| Background |
The colour or
picture that fills in the total area of screen space. |
| Background Processing |
When a computer
stops to think but you can not see it. |
| Backup |
A copy ( or the
process of making such a copy ) of your essential files. Your backup can
be across a network to another workstation, onto a floppy disk ( not
very good ), a ZIP disk, a CD, a tape or a combination of all these. It
is important to periodically check your backups to be sure that they
work and that they do backup the correct files. |
| Bandwidth |
The carry capacity
of any form on communications connection whether it be a dial-up Internet
connection, a "Broadband" Internet connection, a cabled
network, a wireless network or the communications within a computer between
the various parts. |
| Batch Files |
Text files that
contain commands written in MS-DOS. They end with .BAT extension.
AUTOEXEC.BAT is a common example. |
| BAUD |
The way I feel
after a day of working with computers! Actually a measure of speed used
when discussing modems. |
| BIOS |
Basic Input
Output System. The absolutely most basic part of the computer. BIOS
information allows the computer to recognise and communicate various
parts of the computer such as the hard disk drive, memory etc. The black
screen with the white text that you may see when staring a computer is
the BIOS information. |
| Bit |
"Binary
Digit" - the smallest unit of computer information. One bit is
either a "1" or a "0". A group of eight BITS - eight
1s and 0s - make a BYTE, which is then used to represent other
information such as a number or character. |
| Bootable Disk |
A disk - could be
either a floppy disk or a hard disk drive - that the computer can used
to start up with. |
| Browser |
The program use
to access and display information from the Internet. The two most common
browsers are Microsoft Windows Explorer and Netscape Navigator. |
| Button |
A picture or icon
on the screen within a program that you click on to start a function.
 
|
| Byte |
A group of
eight-8 bits that when combined, represents a character, number or
symbol. |
