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understand the technology that surrounds you everyday - I

We are surrounded by so much technology everywhere that sometimes we wish we knew better. Without further ado, look at this nifty compilation created for the rest of us. This is the first among three lists that explains the real meaning behind everyday words from the world of technology.

AC-3 (Dolby Digital): This digital surround-sound format for home audio is called Dolby Digital in theatres. It is the official sound format for digital TV, and is used in many DVDs and laser discs.
ActiveX: This is a set of technologies from Microsoft that provides developers with tools to link desktop applications to the Internet. It allows you to view Word and Excel documents directly in a browser.
AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port): This is an Intel specification designed to handle the high throughput demands of 3D graphics. The AGP channel is 32 bits wide and provides almost twice the total bandwidth of the older PCI channel. Think of it as Accelerated Gaming Performance.
Animation: Animation involves using a series of independent pictures or frames and putting them together to create the illusion of continuous motion. Advertisements, websites, cartoons and movies – it’s used everywhere!
Archie: Not exactly the comic book character from Riverdale. This Archie was a system used to automatically gather, index and serve information on the Internet. It’s not in use anymore.
Baud Pronounced ‘Bod’: One of the indicators of the speed of a modem.

Barfmail: Repeated bounce messages, usually received because of gateway or mail 
server errors, which cause significant annoyance.

Broadband: Simply put – it’s about BROADer BANDwidth on the Internet.
Barracuda: The highest performance drive at 7200 RPM and once (c.2000) the highest capacity in the world.
Cheetah: Once, the world’s fastest disk drive, it delivered unparalleled transaction performance for e-commerce and enterprise applications.
Cracker: A malicious individual who attempts to access computer systems without authorization.
Cyberspace: A term coined to describe the interconnected ‘world’ of computers and the society gathered around them.
Cookies: Small files stored on your computer, which hold information that can be retrieved by web pages on a site. 
Cyberpunk: A sub-genre of science fiction inspired by William Gibson’s 1982 novel Neuromancer
DVD (Digital Versatile Discs): These are high-capacity optical discs used for storing everything from massive computer applications to full length movies but as of 2017 their use is in decline.
DivX: It’s an MP4 based video compression codec that does for video and movies what MP3s did for music online. 
E3: The mother of all gaming trade shows, held in Los Angeles every year. Entrance for industry professionals only.

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