glossary of internet terms - s

A COMPLETE LIST OF DEFINITIONS OF THE TERMS USED THROUGHOUT OUR WEBSITE

Use the letters below to jump to a particular section or scroll down through the definitions.

misc A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

S/PDIF - Sony/Philips Digital InterFace. A standard for transferring digital audio information between devices. S/PDIF sockets can be both optical and electrical, and found on such things as sound cards and DVD players.

SACD - Super Audio CD. A highresolution audio CD format.

Sample - A recording of instruments or sounds. Samples can be used with a sequencer to make music, or downloaded to a wavetable soundcard so it can reproduce those sounds, combining them and playing them back at different pitches to make music.

Satellite speaker - Compact, usually cube-shaped speaker designed to reproduce midrange and high audio frequencies. Satellite speakers should be used in conjunction with a subwoofer.

Scale - To change the dimensions of a picture, keeping it in proportion to its original size.

ScanDisk - A disk-checking utility incorporated in Windows that can detect and repair minor problems with your disk drives.

Scanner - A device which uses a light sensor to convert a drawing, photograph or document into data which can then be interpreted by software on your PC. A flatbed scanner has a flat sheet of glass on which the image or document is placed. The scan head moves below the glass, while with a handheld scanner you move the scanner over the image.

SCART - A standardised 21-pin connector for two-way traffic of video and audio signals. It is used across Europe to connect TVs, video recorders and other domestic audiovisual equipment.

Scenario - In spreadsheets, a named set of input values you can substitute in a worksheet.

Screen grab - Also screen shot. An image of what was displayed on screen at a particular moment. A screen is captured to the clipboard in Windows by pressing the Print Screen key. You can then copy it to a graphic file or simply print it off.

Screen resolution - The number of pixels that are displayed on the screen, making up the image. The more pixels, the higher the resolution and the sharper the picture.

Screen shot - Also screen grab. An image of what was displayed on screen at a particular moment. A screen is captured to the clipboard in Windows by pressing the Print Screen key. You can then copy it to a graphic file or simply print it off.

Screensaver - A program that runs on a computer after a short period of inactivity and displays a moving image on screen. Originally intended to prevent damage to monitors caused by displaying the same image for long periods, many screensavers now incorporate passwords to protect your work from prying eyes.

Script - A short program that's stored on a web server to control part of a website. For example, a script could check that a date you've entered is valid, or move words across the screen.

Scroll - When a document, an image or a list of items ? filenames, fonts ? is too long to display in a window you can scroll up or down by clicking on the window's scroll bar (also called the vertical scroll bar).

Scroll bar - The section of a window ? normally grey with a slider control ? you must use to scroll around when the window's contents are too large to display at once.

SCSI - Small Computer System Interface (pronounced 'skuzzy'). An extremely fast connection between such things as disk drives and scanners, and a PC. Up to seven devices can be daisy-chained together and connected to a normal SCSI controller.

SD card - Secure Digital card. A secure variant of the postage stamp-size solid-state MMC memory card used by some MP3 players.

SDRAM - Synchronous Dynamic RAM. The type of memory to be found in most modern PCs. It is significantly cheaper than its biggest rival, RDRAM.

Search engine - A site on the net that indexes the names and addresses of other sites. It enables you to search for sites containing certain keywords, or sometimes even to ask a question in normal language.

Search query - The text given to a search engine which forms your search on the world wide web. It can be one or several keywords, use special codes, or even be a natural question.

Security certificate - A piece of data sent from one computer to another designed to prove the authenticity or security of information on the internet.

Selection tool - In graphics and page layout programs, the icon for this often looks like the dotted outline of a square. This tool allows you to select items by drawing a square or rectangular shape around them. Once selected, you can manipulate them all at once.

Sequencer - A device or program that lets you copy samples, repeat them, edit them and play around with their order. The software sequencers supplied with many sound cards are almost like word processors for sounds, with facilities like drag-and-drop copying easily allowing sequences of musical notes to be recorded and played back.

Sequential capture - A camera setting which will automatically take a series of photographs at set intervals. It is particularly useful for action shots or for time-lapse photography.

Serial cable - A cable which connects to a serial or COM port. Such leads can connect peripherals to the computer or can be used to link one computer to another.

Serial port - A socket on the back of a PC used to connect serial devices, also known as a COM port. Often used on a PC to connect an external modem, some digital cameras and PDAs or, formerly, to plug in a mouse.

Server - A computer on a network (such as the internet) that stores shared information. Servers can also manage shared resources, such as printers.

Set-top box - A device that enables a TV set to receive digital TV broadcasts.

Shareware - Programs that you can try out free before deciding whether to buy them or not. Usually much cheaper than conventional software, shareware programs are usually written by individuals and distributed not through shops but via the internet. Most shareware is first supplied as a trial version, which may work fully for a set number of days or may have some features disabled.

Sheet-feeder - A part of most printers and some scanners. It holds a number of sheets of paper and feeds them into the mechanism automatically, one by one.

Shockwave - Technology developed by Macromedia that allows web pages to contain interactive multimedia. Typical uses include animations and games.

Shortcut - A file that acts as a link to something else, such as a program file or disk drive. Double-clicking a shortcut is the same as double-clicking the original file, so they can be placed on the Desktop as a quick way to start programs.

Sim - Simulation. Used when referring to the simulation game genre.

SIM - Subscriber Identity Module. The smart card used by all digital mobile phones. The SIM card carries the user's identity and phone number for accessing the network. It also is used for storing the user's personal phonebook and text messages.

SIMM - Single In-line Memory Module. A 'stick' of RAM, used in 486 and Pentium-based machines. Virtually all modern PCs use DIMMs, Dual In-line Memory Modules.

Simulations - Games that simulate real life, with the most popular being flight simulators.

Single pass - A single-pass scanner captures the image in one movement of the scanhead over the picture. Multi-pass scanners must make one pass for each colour channel to be scanned.

Site - Short for website. A linked group of one or more web pages, normally dealing with a particular subject or by a single author. Each page or site has its own distinctive URL (universal resource locator) or 'address'. This is usually prefixed by the letters www, standing for world wide web.

Skin - a different, purely cosmetic appearance for an application.

Slider bar - A control which allows you to change a setting by clicking and 'dragging' a slider.

SLR - Single Lens Reflex. A type of camera in which the same lens is used for viewing subjects in the viewfinder and for taking pictures. Compact cameras use a separate lens for each.

SmartCard - a credit card with an embedded microchip for storing personal identification data.

SmartMedia - A form of solid-state storage used by some digital cameras and MP3 players. Data files, normally photos or music, are stored on small removable cards. These are about the same size as CompactFlash cards, but physically more flexible, being less than 1mm thick.

Smartphone - Generic term for a combined handheld computer and mobile phone

SMS - Short Messaging Service. More commonly called text messaging.

SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. A standard for sending email messages. SMTP is nowlargely reserved for sending messages rather than receiving them.

Smudging - In graphics applications, the Smudge tool helps to smooth out any joins between image areas. It is particularly useful where part of your picture has been cloned but you can see where you've painted over a scratch because sometimes cloning isn't subtle enough.

Socket 7 - Connector on your PC's motherboard for Pentium processors or equivalent non-Intel chips.

Software - Any program or group of programs which tells hardware how it should perform, including operating systems such as Windows, word processors, DTP applications and games.

Solid state - A device, such as an MP3 player or memory card, which has no internal moving parts.

Sound Blaster - Sound card made by Creative Labs. The Sound Blaster was one of the first de facto PC audio standards, and many cards emulate it so they can be used with the hundreds of games that support it.

Sound card - An expansion card that lets a PC create sounds ? game sound effects, music, and so on. Almost all PCs have a sound card as standard but more powerful sound cards can be bought and fitted.

Spam - Junk email sent to large groups of people offering such things as money-spinning ideas, holidays, and so on. Named after the Monty Python Spam song.

Speech recognition - Analysing the spoken word via special software so that a PC can recognise it and translate spoken commands into computer actions.

Spooling - Temporarily transferring data to the hard disk or to some other temporary storage place, before passing it on to its final destination. Most often seen in printing, where the PC spools data to the hard disk to finalise it before passing it to the printer.

Spreadsheet - A software application for creating sheets of calculations, set out in rows and columns. They may be used for accounting, budgeting, and any other sort of financial or mathematical calculation. Better spreadsheet programs also have graphical abilities, allowing charts and graphs to be plotted. Leading programs include Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3.

Spyware - Software installed (usually surreptitiously) as part of another application installation specifically to monitor and report back on a computer's use.

Staff editor - Also known as the Score or Notation editor, this displays notes using the traditional 'dots on wires' familiar to classically trained musicians.

Start button - The button on the far left of the Taskbar in Windows. Click on it to access all the programs installed on your computer, as well as printers, and the Control Panel. Paradoxically, you should also click it to shut down your PC.

Start page - The page that appears when you first start your web browsing program. Also known as the home page, it is user-selectable.

Storyboard - A series of sketches that symbolise specific scenes from a film or video project, used to help map out ideas in advance.

Strategy game - A genre of game involving multiple characters or elements, with multiple goals, such as a war game where you must win battles using troops, tanks and aircraft.

Streamed - When data flows to your PC as needed. Broadcasts over the internet are often streamed so that you don't have to download a whole file before you start listening or watching. However, you cannot generally download streamed files to your hard disk to watch or listen to them later.

Streaming - When data flows to your PC as needed.

Stroke - In graphics programs, the visible attributes applied to a path, such as weight (thickness), colour, style and so on.

Stylus - A plastic pointer styled like a pen, used for operating palmtop computers (PDAs) with touch-sensitive screens.

Sub-head - Smaller than a headline, but larger than ordinary text, sub-heads break up long stretches of text and help readers navigate round more easily.

Subwoofer - A special type of speaker designed to reproduce deep bass sounds only. Even on a stereo system, only one subwoofer is required because human ears cannot detect the direction of bass frequencies.

Surfing - Popular metaphor used for describing someone exploring the world wide web.

Surround sound - A system which literally surrounds the listener with sound, usually employing several speakers positioned around the room controlled by a special decoder. Surround sound is used in all feature films and many TV shows.

S-VHS - Super-VHS. A good-quality high-band video standard used by camcorders.

S-VHS-C - Super-VHS-C. A good-quality high-band video standard used by camcorders, but using a smaller cassette than standard S-VHS.

S-Video - A higher-quality video connection that carries brightness and colour information separately. Usually found on high-end camcorders and on some graphics and TV tuner cards.

Swapfile - An area of hard disk space that your PC can use as 'virtual' memory, or RAM. This allows you to have more programs open at once but will be slower than having an equivalent amount of real RAM.

Synchro recording - Also known as CD synchronisation. Automatically starts and stops a tape or disc when recording a CD.

System date - This is the date used by the DOS and Windows operating systems. Programs that need to know the date should ask DOS or Windows for the system date, not look directly at the clock.

System disk - This is a disk that contains all the programs you need to get your PC working, with enough system files to make it boot up and allow you access to the disk drives

System files - The files that run when the computer starts up, usually containing essential instructions to make installed hardware and software to run properly. The autoexec. bat and config. sys files are system files.

System software - Controls the hardware and manages the applications on your PC.

System Tools menu - This folder can be found by clicking the Windows Start button, then looking within Programs/Accessories. In it you will find a number of utilities which are useful for maintaining and troubleshooting your copy of Windows.

System Tray - Found on the far right of your taskbar, the system tray displays icons showing which programs are always running in Windows, such as an anti-virus program.
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