2D 2-Dimensional 3D 3-Dimensional

FICA Federal Insurance Contributions Act

FIDO Fog Investigation Dispersal Operation

FIFO First In First Out (as in registers and buffers)

FILO First In Last Out (see also FIFO)

FIMS Forms Interface Management System

FINE FINE Is Not Emacs

FIO Frequency In and Out

FIPS Federal Information Processing Standard

FIR Far InfraRed [Space]

FIR Finite Impulse Response

FIRMR Federal Information Resource Management Regulation

FIT Federal Information Technologies, inc.

FITS Flexible Image Transport System [Space]

FIX Federal Inter-agency eXchange [Networking]

FL Florida

FLACC Full Level Algol Checkout Compiler

FLEA Four Letter Extended Acronym

FLL Fixed Loss Loop [Telephony]

FLOP FLoating point OPeration

FLOPS FLoating-point OPerations per Second

FLRA Federal Labor Relations Authority

FM Frequency Modulation

FMB Federal Maritime Board

FMCS Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

FMR Follow Me Roaming [Telephony]

FMS Financial Management Service (Treasury Dept) [US Government]

FMS Forms Management System

FNC Federal Networking Council (formerly FRICC) [US Government] (under OSTP)

FO Foreign Office

FO Forward Observer

FOAC Federal Office Automation Center

FOB Free On Board

FOB Full Of Bull (aperiodical of) [TMRC]

FOC Faint Object Camera (on HST) [Space]

FOC Free Of Charge

FOIA Freedom Of Information Act

FOIMS Field Office Information Management System

FOIRL Fiber Optic Inter(?) Repeater(?) Link(?) [Ethernet]

FOOBAR See FUBAR [Net jargon]

FOR Free On Rail

FORCS Faa's Operational Reporting Communication System

FORD Fix Or Repair Daily [Humor]

FORD Found On Road Dead [Humor]

FORTRAN FORmula TRANslator

FOS Faint Object Spectrograph (on HST) [Space]

FOSE Federal Office Systems Exposition

FOT Fiber Optic Transceiver [Ethernet]

FOT Free On Truck

FOV Field Of View

FPA Floating Point Accelerator

FPC Fish Protein Concentrate

FPE Floating Point Engine

FPHA Federal Public Housing Authority

FPLA Field Programmable Logic Array (see PLA)

FPM Feet Per Minute

FPO Field Post Office

FPO Fleet Post Office

fps Feet Per Second

FPU Floating Point Unit

FQDN Fully Qualified Domain Name [TCP/IP] (DNS)

FR Frame Relay [Telephony, Networking]

FRACTAL FRACTional dimensionAL

FRED Fred Resembles Emacs Deliberately

FRG Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)

FRICC Federal Research Internet Coordinating Committee (now FNC, q.v.) [Networking, US Government]

FROG Free Rocket Over Ground

FRPG Fantasy Role Playing Game

FRS Federal Reserve System

FS Field Service

FS File System

FS Full Standard

FSF Free Software Foundation

FSK Frequency Shift Keying

FSLIC Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation

FSS Federal Supply Service

FSW Forward Swept Wings

Ft Foot

FTC Federal Trade Commission

FTL Faster Than Light

FTP File Transfer Protocol (esp. of the TCP/IP suite)

FTS Federal Telecommunications System [Telephony, US Government]

FTS Flight Telerobotic Servicer [Space]

FUBAR F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition/Repair

FUBAR Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition/Repair

FUSE Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer [Space]

FW Fringeworthy

FWD Front Wheel Drive

FWHM Full Width at Half Maximum [Space]

FX Foriegn eXchange [Telephony]

FY Fiscal Year

FYI For Your Information

G General audiences [Movie rating]

G Gravity

GA Gamblers Anonymous

GA General Assembly

GA General Average

GA General of the Army

GA Georgia

GAAP Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

GAB Group Audio Bridging [Telephony]

Gaia Earth's self-sustaining Biosphere (Not an acronym, from some ancient language, I think)

GAN Global Area Network

GAO General Accounting Office [US Government]

GAR Grand Army of the Republic

GARR Gruppo Arminizzazione Rete por la Ricerca (Italian Research Network Harmonization Group)

GAS Get-Away Special [Space]

GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

GAW Guaranteed Annual Wage

GAW Guarenteed Annual Wage

GB Gangbusters

GB GigaByte

GB Great Britain

GBIP General Purpose Interface Bus

GBT Green Bank Telescope [Space]

GC Garbage Collection (LISP)

GC Gas Chromatograph (or Chromatography)

GCA Ground Controlled Approach

GCC Gnu C Compiler

GCD Ground Controlled Descent

GCL Graphics Command Language

GCM General Court Martial

GCR Group-Coded Recording (magnetic tape, 6250 bpi)

GCT Greenwich Civil Time

GCVS General Catalog of Variable Stars [Space]

GDB Gnu DeBugger

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GDS Great Dark Spot [Space]

GE General Electric

GEM Giotto Extended Mission [Space]

GEM Graphics Environment Manager

GEO Geosynchronous Earth Orbit [Space]

GHQ General HeadQuarters

GHRS Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (on HST) [Space]

GHz Giga HertZ (unit of frequency, 1,000,000,000 cycles per second)

GI Galvanized Iron

GI Gastro Intestinal (as in upper GI)

GI General Issue

GI Government Issue

GID Group ID [UNIX]

GIF Graphics Interchange Format

GIGO Garbage In Garbage Out

GIN Graphics INput

GISS Goddard Institute for Space Studies

GKS Graphical Kernel Standard

GKS Graphics Kernel System

GM Game Master

GM General Manager

GM General Motors [Corporate name, Automobile]

GM Guided Missile

GMBH Gesellschaft Mit Beschraenkter Haftung

GMC Giant Molecular Cloud [Space]

GMD Gesellschaft f\:ur Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung (German Institute for Mathematics and Data Processing)

GMRT Giant Meter-wave Radio Telescope [Space]

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (also called UT)

GNP Gross National Product

GNU GNU's Not Unix

GOES Geostationary Orbiting Environmental Satellite [Space]

GOES Geostationary Orbiting Environmental Satellites [Space]

GOSIP Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (calls for government procurement of ISO/CCITT products)

GOSIP Government OSI Profile

GP General Practitioner

GP General Purpose (RR engines and origin of Jeep) [Railroading, Automobile]

GPC General Purpose Computer [Space]

GPI Graphics Programming Interface

GPIB General Purpose Interface Bus

GPIB General-Purpose Interface Bus

GPL GNU General Public Licence

GPO General Post Office

GPO Government Printing Office

GPS Global Positioning System

GPS Global Positioning System [Space]

GQ General Quarters

GRB Gamma Ray Burst(er)

GREP Global Regular Expression Print, g/re/p, (UNIX command)

GREP Global Regular Expression Print [UNIX]

GRO Gamma Ray Observatory [Space]

GRS Gamma Ray Spectrometer (on Mars Observer) [Space]

GRS Great Red Spot [Space]

GS General Schedule

GS Glide Slope

GSA General Services Administration

GSA General Services Adminstration [US Government]

GSA Girl Scouts of America

GSBCA General Services administration Board of Contract Appeals

GSC Guide Star Catalog (for HST) [Space]

GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, MD) [NASA, Space]

GSI Gesellschaft f\:ur Schwerionenforschung (German Federal Research Institute for Heavy Ion Research)

GSM Global System Mobile

GSM Groupe Speciale Mobile (Committee Designing preceding)

GSTS Ground-based Surveillance and Tracking System

GT Gross Ton

GTE General Telephone and Electric [Corporate name]

GTO Geostationary Transfer Orbit [Space]

GTSI Government Technology Services, inc.

GUI Graphical User Interface

GW Gamma World

GWEN Ground Wave Emergency Network

GWM Generic Window Manager [X]

H Harn

H Height

HAL Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer (movie 2001)

HAM Hold And Modify

HAO High Altitude Observatory [Space]

Hb HemogloBin

HBM Her British Majesty; His British Majesty

HBO Home Box Office

HC Holy Communion

HC House of Commons

HCFA Health Care Financing Administration

HCFC hydrochlorofluorocarbon [Chemical]

HCL High Cost of Living

HD Hard Disk

HD Heavy Duty

HD Henry Draper catalog entry [Space]

HDA Head Disk Assembly (in winchester disk drives)

HDBV Host Data Base View

HDL High Density Lipoprotein

HDLC High-level Data Link Control [Networking]

HDTV High Definition Television

HE His Eminence

HE His Excellency

HEAO High Energy Astronomical Observatory [Space]

HEDM High Energy-Density Matter [Space]

HEMP Help End Marijuana Prohibition

HEO High Earth Orbit [Space]

HEPnet High Energy Physics network [Networking]

HERO Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance

HF High Fantasy

HF High Frequency (3-30MHz)

HFE Human Factors Engineering

HFS Hierarchical File System

HGA High Gain Antenna [Space]

HHS (US Department of) Health and Human Services

HI Hawaii

HIIPS Hud Integrated Information Processing Services

HLC Heavy Lift Capability [Space]

HLL High-Level Language

HLV Heavy Lift Vehicle [Space]

HMC Halley Multicolor Camera (on Giotto) [Space]

HMOS High performance Metal Oxide Semiconductor (see MOS)

HMS His/Her Majesty's Ship

HMT His/Her Majesty's Transport

HNPA Home Numbering Plan Area [Telephony]

HOBIS HOtel Billing Information System

HOL High-Order System

HOTOL HOrizontal Take-Off and Landing

HP Hewlett Packard, Inc. [Corporate name]

HP High Pressure

HP Higher Power (sort of an AA "in" term, usually God)

HP Hit Points

HP HorsePower

HPGe High Purity Germanium

HPL/T High-Productivity Languages/Tools

HQ HeadQuarters

HR Hertzsprung-Russell (diagram) [Space]

HR House of Representatives

HRH Her Royal Highness

HRH His Royal Highness

HRI High Resolution Imager (on ROSAT) [Space]

HS High School

HSB Hue, Saturation, Brightness

HSP High Speed Photometer (on HST) [Space]

HST Hawaiian Standard Time

HST Hubble Space Telescope [Space]

HT High Tension (as in electric power transmission)

HTK Hits To Kill

HUAC House Unamerican Activities Committee

HUD Heads Up Display

HUD Housing and Urban Development [US Government]

HUPD Harvard University Police Department

HUT Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (ASTRO package) [Space]

HV High Voltage

HVAC Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning

HW2000 Highway 2000

HWM High-Water Mark

Hz HertZ (unit of frequency, cycles per second)

IAB Internet Activities Board [Networking]

IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency

IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA@ISI.EDU)

IATA International Air Transport Association

IAU International Astronomical Union [Space]

IAUC IAU Circular [Space]

IBM Ingrained Batch Mentality

IBM International Business Machines, Inc. [Corporate name]

IBM Itty Bitty Machines

IBT Illinois Bell Telephone

IC Integrated Circuit

IC Interexchange Carrier [Telephony] (see also IEC, IXC)

ICB Interstate Computer Bank

ICBM InterContinental Ballistic Missile

ICE In-Circuit Emulator

ICE International Cometary Explorer [Space]

ICI Imperial Chemical Industries

ICJ International Court of Justice

ICL International Computers Ltd.

ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol

ICP Integrated Channel Processor

ICP Inventory Control Points

ICRC International Cosmic Ray Conference

ID Idaho

ID IDentification

IDA Intercommunication Data Areas

IDA International Dark-sky Association [Space]

IDA International Development Association

IDDD International Direct Distance Dial [Telephony]

IDE Interactive Development Environments, inc

IDF Intermediate Distributing Frame [Telephony]

IDL Interactive Data Language [Space]

IDV Interlibrational Derived Vehicle [Space]

i.e. ???? (Latin(?): in other words (?))

IE Indo-European

IEC Inter-Exchange Carrier [Telephony] (see also IC, IXC)

IEE Institute of Electrical Engineers [UK]

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

IETF Internet Engineering Task Force

IF Intermediate Frequency (as in IF stage)

IFB Invitation For Bids

IFC International Finance Corporation

IFC International Freighting Corporation

IFF Identification - Friend or Foe

IFF Interchange File Format

IFLA International Federation of Library Associations

IFR Instrument Flight Rules [Aviation]

IGES Initial Graphics Exchange Standard

IGM InterGalactic Medium [Space]

IGY International Geophysical Year

IGY International Geophysical Year [Space]

IHP Indicated HorsePower

IHS Integrated Hospital Support

IIA Information Industry Association

IIE Institute of Industrial Engineers

IIHF International Ice Hockey Federation

IIL Integrated Injection Logic

ILO International Labor Organization

ILS Instrument Landing System

ILV Industrial Launch Vehicle [Space]

IMF International Monetary Fund

IMHO In My Humble Opinion [Net jargon]

IMO In My Opinion [Net jargon]

IMP Interface Message Processor [ARPANET/MILNET] (replaced by PSN)

IMSL International Mathematical Subroutine Library

IN Indiana

INADS INitialization and ADministration System [Telephony]

INRA Iesus Nazerenus Rex Iudaeorum (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews)

INRIA Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique

INS Immigration and Naturalization Service

In-situ In Place [Latin]

INSTITUTE INSTITUTE's Name Shows That It's Totally Unrelated To EMACS

INTAP INteroperability Technology Association for information Processing

INWATS INward Wide Area Telephone Service [Telephony]

I/O Input/Output

IO Input/Output (sometimes I/O)

IOC International Operating Center [Telephony, US]

IOD Identified Outward Dialing

IOOF International Order of Odd Fellows

IOTA Infrared-Optical Telescope Array [Space]

IOTA International Occultation Timing Association [Space]

IOU I Owe you(U)

IP Information Provider [Telephony]

IP Innings Pitched

IP Intermediate Point

IP Internet Protocol

IPC Inter-Process Communication

IPE Integrated Programming Environment

IPMS InterPersonal Message Services

IPS Inertial Pointing System [Space]

IPS Information Processing Standards

IPSE Integrated Project-Support Environment

IQ Intelligence Quotient (see EQ)

IR Index Register

IR Infra-Red

IRA Individual Retirement Account

IRA Irish Republican Army

IRAF Image Reduction and Analysis Facility [Space]

IRAS InfraRed Astronomical Satellite [Space]

IRBM Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile

IRDS Information Resource Dictionary Standard

IRDS InfraRed Detection Set

IRE Institute of Radio Engineers (old name for the now IEEE, which see)

IRM Information Resources Management

IRMS Information Resources Management Service

IRS Internal Revenue Service

IRTF Internet Research Task Force

IS Information Systems

IS International Standard [ISO] (Beyond the DIS Stage)

ISA Industry-Standard Architecture

ISAM Indexed Sequential Access Method

ISAS Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (Japan) [Space]

ISBD International Bibliographic Description

ISC Information Services Center

ISC International Switching Center

ISCH Interstitial-Cell-Stimulating Hormone (same as LH)

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network [Telephony]

ISDT Integrated Systems Development Tool

ISEE International Sun Earth Explorer (usually ISEE-3)

ISF Information Systems Factory

ISFUG Integrated Software Federal User Group

ISI Information Sciences Institute

ISM InterStellar Medium [Space]

ISO Infrared Space Observatory [Space]

ISO International Organization for Standardization

ISO International Standards Organization [Space]

ISODE ISO Development Environment

ISOO Information Security Oversight Office

ISPM International Solar Polar Mission

ISPM International Solar Polar Mission (now Ulysses) [Space]

ISR Institute of Snow Research

ISRG Independent Space Research Group

ISV Independent Software Vendor

ISY International Space Year [Space]

IT Industrial Technology

IT Information Technology

ITC Inter-Task Communication

ITS Incompatible Timesharing System

ITT International Telephone and Telegraph

ITU International Telecommunications Union

ITUSA IT Users Standards Association

IUE International Ultraviolet Explorer [Space]

IUS Inertial Upper Stage

IUS Inertial Upper Stage [Space]

IUV Interlibrational Utility Vehicle [Space]

IXC Inter-eXchange Carrier [Telephony] (see also IC, IEC)

IXI International (pan-European) X.25 Infrastructure

JACM Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery

JANET Joint Academic Network (UK)

JBS John Birch Society

JC Jesus Christ

JC Joint Compound (plumbing)

JC Julius Caesar

JC Junior College

JCA Jewelry Crafts Association

JCAC Joint Civil Affairs Committee

JCAE Joint Committee on Atomic Energy

JCEE Joint Council on Economic Education

JCET Joint Council on Educational Television

JCS Joint Chiefs of Staff

JD Justice Department

JDS John Dewey Society

JEM Japanese Experiment Module (for SSF) [Space]

JES John Ericsson Society

JET Joint European Torus (fusion research)

JFK John F. Kennedy

JFK John F. Kennedy (international airport)

JFMIP Joint Financial Management Improvement Program

JGR Journal of Geophysical Research

JGR Journal of Geophysical Research [Space]

JI Justice, Inc.

JIC Joint Intelligence Center

JIC Just in Case

JILA Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics [Space]

JIM Job Information Memorandum

JINTACCS Joint INteroperability of TActical Command and Control Systems

JIS Japan Industrial Standards

JISC Japanese Industrial Standards Committee

JIT Just In Time

JMS John Milton Society

JNT Joint Network Team (UK)

JO Job Order

JO Junior Officer

JOVE Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs

JOVIAL Jules Own Version of the International Algorithmic Language

JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory

JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory [Space]

JRC Junior Red Cross

JSC Johnson Space Center

JSC Johnson Space Center (NASA) [Space]

JSD Jackson System Development

JSRC Joint Services Review Committee

JTIDS Joint Tactical Information Distribution Systems

JV Junior Varsity

JvNC John von Neumann (Super Computer) Center

JvNCnet John von Neumann (Super Computer) Center network

K Kilo- (metric 1000)

K9 canine (K9 corps - army dogs)

KAIST Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

KAO Kuiper Airborne Observatory [Space]

KB KiloByte

KC King's Counsel (QC when queen reigning)

KC Knights of Columbus

KD Kiln Dried

KD Knocked Down

KDCI Key Display Call Indicator

KERMIT Kl-10 Error-free Reciprocal Micro Interconnect over Tty lines

KET Kentucky Educational Television

KHz Kilo HertZ (unit of frequency, 1000 cycles per second)

KI Kiwanis International

KIA Killed In Action

KIAS Knot Indicated Air Speed

Km Kilometers

KO Knock Out [Boxing, Electric]

KP Key Pulse [Telephony]

KP Kitchen Police

KPNO Kitt Peak National Observatory

KPO KeyPunch Operator

KQC King's College London

K&R Kernighan and Ritchie, the c programming language

KS King's Scholar

KSC Kennedy Space Center (NASA) [Space]

KSU Key System Unit [Telephony]

KTB Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary (from German) [Space]

KTS Key Telephone System [Telephony]

KTU Key Telephone Unit [Telephony]

KWIC Key Word In Context

KY Kentucky

L1 Lagrange Point #1 35,000 Miles above moon [Space]

L2 Lagrange Point #2 40,000 Miles behind moon [Space]

L3 Lagrange Point #3 (?? 35,000 Miles below moon) [Space]

L4 Lagrange Point #4 240,000 mile Earth orbit [Space]

L5 Lagrange Point #5 240,000 mile Earth orbit [Space]

LA Los Angeles

LA Louisiana

LA Low Altitude

LADAR LAser Detection And Ranging

LAM Master of Liberal Arts

LAMA Local Automatic Message Accounting [Telephony]

LAN Local Apparent Noon

LAN Local Area Network

LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory [Space]

LANL Los Alamos (NM) National Laboratory

LAPB Link Access Procedure (Balanced)

LAPD Link Access Procedure (??)

LAPD Los Angeles (CA, US) Police Department

LAR Local Acquisition Radar

LaRC Langley Research Center (NASA) [Space]

LASER Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

LAT Local Apparent Time

LATA Local Access and Transport Area [Telephony]

LAX Los Angeles International Airport

LB Light Bomber

LB pound (LiBra)

LBHS Long Beach High School

LBL Lawrence Berkeley (Calif.) Labs

LBS Pounds

LC inductor-Capacitor circuit (as in filters, L is symbol inductance)

LCD Liquid Crystal Display

LCD Lowest Common Denominator

LCDR Lieutenant Commander

LCL Less than Carload Lot [Railroading]

LCL Lunar Cargo Lander [NASA OEXP]

LCM Least Common Multiple

LCM Life Cycle Management

LCS Laboratory for Computer Science (of MIT)

LCT Landing Craft Tanks

LD Long Distance [Telephony]

LDC Long Distance Carrier [Telephony]

LDEF Long Duration Exposure Facility [Space, NASA]

LDF Large Deployable Reflector [Space]

LDL Low Density Lipoprotein

LDX Long Distance eXtender [Telephony]

LEAP Low-power Enhanced At Portable

LEC Local Exchange Carrier [Telephony]

LED Light Emitting Diode

LEM Lunar Excursion Module (a.k.a. LM) (Apollo spacecraft) [Space]

LEO Low Earth Orbit [Space]

LEP Large Electron-Positron collider [CERN]

LeRC Lewis Research Center (NASA) [Space]

LEST Large Earth-based Solar Telescope [Space]

LF Low Frequency (30-300KHz)

LFSA List of Frequently Seen Acronyms (!) [Space]

LGA Low Gain Antenna [Space]