Teaching Computer Basics


ID10T – pronounced “ID ten T” – is a code frequently used by a customer service representative (CSR) to annotate their notes and identify the source of a problem as the person who is reporting the problem rather than the system being blamed. This is a thinly veiled reference to the CSR’s opinion that the person reporting the problem is an IDIOT. Example: Problem reported caused by ID10T, no resolution possible.

Jakarta Project — a project constituted by Sun and Apache to create a web server for Java servlets and JSPs.

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Java — a programming language. Originally called “D”, but with the connotation of a near-failing mark on a report card the language was renamed Oak by Java creator James Gosling, from the tree that stood outside his window. The programming team at Sun had to look for a substitute name as there was already another programming language called Oak. “Java” was selected from a list of suggestions, primarily because it is a popular slang term for coffee, especially that grown on the island of Java.

JavaScript —a programming language. It was originally developed by Brendan Eich of Netscape under the name “Mocha”, which was later renamed to “Live Script”, and finally to “JavaScript”. The change of name from Live Script to Java Script roughly coincided with Netscape adding support for Java technology in its Netscape Navigator web browser. Java Script was first introduced and deployed in the Netscape browser version 2.0B3 in December 1995.

Kerberos — A computer network authentication protocol that is used by both Windows 2000 and Windows XP as their default authentication method. When created by programmers at MIT in the 1970s, they wanted a name that suggested high security for the project, so they named it after Kerberos, in Greek mythology the three-headed dog guarding the gates of Hades. The reference to Greek mythology is most likely because Kerberos was developed as part of Project Athena.

Linux — an operating system kernel, and the common name for many of the operating systems which use it. Linux creator Linus Torvalds originally used the MINIX operating system on his computer, didn’t like it, liked DOS less, and started a project to develop an operating system that would address the problems of MINIX. Hence the working name was Linux (Linus’ Minix). Originally, however, Linus had planned to have it named Freax (free + freak + x). His friend Ari Lemmke encouraged Linus to upload it to a network so it could be easily downloaded. Ari gave Linus a directory called linux on his FTP server, as he did not like the name Freax.

Lisa — A personal computer designed at Apple Computer during the early 1980s. Apple stated that Lisa was an acronym for  Local Integrated Soft ware Architecture; however, it is often inferred that the machine was originally named after the daughter of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and that this acronym was invented later to fit the name. Accordingly, two humorous suggestions for expanding the acronym included Let’s Invent Some Acronyms, and Let’s Invent Silly Acronyms.

liveware – computer personnel. A play on the terms “software” and “hardware”. Coined in 1966, the word indicates that sometimes the computer problem is not with the computer itself, but with the user.

Lotus Software — Lotus founder Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from ‘The Lotus Position’ (‘Padmasa na’ in Sanskrit). Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcen dental Meditation technique as taught by Ma harishi Mahesh Yogi.

Macintosh Mac — a personal computer from Apple Computer.

Nerd — A colloquial term for a computer person, especially an obsessive, singularly focus ed one

 Oracle — a relational database management system (RDBMS). Larry Ellison, Ed Oates and Bob Miner were working on a consulting project for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The code name for the project was called Oracle (the CIA evidently saw this as a system that would give answers to all questions). The project was designed to use the newly written SQL database language from IBM. The project eventually was terminated but they decided to finish what they started and bring it to the world. They kept the name Oracle and created the RDBMS engine

Pac-Man — a video arcade game. The term comes from pakupaku which is a Japanese onomatopoeia used for noisy eating; similar to chomp chomp. The game was released in Japan with the name Puck Man, and released in the US with the name Pac -Man, fearing that kids may deface a Puck-Man cabinet by changing the P to an F

PCMCIA — the standards body for PC card and Express Card, expansion card form factors. The Personal Computer Memory Card International Association is an international standards body that defines and promotes standards for expansion devices such as modems and external hard disk drives to be connected to notebook computers. Over time, the acronym PCMCIA has been used to refer to the PC card form factor used on notebook computers. A twist on the acronym is People Can’t Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms

PEBKAC – an acronym for “Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair”, which is a code frequently used by a customer service representative (CSR) to annotate their notes and identify the source of a problem as the person who is reporting the problem rather than the system being blamed. This is a thinly veiled reference to the CSR’s opinion that the person reporting the problem is the problem

Pentium — a series of microprocessors from Intel.
The fifth microprocessor in the 80×86 series. It would have been called i586 or 80586, but Intel decided to name it Pentium (penta = five) after it lost a trademark infringement lawsuit against AMD due to a judgment that numbers like “286”, “386”, and “486” cannot be trademarked. According to Intel, Pentium conveys a meaning of strength, like titanium.

Perl — an interpreted scripting language. Perl was originally named Pearl, after the “pearl of great price” of Matthew 13:46.[citation needed] Larry Wall, the creator of Perl, wanted to give the language a short name with positive connotations and claims to have looked at (and rejected) every three- and four-letter word in the dictionary.

PHP — a server-side scripting language Originally called “Personal Home Page Tools” by creator Rasmus Ler dorf, it was rewritten by developers Zeev Suraski and Andi Gutmans who gave it the recursive name “PHP Hypertext Preprocessor”. Lerdorf currently insists the name should not be thought of as standing for any thing, for he selected “Personal Home Page” as the name when he did not foresee PHP evolving into a general-purpose programming language.

Pine — e-mail client. Many people believe that Pine stands for “Pine Is Not Elm”. However, one of its original authors, Laurence Lundblade, insists this was never the case and that it started off simply as a word and not an acronym; his first choice of a backronym for pine would be “Pine Is Nearly Elm”. Over time it was changed to mean Program for Internet News and E-mail.

ping — a computer network tool used to detect hosts. The author of ping, Mike Muuss, named it after the pulses of sound made by a sonar called a “ping”. Later Dave Mills provided the backronym “Packet Internet Groper”.

Python — an interpreted scripting programming language. Named after the television series Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Radio button — a GUI widget used for making selections. Radio buttons got their name from the preset buttons in radio receivers. When one used to select preset stations on a radio receiver physically instead of electronically, depressing one preset button would pop out whichever other button happened to be pushed in.

Red Hat Linux — a Linux distribution from Red Hat. Company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (with red and white stripes) by his grandfather while at college. People would turn to him to solve their problems, and he was referred to as “that guy in the red hat”. He lost the cap and had to search for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return the hat if found by anyone

RSA — an asymmetric algorithm for public key cryptography. Based on the surnames of the authors of this algorithm — Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Len Adleman

Samba — a free implementation of Microsoft’s networking protocol. The name samba comes from inserting two vowels into the name of the standard protocol that Microsoft Windows network file system use, called SMB (Server Message Block). The author searched a dictionary using grep for words containing S M and B in that order; the only matches were Samba and Salmonberry

Shareware — coined by Bob Wallace to describe his word processor PC-Write in early 1983.[citation needed] Before this Jim Knopf (also known as Jim Button) and Andrew Fluegelman called their distributed software “user supported software” and “freeware” respectively, but it was Wallace’s terminology that prevailed.

Spam—unwanted repetitious messages, such as unsolicited bulk e-mail. The term spam is derived from the Monty Python SPAM sketch, set in a cafe where everything on the menu includes SPAM luncheon meat. While a customer plaintively asks for some kind of food without SPAM in it, the server reiterates the SPAM-filled menu. Soon, a chorus of Vikings join in with a song: “SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, lovely SPAM, wonderful SPAM”, over and over again, drowning out all conversation.

SPIM — a simulator for a virtual machine closely resembling the instruction set of MIPS processors, is simply MIPS spelled backwards. In recent time, spim has also come to mean SPam sent over Instant Messaging.

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