Acronyms and Abbreviations

Many acronyms and abbreviations have been used throughout this site. Often no attempt has been made to explain or clarify them, with the onus left on the reader to understand the acronym or abbreviation and the context in which it is used.

Below is an incomplete list of acronyms and abbreviations used in this site.

Acronyms and Abbreviations

A/V
Audiovisual or Audio/Video
ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
ADSL
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
AFL
Australian Football League
AGM
Annual General Meeting
AGP
Accelerated Graphics Port (video card)
AM
Ante Meridiem (period between midnight and noon) or Amplitude Modulation
ANSI
American National Standards Institute and a character set defined by them
ANZAC
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ATM
Automated Teller Machine or Asynchronous Transfer Mode
AV
Audiovisual or Audio/Video
AVR
Atmel AVR®, 8-bit Reduced Instruction Set Computer microcontroller
Aus
Australia
Aussie
Australian
BBQ
Barbecue
BIOS
Basic Input Output System
BITS
Bachelor of Information Technology Society (University of Queensland, Australia)
BSDE
Brisbane School of Distance Education
BSOD
Blue Screen Of Death (Microsoft Windows Critical Error Screen)
CD
Compact Disc
CD-RW
Compact Disc - ReWritable
CDDB
CD Database
CDF
Channel Definition Format (Microsoft) or Comma Delimited Format (filename extension)
CDR
Compact Disc Recordable
CGI
Common Gateway Interface (web scripting facility) or Computer-Generated Imagery (movie industry)
CISC
Complex Instruction Set Computer
CMS
Content Management System
COMP1500
Intro to Programming
COMP1501
Internet Interface Design
COMP1800
Information Technology Project
COMP2301
Systems Interface Programming
COMP2302
Computer Organisation
COMP2500
Programming in the Large
COMP2502
Algorithms & Data Structures
COMP2801
Software Engineering Studio
COMP3300
Operating Systems
COMP3502
Information Security
COMP3601
Software Specification
COMS3200
Computer Networks I
COMS4200
Computer Networks 2
CPR
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
CPU
Central Processing Unit (computer)
CSDE
Cairns School of Distance Education
CSS
Cascading Style Sheet
CSSE3004
Advanced Information Technology Project
CT
Computed Tomography (imaging technique)
CV
Curriculum Vitae
CVS
Concurrent Versioning System
DCC
Direct Client Connection or Direct Client to Client
DDE
Dynamic Data Exchange
DDoS
Distributed Denial of Service (network attack)
DMA
Direct Memory Access (mass storage interface)
DNS
Domain Name Server/Service
DOM
Document Object Model
DSL
Digital Subscriber Line (as in xDSL)
DTD
Document Type Declaration or Definition
DVD
Digital Versatile or Video Disc
EFTPOS
Electronic Funds Transfer Point Of Sale
EPSA
Engineering,Physical Sciences and Architecture, department of (University of Queensland, Australia)
ER
Entity Relationship
ESCD
Extended System Configuration Data
EXIF
Exchangeable Image File (Japan Electronic Industry Development Association, compressed image format used in digital cameras) or Extended Range Imaging File (file format; less common usage)
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions list
FM
Frequency Modulation
FTP
File Transfer Protocol
GB
Giga-Byte (1024 megabytes) or Great Britain
GPA
Grade Point Average
GPS
General Purpose South (Building at University of Queensland (Australia)) or Global Positioning System
GUI
graphical user interface
HDD
Hard Disk Drive
HDTV
High Definition Television
HECS
Higher Education Contributions Scheme
HMAS
His/Her Majesty’s Australian Ship
HMS
Her/His Majesty's Ship (United Kingdom)
HTML
HyperText Markup Language
HTTP
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (world wide web protocol)
I/O
Input/Output
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation
ICQ
I Seek You (Internet chat protocol)
ID
Identification/Identity/Identifier
IDE
Integrated Drive Electronics (hard disk) or Integrated Development Environment
IE
Internet Explorer Web Browser
IEEE
Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers
IIRC
If I Recall/Remember Correctly
IMHO
In My Humble or Highest or Honest or Hesitating Opinion
INFS1200
Intro to Information Systems
INFS2200
Relational Database Systems
INFS3202
Web Information Systems
IO
Input/Output
IP
Internet Protocol or Intellectual Property
IRC
Internet Relay Chat
IRL
In Real Life (as opposed to online or cyber-reality)
ISO
Common name for the International Organization for Standardization, also a CD image format
ISP
Internet Service Provider
IT
Information Technology
ITEE
Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, department of (University of Queensland, Australia)
ITS
Information Technology Services
JCU
James Cook University (Australia)
JSP
Java Server Pages
Java
[not an acronym] A general purpose, high-level, object-oriented, cross-platform programming language developed by Sun Microsystems
KB
kilobytes
KFC
Kentucky Fried Chicken (restaurant chain)
KG
Kilo-Gram
LEGO
Leg Godt (Danish: Play Good (toy system))
0
Zero
LAPD
Los Angeles Police Department
LCD
Liquid Crystal Display (display technology)
LED
Light Emitting Diode
LRP
Lead Replacement Petrol, formerly “Super” and containing lead
MATH1050
Mathematical Foundations
MATH1061
Discrete Mathematics
MB
megabyte
MODEM
Modulator-Demodulator (digital/computer interface to analog telephone line)
MS
Microsoft
MSN
Microsoft Network and often Microsoft Network Messenger
MT
Movable Type
Mac
Macintosh
Mac OS
Macintosh operating system
Moz
Mozilla Web Browser
NBC
National Broadcasting Company (United States radio and TV network)
NOC
Network Operations Center
NTFS
New Technology File System (Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP)
NYPD
New York City Police Department (since 1845; New York City, NY, USA)
Oz
Australia
Ozzie
Australian
PC
Personal Computer
PCI
Peripheral Component Interconnect (personal computer bus)
PCI-X
Peripheral Component Interconnect Express
PDA
Personal Digital Assistant
PDF
Portable Document Format
PERL
Practical Extraction and Reporting Language
PHIL1000
Introductory Philosophy
PHIL1020
Introduction to Logic
PHP
PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (server-side scripting language)
PIN
Personal Identification Number
PIO
Programmed Input/Output or Parallel Input/Output
PM
Post Meridiem (period from noon to midnight) or Personal (Online Chat) Message
PNG
Portable Network Graphics (graphic file standard/extension) or Papua New Guinea
POD
Print on Demand (University of Queensland printing service)
POST
Power On Self Test
PS/2
Personal System/2 (IBM) and usually a type of plug for connecting a keyboard and mouse to a computer
PS2
Personal System/2 (IBM) and usually a type of plug for connecting a keyboard and mouse to a computer
PSU
Power Supply Unit
PSYC1020
Introduction to Psychology: Physiological & Cognitive Psychology
PSYC1030
Introduction to Psychology: Developmental, Social, & Clinical Psychology
QPAC
Queensland Performing Arts Centre
QTAC
Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre
QUT
Queensland University of Technology
QoS
Quality of Service
RACQ
Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (Australia)
RAID
Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks
RAM
Random-Access Memory
RAR
Roshal Archive (compressed file format; file extension)
RCA
Radio Corporation of America (and an audio/video connector)
RFC
Request For Comment
RISC
Reduced Instruction Set Computer
RL
Real Life (as opposed to online or cyber-reality)
RMO
Resident Medical Officer
RSS
Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication
RTA
Residential Tenancies Authority (Queensland, Australia), Roads and Traffic Authority (New South Wales, Australia)
Rs
Rupee, Rupees, Indian Rupee (Currency), officially INR, India Rupee, Indian National Rupee
SATA
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (hard disk interface)
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface
SDK
Software Development Kit
SEQEB
South East Queensland Electricity Board
SES
State Emergency Service
SHA1
Secure Hash Algorithm Version 1.0
SHTML
Server-Side Include Hypertext Markup Language
SMS
Short Message Service (cellular phone text messaging)
SQL
structured query language
SSH
Secure Shell
SSL
secure socket layer
TARDIS
Time And Relative Dimension In Space (Doctor Who TV series)
TCL
Tool Command Language or Taylor Control Language or Terminal Control Language
TFT
Thin Film Transistor (Liquid Crystal Display technology)
TV
Television
U.S.
United States (of America)
UDMA
Ultra Direct Memory Access (mass storage interface)
UFO
Unidentified Flying Object
UHT
Ultra Heat Treated (dairy products)
UML
Unified Modelling Language
UNI
University
UNIX
Uniplexed Information and Computing System, it is a pun on MULTICS (Multiplexed Information & Computing Service)
UPS
Uninterruptible Power Supply (or Source or System) or United Parcel (or Postal) Service
UQ
University of Queensland (Australia)
URI
Uniform Resource Identifier
URL
Uniform Resource Locator (world wide web address)
US
United States (of America)
USA
United States (of America)
USB
Universal Serial Bus
UTF-8
Universal Transformation Format-8 (character encoding)
UTP
Unshielded Twisted Pair (Cat 5 network cabling)
UV
Ultraviolet
VB
Visual Basic (Microsoft programming language)
VCR
Videocassette Recorder
VGA
Video Graphics Array (640 by 480 pixels; 1.33:1 aspect ratio)
VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol
W3
World Wide Web Consortium
W3C
World Wide Web Consortium
WYSIWYG
What You See Is What You Get (What You So Intensely Wish You'd Gotten :-)
Win
Windows
XHTML
eXtensible HyperText Markup Language
XML
eXtensible Markup Language
XP
Experience (Microsoft Windows XP, computer operating system)
XSL
eXtensible Stylesheet Language
XSLT
eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation
ZIP
Compressed File (file name extension)
carbie
Carburettor
lab
Laboratory
labs
Laboratories
s-video
Separated Video (same as Y/C, Luminance and Chrominance)
1
One
2
Two
3
Three
4
Four
5
Five
6
Six
7
Seven
8
Eight
9
Nine

Other Acronyms and Abbreviations

There is an online acronym finder that will return meanings for a large collection of acronyms and abbreviations. Any acronym used in this site that is not listed here will most likely be listed there. Feel free to contact me with any questions, or if you find an acronym or abbreviation on this site that is not clear and not explained here.

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