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Welcome to our Glossary.
Here you can find the meaning of words and
expressions commonly used by computer-users.
Use the query form below to enter a word or part
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Words in our glossary starting with "G" ... |
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Game Console
A consumer gaming system that is usually sold in retail stores and toy stores. It differs from a standard computer in that it is designed from the ground up to provide a certain amount of game playing power at a specific price point. This type of computer is limited to gaming and can sometimes playback Audio CD, DVD and/or VideoCD.
Game Port
This is a 15-pin analog port on a PC used specifically for game controllers like a joystick. It also doubles as a MIDI connector. Usually, you find one on the back of your sound card.
Gamma / Gamma Correction
In computer graphics and digital video, this refers to a numerical parameter that describes the nonlinearity of intensity reproduction. Basically, as colors get lighter, the human eye has more trouble discerning them, and a gamma setting is used to compensate for this so that shades of color on an object such as those caused by shadows can be discerned properly. Incorrect gamma settings can cause colors to look too dark or too light, losing detail to the viewer.
Garbage Collection
This is refers to a process where dynamically allocated blocks of memory are reclaimed while a program executes. Garbage collection is normally performed by the garbage collector which is part of the runtime system. However, it is possible to explicitly write code to do garbage collection as well. Automatic garbage collection is triggered when the amount of free memory blocks falls below a certain threshold.
Gas Plasma Display
This is a type of monitor technology that was initially used to create small monochrome displays for early portable computers. Now, it is typically used to create large monitors that are a only a few inches thick. The technology works by creating a matrix of red, green and blue pixels from plasma bubbles that are turned on or off by selectively powering them.
Gate
A gate is a tiny electronic switch. These switches, when linked together, can perform logical functions. Basically, gate is the logical term for transistor.
Gateway
The point of entrance from one network to another. For example, between your home LAN and the Internet. A gateway is responsible for the proper distribution of data coming in and going out of a local area network.
Gb (Gigabit)
Approximately 1 billion bits. More exactly, it is 2^30 or 1,073,741,824 bits.
GB (Gigabyte)
Approximately 1 billion bytes. More exactly, it is 2^30 or 1,073,741,824 bytes.
Gbit/s (gbps)
Gigabits per second. Transferrate of 1 bilion bits per seconde.
GDI (Graphics Device Interface)
This is a standard set of programming functions provided by Microsoft for the production of graphic output in Windows. Microsoft provides these functions in its Software Development Kits. The functions are device independent, so you can use them on any graphics card as long as Windows is installed.
Geek
A formerly derogatory term given to the outcast elite, usually lacking in social graces. The term has been used so liberally by the masses of people that the computer savvy have taken it to heart as not being derogatory but rather the name given to scientifically savvy folk.
Geo-stationary
A satellite is geo-stationary if it stationary sits above a particullar position on earth. Usually position at 36.000 km above the earth surface and moves along with the earth rotation.
GeoCaching
GeoCaching is a game based on the use of a GPS device. Coordinates of the cache (treasure) are published on the Internet. The searcher uses these coordinates to determine the position op the treasure, where he or she can trade something. He or she also enters data in the included logbook. This sounds easy - but it isn't
Geocoding
Geocoding is the process where a non-geographic descriptor (for example address, city, etc) is being converted to a geographical descriptor (like a GPS location).
Gflops (GigaFlop)
This is the ability of a system to compute 1 billion floating point operations in one second.
GIF (Graphical Interchange Format)
Invented by CompuServe for efficient transmission of graphics. The format can only support 256 colors, or 8 bits. The newer revision, 89a, allows for multiple images in one file to simulate animation. Unisys owns the patent to a form of compression used in GIF files, and thus you may want to use the newer and completely free PNG format instead of using GIF files.
Gigabit-Ethernet
A fast, new version of Ethernet . The transferrate is 1 Gbit/s which equals 1000 Mbit/s . Gigabit Ethernet is seen as competition to ATM in corporate networks.
Gigabyte
Storage capacity for digital data. 1 Gb = 1024 Mb = 1024 x 1024 Kb = 1024 x 1024 x 1024 bytes.
Gigapixel
1,073,741,824 pixels. This is a measure of how fast data can be moved through a graphics accelerator, as in Gigapixels / second.
GiGo (Garbage In Garbage Out)
GiGo (Garbage In Garbage Out) refers to for example audio or video that will be converted to a different format. It implies that if the source file is bad quality, then the converted file will be bad quality too, no matter what high quality codec you use. For example; a badly filmed movie, in a very low resolution, will not become great by converting it to DVD. It will just become a bad looking movie in DVD format.
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)
This is a free, open source program designed for creation or manipulation of images, much like Photoshop, but for use on Linux platforms.
GlidePad
A touch-sensitive pad about 2" x 2" that will track the touch of a finger. It is not a pressure sensor so there is no need to press down, only to touch. This device acts like a mouse for pointing.
Glitch
A bug in a program that is somewhat different than a freeze or a crash, usually causing erroneous or garbage results to be displayed.
GMail
Google free email service. Much talked about since in the beginning they offered 1 Gb of storage space for free, which at that time was considered a huge capacity.
GNU (GNU's Not Unix)
This is a free software movement whose acronym stands recursively for "GNU's Not Unix." GNU was started in 1984 as a means to create an entire system of software including operating systems, programming languages and applications that are all free. In this context, free means free of cost, free to distribute, free to modify and free to distribute modified versions. The only thing you are not free to do, is claim ownership of GNU software.
Gold Master
This refers to the final version of a program that is ready to be released to the public. The entire goal of the beta process is to arrive at the gold master candidate. Once it is tested successfully, it becomes the gold master and is shipped out to be duplicated (if it's a CD or floppy) and / or uploaded to the Web.
Goldfinger
This is one of the generic terms used to describe the group of gold connectors inside the AMD Athlon Slot A cartridge. The connector allows you to plug devices onto it that can change the clock multiplier (overclocking) and voltage of the Athlon cartridge. However, you must break open the plastic cartridge to get to the connectors.
Googol
This stands for the number 10 raised to the power of 100 (10^100), or a one followed by 100 zeros.
Googolplex
This is the number 10 raised to the power of 1 Googol, or (10^(10^100)) which is the number 1 followed by 10^100 zeros. This number is so large, that if you would write down a one, followed by zero's until you get tired, then you still would not have written down a fullsize Googolplex.
Gopher
Often said to be the first incarnation of the World Wide Web. It is an information source based on textual links, now outdated and superceded by the Web.
Gourad Shading
Method to create the illusion of a round shape where parts of the real (not round) shape are covered.
GPL (GNU Public License)
The short of it is quite simple: if you based anything on GPL software, you MUST provide source to your software upon request. The legalities of this simple concept go on at great length, and periodically new revisions of the GPL appear as holes are found.
GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)
General Packet Radio Services. A packet-switched mobile phone technique in an existing GSM-network allowing a more efficient use of the radio spectrum. Packet-switched offers the feature that a customer does not pay for the air time, rather pays for the data transmitted. Tranferrates between 56 and 114 Kbps should possible.
GPS (Global Positioning System)
This is a system of satellites around the Earth that broadcast the time via radio signals based on an internal atomic clock. GPS devices can receive the signals from multiple satellites, and by measuring the time it took the signal to arrive, they can determine your current position on the Earth. The more signals a GPS devices receives, the more acurate it becomes, even to a point where your altitude can be determined.
GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)
This is a microprocessor specifically designed for processing 3D graphics data. This term was first coined by NVidia to describe their GeForce 256 chipset. They justified the name stating that their graphics chip had a similar amount of transistors as current CPU chips. Now, GPU has become a more widely used term to describe the complex chips that power graphics cards.
GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)
This is a microprocessor specifically designed for processing 3D graphics data. This term was first coined by NVidia to describe their GeForce 256 chipset. They justified the name stating that their graphics chip had a similar amount of transistors as current CPU chips. Now, GPU has become a more widely used term to describe the complex chips that power graphics cards.
Grabbing
Audio and/or Video transformation to a compressed file, also called ripping.
GraceNote
GraceNote is an organisation which offers the CDDB (online CD database) services for Compact Discs (music CD's). Bij storing the strcuture of a CD (tracks, play time, etc) a CD can be recognized as a CD from artist XYS, with title ABC. This is being stored in an online database, which can be accessed freely. Many CD-bruner applications and CD playback applications use this database to display artitst and title (for display, label, or MP3-tags).
Graphics card
The graphics card is generally an add-in board that plugs into the motherboard. It sends signals out to the monitor to represent what should be shown on the screen. A graphics card can create images form simple text, up to intense 3D graphics.
Greenie
This is a slang term for a CD-Recordable disk. The media was originally green on the recording side, thus the term. Nowadays, CD-R media may be green, blue or gold on the recording side.
Grep
This is a UNIX program, now also available on other OSs, that allows the search through one or more text files for a specific text string. As well, grep allows the replacement of the found string. Grep is a very powerfull tool, since one can do almost anything with a text with a single (cryptic) command sequence.
GroupWare
This term is used to describe any form of software designed to allow a group of people to easily share ideas and data. Examples include Lotus Notes, Novell GroupWise, and Microsoft Exchange.
GSM (Global System for Mobility)
Global System for Mobility. Digital cellular system for mobile phone communications, originally designed for use in Europe. GSM works on the radio frequencies 900, 1800 (DCS1800) and 1900 Mhz (PCS1900).
GUI (Graphical User Interface)
Any system that uses graphics to represent the functions of a program. All Windows operating systems are GUI. For example: Windows, Apple Macintosh, GEOS, X-Windows, etc.
GUID (Globally Unique Identifier)
A unique 128-bit value generated by some Microsoft applications. An example of the GUID format is: 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789ABC. The GUID will use the MAC address of your network card as part of it if you do have a network card installed, potentially marking documents created by Microsoft applications with a number that could be traced back to your PC.
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