G

g
Chat room or email abbreviation for "grin."

414 Gang
Based in Milwaukee, WI (USA) the cracker gang that began cracking remote computers as early as 1980. It was the 1983 discovery of their exploits--as noted in the movie War Games of 1983--that sparked global debate and anxieties about crackers and their abilities to compromise computer system security.

g2g
Chat room abbreviation for "[I've] got to go."

gain
The amount of amplification in an audio amplifier or similar circuit.

gambling
A popular, but often illegal online form of recreation.

gamer
A devoted fan of computer games.

gaming cafe
A small business resembling an Internet cafe but with an emphasis on computer games.

gamma
In computer graphics, a measure of the nonlinear response of a video screen.

gamma testing
A third stage of software testing sometimes performed after beta testing but before commerical release.

gamut
The range of colors that can be reproduced by a screen, printer, or other device.

Gantt chart
A diagram that shows the schedule for a series of tasks.

garbage collection
Clearing out objects that are taking up space in memory but are no longer in use by a program.

gas plasma display
A computer display that works on the same principle as a neon light. A plasma is a glowing ionized gas.

gate
Any of several logic circuits.

gateway
A link between two computer networks.

geek
An enthusiastic computer specialist.

gelatin silver print
A conventional black-and-white photograph.

genome@home
A distributed computer system that analyzed genome (DNA) data. For more information click here.

gibi-
Proposed metric prefix meaning x 1,073,741,824(2 to the 30th power).

Gigabyte
Equal to 2 to the 30th power.

gigahertz (GHz)
One billions cycles per second. A unit of frequency equal to 1000 megahertz. A measure of frequency of radio signals or the clock speed of a computer.

GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program)
A freely distributed photopaint program for UNIX and Windows. Click here for a downloadable copy of the program.

glitch
Erronues response that occurs inside a computer because signals that are supposed to be simultaneous actually arrive at slightly different times.

G.lite
A popular, inexpensive type of ADSL telephone-line Internet connection that provides data rates up to 1.5 Mbps downstream and 0.5 Mbps upstream.

Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC)
Certifications that assure an individual will have the required level of knowledge and skill necessary to practice in the field of information assurance. Click here for more information.

Global Navigation satellite System (GLONASS)
The Russian counterpart to GPS (Global Positioning System). Though GLOSNASS provides worldwide coverage, its performance is optimized for the northern latitudes.

Global Positioning System (GPS)
Gives the exact location of someone or some place.

global variable
A variable that can be recognized anywhere in a program.

Globally Unique Identifier (GUID)
A term used by Microsoft for a number that its programming generates to create a unique identifier for objects, such as a Word document.

glue logic
Additional, relatively simple logic circuits needed to connect one major part of a computer to another.

glyph
Any printable character.

GMTA
Abbreviation for "Great Minds Think Alike."

GNU
A project led by Richard Stallman of the free software foundation. GNU stands for "GNU is not Linux." gold
A software product in its original state.

Google
A popular wb search service.

Google whacking
The sport of trying to find a word so obscure that it occurs on just one of the many web pages indexed by Google.

Gopher
A hypertext protocol that was used in the early 1990s before HTTP.

gotcha
A feature that leads to mistakes.

GOTO
A statement in Basic, Fortran, and other programming languages that transfers execution to another place in the program.

.gov
Indicating that a web or email address belongs to the United States federal government.

GPF (General Protection Fault)
An error that arises in Microsoft Windows when a program tries to access a location in memory that is not allocated to it.

GPS Global Positioning System
A network of satellites allowing users with portable GPS devices to determine precise location on the surface of the Earth.

gr8, gr8t
chat-room abbreviation for great.

gradient fill
A fill that is composed of two or more colors.

gradient paint roller
A tool available in some paint and photopaint programs that fills an area with a gradual transition from one color to another.

Gramm-Leach Bliley Act of 1999
Financial institutions must provide adequate security of customer information.

grammar checker
A part of a word processing program that flags sentences that violates rules of grammar.

grandfather tape
A tape that is two generations older than the current data.

graph
A graphical display of information, designed to make it easier for the reader to interpret and understand numerical data.

graphical user interface (GUI)
A way of communicating with the computer by manipulating icons and without a mouse.

graphics
The use of computer output devices, such as screens, printers, and plotters, to produce pictures.

graphics card
A video card that can display graphics as well as text.

graphics tablet
An alternative to a mouse.

grayed
Displayed in grayed type and not available for selection.

greeking
The use of random letters or marks to show the overall appearance of a printed page without showing the actual printed text.

Green Book

The Philips/Sony standard for multimedia interactive compact discs (not including personal computer software.)

Green PC
A personal computer that draws little electrical power when idle, even though still turned on.

Gregorian calendar
The calendar system presently in use, introduced by Pope Gregory in 1582 and adopted in England in 1752 and in Russia in 1918. It is exactly like the Julian calendar except that years divisble by 100 are not leap years unless they are divisible by 400.

grep
The Unix command that reads a text file and outputs all the lines that contain a a particular series of characters.

grid
A feature of various draw programs and paint programs that allows lines to be drawn only in certain positions, as if they were drawn on the lines of graph paper.

grid computing
The process of solving computationally complicated problems by distributing parts of the problem to unused capacity on a widely dispersed set of machines that are connected to the Internet.
grid system
A way of standardizing the layout of many related pages, such as pages of a multipage document.

griefer
A person who plays a multiplayer game or participates in other online group activities for the purpose of making other people miserable.

grind
To continually guess passwords by creating all possible character combinations and systematically attempting to gain access to a system or service until the right password is found.

Grosker
A file-sharing service found liable for inducing its users to violate copyright law.

gross megapixels
The total number of megapixels on an image sensor, whether or not all of them are actually used in taking pictures.