Basic Computer Terminology- N & O

Nerd: A colloquial term for a computer person, especially an obsessive, singularly focused one. Earlier spelling of the term is "Nurd" and the original spelling is "Knurd", but the pronunciation has remained the same. The term originated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the late 1940s. Students who partied, and rarely studied were called "Drunks", while the opposite - students who never partied and always studied were "Knurd" ("Drunk" spelled backwards). The term was also (independently) used in a Dr. Seuss book, and on the TV show Happy Days, giving it international popularity.

Nanosecond: One billionth of a second

NuBus: Expansion slots on the Mac which accept intelligent, self-configuring boards. NuBus is a different bus architecture than the newer PCI bus and the boards are not interchangeable.

Novell NetWare: A network operating system from Novell.

Novell, Inc. was originally Novell Data Systems co-founded by George Canova.

The name was suggested by George's wife who mistakenly thought that "Novell" meant "new" in French.

O

Operating System (OS): System software that allows your computer to work.

Oracle: A relational database management system (RDBMS). Larry Ellison, Ed Oates and Bob Miner were working on a consulting project for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The code name for the project was called Oracle (the CIA evidently saw this as a system that would give answers to all questions). The project was designed to use the newly written SQL database language from IBM. The project eventually was terminated but they decided to finish what they started and bring it to the world. They kept the name Oracle and created the RDBMS engine.

Optical disk: A high-capacity storage medium that is read by a laser light.