Geek Speak Made Easy – Part 2!
Geek Speak = technical computer related jargon (vocabulary) used by computer geeks
In a recent article we looked at some of the techie terms the IT Guy throws around as if it’s normal everyday language … to top it off the Super Geek has that look on his face that says, “This is all very normal and you should know exactly what I am talking about, therefore you should also understand the timeframe it will take to fix your IT problem and the stuff I will need to do to get it fixed”.
For most of us the terms may sound familiar but do we REALLY KNOW what it all means? Bottom line is, we just want our tech problem to go away quietly and quickly so that we can get on with what we need to do!
Let’s continue to learn some tech terms, broaden our horizons and meet the Tech Dude’s ‘all knowing gaze ‘…
Network
Connecting computers, servers, mainframes, network devices/equipment and other tech stuff together, will allow for convenient resource sharing and also boosts storage capacity. This then forms a network.
FTP Application
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is used to transfer files between computers on a network. You can use FTP to exchange files between computer accounts, transfer files between an account and a desktop computer, or access online software archives.
Computer Software vs Computer Hardware
Software is a program that enables a computer to perform a specific task. Microsoft Windows is an example of software. The physical components of a computer are the Hardware. The motherboard of a computer is a good example of hardware.
Memory / RAM
RAM means ‘random access memory’ and allows your device to store information temporarily or short-term for quick access.
HTML
Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is a type of coding but is not programming. It is used to create electronic documents, or pages, to be displayed on the Internet. It describes the structure of a web page or appearance of the document. HTML keywords or tags are used by web developers to instruct the Web Browser how to format and display the content of web pages.
Cache/Caching
Instructions and data that are accessed frequently are temporarily stored in cache as a copy. This makes it easy to reuse, instead of getting the information from the device’s main memory each time. Ultimately cache reduced the time it takes to access data from the main memory as it will serve up the copy instead. It is important to clear your cached data often to avoid it using up to much storage space.
Firewall
This is hardware or software designed to prevent unauthorized users from accessing your private network. In essence it is a security system and most importantly, it monitors incoming and outgoing traffic on a network.
If you found this article interesting and helpful, also read our previous blog post with more IT jargon! Look out for follow up blog articles in this series: Geek Speak Made Easy! Proudly brought to you by
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