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  • Machine learning
    A subfield of artificial intelligence that is concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to learn and improve their performance over time based on data input.
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  • Mailing list
    A system that allows people to send e-mail to one address, which is then copied and sent to all of the other subscribers to the mail list.
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  • MANET
    See Mobile Ad Hoc Network.
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  • Manual transaction
    In the payment card industry, a transaction for which the cardholder's card information is entered from a terminal keypad rather than via a card reader.
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  • Megabyte
    A megabyte contains 1,048,576 bytes. In other words, a million bytes is actually less than a megabyte. Abbreviated as MB.
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  • Merchant
    A person or organization that sells goods on the Web. A merchant may operate one or more Web stores.
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  • Merchant ID
    In the credit card industry, a merchant ID is a number provided to a merchant by a credit card processor when that merchant retains the services of that processor. Also sometimes called the merchant number.
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  • Menu bar
    A horizontal strip at the top of a window that shows the menus available in a program.
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  • Message
    In the EDI industry, a message is a formalized data record transmitted between computers. In cryptography, a document (or other content) to which cryptographic techniques are applied to ensure privacy or authenticity, for example. In the context of e-mail, a unit of transmission from one individual to another.
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  • Message Authentication Code (MAC)
    A message digest (MD) produced from a secret key and sent along with a message. It ensures that the message has not been corrupted in transit, either accidentally or maliciously, and that the creator of the message digest is a particular person, company, or other entity.
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  • Message Digest (MD)
    The result of applying a one-way hash function to a message. A message digest is a value that is shorter than the message, but would be different if the message were changed by even one character. If a message's sender includes the message digest along with the message, the receiver can verify that the message was not corrupted in transit, either accidentally or maliciously.
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  • Message Digest 5 (MD5)
    The most secure of the RSA message digest (MD) family, a hash function that mathematically reduces a variable length of data into a reproducible fixed length "digest" of that message.
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  • Messaging
    The creation, storage, exchange, and management of text, images, voice, telex, fax, e-mail, paging, and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) over a communications network.
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  • Meta data
    Definitional data that provides information about or documentation of other data managed within an application or environment. Meta data may include descriptive information about the context, quality and condition, or characteristics of the data. Also commonly referred to as an abstract.
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  • Micropayment
    Electronic payment for information or services ranging from a few cents to a tenth of a cent.
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  • Middleware
    A general term for any programming that serves to "glue together," mediate between, or enhance two separate and usually already existing programs. A common application of middleware is to allow programs written for access to a particular database to access other databases.
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  • Mirror site
    Because the Internet population has exploded in recent years, many archive servers can't cope with the load. One solution is to create an exact copy of a server--a process called mirroring. Mirror sites divert some of the traffic from the original site. It's not unusual to find a dozen or more mirrors of busy ftp sites.
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  • Mobile Ad Hoc Network
    A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a self-configuring, wireless network of mobile devices. Each device in a MANET functions as both a node and a router, advancing message traffic even if it is not used at that particular node. Because each MANET device can move independently of the other devices and must change its links to maintain connectivity, the adaptability and reliability of the network routing protocols are critical.
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  • Modem
    Modulate/demodulate: Essential telecommunications hardware, which converts digital data into analog or voice-like frequencies that the telephone system can reproduce.
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  • Motherboard
    The motherboard is the largest printed circuit board in your computer. It generally houses the CPU chip, the controller circuitry, the bus, and sockets for additional boards, which are called daughterboards.
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  • MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group)
    The name of the committee that has developed a family of standards used for coding audio-visual information (e.g., movies, video, music) in a digital compressed format.
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  • Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)
    A scheme originally developed to allow e-mail messages to contain information about their contents, specifically to identify mixed-media content as being plain text, HTML, a GIF image, an MPEG movie, or other formats. MIME has since been adopted as the standard for Web servers to indicate to Web clients the nature of the content being sent in response to a request.
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  • Multimedia
    The use of multiple forms of media to communicate: i.e. audio, video, text, graphics, etc.
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  • Multiscanning
    Multiscanning describes a type of computer monitor that adjusts itself to accommodate signals from different classes of video boards. Any monitor labeled VGA is by definition not a multiscanning device.
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