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Section 10 Supplementary information Glossary Abbreviation Meaning Explanation ADSL Asymmetrical digital subscriber lines One of the fastest technologies for connecting to the internet. Data is sent over existing copper telephone lines. CD-R Compact disk (recordable) A write-once optical-disk format designed to be readable by systems that can read CD-ROM disks. CD-ROM Compact disk read-only memory Optical storage device for computer data and programs. A CD-ROM can store more data and allows much faster access than a magnetic disk. CD-RW Compact disk (rewritable) An optical disk that can be written to more than once, and which is readable by systems that can read CD-ROM disks. CLAIT Computer Literacy And Information Technology A nationally recognised qualification administered by the Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examination board (OCR) CPU Central processing unit The principal operating part of a computer. DAT Digital audio tape Magnetic tape now used for computer storage and backup. DVD Digital versatile disk Optical disk that can store much more data than a compact disk. ECDL European Computer Driving Licence Europe-wide qualification in computer skills. EULA End-user licence agreement The type of licence used for most software. FENTO Further Education National Training Organisation The national training organisation responsible for workforce development across the UK in the further education sector. Apple® Computer’s trade name for a highspeed data transfer technology. Transferring data at up to 800Mbps, FireWire delivers many times the bandwidth of the original USB ports. FireWire GUI Graphical User Interface An operating system which displays the computer’s programs and data files as icons and menus, and allows commands to be entered using key-strokes and mouse-clicks. HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol The agreed format for transmitting data on the World Wide Web. ICT Information and communication technology The combination of computing and communication technologies. ILT Information and learning technologies The use of ICT to support the delivery and management of learning. E-Guides training programme Section 10 Supplementary information IRC Internet Relay Chat A chat system which enables people to join in live discussions on the internet. ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network An international communications standard for sending voice, video, and data over digital telephone lines or normal telephone wires. ISP Internet service provider A company that provides access to the internet. IT Information technology Technology used by people to handle information. LAN Local area network A computer network over a relatively small area, such as a single building or group of buildings. LCD Liquid crystal display A type of display used, for example, in portable computers. NIACE National Institute of Adult Continuing Education The leading non-governmental organisation for adult learning in England and Wales. NLN National Learning Network A national partnership programme designed to increase the uptake of ILT across post-16 education in England. OCR Optical character recognition The process of reading text from paper and translating the images into a form that a computer can manipulate. PCMCIA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association A PC card originally designed to add memory to portable computers, and frequently used with a laptops to create a wireless network. PDA Personal digital assistant A hand-held device that combines computing, telephone/fax, internet and networking features. PDF Portable Document Format A file format developed by Adobe Systems. PDF captures formatting information from a variety of desktop publishing applications, making it possible to send formatted documents and have them appear on the recipient’s monitor or printer as they were intended. POST Power On Self Test Occurs when a computer is booted up to ensure all hardware components, the CPU and memory are all functioning correctly. PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network The international telephone system based on copper wires carrying analog voice data. RAM Random-access memory A computer’s main memory, where data is manipulated. The amount of main memory determines how many programs can be run at one time and how much data can be readily available to a program. ROM Read-only memory The memory used to store the programs that boot the computer and performs diagnostics. SCSI Small computer system interface An interface standard, used for connecting devices such as disk drives and printers to computers. E-Guides training programme Section 10 Supplementary information SMS Short Message Service A service for sending short text messages to mobile phones, fax machines or computers. UCS Unicode Character System An international standard character set reference that is part of the Unicode standard: a standard system for encoding characters from almost all human languages enabling them to be easily mixed in the same file and displayed reliably without the need for special fonts. Windows 2000 and XP support Unicode natively. URL Uniform resource locator The unique address of a document or other resource on the World Wide Web. USB Universal Serial Bus A standard used for ports used to connect devices such as mice, modems and keyboards to a computer. A single USB port can be used to connect up to 127 devices. VDU Visual display unit A display monitor attached to a computer. W3C World Wide Web Consortium An international consortium of companies involved with the internet and the Web, whose purposes are to develop open standards to ensure the Web evolves in a single direction. WAN Wide Area Network A computer network over a large geographical area. WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy A security protocol for wireless local area networks. wLAN Wireless LAN A type of LAN connected by high-frequency radio waves rather than wires. XML Extensible Markup Language A language code that allows Web designers to create customised tags enabling the definition, transmission, validation and interpretation of data between applications and between organisations. XSLT Extensible Style Language Transformation A language code used in XSL style sheets to transform XML documents into other XML documents using an XSL processor. E-Guides training programme