Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
ability.to.ensure.that.a.party.to.a.contract.or.a.com-
munication.cannot.deny.the.authenticity.of.their.sig-
nature. on. a. document. or. the. sending. of. a. message.
that.they.originated.
Off-Site:. A. location. separate. and. distinct. from. the. area.
in. which. something,. such. as. a. computer,. is. located..
Frequently.referred.to.when.considering.backup.storage.
Operating System:. Computer.programs.that.are.primarily.
or. entirely. concerned. with. controlling. the. computer.
and.its.associated.hardware,.rather.than.with.process-
ing. work. for. users.. Computers. can. operate. without.
application.software.but.cannot.run.without.an.oper-
ating.system.
. . Major. manufacturers. (IBM,. etc.). tend. to. use. pro-
prietary. operating. systems,. but. popular. commercial.
operating. systems. include. Unix,. Windows
®
. 95/98/
NT/2000/XP/7,. MacOS
®
,. OS/2
®
,. Linux
®
,. and.
DOS
®
.variants.
Patch:. Similar. to. a. “ix,”. a. patch. is. a. temporary. arrange-
ment.used.to.overcome.software.problems.or.glitches..
A.patch.will.normally.be.released.as.a.“quick.ix”.prior.
to. the. next. formal. release. of. the. software.. Patches.
are.usually.(but.not.always).available.online.from.the.
vendor's.Web.site.
Path:. In.IT.systems,.the.path.refers.to.the.location.of.a.ile.
or.directory.on.that.system..On.PCs.using.MS.DOS.or.
Windows,.the.path.is.as.follows:.driveletter:\directory-
name\sub-directoryname\ilename.sufix..In.Microsoft.
Windows,.the.term.
directory
.is.called.a.
folder
..(It.is.the.
same.thing.though.)
. . Unix.systems.are.similar.but.use.a.modiied.syntax,.
as.follows:../directory/subdirectory./.ilename.
Personally Identiiable Information:. Speciic. data,. ele-
ments. of. nonspeciic. aggregate. data,. or. other. infor-
mation.that.is.tied.to,.or.that.otherwise.identiies,.an.
individual.or.provides.information.about.an.individual.
in.a.way.that.is.reasonably.likely.to.enable.identiication.
