Basic Computer Terminology- R & S
RAM: Acronym for Random-Access Memory.
Reset switch: A switch on the Mac that restarts the computer in the event of a crash or freeze.
Resize box: The small square at the lower right corner of a window which, when dragged, resizes the window.
Recycle Bin: Place where you put files and folders that you may later want to delete or get rid of. Compare Trash.
Resize Box: Allows you to change the size and shape of a window.
Right click: To press the right button on the mouse. (This is Windows specific. On a Mac running System 8 or higher, you hold down the Control key and then click to get the same effect.)
RISC: Acronym for Reduced Instruction Set Computing; the smaller set of
commands used by the PowerPC and Power Mac.
ROM: Acronym for Read Only Memory; memory that can only be read from and not written to.
Root directory: The main hard drive window.
Radio button: A GUI widget used for making selections. Radio buttons got their name from the preset buttons in radio receivers. When one used to select preset stations on a radio receiver physically instead of electronically, depressing one preset button would pop out whichever other button happened to be pushed in.
Red Hat Linux: A Linux distribution from Red Hat.
Company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (with red and white stripes) while at college by his grandfather. People would turn to him to solve their problems, and he was referred to as "that guy in the red hat". He lost the cap and had to search for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found by anyone.
RSA: An asymmetric algorithm for public key cryptography. Based on the surnames of the authors of this algorithm - Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Len Adleman.
S
Save: To write a file onto a disk.
Save as: To save a previously saved file in a new location and/or with a new name. (A File menu item)
SIMON: Batch Interactive test/debug software. The name of this instruction set simulator software; that allowed batch application programs to be tested interactively from online terminals - did not originate from "SIMulation ONline" or similar. It was the name of the author's other son (see Oliver above).
Scroll: To shift the contents of a window to bring hidden items into view.
Scroll bar: A bar at the bottom or right side of a window that contains the scroll box and allows scrolling.
Shut down: To quit all applications and turn off the computer.
Software: Instructions that tell the computer what to do.
Scroll box: The box in a scroll bar that is used to navigate through a window.
SCSI: Acronym for Small Computer System Interface.
SCSI address: A number between zero and seven that must be unique to each device in a SCSI chain. Fast and Wide SCSI devices will allow up to 15 SCSI Ids (hexadecimal); however, the length restriction (3 meters) is such that it is virtually impossible to link 15 devices together.
SCSI port: A 25 pin connector on the back of a Mac (native SCSI port); used to connect SCSI devices to the CPU. Some SCSI cards (like the ATTO) have a 68 pin connector.
SCSI terminator: A device placed at the end of a SCSI chain to complete the circuit. (Some SCSI devices are self-terminating, or have active termination and do not require this plug).
Serial port: A port that allows data to be transmitted in a series (one after the other), such as the printer and modem ports on a Mac.
Server: A central computer dedicated to sending and receiving data from other computers (on a network).
Spreadsheet: A program designed to look like an electronic ledger.
Start up disk: The disk containing system software and is designated to be used to start the computer.
Surge suppressor: A power strip that has circuits designed to reduce the effects of surge in electrical power. (Not the same as a UPS)
System file: A file in the System folder that allows your Mac to start and run.
System folder: An all-important folder that contains at least the System file and the Finder.
Samba software: A free implementation of Microsoft's networking protocol. The name samba comes from inserting two vowels into the name of the standard protocol that Microsoft Windows network file system use, called SMB (Server Message Block). The author searched a dictionary using grep for words containing S M and B in that order; the only matches were Samba and Salmonberry.
Sed: Stands for stream editor, used for textual transformation of a sequential stream of text data. It is modeled after the ed editor.
Shareware: Coined by Bob Wallace to describe his word processor PC-Write in early 1983. Before this Jim Knopf (also known as Jim Button) and Andrew Fluegelman called their distributed software "user supported software" and "freeware" respectively, but it was Wallace's terminology that prevailed.
Slashdot: A technology oriented weblog
Sosumi: One of the systems sounds introduced in Apple Computer's System 7 operating system in 1991. Apple Computer had a long litigation history with Apple Records, the Beatles' recording company. Fearing that the ability to record musical sound would cause yet more legal action, the Apple legal department allegedly ordered the sound to be renamed from its original, musical name. So the developers changed the name to Sosumi ("So sue me"). Depending on who was asked, they quipped that it was Japanese for either "absence of sound" or "a light pleasing tone".
Spam: Unwanted repetitious messages, such as unsolicited bulk e-mail The term spam is derived from the Monty Python SPAM sketch, set in a café where everything on the menu includes SPAM luncheon meat. While a customer plaintively asks for some kind of food without SPAM in it, the server reiterates the SPAM-filled menu. Soon, a chorus of Vikings joins in with a song: "SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, lovely SPAM, wonderful SPAM", over and over again, drowning out all conversation.
SPIM: A simulator for a virtual machine closely resembling the instruction set of MIPS (computer manufacturer) processors is simply MIPS spelled backwards. MIPS stands for Millions of Instructions per Second, from way back when that was something to boast of. In recent time, SPIM has also come to mean SPam sent over Instant Messaging.
Swing: A graphics library for Java.
Swing was the code name of the project that developed the new graphic components (the successor of AWT). It was named after swing, a style of dance band jazz that was popularized in the 1930s and unexpectedly revived in the 1990s.
Although an unofficial name for the components, it gained popular acceptance with the use of the word in the package names for the Swing API, which begin with javax.swing.
