Page 14 - Appendix Final

Choosing a higher setting produces a more attractive
and lifelike picture, but uses more of your graphics card's CPU (Central Processing Unit, or ‘processor’).
memory; depending on how much memory it contains, you A single ‘chip’ that contains the control unit and ALU
may have to reduce one of the other two settings to use a (Arithmetic Logic Unit) and is responsible for all the com-
high colour depth. puting functions carried out on your computer.
CRT (Cathode Ray Tube.)
COM Port (or Serial Port)
Com1, Com2, Com3, and so on...are the names delegated to CRT monitors where once very popular but have been, for
the most part, replaced by the flat screen monitor. They
each serial port or Com Port listed on you system.
were good value, with sharp clear displays and fast re-
Conflict sponse time; great for playing computer games. They
When the computer cannot decide what to do next. This can were, however, very heavy and cumbersome.
occur when two similar objects, a document, a system re- Cursor
course or component do not match or are mismatched. A
system reporting a conflict usually necessitates intervention The cursor is a small vertical line that flashes at an inser-
tion point and marks the place where typing starts. Seen in
by the user.
word processors, online forms and the box where you fill
Controller in a password. The cursor can be moved around with the
A circuit board or peripheral devices attached to the moth- arrow keys, spacebar and other selected keys like End and
erboard. The Controller manages individual operations and Home. Placing the mouse pointer anywhere within a docu-
communicates with the rest of the system. ment or box and clicking the mouse key will move the cur-
sor to that point

Context Menu
When you right-click with your mouse on any object within Cylinder (or Track1 or Track2 and so on …)
Windows a ‘Context menu’ of options opens. The options on Is the sum total of all the tracks ‘with the same num-
this menu vary according to what you’ve right-clicked; in oth- ber’ on a disk surface. On multi-platter disks the cylinder is
er words, they’re context-sensitive and apply only to that the sum total of all the tracks ‘with the same number, on
object. A different object may have different options. all disk surfaces

Control Panel Cut
A feature built into Windows that gives you access to differ- Removes any selected object or text from a document and
ent Settings and add-ons. They include things like an Unin- places it in the clipboard. The removed material is no long-
staller, Accounts Set-up, Performing system maintenance er available in the document. ( not to be confused with De-
and BitLocker for drive encryption. lete. see Delete). The Cut material can then be “Pasted” in
another location. Like “Copy” the cut material can be used
Cookie over and over again until it’s replaced, either by coping or
A small file (about 4KB) stored on your system and put there cutting new material into the clipboard.
by website owners. Some cookies can be very helpful. For
instance, First Party cookies, store information on purchases Data
Any electronic information sent by a computer or saved on
you make as you browse the website, storing your “Cart”
information, for when you decide to “Checkout”. Others, a computer. This can be text, numbers, sounds and pic-
however, can be intrusive like “tracking cookies”, storing in- tures… (see Datum).

formation about your general web browsing and reporting
back your net activities to the website that put the cookie on Database ( DBMS, Database Management System)
your system. A database is a collection of information stored in such a
way that a computer can retrieve any piece of that data
Coprocessor quickly. The information in a database is divided into
A second ‘processor’ design to help the main processor “fields” and “Records”. A field, say in an address book data-
(CPU). Like ‘Maths coprocessor’ or ‘Graphics coprocessor’ base, consists of one field for the name, another for the
street number and another for the street and yet another
Copy for the town…, and so on. A single Record contains all the
Copies any highlighted object or text into the clipboard fields for that one person in the address book. To make
(Memory) without removing or affecting, the highlighted sense of all the fields and Records you need the DBMS,
object. Retrieving the copied material from the clipboard program, often referred to as simply, a Database
requires you to “Paste” it into its new location. As long as the
copied material remains in the clipboard it can be pasted Data processing
over and over again. It is replaced in the clipboard if you Using a computer to manage any store information
should use the “Cut” option or if you ‘Copy’ new material
into the clipboard.
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