29-letter words containing f, a, i, t, o
- modified frequency modulation — (storage) (MFM, Modified FM, or sometimes "Multiple Frequency Modulation") A modification to the original frequency modulation scheme for encoding data on magnetic disks. MFM allows more than 1 symbol per flux transition (up to 3), giving greater density of data. It is used with a data rate of between 250-500 kbit/s on industry standard 3.5" and 5.25" low and high density diskettes, and up to 5 Mbit/s on ST-506 hard disks. Except for 1.44 MB floppy disks, this encoding is obsolete. Other data encoding schemes include GCR, FM, RLL. See also: PRML.
- non-uniform rational b spline — (graphics, mathematics) (nurbs) A common term in Mechanical CAD. The NURBS has excellent continuity characteristics which make it useful for creating accurate models in 3D geometry generation and computer modelling.
- not to have the foggiest idea — to have no idea whatsoever
- optimal flexible architecture — (database) (OFA) Recommendations for logical and physical allocation of database files to disks. The OFA principles can be summarised as: isolate redo, rollback, temp, data and index files as much as possible. OFA can be combined with SAME (Stripe And Mirror Everything).
- ordinary national certificate — a further education qualification in the United Kingdom, equivalent to two A Levels
- organization of african unity — an organization of African nations formed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (1963), for the purpose of coordinating policy and promoting unity among African peoples. Abbreviation: OAU, O.A.U.
- partial differential equation — a differential equation containing partial derivatives.
- presidential medal of freedom — a medal awarded by the president of the U.S. to any citizen who has made an exceptionally meritorious contribution to the security or national interest of the U.S., to world peace, or to cultural or other significant endeavors.
- professional graphics adapter — (graphics, specification) (PGA) A computer video display standard produced by IBM for early CAD applications. It had a resolution of 640x400 pixels.
- run something up the flagpole — to pursue a tentative course of action in order to gauge the reaction it receives
- secure file transfer protocol — SSH File Transfer Protocol
- shipshape and bristol fashion — in good order; efficiently arranged
- simple mail transfer protocol — (messaging) (SMTP) A protocol defined in STD 10, RFC 821, used to transfer electronic mail between computers, usually over Ethernet. It is a server to server protocol, so other protocols are used to access the messages. The SMTP dialog usually happens in the background under the control of the message transfer agent, e.g. sendmail but it is possible to interact with an SMTP server using telnet to connect to the normal SMTP port, 25. E.g. telnet mhs-relay.ac.uk 25 You should normally start by identifying the local host: HELO wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk You can then issue commands to verify an address or expand an alias: VRFY [email protected] VRFY postmaster or expand a mailing list: EXPN c-help You can even send a message: MAIL From:<[email protected]> RCPT To:<[email protected]> DATA What is the point? . QUIT This is useful if you want to find out exactly what is happening to your message at a certain point. See also Post Office Protocol, RFC 822, sendmail.
- sing from the same hymn sheet — If you say that people, especially people in the same organization, are singing from the same hymn sheet or are singing from the same song sheet, you mean that they are saying the same things in public about something and appear to agree about it.
- sing from the same song sheet — to say the same things about a subject in order to give the impression of unity or agreement
- software description database — (networking) Archie's database of names and short descriptions of many of the software packages, documents (like RFCs and educational material), and data files that are available via the Internet.
- system v interface definition — (SVID) A standard allowing source code portability between different platforms running Unix System V.
- take sb into one's confidence — If you take someone into your confidence, you tell them a secret.
- the five heads of predicables — five Aristotelian classes of predicates namely genus, species, difference, property, and relation
- to err on the side of caution — If you err on the side of caution, for example, you decide to act in a cautious way, rather than take risks.
- to have the time of your life — If you have the time of your life, you enjoy yourself very much indeed.
- to run the gamut of something — To run the gamut of something means to include, express, or experience all the different things of that kind, or a wide variety of them.
- translation look-aside buffer — (storage, architecture) (TLB) A table used in a virtual memory system, that lists the physical address page number associated with each virtual address page number. A TLB is used in conjunction with a cache whose tags are based on virtual addresses. The virtual address is presented simultaneously to the TLB and to the cache so that cache access and the virtual-to-physical address translation can proceed in parallel (the translation is done "on the side"). If the requested address is not cached then the physical address is used to locate the data in main memory. The alternative would be to place the translation table between the cache and main memory so that it will only be activated once there was a cache miss.
- trichloromethyl chloroformate — diphosgene.
- trust territory of new guinea — (until 1975) an administrative division of the former Territory of Papua and New Guinea, consisting of the NE part of the island of New Guinea together with the Bismarck Archipelago; now part of Papua New Guinea
- universal resource identifier — (web) (URI, originally "UDI" in some WWW documents) The generic set of all names and addresses which are short strings which refer to objects (typically on the Internet). The most common kinds of URI are URLs and relative URLs. URIs are defined in RFC 1630.
- until one is blue in the face — to the utmost degree; indefinitely
- visual basic for applications — (programming) (VBA) Microsoft's common language for manipulating components of its Microsoft Office suite. It is used as the macro language for these applications and is the primary means of customising and extending them. A VBA program operates on objects representing the application and the entities it manipulates, e.g. a spreadsheet or a range of cells in Microsoft Excel.
- war of the spanish succession — a war (1701–14) fought by Austria, England, the Netherlands, and Prussia against France and Spain, arising from disputes about the succession in Spain after the death of Charles II of Spain.
- wide area information servers — (networking, information science) (WAIS) A distributed information retrieval system. WAIS is supported by Apple Computer, Thinking Machines and Dow Jones. Clients are able to retrieve documents using keywords. The search returns a list of documents, ranked according to the frequency of occurrence of the keyword(s) used in the search. The client can retrieve text or multimedia documents stored on the server. WAIS offers simple natural language input, indexed searching for fast retrieval, and a "relevance feedback" mechanism which allows the results of initial searches to influence future searches. It uses the ANSI Z39.50 service. Public domain implementations are available. Other information retrieval systems include archie, Gopher, Prospero, and web.
- within earshot/out of earshot — If you are within earshot of someone or something, you are close enough to be able to hear them. If you are out of earshot, you are too far away to hear them.
- workflow management coalition — (body) (WfMc) A non-profit, international organisation of workflow vendors, users, and analysts committed to establishing standards for workflow terminology, interoperability, and connectivity. WfMC was founded in 1993 and now (1999) has over 130 members.
- you can't hear yourself think — If you say that you can't hear yourself think, you are complaining and emphasizing that there is a lot of noise, and that it is disturbing you or preventing you from doing something.