F
Fall Forward - or decrease fall back the speed they are using, without reconnecting. This process takes place when the line conditions change-for example, if the amount of static on the line increases, the modems can fall back to a speed that is reliable even with the increased noise level. The process is almost instantaneous. You use the %En, -Kn, and -Qn commands to control fallback/fallforward.
Failover - A server with failover capabilities is one in which its functions are assumed by secondary systems in the event that primary systems fail or are going through scheduled downtime. Failover is one of the aspects of making a system fault-tolerant.
Fault Tolerance - A system's ability to respond gracefully in the face of a hardware or software failure. This ranges from the ability to continue to operate in the event of a power failure to the ability for a mirror system to take over in the event that a system fails altogether.
Faulting - A mechanism used by WebObjects to increase performance whereby destination objects of relationships are not fetched until they are explicitly accessed.
FCC(Federal Communications Commission) - U.S. government agency responsible for communications regulation (www.fcc.gov).
Fetch - In Enterprise Objects Framework applications, to retrieve data from the database server into the client application, usually into enterprise objects. foreign key An attribute in an entity that gives it access to rows in another entity. This attribute must be the primary key of the related entity. For example, an Employee entity can contain the foreign key deptID, which matches the primary key in the entity Department. You can then use deptID as the source attribute in Employee and as the destination attribute in Department to form a relationship between the entities.
FHSS(Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum) - A radiowave transmission technique that rapidly changes frequencies in a pattern that is known to the sender and receiver.
Fiber-Optic Cable - A transmission medium that uses light to send a signal through a glass-based fiber.
Fibre Channel - A data-transmission technology that allows high-speed transfers at speeds of up to 1Gbps. Fibre channel is faster than other data transfer interfaces, such as SCSI or ATA. Fibre channel can use twisted pair, coaxial cable, or optical fibre as its cabling medium.
Field Dominance - Refers to the field that occurs first in an interlaced video frame. If only one field is captured, field 1 dominance means that only field 1 is captured and field 2 dominance means that only field 2 is captured.
Field - A word you'll run across in data base applications and ads for data base applications. It refers to a category of information. If your data base is an address book, name and address will be two of the fields.
Field - Half of an interlaced video frame consisting of the odd or the even scan lines. Alternating video fields are drawn every 1/60 of a second in NTSC video 1/50 of a second in PAL to create the perceived 30 fps video 25 fps PAL. There are two fields for every frame, an upper field and a lower field. It is possible to capture only one field of each frame.
File Management - A general term for copying files, deleting files, and for other housekeeping chores involving the contents of disks.
File Menu - A menu in mouse-based applications that lists commands that affect whole documents commands like Save, Print, and Quit.
File Server - Hardware and/or software that allows users to store and share documents, folders, and applications over a network.
File Sharing - A built-in feature of the Mac OS that enables users to share the contents of their hard disks with other users on the network.
File System - Refers to the way in which files are named and where they are placed logically for storage and retrieval. In Mac OS X, files are placed in a hierarchical tree structure, either in directories or subdirectories.
File - A collection of information that you store on a disk. Also called a document.
Filename - The name you give your file document before you save it on a disk.
Film List - A text file you give to the negative cutter to guide them in conforming the original camera negative. The film list may contain one or more of the following-a cut list, a missing elements list, a dupe list, an optical list, a pull list, and a scene list. May also contain additional information for pulling the negative rolls, making duplicate negatives, making a workprint, or printing effects.
Filter - A screening method used to control access to your server. A filter is made up of an IP address and a subnet mask, and sometimes a port number and access type. The IP address and the subnet mask together determine the range of IP addresses to which the filter applies.
Finder - The application you use to navigate and organize files and folders. The Finder plays a role similar to that of Windows Explorer. You can customize Finder windows with your favorite tools and places.
Firewall - Software that protects the network applications running on your server. IP Firewall service, which is part of Mac OS X Server software, scans incoming IP packets and rejects or accepts these packets based on a set of filters you create.
FireWire - FireWire is Apple's cross-platform implementation of a high-speed serial data bus defined by IEEE Standard 1394-1995 that is able to transfer large amounts of data between computers and peripheral devices. FireWire features simplified cabling and hot swapping, and provides a single plug-and-socket connection to which up to 63 devices can be attached with data transfer speeds up to 400 megabits per second. FireWire is designed to support much higher data rates than USB 1.0; both standards are expected to exist together, serving different device types. With the introduction of the new FireWire 800 standard, Apple now refers to the original standard as FireWire 400.
FireWire 400 - FireWire 400 refers to any FireWire port that conforms to either IEEE 1394-1995 or IEEE 1394a-2000 standard. For more information, see the definition for FireWire.
FireWire 800 - FireWire 800 refers to any FireWire port that conforms to the IEEE 1394b standard. This standard, which amends the IEEE 1394-1995 and IEEE 1394a-2000 standards, upgrades the prior standards by allowing for faster speeds (up to 800 Mbit/s), new cabling, and compatibility with the FireWire 400 standard. New cabling includes CAT5 unshielded twisted pairs and UTP5 glass and plastic optical fiber. The new amendment is fully interoperable with 1394a-2000 and 1394-1995 standards. It uses a 9-pin connector. By using a 9-pin to 6-pin or 9-pin to 4-pin FireWire cable, you can connect FireWire 400 devices to a FireWire 800 chain.
Firmware - Software programs or data that has been written onto read-only memory ROM. Firmware is a combination of software and hardware. ROMs, PROMs and EPROMs that have data or programs recorded on them are firmware.
FLEx File - A common telecine log file format. A telecine log is a file generated by the telecine technician during the telecine transfer. Records the key numbers of the original camera negative and the timecode of the video transfer, tracking the relationship between them.
Floppy Disk - 3.5 disks that hold 400 or 800 kilobytes of data. These disks and their associate drives were commonly used in the oldest Macintosh models.
Folder - An icon that represents a subdirectory. A way to group related documents together on a disk.
Font - A typeface that contains the characters of an alphabet, numbers, and some other letterforms such as punctuation marks. Size and style of characters bold, italic, and so on.
Footage Number - Part of a key number; refers to the four-digit number indicating the position on a film roll.
Footer - Text that appears at the bottom of every page or every other page in a document. A header is text that appears at the top of every page or every other page of a document.
Footprint - The surface area of a desk or table which is occupied by a piece of equipment. Can also refer to the amount of memory a software application takes up.
Form Feed - The way perforated printer paper is pulled into position for printing. Friction feed is the way a printer moves individual sheets of paper into position for printing. It's the same way typewriters move paper into position.
Format - To divide a disk into sections where information can be stored. Disks must be formatted before you can save information on them.
Formula - An equation. By writing formulas to define relationships between the various numbers in your spreadsheet, you can try out different numbers, and the formulas will recalculate all the totals for you.
FORTH - A programming language.
Fortran - A programming language.
Found Set - The set of database entries shown in the Cinema Tools List View window. This set is called the found set because you use the Find command to display it.
fps - Acronym for frames per second.
Fragmentation - The breaking up of a file into many separate locations in memory or on a disk. It takes longer to retrieve files that are highly fragmented.
Frame Number - The last part of the key number. The frame number consists of the footage number and the frame counter, and indicates how many feet and frames into the film a particular frame occurs.
Frame - A single still image. Film and video are made up of a series of these images. While a film frame is a photographic image, a video frame contains one or more fields.
Frame Rate - In a movie, the number of frames per second.
Frames Per Second FPS - The number of frames displayed on screen per second. Also known as frame rate. When video is exported to a QuickTime file, the different formats have different FPS rates. Lower FPS rates produce smaller files.
Framework - A framework is a type of bundle that packages a dynamic shared library with the resources that the library requires, including header files and reference documentation. Mac OS X uses frameworks.
Free-Form Data Base - A data base that lets you enter information in paragraph form instead of by categories and designate key words that you can search for later.
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum FHSS - A radio frequency-based transmission method defined by the IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN standard that uses a technique by which the signal transmitted hops among several frequencies at a specific rate and sequence as a way of avoiding interference.
Friction Feed - The way a printer moves individual sheets of paper into position for printing. It's the same way typewriters move paper into position. Form feed is the way perforated printer paper is pulled into position for printing.
FTP File Transfer Protocol - A protocol that allows computers to transfer files over a network. FTP clients using any operating system that supports FTP can connect to a file server and download files, depending on their access privileges. Most Internet browsers and a number of freeware applications can be used to access an FTP server.
Full-Duplex Modem - A modem that echoes information it receives back to the sending computer. Most commercial information services are full-duplex.
Function Key - A key that tells the application to carry out a particular activity or function print a document, save a document, and so on. Some applications use the number keys on the numeric keypad as function keys.
Function - A built-in formula you can use to calculate an average, a square root, and the like.
