<security> An arbitrary string of characters chosen by a user
	or {system administrator} and used to authenticate the user
	when he attempts to log on, in order to prevent unauthorised
	access to his account.

	A favourite activity among unimaginative {computer nerds} and
	{crackers} is writing programs which attempt to discover
	passwords by using lists of commonly chosen passwords such as
	people's names (spelled forward or backward).  It is
	recommended that to defeat such methods passwords use a
	mixture of upper and lower case letters or digits and avoid
	proper names and real words.  If you have trouble remembering
	random strings of characters, make up an acronym like
	"ihGr8trmP" ("I have great trouble remembering my password").

	(1994-10-27)

{system administration}

<storage, architecture, jargon, theory> How something is; its
	configuration, attributes, condition, or information content.
	The state of a system is usually temporary (i.e. it changes
	with time) and volatile (i.e. it will be lost or reset to some
	initial state if the system is switched off).

	A state may be considered to be a point in some {space} of all
	possible states.  A simple example is a light, which is either
	on or off.  A complex example is the electrical activation in
	a human brain while solving a problem.

	In computing and related fields, states, as in the light
	example, are often modelled as being {discrete} (rather than
	continuous) and the transition from one state to another is
	considered to be instantaneous.  Another (related) property of
	a system is the number of possible states it may exhibit.
	This may be finite or infinite.  A common model for a system
	with a finite number of discrete state is a {finite state
	machine}.

	[{Jargon File}]

	(1996-10-13)

<World-Wide Web, database, tool> {Allaire Corporation}'s
	commercial {database} application development tool that allows
	{databases} to have a {World-Wide Web} {interface}, so a
	database can be queried and updated using a {web browser}.

	The ColdFusion Server application runs on the {web server} and
	has access to a {database}.  ColdFusion files on the web
	server are {HTML} pages with additional ColdFusion commands to
	{query} or {update} the database, written in {CFML}.  When the
	page is requested by the user, the {web server} passes the
	page to the Cold Fusion application, which executes the {CFML}
	commands, places the results of the {CFML} commands in the
	{HTML} file, and returns the page to the {web server}.  The
	page returned to the {web server} is now an ordinary {HTML}
	file, and it is sent to the user.

	Examples of ColdFusion applications include order entry, event
	registration, catalogue search, directories, calendars, and
	interactive training.  ColdFusion applications are robust
	because all database interactions are encapsulated in a single
	industrial-strength {CGI} script.  The formatting and
	presentation can be modified and revised at any time (as
	opposed to having to edit and recompile {source code}).

	ColdFusion Server can connect with any database that supports
	{ODBC} or {OLE DB} or one that has a native database driver.
	Native database drivers are available for {Oracle} and
	{Sybase} databases.

	ColdFusion is available for {Windows}, {Solaris}, and {HP-UX}.
	A {development environment} for creating ColdFusion files,
	called ColdFusion Studio, is also available for {Windows}.

	Current version: MX(6), as of 2003-07-11.

	The {filename extension} for ColdFusion files is .cfm

	{Home (http://www.coldfusion.com/)}.

	(2003-07-27)

<storage> A {byte}, {word} or other small unit of storage
	space in a computer's {main memory} that is identified by its
	starting {address} (and size).

	(1999-04-19)