A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.

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LAMER: Lamer is a term used on interactive Web sites to describe an irritating or immature participant. Among users of Internet Relay Chat (IRC), a lamer is someone who irritates other users by typing in all caps or iN pART cAPS, by insulting and flaming other users, by typing abbreviations for almost every word, or by performing other annoying acts in chat rooms. Some IRC channels use bots to monitor any "lame" behaviour and kick lamers out.
Lamer is also used by crackers and warez d00dz. Warez d00dz (that is, "wares dudes") are people who strip software of its copyright protection and then distribute the pirated software on the Internet for downloading. Warez d00dz sometimes compete to distribute the pirated software before other warez d00dz groups. People who create warez sites sometimes call them "warez sitez" and use "z" in other pluralizations. A lamer according to the warez d00dz culture is an individual who tries to distribute software that is several years old or software infected with a virus. Crackers use the term in a non-derogatory way to refer to cracker aspirants who are in the larval or beginning stage of computer cracking.

LAN: A local area network (LAN) is a group of computers and associated devices that share a common communications line and typically share the resources of a single processor or server within a small geographic area (for example, within an office building). Usually, the server has applications and data storage that are shared in common by multiple computer users. A local area network may serve as few as two or three users (for example, in a home network) or many as thousands of users (for example, in an FDDI network).
The main local area network technologies are:
Ethernet
Token ring
ARCNET
FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface)
Typically, a suite of application programs can be kept on the LAN server. Users who need an application frequently can download it once and then run it from their local hard disk. Users can order printing and other services as needed through applications run on the LAN server. A user can share files with others at the LAN server; read and write access is maintained by a LAN administrator.
A LAN server may also be used as a Web server if safeguards are taken to secure internal applications and data from outside access.

LEASED LINE: A leased line is a telephone line that has been leased for private use. In some contexts, its called a dedicated line. A leased line is usually contrasted with a switched line or dial-up line.
Typically, large companies rent leased lines from the telephone message carriers (such as AT&T) to interconnect different geographic locations in their company. The alternative is to buy and maintain their own private lines or, increasingly perhaps, to use the public switched lines with secure message protocols. (This is called tunneling.)

LINUX: Linux (often pronounced LIH-nuhks with a short "i") is a UNIX-like operating system that was designed to provide personal computer users a free or very low-cost operating system comparable to traditional and usually more expensive UNIX systems. Linux has a reputation as a very efficient and fast-performing system. Linux's kernel (the central part of the operating system) was developed by Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in Finland. To complete the operating system, Torvalds and other team members made use of system components developed by members of the Free Software Foundation for the GNU project.
Linux is a remarkably complete operating system, including a graphical user interface, X Window System, TCP/IP, the Emacs editor, and other components usually found in a comprehensive UNIX system. Although copyrights are held by various creators of Linux's components, Linux is distributed using the Free Software Foundation's copyleft stipulations that mean any copy is in turn freely available to others.
Unlike Windows and other proprietary systems, Linux is publicly open and extendible by contributors. Because it conforms to the POSIX standard user and programming interfaces, developers can write programs that can be ported to other operating systems, including IBM's OS/390 running UNIX. Linux comes in versions for all the major microprocessor platforms including the Intel, PowerPC, Sparc, and Alpha platforms. Linux is distributed commercially by a number of companies. A magazine, Linux Journal, is published as well as a number of books and pocket references.
Linux is sometimes suggested as a possible publicly-developed alternative to the desktop predominance of Microsoft Windows. Although Linux is popular among users already familiar with UNIX, it remains far behind Windows in numbers of users.

LISTSERV: Listserv, like Majordomo, is a small program that automatically redistributes e-mail to names on a mailing list. Users can subscribe to a mailing list by sending an e-mail note to a mailing list they learn about; listserv will automatically add the name and distribute future e-mail postings to every subscriber. (Requests to subscribe and unsubscribe are sent to a special address so that all subscribers do not see these requests.) These programs are also known as list servers.

LOGIN: In general computer usage, logon is the procedure used to get access to an operating system or application, usually in a remote computer. Almost always a logon requires that the user have (1) a user ID and (2) a password. Often, the user ID must conform to a limited length such as 16 characters and the password must contain at least one digit and not match a natural language word. The user ID can be freely known and is visible when entered at a keyboard or other input device. The password must be kept secret (and is not displayed as it is entered). A similar procedure, called registration, is required to enter some Web sites.
Logon is also used as a modifier as in "logon procedure." The verb form is two words: to log on.
In UNIX-based operating systems, logon is called login. The procedure is called "the login procedure." and the verb form is: to log in.

LOL: Abbreviation of laugh out loud, commonly used online or on IRC.

LURKING: The act of reading through maillists and newsgroups without posting any messages. Considered good netiquette to get the feel of the topic before adding your own two penneth