floppy disk

Past Life Therapy is not for the weakminded or frail-hearted. It leads a person into the depths of his own psychological makeup, but the return trip is well worth the cost of the journey, and that cost is almost always a deflation to the person's ego! After all, who wants to believe they have committed acts that were harmful to others? Or wants to remember terrible crimes in which they were a participant, or tortures in which they have been a victim in one lifetime and perhaps returned to gain revenge in subsequent lives?

Read more here: » Past Life Therapy: The New Psychiatry - Past Life Therapy

Packet sniffing is the monitoring of data traffic into and out of a computer or network. In some networks, data transmissions are sent only to the machine they are intended for, while in others, transmissions are broadcast to all machines connected, but processed only by the target computer. In the latter cases, it is possible to packet-sniff a computer using only another computer on the same network, wi ...

See also:

Computer surveillance, Computer surveillance - Surveillance techniques, Computer surveillance - Installing the surveillance software, Computer surveillance - Protection against surveillance

Read more here: » Computer surveillance: Encyclopedia II - Computer surveillance - Surveillance techniques

The Apple II, one of the very first personal computers, is widely seen as the founding pioneer and literal grandfather of the personal computer industry of today. As the direct descendant of the Apple I, it evolved from a meager hand-built computer kit intended for hobbyist, to a fully factory assembled machine ready-to-use out of the box most anyone could use. With its elegant case styling and simplicity (requiring just a television set as a display) it represented a computer that for the first time c ...

Including:

• Apple II family - History
• Apple II family - The original Apple II
• Apple II family - The family grows
• Apple II family - Apple II Plus
• Apple II family - Apple IIe
• Apple II family - Apple IIc
• Apple II family - Apple IIGS
• Apple II family - Apple IIc Plus
• Apple II family - Apple IIe Card
• Apple II family - The Final Years
• Apple II family - Clones
• Apple II family - General
• Apple II family - Apple II media
• Apple II family - Different style renditions of the II name
• Apple II family - Life after death
• Apple II family - Industry impact

Read more here: » Apple II family: Encyclopedia - Apple II family

The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was commercially popular from 1985 to the early 1990s. It was released by Atari in 1985. The "ST" allegedly stood for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals. Atari ST - Overview. The Atari ST was a notable home computer, based on the Motorola 68000 CPU, with 512 KB of RAM or more, and 3½" floppy disks as storage. It was similar to other contemporary machines which used the Motorola 68000, the A ...

Including:

• Atari ST - Overview
• Atari ST - Origins
• Atari ST - Description
• Atari ST - The enhanced STs
• Atari ST - Future of the platform
• Atari ST - Software
• Atari ST - Screenshots
• Atari ST - Technical specifications
• Atari ST - ST/ST^F/ST^M/ST^FM
• Atari ST - ST^E
• Atari ST - Models
• Atari ST - Other models

Read more here: » Atari ST: Encyclopedia - Atari ST

Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer, who murdered at least ten people in Sedgwick County (in and around Wichita), Kansas, United States, between 1974 and 1991. He was known as the BTK killer (or strangler), which stands for Bind, Torture, and Kill, which was his modus operandi. Letters were written soon after the killings to police and to local news outlets, boasting of the crimes and knowledge of details. After a long hiatus, these letters resumed in 2004. ...

Including:

• Dennis Rader - Arrest and conviction
• Dennis Rader - Modus Operandi
• Dennis Rader - Victims
• Dennis Rader - Letters
• Dennis Rader - Biography
• Dennis Rader - Arrest
• Dennis Rader - Legal proceedings
• Dennis Rader - Some possible facts regarding the case
• Dennis Rader - Notoriety and profit
• Dennis Rader - Movie
• Dennis Rader - Notes
• Dennis Rader - Books

Read more here: » Dennis Rader: Encyclopedia - Dennis Rader

The CD-ROM (an abbreviation for "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory") is a non-volatile optical data storage medium using the same physical format as audio CDs, readable by a computer with a CD-ROM drive. A CD-ROM is a flat, metallized plastic disc with digital information encoded on it in a spiral from the center to the outside edge. The CD-ROM Yellow Book standard was established in 1985 by Sony and Philips. Microsoft and Apple Computer were early enthusiasts and promoters of the CD-ROM. John Sculley, CEO of Apple at the time, said as early as 1987 that the CD-ROM would ...

Including:

• CD-ROM - Manufacture
• CD-ROM - Capacity
• CD-ROM - CD-ROM drives
• CD-ROM - Copyright Issues
• CD-ROM - Data Formats

Read more here: » CD-ROM: Encyclopedia - CD-ROM

The boot sector is a region (typically the first 512 bytes) of a hard disk, floppy disk, or similar data storage device, or a partition thereof. Each partition has a boot sector, while the entire disk drive has a master boot record. It is normally the latter to which the term refers, but computers configured to boot multiple operating systems may use the former as well. The boot sector is loaded to memory and executed as a part of the bootstrap sequence. The boot sector often contains a small computer program that loads the operati ...

Read more here: » Boot sector: Encyclopedia - Boot sector

The BBC Micro, affectionately known as the Beeb, was an early home computer. It was designed and built by Acorn Computers Ltd for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). In the early 1980s, the BBC started what became known as the BBC Computer Literacy Project. The project was initiated largely in response to an extremely influential BBC documentary The Mighty Micro, in which Dr. Christopher Evans from the National Physical Laboratory predicted the coming (micro)computer revolution and its impact on the ...

Including:

• BBC Micro - Background
• BBC Micro - Market impact
• BBC Micro - Description
• BBC Micro - Hardware features Models A and B
• BBC Micro - Software and expandability
• BBC Micro - Successor machines and the retro scene
• BBC Micro - Specifications
• BBC Micro - Trivia

Read more here: » BBC Micro: Encyclopedia - BBC Micro

Acorn Computers was a British computer company established in Cambridge, England, in 1978. The company produced a number of computers which were especially popular in the UK. These included the Acorn Electron, the BBC Micro and the Acorn Archimedes. Acorn's BBC Micro computer dominated the UK educational computer market during the 1980s and early 1990s, drawing many comparisons with Apple in the U.S. Though the company was broken up into several independent operations in 2000, it leaves an impressive legacy, particularly in the ...

Including:

• Acorn Computers - Prehistory
• Acorn Computers - CPU Ltd 1978–83
• Acorn Computers - The microcomputer systems
• Acorn Computers - The Atom
• Acorn Computers - BBC Micro and the Electron
• Acorn Computers - Acorn Computer Group plc 1983–85
• Acorn Computers - New RISC architecture
• Acorn Computers - Financial problems
• Acorn Computers - Olivetti subsidiary 1985–98
• Acorn Computers - BBC Master and Archimedes
• Acorn Computers - ARM Ltd
• Acorn Computers - Set-Top boxes
• Acorn Computers - Network Computers
• Acorn Computers - Final break up of Acorn 1998–2000
• Acorn Computers - Footnotes

Read more here: » Acorn Computers: Encyclopedia - Acorn Computers

In common usage, an image (from Latin imago) or picture is an artifact that reproduces the likeness of some subject—usually a physical object or a person. Images may be two dimensional, such as a photograph, or three dimensional such as in a statue. They are typically produced by optical devices—such as a cameras, mirrors, lenses, telescopes, microscopes, etc. and natural objects and phenomena, such as the human eye or water surfaces. The word image' is also used in the broader sense of any two-d ...

Including:

• Image - Specialised meanings

Read more here: » Image: Encyclopedia - Image

LOOM is a graphical adventure game originally released in 1990 and was both developed and published by Lucasfilm Games (now known as LucasArts). It was the fourth game to use the SCUMM adventure game engine. The project was led by Brian Moriarty, a former Infocom employee and author of some classic text adventures such as Wishbringer (1985), Trinity (1986) and Beyond Zork (1987). LOOM - Gameplay. A departure from earlier (and later) LucasArts adventure games in many senses, LO ...

Including:

• LOOM - Gameplay
• LOOM - Story
• LOOM - Prologue
• LOOM - Plot
• LOOM - Technical information
• LOOM - PC CD-ROM version
• LOOM - Music
• LOOM - Trivia

Read more here: » LOOM: Encyclopedia - LOOM

In computer security technology, a virus is a self-replicating program that spreads by inserting copies of itself into other executable code or documents. A computer virus behaves in a way similar to a biological virus, which spreads by inserting itself into living cells. Extending the analogy, the insertion of a virus into the program is termed as an infection, and the infected file (or executable code that is not part of a file) is called a host. Viruses are one of the several types of malicious software or malware. In ...

Including:

• Computer virus - Definition
• Computer virus - Use of the word virus
• Computer virus - History
• Computer virus - Why people create computer viruses
• Computer virus - Replication Strategies
• Computer virus - Nonresident viruses
• Computer virus - Resident viruses
• Computer virus - Host types
• Computer virus - Methods to avoid detection
• Computer virus - Avoiding bait files and other undesirable hosts
• Computer virus - Stealth
• Computer virus - Self-modification
• Computer virus - Viruses and legitimate software
• Computer virus - The vulnerability of operating systems to viruses
• Computer virus - The role of software development
• Computer virus - Anti-virus software and other countermeasures

Read more here: » Computer virus: Encyclopedia - Computer virus

A calculator is a device for performing numerical calculations. The type is considered distinct from both a calculating machine and a computer in that the calculator is a special-purpose device that may not qualify as a Turing machine. Although modern calculators often incorporate a general purpose computer, the device as a whole is designed for ease of use to perform specific operations, rather than for flexibility. Also, modern calculators are far m ...

Including:

• Calculator - Overview
• Calculator - Electronic calculators
• Calculator - Personal computing
• Calculator - History
• Calculator - Origin: The Abacus
• Calculator - The 17th century
• Calculator - 1930s to 1960s
• Calculator - 1970s to mid-1980s
• Calculator - Mid-1980s to present
• Calculator - Drawbacks
• Calculator - Trivia
• Calculator - Patents

Read more here: » Calculator: Encyclopedia - Calculator

Another World (published in the USA as Out of this World) is an action-adventure video game, developed by Delphine Software, released in 1991. Though not as famous as other games, it was groundbreaking, achieving cult status, and introducing a new, somewhat cinematic style and feeling for computer games. It spawned one direct sequel, Heart of the Alien (1994) for the Mega-CD, which was very similar in concepts to, but much less successful than Another World. The 1992 game Flashback, also from Delphine, was ofte ...

Including:

• Another World video game - Storyline
• Another World video game - What makes the game unique
• Another World video game - Mood
• Another World video game - Gameplay
• Another World video game - Technical aspects
• Another World video game - Trivia

Read more here: » Another World video game: Encyclopedia - Another World video game

Computer surveillance is the act of surveilling people's computer activity without their knowledge, by accessing the computer itself. Computers make excellent surveillance tools because they can do things without their owners' knowledge or consent. Most computers have connections to networks, which can be exploited (through security cracking) to gain access to any confidential data that may be stored on the computer. Additionally, if someone is able to install certain types of software on a system, they can turn it into a surve ...

Including:

• Computer surveillance - Surveillance techniques
• Computer surveillance - Installing the surveillance software
• Computer surveillance - Protection against surveillance

Read more here: » Computer surveillance: Encyclopedia - Computer surveillance

The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was a home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research. Based on a Zilog Z80 CPU running at 3.50 MHz, the Spectrum came with either 16 KB or 48 KB of RAM. The hardware designer was Richard Altwasser of Sinclair Research and the software was written by Steve Vickers on contract from Nine Tiles Ltd, the authors of Sinclair BASIC. Sinclair's industrial designer Rick Dickinson was responsible for the machine's outward appearance. Originally dubbed the ZX82, the machine was later ren ...

Including:

• ZX Spectrum - Description
• ZX Spectrum - Educational application
• ZX Spectrum - Models
• ZX Spectrum - ZX Spectrum 16K/48K 1982
• ZX Spectrum - ZX Spectrum+ 1984
• ZX Spectrum - ZX Spectrum 128 1986
• ZX Spectrum - ZX Spectrum +2 1986
• ZX Spectrum - ZX Spectrum +3 1987
• ZX Spectrum - ZX Spectrum +2A /+2B 1987
• ZX Spectrum - Clones
• ZX Spectrum - Technical specifications
• ZX Spectrum - Peripherals
• ZX Spectrum - Software
• ZX Spectrum - Notable titles
• ZX Spectrum - Rivalry
• ZX Spectrum - Screenshots
• ZX Spectrum - Notable authors
• ZX Spectrum - Magazines

Read more here: » ZX Spectrum: Encyclopedia - ZX Spectrum

A credit card system is a type of retail transaction settlement and credit system, named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. A credit card is different from a debit card in that the credit card issuer lends the consumer money rather than having the money removed from an account. It is also different from a charge card (though this name is often used to describe credit cards by the public) in that charge cards do not extend the user credit -- the charges must be paid each month in full. In contrast, a credit car ...

Including:

• Credit card - How they work
• Credit card - The Merchant's side
• Credit card - Secured credit cards
• Credit card - Features
• Credit card - Security
• Credit card - Profits and losses
• Credit card - History
• Credit card - Controversy
• Credit card - Credit card numbering
• Credit card - Credit card organizations
• Credit card - Collectible credit cards

Read more here: » Credit card: Encyclopedia - Credit card

The acronym DOS stands for disk operating system, an operating system component for computers that provides the abstraction of a file system resident on hard disk or floppy disk secondary storage. In some cases, the disk operating system was called DOS, and on the PC compatible platform, an entire family of operating systems was called DOS. DOS - DOS for IBM PC compatibles. In particular, DOS refers to the family of closely related operating systems which dominated the IBM PC compatible ...

Including:

• DOS - DOS for IBM PC compatibles
• DOS - Accessing hardware under DOS
• DOS - DOS and other PC operating systems
• DOS - Reserved device names under DOS
• DOS - Drive naming scheme
• DOS - DOS for other computers

Read more here: » DOS: Encyclopedia - DOS

Data remanence is the residual physical representation of data that has been in some way erased. After storage media is erased there may be some physical characteristics that allow data to be reconstructed. As early as 1960 the problem caused by the retentive properties of computer storage media was recognized. It was known that without the application of data removal procedures, inadvertent disclosure of sensitive information was possible should the storage media be released into an uncontrolled environment. Degaussing, overwriting, ...

Including:

• Data remanence - Clearing
• Data remanence - Purging
• Data remanence - Software for purging
• Data remanence - Standard patterns for purging
• Data remanence - The bad track problem
• Data remanence - Degaussing
• Data remanence - Disk encryption
• Data remanence - Systemic problems with clearing and purging in practical systems
• Data remanence - Destruction
• Data remanence - CDs DVDs etc.
• Data remanence - Flash memory devices
• Data remanence - Source
• Data remanence - Purging Software

Read more here: » Data remanence: Encyclopedia - Data remanence

WORM means Write Once, Read Many (or Write Once Read Multiple times). It is sometimes used when discussing computer storage media that can be written to once, but read from multiple times. There are two types of WORM storage media: those that physically can be written only once (examples of such storage media are CD-R and DVD-R, or electronic circuits such as PROMs) and media that enables WORM capability by using electronic keys or other measures to prevent rewriting. The reasoning behi ...

Including:

• Write Once Read Many - Other meanings

Read more here: » Write Once Read Many: Encyclopedia - Write Once Read Many