where an extra bit is added for parity checking.

Parity checking is a technique for checking errors in data communications by looking at the parity bits. It entails adding the number of bits per data bytes to detect errors.

Parking a hard drive disables the read head so it does not move at all. This makes the computer data less prone to damage in physical transport.

Parsing text breaks a long string of text into individual smaller strings when they are separated by a recognized delimiter.

Partitions are sections of a drive such as a hard drive that has been formatted separately. A formatted partition can be allocated with a drive letter or can be mounted as a separate drive by the operating system.

Passwords are secret set of characters given to a computer user to access a computer system or network. A combination of username and password can be requested by the operating system as a security measure to allow for login access to the computer. Both the username and password are case sensitive. A password usually has to be over 8 characters. A good password uses a combination of special characters number and letters to make it more difficult to crack. A bad password is one that would be easily guessed or uses a plain word from the dictionary.

Pasting in computer terms refers to the act of retrieving a file or an object within a file from the temporary storage area, sometimes called the clipboard. After an object or file has been cut or copied it can be pasted elsewhere at any time. It stays in the storage area until another item is copied or cut. Paste is part of the three ubiquitous editing tools, copy, cut and paste.

Patch is a term for a fix that may be supplied for a problem to software that contains a known bug.

Paths are address of a file as corresponding to the directory tree on a computer system. The directory path of a file can include the drive letter, a colon, a backslash, the directory path and the file name. On some operating systems the path starts instead with a forward slash indicating the root directory. Sometimes the entire path has to be given before the system recognizes the file.

PC

PC stands for Personal Computer which is a type of computer system designed for home users. The term became popularized in the earlier 1980s.

PCI stands for Protocol Control Information. The PCI is protocol information from the OSI network model added by an OSI entity to the data passed down from the layer above forming a Protocol Data Unit.

PCMCIA stands for Personal Computer Memory Card International Association. They provide a standard for memory expansion cards used on laptop computers.

PD

PDF stands for the Portable Document Format. This is a proprietary format for documents that is platform independent. It is designed to enable the user to view or print the documents regardless of the operating system used. The files usually have a dot PDF extension. They can be viewed through a document reader program provided free on the Internet.

PDU stands for Protocol Data Unit. This is OSI terminology for a TCP/IP packet. A PDU is a data object exchanged by protocols within a given layer. PDUs consist of both Protocol Control Information and user data.

Pe

Peer is the term for an end system on a peer to peer network model. This type of model does not have a central server, but consists of interconnected equivalent workstation computers working as peers.

Peer to peer is a network model for a local access network that does not have a central server but consist of interconnected equivalent workstation computers working as peers. On a peer to peer network every computer system has access to the public files of the other computers on the network.

Peripherals are hardware devices that extend outside the computer case, but are connected to and controlled by a computer system. Usually a peripheral device needs a software driver installed on the computer system before the device will be recognized. Examples of peripheral devices are printers, cameras, speakers, mice and keyboards.

Perl is a flexible open source programming language. Perl can be run as a compiled program, run as a scripting language, or run from the command line. On the web this language can be interpreted at run time on the web server. Perl is maintained by a community of programmers on the Internet and has a number of modules available at CPAN.org. Perl is platform independent so it runs on most all computers.

Permissions are pieces of code stored with a file that contain information pertaining to ownership and read and write permissions to the file. Permissions are similar to file attributes.

Personal Computers (PC) are computer systems designed for home users. The term became popularized by the media in the earlier 1980s.

PG

PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy. This is an encryption standard for sending secure emails and other communications over the Internet.

Ph

Phishing is the act of sending out emails trying to trick the recipient into sending secure information, such as financial information or passwords. The sender usually tries to mimic a trusted company with the email or by spoofing a web site linked to the email to get the recipient to fill out a form.

Physical drives are the actual hard drive that is connected physically to the computer hardware inside the system. A virtual drive in contrast is a partition of the physical drive.

Physical layer refers to a layer in the seven layer OSI network model that provides the means to activate and use physical connections for bit transmission. The physical layer lays out the procedures for transferring a single bit across physical media of a network.

Physical media refers to any means in the physical connection for transferring signals between OSI systems. Considered to be outside the OSI network model, the media described is located at the bottom of the physical layer.

Pi

Picosecond is one trillionth of a second. Processor speed and RAM chips can be measured in picoseconds. A picosecond is a thousandth of a nanosecond. It is sometimes abbreviated by the letters ps.

PING is an acronym for a Packet INternet Groper. Ping is a simple program used to test reachability of a IP destination by sending an ICMP echo request packet to the network address and waiting for a reply. The term can be used as a verb as in to ping the server to see if it is up. PING is distinct from the image format PNG, also pronounced ping.

Pixelation is the diffusion of an image on a screen display or in a photo. As an image is blown up it can become pixelated where each pixel is enlarged and clarity is diminished.

Pixels are the smallest element of a screen display. Each monitor screen has millions of pixels that combine to create the display for the user. As an image on the screen is blown up it can become pixelated.

Pl

Platform refers to the overall hardware or software architecture for a computer system, an operating system or a network. The term platform alone usually just refers to the operating system that is being used on a particular computer. Certain devices and programs that are not platform independent may not work on other platforms.

Platform independent indicates that the program or hardware device will work on different operating systems or on other different hardware platform architectures.

Plug and play devices are hardware devices that are recognized by the computer when installed. Hardware platforms and operating system platforms have certain internal devices and peripherals that are made to work easily on them. If the platform is supported by the device, then the system should recognize the drivers and it should be relatively easy to install.

Plug-ins are add on software components for larger software applications that extend a program's capabilities. Plug-ins for web browser include multimedia movie players and applets players which can enhance a web site's content.

PN

PNG is an acronym for Portable Network Graphics. Pronounced ping this format is a nonproprietary supported by the W3C made as a possible replacement for the other two popular formats that are proprietary. This format is historically less popular than the other two. The GIF, JPEG and PNG formats are currently all used freely and openly on the web. PNG files usually have the extension dot PNG at the end of the file name. This is a different ping than the network ping command which is pronounced the same.

Po

Pointer refers to the representation of the current relative position of the mouse on the screen. The mouse pointer usually defaults as a pointing arrow. The tip of the arrow is where the mouse will click when the mouse button is pressed.

POP and POP3 are acronyms for two Post Office Protocols. These protocols are used by an email server on networks or the Internet to provide a pick up point for delivering email to a computer. They can be used in conjunction with the SMTP protocol to provide a user with email services.

Portal is the term used to describe a web site that is at a point of entry. It is intended to be an entrance to other sites or to the Internet when browsing the web. A portal web site may also offer exclusive services to entice users.

Porting in programming terms mean to compile a program or a software application so it runs on a different operating system platform.

Ports are different things depending on the context of usage. In hardware a port can refer to a physical connector or outlet used to attach a hardware device. A parallel port and communication port are available for peripheral devices such as printers. In software a port refers to an address between two items. Porting also can mean the translation of a software application to a different operating system. Specifically, an HTTP port is used in TCP/IP as part of the Internet address where each port is associated with a service. Port is also the name of the mechanism that governs data flow to the CPU.

Posting means different things depending on the context of usage. In network terminology it refers to placing a single message into a network communications system. On a newsgroup posting is entering a message that can be seen by other members.

POSI stands for Promoting OSI. This conference for Japanese executives set policies and commit resources promoting OSI standards in Japan.

Power supplies are anything that supplies electricity to a computer. In PCs they are internal hardware power units that are the source of electricity to the computer hardware components, such as the motherboard and all the drives. It converts the AC current from the power cord to DC current for the computer system to use. There are two basic types of power supplies in personal computers the older AT models and newer ATX models provide automatic shut off.

Power surges are a threat to a computer system because they can harm hardware components. The proper use of a good surge protector can help alleviate the threat from power surges. Power surges come through the local electrical utilities usually caused by blown transformers and lightening strikes.

PP

PPP stands for Point to Point Protocol. It is a network protocol that works on the transport layer and data link layer in the OSI network model. It is used for transporting TCP/IP protocols over a network much like SLIP. PPP can transport virtually any protocol over a network using a start and stop sequence over serial lines. This successor to SLIP provides router-to-router and host-to-network connections over both synchronous and asynchronous circuits.

Pr

Presentation address is used in the OSI network model as the address on a network that identifies an OSI application entity.

Presentation layer refers to the OSI network model layer that determines how application information is represented while being sent between two end systems connected to a network.

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is an encryption standard for sending secure emails and other communications over the Internet.

Private keys are generated numeric data used in encryption formulas to decrypt private information, such as in email messages. They are kept private by each user to decrypt and encrypt their own messages. Private keys are used in conjunction with public keys in the public key encryption model.

PRMD stands for PRivate Management Domain. This is a message handling system for organization of email.

Process is the term for the execution of program instructions by the CPU microprocessor. A processor can execute a process for a function just once or it can be an ongoing process such as a service.

Processors are chips with integrated circuits that contain the logic and the control units for analyzing data on a computer.

Program is the term for a computer software application. It is called a computer program because it is constructed with programming. All software applications need an executable file to start the program.

Programmers are people who write software code to create computer programs or software applications by using a programming language.

Programming of a software application is the act of writing the computer code following the syntax of a programing language. Programming is combined with software testing and debugging in software application development.

Programming languages are artificially created languages used in programming software. Like natural languages it is constructed with a set of vocabulary rules known as the syntax. Diverse languages are used in the creation of different types of programs or software applications.

PROM is an acronym for Programmable Read-Only Memory. It is a type of ROM memory chip that can be designed to accommodate alternative uses.

Prompts are symbols on the screen for text input. The symbols is usually a blinking line. It indicates that the computer system is ready for the user. The prompt is called the command prompt when used on a command line.

Protocol Control Information (PCI) is the protocol information from the OSI network model added by any OSI entity to the data passed down from the layer above forming a Protocol Data Unit.

Protocol Data Unit (PDU) is OSI terminology for a TCP/IP packet. A PDU is a data object exchanged by protocols within a given layer. PDUs consist of both Protocol Control Information and user data.

Protocols are rule sets used on a network to facilitate communications by giving a precise directions to be followed. On the Internet the low level protocols are TCP and IP from the TCP/IP suite. The higher level protocols include HTTP, FTP, NNTP, SMTP, IRC, POP3, SSH, SFTP.

Proxies are computer systems that fronts as a go between for another system in responding to protocol requests. Proxy systems are used in networks to avoid having to implement full protocol stacks in simple devices.

Proxy ARPs are the technique in which one device works as a router on a network to provide IP address resolution for another computer. The address resolution protocol requests intended for the computer systems are intercepted by the proxy ARP device by faking its identity. The router accepts responsibility for routing packets to the system. Proxy ARP can allow a server to use a single IP address for two physical networks. Subnetworking is another solution to address resolution.

Proxy servers are intermediary computer system located between a client computer and a server computer on a network. Proxy servers can be connected to a network or the Internet. A proxy server is as an intermediary system connected to the Internet. It can work as an HTTP server to an end system. It gives the client computer access to the Internet with less security risk. The client makes all of its protocol requests to the proxy server, which then makes requests to the true server and passes the results back to the client.

PS

PSN stands for Packet Switch Node. This term was used for switching packets on certain computer nodes implemented on the original ARPANET and MILNET networks. These were called Interface Message Processors.

Pu

Public key is a number generated from numeric data used in encryption formulas to encrypt messages. They are made available to everyone publicly because the are needed for other users to decipher and encrypt messages from the owner of the key. Public keys in conjunction with private keys are used to exchange encrypted messages using the public key encryption model.

Public key encryption refers to an encryption model using generated numeric data and encryption algorithms to encrypt messages sent over public networks such as the Internet. Two keys are used, a public key and a private key. Public keys in conjunction with private keys can be used to exchange encoded messages using this public key encryption model. PGP is an encryption standard that is available on the Internet and uses the public key encryption model.

Py

Python is an interpreted interactive programming language that is used on web servers in web software application development. It is a portable object-oriented language with many built-in modules and is comparable to Perl or Java.

P

Glossary

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