Monday, December 30, 2002		ITerminology

LOS: Short for line of sight. Radio frequency technologies use the term LOS to describe an unobstructed path between the location of the signal transmitter and the location of the signal receiver. Obstacles that can cause an obstruction in the line of sight include trees, buildings, mountains, hills and other natural or manmade structures or objects.

MOSFET: Pronounced MAWS-feht. Acronym for metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor, a common type of transistor in which charge carriers, such as electrons, flow along channels. The width of the channel, which determines how well the device conducts, is controlled by an electrode called the gate, separated from channel by a thin layer of oxide insulation. The insulation keeps current from flowing between the gate and channel. MOSFETs are useful for high-speed switching applications and also on integrated circuits in computers.

Usenet Death Penalty: Abbreviated UDP, a Usenet penalty enforced by system administrators of an ISP or NSP against other service providers. Usenet is by nature cooperative, and the UDP is one way that administrators can handle uncooperative members. UDPs are typically issued to ISP/NSPs that have users that are spamming and that have not stopped the users from doing so even after repeated requests for the administrators to deal with the spam. When a UDP is issued, any messages posted to Usenet from that site will be cancelled. UDPs are also issued to individual spammers.