It’s time to learn some more technical words and phrases. Have you been keeping up on the Computer dictionary here at the Computing Blog? We are up to F this time, and there are some interesting words and phrases to cover.
False Acceptance This is a security term that is also known as a type II error. Basically, it takes an unauthorized person and identifies them as an authorized person on the computer network for example. Security people look for the False Acceptance Rate, or FAR, in a system to judge how safe it is and where improvements must be made. For example, if the FAR rate is 0.1, then that means that out of every 1,000 impostors that try to get into the system, one will make it through.
FAQ Although this is a fairly common term, it still through many people for a loop, and I often get questions about it. It isn’t a very intuitive term, so unless you know what it is, well, it is hard to figure out. It simply stands for Frequently Asked Questions. Many websites have an FAQ section on the site that lists all of the questions with their answers that keep coming up all of the time. So for example, on a shopping website, one FAQ might be “What is the return policy?” It is often pronounced “Fak” when spoken out loud.
Fatal Exception This is a computer error message that indicated that something has happened that in which the software program can not run. It could apply to almost any piece of software. Software communicates back and forth with the operating system and other applications. If an exception occurs at a certain point in the program, the exception gets sent down through the layers of code until it finds something that can correct the situation. If there is no code telling the computer what to do about the error, then the operating system will generate a fatal exception, meaning that nothing more can be done and the software program will not run.
Mary Ann Romans also writes for the Frugal Living Blog here at Families.com, where she shares money saving tips for today’s families.
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