Alphabet Soup for Consumers
And password protection for everyone

By Richard M. Sherwin

New York, NY—Just when I got used to buzz words and other obtuse descriptions coming from media relations and corporate execs mouths and emails, I had to  create a new dictionary as Cablevision, Verizon, Sony, Samsung and others started their spring previews. There wasn’t so much as one ground breaking technology that any of the big players had so far, but a lot of word games to entice the uninitiated.

No blockbuster products or services, but a lot of two, three and four letter words and phrases that didn’t always mean what they were intended for, but were created to cause buzz.

Here are some hot phrases along with explanations. (A little help from the free Merriam Webster’s dictionary and Wikipedia is included.)

• Ultra HD:  Ultra High Definition Television or TV’s with four times the resolution of existing models

• 4K TV: Another nickname for Ultra High Definition Television

• NFC : Near field communication is a set of standards for Smartphones and Tablets and other portable devices that can literally connect by waving the devices together. Similar devices establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity, usually no more than a few centimeters apart.

NFC Lets your Phone talk to you computer

• IGZO: Indium gallium zinc oxide is a semiconducting material, jointly developed by Sharp Corporation and Semiconductor Energy Laboratories, which can be used as the basis for allegedly even thinner and lighter TVs and other electronic devices with screens.
• ODM: An Original Design Manufacturer is a company which designs and manufactures a product which has requested the OEM to build it under the other company’s brand.

• LED: Light emitting diodes are tiny light bulbs that fit easily into an electrical circuit. But unlike ordinary incandescent bulbs, they don’t have a filament that will burn out, and they don’t get especially hot. They are illuminated solely by the movement of electrons in a semiconductor material, and they last just as long as a standard transistor. The lifespan of an LED surpasses the short life of an incandescent bulb by thousands of hours. Tiny LEDs are already replacing the tubes that light up LCD HDTVs to them dramatically thinner

• LCD: Liquid Crystal Display. First generation slimmer TVs were produced with LCD technology. LCDs were first used in clock radios, watches and small signage. The majority of flat panel TVs in the last ten years used the light modulating properties of liquid crystals. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly. LCDs are available to display arbitrary images (as in a general-purpose computer display) or fixed images which can be displayed or hidden, such as preset words, digits, and 7-segment displays as in a digital clock. They use the same basic technology, except that arbitrary images are made up of a large number of small pixels, while other types  displays like monitors, TVs and signs have larger elements.

• OLED: Organic light emitting diodes are the next generation in LED technology enabling TV, computer and tablet displays to work and produce clear pictures without a backlight. Thus, they can display deep black levels and can be thinner and lighter than an LCD. In low ambient light conditions such as a dark room, an OLED screen can achieve a higher contrast  than an LCD, whether the LCD uses cold cathode fluorescent lamps or LED backlight.

Sony introduced the first OLED TV about ten years ago

• PDP: A Plasma Display Panel is technology that  utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, or what are, in essence, chambers more commonly known as fluorescent lamps. Originally thought of as a replacement for LCD TVs, Plasma technology is disappearing because the quality of LCD and LED TVs now exceed Plasma and the cost of producing Plasma never dropped enough to make the technology competitive. Plasma TVs differ from LCD or LED in being slightly brighter than LCD and when first introduced could be viewed on  a wider angle than LCD.

• Algorithm: An algorithm is a precise method used by scientists and computer programmers to determine and find a solution to a problem. Scientists and programmers then use a computer to create the firmware that completes the project. The term algorithm comes from a Persian author, Abu Ja’far Mohammed ibn Musa al Khowarizmi (c. 825 c.e.), who wrote an early textbook on mathematics that some say created the format for present day algorithm studies. Some computer scientists study broad classes of algorithms, while others study algorithms for a specific task.

• Firmware: In computers, computer guided devices and now standalone electronic systems, Firmware is the combination of persistent memory and program code and data stored in it. Other examples of devices containing firmware are traffic lights, consumer appliances, and digital watches. But most computers, computer peripherals, mobile phones, and digital cameras and now TVs and even radios contain updateable firmware. The firmware contained in these devices provides the control program for the device. Firmware resides in the non-volatile memory portion of devices such as ROM, EPROM, or flash memory.

• IGO: stands for a type of Navigation software and commands used in global navigation systems like mobile phones, automotive GPS and other mobile devices that require instant updating of its location in order to deliver accurate information.

• Second and third screen: The use of a mobile device like a Tablet, IPad, Smart phone or other portable information device that can supplement your television viewing by either connecting to the TV or offering more information on the show, movie or event you are viewing.

• Binge Watching: Binge watching occurs when viewers watch multiple episodes of a TV show at one time. First used by students, the advent of streaming video by companies like Netflix and Amazon.com created massive libraries of older and new even self-produced content.

• Hub: The use of an electronic storage device that also acts as router and has enough memory to store audio, video, digital picture content and more and  deliver that content anywhere in the house using a home network.

• Home Network: A fast growing feature in many homes, a home network ties together your computer (s), TVs, printers portable devices (and soon refrigerators, washing machines and dryers) and other digital devices and allows the devices to share content and enables them to share Internet access. The most popular technology that links these devices is Wi-Fi, but other technologies like home power line (using your AC power) and mobile wireless (provided by mobile carriers) are also gaining in popularity now that they have the bandwidth to support multiple devices and full movie streaming services in a home.

• Bandwidth: The words bandwidth, network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth, usually refers to the speed and accessibility of communication resources. For instance, if you are using your laptop via Wi-Fi at home and someone else is streaming video in the next room, you are both consuming bandwidth from whatever your service provider is providing. Consequently if others in the family are also using a Wi-Fi enabled device, the content or quality of the device may be compromised or slowed down. Bandwidth is measured by the amount of data through an interface over time.

Password Safety Tips

Bytes and Pieces: This is one of the most popular questions we’ve been getting lately from readers, viewers and listeners: How can I make my passwords safe from hackers?

Most password hacks use a technique called a “brute force attack”, which uses automated computer software to guess every possible combination to crack your personal code. If you have a poorly chosen password, hackers can break it in less than a minute. But the software can be thwarted by adding numbers, symbols, and a mix of lower and upper case letters to your code. Since there are 26 letters in the alphabet, each additional letter makes your password 26 times harder to crack. Symbols are better since there are 1500 of them so one extra asterisk or exclamation point can make it 1,500 times more difficult for software to pry open your accounts.

If you wrote “password”, then “Pa$$w0rd” would be better. But “Pa$$w0rd!.!.!.” would be much safer. And “Pa$$w0rd(!.(!.(!” would be best. Hacking software that can guess a hundred billion combinations a second would still need 200,000 years to break your account.