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OCR :
Optical Character Recognition. The ability of a computer to
recognize written characters through some optical-sensing
device and pattern recognition software.
ODA :
Open Document Architecture. An international standard that
enables users to exchange text and graphics generated on
different types of office products.
ODBC :
Open Database Connectivity. An interface based on the
Structured Query Language Access Group specifications. The
application programming interfaces enable Windows applications
to access data in various back-end relational database servers
(and xBase files), without the applications having to
understand the differences between the various back-end data
sources. Microsoft has also stated its intent to port ODBC to
the Macintosh.
OEM :
Original Equipment Manufacturer. Usually refers not to the
manufacturer of a device, but to the system integrator that
resells the devices as part of a system. When used as a verb,
as in "Company B is going to OEM Company A's drive," this
means that Company A will manufacture the drive and Company B
will integrate it into a system.
OLE :
Object Linking and Embedding. Microsoft-defined mechanism for
program-to-program communication. OLE enables a user to create
compound documents incorporating work from multiple
applications.
Open Content :
Copyrighted information (such as this Glossary) that is made
available by the copyright owner to the general public under
license terms that allow reuse of the material, often with the
requirement (as with this Glossary) that the re-user grant the
public the same rights to the modified version that the
re-user received from the copyright owner.
Information that is in the Public Domain might also be
considered a form of Open Content.
Open Source Software :
Open Source Software is software for which the underlying
programming code is available to the users so that they may
read it, make changes to it, and build new versions of the
software incorporating their changes. There are many types of
Open Source Software, mainly differing in the licensing term
under which (altered) copies of the source code may (or must
be) redistributed.
Open Systems :
A concept based on offering hardware and software and
capabilities defined by standards - produced by standards
committees as well as those supported or demanded by users
(i.e., de facto standards, such as those developed by Unix
International or the Open Software Foundation). Typically, an
open system provides Unix as a basic operating system,
although that is not a requirement; what is required is that
the system provide standard interfaces. An open system is a
compliant implementation of an evolving set of vendor-neutral
specifications for interfaces, services, protocols and
formats. It is designed to let users configure, operate and
substitute an entire system, its applications and components
with other equally compliant implementations, preferably
available from different vendors.
Optical disk :
Disk whose reading and writing mechanisms use laser optics
instead of magnetism. Their lifetime is probably long : more
than 30 years for the support, but can we ensure to find
decades later compatible reading mechanisms ? They can record
relatively large quantities of data (500 MB in 1995), but
their access time is slow.
Oracle :
RDBMS world leader.
OS :
Operating System. A computer's operating system mediates
between user application programs and the processor and
peripheral hardware environment. Under the control of the
operating system, the computer recognizes and obeys commands
from the user and interprets application and network commands.
The operating system also provides built-in routines that
enable users to perform input/output operations without
specifying the exact underlying hardware configuration of the
computer.
OS/2 :
Micro computer operating system developed by IBM. Although
rather advanced, this system was never accepted by the users
community.
OSI :
Open Systems Interconnection. A standard approach to network
design developed by the International Standards Organization
that introduces modularity by dividing the complex set of
functions into more manageable, self-contained, functional
slices.
Outsourcing :
A contractual relationship with an external provider
characterized by the transfer of assets (both physical and
human), to include facilities management, network management,
network management, PC services, and/or application
development/maintenance. |
