TechSpeak

by Danny Tehrani | Jun 14, 2012

Don’t you hate it when someone uses specialized lingo when they’re talking to you? For instance, physicians who say myocardial infarction instead of heart attack. Why don’t they just say heart attack? Unless you happen to be a healthcare professional, heart attack is the more obvious choice.

Or when a builder says people are coming out to blue stake your home. Why can’t they say the utility guys are coming out to mark underground pipes and wires? OK, maybe it takes a little longer to say that, but at least then everyone knows what’s being said.

Same goes for tech lingo. We’re guilty of throwing around acronyms or terms that not everyone knows. To make up for it, we thought we’d provide a few definitions. Plus, we’ll try to stop using tech lingo and feel free to stop us if we slip up!

App – is short of Application. It’s a software program that does a specific thing for you. There are apps that can set up an email distribution list, or turn your thermostat up or down, or book a flight for you. Apps are like potato chips, you can’t have just one.

CPU – is short for Central Processing Unit. This is the big kahuna of your computer. It’s the brain, and it processes (computes) everything.

Defrag – is short for Defragmentation, which is what happens when you have your computer locate all the separate pieces of data that come from a computer file as it’s stored on a hard disk. Then, the pieces of data are combined into larger pieces or into the whole file. This makes it faster for you to access a file, and for storage on the computer to be used more effectively.

IFrame – is short for Inline Frame, and this is one HTML document embedded in another HTML document or page. This allows for content to come into the larger HTML page without disturbing that page. It’s often used for advertising.

QR code – is short for Quick Response Code. It’s the barcode you see on everything these days that’s usually in a square shape. When you take a smartphone and scan one of these QR codes, you find a link to a website or video, or some other information or invite or call to action. You need to have a barcode reader app on your smartphone to be able to read a QR code.

RAM – is short for Random Access Memory. RAM is made of lots of memory chips which form a module. Your programs are sitting on your hard drive, but when you use a program, it runs through a RAM or memory module, which makes it run faster than if you used it straight from  the hard drive.

This is only a small handful of terms/acronyms we’ve defined. What else have you heard that you’d like for us to explain? List them in the comment section and we promise to respond!

By Danny Tehrani