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March 27, 2006 Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of a wide range of computer-based tools that assist engineers, architects and other design professionals in their design activities. It is the main geometry authoring tool within the Product Lifecycle Management process and involves both software and sometimes special-purpose hardware. Current packages range from 2D vector based drafting systems to 3D solid and surface modellers.
CAD is sometimes translated as "computer-assisted", "computer-aided drafting", or a similar phrase. Related acronyms are CADD, which stands for "computer-aided design and drafting", CAID for Computer-aided Industrial Design and CAAD, for "computer-aided architectural design". All these terms are essentially synonymous, but there are a few subtle differences in meaning and application.
CAD was originally the three letter acronym for "Computer Aided drafting" as in the early days CAD was really a replacement for the tradition drafting board. But now is the term is often interchanged with "Computer Aided Design" to reflect the fact that modern CAD tools do much more than just drafting.
August 2006 OpenBSD is a freely available Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), a Unix derivative created by the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD, a previous open source operating system based on BSD, by project leader Theo de Raadt in 1994, and is widely known for the developers' insistence on open source and documentation, test uncompromising position on software licensing, and focus on security and code correctness. The project is coordinated from de Raadt's home in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and its logo and mascot is Puffy, a pufferfish.
OpenBSD includes a number of security features not found or optional in other operating systems and has a tradition of developers auditing the source code for software bugs and security problems. The project maintains strict policies on licensing and prefers the open source BSD licence and its variants—in the past this has led to a comprehensive licence audit and moves to remove or replace code under licences found less acceptable.
- June 2006
Java is an object-oriented programming language developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. Unlike conventional languages which are generally designed to be compiled to native code, Java is compiled to a bytecode which is then run (generally using JIT compilation) by a Java virtual machine. The language itself borrows much syntax from C and C++ but has a much simpler object model and does away with low-level tools like programmer-manipulated pointers. Java is only distantly related to JavaScript, though they have similar names and share a C-like syntax.
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A floppy disk is a data storage device that comprises a circular piece of thin, flexible magnetic medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic wallet. The fact that the exterior aspect is neither circular nor floppy confuses some novice users. Floppy disks were ubiquitous in the 1980s and 1990s, being used on home and personal computer platforms such as the Apple II, Macintosh, Commodore 64, and IBM PC to distribute software, transfer data between computers, and create small backups. In March of 2003, Dell made the decision to make floppy drives optional on its higher-end desktop computers, a move hailed by some as the end of the floppy disk as a mainstream means of data storage and exchange.
