Letter M
MAC              Media Access Control address or Hardware Address of a Network Card.
                 Use IPCONFIG to find the MAC address of a Network Card on Windows, or
                 IFCONFIG (interface config) on unix and linux systems.
								 
Machine Code     Programs written for a specific processor, usually Assembled or
                 Compiled from a Development System e.g. C/C++, BASIC etc.


Macintosh        Computer developed by Apple Inc. Also known as a Mac.

Mac OS X         Operating System for Apple Macintosh which is based on BSD Unix and NeXT
                 and Apple's Aqua desktop interface. It can run on PowerPC and Intel processors
                 only on Apple hardware.  
Macro            A simple program script to do a simple or complex task regularly.
                 Microsoft products use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to write
                 macros.
                 
Magnetic		  Form of media to store digital information on magnetic media. Includes
                 magnetic tape, magentic drums, magnetic code, floppy and hard disks.

Mailing List     Sending E-Mails about a particular subject to a list of subscribers.
                 An alternative to news groups but tend to be relatively short term
                 and managed.

MAK              Multiple Activation Key. A key code to activate Microsoft Windows or
                 applications for a specific number of devices.

Malware          Software that is malicious such as viruses, trojans, worms, spyware etc.

MAPI             Messaging Application Programming Interface. Used by Email clients
                 to directly connect to an Email account on MS Exchange servers.
                 Microsoft Outlook uses MAPI. See also MAPI over HTTP.
                 
MariaDB          An open source database equivalent to MySQL.

MBR              Master Boot Record. Portion of hard disk containing partitioning
                 and Boot information.  FDISK /MBR can rewrite an MBR and /IR can
                 preserve the MBR during installation.

MCP              Microsoft Certified Professional.

MCSE             Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert.

MCT              Microsoft Certified Trainer.

MCTS             Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist.

MSCA             Microsoft Certified Administrator.

MSCE             Microsoft Certified Engineer.
                 
MDA              Monochrome Display Adapter. First black and white display type.

MegaBits         Refers to millions of bits (0s and 1s). 1Mb equals 128 Kilobytes.
                 One eighth of a Megabyte.
                 
MegaBytes        Refers to millions of bytes. 1MB is equal to 1024x1024 or
                 1,048,576 bytes.

Memory           Usually refers to RAM (Random Access Memory) or Main Memory which
                 is used to temporarily store executing programs and data. The Amiga
                 has two kinds: Chip RAM and Fast RAM. Sometimes, incorrectly refers
                 to disk storage by some people.

Menu             Produces a list of choices such as programs or particular functions.
                 Windows can have Pull down menus from applications e.g. File, Edit,
                 View, Help etc or Pop up menus, when you right click on an icon.

MHz              Mega Hertz, speed of the timing crystal in millions of cycles
                 per second to synchronize data transmitted through a computer.
				
Microdrive       Miniturised hard disk in the form of a CompactFlash card for use in
                 PDAs and Digital Cameras.
				 
Microsoft        The company that develops and produces Windows, Office, and server products
                 for the PC.

MIDI             Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Standard used to transmit data 
                 across a chain of music instruments using a standard data format.

MIME             Multipurpose Internet Multimedia Extensions. Tells mail applications
                 what sort of data is contained in a message and encodes data to
                 be sent via Internet mail systems using Base64 or Quote-Printable.

MiniDisc         A Storage media disk for audio data created by Sony.

Minix            Mini-Unix operating system based on a microkernel by Andew Tenabaum.

MLP              Microsoft License Pak.

MMO              Massive Multiplayer Online games are usually RPG games with 100's or
                 1000's of players who play in a fantasy world. Examples are Everquest
                 and World of Warcraft.

MMX              MultiMedia eXtensions. Special instructions added to the x86
                 intruction set to provide faster and efficient processing of
                 large amounts of data such as graphics, sound and streaming data.
								                   
MOD              Music Module. Name of other types of music files produced by other
                 tracker programs.

Modem            Modulator/Demodulator. Converts digital signals to analogue signals
                 and vice versa over telephone lines. Speeds can range from 2400 to
                 56000 baud. 
								 
Monitor          A display output device for use on computers. Consists of a CRT
                 (Cathode Ray Tube) to display colours and may have built in
                 speakers for sound.

Moore's Law      States that computing power doubles every 12 to 18 months by
                 doubling the number of transisters on a chip.
                 
Motherboard      Main circuit board that contains the processor, memory, chips,
                 slots and so on needed to base a computer on.

Mouse            A device with rolling ball and buttons for use on a Graphical
                 Interface such as Windows. Controls an arrow or pointer on the
                 screen.

Mosaic           One of the first ever web browsers by NCSA.

Mozilla          Open Source web browser, Firefox and Netscape is based on this.

MPEG             Motion Picture Expert Group. Type of 'losy' compression used in
                 video or music. Commonly used with VideoCD and DVD.
								 
MS-DOS           Microsoft Disk Operating System. First disk/file management
                 Operating system for IBM Compatible PCs. Last version is 6.22.

MSI              Microsoft Installer file. File used to install programs using
                 Microsoft's Installer program e.g. Office.

MSU              Microsoft Update file. File used to patch or update existing apps.
								 
MTBF             Mean Time Before Failure. Average life expectancy of hardware.

Multimedia       Combination of text, graphics and sound for a presentation such
                 as games, demos and information packages such as Encarta.
								 
MultiProcessing  Ability to share processor time between multiple chips for example
                 the Amiga can share some tasks between the central CPU and the
                 Chipset.
                 
Multisync        Advanced typed of Monitor which has a wide range of frequencies
                 such as the Microvitec 1438 or 1440 etc.

Multitasking     Ability to process more than one program at a time by using a system
                 of timeslicing (allocating a certain length of time for processing),
                 priorities and interrupts. True multi-tasking is Pre-Emptive, that is
                 the OS does the scheduling, but Co-operative is dependant on the 
                 programs giving up time for other programs to run.

Multithreading   Ability of a single CPU to provide multiple threads of execution cocurrently.

MultiUser        Allows more than one user to use the same computer at the same time
                 such as a Server role or at different times on a Desktop computer.
                 Windows 9x supprts multiple users via Family Login to give different
                 desktops for each user. Windows NT Server and Linux supports multi users
                 at the same time.                 

MVP              Microsoft Most Valuable Professional is awarded to top-end professioanls. 

MySQL            A Structure Query Language database application used on Unix/Linux systems.