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Glossary
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Easy Access. Easy Access is a control panel provided by Apple that allows physically challenged users to substitute keyboard shortcuts for many common tasks in the Mac OS.
e-mail. Stands for electronic mail. An electronic message sent from one user to another.
e-mail address. An identifying number or word assigned to one person for sending and receiving electronic mail.
E-mail client. In an e-mail system, the program responsible for all the user interaction, such as reading and composing messages.
eject. To remove a floppy disk from a floppy disk drive.
ellipsis (...). Three tiny dots that appear next to commands on pull-down menus. the ellipsis tells you that the program will ask you for more information (via a dialog box).
embedded object. An OLE object may be embedded as opposed to linked. To embed, the OLE object is asked to save its data (a file, for instance) into a structured storage area in (or embed its data into) the container's storage. The OLE object then runs from the data in the storage, instead of from data in a (linked) file.
em dash. A special character used in typography, approximated by typing two hyphens (such as --), which is as wide as the letter M. Often used for added emphasis in text. (See also en dash.)
EIA. Short for Electronics Industries Association. A trade association representing the U.S. high technology community. It began in 1924 as the Radio Manufacturers Association. The EIA sponsors a number of activities on behalf of its members, including conferences and trade shows. In addition, it has been responsible for developing some important standards, such as the RS-232, RS-422 and RS-423 standards for connecting serial devices.
emoticon. Characters typed out to represent something, usually a face, in order to spice up dull e-mail messages and news group postings.
emulation. Mimicking the appearance and functionality of another program, computer, or computer accessory such as a printer of modem.
encryption. Converting data into an unreadable, unusable form, until it has been decrypted. The purpose of encryption is to protect information from being accessed by parties other than the intended receiver. For example, encrypted e-mail can only be viewed by the person it's addressed to, who typically has a code used to decrypt the message.
en dash. A single dash (-) that is the width of the letter N. En dashes are used to represent to, such as pages 64- 98. (See also em dash.)
end user. The person who winds up using a computer or program that someone else designed.
ethernet. A LAN network architecture originally developed by Xerox in 1976 and later standardized as IEEE 802.3. Designed to use a bus architecture and the CSMA-CD access method, and to transmit data at 10Mbps. Uses coaxial, twisted-pair, or fiber-optic cable.
event. Particular objects allow user interaction or monitor actions of the computer program or system. When something "happens," an event is triggered. For instance, when using a button object, the process of actually clicking on the button triggers a "click" event.
event-driver programming. A style of writing programs that waits for the user to press a key or a mouse button before doing anything else. When the user presses a key or mouse, it's called an event.
expanded memory. Memory used by DOS computer. Expanded memory is not memory "above" the 1MB mark on a PC. It is more like "beside" the basic 1MB of memory.
expansion bus. The part of the computer's bus that enables you to plug in expansion boards to give your computer more features. Nearly every computer sold these days has an expansion bus.
expansion card. A circuit board that is specifically designed to plug into a computer's expansion bus. Expansion cards usually give a computer more memory, and internal modem, or the capability to use a CD-ROM drive. (See also expansion bus and expansion slot.)
expansion slot. The physical opening in a computer's expansion bus that the expansion cards plug into.
extended memory. Memory used by 80286, '386, '486, and Pentium processors (and better) that goes beyond 1MB. It's memory that is used by high-power programs in DOS or by operating systems such as Windows, OS/2, or UNIX.
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