PRENTICE HALL'S ILLUSTRATED DICTIONARY OF COMPUTING
(Second Edition)
By Jonar Nader
Accurate research figures and up-to-date industry analysis were essential ingredients in the preparation of this second edition.
Published by Simon & Schuster
691 pages, Paperback
ISBN 0 13 205725 5
Published by Simon & Schuster
691 pages, Paperback
ISBN 0 13 205725 5
Accurate research figures and up-to-date industry analysis were essential ingredients in the preparation of this second edition.
Valuable information was afforded by the consultants and from the archives and libraries of IDC (International Data Corporation), which provided Jonar with a wealth of industry-specific intelligence gathered from the USA, Australia, and Europe.
Excerpt from the Second Edition
‘The saddest thing is that to this day, visionaries still have to pay a high price for their foresight.
‘Readers might expect me to support the notion that “computers have advanced the world”. Instead, I suggest that computers have become the haven for inefficiency and failure; and a burden unto businesses and individuals.
‘The fact that you are using this book leads me to suspect that you belong to the “immediate response” society that we have all been guilty of establishing. The error does not lie in our fine technological achievements, but in the little training and lack of standards.
‘In a recent court case between two computer giants over the technical implications of the use of the term “IBM compatible”, a senior judge (from the United States District Court from the Southern District of New York) determined that it is imperative for practitioners within the computer industry to take extra care when using common terms, particularly when this industry is primarily concerned with, and depends upon, accuracy. The judge concluded that it would be an anomaly for responsible organisations to exercise anything other than precision.’
What the critics said
The book is halfway to being an encyclopaedia, with good, readable articles. As a bonus, a useful style manual is appended to the book offering useful hints on writing. The book is essential for anyone who has to deal with computers.
Andrew Cameron, PC User
As up-to-date as a dictionary can be.
Paul Zucker, PC User
Highly recommended.
Multimedia Magazine
The accurate and current information presented will keep you up-to-date with advances in new technology.
Desktop Magazine
This book does differ from most of its competitors in a few important ways.
Adam MacEwen, PC Week
This dictionary is an excellent reference book.
Philip French, Sci-tech News
A fine resource for workers in the field.
Paul Pause, ComputerUser
Nader’s style is easy and pleasant to read. His definitions are clear and as simple as they can be.
Bob Nadler, The Suburbanite
I know I have a reliable source to consult when I am unsure of a particular term, acronym or product.
Karen Hunt, PC Week
It remains the best book of its type.
Graeme Philipson, MIS Magazine
The style manual will prove to be very useful for those technical people writing the occasional reports. I feel that the book is well suited to those entering a new field in computing.
Jagoda Crawford, Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
Jonar’s dictionary is testimony o his quest for perfection.
Steven Lloyd, The Glebe and Western Weekly
This dictionary is one of the best that I have seen, and will remain one of the few books that I will have permanently on my desk.
David Ives, The Canberra Times
Test your computer literacy
Is a backup
1. Something you do when you get annoyed?
2. The place you go after having come down?
3. The disk or tape on which data are duplicated for safety?
How many of the following are computer terms?
BUS
BRIDGE
CRASH
CAR
HIGHWAY
NEST
Which is the odd one out?
chinaware
courseware
crippleware
firmware
freeware
groupware
hardware
shareware
shelfware
software
vaporware
We all know that WYSIWYG is the acronym for ‘what you see is what you get’, but what on Earth is WYPIWYFIWYCIWYS?
Which is the odd one out?
BULLET
BOMB
MOUSE
BUG
BLOB
Which is the correct way to abbreviate ‘megabyte’?
M
MB
M-B
Meg
MByte
Mbyte
M-Byte
M-byte
mbyte
mb
mByte
m-byte
MgB
mgB
Which of these words is an insult?
DINGBAT
TWISTED PAIR
FLOP
DONGLE
DROP-OUT
WORM
DRIP-FEED
TIFF
TRAPDOOR
CLONE
NODE
CAD
Which of these are bogus numbers?
billion
centillion
decillion
duodecillion
milliard
million
nontillion
novemdecillion
octillion
octodecillion
quadrillion
quattuordecillion
quindecillion
quintillion
septendecillion
septillion
sexdecillion
sextillion
tredecillion
trillion
undecillion
vigintillion
zillion
Rank these in order, from the smallest to the largest:
exabyte
gigabyte
hectobyte
kilobyte
megabyte
petabyte
terabyte
Rank these in order, from the smallest to the largest:
femtosecond
microsecond
millisecond
nanosecond
picosecond
You might have thought that a CD-ROM is a CD-ROM. This is not the case. In the world of optical disks, which of the following do not belong?
CD-DA
CD-G
CD-I
FMV
CD-I
CD-I Ready
CD-MIDI
CD-ROM XA
CD-ROM
CD-V
CD-WORM
DAT
EB
EB-XA
HDTV LD
LD
LD-G
LD-ROM
LDD
LP
MD
OMD
Photo CD
VDR
VSD
If your car is equivalent in speed to an Intel Pentium processor, and your neighbour’s car is equivalent in speed to an original Intel 4004 processor, where would your neighbour be by the time you have completed a 200 kilometre non-stop round-trip?
If a person were employed to clap once every second for eight hours a day, from Monday to Friday for four years (and if each clap were imagined to be one instruction), then how long would it take an average computer to complete a similar task?
How long would it take for a supercomputer to complete what would take 5000 years to perform on a calculator (assuming that one calculation were performed every second, 24 hours a day, for 3000 years)?
If every person on Earth had a calculator and each performed non-stop calculations for one minute, then by comparison, how long would it take a computer operating at one teraFLOP to perform the same amount of work?
Answer 1
The disk or tape on which data are duplicated for safety.
Answer 2
All of them are computer terms.
Answer 3
Chinaware.
Answer 4
What you print is what you fax is what you copy is what you see.
Answer 5
Although they are all computer terms, ‘mouse’ is the only hardware device.
Answer 6
None of the above!
Answer 7
These words are important computer terms. If you find them offensive, just wait until you see some of the others.
Answer 8
The only non-existent number is ‘zillion’. All the rest are official numbers, with ‘centillion’ being the highest.
Answer 9
hectobyte 10 , kilobyte 10 , megabyte 10 , gigabyte 10 , terabyte 10 , petabyte 10 , exabyte 10 .
Answer 10
millisecond 10 , microsecond 10 , nanosecond 10 , picosecond 10 , femtosecond 10 .
Answer 11
LP and DAT do not belong to this family of optical disks.
Answer 12
Your neighbour would not have had the time to start the car’s engine before you return.
Answer 13
A slow microprocessor rated at 27 MIPS can perform in one second what would take that employee four years to accomplish.
Answer 14
Much less than one second.
Answer 15
One second.
Other editions
Prentice Hall's Illustrated Dictionary of Computing (Third Edition)
This book was the world’s first comprehensive and most extensive dictionary on the market. It was also the first to incorporate international standards, and to include a style manual (for improved communication) and market data from IDC.
Published by Pearson Education
795 pages, Paperback
ISBN 0 13 095104 8
Prentice Hall's Illustrated Dictionary of Computing (First Edition)
This was the first edition that started the successful series. It contains quotable quotes and fascinating industry insight. It looks at the people, the products, and the companies that made the industry what it is today.
Published by Paramount Communications
527 pages, Paperback
ISBN 0 13 719998 8