MAC OS – An operating system with a graphical user interface, developed by Apple® for Macintosh® computers.

Master/Slave - Master/slave is a control model of communication between a few devices or processes. Once a master/slave relationship is created, the direction of control is always from the master to the slaves.

Megabyte (MB) - Equal to 1,024 kilobytes, usually rounded off by hard drive companies to one million bytes.

Mechanical Hard Drive Failure – Physical damage to a hard drive such as head failure, failed motor, and so on.

Memory – Temporary storage of digital information such as applications, folders, and documents. Computer memory is calculated based on the amount of data it can store, normally in megabytes or gigabytes.

Memory Stick – A small memory card used as storage for photos.

Microdrive – IBM/Hitachi mini hard disk drive for digital cameras and PDA devices. Packaged in a CompactFlash Type II housing and available in 170MB, 340MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and above.

Microsoft Office Excel - A popular spreadsheet software written and distributed by Microsoft for computers using both the Microsoft Windows operating system and for Apple Macintosh computers. Excel is one of the most popular computer programs as it is capable of calculating and graphing data that is easily edited and stored in rows and columns.

Microsoft Office PowerPoint – A popular presentation software written and distributed by Microsoft for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS operating systems. PowerPoint is the most famous form of persuasion technology and is widely used by different groups of people every day.

Modem - A device that link two computers together over a telephone or cable line by converting the computer's data into an audio signal. Modem is the short term for the process it performs: modulate-demodulate.

Monitor - A computer display terminal.

Motherboard - A.K.A. the “system board”, is the central board of a computer that contains its basic circuitry and components.

Mouse - A small pointing device, used to control the position of the cursor on the monitor.

MP3 – Popular compact digital audio file format. The compression of the audio files simplifies downloading the audio files while preserving the original sound quality when it is played. MP3 files are available for downloading from many Web sites.

Open Source – Source code of a computer program that is disclosed to the public. Software registered as open source can be accessed, modified and adapted to new uses as the source code of the operating system is available to the public.

Operating System (OS) - A set of computer programs that controls the hardware and software resources of a computer. The majority of PC operating systems are DOS (disc operated system). Other common operating systems include Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, and Linux.