| Word | Description |
| KB | 1. Common abbreviation for kilobyte, 1024 bytes. 2. Knowledge Base. Often used to refer to the Microsoft Knowledge base - for example when referring to a Knowledge Base article, but the abbreviation can be used to refer to any Knowledge Base. |
| kbps | 1. kbps = Kilo-bits per second. A common means of expressing data transfer rates. Strictly 1kbps = 1024 bits per second (bps) = 128 bytes per second. However, it is often taken to mean 1000 bps, i.e. 1kbps=125 bytes per second. As a rule of thumb, when estimating network/modem throughput, a figure of 1kbps=100 bytes per second is probably closer to the real throughput after other networking overheads are taken into consideration. 2. kBps (note the capital B) = kilobytes per second, i.e. the number of bytes of data that can be transferred per second. 1kBps = 8kbps. Also rendered as KBps. |
| KDE | Stands for "K Desktop Environment." KDE is a contemporary desktop environment for Unix systems. It is a Free Software project developed by hundreds of software programmers across the world. Both the KDE source code and the software itself are made freely available to the public. KDE's primary benefit is the modern graphical user interface GUI it provides for Unix workstations. While Unix systems are notoriously difficult for novice users to operate, KDE makes it possible for the average user to work on a Unix system. In addition to the modern interface, KDE also includes several user-friendly features, such as an application help system and standardized menus and toolbars. It also supports the ability to customize the interface with various skins or themes. Another important aspect of the K Desktop Environment is its application development framework, which is what software engineers use to develop programs for KDE. Since a desktop environment is only as useful as the applications available for it, it is important that developing software for the environment is not a tedious process. Therefore, the KDE application development framework has been designed to help programmers develop robust applications in a simple and efficient manner. This has lead to the development of KOffice and hundreds of high-quality programs for KDE. |
| Kerberos | A system developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that depends on passwords and symmetric cryptography (DES) to implement ticket-based, peer entity authentication service and access control service distributed in a client-server network environment. |
| Kermit | This is a protocol for transferring files during direct dial-up communications that's named after a Muppet (seriously). Kermit is sound but old and can be very slow--slower than Xmodem, Ymodem, and much slower than Zmodem. |
| Kernel | This is a term for the computing elite, so proceed at your own risk. To understand what a kernel is, you first need to know that today's operating systems are built in "layers." Each layer has different functions such as serial port access, disk access, memory management, and the user interface itself. The base layer, or the foundation of the operating system, is called the kernel. The kernel provides the most basic "low-level" services, such as the hardware-software interaction and memory management. The more efficient the kernel is, the more efficiently the operating system will run. |
| Kerning | Kerning refers to the spacing between the characters of a font. Without kerning, each character takes up a block of space and the next character is printed after it. When kerning is applied to a font, the characters can vertically overlap. This does not mean that the characters actually touch, but instead it allows part of two characters to take up the same vertical space. For example, when the characters A and V are placed next to each other, they can take up less total space if they overlap. This is because the right part of the A and the left part of the V fit together. If kerning is applied to the two characters, you could draw a vertical line straight down starting from the top left part of the V and it would go through the lower right part of the A. Kerning is useful because it allows more text to be placed within a given amount of space. This allows longer articles to be placed in newspapers and magazines with limited space. It also looks more natural because when writing by hand, people often make characters overlap. Many text editing programs, as well as image editors such as Adobe Photoshop, allow the user to kern characters. These programs often include a kerning setting that enables the user to determine how tightly the characters fit together. |
| Keyboard | As the name implies, a keyboard is basically a board of keys. Along with the mouse, the keyboard is one of the primary input devices used with a computer. The keyboard's design comes from the original typewriter keyboards, which arranged letters and numbers in a way that prevented the type-bars from getting jammed when typing quickly. This keyboard layout is known as the QWERTY design, which gets its name from the first six letters across in the upper-left-hand corner of the keyboard. While the design of computer keyboards may have come from typewriters, today's keyboards have many other keys as well. Modifier keys, such as Control, Alt/Option, and Command (Mac) or the Windows key (Windows) can be used in conjunction with other keys as "shortcuts" to perform certain operations. For example, pressing Command-S (Mac), or Control-S (Windows) typically saves a document or project you are working on. Most of today's computer keyboards also have a row of function keys (F1 through F16) along the top of the keyboard, arrow keys arranged in an upside-down T, and a numeric keypad on the right-hand side. Some keyboards have even more buttons, allowing you to change the system volume, eject a CD, or open programs such as your e-mail or Web browser. |
| Keyboard Shortcut | A keyboard shortcut is a key combination that performs a certain command, such as closing a window or saving a file. For example, pressing "Control-S" in a Windows program or "Command-S" on the Mac is the standard shortcut for saving an open document. You can also usually close a window on the Mac by pressing "Command-W" or by pressing "Alt-F4" in Windows. The shortcut for copying data is usually "Control-C" (Windows) or "Command-C" (Mac) and for pasting data, it is "Control-V" (Windows) or "Command-V" (Mac). Most keyboard shortcuts are shortcuts for commands located in a program's menu bar. For example, most of the commands within the File and Edit menus have standard shortcuts. Each command that has a keyboard shortcut usually has the shortcut listed next to the command in the menu. For example, the Save option in a Windows program will usually have the text "Ctrl+S" next to it, indicating that pressing Control and S together will save the document. While most keyboard shortcuts are located in a program's menu bar, there are many keyboard shortcuts that are sometimes not visible to the user. |
| Keylogger | A keylogger is a program that records the keystrokes on a computer. It does this by monitoring a user's input and keeping a log of all keys that are pressed. The log may saved to a file or even sent to another machine over a network or the Internet. Keylogger programs are often deemed spyware because they usually run without the user knowing it. They can be maliciously installed by hackers to spy on what a user is typing. By examining the keylog data, it may be possible to find private information such as a username and password combination. Therefore, keyloggers can be a significant security risk if they are unknowingly installed on a computer. The best way to protect yourself from keylogger programs is to install anti-virus or security software that warns you when any new programs are being installed. You should also make sure no unauthorized people have access to your computer. This is especially true in work environments. You can also periodically check the current processes running on your computer to make sure no keyloggers or other malware programs are active. While it is unlikely that you have a keylogger programs installed on your computer, it is definitely worth it to check. |
| keystone jack | A keystone jack is a female connector used in data communications, particularly local area networks (LANs). The jack is usually mounted in a wall plate or patch panel. A keystone plug is the matching male connector, usually attached to the end of a cable or cord. A principal advantage of keystone connectors is their versatility. Several types of keystone jack can be mounted on a single patch panel. They are available in unshielded and shielded forms, and can accommodate cords and cables having various numbers of conductors. The term keystone derives from the characteristic shape of the jack, resembling the standard RJ-11 wall jack used to connect telephone sets, fax machines, and dial-up computer modems to conventional telephone lines. |
| Keystroke | A keystroke is typing one character on a keyboard (not stroking your keyboard like a cat). Every time you hit a key, you perform a keystroke. Therefore, 5400 keystrokes in one hour means hitting 5400 keys in one hour, or 90 keys a minute (5400 keystrokes ? 60 minutes). Sometimes keystrokes per hour (KSPH) or keystrokes per minute (KSPM) are used to measure typing speed instead of words per minute (WPM). After all, typing the word "hi" 50 times doesn't take quite as long as typing "Nebuchadnezzar" 50 times. |
| Keywords | Keywords are words or phrases that describe content. They can be used as metadata to describe images, text documents, database records, and Web pages. A user may "tag" pictures or text files with keywords that are relevant to their content. Later on, these files may be searched using keywords, which can make finding files much easier. For example, a photographer may use a program like Extensis Portfolio or Apple iPhoto to tag his nature photos with words such as "nature," "trees," "flowers," "landscape," etc. By tagging the photos, he can later locate all the pictures of flowers by simply searching for the "flowers" keyword. Keywords are used on the Web in two different ways: 1) as search terms for search engines, and 2) words that identify the content of the website. 1) Search Engine Search Terms Whenever you search for something using a search engine, you type keywords that tell the search engine what to search for. For example, if you are searching for used cars, you may enter "used cars" as your keywords. The search engine will then return Web pages with content relevant to your search terms. The more specific keywords you use, the more specific (and useful) the results will be. Therefore, if you are searching for a specific used car, you may enter something like "black Honda Accord used car" to get more accurate results. Many search engines also support boolean operators that can be used along with keywords to further refine the search. For example, you may search for "Apple AND computers NOT fruit" if you only want results related to Apple products and not the kind of apples that grow on trees. 2) Web Page Description Terms Keywords can also describe the content of a Web page using the keyword meta tag. This tag is placed in the section of a page's HTML and contains words that describe the content of the Web page. The purpose of the keywords meta tag is to help search engines identify and organize Web pages, like in the photos example above. However, because webmasters have been known to use inaccurate tags to get higher search engine ranking, many search engines now give little to no weight to the keywords meta tag when indexing pages. |
| Kibibyte | A kibibyte is a unit of data storage that equals 2 to the 10th power, or 1,024 bytes. While a kilobyte can be estimated as 10^3 or 1,000 bytes, a kibibyte is exactly 1,024 bytes. This is to avoid the ambiguity associated with the size of kilobytes. A kibibyte is 1,024 bytes and precedes the mebibyte unit of measurement. |
| Kilobyte | Unit of storage, usually abbreviated to KB. 1 kilobyte = 2 to the tenth power (210) bytes = 1024 bytes. |
| kilobyte (K, KB, or Kb) | 1,024 (2 to the 10th power) bytes; often used to represent one thousand bytes. Example: a 720K diskette can hold approximately 720,000 bytes (or characters). |
| knowledge base | A database where information common to a particular topic is stored online for easy reference; for example, a frequently-asked questions (FAQ) list may provide links to a knowledge base. |
| KVM | Keyboard, Video, Monitor. Usually used either when referring to a set of extension cables (for keyboard, video and monitor) or a KVM Switch. |
| KVM Switch | A switch box allowing one monitor, keyboard and video to be switched between two or more separate computers thereby allowing two or more computers to be controlled from the same keyboard, video, monitor combination. See also KVM. |
