01 - The REALLY Basic Stuff

Ok. Here I start what I at least hope may become useful. I do this about as much for others as for myself.


P. C. (PC) Personal Computer. Used, on the large part, to refer to computers running an OS other than Mac OS X, i. e. Windows or some distrobution of Linux.

Mac. Used almost exclusively to refer to a computer made by Apple.

O. S. (OS) Operating System. The thing that allows you to do, see, and hear, essentially.


Operating Systems:

Windows. (Windoze, Window$, Winders, and others less repectful) An operating system created by the company Microsoft. Near exclusively used in the computer market.

Mac OS X. (Mac, Macintosh (not sure the actual operating system is usually called this, but you get the idea)) Less widely used than Windows. Considered, by your biased writer, to be better, in some ways. Manufactured by Apple.

Linux. Open source. Free, more than frequently. Top distrobutions: Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. (I can't think of many others right now...) Has the cutest mascot of them all.


Sizes and Speeds:

Size:
Byte (1), kilobyte (KB) (1000 bytes), megabyte (MB) (1000 kilobytes), gigabyte (GB) (1000 megabytes), terabyte (TB) (1000 gigabytes), etc. There's another term for 1024 bytes, megabytes, etc, but I can't currently remember it. I consider this, the 1024 measurement one, the correct one. I make sure that all my hard drive partitions are exact multiples of 1024. *looks smug*

Speed:
Hert (1), kilohertz (KHz), (1000 hertz), megahertz (MHz), (1000 kilohertz), gigahertz (GHz), (1000 megahertz), terahertz (GHz) (1000 gigaherz). Once again, there's some way you can add a letter in the terminology or something, and it means 1024 of the previous instead of 1000. I'm not sure which measure CPUs use.


The Parts of a Computer:

C. P. U. (CPU (see-pea-YOU, roughly)) Central Processing Unit. Speed is measured in mega- or giga-hertz (MHz/GHz). These days, they have multiple cores, meaning, basically, that the power is multiplied by two (dual core), three (triple core), four (quadruple core), and so on.

R. A. M. (RAM (just say "ram")) Random Access Memory. Temporarily contains files needed readily at high speeds. Size is measured in either megabytes (MBs) or gigabytes (GBs).

H. D. (D.) (HD(D)(aych-dee-DEE)) Hard disk drive. Main storage unit of a computer. Multiple disks inside the HDD spin, being read by either an array of probes, or a single one, depending on how large. Largest single internal consumer hard drive available (that I know of): 2 TBs.

D. V. D./C. D./B. D. Drive (Digital Video Disk/Compact Disk/Blu Disk (Blu-Ray format) drive) Used to read DVDs, CDs, and other disk-like formats. DVD+/-RW generally implies the ability, of a drive, to read and write everything from CD-Rs to DVD+RWs. I'm not positive Blu-Ray drives are capable of at least DVD/CD playback, if not writing, but it seems impossible for them not to, at least for reading.

Mobo. (MB, Mother Board) The main part of the computer, onto which everything else connects, in one way or another. The CPU is directly mounted on it.

P. S. U. (PSU. Power Supply) Converts standard output voltage/wattage to usable measures.

U. S. B. (Universal Serial Bus) A fast interface for transferring data between a computer and another device, i. e. a computer, iPod, or other media device. Latest stable revision: 2.0.

Firewire. Another, somewhat less common interface for data transfer. (I don't know a lot about this...)

Suggestions? Comments? Shameless praise? Comment.

Your not-so-well informed, hopefully helpful, and continuously biased writer,


!Noah!