A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Macintosh / Mac
A family of computers developed by Apple. The Mac operating system (Mac OS) was one of the first to use a 'drag and drop' interface for organising files and is still the major rival to PCs.
Macro
A way to record and save a series of commands so you can reapply them later with a single command or keyboard stroke.
Mailbox
The folder which contains a person's individual items such as an inbox, outbox, sent items, notes and calendar.
Mailing list
An online discussion conducted via e-mails. Messages and replies are distributed to all the people subscribed to the particular mailing list.
Malware
Short for malicious software. Software designed specifically to damage or disrupt a system, such as a virus or a Trojan horse or a password stealer.
Megabytes
A measure of memory equal to 1000 kilobytes (one million bytes).
Memory
The storage and thinking parts of your computer. More storage memory on your hard disk (ROM) means you can save more files and more thinking memory (RAM) means your computer can perform more complex tasks quicker.
Metadata
Information about a web page hidden inside it to help search engines find it. It often includes a description of the page which will be picked up by search engines.
Meta Search Engine
Search engine which automatically submits your search to several search engines at the same time and then comes back with the results after only a few seconds. Well known examples include MetaCrawler and Ask Jeeves.
MHz
Megahertz. A measurement of a computer's speed. The more MHz the faster the computer. One GHz (Gigahertz) is 1000 MHz.
MIME
Standard for encoding information other than text so that it can be attached to an e-mail message and sent across the internet.
Mirror
An identical copy of a website held on a different server to speed up download times by reducing the congestion from many users accessing just one site at the same time.
Modem
The hardware that connects you to the internet or to other computers around the world. Some are inside your computer (internal) and some are separate boxes outside your computer (external).
Monitor
The bit you look at! The display screen.
MPEG
A standard used for compressing video and audio files. The popular MPEG3 format is popular for distributing music on the internet.
MP3
A digital audio format which allows CD tracks to be reduced to around a tenth of their normal size without a significant loss of quality i.e. on average from a massive 35 megabytes down to three.
Multimedia
The combination of different types of media such as audio, video and text.
Multiplayer
Games played against other players, rather than against a computer, either via an internet connection or on a local network (in a cyber cafe or an office).
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