John Cletheroe's
PC And Internet Hints

PC And Internet Glossary - Including File Extensions - O

OBD

File extension. Office Binder. A collection of Microsoft Office documents (Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, etc). I'm not sure if the binder file contains copies of the document files or just shortcuts to them. An idea which Microsoft introduced with Office 97 but which never caught on with users and was subsequently dropped. Using PKZIP files to achieve the same goal was far superior. Since OBD files contain Microsoft Office documents (or shortcuts to them), and Microsoft Office documents can contain macros, OBD files can contain viruses (or shortcuts to files which can contain viruses).

OBJ

File extension. Object code file (see that entry).

Object

Anything in a program which reacts to an external event. Simple examples include buttons in a window which react when they are clicked.

An object is in effect a subroutine, a pre-defined piece of coding which can be used as required by the main program, with different parameters on each occasion.

Objects have properties, events and methods.

Properties are things such as an object's position on the screen, their colour, and the text they contain. Some properties can only be set by the programmer, some can be changed by the user, and sometimes the programmer can decide whether the user can change a property or not (for example, whether the user can move an object, or change the text it contains). While running, programs can usually access the properties of their objects, even if they can't change all of them.

Events are things such as the mouse being clicked on them, to which they react by running a specific piece of code as a subroutine.

Methods are much more vague. They appear to be very similar to events or functions and the distinction seems to be a very fine one.

Object Code

The compiled form of a program. Sometimes the name is reserved for a program which has been compiled but not yet been linked.

Object Oriented Programming

A style of programming language based on the use of objects.

Proponents of object oriented programming claim one of its major benefits is the ability to re-use coding in other programs. However, exactly the same claims were made for subroutines held as libraries in procedural programming languages. Both claims rely on the objects or subroutines being both fully debugged and fully documented in an understandable manner. In practice, neither is likely to be the case.

Most programmers tend to distrust and have great difficulty understanding any coding that they have not devised themselves, and therefore resist all attempts to make them use objects or subroutines created by other people.

OBS

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

OCA

File extension. Visual BASIC V6 Control TypeLib cache file. I do not know whether OCA files can contain viruses or not.

OCR

Optical Character Recognition. The conversion from a printed image of a character (a letter, digit or punctuation mark) to its ASCII code. An OCR program is often supplied with a scanner since scanners produce a bitmapped image. The OCR process requires the shape of the character to be recognised and it is therefore highly dependant on the quality of the original - the size and type of font used, the sharpness and contrast of the print, the cleanliness of the paper, the absence of folds in the paper, etc. While modern OCR software combined with a high quality original can give accuracy rates of around 95%, that still means that on average one character in twenty will be incorrectly recognised.

Opinion: By the time the result of the OCR process has been carefully checked, as is vital, it would often have been far quicker and more reliable to have typed the document again. OCR is very similar to speech recognition - interesting, clever, but despite many years of intensive effort effectively useless because of the high frequency of errors inherent in the process.

OCX

File extension. OCX files include Visual BASIC V6 custom control files (also called ActiveX controls) but OCX files may well have additional uses. Each OCX file adds an additional type of control (object) to the Visual BASIC language. In previous versions of Visual BASIC the custom controls were held in VBX files. According to one item of Microsoft documentation, OCX files are a special type of DLL file. See also ActiveX. OCX files can contain viruses.

ODBC

Open Database Connect. A system which enables any ODBC-compliant program to access any ODBC-compliant database file (in theory). Microsoft KnowledgeBase article 190463 has some information on ODBC and related subjects. ODBC is apparently limited to databases which use SQL. See also OLE DB.

ODE

Microsoft Office, Developers' Edition (probably).

ODL

Object Description Language.

OE

Microsoft Outlook Express (see Outlook Express).

OEM

Original Equipment Manufacturer. A company which installs a cut-down version of another company's product (hardware or software) in their own products. The cut-down version is often called the OEM version. Usually the OEM version has no manual, or the manual is only supplied in electronic form on a CD. Usually any "free" extras which normally come with the installed product (such as additional software) aren't supplied with the OEM version. The name OEM is confusing - it really ought to be Unoriginal Equipment Manufacturer. The version of Microsoft Windows which comes pre-installed with most new PC's is one example of an OEM product. I think "Retail" is the opposite of OEM, meaning the full version sold in shops, with everything included.

OFF:

Microsoft KnowledgeBase article title prefix for articles relating to Microsoft Office.

Off Hook

See Hook.

OGG

File extension. A sound file format. OGG is a compressed and lossy format, very similar to MP3. OGG is associated with Vorbis, who may be the company who invented it. Some sources use the term Ogg Vorbis. I do not know whether OGG files can contain viruses or not.

OHCI

Open Host Controller Interface. A USB host controller standard. There is more information in Microsoft KnowledgeBase article 184400.

Ohnosecond

Like the millisecond, the microsecond and the nanosecond, the ohnosecond is a measure of time. The ohnosecond is the length of time between clicking the mouse button, realising that you've done something disastrous, and exclaiming "OH NO!".

OL:

Microsoft KnowledgeBase article title prefix for articles relating to Microsoft Outlook.

OLAP

Online analytical processing.

OLB

File extension. Object type library. A file containing one or more type libraries. See Type Library. I do not know whether OLB files can contain viruses or not.

OLE

Object Linking and Embedding. Explanations of OLE are very hard to come by and usually written in Microsoft's management/marketing pseudo technical language - "leveraging dynamics to achieve synergy", "integrated active solutions" and other meaningless mumbo-jumbo. I think OLE may be the mechanism which provides Windows' ability to copy and paste material from a data file created by one program into another data file created by a different program. One source explains it as being able to run one program in another program's window - a seemingly pointless exercise which is certain to confuse the average user (and probably the programs). I'm not sure if OLE Automation is exactly the same as OLE or not. According to some Microsoft documentation, OLE Automation is now simply called Automation. See also ActiveX and DDE, which appear to be related subjects.

OLE DB

OLE for databases, presumably. Microsoft KnowledgeBase article 190463 has some information on this and related subjects. It seems that OLE DB is similar to ODBC but unlike ODBC (which is restricted to SQL databases) OLE DB can cope with data in any tabular format.

OLEXP:

The Microsoft KnowledgeBase prefix for articles referring to Outlook Express (and not the Windows XP version of OLE, as I wrongly guessed at first).

On Hook

See Hook.

Online

  1. To be connected to the Internet. "You can't use the phone at the moment, I'm online."

  2. To be capable of connecting to the Internet. "Nearly everyone round here is online."

  3. Included in a program. Often used to describe a program's help facility. "Refer to the online help". However, "online help" can also mean help which is only available from the program publisher's web site.

  4. A computer actually running Windows, as opposed to performing the preliminary stages of booting, or booting into DOS mode. Microsoft occasionally use this meaning.

OOBE

Out Of Box Experience. This appears to be a wizard which runs after Windows ME and Windows XP have been installed. In Windows XP it may possibly be closely related to Windows Product Activation.

OOP

Object Oriented Programming.

OP

Original poster. In newsgroups, discussion groups and forums, the person who started a thread. Not a very commonly used abbreviation, I think.

Open

  1. A product, system etc supplied by a wide range of companies. The opposite of proprietary (see that entry). Examples of open systems include the Linux operating system and the V90 high speed modem protocol.

  2. The "off" position of a switch, since the electrical circuit is then broken.

    Female logic :) (and quite erroneous): Open should mean "on", because when a shop is open it's operative. (This paragraph is included purely for amusement.)

Open Source

Software for which the source code is made available to the public. Open source programs are normally freeware but there is a difference between the two terms.

OpenGL

A system somewhat similar to DirectX, supplied as part of Windows NT and Windows XP. In addition, a program which in its accompanying documentation is said to require OpenGL to be installed in fact ran without any problems on my Windows 95 PC. I had not specifically installed OpenGL myself on that computer, but it is quite possible that it has been installed as part of another program's installation process.

If a program offers a choice of running in DirectX mode or OpenGL mode, try both. In addition, try experimenting with the DirectX and OpenGL performance versus quality settings in the video board settings and in the program itself if it provides them.

Opera

A shareware web browser. Much smaller and much faster than Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Early versions were extremely reliable but a later version crashed frequently on my PC. Based on limited use so far V7.01 of Opera seems much better, however.

OPS

File extension. Office XP settings.

Orange Book

See Book.

org

The Internet top-level domain for non-profit-making organisations (charities, etc).

OS

  1. Open source.

  2. Operating system.

OSB

  1. (Microsoft) Office Shortcut Bar. Presumably this is a bar which appears on the Taskbar, similar to the Quick Launch Bar, containing shortcuts which point to Microsoft Office programs.

  2. One Step Beyond, a computer shop in Norwich, Norfolk, England.

OSD

File extension. Possibly associated with Internet Explorer V4/V5, New Desktop/Active Desktop and/or Java. I do not know whether OSD files can contain viruses or not; it seems unlikely.

OSK

On-Screen Keyboard. A feature of Windows XP whereby the mouse can be used instead of a keyboard.

OST

File extension. Outlook Store or Offline Store. Microsoft Outlook data file. Microsoft KnowledgeBase article 171582 has more information on Outlook 97 OST files. I do not know whether OST files can contain viruses or not.

OTR

Old Time Radio. Recordings of old radio programmes. I don't know if this abbreviation is generally understood or not. Not really a computer or Internet term.

Outlook

A very peculiar combined email and diary/schedule/reminders program, supplied as part of Microsoft Office 97. A blatant example of bloatware and immensely complicated. Completely different to and separate from Outlook Express.

Outlook 97's journalling options can often make FILE > CLOSE (the closing of documents) in Microsoft Office programs such as Word 97 and Excel 97 extremely slow. When Word 97, and probably any of the other component of Microsoft Office 97, are installed or re-installed, Outlook 97 journalling for that program is automatically switched on, even if you previously switched it off. To turn Outlook 97 journalling off, start Outlook 97, then select Tools > Options > Journal and remove all the ticks against the journalling options. Finally, File > Exit and Log Off. I'm sorry, I've never been able to find any information on what purpose if any the journalling options provide.

Outlook 2000 (and possibly other versions of Outlook) have two modes: IMO (Internet Mail Only) and CW (Corporate Workgroup). I think the mode is chosen when the program is installed, and there may be a third "no email" option. Microsoft KnowledgeBase articles about Outlook 2000 often include references to Outlook (IMO) and Outlook (CW).

Outlook Express

An email program supplied with Internet Explorer V4 and V5. Although closely connected with Internet Explorer, Outlook Express is a separate program. Outlook Express is completely different to and separate from Outlook. Sadly Outlook Express has arcane internal version numbers which bear no resemblance to the external version numbers.

Overclocking

Running a computer component such as a processor or a video board at a faster speed than its designers intended, in an attempt to make it perform more quickly. Overclocking leads to excessive heat output and other problems, often causing constant or intermittent errors, and even permanent damage to the hardware. Overclocking is performed by adjusting the device's on-board jumpers, or altering its internal software settings, and you are most unlikely to overclock a device by accident. Overclocking is most definitely not advised.

Overloaded Operator

In computer programming languages, the use of a single operator to perform two or more different operations depending on the context. For example, in some programming languages the "+" operator can be used to add two numerical quantities or to concatenate two strings. I'm not sure whether the use of "-" as both a unary negative number prefix and a subtraction operator would also count as operator overloading, or the use (in some languages) of "=" as both an assignment operator (A = B + 5) and a relational operator (IF A = 5 THEN PRINT C).
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Most recently modified 5-May-08