M

MacBinary

A scheme for encoding the special information in a Macintosh file’s data and resource forks into a file format appropriate for transmission over the Internet.

Mach 3.0 Microkernel

Developed at Carnegie-Mellon University, the Mach 3.0 Microkernel has a closely tied history to BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) UNIX. Mach gives OS X the features of protected memory architecture, preemptive multitasking, and symmetric multi-processing.

man pages

Documentation for some of the Mac OS X Unix commands (which are actually Unix programs) and other Unix components.

memory protection

An operating system technology that makes it impossible for one active application to read and write data from another active application’s space in memory. Memory protection helps applications run with fewer crashes.

MIDI

The acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Developed in 1983 by several of the music industry’s electronics manufacturers, MIDI is a data transmission protocol that permits devices to work together in a performance context. MIDI doesn’t transfer music, it transfers information about the notes and their characteristics in a format another MIDI device can reconstruct the music from.

modem

A device that connects a computer to telephone lines. It converts digital information from the computer into sounds for transmission over phone lines and converts sounds from phone lines to digital information for the computer. (The term modem is a shortened form of modulator-demodulator.) This term is also used informally for devices that connect computers by using digital technologies — for example, TV cable, DSL, and ISDN connections.

modem script

Software consisting of the modem commands necessary to start and stop a remote access connection for a particular type of modem.

mount

To mount means to connect to and access the contents of a disk or other volume. After mounting, the stored items in the mounted volume are then available to the local computer. In the case of internal hard drives, mounting is automatic and occurs every time you start up the computer.

movie

Any time-related data, such as video, sound, animation, and graphs, that change over time; Apple’s format for organizing, storing, and exchanging time-related data.

multimedia

A presentation combining text or graphics with video, animation, or sound, and presented on a computer.

multitasking

The capability to have multiple programs open and executing concurrently.

multithreading

An operating system technology that allows tasks in an application to share processor time.