internation from FOLDOC

International Algebraic Language

International Atomic Time

(TAI) An international standard measurement of time based on the comparison of many atomic clocks. TAI is maintained by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), the world's governing body for civil atomic time measurement. TAI is the basis for Coordinated Universal Time.

BIPM.

Last updated: 2001-08-02

International Business Machines

<company>

(IBM) The best known American computer manufacturer, founded by Thomas J. Watson (born 1874-02-17), known as "Big Blue" after the colour of its logo. IBM makes everything from mainframes to personal computers (PCs) and has been immensely successful in selling them, chiefly to business. It has often been said that "Nobody has ever been sacked for buying IBM".

The IBM PC in its various versions has been so successful that unqualified reference to a "PC" almost certainly means a PC from IBM, or one of the many brands of clone produced by other manufacturers to cash in on IBM's original success.

Alternative expansions of "IBM" such as Inferior But Marketable; It's Better Manually; Insidious Black Magic; It's Been Malfunctioning; Incontinent Bowel Movement, illustrate the considerable antipathy most hackers have long felt toward the "industry leader" (see fear and loathing).

Quarterly sales $15351M, profits $689M (Aug 1994).

http://ibm.com/.

Last updated: 1999-04-07

International Computers Limited plc

<company>

(ICL) A UK hardware and software manufacturer specialising in systems integration in selected markets, supported by its service and technology businesses. ICL operates in over 80 countries worldwide, with 24000 employees and revenues of £2.6 billion in 1993.

ICL produced George 2, George 3, VME, OpenVME, Series 39, DME, CME, the ICL 1900 and ICL 2900 series.

http://icl.co.uk/.

Usenet newsgroup: alt.sys.icl.

Last updated: 1995-04-19

International Core War Society

<games, standard, body>

(ICWS) The official standards body for Core War.

Last updated: 1996-02-16

International Data Encryption Algorithm

<algorithm, cryptography>

(IDEA) A conventional encryption algorithm, written by Xuejia Lai and James Massey, in 1992.

It is a block cipher, considered to be the best and most secure available, and operates on 64-bit blocks with a 128 bit key.

It is used by Pretty Good Privacy.

Last updated: 1996-03-07

International Electrotechnical Commission

<standard, body>

(IEC) A standardisation body at the same level as ISO.

[Relationship? Why separate?]

Last updated: 1995-04-21

International Federation for Information Processing

<body>

A multinational federation of professional and technical organisations (or national groupings of such organisations) concerned with information processing. From any one country, only one such organisation - which must be representative of the national activities in the field of information processing - can be admitted as a Full Member. In addition, a regional group of developing countries can be admitted as a Full Member. On 1 October 1993, 46 organisations were Full Members of the Federation, representing 66 countries.

IFIP was founded under the auspices of UNESCO and advises them and the ITU-T.

http://dit.upm.es/~cdk/ifip.html.

Last updated: 1995-03-10

International Function Point Users Group

<body, programming>

(IFPUG) A forum for the exchange of ideas about Function Point Analysis. IFPUG's membership now includes over 500 companies on four continents.

Telephone: +1 (614) 8957130.

Last updated: 1995-03-10

internationalisation

<programming>

(i18n, globalisation, enabling, software enabling) The process and philosophy of making software portable to other locales.

For successful localisation, products must be technically and culturally neutral. Effective internationalisation reduces the time and resources required for localisation, improving time-to-market abroad and allowing simultaneous shipment. In orther words, internationalisation abstracts out local details, localisation specifies those details for a particular locale.

Technically this may include allowing double-byte character sets such as unicode or Japanese, local numbering, date and currency formats, and other local format conventions.

It also includes the separation of user interface text e.g. in dialog boxes and menus. All the text used by an application may be kept in a separate file or directory, so that it can be translated all at once. User interfaces may require more screen space for text in other languages.

The simplest form of internationalisation may be to make use of operating system calls that format time, date and currency values according to the operating system's configuration.

The abbreviation i18n means "I - eighteen letters - N".

Last updated: 1999-06-28

internationalization

internationalisation

International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium

<body>

(IMTC) A non-profit corporation formed in September 1994 comprising more than 150 companies from around the world. The IMTC encourages the development and implementation of interoperable multimedia teleconferencing systems based on international open standards.

http://imtc.org/.

Last updated: 1999-03-17

International Olympiad in Informatics

<event>

(IOI) An annual competition in computing science for senior pupils at secondary schools all over the world.

http://win.tue.nl/win/ioi/.

Last updated: 1996-12-07

International Organisation for Standardisation

International Organization for Standardization

<standard, body>

(ISO) A voluntary, nontreaty organisation founded in 1946, responsible for creating international standards in many areas, including computers and communications. Its members are the national standards organisations of 89 countries, including the American National Standards Institute.

ISO produced the OSI seven layer model for network architecture.

The term "ISO" is not actually an acronym for anything. It is a pun on the Greek prefix "iso-", meaning "same". Some ISO documents say ISO is not an acronym even though it is an anagram of the initials of the organisation's name.

http://iso.ch/.

Last updated: 1999-06-22

International Phonetic Alphabet

<text, human language>

(IPA) A system of symbols for representing pronunciation. There is no commonly agreed way to represent IPA in ASCII characters though it can be represented in Unicode.

[Reference?]

Last updated: 1998-12-30

International Programmable Airline Reservation System

<application>

(IPARS) The international version of PARS, designated by IBM for use in all IBM World trade countries (i.e. outside domestic USA).

Last updated: 1999-01-18

International Smalltalk Association

<body>

(ISA) A user group which published newsletters on Smalltalk-related issues, technical and general information. Its goal was to champion Smalltalk and its uses. It was disbanded around 1991.

Last updated: 1995-02-16

International Standard

<standard>

The series of standards from ISO and its subcommitees.

[List? Text?]

Last updated: 1995-04-21

International Telecommunications Union

<body, standard>

(ITU) ITU-T, the telecommunication standardisation sector of ITU, is responsible for making technical recommendations about telephone and data (including fax) communications systems for PTTs and suppliers. Before 1993-03-01 ITU-T was known as CCITT. Every four years they hold plenary sessions where they adopt new standards; there was one in 1992.

ITU works closely with all standards organisations to form an international uniform standards system for communication. Study Group XVII is responsible for recommending standards for data communications over telephone networks. They publish the V.XX standards and X.n protocols. V.21 is the same as EIA's EIA-232. V.24 is the same as EIA's EIA-232C. V.28 is the same as EIA's EIA-232D.

Address: International Telecommunication Union, Information Services Department, Place des Nations, 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland.

Telephone: +41 (22) 730 5554. Fax: +41 (22) 730 5337.

E-mail: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]> (Mail body: HELP).

http://itu.ch/.

ITU-T standards can be obtained by FTP from Korea; UK - Imperial, HENSA; France - INRIA, IMAG; Israel; FTP USA: UUNET, gatekeeper, world.std.com; Australia; Germany; Japan;

Last updated: 1995-01-16

International Traffic in Arms Regulation

<legal>

(ITAR) Now called the Defense Trade Regulations.

Nearby terms:

Internal Translator ♦ International Algebraic Language ♦ International Atomic Time

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