C#

C# is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm programming language encompassing strong typing, imperative, declarative, functional, generic, object-oriented, and component-oriented programming disciplines.

C++

C++ is a general-purpose programming language. It has imperative, object-oriented and generic programming features, while also providing facilities for low-level memory manipulation.

C-HTML

Compact HTML, is a markup language for Web access that is designed especially for small computing devices. Most of the processing-intensive components of HTML have been removed in C-HTML.

C-Leg

Computerised prosthetic leg.

C-RIMM

Continuity-RIMM. Since there cannot be any unused RIMM slots on a motherboard, a C-RIMM is a special module used to fill any unused RIMM slots. It is basically a RIMM module without any memory chips.

Cache

A store of easily accessible memory in your computer containing downloads, bookmarks and other data.

CAD

Computer-Aided Design.

CAD/CAM

Computer-Aided Design / Computer-Aided Manufacturing.

CADD

Computer-Aided Design and Drafting.

CAE

Computer-Aided Engineering.

CAML

Categorical Abstract Machine Language.

CAN

Campus-Area Network. An interconnection of local-area networks within a limited geographical space, such as a school campus or a military base.

Canonical Tags

A canonical tag is a way of telling search engines that a specific URL represents the master copy of a page. Using the canonical tag prevents problems caused by identical or "duplicate" content appearing on multiple URLs.

Captcha

A captcha is program used to verify that a human, rather than a computer, is entering data. Captchas are commonly seen at the end of online forms and ask the user to enter text from a distorted image.

CAS

Column Address Strobe, a signal, or strobe, sent by the processor to a DRAM circuit to activate a column address.

CASE

Computer-Aided Software Engineering.

Catfishing

Catfishing is a type of deceptive activity where a person creates a sockpuppet social networking presence, or fake identity on a social network account, usually targeting a specific victim for deception. Catfishing is often employed for romance scams on dating websites.

CBDPTA

Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act.

C&C

Command and Control.

CCITT

Comit� Consultatif International T�l�phonique et T�l�graphique, an organisation that sets international communications standards. CCITT, now known as ITU (the parent organisation) has defined many important standards for data communications.

CCNA

Cisco Certified Network Associate.

CCNP

Cisco Certified Network Professional.

CCOW

Clinical Context Object Workgroup, is a group that defines standards for collaboration among visual (GUI-based) applications on clinical workstations. It is now technical committee of HL7.

CDDI

Copper Data Distribution Interface, is a network technology capable of carrying data at 100 Mbps over UTP cable. CDDI cable lengths are limited to 100 meters.

CDE

Common Data Environment, is simply a digital place in which the information comes together. With vast amounts of digital data being created and shared during a project's lifecycle, the CDE becomes an ideal environment in which to promote a collaborative working culture.

CDF

Channel Definition Format, a specification that allows Web publishers to push content at users. Once a user subscribes to a CDF channel, any software that supports the CDF format will automatically receive new content posted on the channel's Web server.

CDFS

CD-ROM File System, the Windows 95 driver for CD-ROM players. CDFS replaces MSCDEX, which was used for DOS and Windows 3.x systems. Unlike MSCDEX, which is a 16-bit program that runs only in real mode, CDFS is a 32-bit program that runs in protected mode. In addition, it uses the VCACHE driver to control the CD-ROM disk cache, which results in much smoother playback.

CDMA

Code-Division Multiple Access, a digital cellular technology that uses spread-spectrum techniques. Unlike competing systems, such as GSM, that use TDMA, CDMA does not assign a specific frequency to each user. Instead, every channel uses the full available spectrum. Individual conversations are encoded with a pseudo-random digital sequence.

CDN

Content Delivery Network, or Content Distribution Network, is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers.

CEH

(1) Certified Ethical Hacker is a skilled professional who understands and knows how to look for weaknesses and vulnerabilities in target systems and uses the same knowledge and tools as a malicious hacker, but in a lawful and legitimate manner to assess the security posture of a target system(s).
(2) Customer Engagement Hub is an architectural framework that ties multiple systems together to optimally engage the customer.

CEO

Chief Executive Officer.

CERN

Conseil Europ�en pour la Recherche Nucl�aire. A particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland where pioneering work in developing the www part of the Internet took place.

CERT

(1) Computer Emergency Response Team.

(2) Computer Emergency Readiness Team.

CFML

Cold Fusion Markup Language. An extension of HTML this is a markup language designed to be used with Cold Fusion Application Servers. Pages with extension .cfm are recognised by it.

CGEIT

Certified in the Governance of Enterprise Information Technology.

CGI

Common Gateway Interface, a specification for transferring information between a World Wide Web server and a CGI program. A CGI program is any program designed to accept and return data that conforms to the CGI specification. The program could be written in any programming language, including C, Perl, Java, or Visual Basic. CGI programs are the most common way for Web servers to interact dynamically with users. Many HTML pages that contain forms, for example, use a CGI program to process the form's data once it's submitted. Another increasingly common way to provide dynamic feedback for Web users is to include scripts or programs that run on the user's machine rather than the Web server. These programs can be Java applets, Java scripts, or ActiveX controls. These technologies are known collectively as client-side solutions, while the use of CGI is a server-side solution because the processing occurs on the Web server. One problem with CGI is that each time a CGI script is executed, a new process is started. For busy Web sites, this can slow down the server noticeably. A more efficient solution, but one that it is also more difficult to implement, is to use the server's API, such as ISAPI or NSAPI.

Channel

1) In communications, the term channel refers to a communications path between two computers or devices.  It can refer to the physical medium (the wires) or to a set of properties that distinguishes one channel from another. For example, TV channels refer to particular frequencies at which radio waves are transmitted. IRC channels refer to specific discussions.

(2) For IBM PS/2 computers, a channel is the same as an expansion bus.

(3) In sales and marketing, the way in which a vendor communicates with and sells products to consumers.

CHAP

Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol. Supported on lines using PPP encapsulation, it is a security feature that identifies the remote end, helping keep out unauthorised users. It is a newer, more secure protocol than PAP.

Chassis

Alternatively referred to as the case and sometimes referred to as the system unit or base unit. The chassis is the housing that helps protect and organize all the components that make up a desktop computer.

Chat Room

A virtual room where a chat session takes place. Technically, a chat room is really a channel, but the term room is used to promote the chat metaphor.

Chatter's Block

A type of mental block that can affect some people in chat rooms. The chatter feels that their message needs to be perfect and will often keep editing and rewording, perhaps without ever sending it.

Checkpoints

A certain part or time to allow for a restart at the last point that the data was saved.

Checksum

A simple error-detection scheme in which each transmitted message is accompanied by a numerical value based on the number of set bits in the message. The receiving end then applies the same formula to the message and checks to make sure the accompanying numerical value is the same. If not, it assumes that the message has been corrupted.

CHIME

Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, is an interferometric radio telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in British Columbia, Canada.

Chinook

Chinook is a computer program that plays checkers / draughts.

Chrome

A web browser by Google.

CIA

Certified Internal Auditor.

CICS

Customer Information Control System, a TP monitor from IBM that was originally developed to provide transaction processing for IBM mainframes. It controls the interaction between applications and users and lets programmers develop screen displays without detailed knowledge of the terminals being used.
CICS is also available on non-mainframe platforms including the RS/6000, AS/400 and OS/2 -based PCs.

CIDR

Classless InterDomain Routing. A method supported by classless routing protocols, such as OSPF.

CIMI

Clinical Information Modeling Initiative, is a group of data modelers that are attempting to enumerate the detailed models of hundreds to thousands of medical ideas to achieve consensus among clinicians.

CIR

Committed Information Rate, is a specified amount of guaranteed bandwidth on a Frame Relay service. More frames can be delivered than the rate agreed, but that level is not guaranteed.

CISA

Certified Information Systems Auditor.

CISC

Complex Instruction Set Computer. Most personal computers, use a CISC architecture.

CISM

Certified Information Security Manager.

CISSP

Certified Information System Security Professional.

CITP

Chartered Information Technology Professional.

CIW

Certified Internet Webmaster.

clDNN

Compute Library for Deep Neural Networks, is a middle-ware software for accelerating DNN inference.

Click Rate

A Web marketing term that describes the number of clicks on a Web ad against the number of views or downloads of the ad.

Clickbait

Clickbait is a text or thumbnail link that is designed to entice users to follow that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content.

Clicks And Mortar

A company that has a business on the internet and on the high street.

Client

A programme which retrieves and displays or stores data from a server.

Cloaking

(1) Also known as stealth, a technique used by some Web sites to deliver one page to a search engine for indexing while serving an entirely different page to everyone else. There are opposing views as to whether or not cloaking is ethical. Opponents see it as a bait-and-switch, where a Web server is scripted to look out for search engines that are spidering in order to create an index of search results. The search engine thinks it is selecting a prime match to its request based on the meta tags that the site administrator has input. However, the search result is misleading because the meta tags do not correspond to what actually exists on the page. Some search engines, such as Lycos, Hotbot and Excite, even ban cloaked Web sites. Proponents of cloaking assert that cloaking is necessary in order to protect the meta data, as only the spider is supplied with the meta tags.
(2) In e-mail distribution, cloaking is the act of masking the name and address of the sender so that the recipient does not know who sent the e-mail.

Cloud

Otherwise known as the Internet.

Cloud Computing

Combining Virtualization, Utility Computing and SaaS, in order to use the internet for your computing needs such as running software apps on the web.

CLR

Common Language Runtime, is a managed execution environment that is part of Microsoft’s .NET framework.

CLS

Common Language Specification, is a fundamental set of language features supported by the Common Language Runtime of the .NET Framework.

Cluster

A group of two or more sectors on a computer disk, also known as an allocation unit.

Clustering

In computers, clustering is the use of multiple computers, typically PCs or UNIX workstations, multiple storage devices, and redundant interconnections, to form what appears to users as a single highly available system. Clustering can be used for load balancing as well as for high availability. One of the main ideas of clustering is that, to the outside world, the cluster appears to be a single system. A common use of clustering is to load balance traffic on high-traffic Web sites. Clustering can also be used as a relatively low-cost form of parallel processing for scientific and other applications that lend themselves to parallel operations.

CMC

Computer-Mediated Communication. CMC refers to human communication via computers and includes many different forms of synchronous, asynchronous or real-time interaction that humans have with each other using computers as tools to exchange text, images, audio and video. CMC includes e-mail, network communication, instant messaging, text messaging, hypertext, distance learning, Internet forums, USENET newsgroup, Bulletin Boards, online shopping, distribution lists and videoconferencing.

CMIP

Common Management Information Protocol. An OSI standard protocol used with the Common Management Information Services (CMIS). CMIS defines a system of network management information services. CMIP was proposed as a replacement for the less sophisticated SNMP but has not been widely adopted.

CMS

(1) Colour Management System. A system for ensuring that colours remain the same regardless of the device or medium used to display the colours. This is extremely difficult because different devices use different technologies and models to produce colours. In addition, colour is highly subjective. The same colours look different to different people.

(2) Content Management System. Software or a group or suite of applications and tools that enable an organization to seamlessly create, edit, review and publish electronic text, usually via a web-based GUI interface.

CMYK

Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-BlacK. CMYK is a colour model in which all colours are described as a mixture of these four process colours. CMYK is the standard colour model used in offset printing for full-colour documents. Because such printing uses inks of these four basic colours, it is often called four-colour printing. In contrast, display device generally use a different colour model called RGB, which stands for Red-Green-Blue. One of the most difficult aspects of desktop publishing in colour is colour matching -- properly converting the RGB colours into CMYK colours so that what gets printed looks the same as what appears on the monitor.

CNIL

National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, or Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libert�s, is an independent French administrative regulatory body whose mission is to ensure that data privacy law is applied to the collection, storage, and use of personal data.

CNR

Communication and Networking Riser, developed by Intel, is a riser card for ATX family Motherboards. It was developed in order to reduce the cost to OEMs of implementing LAN, home networking, audio and modem subsystems widely used in modern connected PCs. The CNR Specification is an open industry specification that defines a scalable motherboard riser card and interface that support the audio, modem, and network interfaces of core logic chipsets.

COBIT

Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology, originated as an IT control framework, and has evolved into a broader IT governance and management framework for the purpose of ensuring that the organization’s investment in IT will enable the achievement of its goals.

COBOL

COmmon Business Oriented Language, is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use.

COBRA Site

See CORBA.

Cobweb Site

A website that has not been updated for a very long time.

CODEC

(1) Short for compressor/decompressor, a codec is any technology for compressing and decompressing data. Codecs can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of both. A popular codec for computer video is MPEG.
(2) In telecommunications, (short for coder/decoder) a device that encodes or decodes a signal. For example, telephone companies use codecs to convert binary signals transmitted on their digital networks to analog signals converted on their analog networks.
(3) The translation of a binary value into a voltage that can be transmitted over a wire.

COLD

Computer Output to Laser Disk.

Cold Fusion

A Web application development tool  by Macromedia that enables the creation of dynamic-page applications and interactive Websites. Cold Fusion Web pages include tags written in CFML that simplify integration with databases and avoid the use of more complex languages like C++ to create translating programs.

COM

A model for binary code developed by Microsoft. The Component Object Model (COM) enables programmers to develop objects that can be accessed by any COM-compliant application. Both OLE and ActiveX are based on COM.

Command

An instruction to a computer or device to perform a specific task. Commands come in different forms. They can be:

• special words (keyword) that a program understands.
• function keys
• choices in a menu
• button or other graphical object on your screen

Every program that interacts with people responds to a specific set of commands. The set of commands and the syntax for entering them is called the user interface and varies from one program to another. The DOS operating system makes a distinction between internal and external commands. Internal commands are commands, such as COPY and DIR, that can be handled by the COMMAND.COM program. External commands include the name of all other COM files, as well as EXE and BAT files.

Compiler

A program that translates source code into object code. The compiler derives its name from the way it works, looking at the entire piece of source code and collecting and reorganising the instructions. Thus, a compiler differs from an interpreter, which analyzes and executes each line of source code in succession, without looking at the entire program. The advantage of interpreters is that they can execute a program immediately. Compilers require some time before an executable program emerges. However, programs produced by compilers run much faster than the same programs executed by an interpreter. Every high-level programming language (except strictly interpretive languages) comes with a compiler. In effect, the compiler is the language, because it defines which instructions are acceptable.

Compress

Compress, alternatively referred to as compacting, is taking one or more files and combining them or making them smaller by utilizing an algorithm in a compression utility. Commonly, file compression removes redundancies, or specific data that may not essential.

Configuration Item

Hardware or software, or an aggregate of both, which is designated by the project configuration manager for configuration management.

Confiruration Management

A discipline applying technical and administrative controls to :
1. Identification and documentation of physical and functional characteristics of confiruration items.
2. Any changes to charactistics of those configuration items.
3. Recording and reporting of change processing and implementation of the system.

Console

(1) The combination of display monitor and keyboard (or other device that allows input). Another term for console is terminal. The term console usually refers to a terminal attached to a minicomputer or mainframe and used to monitor the status of the system.

(2) Another term for monitor or display screen.

(3) A bank of meters and lights indicating a computer's status, and switches that allow an operator to control the computer in some way.

Content Curation

Content curation is basically choosing content to share online. This can be cultivated from existing content but should always be made new or "fresh" in some way to stay relevant and to meet search engine algorithm specifications for higher ratings.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is an subset of inbound marketing, in order to attract prospects and drive interest and engagement. Types of content that could be produced include blog articles, white papers, videos, social posts, eBooks, webinars.

Cookie

A small amount of data which a web page can store with the web browser and retrieve on request. Usually used to record information about the user across a number of pages of a site, e.g. the number of items in your 'shopping cart', or for gathering visitor statistics.

CORBA

Common Object Request Broker Architechiture enables pieces of programs, called objects, to communicate with one another regardless of what programming language they were written in or what operating system they were running on.  It was developed by OMG.

Cornea Gumbo

A badly designed web page, unpleasant to the eye.

CPA

(1) Cost per Action. This is the charge made to an advertiser when a visitor performs a specified action in response to one of their ads.
(2) Critical Path Analysis, is a technique that identifies the activities necessary to complete a task, including identifying the time necessary to finish each activity and the relationships between the activities. Also known as the critical path method, CPA helps to predict if a project will finish on time.

CPAN

Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a collection of Internet archives that is a resource for material related to the Perl programming language.

CPC

Cost-per-click is an Internet marketing formula used to price ad banners. Advertisers will pay Internet publishers based on the number of clicks a specific ad banner gets.

CPI

Cost Per Impression, is the expense incurred each time a potential customer views an ad you’ve taken out on a webpage. This would be charged by the website publisher, who might request a certain amount per viewership of the ad.

CPM

Cost per thousand (M in Roman is thousand) is used by Internet marketers to price ad banners. Sites that sell advertising will guarantee an advertiser a certain number of impressions (number of times an ad banner is downloaded and presumably seen by visitors.), then set a rate based on that guarantee times the CPM rate.

CPS

Cost per Sale. Another way of measuring the effectiveness of online advertising. It is a calculation of the actual advertising cost for each resulting sale.

CPU

Central Processing Unit.

Cracker

1. To break into a computer system. The term was coined in the mid-80s by hackers who wanted to differentiate themselves from individuals whose sole purpose is to sneak through security systems. Whereas crackers sole aim is to break into secure systems, hackers are more interested in gaining knowledge about computer systems and possibly using this knowledge for playful pranks. Although hackers still argue that there's a big difference between what they do and what crackers do, the mass media has failed to understand the distinction, so the two terms --
hack and crack -- are often used interchangeably. See also hacker.
2. To copy commercial software illegally by breaking (cracking) the various copy-protection and registration techniques being used.

Crapplet

A poorly written or worthless Java | applet.

CRC

Cyclic Redundancy Check is a common techique for detecting data transmission errors.

CRISC

(1) Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control.
(2) Complex-Reduced Instruction Set Computer.

CRM

Customer Relationship Management. CRM entails all aspects of interaction a company has with its customer, whether it be sales or service related. Computerisation has changed the way companies are approaching their CRM strategies because it has also changed consumer buying behavior. With each new advance in technology, especially the proliferation of self-service channels like the Web and WAP phones, more of the relationship is being managed electronically. Organisations are therefore looking for ways to personalise online experiences through tools such as help-desk software, e-mail organisers and Web development.

Cross-posting

Considered rude, this is the posting of a single message across a number of newsgroups, message boards or e-mail distribution lists.

CRT

Cathode-Ray Tube.

CRUD

Create, Read, Update and Delete. In computer programming, CRUD is a software architectural style regarding the four basic operations of persistent storage.

Crunch

1) Crunch is a term used to describe the process of processing numbers or complex formulas rapidly.
2) The term crunch is also used to describe the process of reducing the size of a file or other data.

Cryptocurrency

A cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses strong cryptography to secure financial transactions, control the creation of additional units, and verify the transfer of assets. Cryptocurrencies are a kind of alternative currency and digital currency.

CSMA/CA

Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance.

CSMA/CD

Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection.

CSP

Commerce Server Provider. A company that provides an individual or business with the ability to perform online transactions.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets, a new feature being added to HTML that gives both Web site developers and users more control over how pages are displayed. With CSS, designers and users can create style sheets that define how different elements, such as headers and links, appear. These style sheets can then be applied to any Web page. The term cascading derives from the fact that multiple style sheets can be applied to the same Web page. CSS was developed by the W3C. The specification is still evolving and is not fully supported by any current Web browsers.

CSSLP

Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional.

CSTN

Colour Super-Twist Nematic, an LCD technology. Unlike TFT, CSTN is based on a passive matrix, which is less expensive to produce. The original CSTN displays developed in the early 90's suffered from slow response times and ghosting.

CSU/DSU

Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit. The CSU is a device that connects a terminal to a digital line. Typically, the two devices are packaged as a single unit. The DSU is a device that performs protective and diagnostic functions for a telecommunications line. You can think of it as a very high-powered and expensive modem. Such a device is required for both ends of a T-1 or T-3 connection, and the units at both ends must be set to the same communications standard.

CSV

Comma Separated Values.

CTA

Call To Action, is a marketing term for any design to prompt an immediate response or encourage an immediate sale. A CTA most often refers to the use of words or phrases that can be incorporated into sales scripts, advertising messages, or web pages, which compel an audience to act in a specific way.

CTI

Computer-Telephony-Integration, which refers to systems that enable a computer to act as a call center, accepting incoming calls and routing them to the appropriate device or person. Today's CTI systems are quite sophisticated and can handle all sorts of incoming and outgoing communications, including phone calls, faxes, and Internet messages.

CTO

Chief Technology Officer.

CTR

Click through Rate. # of clicks / # of impressions. Click through rate is a common internet marketing measurement tool for ad effectiveness.

CTS

Clear To Send. One of the wires in a serial port used in modem communications, this allows the modem to inform the computer that it is ready for instructions.

Cuckoo Egg

An MP3 file that "pretends" to be the one wanted. They are ideally the same length as the wanted file but instead contain only part of its content, the rest being made up of other sounds.

Cuneiform

CuneiForm Cognitive OpenOCR is a freely distributed open source OCR system.

Cyber Squatting

Speculatively buying a domain name and keeping it with the hope of selling it on for a higher price.

Cyberslacking

Using an employer's time and internet access to surf the web for personal use.