Null. A character that has all its bits set to zero. Therefore, it has a numeric value of zero, but has a special meaning when interpreted as text. In some programming languages, most notably C, null characters are used to mark the end of a string of characters. In database or spreadsheet applications, null characters are often used as separators and displayed as spaces.

Newsgroups. Bulletin board. Internet spaces dedicated to discussing specific topics where members send their comments, questions, and general information.

Types of memory that retain their contents even when the computer is off. ROM is non-volatile, while RAM is volatile. This term is sometimes used to refer to the CMOS memory on PCs that contains the BIOS.

Prefix meaning one billionth.

A computer with circuitry so small that it can only be seen through a microscope. Nanocomputers can be electronic (where nanolithography is used to create the microscopic circuits), biochemical or organic (as in DNA computers), or quantum (as in quantum computers). Nanocomputers are made of materials at the molecular level and hold the promise of creating ever smaller and faster computers, a very important concept in the world of computing.

Microscopic scale lithography technique used to create nanocomputers.

Billionth of a second. This is a common measure of access time to RAM and any chip in general. It is usually abbreviated as ns.

Technology that creates tiny instruments and robots, approximately 10-9 in size. It is a field of science that aims to control individual atoms and molecules and create computer chips and other devices that are thousands of times smaller than current technologies allow.

A program created in the late 1990s by student Shawn Fanning, which allowed Internet users to search for and download music in mp3 format. It was subject to great pressure from artists and record companies, among others, who accused Napster of promoting piracy and infringing intellectual property. Napster had to change its format, and currently sells downloadable music from the site, www.napster.com.

Network Address Translation. This is an Internet standard that allows a local area network (LAN) to use one set of IP addresses for internal traffic and another set of addresses for external traffic. A NAT table located where the LAN connects to the Internet does all the necessary IP translations. NAT serves three main purposes: 1.-Allowing a company to combine multiple ISDN connections into a single Internet connection. 2.-Allowing a company to use more internal IP addresses. Since these are internal addresses, there is no possibility of conflict with IPs used by other companies or organizations. 3.-Providing a type of firewall by hiding internal IP addresses.

Network Behavior Analysis. Network Behavior Analysis. It is a method of increasing the security of a private network by monitoring the network traffic, noting any strange things that are out of the ordinary. An “NBA” solution for a network is a complement to antivirus, antispyware, firewall, etc. programs.

National Center for Supercomputing A p p l i c a t i o n s . Developers of the Mosaic viewer for the World Wide Web. Located at. http://www. ncsa.uiuc.edu/

Set of rules dictated by custom and experience that define the rules of civility and good conduct that Internet users should follow in their relationships with other users.

WWW browser for X-Windows (UNIX), Mac and Windows platforms.

NSP. A company that provides Internet access to ISPs. They are sometimes called backbone providers, because they provide direct access to the Internet backbone and Network Access Points (NAPs).

Code of conduct recommended for e-mail communications, and especially for discussion groups and other Internet forums.

An expansion card that is inserted into a computer to connect it to a network. Most NICs are designed for a particular type of network, protocol, and medium, although some can be used for several different networks.

State in which a network is completely blocked due to excessive data traffic. This phenomenon generally begins as what is known as a broadcast storm, and even legitimate network messages can be triggers for these processes if the network is not designed and configured to accommodate such levels of traffic.

A network component device, usually a computer or printer.

Operating system that includes programs to communicate with other computers over a network and share resources.

Network. In information technology, a network is a set of two or more interconnected computers located in different locations. It can be composed of different combinations of various types of networks. A network between several computers.

Term used to refer to telecommunications networks in general.

Newsgroups. Resources where users exchange information.

Network File System. Client/server application that allows a computer user to view and optionally save or update data in files located on a remote computer, as if it were his or her own computer. One of the computers needs an NFS server and the other an NFS client.

Name with which users identify themselves in chat channels.

Network Information Center Network Information Center. This is the authority that delegates domain names to those who request them. Each country in the world (or, more precisely, each TopLevel Domain or TLD) has a NIC authority that registers names under its jurisdiction. By authority we do not mean a government agency, since many NICs in the world are operated by universities.

Network Information Service. Service used by UNIX administrators to manage distributed databases on a network.

Network Operation Center. This is a group responsible for the daily operation of the network. Each service provider has its own NOC, so it is important to know which one to call in case of an emergency.

Each of the individual computers or other devices on the network.

Laptop. Because compact technology is quite expensive, these computers often cost almost twice as much as their desktop counterparts, when comparing systems with equivalent capacities.

New Technology File System. The file system that the Windows NT operating system uses to save and load files to a hard disk. NTFS is the equivalent of Windows 95's FAT (file allocation table) and OS/2's High Performance File System (HPFS). However, NTFS offers improvements over FAT and HPFS in terms of security and performance.

Netware Unix Client. The NetWare network operating system provides services to UnixWare users and applications, allowing them access to remote directories, file servers, and printers.

Server that distributes messages sent to newsgroups. After a period of time, messages expire and are removed from the server.

Physically setting up and cabling a network. The choice of topology will affect the ease of installation, the cost of the cable, and the reliability of the network. There are three main topologies: •Ring Topology: A topology where workstations are physically connected in a ring, with the cable terminating at the same station from which it originated. •Busen Topology: All workstations are connected to a central cable called a bus. This type of topology is easy to install and requires less cable than a star topology. •Star Topology: A topology where each workstation is connected with its own cable to a central connection device, either a file server or a repeater.

The place where email messages are stored from the moment they are written until they are sent. Once they have been sent, some email managers save a copy of the messages in “Sent”.

Folder in an e-mail program where sent messages appear

It is the code generated by a compiler. Programmers write their programs in a form called source code. This source code consists of instructions in a particular language, such as C or FORTRAN. Computers, on the other hand, can only execute instructions in a low-level language called machine language. This requires a final step, which produces the executable program by converting the object code into machine code. This last process is accomplished by using a program that can be a linker, assembler, binder, or loader.

Storage medium on which data is read and written by means of a laser. There are three basic types of optical discs: • CD-ROM: like audio CDs, CD-ROMs have the data recorded on them and can only be read as many times as necessary, but their content cannot be modified. • WORM: Stands for Write-Once, Read-Many. With a WORM disk drive, information can be written on a disk of these characteristics, but only once. It will then behave like a CDROM. • Erasable optical discs: data can be recorded and erased as on a magnetic disk.

Type of optical disc that can be erased and reloaded with new data. It allows the information contained on it to be erased and reused for other applications. Unlike optical discs, called CDROMs, where the data can only be read

Connected to the Internet or a remote server.

Type of cable that is based on the transmission of information by optoelectrical techniques through a combination of glass and plastic materials. It transmits by means of light pulses. It is characterized by a high bandwidth with high transmission speed and low signal loss.

Not connected to the Internet.

Representation of graphical objects, such as lines, arcs, circles, and rectangles, using mathematical formulas. This descriptive method allows the system to manipulate the objects more freely. In an object-oriented system, for example, you can overlap objects and still access each one individually, which is difficult in a bitmap system.

Previously called GoTo.com, Overture founded in 1997 was one of the pioneering companies in commercial searches through the Internet, and in the launch of pay-per-click.

Optical character recognition, technology that allows a printed document to be read and transformed into digital text (usually with a scanner) for use on a computer. Developed in the 1970s by Raymond Kurzweil.

Writing information into a part of memory where there is already other information, and therefore replacing it.

Open source code format, free, maintained by the Xiph.Org foundation, made to efficiently handle high quality multimedia (video, audio), without patent or licensing issues. Ogg is usually known for files that contain music and the extension ogg. It has been included in some digital music and video players, GPS.

Study computer science and technology applied to office tasks.

It means that you are not connected to the network.

Original Equipment Manufacturer. Original Equipment Manufacturer. Refers to companies that manufacture and package products for others, and also to companies that acquire a product or component and reuse it or incorporate it into a new product under their own brand.

Open Database Connectivity. Database access standard developed by Microsoft whose objective is to make it possible to access any data from any application, regardless of what Database Management System (DBMS) stores the data. ODBC achieves this by inserting an intermediate layer called a Database manager, between the application and the DBMS.

Term used to refer to the eight bits that make up a byte. However, this term is sometimes used instead of byte in networking terminology because some systems have bytes that are not made up of 8 bits.

Optical Character Recognition. Optical character recognition system that allows characters to be recognized and converted into computer text. Currently, it is incorporated in almost all scanners; it allows characters from scanned documents to be recovered in a text editor (as if they had been typed).

It refers to being connected to a network (usually used for the Internet).

Open source code free software refers to a program whose source code is available to the general public, free of charge, to use and modify. Free software is not always free software (a fairly common mistake that comes from the English word "free" which means both "free" and "free").

Pen Secure Shell. Implementation of SSH (Secure Shell) software for Unix, Solaris, BSD, Linux, etc. systems. It is freely distributed and is regulated by the GPL license.

It is the explicit acceptance to participate. Typically, it is used in marketing programs and offers, where an action (such as the use of personal information beyond the original and primary purpose for which it was obtained) is not carried out unless an individual expresses consent. It is an element of choice.

It is an explicit opt-out. Typically, it is used in marketing programs and offers, where an action (such as the use of personal information beyond the original and primary purpose for which it was obtained) is taken unless an individual explicitly opts out.

Oracle is a client/server tool for database management. http://www.oracle.com

Diagram that represents the different phases or functions of a program.

It refers to the organizational aspects of the use of computer systems that guarantee their proper functioning and usefulness in carrying out certain tasks (term coined by Dobrov).

Open Systems Interconnect. Open Systems Interconnection. This is the protocol that supports the Internet. It establishes the way in which communication is carried out between two computers through seven layers: Physical, Data, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation and Application.

Microsoft Outlook Express (MSOE). Email and network news client produced by Microsoft for its Windows platforms, with versions also available for other platforms. Outlook Express is distributed at no additional cost with Microsoft Internet Explorer, thus forming part of the latest operating systems of the Windows and Windows NT families. It is a program derived from Microsoft Outlook (which is part of Office), but specialized in email and network news, so it does not include groupware features. Instead, it allows better management of some common features in email and network news groups such as handling text only.

Operation that consists of forcing the microprocessor to go at a speed higher than that initially established in the factory.

Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm that innovates the way of obtaining results.

A program that manages the operation of other programs on a computer. Operating systems perform basic tasks, such as recognizing data entered through the keyboard, sending the image to the monitor, maintaining files and directories on the disk, and controlling peripheral devices (floppy drives, printers, scanners). Windows, Linux, Unix, MacOS are all operating systems.

Website where you can make online purchases.