Application: Software program dedicated to a specific activity (financial management, game, word processor...)
Betamax: Video tape recording format used on 1/2 inch video cassettes, developed by Sony in 1975. It was beaten in the market place in the beginning of the 1980s by the VHS format.
Bit or bit: Abbreviation for BInary digiT. A basic unit of data, which can have one of two values: 0 or 1. This is also used as a unit of measure for the capacity of some computer components, electronic devices and storage devices.
Browser: A program allowing users to "surf" the Internet.
Bug: Programming error in a program.
Byte: Unit of measure for data equaling 8 bits.
CD-Rom (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory): An extension of the audio CD, containing the same physical characteristics. This compact disk, which can contain data of any kind, was designed for use on computers. It can be consulted on a computer with a specific (internal or external) reader. Originally used by professionals as an auxiliary storage device, the CD-Rom is now a medium used to store and distribute software to the general public.
Chip: Common term used to designate integrated circuits (memory, processors...).
Click: Press on an input or control device (mouse, trackball, remote control). Clicking on an icon is a way for the user to end simple orders (ex.: open or close a file) to a computer using a GUI, or graphical user interface.
Client: In computer networks, a client is the computer that receives data, as opposed to the server that sends data.
Console: Electronic device connected to a television set, used to run multimedia programs. Video game consoles use 8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit or 64 bit chips, in increasing order of power.
Cookie: A data file used to store information about a netsurfer that is sent or received by a Web server, enabling it to identify the user and reconstruct a history of the different sites that this person has visited on the Web.
Cyberspace: Term invented by the American science-fiction author William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer. By extension, this term is used to designate the world of communication that is found beyond the user's terminal (computer, telephone or interactive television).
Digital: Data that has been coded as a series of bits, which are 0s and 1s. The digitization of data –its translation into a series of bits– makes it possible for it to be mixed together and processed, and has therefore made the existence of multimedia possible.
E-mail: Message exchanged between two computers, connected by modems to a telecommunications network (usually the Internet). This may also contain multimedia data.
Free software: See Open source software.
GUI (Graphical User Interface) : Graphical interface used on computer programs.
Hacker: Traditionally, a high level programmer who knows how to enter into and manipulate complex computer systems. Unfortunately, this word is also used sometimes to designate pirates.
Hard disk: High capacity storage device used by computers.
Hardware: Term used to designate all the physical equipment used by computers: CPU, hard disk, modem,... as opposed to software; applications, programs.
Hypertext: Text containing cross-references to other documents (which may be multimedia documents). It is usually read with a browser, that indicates the links using colors, by underlining them or by using some other graphical indication. Users can click on these links to obtain additional information, or to go to another document. This makes it possible to organize several paths of access through a set of information.
Icon: Graphical representation showing things that can be clicked on –in user-friendly interfaces– to select files, open them, save them, open applications...
Interface: The user interface is the part of an application that is used to communicate with the user. It handles the interactivity between the user and the computer.
Internet: World-wide computer network, made up of more than thirty thousand interconnected sub-networks of various sizes, and that counts more than sixty million users. The Internet can be used for many different types of activities: exchanging e-mail, participating in any of the tens of thousands of Usenet newsgroups, or surfing the huge World Wide Web.
Intranet: Internal, private, corporate network, connected to the Internet and using its protocols.
Java: Programming language designed by Sun Microsystems, making it possible to write applications that can be run on all types of computers, regardless of their architecture.
Linux: Operating system that is an implementation of Unix created in 1991 by the young Finn Linus Torvalds; Linux is the emblem of open source software.
Memory: Device or medium used to save and restore data. There are two types of memory: RAM or Random Access Memory, that can be read and written indefinitely, and ROM, or Read Only Memory, that cannot be written to, but in the general sense it can be any device that can hold data in machine-readable format. Computers are often described by the size of their memory (the RAM used to process data), and the size of their hard disk.
Microprocessor: Processor whose elements are miniaturized in integrated circuits. The central processor of a computer is, in a way, the computer's "brain": it processes the instructions of programs that are stored on the computer, including those of the operating system.
Mouse: Computer input device used to interact with a graphical user interface. A mouse contains a ball that makes it possible to move the cursor around on the screen, and one or more buttons that are clicked to trigger actions.
Multimedia: Communication technique using several digital media together: text, graphics, photos, video, sound and data, that are then presented simultaneously and interactively. The development of multimedia has been made possible by the digitization of data.
Net: Abbreviation for the Internet.
Netsurfer: Internet user. Online: Online networks or services are those accessible from a terminal or computer.
Open source software: Programs that are usually created by collective efforts of hundreds of programmers around the world, and freely made available to the community. These programs are distributed under a special license that prevents them from being used for commercial purposes. (Also called free software)
Operating system: Software layer used to control the hardware and provide a high level interface between applications and the different components of the computer.
PC (personal computer): This expression, that was originally used to mean any personal computer, is now used to designate IBM and IBM-compatible personal computers.
Pirate: Term used to designate a person who illegally breaks through computer, electronic and/or telecommunication system security codes. Pirates are also people who make illegal copies of software, even if many computer experts, including Richard Stallman, consider that this is a totally unjustified use of the term.
Reboot: Restart a computer, usually because it has "crashed".
Server: Powerful computer used in a network to receive orders from "client" computers and process them. In online services, content is stored on servers.
Software: Data and intellectual creations that are not part of hardware. Programs, applications, procedures and protocols are software. By extension, this includes anything that is "content" (books, movies, disks, CD-Roms), as opposed to hardware.
Start-up: Small technological companies, usually created, or "started up", to develop and sell a specific product.
Unix: Multitask and multi-user operating system initially developed by Bell Labs in 1969. There are several flavors of commercial and free Unix.
Vaporware: Commercial practice that consists in announcing that a new program or hardware device will soon be released, in order to handicap competitors' products.
VHS (Video Home System): Video tape recording system created by JVC and Matsushita in 1976. It won out over Sony's Betamax format. All general public VCRs and videotapes today use this format.
Virus: A computer program that searches out other programs and infects them, sometimes damaging them permanently. Viruses can reproduce themselves, and can be transmitted to other computers by contaminated floppy disks or CD-Roms, as well as online communication.
Windows: Graphical user interface program developed by Microsoft as an addition to its MS-DOS operating system.
Wintel: Commonly used term for computers using the Windows operating system and Intel chip.
Workstation: Powerful computer used by professionals, as opposed to personal computers used by the general public. Graphical workstations are dedicated to processing graphics (desktop publishing, computer-assisted design, 3D images...).
World Wide Web (abbreviations: Web or WWW) : Popular multimedia layer of the Internet, which can be explored using a browser, and which is very user-friendly, thanks to its hypertext links.