Dragon
A mythical winged reptilian monster, which is typically portrayed as fire-breathing.
Dragon Ball
A manga series that follows the adventures of Goku as he trains in martial arts and explores the world in search of seven mystical orbs known as the Dragon Balls, which, when gathered together, can summon a wish-granting dragon. Along his journey, Goku makes several friends and battles a wide variety of villains, many of whom also seek the Dragon Balls for their own purposes.
Dragon’s Lair
Featuring movie-quality artwork by former Disney animator Don Bluth, the popular arcade game was originally produced by Cinematronics in 1983. In it, the player assumes the role of Dirk the Daring, a heroic knight who searches through a haunted castle in an attempt to rescue the beautiful Princess Daphne from the evil Singe The Dragon. To accomplish this, he must overcome all kinds of obstacles and villains, such as Lava Monsters, Giddy Goons, The Lizard King, The Grim Reaper, The Black Knight and ultimately, Singe himself. The game featured a joystick to guide Dirk’s direction and a button to cause Dirk to swing his sword. Correct moves at the right times allowed Dirk to advance through the castle … but wrong decisions brought about immediate death, and the player was faced with Dirk’s aggravated expression, just before becoming a collapsing skeleton. The game also became available in LaserDisc format, and spawned a sequel game, Dragon’s Lair II.
Dragonslayer
Set in a 6th Century kingdom called Urland, this 1981 fantasy adventure film tells of a classic quest, in which an apprentice wizard named Galen seeks to slay the dragon Vermithrax.
Dresden Files, The
Based on the popular Jim Butcher novel series, the 2007 one-season Sci-Fi Channel show centered around modern-day Chicago private eye Harry Dresden … who just so happens to be a bona fide wizard, as well! When the local police are stumped by grisly, bizarre cases involving werewolves, vampires, or otherworldly forces, they go to Harry. With the assistance of “Bob,” an ancient spirit who resides in a skull, Harry followed leads the cops couldn’t. Executive produced by Nicolas Cage, the series starred Paul Blackthorne, Valerie Cruz and Terrence Mann.
Drive-by download
A type of internet virus or malicious software (or “malware”) by which dangerous code installs, and then infects, a computer or device, simply by visiting or opening a compromised page. By doing so, the user unwittingly downloads a virus or malware onto the computer or mobile device. The drive-by download usually takes advantage of (or “exploits”) a browser, app, or operating system that is out of date or has a security flaw. The initial code is often very small and unnoticeable, since its job is often simply to contact another computer, from which the rest of the code can be downloaded onto your smartphone, tablet or computer. Often, an infected webpage will contain different types of malicious code, in hopes that one of them will match a weakness on your computer. Rather than being completely self-contained, the exploit code itself is hosted on a different web server and is exposed through the compromised web page using a technique like a URL embedded in malicious script code or an inline frame. Such downloads may be placed on otherwise innocent and normal-looking websites. It might be a link in an email, text message, or social media post that tells you to look at something interesting on a site, with an attached link. When you open the page, while you are enjoying an article, cartoon, or other link, the download is installing on your computer.
Additionally, malware distribution networks tend to be moving targets, with servers constantly appearing and disappearing in different locations. As malware distribution servers get blocked by services such as search engines, they lose their effectiveness and attackers move them elsewhere.
Security researchers detect drive-by downloads by keeping track of web addresses that are known to have a history of malicious or suspicious behavior, and by using crawlers to wander the internet and visit different pages. If a web page initiates a download on a test computer, the site is given a risky reputation. Links in spam messages and other communications can also be used as source lists for these tests.
Drogo
A featured character in the first season of HBO’s Game of Thrones, as well as A Song of Ice and Fire, the George R. R. Martin novel series that inspired the series, Drogo is the khal, or warlord, of a Dothraki khalasar, a nomadic horde of warriors. While very imposing to his enemies, Drogo eventually grew to be a caring husband to Daenerys, the young girl who became his khaleesi. Though part of a culture that valued slavery and conquest, Drogo would become a better person after meeting Daenerys. As “Dothraki” actually means “rider,” khals are typically expert horse riders, particularly in battle, and Drogo, well known for having so much gold that his slaves wore it, earned a reputation for never having been defeated in battle, but an injury sustained in battle would eventually fell him. Drogo’s name would live on in Drogon, the largest of Daenerys’ dragons.
Drogo was portrayed by Jason Momoa.
Drop-down menu
A horizontal list of choices on your computer screen that each contain a vertical menu of options, which is revealed, or “drops down,” when a user rolls over or clicks one of the primary options. These drop-down options can be selected by clicking to select it. Drop-down menus are typically created using DHTML (or dynamic HTML), which may include a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. They can also be written as flash drive applications. While most software program menus typically require you to click on the main menu to reveal the drop-down options, most website drop-down menus often appear when you simply move the cursor over the main menu. Also known as a pull-down menu.
Dryad
See Nymph.
Duke Nukem
From its simple shareware 2D side-scroller debut version in 1991 to its full, multi-level Duke Nukem 3D 1993 version, the turkey-eating Coke-swigging confetti-bursting hero broke ground in the video game industry. Along with Duke Nukem II, the series continued to evolve, along with its hero and his abilities. He even made cameo appearances in the side-scroller Manhattan Project and several console games like Time To Kill and Land of the Babes! Unfortunately, Duke’s developer, 3D Realms, closed its doors in 2009 without delivering its long-promised game Duke Nukem Forever.
Dungeon
An underground prison, typically within a castle.
Dungeon master
In the Wizards of the Coast game of Dungeons & Dragons, the player who runs the game, and thus rules over the dungeon. Also known by the abbreviation “DM.”
Dungeons & Dragons
Originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by the now-defunct Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR), Dungeons & Dragons (also known as D&D, DND, AD&D, ADND, etc.) is the abbreviation for a popular role-playing game (see RPG) owned by Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), a subsidiary of Hasbro. D&D has had many iterations to its rule system through the years, and thus, may be referred to by the specific version being played, i.e., AD&D (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, also known as 2nd Ed.). Each version has its pros and cons, with equally passionate supporters and detractors. “D&D” can also be used as a blanket term for all forms of tabletop role-playing systems, even if they aren’t actually using a D&D rule set.
Dunning-Kruger effect
First reported in an influential 1999 article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the “cognitive bias” described by Cornell University psychology professors Drs. David Dunning and Justin Kruger states that people with little knowledge or skill tend to compensate for their shortcomings by believing they have more talent than they actually do and by overlooking and/or underplaying the knowledge and talent of others. Conversely, the most competent people often underestimate their abilities. The study further suggested that incompetent people lack the skills necessary to distinguish good performers from bad performers.
DVD
Dvorak keyboard layout
Conceived and patented in 1936 by Dr. August Dvorak and his brother-in-law Dr. William Dealey, the unique keyboard layout was designed to achieve more efficient typing than the standard QWERTY keyboard. Dvorak first conceived of the keyboard design when he served as advisor to a student who was writing a Master’s thesis on typing errors. Dvorak concluded that a more efficient layout needed to be devised to serve people with high words-per-minute rates. Dvorak recognized a number of inherent flaws in the QWERTY layout: more than half of all keystrokes occurred on the top row, requiring typists to move their fingers off the home row keys; most key presses were performed by the left hand, which was typically nondominant; and about 30% of all typing was performed in the bottom row, which was the hardest to reach.
Considering this data, Dvorak and Dealey’s design featured: the most frequently used letters situated on the home row, so a typist’s fingers would not have to move in order to type them; all vowels were located on the left hand’s home row; and the more commonly used letters were situated on the top row, as moving the fingers up was easier than moving them down.
Dvorak began training typists on his keyboard and entering them in typing competitions. His trainees won numerous typing awards, until contestants using QWERTY keyboards actually asked that the Dvorak boards be banned from competitions because the key configuration presented an “unfair advantage.” Not long after Dvorak’s keyboard was released, the Tacoma, Washington school district began an experiment using the new layout. Teachers trained 2,700 students on Dvorak keyboards and found the students were able to master the typewriter in one-third the time it took students to learn the QWERTY method. However, after a new school board was elected, it was decided to terminate the Dvorak classes. Despite this, there are some famous modern-day proponents of Dvorak’s design, including author Terry Goodkind, BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
DVR
See Digital video recorder (DVR).
Dynamic Duo
First used in Batman #4 in October 1940, this colloquial name for the DC Comics crime-fighting team of Batman and Robin was commonly used during the 1960s TV series Batman.
Dynamic internet protocol address (DIPA)
When computers and devices in a network are turned on for the first time, they are assigned an internet protocol (IP) address (also known as a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)) by a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server. As opposed to a static IP address, which is permanent, a dynamic IP address is a temporary address that is assigned each time a computer or device accesses the internet. Internet service providers (ISPs) typically assign dynamic addresses to the Internet connections of their residential and small business customers, which are less expensive than static addresses.
Dystopia
A universe or society in which oppressive control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian governmental control. Often characterized by elements of human misery, such as squalor, oppression, disease and/or overcrowding. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, can be and have been used to criticize a current trend, societal norm or political system. The opposite of utopia (definition 1).
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