WXYZ

W

W3C-World Wide Web Consortium
Organization concerned with development and standardization of the many resources on the Internet using the HyperTextTransfer Protocol (HTTP) and related technologies.

wallpaper
A picture or pattern dispalyed as a background in a windowed operating system.

wall transformer
A small transformer, often including other power supply components, that plugs into a wall outlet .

wall wart
a wall transformer.

Wank worm
One of the first hacktivist protests to use a computer worm occured on October 16, 1989, at the U.S. Aeronautics and Space Administration in Greenbelt, Maryland. As scientists logged onto their computers, they were hit with a banner from the WANK worm reading: "WORMS AGAINST NUCLEAR KILLERS ;YOUR SYSTEM HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY WANked."

WAP (Wireless Access Protocol)
An open global specification for wireless devices to interact with information providers.

War Against Terror: Conflict 21 Center for Terrorism Studies
The Air National Guard's Conflict 21 Center for Terrorism Studies, located at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. It develops novel ideas for research aimed at stopping terrorists and cyberterrorists from infiltrating U.S. jurisdictions--the War Against Terror --and to pull together research findings from the U.S. Air force and the Department of Defense regarding terrorist activities and potential attacks on Critical Infrastructures.

War dialers
Simple PC programs able to dial telephone numbers consecutively, searching for modems.

war dialing
The practice of using an autodial modem to dial many telephone numbers in succession to see if a computer answers them. If so, attempts are made to break into the computer. If a human being answers, he or she hears a tone, or nothing at all.

war driving
The practice of driving or walking around town with a laptop computer, to see if it can connect to anyone's wireless network.

warez
Pirated software.

warm boot
Starting a computer that is already running.

warp
To digitally manipulate an image so that it appears twisted or stretched.

Warp
Version 3.0 of OS/2.

WarRoom Research
Surveys investigating computer security problems. Survey found that companies do not divulge problems because:
1. They fear a loss of client confidence
2. They fear a drop in stock market prices.
3. They fear a drop in productivity during the intrusion investigations.

Watchguard
Company started in Seattle, WA(USA) in 1996 to answer the system security needs of small to medium sized businesses by proccsgviding them IT security solutions.

watch icon
Appearance of the mouse pointer when the user need to wait until the computer has completed the operation.

watermark
A pattern visible when paper is held up to the light.

watt
Unit for measuring the rate at which energy (usually electrical power) is being consumed.

watt-hour
The amount of energy consumed by using energy at the rate of one watt for one hour.

.wav
The filename extension for digitized sound wave files under Microsoft Windows.

wave file
A file containing a digital representation of sound waves.

wavetable synthesis
A technique for synthesizing musical instrument sounds by computer using stored information about the waveforms produced by real instruments.

X

X.25
An ITU-T standard protocol that defines a standard way of arranging data in packets.

x64
A 64-bit extension of the Pentium (32-bit) CPU architecture originally developed by AMD for the Athlon 64 processor, and then adopted by Intel.

x86
The abbreviation for 8086/286/386/486, the series of microporcessors used in all PC-compatible computers, including the Pentium, but not the PowellPC.

x-axis
The horizontal axis in the x-y coordinate system.

Xbox
A video game console system produced by the Microsoft Corporation.

XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language)
A language for business financial data using XML-style tags. For more information Click here.

xcopy
A command in Windows and other operating systems for copying groups of files.

xDSL
A term related to all types of Digital Subscriber Lines, the two main types being ADSL and SDSL.

Xeon (pronounced "Zee-on")
A high speed Pentium-class microporcessor introduced by Intel in 2002 as a successor to the Pentium four.

XGA (Extended Graphics Array)
A superVGA card marketed by IBM for the PS/2.

x-height
The height of the body of the lowercase letterforms.

XHTML
A newer form of HTML as an extension of XML.

XMCL (Extensive Media Commerce Language )
An XML based language designed to support the business of delivering digital content over the Internet.

XML (Extensible markup Language)
A language similar to HTML, but designed for transmitting complex data structures of any type, not just web pages.

XOFF/Xon
A protocol for controlling data flow between computers or other devices on an asynchronous serial connection.
The "X" means transmitter.

XOR gate
A logic gate whose output is one when one but not both of its inputs are one, as show in this table:
Inputs Output
0 0 0
0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 0

XP
Abbreviation for extreme programming.

XrML (Extensible Rights Markup Language)
An XML-based language for specifying rights and conditions associated with digital content or services.

X server
The process that manages the screen, keyboard, and mouse in the X Windows system.

XT
The second model of IBM PC, introduced in 1983.

X terminal
A terminal that is actually a small computer capable of running the X Window System.

XUL (pronounced zool)
Extensible User-Interface Language. An XML-based language for defining graphical user interface elements such as buttons and dialog boxes.

X Window System (X Windows for short)
A software package for UNIX systems that allows programs to display text and graphics in Windows and respond to a mouse.

Y

Y
Online abbreviation for "Why?"

Y2k
Abbreviation for "year 2000."

Y2k compliant
Unaffected by the Year 2000 problem.

YMMV
Chat room talk meaning "your mileage may vary."

YMODEM
Extension and improvement of the XMODEM protocol that was used for file transfers.

Yahoo
A popular search engine for the World Wide Web.

y-axis
The vertical axis in an x-y coordinate system.

Year 2000 Problem
The problem caused by software that represents the year date as two digits (such as 99 for 1999) and thus does not recognize that 2000 comes after 1999. Instead the software interprets 00 as 1900. This causes mistakes in calculations that involve the date.

Yellow Book
The book that originally defined the Philips/Sony standard for recording data on CD-ROMS.

YKYBHTLW
Abbreviation for "you know you've hacking been hacking too long when."

YMMV
Online abbreviation for "Your mileage may vary."

Ymodem
Extension and improvement of the XModem protocol that was used for file transfers.

yotta-
Metric prefix means 10 to the 24th power.

Z

Z80An 8-bit microprocessor produced by Zilog, Inc., and used in microcomputers that ran the CP/M operating system in the 1980s.

z-axis

The direction toward and away from the viewer in a three-dimensional coordinate system.

z-buffer (3D program)

An editing buffer that allows the program to keep track of objects that are hidden from view by other objects.

Zero-Day Exploit
Abbreviated as 0-day exploit, it capitalized on vulnerabilities right after their discovery.

zetta
Prefix meaning 10 to the 21st power.

Zimmerman, Phil (1954-)
The inventor of "Pretty Good Privacy" or "PGP," an encryption program distributed worldwide to be used by the average computer user.

Zif socket (zero insertion force socket)
A socket to which an integrated circuit can be inserted without pressure.

Zip drive
A 100 or 250 megabyte removable-cartridge disk drive made by Iomega Corporation of Roy, Utah.

Zip file
A file containing files and/or directories compressed with WinZip, an earlier program called PKZIP, or the built-in ZIP compression feature of Windows.

ZModem
An asynchronous communications protocol providing faster data transfer rates and better error detection than Xmodem.

zombie
A computer infected by a virus that makes it perform some action on behalf of the virus author, such as a distributing SPAM or carrying out a distributed Denial-of-Service Attack.

zoom
To examine a small area of a document closely.

z-order
The arrangements of elements of an image from front to back.

z/OS
The newest operating system in the OS/360 lineage for IBM mainframe computers, combining MVS and UNIX capability.