Y- Computer, Telephony and Electronics Glossary and Dictionary

Y

1. A slang term used in programming in any language to indicate a branch or decision point in the code. It is often called an IF-THEN condition.
2. One of two coordinates to give an exact point. The other is X coordinate. Together they are termed X,Y coordinates. A third, though less common, is for a third dimension, the Z coordinate.
3. Computer shorthand for "why".

Y2K

The reference to the generally over hyped condition of anticipated problems as the year goes from 1999 to 2000. Most modern computers will handle this with few if any problems; however, not all software applications will handle it without updates. Most mainframe and minicomputers will have to have extensive software corrections to both operating system and application software. See our Y2K page for some answers to questions. There are also links to other opinions.
Note: January 3, 2000 - Looking back on the Y2K transition, not much happened... everyone is now suggesting that the problems will all come about in 2001.
Note: January 2, 2001 - Again, no real problems took place.

yagi

A Yagi antenna, also known technically as a Yagi-Uda unidirectional array, or simply a Yagi, is a unidirectional antenna commonly used in communications at frequencies above 10 mhz. It was popularized in the '60s and '70s during the CB craze, at 27 mhz. This type of antenna is still very popular among Amateur Radio operators (HAMs) and very avid Citizens Band radio operators. It falls into a group of antenna structures known just as "beams". (the other group is known as omnidirectional. Those antennas are normally vertical. It is currently used at some surface installations in satellite communications systems. A basic Yagi consists of two or three straight elements, each measuring approximately 1/2 electrical wavelength. The feed line can be balanced or unbalanced, though most often RG-58 or RG-8 was used. The Yagi is inherently a balanced antenna, but it can be fed with coaxial cable and a device called a balun at the point where the feed line joins the driven element. The driven element of a Yagi is the equivalent of a center-fed, half-wave dipole antenna. Parallel to the driven element, and approximately 0.2 to 0.5 wavelength on either side of it, are straight rods or wires called reflectors and directors. A reflector is placed behind the driven element and is slightly longer than 1/2 wavelength; a director is placed in front of the driven element and is slightly shorter than 1/2 wavelength. A typical Yagi has one reflector and one or more directors. The antenna propagates electromagnetic field energy in the direction running from the driven element toward the director(s), and is most sensitive to incoming electromagnetic field energy in this same direction. The Yagi antenna not only has a unidirectional radiation and response pattern, but it concentrates the radiation and response. The more directors a Yagi has, the greater the so-called forward gain or "beam". As more directors are added to a Yagi, it becomes longer. Some Yagi antennas have as many as 10 or even 12 directors in addition to the driven element and one reflector. Long Yagis are rarely used below 50 mhz, because at these frequencies the structure becomes physically unwieldy. Wilson Electronics in Las Vegas, NV, popularized the structure with a beam antenna for CB called the Y-Quad. There have been numerous efforts to use this sort of antenna structure for wireless data but dish type reflectors seem to reject frequency noise much better.

Yahoo

Short for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle, Yahoo! is a World Wide Web directory started by David Filo and Jerry Yang at Stanford University. The two began compiling and categorizing Web pages in 1994. By 1996, they had one of the most popular Web sites and a very valuable commodity. Yahoo! Is now the leading Web portal, the starting point for Web activities. In 1999, it was the most popular and widely used World Wide Web search engine. It can be accessed at HTTP://WWW.YAHOO.COM. For many years, Yahoo! was considered a directory listing of various web pages; it now has full search engine capability.

YCPAS

This is the abbreviation for every programmer's worst nightmare, You Can't Protect Against Stupid! Every programmer will acknowledge that in his programming career, at least one situation came about that even with good error trapping, a program he or she wrote crashed because of some user's stupid and totally unpredictable action. YCPAS! Amen!

YGBKM

Abbreviation of You Gotta Be Kiddin' Me. (Often seen as YGBSM but we don't have things like that in our glossary!) This is a chat room shortcut that is an obvious exclamation of surprise.

Y-Modem

A file transfer protocol based on X-Modem, Y-Modem was designed by Chuck Forsberg to add batch transmission, and variable block size. The variable function was seldom ever at the maximum size, 1024 bytes. The error detection scheme was CRC. A subsequent version was Y-Modem-G. This was an effort to send data in a stream, evaluating the blocks on the fly and only talking back to the sender if there was an error. Both programs had to be identical and the noise predominant on POTS at the time was a problem. It was never popular. See Also X-Modem.

YMMV

Abbreviation of Your Mileage May Vary, taken from the standard disclaimer attached to EPA mileage ratings. This warning can be found in some UNIX freeware distributions. Use at your own risk is the implication. Your results may not be that same as others or what we have indicated.

yocto

The metric prefix for the American system value of negative one septillionth or 10 to the -24th power, (-1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). See the inverse, yotta, as in yottabyte.

yoke

A control, similar to a general aviation aircraft control, used in flight simulators and simulator game software to make the action more realistic. The device usually is driven on the joystick port, sometimes on either the mouse or a serial port. It is an input device.

yottabyte

A number equivalent to 2 to the 80th power bytes, which is approximately 10 to the 24th power (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) bytes; in the American system, septillion. (The inverse is yocto.) A yottabyte is equal to 1,024 zettabytes. In dollars, it is slightly outta my price range. The name yotta was chosen (by whom?) because it's the second-to-last last letter of the Latin alphabet and also sounds like the Greek letter iota. It also sounds like lotta which is what this is. Don't know your KB from your MB? Try our memory and storage converter. (Also see powers of ten, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte, exabyte, and petabyte.)

YP

Short for Yellow Pages, the original name for the NIS system before British Telecom asserted their trademark.

YP

Shorthand in chat rooms and online for "You are welcome".

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