Containing over 100,000 terms, TheFreeDictionary's Encyclopedia is compiled from a number of sources, including The Columbia Encyclopedia®. The current Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia® contains nearly 52,000 entries and more than 84,000 hypertext cross-references, marshalling 6.5 million words on a vast range of topics. Comprehensively revised on a quarterly basis, the electronic edition is among the most complete and up-to-date encyclopedias ever produced.

TheFreeDictionary's Encyclopedia also draws from the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, which includes nearly 28,000 entries on a broad range of topics, and The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, which features 9,000 significant figures from all periods of American history.

Computer Desktop Encyclopedia -- premier source for computer concepts and terminology. Updated quarterly, this powerful, authoritative reference about the computer industry has been heralded by PC Magazine, Government Technology Magazine and others as the best online reference source of its type.

The Computer Desktop Encyclopedia offers more than 18,000 definitions covering all aspects of computers and digital technology. In addition to the library of definitions, the resource also includes explanations of fundamental technology concepts, informative historical content, biographies, company backgrounders and more. Phonetic entries allow users to source definitions for “scuzzy” (SCSI), “gooey” (GUI) and “voyp” (VoIP), while over 2,500 illustrations, photos and charts provide additional insight.

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UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) A device that provides battery backup when the electrical power fails or drops to an unacceptable voltage level. Small UPS systems provide power for a few minutes; enough to power down the computer in an orderly manner, while larger systems have enough battery for several hours. In mission critical datacenters, UPS systems are used for just a few minutes until electrical generators take over. UPS systems can be set up to alert file servers to shut down in an orderly manner when an outage has occurred, and the batteries are running out. More...		banner ad batch processing boot CAD cartridge CD-R cellphone CPU CRM data conversion DBMS Dell desktop publishing digital camera digital certificate digital printing DVR e-book EDO RAM folder HDTV help desk internet ISP J2EE keystroke logger laptop computer laser printer LCD Linux memory chip middleware Motorola mouse pad Napster Palm PDA plotter power supply print server printer SCSI SDRAM spam SSL Tablet PC Telnet touch screen transaction processing VoIP Web server Web services workflow workstation