L

L
Chat room talk for "laugh."

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
The type of display used on most digital watches, calculators, and laptop computers, and in flat panel computer displays.

LED (light emitting diode)
A semiconductor device that emits light when an electric current passes through it.

L@@K
A comical way of writing look. (i.e. "look at this") in online advertisements.

L1 cache (level 1 cache)
The memory cache that is closest to the CPU or included within it.

L2 cache (level 2 cache)
A memory cache outside the CPU.

l8er, l8ter
Chatroom abbreviation for "later."

label
An identifying name or number attached to a particular statement in a computer program.

LACNIC
Acronym for the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Address Registry. It is one of five Internet registries serving different world regions by assigning and administering IP addresses.

lag
The delay in transmitting data over a network.

lag time
The time it takes for data to come back from a server.

landscape
A way of orienting paper so that it is wider than it is high, like a landscape painting.

LAP-B (Link Access Procedure-Balanced)
A method for detecting and correcting errors in data transmission .

laptop
A small, lightweight computer (under 8 pounds) with a flip up screen.

large-scale integration
The construction of integrated circuits that contain more than 100 logic gates.

laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation)
An electronic device that produces rays of light that are exactly matched in wavelength and phase.

Laser Intelligence (LASINT)
Technical and geo-spatial intelligence obtained with laser technology and is therefore a sub-category of electro-optical intelligence.

LaserJet
A popular line of laser printers produced by Hewlett-Packard.

laser printer
A computer printer that generates an image by scanning a photoconductive drum with a laser beam and then transferring the image to paper by means of electrostatic toner.

lasso
A selection tool commonly found in paint programs.

last known good
Describing the configuration of a computer the last time it was used successfully, before changes.

last mile
The connection of individual homes or businesses to a communication network.

Latin
The language of the ancient Romans.

launch
To advertise and release a new product.

leach
A derogatory term in the warez underground community that refers to self-serving individuals who download an abundance of information for free but never give back to the community.

leader
A line of dots which connect one side of the page with another, often used in tables of contents, like ......................this.

leading (pronunced ledding)
The insertion of extra space between lines of type.

leak
An error in a program that makes it fail to release memory or other system resources when it terminates.

leap year
A year in which an extra day, February 29, is added to keep the calendar year in step with the earth's revolution around the sun. If there were no leap years, the calendar would get out of step with the earth's motion, so that after many centuries, January 1 would occur in the summer instead of the winter.
1. Years divisible by 400 are always leap years.
2. Years divisible by 100 are not leap years.
3. Otherwise, years divisible by four are leap years.

learning curve
A graph representing mastery of a skill plotted against the time spent on learning it.

lease
The right to use an IP address temprarily aassigned by DHCP.

least-privilege
A security principle holding that users should be allocated the least possible set or privileges on a computer system.

Leetspeak
A word that derives from the hacker elites, it incorporates layers of computer underground references--slang words such as warez (meaning pirated software), for example--and transforms the letters in the slang words into numbers and symbols.

left-click
Click with the left-hand mouse button.

legacy
Anything left over from a previous version of the hardware or software.

legacy-free
Not burdened by the need for compatibility with substantially older equipment or software.

legal-size
The size of paper used for legal documents in the United States.(8/1/2 by 14 inches.)

letter size
The size of paper used for business letters in the United States.(8/1/2 by 12 inches.)

letterspacing
The space between characters.

Vladimir Levin
A biochemistry graduate of St. Petersburg's Tekhnologichesky University in mathematics, he led a Russian cracker group in the first publicly revealed international bank robbery over a network. Levin used a laptop computer in London, England, to access the Citibank network, and then obtained a list of customer codes and passwords. Then he logged on 18 times over a period of weeks and transferred $3.7 million through wire transfers to accounts his group controlled in the United States, Finland,the Netherlands, Germany, and Israel. Citibank later retrieved all but about $400,000. When Citibank noticed the transfers, they contacted the authorities, who tracked Levin down and arrested him at a London airport in March, 1995.
He fought extradition for 30 months, but lost, and was transferred to the US for trial. He was convicted and sentenced to three years in jail, and ordered to pay Citibank $240,015. Four members of Levin's group pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and served various sentences. Click here for more info.

LF (Line Feed)
The character code that tells a printer or terminal to advance to the next line.

library
A collection of files, computer programs, or subroutines.

license
Permission to use patented or copyrighted material.

LIFO (last in first out)
A data structure or memory device from which items are retrieved in the opposite of the order in which they were stored.

ligature
A printed character representing a combination of two or three letters.

light
In 3D animation software, a virtual device that mimics the effect of real light upon the computer generated scene.

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
A communications protocol used to transport and format messages in order to access information in an X.500-like directory.

light pen
A pen-like light-sensitive device that can be used like a mouse to communicate with a computer.

Li-ion(Lithium-ion)
A type of rechargeable battery widely used in portable computers.

limitcheck
Postscript error that occurs when a drawing is to complex to be printed.

Lindows
Original name of Linspire; it was changed to avoid infringing Microsoft's trademark rights to the name Windows.

line
An electronic communication path, such as a telephone line.

linear fill
A way of filling an object with color so that it makes a smooth transition from one color at one side of the object to another color at the other side.

line cap
The end of a drawn line.

line drawing
An illustration that can be represented as a series of hard-edged black lines and black areas on a white background.

line feed
The character code that tells a printer or terminal to advance to the next line.

line in (on a sound card)
line-level audio input

line-level (describing an audio signal)
A signal level of about 0.1 to 1 volt, designed to connect to the input of another amplifier.

line out (on a sound card)
Line-level audio output.

line printer
A type of impact printer that prints an entire line of type at once, formerly used on a mainframe computer.

line spacing
The spacing in between lines of type.