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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 of a word you are looking for. Click the "Search" button to start the search. Search for: You can also take a look at all the words starting with a particular character, select one below: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z We are looking for more words here, so please mail me any words you don't know and I'll try to find out what they mean. Or send me words you do know and their meaning, so we can add them too and get an even better glossary (either in Dutch or English is fine). Words in our glossary starting with "O" ...

Object
Objects can refer to the objects in object-oriented programming or the objects in OLE (Object Linking and Embedding). In OLE, an object is a piece of a document, a graphic, or some multimedia. In object-oriented programming, an object can be a spell checker or a piece of a graphics program used to draw squares or circles.

Object-oriented technology
This refers to technology, usually programming languages, designed to work with objects.

OC12 (Optical Carrier Level 12)
This is a fiber optic connection that can handle 622 Mbps, often used for the 622 Mbps ATM protocol.

OC24 (Optical Carrier Level 24)
This is a fiber optic connection that can handle 1.244 Gbps.

OC3 (Optical Carrier Level 3)
This is a fiber optic connection that can handle 155 Mbps, often used for the 155 Mbps ATM protocol.

OC48 (Optical Carrier Level 48)
This is a fiber optic connection that can handle 2.488 Gbps.

OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
This is the technology that allows computers to "read" the text from physical objects. It requires a graphical representation of text to interpret. This usually comes from a scanned image.

Octal numericsystem
Numericsystem using 7 values: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

Octet
A groep of 8.

ODBC (Open Database Connectivity)
This is a standard API for communicating with database servers. There are different ODBC drivers supporting most of the major database servers, such as Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server. If you program to ODBC, you get the advantage of being able to easily use your application on different databases without reprogramming.

ODI (Open Data-link Interface)
This is a protocol independent structure used by early Novell NetWare clients. It provides support for simultaneous connection to multiple network protocols.

OEL (Organic Electroluminescent)
This is a type of display technology that allows for flat screens that are very bright and offer wider viewing angles than LCD technology. As well, no backlight is required. See OLED for a similar technology.

OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)
This acronym is used to denote equipment that is sold to other companies or resellers for integration into systems. For example, a hard drive manufacturer may sell an OEM hard drive in bulk quantities and no manual or cables with the promise that it will go into full systems, or maybe external enclosures, and be resold. What often happens is that you can pick up OEM products at computer shows for low prices.

Office Suite
The set of software products that are required by an office. Most often comprised of a spreadsheet program, a word processor, a scheduler, a small database and a presentation manager. These are put together by a single company, so they are made to work with each other. Some examples are StarOffice (Sun), Wordperfect Suite (Corel) and Office (Microsoft).

Offline
Not connected to any network or the Internet.

Offline
This refers to being away from your computer, or the Internet, or your computer being off disconnected from the Internet. For example, a harddisk can be offline too when it's not connected or not available.

Ogg Vorbis
This is an audio codec designed to compete with the MP3 codec. One of the main goals of Ogg Vorbis was to provide an audio encoding scheme that was free from corporate copyrights and licensing fees, such as the ones MP3 websites and hardware makers must pay to companies that own part of the encoding technology built into the MP3 format. Like MP3s, it supports fixed and variable bit rates.

OLAP (OnLine Analytical Processing)
This is a group of technologies and applications that collect, manage, process and present multidimensional data for analysis and management purposes.

OLE (Object Linking and Embedding)
This is a standard for sharing data between applications. It has been around since Windows 3.1 and continues to get better. For example, if you cut a picture out of Paint and paste it into a word processor document, you are using OLE to properly put the data into your document. Of course, if it doesn't work quite right, you can blame OLE, or the programs use of it. OLE allows objects to be linked to and embedded in other documents. Linking creates a link to the actual object. Embedding puts a copy of the object into the document. You can usually access the program an object was created with in order to edit the linked or embedded object just by clicking on the object.

OLED (Organic LED)
This is a flat panel display technology that required no backlight and could be simpler to construct than LCD screens. Check out OEL technology as well.

OLTP (OnLine Transaction Processing)
This refers to a group of programs that allow real time inputting, recording and retrieval of data to/from a networked system. The speed of recording the data is critical, as is the reaction time of the system so that people entering data are not bogged down.

On-die
This term is most often used when referring to the L2 cache on a microprocessor. It implies that the L2 cache itself is on the same single piece of silicon as the microprocessor.

Online
The term refers to anything that's on the Internet or something is "connected". For example a online magazine (to be found on the Internet) or a harddisk that is online (connected).

OOP (Object-oriented Programming)
This term usually refers to programming languages that allow you to work with objects. These objects can contain not only data type and data structure information, but also information about how the object can be used by procedures.

Open Source
This is software that can be freely distributed, and must be distributed along with its source code. Thus, the source can be changed easily and the program can be altered to fix bugs or add features. Depending on the open source license, you may be unable to redistribute altered code, or charge money for the distribution of the software. One of the most succesfull examples of open source software is Linux.

OpenDML AVI
OpenDML AVI is an extension to the earlier AVI format, allowing other vendors of codecs to use the AVI wrapping to incorporate their codec. See also CODEC.

OpenGL (Open Graphics Language)
This is a 3D graphics language developed by Silicon Graphics (using a Unix look-a-like platform). OpenGL support is built into Windows NT. You can see some examples by checking out the NT screen savers. Some 3D graphics accelerators have OpenGL acceleration built in.

OpenVMS
This is synonymous with VMS. It is an operating system designed by Digital Equipment Corp. to run on their VAX hardware. It was initially called VMS, but renamed to OpenVMS when it was ported to run on the 64-bit Alpha processor, and also to signify its support of POSIX.

Operating System
The OS or Operating System is a basic software layer between hardware and software on your computer. For example DOS, Linux, Windows.

OPTA
Onafhankelijke Post en Telecom Autoriteit. An idependend organisation in the Netherlands stimulating competition in the telecommunication market.

Optical Disk
This is a plastic disk that can store information in a method so that it can be read by a laser. The laser is shot at the disk, and based on its reflection, the value of data is calculated. Examples of optical storage are CDRom, DVD, etc.

Optical Drive
A storage device that uses light to store data instead of magnetism.

Optical Mouse
Mouse that detects movements bij using light-reflections. The first generations required you to have a specific mouse-pad, more modern models work on pratically any surface.

Optical-Fiber
Very thin fiber cables used for telecommunication based on transfers over light. Since light is faster than electons (normal copper cable), speeds are higher.

OR
This is an operation that can be executed on two or more binary strings. OR returns true or "1" if either of the compared strings contains a 1 at a particular bit position, and a false, or "0" if neither string contains a 1 at that position. For example (0 OR 0) = 0, (0 OR 1) = 1, (1 OR 0) = 1, (1 OR 1) = 1. Thus: (0011 OR 1001) = 1011.

Ordered Tree
This is a tree where the children of each node has a designated order (not necessarily based on their value), and can be referred to specifically.

OS (Operating System)
The program that allows you to access the basic functions of your computer. It is the minimum software required to run a program. Examples: Windows, MacOS, AmigaOS, BeOS, DOS, Linux, Unix, Solaris, NeXT, TTOS, etc.

OS/2
This is an operating system originally developed by Microsoft and IBM. Microsoft dropped out of the project to concentrate on their Windows operating systems. IBM continued to develop OS/2 and to this day there are still many OS/2 users out there. OS/2 is a full 32-bit operating system.

OSD
On-Screen Display The display of information, like channel number and volume on the screen of a TV set.

OSI Model (Open Systems Interconnection Model)
This is a way of representing the complexities of computer networking in a seven layer model, ranging from the physical hardware of networking, all the way up to how application programs talk to the network. The seven layers are: physical, data link, network, transport, session, presentation and application. The seven-layer OSI model can be used to help diagnose network problems. It is also used as a measurement of how well people know their networking. If you're looking for a job in networking, you should familiarize yourself with the OSI model.

OSx86
Refers to a project getting Mac OS X to run on non-Apple hardware (ie. regular PC) using the Intel based software for Intel based Macs. This has been very succesful, see also http://www.insanelymac.com/.

Output
Anything that comes out of a computer or system. Output can be displayed on a monitor, printed on paper, etc.

Overburning
This is the process of recording more than the specified maximum of data on a CD. It depends on the capabilities of the CD-writer and the software used if this is possible.

Overclocking
This is the act of running a chip at a higher clock speed than it was specified for. Very often, chips are capable of running faster than they are specified for, and can be safely over-clocked. You overclock a chip by setting it at a higher bus speed, or a higher multiplier, or both.

Overdrive
This is a processor upgrade sold by Intel that is used to upgrade an older processor to a newer, faster processor.

Overflow
When there is more information than can be handled. Often used to describe the production of a number larger than a variable can handle. For instance, if you are expecting 10 digits but receive 11.


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