| Term | Description |
|---|
| B-CHANNEL | Bearer Channel
|
| B/F | Background/Foreground
|
| B2B | Business-To-Business
|
| B2C | Business To Consumer
|
| B2E | Business To Employees
|
| B2X | Binary To Hexadecimal [REXX]
|
| BA | Bell Atlantic (company)
|
| Backbone | A networkthat connects other networks. For instance, there is a campus backbone at the Uof C that connects the networks of different departments and buildings together. |
| Background | 1) The area behind andoutside the active window, including the desktopand any other application windows or icons. 2) Applicationscan run in the "background". These applications are still running but they arenot those in the active window and run without user intervention. |
| Backup | Creating extra copies of files in case the originalcopies are damaged or destroyed. It has been said that you should have at leastthree copies of important files- one on your hard disk, one on a floppy, andanother on any media stored off-site in a fire-proof safe. That may be a littleparanoid but consider what would happen if you lost particular files. Let thatdictate how many backups you have and how carefully they are stored and updated. |
| BACP | Bandwidth Allocation Control Protocol
|
| BAK | Binary Adaptation Kit [Microsoft]
|
| BAL | Basic Assembly Language
|
| BALUN | Balanced Unbalanced (device)
|
| BAM | Boyan Action Module
|
| BAPI | Business Application Programming Interface [SAP]
|
| BARTS | Bell Atlantic Regional Timesharing
|
| BASH | Bourne Again Shell [Unix]
|
| BASIC | Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
|
| BASM | Built-In Assembler
|
| BAT | Block Address Translation
|
| Batch file/program | An ASCII text file which contains a listof DOScommands and program names. When the batch file is run, the commands andprograms are run in sequence just as if you had typed them at the MS-DOS prompt.Batch files are distinguished by their ".BAT" suffix. |
| baud | A measure of communications speed, used typically for modems indicating how many bits per second can be transmitted. |
| Baud Rate | Speed at which information is transferred.Generally referred to as bpsnow. |
| BBS | Bulletin Board System
|
| BCC | Block Check Character
|
| BCD | Binary Coded Decimal
|
| BCL | Base Class Libraries + Batch Command Language
|
| BCN | Beacon
|
| BCNF | Boyce-Codd Normal Form
|
| bcode | Identical in intent to uucode, bcode is slightly more efficient and more portable across different computer types. It is the preferred method used by MIME. |
| BCP | Best Current Practice + Bulk Copy Program
|
| BCPL | Basic Computer Programming Language
|
| BCR | Byte Count Register
|
| BCS | Bar Code Sorter
|
| BDA | Bios Data Area
|
| BDC | Backup Domain Controller
|
| BDE | Borland Database Engine [Borland]
|
| BDLS | Bidirectional Loop Switching
|
| BDM | Background Debug Mode
|
| BDOS | Basic Disk Operating System
|
| BDR | Bus Device Request
|
| BDSL | (See DSL)
|
| BE | Below or Equal
|
| BECN | Backward Explicit Congestion Notification
|
| BEDO | Burst Extended Data Out
|
| BEEP | Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol
|
| BEL | Bell
|
| BELLCORE | Bell Communications Research
|
| Benchmark | Test of performance of a computer or peripheraldevice. While benchmarks can offer seemingly objective tests of performance, thebest test is to use the computer or peripheral with the applications and filesyou will actually be using. |
| BeOS | A lightweight OS available for both PowerPC and x86 based machines. It is often referred to simply as "Be". |
| BER | Basic Encoding Rules + Bit Error Rate
|
| BERT | Bit Error Rate Test/Tester
|
| Beta | A conventional designation of pre-release software.A beta version of software is usually in secondary testing (alpha versions areearlier releases), and is sometimes publically available, but sometimes onlyavailable to particular users (beta testers). Beta software is usually somewhatunstable, and may have more bugs than a regular release. |
| BF | Bad Flag
|
| BFF | Binary File Format [IBM]
|
| BFT | Binary File Transfer
|
| BFTP | Batch FTP
|
| BGA | Ball Grid Array
|
| BGCOLOR | Background Color [HTML]
|
| BGE | Branch if Greater or Equal
|
| BGP | Border Gateway Protocol
|
| BGT | Branch if Greater Than
|
| BHI | Branch if Higher
|
| BHIS | Branch if Higher or Same
|
| BI | Binary Input
|
| BiDi | Bi-Directional
|
| BIFET | Bipolar Field Effect Transistor
|
| BIFF | Binary Interchange File Format
|
| BIM | Beginning of Information Marker
|
| BINAC | Binary Automatic Computer
|
| binary | There are two meanings for binary in common computer usage. The first is the name of the number system in which there are only zeros and ones. This is important to computers because all computer data is ultimately a series of zeros and ones, and thus can be represented by binary numbers. The second is an offshoot of the first; data that is not meant to be intepreted through a common character set (like ASCII) is typically referred to as binary data. Pure binary data is typically eight bit data, and transferring a binary file through ASCII channels without prior modification will result in corruption and loss of data. Binary data can be turned into ASCII data via uucoding or bcoding. |
| Binary file | A filecontaining information that is in machine-readable form; it can be read only byan application."Binary_file" usually refers to a file that uses all 8 bitsof each bytefor information. Textfiles usually use only 7 bits, leaving the 8th bit as 0. |
| Binary transfer | Method of transferring files to or from aremote computer in which all eight bitsof each byteare transferred. In a texttransfer, the eighth bit is ignored. |
| BIND | Berkeley Internet Name Domain
|
| BINHEX | Binary Hexadecimal
|
| BIOS | Basic Input/Output System
|
| BIS | Business Information System
|
| BISDN | Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network
|
| BIST | Built-In Self-Test
|
| BiSYNC | (See BSYNC)
|
| BIT | Binary Digit
|
| Bitmap | An image stored as a pattern of dots (or pixels). |
| BITNET | Because It's Time Network
|
| BITNIC | Bitnet Network Information Center
|
| BIU | Bus Interface Unit
|
| BIW | Business Intelligence Warehouse [SAP]
|
| BIX | Byte Information Exchange (BBS)
|
| BKSP | Backspace
|
| BL | Backlit + Bit Line
|
| BLAST | Bell Labs Layered Space Time +
Blocked Asynchronous Transmission (protocol)
[Communications Research Group]
|
| BLE | Branch if Less or Equal
|
| BLER | Block Error
|
| BLK | Block
|
| BLMC | Buried Logic Macrocell
|
| BLOB | Binary Large Object
|
| BLOG | Web Log
|
| BLOS | Branch if Lower Or Same
|
| BMI | Branch if Minus
|
| BMIC | BusMaster Interface Controller [Intel]
|
| BMP | Basic Mapping Support + Basic Multilingual Plane +
Batch Message Processing Program
|
| BNC | Bayonet Neill-Concelman (connector used with
coaxial cable invented by Mr. Neill-Concelman) +
British Naval Connector
|
| BNE | Branch if Not Equal
|
| BNF | Backus-Naur Form (also Backus-Normal Form) [developed by
John Backus and Peter Naur]
|
| BNS | Backbone Network Service
|
| BO | Binary Output
|
| BOA | Basic Object Adapter
|
| BOB | Break-out Box
|
| BOC | Basic Operator Console
|
| BOF | Beginning Of File
|
| BOM | Basic Online Memory [IBM] + Beginning Of Message
|
| BOND | Bandwidth On Demand
|
| boolean | Boolean algebra is the mathematics of base two numbers. Since base two numbers have only two values, zero and one, there is a good analogy between base two numbers and the logical values "true" & "false". In common usage, booleans are therefore considered to be simple logical values like true & false and the operations that relate them, most typically "and", "or" and "not". Since everyone has a basic understanding of the concepts of true & false and basic conjunctions, everyone also has a basic understanding of boolean concepts -- they just may not realize it. |
| Boolean logic | Rules and concepts for comparing dataconditions including LESS THAN, GREATER THAN, EQUAL TO, AND, OR, or NOT. Usedoften to specify the conditions of a search on a large set of data. |
| Boot | The loading of the operatingsystem and starting of initial processes into a computer. From the saying,"pulling_oneself_up_by one's_bootstraps." |
| BOOTP | Bootstrap Protocol [Internet]
|
| BOPS | Billion Operations Per Second
|
| BORPQU | Borland Pro Quattro
|
| BORQU | Borland Quattro
|
| BOS | Basic Operating System
|
| BOT | Beginning Of Table + Beginning of Tape + Robot
|
| BP | Base Pointer
|
| BPB | BIOS Parameter Block
|
| BPDU | Bridge Protocol Data Unit
Berkeley Packet Filter
|
| BPI | Bits Per Inch
|
| BPL | Branch if Plus
|
| BPP | Bits Per Pixel
|
| BPR | Broadband Provisioning Registrar [Cisco]
Business Process Re-engineering [Linux]
|
| BPS | Bits Per Second + Bytes Per Second
|
| BPSK | Binary Phase Shift Keying
|
| BR | Bad Register
|
| BRGC | Binary Reflected Gray Code
|
| BRI | Basic Rate Interface + Brain Response Interface
|
| Bridges | filters traffic within a single network.They operate like a traffic cop to direct messages toward a destination and toexclude messages that are intended for other destinations. Like repeaters,they can join network segments. Unlike repeaters, they can extend the network byresending the signal. You may find you need a bridge as traffic on your networkincreases. |
| Browse | In Windows.To look through files and directories. Some dialogboxes have a Browse button, which opens another dialog box that lists filesand directories so that you can easily select the file you want. |
| browser | A browser is a program used to browse the web. Some common browsers include Netscape, MSIE (Microsoft Internet Explorer), Safari, Lynx, Mosaic, Amaya, Arena, Chimera, Opera, Cyberdog, HotJava, etc. |
| BS | Backspace
|
| BS-RAM | Burst Static RAM
|
| BSAM | Basic Sequential Access Method
|
| BSC | Base Station Controller + Binary Synchronous Communication
|
| BSCS | Bachelor of Science (Degree) in Computer Science
|
| BSD | Berkely Software/Standard Distribution
|
| BSF | Bit Scan Forward
|
| BSI | British Standards Institute
|
| BSM | Basic Storage Module [IBM]
|
| BSP | Bulk Synchronous Parallelism
|
| BSR | Bit Scan Reverse
|
| BSS | Block Started by Symbol
|
| BST | Binary Search Tree
|
| BSY | Busy
|
| BSYNC | Binary Synchronous Communications (protocol)
|
| BT | Bit Test
|
| BTAM | Basic Telecommunications Access Method [IBM]
|
| BTB | Branch Target Buffer
|
| BTC | Bit Test and Complement
|
| BTI | Business Type Identifier
|
| BTOA | Binary To ASCII
|
| BTP | Batch Transfer Program
|
| BTR | Bit Test and Reset
|
| BTS | Base Transceiver Station + Bit Test and Set
|
| BU | Branch Unit
|
| BUBL | Bulletin Board for Libraries [Janet]
|
| BUF | Buffer
|
| Buffer | A temporary storage place for information. |
| bug | A bug is a mistake in the design of something, especially software. A really severe bug can cause something to crash. |
| Bulletin Board System(BBS) | Electronic bulletin boards are computers running with softwarewhich allows callers to leave messages and access information much like anactual bulletin board. Most bbs's are accessed via modemalthough some, like the CCS bbs, can also be accessed through a network.Services that a bbs can offer are electronicmail, conferences on topics of interest, and collections of documents (textfiles, pictures, and sounds). BBS's are often good sources for software,especially sharewareand freewareutilities. |
| BUS | Broadcast and Unknown Server
|
| BVH | Base Video Handler
|
| BWM | Block-Write Mode
|
| BYTE | Binary Element String
|
| bytecode | Sometimes computer languages that are said to be either interpreted or compiled are in fact neither and are more accurately said to be somewhere in between. Such languages are compiled into bytecode which is then interpreted on the target system. Bytecode tends to be binary but will work on any machine with the appropriate runtime environment (or virtual machine) for it. |
