Select the first letter of the word from the list above to jump to appropriate section of the glossary or type the term on which you want to search.

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adaptive equipment

devices of many varieties, some computer controlled or activated, designed to assist people with physical limitations.

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ADC

see analog-to-digital converter.

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address

a number that identifies the location of data, usually on the main disk, but possibly on a server.

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Adobe Acrobat

a reader that decodes, reads and converts documents to the Portable Document Format (PDF). This program allows scalable graphics and type to be displayed and printed from any computer and from any platform (Macintosh, Windows, DOS, or UNIX) regardless of the fonts or software programs used to create the original. Acrobat is freely available for downloading on many Websites. see PDF.

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Adobe Systems Inc

. Adobe Systems Inc. is a provider of graphic design, publishing, and imaging software for Web and print production. The company offers a line of application software products for creating, distributing, and managing information of all types. Many graphic designers feel Adobe programs have set the industry standard for design and publishing software.

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ADSL

(Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is a form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional modem can provide.

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agent

software operating in the background that performs an automatic and silent task such as information gathering.

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AGP

(Accelerated Graphics Port) a high-speed 32-bit port from Intel for attaching a display adapter to a PC. It provides a direct connection between the card and memory, and only one AGP slot is on the motherboard. AGP was introduced as a higher-speed alternative to PCI display adapters, and it freed a PCI slot for another peripheral device. The brown AGP slot is slightly shorter than the white PCI slot and is located about an inch farther back. AGP is superseded by PCI Express.

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airbrush

a creative tool in many paint programs that simulates the action of a real paint gun on the computer screen. see spray can.

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ALGOL

(Algorithmic Language) developed in the 1950s and early 1960s by an international committee, an early programming language that was the basis for Pascal.