Tech Glossary

A set of rules or instructions given to an AI, neural network, or other machine to help it learn on its own; classification, clustering, recommendation, and regression are four of the most popular types.

A set of functions and procedures allowing the creation of applications that access the features or data of an operating system, application, or other service.

A single file that contains one or more files and/or folders, often compressed to save space (e.g., .zip, .rar).

American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A character encoding standard for electronic communication.

The maximum amount of data that can be transmitted over an internet connection in a given amount of time.

A file that contains data in a format that is not human-readable text (e.g., images, audio, executable programs).

The number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time. High bitrate usually means higher quality audio or video.

A unit of digital information that typically consists of eight bits. It is the standard unit for file sizes (KB, MB, GB).

A hardware or software component that stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster.

A device or program that compresses data to enable faster transmission and decompresses received data.

The process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Can be lossy (quality loss) or lossless (no quality loss).

A simple file format used to store tabular data, such as a spreadsheet or database.

A file created with the primary purpose of taking up space or testing file handling, often containing random or non-essential data.

The suffix at the end of a filename (e.g., .txt, .jpg) that indicates the file type to the operating system.

A bitmap image format that supports animations. It uses lossless data compression.

A commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography.

A lightweight data-interchange format that is easy for humans to read and write and easy for machines to parse and generate.

A class of data compression algorithms that allows the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data.

A class of data compression where some amount of data is lost. This technique attempts to eliminate redundant information.

Data that provides information about other data (e.g., file size, author, date created, camera settings for images).

A standard integerated into web browsers and servers to define the nature and format of a document, file, or covering set of bytes.

A file format used to present and exchange documents reliably, independent of software, hardware, or operating system.

The smallest controllable element of a picture represented on the screen.

A raster-graphics file format that supports lossless data compression and integrity.

The number of pixels (individual points of color) contained on a display monitor, expressed in terms of the number of pixels on the horizontal axis and the number on the vertical axis.

The capability of a system, network, or process to handle a growing amount of work, or its potential to be enlarged to accommodate that growth.

An XML-based vector image format for two-dimensional graphics with support for interactivity and animation.

Computer graphics images that are defined in terms of points on a Cartesian plane, which are connected by lines and curves to form polygons and other shapes.

A markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable.

An archive file format that supports lossless data compression. A .zip file may contain one or more files or directories that may have been compressed.