National Teaching and Learning Change ProgrammeInformation and Communication Technology:
Dictionary

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Search results

• search
  The process of looking for a file, or for data within a file.
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• search criteria
  The conditions which a search routine uses to find the relevant results.
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• search engine
  Search engines collect details of internet resources and their locations and hold this data in a very large database for the search engine to use. A search engine uses a variety of methods to find the required data, such as finding alternative keywords using a thesaurus. There are several proprietary internet search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista.
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• search results
  A list of the results of a search.
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• search routine
  A piece of program code which implements a search.
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• second-generation computer
  Second-generation computers arrived when the transistor replaced the valve as the basic component. They were consequently much more reliable, and consumed less power. They were cheaper, but still out of reach for most businesses and certainly for individuals.
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• secondary key
  A key is the field (the key field) within a record used to identify the record, for example, a bank account number identifies a customers account. The key can be used for finding the record within a file or as the sort key for sorting a file into order. Most data files will have a primary key, which is unique and used to identify the record. If the records in a data file can be accessed sequentially the records will be accessed in key field order, which is the order they will be in when they have been sorted using the key field. Data files may also have secondary keys, which enable the file to be accessed in a different order. Composite keys, made up of more than one field, can be used to sort a file.
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• section break
  In word processing, a section break divides a document into different sections, often with different formatting and layout.
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• sector
  On a disk, each track is divided into a number of equal-length blocks, called sectors. A sector is the smallest addressable portion of a track and is the smallest unit of data that is written to or read from a disk.
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• secure socket layer (SSL)
  A protocol which enables an encrypted link to be created between two computers using the internet. It protects electronic communications from interception and allows a computer to identify the server it is communicating with. It is the standard security protocol used to provide security for commercial transactions (such as buying goods) taking place over the internet.
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• security
  Security usually refers to security of data, e.g. using passwords to restrict access, or keeping files secure, and ensuring that regular backups are made.
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• seek time
  This is the time taken to move the read/write heads to the correct track on a disk.
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• segment
  Segmentation is splitting a large program into a number of smaller programs or segments. Each segment is a complete program that is executed separately. Segmentation allows a large program to be executed on a computer with insufficient memory to store the whole program. The segments of several programs can be interleaved, so that several large programs can be run simultaneously, in parts, to make best use of resources. These techniques are not widely used now due to the relatively large memory of modern computers.
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• select
  To highlight text with the mouse pointer, before some action is carried out on it, e.g. deleting it.
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• select
  Select a file or folder by pointing to an item with the screen pointer and then clicking the left mouse button once.
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• select
  A command in SQL, a structured query language, e.g. SELECT student WHERE year = 11 AND subject =
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• select all
  An operation carried out with a mouse or keyboard shortcut, which allows a user to select everything before carrying out an action, e.g. deleting, editing, changing font.
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• self extracting archive
  When a number of files have been combined into one, usually for purposes of reducing the size for upload and download, a self extracting archive will separate out the files when it is executed, without the need for a separate extraction program.
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• sent mail
  In an email program, the place where messages which have been sent are stored.
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• sequence
  The order in which things are carried out.