Tech
Terms: Do You Know What They Mean?
By
Annie Yu
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Some
of the technical terms we use in our daily work
were mentioned in our last issue. This issue,
we shall continue to provide definitions of
the ones that were often raised at the CSC Help
Desk.
SYSNET |
SYSNET,
the Systems and Network Technical Group,
was established in December 1999 primarily
for sharing of network and system administration
experience and increasing cooperation
with departments to tackle the technical
problems.
Since
many departmental facilities are managed
and supported by departments' technical
staff, close cooperation between technical
staff of departments and of the CSC are
therefore essential in order to achieve
a reliable and seamless integration while
maintaining effective distributed management.
Moreover, standards, compatibility and
consistency in setup, good practices in
operations, etc. across the entire campus
network will also have to be agreed and
adopted.
Members
of the group are nominated by departments
who are responsible for managing the departmental
facility. The objectives of the group
are as follows:
-
Exchange information on access to departmental
and central computer facilities with
aims to improving existing facilities
and to establishing new ones.
- Exchange
ideas on resource planning, management,
and monitoring as well as on policy
formulation for central and departmental
facilities.
- Issue
and receive timely alerts on service
interruption, virus, security, and performance.
- Discuss
technical issues such as: standards,
common practices, configurations, settings,
compatibility, etc and their subsequent
adoption and implementation.
- Discuss
and resolve problems encountered in
relation to systems and networks.
- Assist
in deploying and in evaluating pilot
tests on new departmental and central
services.
It
is expected that the members are the administrators
of systems/networks or the technical staff
in the departments who are willing to
contribute his expertise, time and effort
to serve the University community.
|
CityTV |
Through
e-Portal, users can select to view a total
of 16 channels of in-house TV broadcast
and commercial TV programmes. Simply click
the "Campus Life" tab under
e-Portal and you will find "CityTV
on the left of the page OR if you prefer,
you could access the page directly at
http://www.cityu.edu.hk/CityTV/index.htm.
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Disk
Quota |
A
disk quota is the amount of space assigned
to each user for file storage on a given
computer.
On
shared systems, every user has a maximum
disk quota. This prevents any individual
from using more than his or her fair share
of disk space. In order to keep from exceeding
quota, you must be sure to periodically
remove old, unused, and unneeded files.
To check disk quota, for example, the
email quota usage, you may access "Quota
& Account Profile" at http://email.cityu.edu.hk/.
For enquiries on disk quota of other accounts
such as the departmental Web accounts,
simply contact the CSC Help Desk.
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FTP |
FTP
stands for File Transfer Protocol. As
the name implies, it allows a user on
one host to access, and transfer files
to and from, another host over a computer
network. You can use FTP to exchange files
between computer accounts, to transfer
files between an account and a desktop
computer, or to access software archives
on the Internet. Using graphical FTP clients
simplifies file transfers by allowing
you to transmit files by dragging and
dropping icons between windows. When you
open the program, you will have to enter
the name of the machine (e.g. www2.cityu.edu.hk)
and your username and password.
To
select the FTP client program, simply
choose "File Transfer Using WS_FTP
LE Setup" under "Software for
Windows 2000/XP" on the "Work
Desk" page.
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IP
Number/Address |
Your
IP address is your computer's unique address
on the Internet. It is different from
the MAC address (see http://www.cityu.edu.hk/csc/netcomp/mar2004-7.htm)
of your Ethernet card. Your IP address
has four numeric segments separated by
periods, e.g., 999.999.999.999. At City
University, most IP addresses begin with
144.214.
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PCMCIA |
PCMCIA
stands for Personal Computer Memory Card
International Association. PCMCIA is a
non-profit trade association and standards
body consisting of some 500 companies.
PCMCIA has developed a standard for small,
credit card-sized devices, called PC cards
that are often used in notebook computers.
(Adapters are available that allow PC
cards to be used in desktop computer systems.)
You can visit the PCMCIA Web site at http://www.pcmcia.org.
In
the past, the cards were known as PCMCIA
cards, but they are now referred to as
PC cards, PC card hosts, and PC card software.
PCMCIA refers to the association and standards
body.
A
PC card slot is an expansion slot often
found in notebook computers that allows
for the easy and quick addition of a host
of different devices. PC cards are plug-and-play
devices that allows you to change cards
on the fly under Windows 95 and above
except Windows NT. The following is a
list of common PC card devices:
- CD-ROM
interface
- Cellular
phone interface
- Docking
station interface
- 10Mbps
Ethernet LAN adapters
- 100Mbps
Ethernet adapters
- GPS
(Global Positioning System) cards
- Hard
drives
- Infrared
wireless LAN adapters
- ISDN
cards
- Joystick
interface cards
- Memory
cards
- Modem
and Ethernet combination cards
- Parallel
port interface
- SCSI
adapters
- Serial
port interface
- Sound
cards, input and output
- Video
capture/frame grabber cards
- Video
teleconferencing card
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WinZip |
WinZip
is a Windows-based program that allows
you to compress files and open previously
compressed files in the zip format.
Apart
from zip files, WinZip also has built-in
support for most popular file compression
and archive formats, including tar, UUencode,
MIME, BinHex (.hqx), cabinet (.cab) and
gzip. You do not need to worry if the
file being received is UUencoded, XXencoded,
BinHex, or a MIME file (base64, plain/text,
and quoted-printable). WinZip will detect
the method being used and automatically
decode it.
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Burn
disk |
It
is a slang term meaning to write data
to a CD-ROM disk.
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