19-letter words containing d, e, n, r
- data protection act — (legal) (DPA) A UK law guaranteeing rights to individuals in relation to personal data that others hold on them. For example, under the DPA, you have the right to see what data a company holds on you.
- data terminal ready — (communications) (DTR) The wire in a full RS-232 connection that tells the Data Communication Equipment (DCE, typically a modem) that the Data Terminal Equipment (DTE, typically a computer or terminal) is ready to transmit and receive data.
- datatron 200 series — (computer) A family of computers produced by Burroughs that included the Datatron 204 and Datatron 220.
- davy jones's locker — the bottom of the sea; grave of those drowned at sea or buried there
- de broglie equation — the postulate of wave mechanics that a particle of mass m moving at a velocity v will have the properties of a wave of wavelength h / mv (de Broglie wavelength) where h is Planck's constant.
- de-compartmentalize — to divide into categories or compartments.
- de-internationalize — to make international, as in scope or character: a local conflict that was internationalized into a major war.
- de-militarised zone — (networking) (DMZ) (From the military term for an area between two opponents where fighting is prevented) DMZ Ethernets connect networks and computers controlled by different bodies. They may be external or internal. External DMZ Ethernets link regional networks with routers to internal networks. Internal DMZ Ethernets link local nodes with routers to the regional networks. Compare red zone.
- deacetyltransferase — (enzyme) Any of a class of enzymes that remove acetyl groups, especially from a lysine residue of a histone.
- debugging by printf — (programming) The debugging technique where the programmer inserts print statements into a program so that when run the program leaves a "trail of breadcrumbs" allowing him to see which parts were executed. The information output may just be a short string to indicate that a particular point in the code has been reached or it might be a complete stack trace. The output typically just goes to the window or terminal in which the program is running or may be written to a log file.
- declaration of love — a statement made by one person to another in which they say they are in love with the other person
- declare an interest — to make known one's connection, esp a prejudicial connection, with an affair
- defence expenditure — the amount that a country spends on military measures or resources
- deflate compression — deflate
- deflationary spiral — Geometry. a plane curve generated by a point moving around a fixed point while constantly receding from or approaching it.
- deindustrialisation — Alternative spelling of deindustrialization.
- deindustrialization — the decline in importance of manufacturing industry in the economy of a nation or area
- demon internet ltd. — (company) One of the first company to provide public Internet access in the UK. The staff of Demon Systems Ltd., an established software house, started Demon Internet on 1992-06-01 and it was the first system in the United Kingdom to offer low cost full Internet access. It was started with the support of about 100 founder members who discussed the idea on Compulink Information Exchange, and were brave enough to pay a year's subscription in advance. They aimed to have 200 members in the first year to cover costs, ignoring any time spent. After about two weeks they realised they needed nearer 400. By November 1993 they had over 2000 subscribers and by August 1994 they had about 11000 with 20% per month growth. All revenues have been reinvested in resources and expansion of service. Demon link to Sprintlink in the United States making them totally independent. They peer with EUNet and PIPEX to ensure good connectivity in Great Britain as well as having links to the JANET/JIPS UK academic network. A direct line into the Department of Computing, Imperial College, London from their Central London Point of Presence (PoP) (styx.demon.co.uk) gives access to the biggest FTP and Archie site in Europe. Demon provide local call access to a large proportion of the UK. The central London PoP provides leased line connections at a cheaper rate for those customers in the central 0171 area. Further lines and PoPs are being added continuously. Subscribers get allocated an Internet Address and can choose a hostname within the demon.co.uk domain. They can have any number of e-mail address at that host. In October 1994 Demon confirmed a large contract with the major telecommunications provider Energis. They will supply guaranteed bandwidth to Demon's 10Mb/s backbone from several cities and towns. Several PoPs will be phased out and replaced with others during 1995. E-mail: <[email protected]>. Telephone: +44 (181) 349 0063. Address: Demon Internet Ltd., 42 Hendon Lane, Finchley, London N3 1TT, UK.
- demonstration model — a nearly new product, such as a car or washing machine, that has been used only to demonstrate its performance by a dealer and is offered for sale at a discount
- dendrochronological — Pertaining to dendrochronology.
- dendrogeomorphology — (geology) the science that uses dendrochronology to study changes to the Earth's surface over time.
- dental receptionist — a receptionist working in a dental surgery
- deoxycorticosterone — a corticosteroid hormone important in maintaining sodium and water balance in the body
- deoxyribonucleoside — a compound composed of deoxyribose and either a purine or a pyrimidine.
- deoxyribonucleotide — an ester of a deoxyribonucleoside and phosphoric acid; a constituent of DNA.
- department chairman — the chairman of a university department
- department of labor — the department of the U.S. federal government that promotes and improves the welfare, opportunities, and working conditions of wage earners. Abbreviation: DOL.
- department of state — the department of the U.S. federal government that sets forth and maintains the foreign policy of the U.S., especially in negotiations with foreign governments and international organizations. Abbreviation: DOS.
- departmentalisation — Alternative spelling of departmentalization.
- departmentalization — to divide into departments.
- dependable software — software reliability
- dereliction of duty — Dereliction of duty is deliberate or accidental failure to do what you should do as part of your job.
- design in real time — (programming) (Dirt) A user interface builder for the X Window System by R. Hesketh.
- detective inspector — a police officer who investigates crime and who ranks above a detective sergeant but below a detective chief inspector
- devils-on-horseback — a savoury of prunes wrapped in bacon slices and served on toast
- diamond anniversary — a 60th, or occasionally 75th, anniversary
- diamond ring effect — a phenomenon, sometimes observed immediately before and after a total eclipse of the sun, in which one of Baily's beads is much brighter than the others, resembling a diamond ring around the moon.
- diamond-leaf laurel — a tree, Pittosporum rhombifolium, of Australia, having coarsely toothed, oval or diamond-shaped leaves and white flowers, widely planted as an ornamental in the southwestern U.S.
- dictionary of names — a dictionary of given names that indicates whether a name is usually male, female, or unisex and often includes origins as well as meanings; for example, as by indicating that Evangeline, meaning “good news,” comes from Greek. Used primarily as an aid in selecting a name for a baby, dictionaries of names may also include lists of famous people who have shared a name and information about its current popularity ranking.
- dielectric constant — Electricity. the ratio of the flux density produced by an electric field in a given dielectric to the flux density produced by that field in a vacuum.
- dielectric strength — the maximum voltage that can be applied to a given material without causing it to break down, usually expressed in volts or kilovolts per unit of thickness.
- difference equation — (mathematics) A relation between consecutive elements of a sequence. The first difference is D u(n) = u(n+1) - u(n) where u(n) is the nth element of sequence u. The second difference is u(n+2) + a u(n+1) + b u(n) = 0 can be converted to a difference equation (in this case, a second order linear difference equation): D2 u(n) + p D u(n) + q u(n) = 0 and vice versa. a, b, p, q are constants.
- differential backup — (operating system) A kind of backup that copies all files that have changed since the last full backup. Each differential backup will include all files in previous differential backups since the full backup so to restore a version of a file, you only need to search the full backup and the relevant differential backup. Some systems support differential backup by associating an "Archive" flag with each file and setting this flag whenever the file is modified to indicate that it should be included in the next backup. A differential backup does not change this flag, whereas an incremental backup resets it.
- differential driver — (hardware) An electronic device (commonly an integrated circuit), containing two amplifiers, used to drive a differential line.
- diffraction pattern — the phenomenon exhibited by wave fronts that, passing the edge of an opaque body, are modulated, thereby causing a redistribution of energy within the front: it is detectable in light waves by the presence of a pattern of closely spaced dark and light bands (diffraction pattern) at the edge of a shadow.
- dig one's own grave — If you say that someone is digging their own grave, you are warning them that they are doing something foolish or dangerous that will cause their own failure.
- digital electronics — (electronics) The implementation of two-valued logic using electronic logic gates such as and gates, or gates and flip-flops. In such circuits the logical values true and false are represented by two different voltages, e.g. 0V for false and +5V for true. Similarly, numbers are normally represented in binary using two different voltages to represented zero and one. Digital electronics contrasts with analogue electronics which represents continuously varying quantities like sound pressure using continuously varying voltages. Digital electronics is the foundation of modern computers and digital communications. Massively complex digital logic circuits with millions of gates can now be built onto a single integrated circuit such as a microprocessor and these circuits can perform millions of operations per second.
- digital linear tape — (storage) (DLT) A kind of magnetic tape drive originally developed by DEC and now marketed by Quantum. DLT drives implement the Digital Lempel Ziv 1 (DLZ1) compression algorithm in a combination of hardware and firmware. They use a popular chip by Stac (now hi/fn) to do the string searching. Counting, sorting and Huffman coding are done in firmware (with hardware support for the Huffman algorithm?). In April 1997 DLT drives can transfer 5 megabytes per second and can store 35 gigabytes on a single cartridge. Compression might roughly double these figures.
- dihydrostreptomycin — an antibiotic, C 21 H 41 N 7 O 12 , derived by organic synthesis from and believed to be less toxic than streptomycin: used in the form of its sulfate chiefly in the treatment of tuberculosis.
- dihydrotestosterone — (steroid) An androgenic metabolite of testosterone; used to treat certain breast cancers.