Terminology

See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Lingo for info

ABBR

Abbreviation

AJAX 

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML = A means to exchange data with a server without loading a whole new page.

API 

Application Programming Interface

APP 

short for Software Application.

APT 

Advanced Package Tool. Created by the Debian project.

ASP 

Application Service Provider

Application Server Pages - an old technology by Microsoft

ATM 

Automated Teller Machine (please don't call it an 'ATM Machine', that's redundant)

BLU 

Boston Linux & Unix = a Linux User Group in Boston, MA, USA with roots that go back into the days of Unix before Linux was a thing

BMW 

Bavarian Motor Works = German car company

CIDR 

wp:Classless Inter-Domain Routing

coax

coaxial cable

CNCF

Cloud Native Computing Foundation https://www.cncf.io/ - a sub-foundation of the Linux Foundation.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets = A technology that deals with the presentation of content on the web

DAST

Dynamic Application Security Testing can find security vulnerabilities and weaknesses in a running application, typically web apps. It does that by employing fault injection techniques on an app, such as feeding malicious data to the software, to identify common security vulnerabilities, such as SQL injection and cross-­site scripting (XSS). DAST can also cast a spotlight on runtime problems that can’t be identified by static analysis­­ for example, authentication and server configuration issues, as well as flaws visible only when a known user logs in.

DKIM

DomainKeys Identified Mail = An IETF specification that combats SPAM on the Internet

DNS

Domain Name System. An Named Host to IP Address lookup system

DPL

Dynamic Page Lists = Like a Cuisinart food processor, it allows you to slice and dice the contents of your wiki.

DRM

Digital Restrictions Management = Electronic methods to control what you can and can't do.

EFF

Electronic Frontier Foundation https://eff.org

FOSS

Free Open Source Software. An attempt to communicate the 'freedom' aspect of free software de-emphasizing the price connotation of 'free'.

FLOSS

Free / Libre Open Source Software = Another attempt to de-emphasize the price connotation of 'free' and instead recognize that free means liberty.

FSF

Free Software Foundation. fsf.org

FUBAR

F*cked Up Beyond All Recognition

FUSE

Filesystem in User Space

GAFYD

Google Apps For Your Domain (now called Google Workspace)

GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, abbreviated GDPR) is a European Union regulation on Information privacy in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of EU privacy law and human rights law, in particular Article 8(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. It also governs the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA. The GDPR's goals are to enhance individuals' control and rights over their personal information and to simplify the regulations for international business. It supersedes the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and, among other things, simplifies the terminology.

GNHLUG

Greater New Hampshire Linux User Groups = an association of User Groups in and around the state of New Hampshire, USA of people interested in Linux technology and/or those who created it in the first place; and continue to this day.

GNU

Gnu's Not Unix, because Unix is proprietary software while Gnu is software that respects your freedom.

GPL

General Public License = A sane copyright license

HHVM

HipHop Virtual Machine = a PHP interpreter created at Facebook as an alternative to the Zend Engine interpreter. http://hhvm.com/

HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is a 1996 federal statute that created standards for protecting patient health information. All healthcare organizations must follow cybersecurity practices and run risk assessments to comply with HIPAA.

HTML

HyperText Markup Language = structured text that uses logical links (hyperlinks) between nodes containing text.

HTTP

HyperText Transfer Protocol = the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web. See HTML

HTTPS

HTTP Secure = HTTP using SSL or the newer TLS

IANAL

I Am Not A Lawyer (but I'll play one on the Internet ;-)) Because this acronym can be interpreted as crude, Heather Meeker suggests an alternative 'disclaimer' in online discussions: "If this were legal advice, it would have come with an invoice."

IAST

Interactive Application Security Testing. A technique employing an agent inside a running application capable of testing all libraries, frameworks, API endpoints and protocols for security vulnerabilities.

IETF

Internet Engineering Task Force = organization to make the Internet work better

IP

Internet Protocol. An IP Address is a host or device name in numeric form.

IPv4

Internet Protocol version 4

IPv6

Internet Protocal version 6

IPR

Intellectual Property Rights = A crazy idea that nonetheless is pervasive in the global legal system. See Also: GPL

IRL

In Real Life = A TLA used when 'virtual' was a thing. Now the virtual has permeated 'meat space' and so the two are not so distinct.

ISBN

International Standard Book Number = 10-digit or 13-digit codes used by the publishing industry to uniquely identify individual book titles and editions. Some 10-digit ISBNs may end with an "X" instead of a digit.

ISO 27001

ISO/IEC 27001 is an international standard to manage information security. The standard was originally published jointly by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 2005, revised in 2013, and again most recently in 2022. There are also numerous recognized national variants of the standard. It details requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and continually improving an information security management system (ISMS) – the aim of which is to help organizations make the information assets they hold more secure. Organizations that meet the standard's requirements can choose to be certified by an accredited certification body following successful completion of an audit. The effectiveness of the ISO/IEC 27001 certification process and the overall standard has been addressed in a large-scale study conducted in 2020.

JS

JavaScript = A computer language.

JSON

JavaScript Object Notation = A data representation format in JavaScript

KIO

KDE Input/Output slaves

LUG

Linux User Group = a general term whereas a specific LUG will often have a geographic focus

LXC

is a userspace interface for the Linux kernel containment features. Through a powerful API and simple tools, it lets Linux users easily create and manage system or application containers.

LXD

is a next generation system container manager. It offers a user experience similar to virtual machines but using Linux containers instead.

MOTD

Message Of The Day = MOTD

NIST

(the US) National Institute of Standards and Technology

NIST Cybersecurity Framework

NIST Cybersecurity Framework is a set of guidelines for mitigating organizational cybersecurity risks, published by NIST based on existing standards, guidelines, and practices. The framework "provides a high level taxonomy of cybersecurity outcomes and a methodology to assess and manage those outcomes", in addition to guidance on the protection of privacy and civil liberties in a cybersecurity context. It has been translated to many languages, and is used by several governments and a wide range of businesses and organizations.

node

nodes

A worker machine in a Kubernetes cluster.

NPM

Node Packaged Modules = a package manager for the Nodejs system

NSFW

Not Safe For Work

OASIS

Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards = a global standards organization

OOP

Object Oriented Programming = hard to define. See OOP.

OOUI

Object Oriented User Interface mw:OOUI

ORM

Object Relational Mapping = a database approach

PCI DSS

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard was created in 2006 to ensure that all companies that accept, process, store, or transmit credit card information operate securely. The framework is primarily intended to keep cardholder information safe. All companies handling this information must comply with PCI DSS, regardless of size. The framework is administered and enforced by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.

PDCA

Plan Do Check Act - PDCA is called the Deming Cycle or Deming Wheel

https://deming.org/explore/pdsa/ https://www.lean.org/lexicon-terms/pdca/

PDF

Portable Document Format = a widely used standard for representing documents electronically and print. PDF

PEAR

PHP Extension and Application Repository = a collection of code started in 1999 to enhance the utility of PHP.

PHAR

PHP Archive = a distribution format. See https://secure.php.net/manual/en/intro.phar.php

Phishing

attempt to acquire sensitive information such as passwords or credit card details by masquerading as a trusted party.

PHP

PHP is the HyperText Preprocessor = the most popular programming language for the web

Pod

Pods

A Pod (as in a pod of whales or pea pod) is a group of one or more containers , with shared storage/network resources, and a specification for how to run the containers. https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/

POTS

Plain Old Telephone Service is an acronym to describe the traditional telephone network served by copper wires strung on poles. (nb. There is a lot more infrastructure to POTS than just the poles and wires.)

POTD

Picture Of The Day

POTY

Picture Of The Year

PRURL

PRURLs

Protocol Relative URL. Starts with '//' instead of 'HTTP(S)://'

PSR-1

PHP Standard Recommendation 1

PSR-2

PHP Standard Recommendation 2

RASP

Run-time Application Security Protection is similar to IAST, but rather than testing for vulnerabilities it acts like a watchdog that responds to live threats (e.g. terminating an attacker's session and alerting).

Regex

Regular Expression = a search and replace syntax that allows for powerful pattern matching

RSS

Really Simple Syndication = a syntax for sharing data across the web.

SAST

Static Application Security Testing is to find security vulnerabilities in the application source code earlier in the software development life cycle. Because SAST can be automated in DevOps, it becomes part of SecDevOps

SCM

Software Configuration Management

SEO

Search Engine Optimization

SIP

Session Initiation Protocol is a protocol used in VoIP communications allowing users to make voice and video calls, mostly for free. A SIP client is a program that you install on your computer or mobile device.

SOC 2

Systems and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 is a set of compliance criteria developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

SPAM

unsolicited bulk email

SPF

Sender Policy Framework

SME

Subject Matter Expert

SMW

Semantic MediaWiki = See Metadata

SRE

Site Reliability Engineer

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer = secure (encrypted) underpinning for HTTP

TLA

Three-Letter Acronym

TLS

Transport Layer Security

UOP

User Operation Prohibition = things you're not allowed to do with a DVD, like skip the FBI warning w:User operation prohibition

UPO

User Preference Option = things that you can set in your "preferences". Special:Preferences

URL

URLs

Uniform Resource Locator = an address of a web page or other component, including the protocol.

VCS 

Version Control System

VE

Visual Editor

VoIP

Voice over Internet Protocol, or commonly "Voice over IP", is the Internet alternative to POTS.

WMF

WikiMedia Foundation = the organization which runs various projects including Wikipedia.org

WOFF

Web Open Font Format

WWW

World Wide Web = the part of the Internet where websites and documents can be found via HTTP or HTTPS.

XML

Extensible Markup Language = a system for markup such that you can create your own 'schema' of terms rather than a specific markup language.

Abbreviation

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML = A means to exchange data with a server without loading a whole new page.

Extensible Markup Language = a system for markup such that you can create your own 'schema' of terms rather than a specific markup language.

Application Programming Interface

short for Software Application.

Advanced Package Tool. Created by the Debian project.

Application Service Provider

Application Server Pages - an old technology by Microsoft

Automated Teller Machine (please don't call it an 'ATM Machine', that's redundant)

Boston Linux & Unix = a Linux User Group in Boston, MA, USA with roots that go back into the days of Unix before Linux was a thing

Bavarian Motor Works = German car company

wp:Classless Inter-Domain Routing

coaxial cable

Cloud Native Computing Foundation https://www.cncf.io/ - a sub-foundation of the Linux Foundation.

Cascading Style Sheets = A technology that deals with the presentation of content on the web

Dynamic Application Security Testing can find security vulnerabilities and weaknesses in a running application, typically web apps. It does that by employing fault injection techniques on an app, such as feeding malicious data to the software, to identify common security vulnerabilities, such as SQL injection and cross-­site scripting (XSS). DAST can also cast a spotlight on runtime problems that can’t be identified by static analysis­­ for example, authentication and server configuration issues, as well as flaws visible only when a known user logs in.

DomainKeys Identified Mail = An IETF specification that combats SPAM on the Internet

Internet Engineering Task Force = organization to make the Internet work better

unsolicited bulk email

Domain Name System. An Named Host to IP Address lookup system

Internet Protocol. An IP Address is a host or device name in numeric form.

Dynamic Page Lists = Like a Cuisinart food processor, it allows you to slice and dice the contents of your wiki.

Digital Restrictions Management = Electronic methods to control what you can and can't do.

Electronic Frontier Foundation https://eff.org

Free Open Source Software. An attempt to communicate the 'freedom' aspect of free software de-emphasizing the price connotation of 'free'.

Free / Libre Open Source Software = Another attempt to de-emphasize the price connotation of 'free' and instead recognize that free means liberty.

Free Software Foundation. fsf.org

F*cked Up Beyond All Recognition

Filesystem in User Space

Google Apps For Your Domain (now called Google Workspace)

The General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, abbreviated GDPR) is a European Union regulation on Information privacy in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of EU privacy law and human rights law, in particular Article 8(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. It also governs the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA. The GDPR's goals are to enhance individuals' control and rights over their personal information and to simplify the regulations for international business. It supersedes the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and, among other things, simplifies the terminology.

Greater New Hampshire Linux User Groups = an association of User Groups in and around the state of New Hampshire, USA of people interested in Linux technology and/or those who created it in the first place; and continue to this day.

Gnu's Not Unix, because Unix is proprietary software while Gnu is software that respects your freedom.

General Public License = A sane copyright license

HipHop Virtual Machine = a PHP interpreter created at Facebook as an alternative to the Zend Engine interpreter. http://hhvm.com/

PHP is the HyperText Preprocessor = the most popular programming language for the web

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is a 1996 federal statute that created standards for protecting patient health information. All healthcare organizations must follow cybersecurity practices and run risk assessments to comply with HIPAA.

HyperText Markup Language = structured text that uses logical links (hyperlinks) between nodes containing text.

A worker machine in a Kubernetes cluster.

HyperText Transfer Protocol = the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web. See HTML

HTTP Secure = HTTP using SSL or the newer TLS

Secure Sockets Layer = secure (encrypted) underpinning for HTTP

Transport Layer Security

I Am Not A Lawyer (but I'll play one on the Internet ;-)) Because this acronym can be interpreted as crude, Heather Meeker suggests an alternative 'disclaimer' in online discussions: "If this were legal advice, it would have come with an invoice."

Interactive Application Security Testing. A technique employing an agent inside a running application capable of testing all libraries, frameworks, API endpoints and protocols for security vulnerabilities.

Internet Protocol version 4

Internet Protocal version 6

Intellectual Property Rights = A crazy idea that nonetheless is pervasive in the global legal system. See Also: GPL

In Real Life = A TLA used when 'virtual' was a thing. Now the virtual has permeated 'meat space' and so the two are not so distinct.

Three-Letter Acronym

International Standard Book Number = 10-digit or 13-digit codes used by the publishing industry to uniquely identify individual book titles and editions. Some 10-digit ISBNs may end with an "X" instead of a digit.

ISO/IEC 27001 is an international standard to manage information security. The standard was originally published jointly by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 2005, revised in 2013, and again most recently in 2022. There are also numerous recognized national variants of the standard. It details requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and continually improving an information security management system (ISMS) – the aim of which is to help organizations make the information assets they hold more secure. Organizations that meet the standard's requirements can choose to be certified by an accredited certification body following successful completion of an audit. The effectiveness of the ISO/IEC 27001 certification process and the overall standard has been addressed in a large-scale study conducted in 2020.

JavaScript = A computer language.

JavaScript Object Notation = A data representation format in JavaScript

KDE Input/Output slaves

Linux User Group = a general term whereas a specific LUG will often have a geographic focus

is a userspace interface for the Linux kernel containment features. Through a powerful API and simple tools, it lets Linux users easily create and manage system or application containers.

is a next generation system container manager. It offers a user experience similar to virtual machines but using Linux containers instead.

Message Of The Day = MOTD

(the US) National Institute of Standards and Technology

NIST Cybersecurity Framework is a set of guidelines for mitigating organizational cybersecurity risks, published by NIST based on existing standards, guidelines, and practices. The framework "provides a high level taxonomy of cybersecurity outcomes and a methodology to assess and manage those outcomes", in addition to guidance on the protection of privacy and civil liberties in a cybersecurity context. It has been translated to many languages, and is used by several governments and a wide range of businesses and organizations.

Node Packaged Modules = a package manager for the Nodejs system

Not Safe For Work

Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards = a global standards organization

Object Oriented Programming = hard to define. See OOP.

Object Oriented User Interface mw:OOUI

Object Relational Mapping = a database approach

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard was created in 2006 to ensure that all companies that accept, process, store, or transmit credit card information operate securely. The framework is primarily intended to keep cardholder information safe. All companies handling this information must comply with PCI DSS, regardless of size. The framework is administered and enforced by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.

Plan Do Check Act - PDCA is called the Deming Cycle or Deming Wheel

https://deming.org/explore/pdsa/ https://www.lean.org/lexicon-terms/pdca/

Portable Document Format = a widely used standard for representing documents electronically and print. PDF

PHP Extension and Application Repository = a collection of code started in 1999 to enhance the utility of PHP.

PHP Archive = a distribution format. See https://secure.php.net/manual/en/intro.phar.php

attempt to acquire sensitive information such as passwords or credit card details by masquerading as a trusted party.

A Pod (as in a pod of whales or pea pod) is a group of one or more containers , with shared storage/network resources, and a specification for how to run the containers. https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/

A Pod (as in a pod of whales or pea pod) is a group of one or more containers , with shared storage/network resources, and a specification for how to run the containers. https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/workloads/pods/

Plain Old Telephone Service is an acronym to describe the traditional telephone network served by copper wires strung on poles. (nb. There is a lot more infrastructure to POTS than just the poles and wires.)

Picture Of The Day

Picture Of The Year

Protocol Relative URL. Starts with '//' instead of 'HTTP(S)://'

Protocol Relative URL. Starts with '//' instead of 'HTTP(S)://'

Uniform Resource Locator = an address of a web page or other component, including the protocol.

PHP Standard Recommendation 1

PHP Standard Recommendation 2

Run-time Application Security Protection is similar to IAST, but rather than testing for vulnerabilities it acts like a watchdog that responds to live threats (e.g. terminating an attacker's session and alerting).

Regular Expression = a search and replace syntax that allows for powerful pattern matching

Really Simple Syndication = a syntax for sharing data across the web.

Static Application Security Testing is to find security vulnerabilities in the application source code earlier in the software development life cycle. Because SAST can be automated in DevOps, it becomes part of SecDevOps

Software Configuration Management

Search Engine Optimization

Session Initiation Protocol is a protocol used in VoIP communications allowing users to make voice and video calls, mostly for free. A SIP client is a program that you install on your computer or mobile device.

Voice over Internet Protocol, or commonly "Voice over IP", is the Internet alternative to POTS.

Systems and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 is a set of compliance criteria developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

Sender Policy Framework

Subject Matter Expert

Semantic MediaWiki = See Metadata

Site Reliability Engineer

User Operation Prohibition = things you're not allowed to do with a DVD, like skip the FBI warning w:User operation prohibition

User Preference Option = things that you can set in your "preferences". Special:Preferences

Uniform Resource Locator = an address of a web page or other component, including the protocol.

Version Control System

Visual Editor

WikiMedia Foundation = the organization which runs various projects including Wikipedia.org

Web Open Font Format

World Wide Web = the part of the Internet where websites and documents can be found via HTTP or HTTPS.