Computer Terms Beginning with "M"

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Minimize

Example: "If your screen is cluttered with windows, it may help to minimize the ones you are not currently using."

Minimizing a window temporarily hides it from view without closing it. In Windows, a button for the minimized window is added to the taskbar. In Mac OS X, a small icon for the window is added to the dock. Clicking the window's button or icon will reopen the window. You can then click the maximize button to increase the window's size.

To minimize a window in Windows, click the button with a horizontal line icon in the upper-right corner of a window. In Mac OS X, click the yellow button in the upper-left corner of the window or double-click the title bar.

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MIPS

Stands for "Million Instructions Per Second." It is a method of measuring the raw speed of a computer's processor. Since the MIPS measurement doesn't take into account other factors such as the computer's I/O speed or processor architecture, it isn't always a fair way to measure the performance of a computer. For example, a computer rated at 100 MIPS may be able to computer certain functions faster than another computer rated at 120 MIPS.

The MIPS measurement has been used by computer manufacturers like IBM to measure the "cost of computing." The value of computers is determined in MIPS per dollar. Interestingly, the value of computers in MIPS per dollar has steadily doubled on an annual basis for the last couple of decades.

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Mirror

A mirror is something that you can see your reflection in. Most mirrors consist of a sheet of glass with a sheet of metal behind it. When light hits the metal, it reflects onto the glass and produces the image you see. In the computer world, however, a mirror is a Web or FTP server that has the same files on it as another server. Its purpose is to provide an alternate way to access files when the main server is so swamped with people connecting and downloading files that other people can't get through. Unlike real-life mirrors, when you download a picture off a mirror server, the image isn't backwards.

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Mirrored Volume

A mirrored volume is a hard drive or other form of storage media that stores an exact copy of the data from another volume. It is used for fault tolerance, which means mirrored volume serves as a backup device in case the primary device fails.

Companies and organizations that store critical information typically "mirror" the data on another drive. Using a mirrored volume decreases the chance of losing data exponentially. For example, if the odds of a hard drive going bad is 1 out of 200, the odds of two drives going bad at the same time is 1 out of 40,000.

Mirroring data can be done using various backup software programs or may be enabled within operating systems that support disk mirroring. While using a mirrored volume helps keep data safe, it also slows down data transfers because the data must always be written twice. It also costs more, since mirroring data requires twice as much disk storage than what would otherwise be required. However, the cost of an extra hard drive is usually well worth the security of having important data backed up.

Mirroring may also be referred to as "duplexing" or RAID 1.

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Mnemonic

A mnemonic (pronounced "nemonic") is a pattern that can be used as an aid for memorizing information. Most often, this pattern consists of letters or words. For example, the phrase "Every Good Boy Does Fine" can be used to help music students remember the notes of the staff, E, G, B, D, and F. The name "Roy G. Biv" is often used to memorize the order of colors in a rainbow (or other light spectrum) -- Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

While initials of words are commonly used as mnemonic devices, rhyming words and poems can also be used to memorize information. Furthermore, images can be associated with words or phrases to help memorize them. Because the human brain organizes information in "chunks," mnemonics help people categorize information better, which makes it easier to remember.

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Modem

The word modem is actually short for Modulator/Demodulator. (There's something you can really impress your friends with). A modem is a communications device that can be either internal or external to your computer. It allows one computer to connect another computer and transfer data over telephone lines. The original dial-up modems are becoming obsolete because of their slow speeds and are being replaced by the much faster cable and DSL modems.

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Modifier Key

Example: "Modifier keys are commonly used to enter keyboard shortcuts."

A modifier key is a key that modifies the action of another key when the two are pressed together. Common modifier keys include Shift, Control, Alt, Command, Option, and Function. The Control (Ctrl) and Alt keys are typically found on Windows keyboards, while the Command (Cmd) and Option keys are typically found on keyboards designed for Macs.

The Shift key, which is found on all computers, is used to capitalize letters and enter symbols (such as the ones found above the number keys). The Control and Command keys are typically used to enter keyboard shortcuts.

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Monitor

The term "monitor" is often used synonymously with "computer screen" or "display." The monitor displays the computer's user interface and open programs, allowing the user to interact with the computer, typically using the keyboard and mouse.

Older computer monitors were built using cathode ray tubes (CRTs), which made them rather heavy and caused them to take up a lot of desk space. Most modern monitors are built using LCD technology and are commonly referred to as flat screen displays. These thin monitors take up much less space than the older CRT displays. This means people with LCD monitors have more desk space to clutter up with stacks of papers, pens, and other objects.

"Monitor" can also be used as a verb. A network administrator may monitor network traffic, which means he watches the traffic to make sure the bandwidth usage is within a certain limit and checks to see what external sources may be attempting to access the network. Software programs may monitor the system's CPU performance as well as RAM and hard disk usage.

Finally, monitors also refer to speakers used for monitoring sound. Audio engineers typically use "studio monitors" to listen to recordings. These high-end speakers allow the engineers to accurately mix and master audio tracks. So a sound mixer could be monitoring a recording visually using a computer monitor, while monitoring the sound using audio monitors at the same. As you can tell, "monitor" serves as a rather multipurpose word.

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Moodle

Stands for "Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment." Moodle is an open source course management system, orginally developed by Martin Dougiamas. It is used by thousands of educational institutions around the world to provide an organized interface for e-learning, or learning over the Internet.

Moodle allows educators to create online courses, which students can access as a virtual classroom. A typically Moodle home page will include a list of participants (including the teacher and students) and a calendar with a course schedule and list of assignments. Other Moodle features include online quizzes, forums, where students can post comments and ask questions, glossaries of terms, and links to other Web resources.

Because Moodle is open source, or freely distributed, it can be an attractive alternative to commercial e-learning options. To learn more about Moodle, visit Moodle.org.

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Motherboard

The motherboard is the main circuit board of your computer and is also known as the mainboard or logic board. If you ever open your computer, the biggest piece of silicon you see is the motherboard. Attached to the motherboard, you'll find the CPU, ROM, memory RAM expansion slots, PCI slots, and USB ports. It also includes controllers for devices like the hard drive, DVD drive, keyboard, and mouse. Basically, the motherboard is what makes everything in your computer work together.

Each motherboard has a collection of chips and controllers known as the chipset. When new motherboards are developed, they often use new chipsets. The good news is that these boards are typically more efficient and faster than their predecessors. The bad news is that older components often do not work with new chipsets. Of course, if you are planning on upgrading multiple components, it may be more cost-effective to just buy a new computer.

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Mount

In order for a hard disk or disk partition to be accessible by a computer, it must first be mounted. This is a software process that "activates" the disk, which makes the folders and files on the disk readable by the computer. If a hard drive is physically connected, but not mounted, the computer will not recognize it.

Fortunately, most operating systems, such as Windows and Mac OS X, mount newly connected disks by default. In Windows, the disk will appear in the "My Computer" window. In Mac OS X, the disk will appear on the desktop. This is true for all types of disks, such as internal and external hard drives, optical media, such as CDs and DVDs, and USB flash drives. Disk image files may have to be mounted manually using a program like Nero or WinImage (Windows) or Apple Disk Utility (Mac OS X).

If a disk is not being used, it can be unmounted. Optical disks are typically unmounted automatically when they are ejected. However, before you disconnect an external hard drive or a USB flash drive, you should unmount the disk to avoid possible data corruption.

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Mouse

Example: "He uses a multi-button cordless mouse with his computer."

A mouse, along with the keyboard, is one of the two main input devices used by computers. It is a small handheld device that tracks the user's motion and is used for moving the cursor on the screen. It also has buttons that are used for clicking and right-clicking objects.

While early mice used a mouse ball to track the movement of the mouse, modern mice use a beam of light or an actual laser. This optical technology is more accurate than the rolling ball method and also keeps mice from getting dirty inside.

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MP3

Stands for "MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3." MP3 is popular compressed audio file format that helped popularize digital music downloads beginning in the late 1990s. MP3 files are typically about one tenth the size of uncompressed WAVE or AIFF files, but maintain nearly the same CD-quality sound. Because of their small size and good fidelity, MP3 files have become a popular way to store music files on both computers and portable devices like the iPod.

To listen to MP3s on your computer, you'll need an MP3 player like Nullsoft Winamp (for Windows) or Apple iTunes (for Mac and Windows). Most MP3 players also allow you to create MP3 files from CD audio tracks or other from other audio file types. Once you have converted your favorite songs to MP3 files, you can transfer them to a portable music player, like the Apple iPod, Microsoft Zune, or a music-enabled cell phone. You can also burn the MP3 files to a CD, which can be played in MP3-compatible CD players.

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MPEG

Stands for "Moving Picture Experts Group." The MPEG organization, which works with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), develops standards for digital audio and video compression. The group constantly works to develop more efficient ways to digitally compress and store audio and video files.

The term MPEG also refers to a type of multimedia file, which is denoted by the file extension ".mpg" or ".mpeg." These files are compressed movies that can contain both audio and video. Though they are compressed, MPEG files maintain most of the original quality of the uncompressed movie. This is why many videos on the Web, such as movie trailers and music videos, are available in the MPEG format.

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MTU

Stands for "Maximum Transmission Unit." MTU is a networking term that defines the largest packet size that can be sent over a network connection. The MTU is typically limited by the type of connection, but may sometimes be adjusted in a computer's network settings. Because a higher MTU allows for more data to be transferred at once, connections with high MTUs typically have more bandwidth than connections with lower MTUs.

For example, the MTU of an Ethernet connection is 1500 bytes. If a system sends packets over an Ethernet network that are larger than 1500 bytes, the data will be fragmented into smaller packets. These packets will then need to be reassembled on the receiving computer. Fortunately, the receiving computer does this automatically. However, it may cause a slowdown in the overall data transfer. Since the majority of computers connected to the Internet go through an Ethernet connection at some point, most computers have a default MTU setting of 1500 bytes.