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| There are 26 entries in the glossary. |
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| FAA (Free For All link page) is a term used to describe a Web page that is specifically created to rank highly for a Web site. |
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| FAQ is a term that means Frequently Asked Questions and is a text list of commonly asked questions and their answers that a user may have about software |
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| FAT32 (File Allocation Table) is the term used for the method that Windows uses to store data on a hard drive. It helps your computer to find files even if they have been fragmented. As it uses a greater number of bits in order to recognise a cluster it is a better version of FAT. FAT32 has a serious amount of storage space - 2 terabytes on a hard disk which is more than enough for a home computer user. |
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| Favicon (Favourites Icon) is a term used to describe an icon that has been designed for a particular website, which if you put the web address into your favourites will put the icon next to the name of the web site. |
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| Fibre-Optic Cables are cables that are made of extremely thin strands of glass or other material which is transparent and capable of carrying beams of light. Data can be sent through fibre-optic cables at the speed of light, due to the fact that they are light-based. A laser transmitter sends the signal and it is translated back into data when it reaches the end and this is used by a computer. Fibre-optic cables are useful as they are not able to be interfered with by noise or vibrations, the only downside to them is that they are very fragile. Due to this they are usually installed underground but this is expensive and mending broken fibre-optic cables is a difficult, expensive and time consuming process. |
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| A File is an accumulation of data that is stored together under one name. Files can contain text files, images, audio and video clips and even applications. Applications can also be files, such as iTunes and Microsoft Internet Explorer. |
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| A File Extension is a letter code at the end of a file name that shows what type of file it is. The code .txt shows that it is a text document. The majority of file extensions are three characters long however they can be one to five long. A file extension will also provide information to the computer about which operating system should be used to open it. |
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| A File System is located on a computers hard drive and they contain all the files in a directory. This root directory will be created when you format the hard disk and every time you add a new file to it, it will be put in the appropriate directory. |
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| FiOS (Fibre-Optic Service) is provided by Verizon and is a form of fibre-optic data communication. It not only provides this service to companies but also to residential homes and is called a FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) service. |
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| A Firewall is used to protect a client machine or networked server from any unauthorised access. A firewall can be either software of hardware-based and routers are a hardware device that has an inbuilt firewall. Monitoring and restricting software programs are also classed as firewalls as they only allow particular messages from the Internet enter the network. |
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| Firewire is a recently developed high-speed interface and is used to attach devices, such as MP3 players, to a computer. The standard transfer speed for Firewire is 400Mbps which is roughly thirty times faster than a 1.1 USB port, although a more recent version of Firewire can transfer twice as fast as the originals. |
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| Firmware is the programmed instructions on a hardware device. It is kept in the flash ROM of the device and unlike standard ROM flash ROM can be rewritten and erased. As this is semi-permanent you will have to update certain devices as new software become available. |
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| Flash is the term used to describe Macromedia's Web animation technology. These animations don't occupy much space as they are vector based and they allow designers to include highly colourful images and texts to Web pages. In order to view these animations you will need a Flash plug in installed, but they are usually inbuilt into the majority of browsers. |
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| Flash Memory is a kind of EERROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) and is normally used to store BIOS settings in the ROM of a computer. Sections of the memory can be erased in a flash or single action and most modems use this as the memory writes in blocks not bytes, thus making it straightforward to update. Flash memory can also be used in mobile phones and other devices. |
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| A Flat File is a type of database that uses a plain text file to store data. Every line of a text file will holds one record with the fields being sectioned by tabs or commas. As it has such a simple structure a flat file is not able to contain multiple tables, as a relational database will. However, most flat file databases can be imported into FileMaker Pro and Microsoft Access. |
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| A Floppy Disk stores data on it magnetically and is coated in iron oxide similar to a hard disk. They are covered by a hard casing to protect it. |
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| Folders on a computer are a way of storing files on your hard drive. You can name all the folders for ease of retrieval. Computers also store folders that contain information about the computers operating system. |
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| Font is the different styles of characters that can be produced using word processing applications. |
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| Before any storage device can be recognised by your computer it must be formatted. To do this to a disk you must text it and write a new address table or directory structure onto it. In order to erase a hard drive it must be reformatted and this is done by using a disk utility program. Once you have reformatted a disk it will appear to be blank but it will still contain the files although they will not show up as the directory structure has changed. |
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| FPU (Floating Point Unit) is a processor that was developed in order to deal with calculations that had floating numbers in them. By using a separate processor it means that the calculations are done more efficiently. |
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| Frame in computer terms can have a few different meanings. HTML frames are used on some web sites and they allow for several pages to be shown at the same time. Frames are also used in desktop publishing and graphics and they are a rectangular shaped area that is used to insert text and images easily onto a page. Frames are also used in animation and video and a frame is a single picture within a series of pictures that when played together at a certain speed (video is typically shot at 24-30 frames every second) create a seamless moving picture. |
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| Frames is the Netscape developed method for HTML extension which allows for a web page to be split up into sub pages. |
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| Freeware is a type of software that it free. It can be shared between people, downloaded and all without payment. The only restriction on freeware is that it is under copyright so cannot be marketed as the creation of anyone other than it's creators. |
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| Frozen is a state that your computer can go into when the screen freezes. You will normally be unable to move the cursor and usually the only solution is to re-boot your computer. |
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| FSB (Frontside Bus) is a connection between a computers processor and the RAM and other areas of the computers motherboard such as the AGI card and the system chipset. |
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| FTP( File Transfer Protocol) is a standardised method of file transference between computers that have very different operating systems. The FTP is part of the application layer that is within the Internet protocol suite. |
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