Open (our last term) means "freely available." Proprietary, its opposite, means "private and protected." A proprietary technology or architecture is a design or architecture whose specifications are not publicly available and may be used or duplicated only with permission of the creator. Apple's Macintosh architecture is the classic example of a proprietary architecture; there are no Macintosh clones.

A RAM disk is RAM (random access memory) that works like a disk drive: It gets its own "letter" (such as D:\ or E:\), you can save or copy files to it, and you can open files from it.

The plus: RAM, which has no moving parts except for semiconducted electricity, is up to 1,000 times faster than a disk drive. The minus: Like your computer's memory, a RAM disk loses everything that's on it once you shut down the computer, so you have to copy all the files on the RAM disk back to your hard disk before you shut down. Thus, a RAM disk makes sense only if you work with programs that need to access a disk frequently--and run too slowly when that disk is a hard disk.                       

In your computer, the motherboard is the main board, the one that contains the circuits connecting the computer's processor to its hard disk, memory, and other components. Motherboards also contain slots into which you can add other components, such as an internal modem, a scanner card, and so on.                       

WAP stands for "wireless application protocol," a technical specification for enabling people to securely access digital information (such as messages, e-mail, faxes, and so on) via their mobile phone, pager, personal digital assistant (PDA), or other wireless device.                       

Chad--a collective noun--consists of the little rectangular pieces of paper punched out of computer punch cards. Where did the name come from? Well, for a long time those little pieces of paper didn't have a name at all. Then someone named Chadless invented the Chadless keypunch--a device that punched little u-shaped holes into computer cards, eliminating the mess of the little rectangular pieces of paper. And since this new punch was called "Chadless," computer geniuses immediately deduced that the old punch produced "chad."

A computer's power supply does three very important things. First, it takes the required amount of current from the outlet into which the computer is plugged. Second, it converts that current from AC (alternating current, what you get from your wall outlet) to DC (direct current, what you need to run the computer reliably). Third, its built-in surge protection eliminates spikes and surges to some degree but is no substitute for an external surge protector.

A triplecast (tm)--yes, it's trademarked--is the simultaneous broadcast of a program over television, radio, and Web. What does this mean? Well, for one thing, it means that if you have to be at your computer, this is one kind of program you don't have to miss. Whoopee!

Topology--more specifically, network topology--refers to the connection pattern of a computer network. For example, a network can have a "ring" topology, in which the computers are connected in a loop, or a "star" topology, in which each computer is connected to a central computer. Newer network management applications allow network managers to display a picture of their network's topology on-screen.

DCC stands for "digital content creation"--a name recently given, by computer companies, to the "target market" of folks who create audio/visual media for the Web. Computer companies have bothered to name this group because as a rule, digital content creators are in the market for the fastest, most powerful computers and monitors available.                       

Ever visit a Web site that provides links to other Web sites and, when you take one of those links, displays the other site in a frame within the original site? The original site is a para-site. Para-sites are good because they let you surf many sites from within the friendly confines of a single site. Para-sites can also be annoying because they don't allow you to directly bookmark the sites displayed within the frame--which forces you to be overly dependent on the para-site.

Flame can be both a noun and a verb in cyberspace. The noun, flame, refers to a very harsh, inflammatory, and sometimes personal or obscene e-mail message or newsgroup posting. The verb, to flame, means to send or post such a message.

If you were around during the early days of personal computing, you may remember the Bernoulli Box--a removable, reliable floppy disk drive that people used to archive and transport large amounts of data. The box was so named because it worked on a kind of reverse of Bernoulli's Principle: It spun the disk at such a high speed that it actually curved UP to the drive head, as opposed to having the drive head come DOWN to the disk--thereby all but eliminating the possibility of a disk crash. Bernoulli Boxes are pretty much extinct today; the manufacturer, Iomega, now makes Zip and Jaz drives.        

API stands for "application program interface"; it's a facility built into a finished application or operating system that lets a programmer access and customize the application's or operating system's features without doing a lot of extra work. For example, developers use the Windows API to display Save and Open dialog boxes, which is why they all look pretty much the same.

A single-ended cable is a two-wire cable in which one wire carries the electrical signal and the other is connected to a ground. The cord you insert into a two-pronged outlet is a classic example of a single-ended cable.

Netcheque is a technology that enables individuals--more specifically, registered Netcheque users--to write checks to one another via e-mail or Web applications. The checks are "deposited" to a server, which then authorizes a transfer from the writer's bank account to the recipient's bank account. Figure out what percentage of the mail you send consists of bill payments, and you can quickly quantify the threat Netcheque poses to the U.S. Postal Service.

In Nerdland, wall clock time is elapsed time--the time it takes for the computer to do something, as measured by a clock. It has the special name "wall clock time" to distinguish it from processor time, which is the time the computer's processor is occupied by the same task--and which is almost always shorter than the wall clock time, since the processor works on several tasks simultaneously.

DTP, as even some non-nerds know, stands for "desktop publishing"--a class of personal computer software used to design and produce printed documents. Desktop publishing programs usually allow more sophisticated graphics placement, color, and type handling than, say, a word processing program; many also make it easier to specify colors used by commercial printers. Popular desktop publishing programs include Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress, and, on the lower end, Microsoft Publisher.                     

VRM stands for "voltage regulator module," a small part in your computer's motherboard (or main system board) that controls how much voltage gets flowed to the microprocessor chip. The VRM does an important job: Too much voltage can fry the chip--a transformation that's wonderful for potato chips but hardly useful for computer chips.                       

POTS stands for "plain old telephone service." It's the term tech weenies use when comparing the existing phone lines to other Internet service conduits, such as ISDN or broadband (cable). It may be plain, and it certainly is slow, but right now POTS is the most affordable, widely available, and widely used means of connecting to the Internet and the Web.