A digital currency and some associated protocols which allow online payments to be made worldwide. It works with no central authority and runs on free, open-source software. Bitcoins are stored in virtual wallets which can reside on a computer, a mobile device or in a wallet stored online. They can be transferred without the need for an intermediate financial authority.
Want to know more about Bitcoin? Check out the ‘What is Bitcoin’ post in on our news page.
The speed at which bits (units of binary information) are transferred or processed over time. For audio data it can be thought of as analogous to resolution for image files. The greater the number of bits per second, the more detailed and clear the audio can be. In video it doesn’t affect the resolution in terms of the number of pixels in a frame, but it does affect how frequently and accurately they are updated. A low bit-rate usually manifests itself as blurry or blocky video with unwanted visual artefacts.
BitTorrent is a widely-used peer-to-peer file sharing protocol, designed to dispense high-volume data via the Internet. It’s used for distributing large files, such as Linux distributions and also for illegal file sharing. The protocol was invented by Bram Cohen in 2001.
A network of computers that have been infected with malware that allows them to be remotely controlled without the knowledge of their owner. Botnets become powerful distributed computing platforms capable of co-ordinated attacks against websites, sending spam and enabling large-scale identity theft.
It’s important to keep your security software up-to-date to safeguard your machine from being co-opted into a botnet.
For more detailed information, see the ‘The many forms of Malware’ post in on our news page.
Bloatware is the slang phrase used to describe software that has lots of features and requires considerable disk space and RAM to install and run. As the cost of RAM and disk storage has decreased, there has been a growing trend among software developers to disregard the size of applications and the end result is bloated software.
Some people refer to this trend as creeping featuritis (see “creeping featurism“), however, if creeping featuritis is the symptom, bloatware is the disease.
The latest Bluetooth standard greatly improves on previous versions by adding two new technologies and using considerably less power.
Short for Berkeley Software Design, Inc., a commercial supplier of Internet and networking software based on the BSD (Berkeley) version of UNIX. In addition to providing a commercial version of the BSD operating system, BSDI also develops Internet server and gateway products.
A bug bounty program is a deal offered by many websites and software developers by which individuals can receive recognition and compensation for reporting bugs, especially those pertaining to exploits and vulnerabilities. These programs allow the developers to discover and resolve bugs before the general public is aware of them, preventing incidents of widespread abuse.
Bump! was an iOS and Android application that enabled smartphone users to transfer contact information, photos and files between devices. In 2011, it was #8 on Apples list of all-time most popular free iPhone apps, and by February 2013 it had been downloaded 125 million times. Its developer, Bump Technologies, shut down the service and discontinued the app on January 31, 2014, after being acquired by Google for Android Beam.
Source: Wikipedia
Standing for Bring Your Own Device, this is a policy by which employees are encouraged to use their own devices for work purposes. Advantages of this policy are that users don’t need to carry two phones or two laptops and can work on a device with which they are already familiar. Disadvantages include concerns over privacy of employees data and far-reaching powers of corporations to modify or erase data on the devices, including personal data.