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PC And Internet Glossary - Including File Extensions - K

K56Flex

See V.90.

Kai's PhotoSoap

A commercially available program for manipulating images. As well as other features, PhotoSoap can rotate images through any angle and has excellent facilities for removing blemishes such as hairs and dirt marks. PhotoSoap cannot be used to create images - it is not a drawing program.

Opinion: This otherwise excellent program suffers from an awkward, non-standard and gimmicky user interface.

KB

  1. Keyboard.

  2. Kilobit. See Kilo.

  3. Kilobyte.

  4. KnowledgeBase - see that entry.

Kbps

Kilobits per second, as in a modem's transmission speed.

Kerberos

A security system included in some version of Windows (Windows 2000 and Windows XP, I suspect). For example there is a file called Kerberos.dll in Windows XP. A Microsoft document says: "The Kerberos V5 protocol provides a means for mutual authentication between a client, such as a user, computer, or service, and a server... The Kerberos protocol is based on the assumption that initial transactions between clients and servers take place on an open network... The Kerberos V5 protocol uses secret key encryption to protect logon credentials that travel across the network. The same key can then be used to decrypt these credentials on the receiving end. This decryption and the subsequent steps are performed by the Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC), which runs on every domain controller as part of Active Directory." Another Microsoft document says: "Kerberos is the core Windows 2000 security protocol typically used by IKE for IPSec authentication."

Key

  1. A physical key, required to gain access to or to enable the operation of a traditional mainframe or mini computer's control panel. For example, the Elliott 405 computer used physical keys to unlock the doors guarding the power control switches on its control panel. DEC PDP-8 and PDP-11 computers used an ingenious cylindrical shaped key which activated the control panel switches.

  2. A physical key on a keyboard.

  3. A set of one or more fields used to index a data file. Depending on the indexing system, it may or may not be permissible for a key to include more than one field, and it may or may not be permissible for a file to have two or more keys (with a consequential effect on storage space and processing time). Most indexing systems require every data file to have a primary key. In modern terminology, most database systems require every table to have a primary key.

  4. A set of characters required to be known in order to encrypt or decrypt a message or a file. In modern encryption systems the public key used to encrypt a message may be different to the private key used to decrypt it.

  5. A set of characters required to be entered in order to gain permission to use a program, or a set of characters displayed by a program which need to be quoted in order to obtain technical assistance, or in some cases to obtain product patches and updates, from the program's publisher. In effect, a licence number.
The multiplicity of meanings for the word "key" can lead to confusion. In a recent computer-related email newsletter a reader asked if there was any method of emulating the Windows key, meaning the key on the keyboard marked with the Windows logo. However, the newsletter editor mistakenly thought that the reader wanted to know how to discover the Windows product key (i.e. the licence number).

Key Escrow

An encryption system where keys are held by a (supposedly) trusted organisation, for release to the authorities when a government decides that it wants to decode a private encoded message. Key escrow has now been abandoned as an impractical and inappropriate concept.

Killer App

Killer Application. A type of program which is so popular that a large of number of people will buy the equipment necessary to run it. The classic example is the spreadsheet which fuelled the PC revolution. Many would consider web browsers as possibly being killer-apps at the moment, since they are currently the major reason for many PC purchases.

Kilo

1024 (2 to the tenth power).

KIN

File extension. See this entry on my Trainz Wordz page.

KnowledgeBase

Knowledge Database. Microsoft's name for their collection of articles containing technical information about their products, mainly details of bugs and how to work round them. Microsoft KnowledgeBase is included on TechNet (see that entry). It is also included as part of MSDN (see that entry) with some Microsoft programming languages, for example Visual BASIC 6 (but maybe only with some editions). It is also available on Microsoft's web site and this will always be the most complete and up-to-date version.

Some other computer-related companies now use the same name for their own similar collections of technical hints.

KUID

Koolthingz Unique Identifier. A unique ID given to each additional optional item which can be downloaded for use with Auran's Trainz 2004 Railway Simulator program.
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Most recently modified 18-Feb-08