| ABC |
ABC is the organisation that provides independent verification of claims made by publications, especially those regarding circulation. It also offers certification of traffic and user data for electronic media. Visit the ABC web site at www.abc.org.uk for further details. |
| Accounts payable |
Money owed for goods or services which have already been received or for which payment is due. |
| ADSL |
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line is an ANSI telecommunications standard powerful enough to carry voice and audio, data and video at 300 times the speed of analogue modems using existing telephone lines from and to domestic or desktop devices. |
| Advertising |
Paid-for promotion of goods or services which can take the form of space in a publication or on a web site, as posters inside and outside buildings or vehicles, on hoardings and bus shelters; as exposure on radio or television stations and in other media. |
| Advertorial |
An advertisement in a magazine that is written by an advertiser to appear like an ordinary article. |
| Algorithm |
An algorithm is a mathematical function often used in the process of encrypting and decrypting information. |
| Analyst |
A specialist employed by a broker or fund manager to study company information for the purpose of recommending whether clients should buy or sell shares in these companies. |
| Analogue |
A physical representation of data, such as a copy of the continuous audio wave embedded in gramophone records to reproduce the recorded sound. Now being replaced by digital technology. |
| ANSI |
The American National Standards Institute. |
| Applet |
A small, self-contained application written in the Java programming language that can be distributed over networks to run on individual computers. Many web sites uses applets which browsers can run to add interactive features, such as tickertapes. |
| Application |
The function or useful purpose of any IT system. Application programs range from word processing to desktop publishing and data processing and encompass any task being automated. |
| APR |
The Annual Percentage Rate expresses the total yearly cost of a mortgage or a loan. The APR is often used to compare the cost of different types of borrowing, although different lenders can calculate it in different ways. |
| ASA |
The Advertising Standards Authority is an independent, self-regulatory body for non-broadcast advertisements in the UK, ensuring that adverts are "legal, decent, honest and truthful". It administers the British Codes of Advertising and Sales Promotion. Visit the ASA site at www.asa.org.uk for further details. |
| ASCII |
American Standard Code for Information Interchange where each character (text, symbol or number) is assigned a 7-bit value. |
| Asset |
Property or item with a value which a person or business owns eg buildings, equipment, shares. |
| Asymmetric cryptography |
A process which uses a pair of mathematically related "keys" (consisting of a string of characters) to encrypt (or scramble) information so that it can be stored or transmitted securely without anyone being able to read it. The public key can be made widely available, while the private key is unavailable except to the keyholder. One key is used to encrypt data and the other is used to decrypt it into a readable format. |
| ATM |
(Asynchronous Transfer Mode) - high bandwidth telecommunications protocol, enabling the transfer of integrated voice, data and video, commonly used as a connection between different building or sites. |
| Attachment |
A data file which is sent as an accompaniment to an email. One of the commonest uses of email is to send a word processing file or a graphics file as an attachment instead of copying it to a diskette or other portable storage medium that must be transported physically to the recipient. Sending files as email attachments can be faster and easier. |
