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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GIF

(Graphics Interchange Format) a type of graphic file developed by CompuServe utilizing Unisys technology, designed to compress graphics used on the Internet, allowing them to load quickly.

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giga (G)

derived from the Greek meaning giant, a metric prefix meaning X 1,000,000,000.

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Gigabit Ethernet

(GbE) is a term describing various technologies for implementing Ethernet networking at a nominal speed of one gigabit per second. Gigabit Ethernet is supported over both optical fiber and twisted pair cable. Physical layer standards include 1000BASE-T, 1 Gbit/s over cat-5e copper cabling and 1000BASE-SX for short to medium distances over fiber.

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gigabyte

approximately one billion bytes. Actually 1024 megabytes. Modern computer manufacturers usually measure hard drive storage capacity in gigabytes.

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GIGO

see garbage in garbage out.

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glitch

a small problem or malfunction associated with a computer hardware or software, though the term has evolved to include problems in many circles. see bug.

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gonk

slang term used in online chat rooms, bulletin boards, and other public forums, meaning to embellish or tell an outright lie.

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Gopher

a program maintained by the University of Minnesota using a menu-driven interface which compiles information gathered from the Internet and distills it into usable form.

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GOTO

a programming statement used in early computer programs such as Fortran and Basic. The use of this command has been limited since the 1970s when it was discovered to produce a great deal of erroneous data.

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GPL

(GNU General Public License) the license that accompanies the GNU software from the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and which is also available to distributors of other open source software. The GPL embodies the FSF's "copyleft" rule, which means that anyone is allowed to make changes in the source code and redistribute it as long as the changes are clearly marked, the derivative work is not sold and is also licensed under the GPL.