Author Topic: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"  (Read 7882 times)

Offline MysteRy

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Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« on: April 07, 2014, 07:14:07 AM »
Source : PC.net


OASIS

Stands for "Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards." To someone backpacking through the Sahara, this is not the type of OASIS you want to see. But is it a welcome sight in the computer science world. OASIS is a non-profit, global consortium that supports the development and adoption of e-business standards.

While it won't quench your thirst in the middle of the desert, OASIS does provide several useful technology standards. Common standards regulated by the OASIS consortium include protocols, file formats, and markup languages. Hardware and software companies often work with OASIS to develop and institute standards that are efficient and effective.

The standards produced by OASIS are open standards, which means they can be used by any company or organization. This allows multiple companies to develop products based on the same standard, which offers a high degree of interoperability between different computer systems. For example, a file format standardized by OASIS may be supported by several different programs. Because each program can save files in the same format, the files can be opened by any of the programs without needing to be converted or translated. This makes transferring files between applications or even different systems a seamless process.

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Re: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2014, 07:14:43 AM »
OCR

Stands for "Optical Character Recognition." This technology is what allows you to scan that paper you lost on your hard drive, but fortunately printed out, back into your computer. When a page of text is scanned into a computer without OCR software, all the computer sees is a bunch graphical bits, or an image. In other words, it has no idea that there is text on the page, much less what the text says. However, an OCR program can convert the characters on the page into a text document that can be read by a word processing program. More advanced OCR programs can even keep the formatting of the document in the conversion.

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Re: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2014, 07:15:19 AM »
ODBC

Stands for "Open Database Connectivity." With all the different types of databases available, such as Microsoft Access, Filemaker, and MySQL, it is important to have a standard way of transferring data to and from each kind of database. For this reason, the SQL Access group created the ODBC standard back in 1992. Any application that supports ODBC can access information from an ODBC-compatible database, regardless of what database management system the database uses.

For a database to be ODBC-compatible, it must include an ODBC database driver. This allows other applications to connect to and access information from the database with a standard set of commands. The driver translates standard ODBC commands into commands understood by the database's proprietary system. Thanks to ODBC, a single application (such as Web server program) can access information from several different databases using the same set of commands.

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Re: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2014, 07:15:53 AM »
OEM

Stands for "Original Equipment Manufacturer." This refers to a company that produces hardware to be marketed under another company's brand name. For example, if Sony makes a monitor that will marketed by Dell, a "Dell" label will get stuck on the front, but the OEM of the monitor is Sony. You can also use the term as a verb, such as, "That Dell monitor over there is OEM'd by Sony." That should impress your friends.

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Re: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2014, 07:16:30 AM »
Offline

When a computer or other device is not turned on or connected to other devices, it is said to be "offline." This is the opposite of being "online," when a device can readily communicate with other devices. For example, if you try to print to your printer and you get one of those frustrating errors saying, "The specified printer could not be found," the printer is probably offline. You should check to see if the printer is connected properly and, yes, turned on as well.

Offline can also mean not being connected to the Internet. When you disconnect from your ISP or pull out the Ethernet cable from your computer, your computer is offline. Some programs, such as Web browsers and e-mail programs, have an option to "Work Offline." This option disables the program's network connection, meaning no data can be transmitted to or from the computer. This option was more useful when most people used dial-up connections. They didn't want their computer automatically dialing their ISP whenever a program tried to access the Internet. However, since most people now have "always on" connections such as DSL and cable modems, there usually is no reason to work offline.

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Re: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« Reply #5 on: April 07, 2014, 07:17:08 AM »
OLAP

Stands for "Online Analytical Processing." OLAP allows users to analyze database information from multiple database systems at one time. While relational databases are considered to be two-dimensional, OLAP data is multidimensional, meaning the information can be compared in many different ways. For example, a company might compare their computer sales in June with sales in July, then compare those results with the sales from another location, which might be stored in a different database.

In order to process database information using OLAP, an OLAP server is required to organize and compare the information. Clients can analyze different sets of data using functions built into the OLAP server. Some popular OLAP server software programs include Oracle Express Server and Hyperion Solutions Essbase. Because of its powerful data analysis capabilities, OLAP processing is often used for data mining, which aims to discover new relationships between different sets of data.

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Re: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2014, 07:17:50 AM »
OLE

Stands for "Object Linking and Embedding." It can be pronounced as "O-L-E," or "Oh-lay!" if you are feeling Spanish. OLE is a framework developed by Microsoft (way back in Windows 3.1) that allows you to take objects from a document in one application and place them in another. For example, OLE may allow you to move an image from a photo-editing program into a word processing document.

The OLE technology was initially created to allow the linking of objects between "compound documents," or documents that support multiple types of data. Microsoft has since developed OLE into a wider standard, known as the Component Object Model (COM). COM is supported by Mac, Unix, and Windows systems, but is primarily used with Microsoft Windows. The COM framework is the foundation of ActiveX, which allows developers to create interactive content for the Web.

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Re: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« Reply #7 on: April 07, 2014, 07:18:33 AM »
Online

In general, when a machine is "online," it is turned on and connected to other devices. For example, when a network printer is online, computers connected to that network can print from it. Other devices, such as scanners, video cameras, audio interfaces, and others are said to be online when they are running and connected to a computer system.

Recently, however, the term "online" usually means being connected to the Internet. The connection can be through a phone line, using a dial-up or DSL modem, a cable line via a cable modem, or through a wireless connection. A computer can also be online via a connection to a computer network. Technically, computers that are on a network are online even if they are not connected to the Internet. But most networks are routed to a T1 line or other Internet connection anyway. When a computer or other device is not online, it is said to be offline

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Re: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« Reply #8 on: April 07, 2014, 07:19:22 AM »
OOP

Stands for "Object-Oriented Programming." OOP (not Oops!) refers to a programming methodology based on objects, instead of just functions and procedures. These objects are organized into classes, which allow individual objects to be group together. Most modern programming languages including Java, C/C++, and PHP, are object-oriented languages, and many older programming languages now have object-oriented versions..

An "object" in an OOP language refers to a specific type, or "instance," of a class. Each object has a structure similar to other objects in the class, but can be assigned individual characteristics. An object can also call functions, or methods, specific to that object. For example, the source code of a video game may include a class that defines the structure of characters in the game. Individual characters may be defined as objects, which allows them to have different appearances, skills, and abilities. They may also perform different tasks in the game, which are run using each object's specific methods.

Object-oriented programming makes it easier for programmers to structure and organize software programs. Because individual objects can be modified without affecting other aspects of the program, it is also easier to update and change programs written in object-oriented languages. As software programs have grown larger over the years, OOP has made developing these large programs more manageable.

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Re: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« Reply #9 on: April 07, 2014, 07:20:02 AM »
Opacity

Opacity (pronounced "o-PASS-ity") refers to the opaqueness of an object. In computing, opacity is often used in graphics software to define how "nontransparent" an image is. In other words, the more transparent an image or image layer is, the lower its opacity.

Adobe Photoshop and other graphics editors provide an Opacity slider that you can use to adjust the opacity of an image layer. Typically, this setting ranges from 0 to 100. Setting the opacity to 0 makes the layer completely transparent, or invisible. Setting it to 50 makes it half transparent or "see-through." If you give a layer an opacity of 100 (usually the default setting), it will be completely opaque. In a multi-layer image, all layers underneath a layer that fills the canvas with an 100% opacity will be completely hidden.

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Re: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2014, 07:20:47 AM »
Open Firmware

Open Firmware is a type of firmware that some computer systems use when they boot up. It controls the processor and performs system diagnostics before the operating system is loaded. Open Firmware also builds the "device tree," which locates internal and external devices connected to the computer. Each device is then assigned a unique address so it can be used once the computer starts up.

Several types of computers use Open Firmware, including PowerPC-based Macintosh systems, Sun Microsystems SPARC-based workstations, and IBM POWER systems. (Most Windows-based PCs use the BIOS for the same purpose.) Because Open Firmware is an "open" standard, devices that support Open Firmware can be typically be used in multiple Open Firmware-based systems. For example, identical PCI cards could be used in both Sun and Macintosh-based computer systems.

To access the Open Firmware interface on a PowerPC-based Macintosh, press and hold "Command-Option-O-F" during startup. On Sun systems, the Open Firmware interface is displayed at startup and can be accessed afterwards by pressing "L1-A" (or Stop-A) while the computer is running.

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Re: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« Reply #11 on: April 07, 2014, 07:21:34 AM »
Open Source

When a software program is open source, it means the program's source code is freely available to the public. Unlike commercial software, open source programs can be modified and distributed by anyone and are often developed as a community rather than by a single organization. For this reason, the phrase "open source community" is commonly used to describe the developer of open source software development projects.

Since the source code of an open source program can be modified by anyone, it makes sense that the software is also free to download and use. The terms of use are often defined by the GNU General Public License, which serves as the software license agreement (SLA) for many open source programs. Open source software development projects are often funded by donors with an interest in the project, by user donations, or through advertisements. Some developers also generate revenue by selling documentation and help manuals for the software. Other projects are funded by no more than a collective desire of developers to create a great program.

Since open source software is free to use, there is typically no technical support included with the software. Instead, users may need to rely on Web forums and user discussions to report bugs or get answers to their questions. Fortunately, the most popular open source programs have an abundance of helpful resources available on the Web. Some of the most well-known open source projects include the Linux operating system, the Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the OpenOffice.org productivity suite. Each of these projects have been developed by a community of developers and have gained levels of popularity that rival their commercial counterparts.

Open source software can be a cost-effective way to run many types of programs on your computer. Just remember that since the programs are not backed by a commercial company, if you have problems using the software, you will most likely not be able to obtain technical support from the developer. Of course, if you like to figure things out on your own or participate in online discussions, open source software may be just right for you.

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Re: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« Reply #12 on: April 07, 2014, 07:22:15 AM »
OpenGL

OpenGL, or the Open Graphics Library, is a 3D graphics language developed by Silicon Graphics. Before OpenGL was available, software developers had to write unique 3D graphics code for each operating system platform as well as different graphics hardware. However, with OpenGL, developers can create graphics and special effects that will appear nearly identical on any operating system and any hardware that supports OpenGL. This makes it much easier for developers of 3D games and programs to port their software to multiple platforms.

So how exactly does OpenGL work? When programmers write OpenGL code, they specify a set of commands. Each command executes a drawing action or creates a special effect. Using hundreds or even thousands of these OpenGL commands, programmers can create 3D worlds which can include special effects such as texture mapping, transparency (alpha blending), hidden surface removal, antialiasing, fog, and lighting effects. An unlimited amount of viewing and modeling transformations can be applied to the OpenGL objects, giving developers an infinite amount of possibilities.

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Re: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« Reply #13 on: April 07, 2014, 07:23:00 AM »
Operating System

Also known as an "OS," this is the software that communicates with computer hardware on the most basic level. Without an operating system, no software programs can run. The OS is what allocates memory, processes tasks, accesses disks and peripherials, and serves as the user interface.

Thanks to operating systems, like Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, developers can write code using a standard programming interface, or API. Without an operating system, programmers would have to write about ten times as much code to get the same results. Of course, some computer geniuses have to program the operating system itself.

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Re: Computer Terms Beginning with "O"
« Reply #14 on: April 07, 2014, 07:23:49 AM »
Optical Drive

In the real world, "optical" refers to vision, or the ability to see. In the computer world, however, "optical" refers to lasers, which can "see" and read data on optical discs. These discs include CDs and DVDs, which are made up of millions of small bumps and dips. Optical drives have lasers that read these bumps and dips as ones and zeros, which the computer can understand.

Some common types of optical drives include CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, and Blu-ray drives. CD and DVD writers, such as CD-R and DVD-R drives use a laser to both read and write data on the discs. The laser used for writing the data is much more powerful than the laser that reads the data, as it "burns" the bumps and dips into the disc. While optical drives can spin discs at very high speeds, they are still significantly slower than hard drives, which store data magnetically. However, because optical media is inexpensive and removable, it is the most common format used for distributing computer software.