Science fiction writer William Gibson coined the term cyberspace in the perennial favorite novel Neuromancer. Gibson used the word to describe a virtual world of computer networks that his cyberpunk heroes "jacked into." Everyone else uses the word cyberspace loosely to refer to virtual reality, the Internet, the World Wide Web, and many other kinds of computer systems that users become immersed in. It's about as ill-defined a term as information superhighway, but it's much hipper.
defragmentation
When you use the same file over and over again, writing, rewriting, saving, and deleting parts of it on the same disk, the file becomes fragmented. That means that although you can't tell, your operating system is storing all the data from that file as separate packages of information, distributed on different parts of the disk. Although fragmentation does not lose the information contained in the file, it does eventually slow down access to the file itself, because the OS must search the whole disk to create the sum of the file's parts. Defragmentation collects all those parts into one stream of data again, speeding up your system.
DNS - domain name system
When you send email or point a browser to an Internet domain such as comcast.com, the domain name system translates the names into Internet addresses (a series of numbers looking something like this: 123.123.23.2). The term refers to two things: the conventions for naming hosts and the way the names are handled across the Internet.
domain name
Looking for a domain name? You'll find it to the right of the @ sign in an email address, or about ten characters into a URL. Miss Mac's domain name is missmac.com. Domain names are issued by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and they come with different extensions based on whether the domain belongs to a commercial enterprise (.com), an educational establishment (.edu), a government body (.gov), the military (.mil), a network (.net), or a nonprofit organization (.org). See about Domain Names in my Troubleshooting section.
DSL - digital subscriber line
Digital subscriber lines carry data at high speeds over standard copper telephone wires. With DSL, data can be delivered at a rate of 1.5 mbps (around 30 times faster than through a 56-kbps modem).
DVD - digital versatile disc
Originally referred to as digital video discs, these high-capacity optical discs are now used to store everything from massive computer applications to full-length movies. While similar in physical size and appearance to a compact disc or a CD-ROM, DVD is a huge leap from its predecessor's 650MB of storage. A standard single-layer, single-sided DVD can store a whopping 4.7GB of data.
Ethernet
Ethernet is a standard for connecting computers into a local area network (LAN). The most common form of Ethernet is called 10BaseT, which denotes a peak transmission speed of 10 mbps using copper twisted-pair cable.
FireWire - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
FireWire is Apple's cross-platform implementation of a high-speed serial data bus defined by IEEE* Standard 1394-1995 that is able to transfer large amounts of data between computers and peripheral devices. FireWire features simplified cabling and hot swapping, and provides a single plug-and-socket connection to which up to 63 devices can be attached with data transfer speeds up to 400 megabits per second. FireWire is designed to support much higher data rates than USB 1.0; both standards are expected to exist together, serving different device types. With the introduction of the new FireWire 800 standard, Apple now refers to the original standard as FireWire 400.
*This nonprofit U.S. engineering organization develops, defines, and reviews standards within the electronics and computer science industries.
FTP - file transfer protocol
This Internet protocol is used to copy files between computers--usually a client and an archive site. It's old-fashioned, it's a bit on the slow side, it doesn't support compression, and it uses cryptic Unix command parameters. But the good news is that you can download shareware or freeware apps that shield you from the complexities of Unix, and you can connect to FTP sites using a Web browser.
GUI - graphical user interface
A graphical user interface lets users interact with their computer via icons and a pointer instead of by typing in text at a command line. Popular GUIs, such as Sun Microsystem's OpenWindows, Microsoft's Windows, and Apple's Mac OS, have freed many users from the command-line interfaces like MS-DOS.
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DVD titling; and digital audio, Adobe Photoshop CS3 extended, Adobe illustrator CS3,Adobe indesign CS3,Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional, Adobe Flash CS3 Professional, Adobe Dreamweaver CS3,Adobe Contribute CS3,Adobe Fireworks CS3,Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3,Adobe Soundbooth CS3,Adobe Encore CS3,Adobe OnLocation,Adobe Bridge CS3,Adobe Version Cue CS3,Adobe Device Central CS3,Adobe Stock Photos, Intel Pentium 4 (1.4GHz processor for DV; 3.4GHz processor for HDV), Intel Centrino, Intel Xeon, (dual 2.8GHz processors for HD), or Intel Core, Duo (or compatible) processor; SSE2-enabled processor required for AMD systems Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise (certified for 32-bit editions) 1GB of RAM for DV; 2GB of RAM for HDV and HD; more RAM recommended when running multiple components 10GB of available hard-disk space (additional free space required during installation) Dedicated 7,200 RPM hard drive for DV and HDV editing; striped disk array storage (RAID 0) for HD; SCSI disk subsystem preferred Microsoft DirectX compatible sound card (multichannel ASIO-compatible sound card recommended),1,280x1,024 monitor resolution with 32-bit color adapter Blu-ray burner required for Blu-ray Disc creation OHCI compatible IEEE 1394 port for DV and HDV capture, export to tape, and transmit to DV device QuickTime 7.1.2 software required to use QuickTime features Broadband Internet connection required for Adobe Stock Photos* and other services
