R is for...Raspberry Pi, Ratting, Rollover, Redirect and RAM

Raspberry Pi: The Raspberry Pi is one of the latest computing crazes. It's a credit card-sized computer board that was developed in the UK with the aim of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools. It’s been adopted by cybergeeks all over the place because of its versatility and low cost. It's a nifty little thing; it can run an operating system which enables the user to do almost anything – from word processing to creating a remote control for a garage door to building a lightshow!

Ratting: The practice of infecting a computer with an application, allowing a third party to access your desktop, including your webcam, to view the contents of your computer and view you through your webcam.

Rollover: Rollover refers to an interactive button on a webpage. When the user 'rolls' the mouse cursor over the button, it changes in some way - usually visually. When the cursor is moved away from the button, it reverts to its previous state. It's a simple way to make the internet a little more exciting.

Redirect: URL redirection is a technique used to make a webpage available under more than one URL address. For example, you can arrange for www.example.com to take visitors to www.example.co.uk - or any other web address specified. It's a useful tool for those who own frequently misspelled web addresses, as they can register the misspellings and redirect them - so our fumbling fingers can still get us to where we want to go.

RAM: Random access memory (RAM) is a type of computer memory - the most common type you'll come across. It allows data to be accessed randomly, unlike other storage media such as CDs, DVDs and magnetic tape. Children of the 80s will remember the painfully slow loading up of computer games on cassette tapes (only for them to crash at the last moment). They were slow because the data had to be read in the right order.

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Written by Safeguarding Essentials on July 11, 2013 10:40


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