Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the. power. generator. be. tested. and. serviced. periodi-
cally,. in. accordance. with. the. manufacturer's. recom-
mendations..It.is.also.vital.to.ensure.that.fresh.gasoline.
replaces.unused.gasoline.each.year,.and.that.there.are.
adequate.supplies.available.
BIOS:. Basic.Input.Output.System.of.a.personal.computer..
The.BIOS.contains.the.code.that.results.in.the.load-
ing.(booting).of.a.computer's.operating.system.(e.g.,.
Microsoft. Windows
®
).. The. BIOS. also. controls. the.
low. of. data. to. and. from. the. operating. system. and.
peripheral. devices,. such. as. printer,. hard. disk,. key-
board,.and.mouse.
Boot:. Starting.up.a.PC.or.server..Verbal.shorthand.for.“Kick.
it.'til.it.wakes.up.”.The.origin.of.this.term.is.that.boot-
ing.or,.system.startup,.is.a.process.requiring.a.piece.of.
“bootstrap”.code.in.the.BIOS.of.the.computer,.which.
starts.the.load-up.of.the.operating.system.
Boot Disk:. CD-ROM. or. loppy. disk. used. to. start. a. PC. or.
server.when.it.cannot.do.so.from.the.hard.drive..Boot.
disks.are.often.used.when.there.is.a.problem.with.a.
hard.drive,.but.equally.may.be.used.as.a.key.disk.secu-
rity. feature. when. a. PC. has. been. deliberately. conig-
ured.by.technical.staff.to.refuse.to.run.without.the.key.
disk.present.
Bot:. Short. for. robot,. the. term. describes. little. programs.
designed.to.perform.automated.tasks.on.the.Internet.
such.as.indexing,.looking/watching.for.message.con-
tents,. or. acting. as. avatars. (human. surrogates).. On.
IRC,. Bots. can. be. malicious. by. cloning. themselves,.
(clonebots),. or. looding. the. IRC. channels. with. gar-
bage. (loodbots).. There. are. hundreds. of. different.
types. of. Bots. including,. by. some. deinitions,. agents.
and.crawlers.
Browser:. Also.known.as.a.Web.browser;.software.used.to.
make. contact. with. Web. sites. on. both. the. Internet.
and. internal. intranets.. The. topic. of. software. houses.
development. and. use. of. browsers. is. controversial.
