| Word or
Term |
Description or
Explanation |
| KA9Q |
another name for !TCPIP - it was originally
written on a PC for use with packet radio and KA9Q was the author's call
sign |
| Kb |
Kilobyte - pproximately one thousand bytes of
computer data (actually, it is 210 = 1024 bytes) |
| KDE |
K Development Environment - one of the two main
windowing environments for Linux, Gnome being the other |
| Kermit |
a set of file transfer protocols, and a
terminal emulator that is widely used on PC's and Unix computers |
| Kernel |
the "kernel" of an operating system is the core
section or sections that run in a privileged mode, performing the sorts of
operations that you wouldn't normally want to let a user deal with - the idea
is that the kernel is a secure, known piece of software which is allowed access
everywhere, while other more experimental or replaceable parts of the OS can be
limited to their own playpens - for example, if you are writing a driver for a
new video card, it's nice to be certain that no matter how much the user lies
to your software, he's still not going to be able to get it to write all over
your hard disc! |
| exactly what goes into the kernel varies
greatly from OS to OS; NT4, for example, puts quite a lot of the OS into the
kernel (including the video drivers!), while other "microkernels" may contain
the bare minimum task and memory management |
| Kerning |
this refers to the spacing between individual
pairs of characters - to improve the look of printed text, certain character
pairs need to be printed closer together than others - it can also refer to
shifting characters up or down relative to one another |
| Kill file |
a list of people whose messages you don't want
to read, i.e. their messages just get deleted immediately - also used to ignore
topics not of interest to you |
| Kilostream |
a line leased from BT that provides 64Kbits/s
data transfer rates |