NERDEE BIRDEE

3D print(er/ed) : The construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model.

algorithm: An algorithm is an ordered and finite set of operations (instructions) that must be followed in order to solve a problem. An algorithm takes a user’s input and generates an output based on its set of instructions. When a developer creates a program, he is essentially creating a set of algorithms.

alternating current (AC) motor : An AC motor is an electric motor driven by an alternating current (AC). The AC motor commonly consists of two basic parts, an outside stator having coils supplied with alternating current to produce a rotating magnetic field, and an inside rotor attached to the output shaft producing a second rotating magnetic field. - Wikipedia

binary number system : An alternative to the decimal (10-base) number system that we use every day. Binary numbers are important because using them instead of the decimal system simplifies the design of computers and related technologies. The simplest definition of the binary number system is a system of numbering that uses only two digits—0 and 1—to represent numbers, instead of using the digits 1 through 9 plus 0 to represent numbers. - ethw.org

BIOS: Modern computers have to rely on an operating system to work. The operating system is loaded once the computer is turned on. Once the computer is turned on it loads the operating system through a booting process.

The BIOS (Basic Input / Output System) is software (mostly on Windows operating systems) that allows the CPU to initialize, test the system input and output components, and load the operating system. It is part of the booting process and the first software to run when the computer is powered on.

Other computer operating systems might rely on other software besides BIOS for this booting process.

Boolean algebra : Boolean Algebra is used to analyze and simplify the digital (logic) circuits. It uses only the binary numbers i.e. 0 and 1. It is also called Binary Algebra or logical Algebra. - tutorialspoint.com

boot: Booting a computer refers to the process of powering on the computer and starting the operating system.

cache: Cache (pronounced like "cash") is where recently-used information is placed where it can be accessed faster. Common types of caches include browser cache, disk cache, memory cache, and processor cache but they’re most commonly used in web browsers. For example, Google Chrome uses a cache to store the pages, images, and URLs of recently visited websites allowing for faster download the next time you visit.

CAD (Computer-aided design): A software to help engineers, artists, etc. with the production of their products, inventions, etc.. The software is also helpful in protecting said products and inventions when used in patent applications.

ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer) : A chatbot that works by following patterns developed by analyzing the text it has gathered from the Internet among other sources. A user can ask simple day-to-day questions, recipes, coding questions, even full essays!

clock speed:clock speed is the operating speed of a computer or, more specifically, its microprocessor's speed expressed in cycles per second. It is typically measured in megahertz (equal to one million cycles per second) or gigahertz (equal to 1billion cycles per second). In general, the higher the CPU speed, the better a computer will perform.

compact disc : Originally developed to store and play only sound recordings (CD-DA) the compact disc was later adapted for storage of data (CD-ROM),typically storing up to 700 MiB (apx. 734 MB) of data.

cookie: A cookie is data sent to your computer by a web server that records your actions on a certain website, actions such as user names and passwords. Most web browsers have an option to accept or deny the use of cookies.

CPU...See also microprocessor : The CPU (central processing unit) can be considered the most important element of a computer system. The CPU is the brain of the computer performing the basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and input/output (I/O) operations specified by its instructions. The two typical components of a CPU include the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), which performs arithmetic and logical operations and the control unit (CU), which extracts instructions from memory and decodes and executes them. Most modern CPUs are microprocessors, meaning they are contained on a single integrated circuit (IC) chip causing the two terms to be synonymous.

cryptocurrency : A cryptocurrency (or crypto currency) 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 use decentralized control as opposed to centralized digital currency and central banking systems. ...The underlying technical system upon which decentralized cryptocurrencies are based was created by the group or individual known as Satoshi Nakamoto. - Wikipedia

Deepfake(s): Deepfakes are synthetic media techniques that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to manipulate or generate visual and audio content to replace one person's likeness convincingly with that of another.

disk drive: The term disk drive is a general term that describes a device that reads and/or writes data to a disk.

Electromechanical Relay : Electromechanical relays are used in many of today's electrical machines when it is vital to control a circuit, either with a low power signal or when multiple circuits must be controlled by one single signal. - relays.weebly.com

Ethernet : Ethernet is the technology that is most commonly used in wired local area networks (LANs). A LAN is a network of computers and other electronic devices that covers a small area such as a room, office, or building. - lifewire.com

fiber-optic : Optical fiber (a very thin, flexible, transparent fiber made of silica or plastic) bundled as cables is commonly used as a medium for telecommunication and computer networking through what's called "Fiber-optic communication".

flip-flop (latch) : a circuit that has two stable states and can be used to store state information

floating-point number system : Floating-point representation is similar in concept to scientific notation. Logically, a floating-point number consists of: A signed (meaning positive or negative) digit string of a given length in a given base (or radix). - ethw.org

floppy disk : a type of disk composed of a thin magnetic storage medium inside a rectangular plastic enclosure whose popular use was as a storage unit for storing data for personal computers, similar to the use of USB flash drives in modern computing

formal language theory : The field of formal language theory studies primarily the purely syntactical aspects of such languages—that is, their internal structural patterns. - Wikipedia   Computer Scientists have discovered good ways to write programs that process other programs, and a key ingredient is that you have to specify what is allowed in a program very precisely. That's where formal languages come in. - csfieldguide.org.nz

integrated circuit : An integrated circuit is a chip, usually made of silicon, holding or "integrated" inside such electronic components such as resistors, transistors, capacitors, etc.. The integrated circuit is created out of a single piece of silicon whereas a discrete circuit's components are made separately from different materials and often assembled later.

IT : stands for "Information Technology" and refers to anything related to computing technology: networking, hardware, software, and general trouble-shooting

Jacquard machine ("Jacquard loom") : The Jacquard machine is a device fitted to a power loom that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with such complex patterns as brocade, damask and matelassé. - Wikipedia

laser printer : Laser printers produce high-quality images by passing a laser beam back and forth over a negatively charged cylinder called a drum. The drum then collects electrically charged powdered ink (toner), and transfers the image to paper, which is then heated to permanently fuse the image. Laser printers use the same basic technology as photocopiers except whereas the photocopier already has an original image, it just copies it, the laser printer has to write out an image from scratch, converting the electronic data into an image.

microprocessor (processor) ...See also CPU : The microprocessor (processor) is a multipurpose, clock driven, register based, digital integrated circuit that accepts binary data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory and provides results as output. - Wikipedia

Microprocessors, considered the brains of and most important element of a computer, are capable of many functions, such as word processing, calculation, and communication via Internet, telephone and to other parts of the device it’s contained in.

Everything a computer does is described by instructions of computer programs, and microprocessors carry out these instructions many millions of times a second.

modem : A modem, or modulator demodulator, is used to communicate between distant computers. modulation is the changing of the digital data from a computer into analog data be sent over telephone lines and demodulation is the changing of the analog data which is received over the telephone lines to digital data to be used by the computer.

Moore\'s Law : Moore's Law is the principle that the speed and capability of computers can be expected to double every two years, as a result of increases in the number of transistors a microchip can contain.

NFT : A non-fungible token is an asset that has been tokenized via a block chain. NFTs can represent digital or real-world items like artwork and real estate. Technically, the first NFT was designed back in 2014 by Kevin McKoy but since than has grown in popularity.

operating system : An operating system is in charge of many things. Among them are to make sure that all the programs can use the CPU (central processing unit), system memory, displays, input devices, and other hardware. Some also give the user an interface to use the computer via WIMPs (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointing Devices).

packet switching : Packet switching is the approach used by computer network protocols to deliver data across a local or long-distance connection via a router(s).

In Packet switching, a message ("data") is broken into a number of parts ("packets") at the source which are sent independently, over the best available route for each packet, and reassembled at the destination.

programming language : A programming language is a vocabulary and set of grammatical rules for instructing a computer or computing device to perform specific tasks.

quantum computer : A quantum computer is a computer which makes use of the quantum states of subatomic particles to store information.

Quantum computers take advantage of the ability of subatomic particles to exist in more than one state at any time and due to the way the particles behave, operations can be done much more quickly and use less energy than conventional computers.

RAM : RAM (Random Access Memory) is the hardware in a computing device and type of data storage where the data in current use are kept. Its memory is volatile and all information that was stored in RAM is lost when the computer is turned off.

Raspberry Pi : The Raspberry Pi is a small, affordable computer. It provides a set of GPIO (general purpose input/output) pins for electronic components and enables people of all ages to explore computing. It’s a great tool for learning how to code and can be used for a range of tasks and creations.

scripting language : Scripting languages are commonly used today in web design, adding functionality to a web page such as different menu styles, graphic displays, and simple animations. While static content on a web page can be generated by a single HTML document, powerful scripting languages like JavaScript and PHP, can create more dynamic (not static-i.e. dropdown-menus and simple animations) web content.

Steins;Gate : Steins;Gate is a Japanese anime (and site creator’s favorite anime), whose plot revolves around time travel and an IBM 5100 computer (released in 1975, six years before the IBM Personal Computer). The anime has a character, John Titor , who is actually based on a real person said to be a time traveler.

switching circuit theory : Switching circuit theory is the mathematical study of the properties of networks of idealized switches and is essential to telephone, data processing, and other technologies in which it is necessary to make rapid decisions about routing information.

Circuit switching is just one form of data transmission; the other is Packet switching (which especially today is more efficient). The main difference between circuit switching and packet switching is that Circuit Switching is connection oriented whereas, Packet Switching is not.

text-to-image model :A text-to-image model is a machine learning model which takes an input natural language prompt and produces an image matching that description.

transistor : A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electronic signals and electrical power. It is composed of semiconductor material usually with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals controls the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Today, some transistors are packaged individually, but many more are found embedded in integrated circuits.

The transistor is the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices, and is ubiquitous in modern electronic systems. - Wikipedia

Universal Machine : The Universal machine (Universal Turing machine) is a theoretical idea which plays an important role in the foundations of mathematics and computer science. It is essentially a Turing machine that is able to simulate any other Turing machine.

A Turing machine in itself consists of an infinitely-long tape which acts like the memory in a typical computer. The machine has a head which is positioned over one of the squares on the tape and in these squares can be written characters, for example a "1" or a "0". Then depending on what it was programmed to do, it then edits the tape one square at a time writing or not writing another character.

Simply put…
1)The machine will first read the symbol under the head
2)write a new symbol accordingly
3)move the tape left or right as instructed

It then keeps repeating this read-write-move sequence again unless we assign the previous set of instructions to a machine state. The machine will perform those instructions when it is in that specified state.

A Universal Turing machine is special in that it reads both the description of the machine to be simulated as well as the input from its own tape.

vacuum tube : a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied - Wikipedia

virtual memory : Virtual memory is a computer system's secondary and temporary memory storage space. Primary memory is usually stored in the system’s RAM but may become overloaded for a number of reasons and have to use the virtual memory to lighten the load.

Von Neumann architecture : The Von Neumann architecture is a computer architecture based on a description by the mathematician and physicist John von Neumann and others in the First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC ("Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer" - one of the earliest electronic computers).

The document describes design architecture for a computer with three basic units: the Central Processing Unit (CPU), the Main Memory Unit, and the input/output Device.

web browser : A web browser, or "browser," is a software application used to access and view websites. A variety of web browsers are available with different features, the most common are Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Apple Safari.

Wide-area network : A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunications network usually used for connecting computers over a large-scale geographical area. A WAN connects different smaller networks, including LANs ("local area network" - a group of computers and network devices connected together, usually within the same building) and MANs ("metropolitan area network" - a larger network that usually spans several buildings in the same city or town). The internet is a prime example of a WAN.

Wi-Fi : Wi-Fi is a networking technology which allows a user to connect to a network using radio waves, without needing to use wires. Common uses can include browsing the internet via laptop or smartphone, sharing documents to a computer from a smartphone or another computer, printing documents on a wireless printer, and streaming movies.