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| Backup, back up | An extra copy of your work, eg documents, pictures etc, saved onto floppy disk/CD/tape, so that if your computer is stolen or breaks down you don't lose everything. |
| Backwards-compatible | A program (or system) designed to work with data generated by earlier versions of itself, even though the format may since have changed completely. |
| Bandwidth | A measure of total amount of data transferred over a period of time, often used to measure how busy a website is. A webhost will usually base its charges on the bandwidth a website uses, ie how much data per month is requested from it. |
| BIOS | (Basic Input/Output System; pr. "by-oss") A program built into every PC for setting up very basic things, like how many hard and floppy disks you have and what type they are; the first thing that loads when you start your PC. You usually only need to access the BIOS if you are upgrading your hardware, eg adding more RAM or an extra disk drive, or setting a power-on password. BIOS settings are stored in a special type of memory called CMOS. |
| Bit | The smallest unit of information in a computer, can either equal 0 or 1. Eight bits equal one byte. |
| Bitmap | See bmp. |
| Bluetooth | A high-speed wireless communication system for PCs and other computing devices. The industry is very excited about it, but the few Bluetooth devices that have made it to market so far won't always communicate with each other reliably, so it has yet to really take off. |
| bmp | (BitMaP) A standard type of graphics file. An uncompressed format, so the files tend to be fairly big. |
| Boot, boot up | Usually used to mean "start up the computer". Literally, the process of loading up the operating system and getting the computer ready for use. See Reboot. |
| Boot disk | A floppy disk (usually) which holds a copy of the operating system, or enough of it to start the computer, useful if the computer won't start up properly from the hard disk. |
| Bot | (roBOT) A semi-automated program, usually performing a function on the internet such as indexing webpages or sorting email. |
| bps | (Bits Per Second) A measure of how quickly information is being transferred, usually via a modem or network. Divide by ten to get an approximation of the number of characters per second (cps). See also Kbps, Mbps. |
| BRB | (Be Right Back) Internet slang. |
| Broadband | Internet access over a connection much faster than an ordinary modem, such as ADSL or cable. |
| Browser | A program used for viewing World Wide Web pages on the Internet. The most widely used is Microsoft's Internet Explorer. |
| BTW | (By The Way) Internet slang. |
| Buffer | A temporary storage area for data, often used to "smooth out" incoming audio or video streams. Several seconds worth of material is stored in the buffer and it is then played back from there, so that if there is a brief interruption in the stream your music or whatever doesn't stop. |
| Bug | Error, especially in a program, that has been missed in testing. The story goes that the original bug was an insect that got itself cremated inside an electrical circuit in an early computer, causing it to fail (and I don't suppose the insect enjoyed it much, either). It took them ages to figure out what was causing the problem, and when they eventually found the bug the story passed into legend. |
| Bulletin Board | A semi-public area which computer users can connect to using a modem, to read and post messages and/or exchange files. Bulletin boards are rapidly going out of fashion as more and more people connect to the Internet, and are being replaced by websites. |
| Burn | Create a CD. |
| Byte | A basic unit of measurement for pieces of information; the space required to store one character. See also Bit,Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte. |
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