A small Java program that can be embedded in an HTML page.
Applets differ from full-fledged Java applications in that they are
not allowed to access certain resources on the local computer, such
as files and serial devices (modems, printers, etc.), and are prohibited
from communicating with most other computers across a network. The common
rule is that an applet can only make an Internet connection to the computer
from which the applet was sent.
A tool (software) for finding files stored on anonymous FTP
sites. You need to know the exact file name or a substring of it. By
1999 Archie had been almost completely replaced by web-based
search engines.
Back when FTP was the main way people moved files over the Internet
archie was quite popular.
ARPANet -- (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network)
The precursor to the Internet. Developed in the late 60's and
early 70's by the US Department of Defense as an experiment in wide-area-networking
to connect together computers that were each running different system
so that people at one location could use computing resources from another
location.
ASCII -- (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
This is the defacto world-wide standard for the code numbers used by
computers to represent all the upper and lower-case Latin letters, numbers,
punctuation, etc. There are 128 standard ASCII codes each of which can
be represented by a 7 digit binary number: 0000000 through 1111111.
A high-speed line or series of connections that forms a major pathway
within a network. The term is relative as a backbone in a small network
will likely be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large
network.
How much code or file size you can send through a connection. Good web
design should work to keep this file size to a minimum. Usually
measured in bits-per-second. A full page of English text is about 16,000
bits. A fast modem can move about 57,000 bits in one second. Full-motion
full-screen video would require roughly 10,000,000 bits-per-second,
depending on compression.
In common usage the baud rate of a modem is how many bitsit
can send or receive per second. Technically, baud is the number of times
per second that the carrier signal shifts value - for example a 1200
bit-per-second modem actually runs at 300 baud, but it moves 4 bits
per baud (4 x 300= 1200 bits per second).
A computerized meeting and announcement system that allows people to
carry on discussions, upload and download files, and make announcements
without the people being connected to the computer at the same time.
In the early 1990's there were many thousands (millions?) of BBS?s around
the world, most are very small, running on a single IBM clone PC with
1 or 2 phone lines. Some are very large and the line between a BBS and
a system like AOL gets crossed at some point, but it is not clearly
drawn.
Binary
Information consisting entirely of ones and zeros. Also, commonly used
to refer to files that are not simply text files, e.g. images.
A single digit number in base-2, in other words, either a 1 or a zero.
The smallest unit of computerized data. Bandwidthis usually measured
in bits-per-second.
BITNET -- (Because It's Time NETwork (or Because It's There
NETwork))
A network of educational sites separate from the Internet, but
e-mail is freely exchanged between BITNET and the Internet. Listservs®,
a popular form of e-mail discussion groups, originated on BITNET. At
its peak (the late 1980's and early 1990's) BITNET machines were usually
mainframes, often running IBM's MVS operating system. BITNET is probably
the only international network that is shrinking.
A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The
activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog
is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that
allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain
the blog.
Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in cronological order
with the most recent additions featured most prominantly.
bps -- (Bits-Per-Second)
A measurement of how fast data is moved from one place to another. A
56K modem can move about 57,000 bits per second.
A Client program (software) that is used to look at various kinds
of Internet resources. Web designers and web
design should always consider the client and users browsers age
and model.
A set of rules that describe how a WebServer communicates
with another piece of software on the same machine, and how the other
piece of software (the ?CGI program?) talks to the web server. Any piece
of software can be a CGI program if it handles input and output according
to the CGI standard.
A software program that is used to contact and obtain data from a Server
software program on another computer, often across a great distance.
EachClient program is designed to work with one or more specific
kinds of Server programs, and each Server requires a specific
kind of Client. A Web Browser is a specific kind of Client.
Most often used to refer to having a server that belongs to one
person or group physically located on an Internet-connected network
that belongs to another person or group. Usually this is done because
the server owner wants their machine to be on a high-speed Internet
connection and/or they do not want the security risks of having the
server on thier own network.
The most common meaning of "Cookie" on the Internet refers to a piece
of information sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser that
the Browser software is expected to save and to send back to the Server
whenever the browser makes additional requests from the Server.
Depending on the type of Cookie used, and the Browsers' settings,
the Browser may accept or not accept the Cookie, and may save the
Cookie for either a short time or a long time.
Cookies might contain information such as login or registration information,
online "shopping cart" information, user preferences, etc.
When a Server receives a request from a Browser that includes a Cookie,
the Server is able to use the information stored in the Cookie. For
example, the Server might customize what is sent back to the user,
or keep a log of particular users' requests.
Cookies are usually set to expire after a predetermined amount of
time and are usually saved in memory until the Browser software is
closed down, at which time they may be saved to disk if their "expire
time" has not been reached.
Cookies do not read your hard drive and send your life story to the
CIA, but they can be used to gather more information about a user
than would be possible without them.
A web design standard for specifying
the appearance of text and other elements. CSS was developed for use
with HTML in Web pages but is also used in other situations,
notably in applications built using XPFE. CSS is typically used
to provide a single "library" of styles that are used over and over
throughout a large number of related documents, as in a web site. A
CSS file might specify that all numbered lists are to appear in italics.
By changing that single specification the look of a large number of
documents can be easily changed.
Cyberpunk was originally a cultural sub-genre of science fiction taking
place in a not-so-distant, dystopian, over-industrialized society. The
term grew out of the work of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling and has
evolved into a cultural label encompassing many different kinds of human,
machine, and punk attitudes. It includes clothing and lifestyle choices
as well.
Term originated by author William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer
the word Cyberspace is currently used to describe the whole range of
information resources available through computer networks.
DHTML refers to web pages that use a combination of HTML,
JavaScript, and CSS to create features such as letting
the user drag items around on the web page, some simple kinds of animation,
and many more. Web design incorporates
CSS and JavaScript to acommplish this.
The digital version of literati, it is a reference to a vague cloud
of people seen to be knowledgeable, hip, or otherwise in-the-know in
regardsto the digital revolution.
DNS -- (Domain Name System)
The Domain Name System is the system that translates Internet domain
names into IP numbers. A "DNS Server" is a server
that performs this kind of translation.
The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always
have 2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on the left is the
most specific, and the part on the right is the most general. A given
machine may have more than one Domain Name but a given Domain Name points
to only one machine. For example, the domain names:
matisse.net
mail.matisse.net
workshop.matisse.net
can all refer to the same machine, but each domain name can refer to
no more than one machine.
Usually, all of the machines on a given Network will have the same
thing as the right-hand portion of their Domain Names (matisse.net
in the examples above). It is also possible for a Domain Name to exist
but not be connected to an actual machine. This is often done so that
a group or business can have an Internet e-mail address without having
to establish a real Internet site. In these cases, some real Internet
machine must handle the mail on behalf of the listed Domain Name.
A method for moving data over regular phone lines. A DSL circuit is
much faster than a regular phone connection, and the wires coming into
the subscriber's premises are the same (copper) wires used for regular
phone service. A DSL circuit must be configured to connect two specific
locations, similar to a leased line (howeverr a DSL circuit is not a
leased line.
A common configuration of DSL allows downloads at speeds of up to
1.544 megabits (not megabytes) per second, and uploads at speeds of
128 kilobits per second. This arrangement is called ADSL: Asymmetric
Digital Subscriber Line.
Another common configuration is symmetrical: 384 Kilobits per second
in both directions.
In theory ADSL allows download speeds of up to 9 megabits per second
and upload speeds of up to 640 kilobits per second.
DSL is now a popular alternative to Leased Lines and ISDN, being
faster than ISDN and less costly than traditional Leased Lines.
A very common method of networking computers in a LAN.
There is more than one type of Ethernet. By 2001 the standard type
was "100-BaseT" which can handle up to about 100,000,000 bits-per-second
and can be used with almost any kind of computer.
An intranet that is accesible to computers that are not hysically
part of a companys' own private network, but that is not accessible
to the general public, for example to allow vendors and business partners
to access a company web site.
Often an intranet will make use of a Virtual Private Network. (VPN.)
FAQs are documents that list and answer the most common questions on
a particular subject. There are hundreds of FAQs on subjects as diverse
as Pet Grooming and Cryptography. FAQs are usually written by people
who have tired of answering the same question over and over.
FDDI -- (Fiber Distributed Data Interface)
A standard for transmitting data on optical fiber cables at a rate of
around 100,000,000 bits-per-second (10 times as fast as 10-BaseTEthernet,
about twice as fast as T-3).
An Internet software tool for locating people on other Internet sites.
Finger is also sometimes used to give access to non-personal information,
but the most common use is to see if a person has an account at a particular
Internet site. Many sites do not allow incoming Finger requests, but
many do.
Fire Wall
A combination of hardware and software that separates a Network
into two or more parts for security purposes.
Originally, "flame" meant to carry forth in a passionate manner in the
spirit of honorable debate. Flames most often involved the use of flowery
language and flaming well was an art form. More recently flame has come
to refer to any kind of derogatory comment no matter how witless or
crude.
When an online discussion degenerates into a series of personal attacks
against the debators, rather than discussion of their positions. A heated
exchange.
A very common method of moving files between two Internet sites.
FTP is a way to login to another Internet site for the purposes
of retrieving and/or sending files. There are many Internet sites
that have established publicly accessible repositories of material
that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name
"anonymous", thus these sites are called "anonymous ftp servers".
FTP was invented and in wide use long before the advent of the World
Wide Web and originally was always used from a text-only interface.
The technical meaning is a hardware or software set-up that translates
between two dissimilar protocols, for example America Online has a gateway
that translates between its internal, proprietary e-mail format and
Internet e-mail format. Another, sloppier meaning of gateway is to describe
any mechanism for providing access to another system, e.g. AOL might
be called a gateway to the Internet.
GIF -- (Graphic Interchange Format)
A common format for image files, especially suitable for images containing
large areas of the same color. GIF format files of simple images are
often smaller than the same file would be if stored in JPEG format,
but GIF format does not store photographic images as well as JPEG.
Invented at the University of Minnesota in 1993 just before the Web,
gopher was a widely successful method of making menus of material available
over the Internet.
Gopher was designed to be much easier to use than FTP, while
still using a text-only interface.
Gopher is a Client and Server style program, whichrequires
that the user have a Gopher Client program. Although Gopher
spread rapidly across the globe in only a couple of years, it has
been largely supplanted by Hypertext, also known as WWW (World
Wide Web). There are still thousands of Gopher Servers
on the Internet and we can expect they will remain for a while.
As used in reference to the World Wide Web, ?hit? means a single request
from a web browser for a single item from a web server;
thus in order for a web browser to display a page that contains 3 graphics,
4 ?hits? would occur at the server: 1 for the HTML page, and
one for each of the 3 graphics.
Several meanings. Originally, the web page that your browser
is set to use when it starts up. The more common meaning refers to the
main web page for a business, organization, person or simply the main
page out of a collection of web pages, e.g. "Check out so-and-so's new
Home Page."
Any computer on a network that is a repository for services available
to other computers on the network. It is quite common to have
one host machine provide several services, such as SMTP (email)
and HTTP (web).
The coding language used in web design
to create Hypertext documents for use on the World Wide Web.
HTML looks a lot like old-fashioned typesetting code, where you surround
a block of text with codes that indicate how it should appear.
The "hyper" in Hypertext comes from the fact that in HTML you can
specify that a block of text, or an image, is linked to another file
on the Internet. HTML files are meant to be viewed using a "Web Browser".
HTML is loosely based on a more comprehensive system for markup called
SGML.
The protocol for moving hypertextfiles across the Internet.
Requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server
program on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in
the World Wide Web (WWW).
Generally, any text that contains links to other documents - words or
phrases in the document that can be chosen by a reader and which cause
another document to be retrieved and displayed.
IMAP is gradually replacing POP as the main protocol used by
email clients in communicating with email servers.
Using IMAP an email client program can not only retrieve email but
can also manipulate message stored on the server, without having to
actually retrieve the messages. So messages can be deleted, have their
status changed, multiple mail boxes can be managed, etc.
A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum, IMHO indicates
that the writer is aware that they areexpressing a debatable view, probably
on a subject already under discussion. One of many such shorthands in
common use online, especially in discussion forums.
internet (Lower case i)
Any time you connect 2 or more networks together, you have an
internet - as in inter-national or inter-state.
The vast collection of inter-connected networks that are connected using
the TCP/IP protocols and that evolved from the ARPANET
of the late 60's and early 70's.
The Internet connects tens of thousands of independent networks into
a vast global internet and is probably the largest Wide
Area Network in the world.
A private network inside a company or organization that uses
the same kinds of software that you would find on the public Internet,
but that is only for internal use. Compare with extranet.
Sometimes called a dotted quad. A unique number consisting of 4 parts
separated by dots, e.g.
165.113.245.2
Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP number - if a
machine does not have an IP number, it is not really on the Internet.
Many machines (especially servers) also have one or more Domain Names
that are easier for people to remember.
Basically a huge multi-user live chat facility. There are a number of
major IRC servers around the world which are linked to each other.
Anyone can create a channel and anything that anyone types in a given
channel is seen by all others in the channel. Private channels can (and
are) created for multi-person conference calls.
Basically a way to move more dataover existing regular phone lines.
ISDN is available to much of the USA and in most markets it is priced
very comparably to standard analog phone circuits. It can provide speeds
of roughly 128,000 bits-per-second over regular phone lines. In practice,
most people will be limited to 56,000or 64,000 bits-per-second.
Unlike DSL, ISDN can be used to connect to many different
locations, one at a time, just like a regular telephone call, as long
the other location also has ISDN.
Java is a network-friendly programming language invented by Sun Microsystems.
Java is often used to build large, complex systems that involve several
different computers interacting across networks, for example transaction
processing systems.
Java is also becoming popular for creating programs that run in small
electronic devicws, such as mobile telephones.
A very common use of Java is to create programs that can be safely
downloaded to your computer through the Internet and immediately run
without fear of viruses or other harm to your computer or files. Using
small Java programs (called "Applets"), Web pages can include
functions such as animations,calculators, and other fancy tricks.
JavaScript is a programming language that is mostly used in web pages,
usually to add features that make the web page more interactive. When
JavaScript is included in an HTML file it relies upon the browser
to interpret the JavaScript. When JavaScript is combined with Cascading
Style Sheets(CSS), and later versions of HTML (4.0 and later) the
result is often called DHTML.
A software development package from Sun Microsystems that implements
the basic set of tools needed to write, test and debugJava applications
and applets
JPEG is most commonly mentioned as a format for image files. JPEG format
is preferred to the GIF format for photographic images as opposed
to line art or simple logo art.
Refers to line such as a telephone line or fiber-optic cable that is
rented for exclusive 24-hour, 7-days-a-week use from your location to
another location. The highest speed data connections require a leased
line.
A widely used Open Source Unix-like operating system. Linux was first
released by its inventor Linus Torvalds in 1991. There are versions
of Linux for almost every available type of computer hardware from desktop
machines to IBM mainframes. The inner workings of Linux are open and
available for anyone to examine and change as long as they make their
changes available to the public. This has resulted in thousands of people
working on various aspects of Linux and adaptation of Linux for a huge
variety of purposes, from servers to TV-recording boxes.
The most common kind of maillist, "Listserv" is a registered
trademark of L-Soft international, Inc. Listservs originated on BITNET
but they are now common on the Internet.
(or Mailing List) A (usually automated) system that allows people
to send e-mail to one address, whereupon their message is copied
and sent to all of the other subscribers to the maillist. In this way,
people who have many different kinds of e-mail access can participate
in discussions together.
A specific kind of HTML tag that contains information not normally
displayed to the user. Meta tags contan information about the page itself,
hence the name ("meta" means "about this subject")
Typical uses of Meta tags are to include information for search
engines to help them better categorize a page.
You can see the Meta tags in a page if you view the pages' source
code.
Originally a standard for defining the types of files attached to standard
Internet mail messages. The MIME standard has come to be used in many
situations where one cmputer programs needs to communicate with another
program about what kind of file is being sent.
For example, HTML files have a MIME-type of text/html,
JPEG files are image/jpeg, etc.
Generally speaking, "to mirror" is to maintain an exact copy of something.
Probably the most common use of the term on the Internet refers to "mirror
sites" which are web sites, or FTP sites that maintain
copies of material originated at another location, usually in order
to provide more widespread access to the resource. For example, one
site might create a library of software, and 5 other sites might maintain
mirrors of that library.
A device that connects a computer to a phone line. A telephone for a
computer. A modem allows a computer to talk to other computers through
the phone system. Basically, modems do for computers what a telephone
does for humans.
MOO -- (Mud, Object Oriented)
One of several kinds of multi-user role-playing environments.
The first WWW browser that was available for the Macintosh, Windows,and
UNIX all with the same interface. Mosaic really started the popularity
of the Web. The source-code to Mosaic was licensed by several companies
and used to create many other web browsers.
Mosaic was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
(NCSA), at the Univeristy of Urbana-Champange in Illinois, USA. The
first version was released in late 1993.
A (usually text-based) multi-user simulation environment. Some are purely
for fun and flirting, others are used for serious software development,
or education purposes and all thatlies in between. A significant feature
of most MUDs is that users can create things that stay after they leave
and which other users can interact within their absence, thus allowing
a world to be built gradually and collectively.
Derived from the term citizen, referring to a citizen of the Internet,or
someone who uses networked resources. The term connotes civic responsibility
and participation.
Netscape
A WWW Browser and the name of a company. The Netscape (tm) browser
was originally based on the Mosaic program developed at the National
Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).
Any time you connect 2 or more computers together so that they can share
resources, you have a computer network. Connect 2 or more networks together
and you have an internet.
Generally, any office that handles information for a network. The most
famous of these on the Internet was the InterNIC, which was where most
new domain names were registered until that process was decentralized
to a number of private companies. Also means "Network Interface card",
which is the card in a computer that you plug a network cable into.
The protocol used by clientand server software to carry
USENET postings back and forth over a TCP/IPnetwork.
If you are using any of the more common software such as Netscape,
Nuntius, Internet Explorer, etc. to participate in newsgroups
then you are benefiting from an NNTP connection.
Open Source Software is software for which the underlying programming
code is available to the users so that they may read it, make changes
to it, and build new versions of the software incorporating their changes.
There are many types of Open Source Software, mainly differing in the
licensing term under which (altered) copies of the source code may (or
must be) redistributed.
The method used to move data around on the Internet. In packet
switching,all the data coming out of a machine is broken up into chunks,
each chunk has the address of where it came from and where it is going.
This enables chunks of data from many different sources to co-mingle
on the same lines, and be sorted and directed along different routes
by special machines along the way. This way many people can use the
same lines at the same time.
You might think of several caravans of trucks all using the same
road system. to carry materials.
A code used to gain access (login) to a locked system. Good passwords
contain letters and non-letters and are not simple combinations such
as virtue7. A good password might be:
To check if a server is running. From the sound that a sonar systems
makes in movies, you know, when they are searching for a submarine.
Plug-in
A (usually small) piece of software that adds features to a larger piece
of software. Common examples are plug-ins for the Netscape® browser
and web server. Adobe Photoshop® also uses plug-ins.
PNG is a graphics format specifically designed for use on the World
Wide Web. PNG enable compression of images without any loss of quality,
including high-resolution images. Another important feature of PNG is
that anyone may create software that works with PNG images without paying
any fees - the PNG standard is free of any licensing costs.
POP -- (Point of Presence, also Post Office Protocol)
Two commonly used meanings:
Point of Presence and Post Office Protocol.
A Point of Presence usually means a city or location where a network
can be connected to, often with dial up phone lines. So if an Internet
company says they will soon have a POP in Belgrade, it means that
they will soon have a local phone number in Belgrade and/or a place
where leased lines can connect to their network.
A second meaning, Post Office Protocol refers to a way that e-mail
client software such as Eudora gets mail from a mail server.
When you obtain an account from an Internet Service Provider (ISP)
you almost always get a POP account with it, and it is this POP account
that you tell your e-mail software to use to get your mail. Another
protocol called IMAP is replacing POP for email.
3 meanings. First and most generally, a place where information goes
into or out of a computer, or both. E.g. the serial port on a personal
computer is where a modem would be connected.
On the Internet port often refers to a number that is part of a URL,
appearing after a colon (:) right after the domain name. Every service
on an Internet server listens on a particular port number on that
server. Most services have standard port numbers, e.g. Web servers
normally listen on port 80. Services can also listen on non-standard
ports, in which case the port number must be specified in a URL when
accessing the server, so you might see a URL of the form:
gopher://peg.cwis.uci.edu:7000/
This shows a gopher server running on a non-standard port (the standard
gopher port is 70).
Finally, port also refers to translating a piece of software to bring
it from one type of computer system to another, e.g. to translate
a Windows program so that is will run on a Macintosh.
Usually used as a marketing term to described a Web site that is or
is intended to be the first place people see when using the Web. Typically
a "Portal site" has a catalog of web sites, a search engine, or both.
A Portal site may also offer email and other service to entice people
to use that site as their main "point of entry" (hence "portal") to
the Web.
Posting
A single message entered into a network communications system.
PPP -- (Point to Point Protocol)
The most common protocol used to connect home computers to the Internet
over regular phone lines.
Most well known as a protocol that allows a computer to use a regular
telephone line and a modem to make TCP/IPconnections
and thus be really and truly on the Internet.
On the Internet "protocol" usually refers to a set of rules that define
an exact format for communication between systems. For example the HTTP
protocol defines the format for communication between web browsers and
web servers, the IMAP protocol defines the format for communication
between IMAP email servers and clients, and the SSL protocol
defines a format for encrypted communications over the Internet.
Virtually all Internet protocls are defined in RFC documents.
A Proxy Server sits in between a Client and the "real" Server
that a Client is trying to use. Client's are sometimes configured to
use a Proxy Server, usually an HTTP server. The clients makes
all of it's requests from the Proxy Server, which then makes requests
from the "real" server and passes the result back to the Client. Sometimes
the Proxy server will store the results and give a stored result instead
of making a new one (to reduce use of a Network). Proxy servers
are commonly established on Local Area Networks
A set of rules (a sort of language) for creating descriptions of information,
especially information available on the World Wide Web. RDF could
be used to describe a collection of books, or artists, or a collection
of web pages as in the RSS data format which uses RDF
to create machine-readable summaries of web sites.
RDF is also used in XPFE applications to define the relationships
bewteen different collections of elements, for example RDF could be
used to define the relationship between the data in a database and
the way that data is displayed to a user.
The name of the result and the process for creating a standard on the
Internet. New standards are proposed and published on the Internet,
as a Request For Comments. The proposal is reviewed by the Internet
Engineering Task Force (http://www.ietf.org/), a consensus-building
body that facilitates discussion, and eventually a new standard is established,
but the reference number/name for the standard retains the acronym RFC,
e.g. the official standard for e-mail message formats is RFC
822.
Router
A special-purpose computer (or software package) that handles the connection
between 2 or more Packet-Switched networks. Routers spend all
their time looking at the source and destination addresses of the packets
passing through them and deciding which route to send them on.
A (usually web-based) system for searching the information available
on the Web.
Some search engines work by automatically searching the contents
of other systems and creating a database of the results. other search
engines contains only material manually approved for inclusion in
a database, and some combine the two approaches.
The practice of designing web pages so that they rank as high as possible
in search results from search engines.
There is "good" SEO and "bad" SEO. Good SEO involves making the web
page clearly describe its subject, making sure it contains truly useful
information, including accurate information in Meta tags, and
arranging for other web sites to make links to the page. Bad SEO involves
attempting to deceive people into believing the page is more relevant
than it truly is by doing things like adding inaccurate Meta tags to
the page.
A computer, or a software package, that provides a specific kind of
service to client software running on other computers. The term
can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a WWW server,
or to the machine on which the software is running, e.g. "Our mail server
is down today, that's why e-mail isn't getting out."
A single server machine can (and often does) have several different
server software packages running on it, thus providing many different
servers to clients on the network.
Sometimes server software is designed so that additional capabilities
can be added to the main program by adding small programs known as
servlets.
A small computer program designed to be add capabilities to a larger
piece of server software.
Common examples are "Java servlets", which are small programs written
in the Java language and which are added to a web server.
Typically a web server that uses Java servlets will have many of them,
each one designed to handle a very specific situation, for example
one servlet will handle adding items to a "shopping cart", while a
different servlet will handle deleting items from the "shopping cart."
A standard for using a regular telephone line (a serial line) and a
modem to connect a computer as a realInternet site. SLIP
has largely been replaced by PPP.
An inappropriate attempt to use a mailing list, or USENET
or other networked communications facility as if it was a broadcast
medium (which it is not) by sending the same message to a large number
of people who didn?t ask for it. The term probably comes from a famous
Monty Python skit which featured the word spam repeated over and over.
The term may also have come from someone?s low opinion of the food product
with the same name, which is generally perceived as a generic content-free
waste of resources. (Spam® is a registered trademark of Hormel Corporation,
for its processed meat product.)
A specialized language for sending queries to databases. Most industrial-strength
and many smaller database applications can be addressed using SQL. Each
specific application will have its own slightly different version of
SQL implementing features unique to that application, but all SQL-capable
databases support a common subset of SQL.
A example of an SQL statement is:
SELECT name,email FROM people_table WHERE contry='uk'
SSL -- (Secure Socket Layer)
A protocol designed by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted,
authenticated communications across the Internet.
Sysop -- (System Operator)
Anyone responsible for the physical operations of a computer system
or network resource. For example, a System Administrator decides how
often backups and maintenance should be performed and the System Operator
performs those tasks.
A leased-line connection capable of carrying data at 1,544,000
bits-per-second. At maximum theoretical capacity, a T-1 line
could move a megabyte in less than 10 seconds. That is still
not fast enough for full-screen, full-motion video, for which you need
at least 10,000,000 bits-per-second. T-1 lines are commonly used to
connect large LANs to theInternet.
TCP/IP -- (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
This is the suiteof protocols that defines the Internet. Originally
designed for the UNIX operating system, TCP/IP software is now
included with every major kind of computer operating system. To be truly
on the Internet, your computer must have TCP/IP software.
A device that allows you to send commands to a computer somewhere else.
At a minimum, this usually means a keyboard and a display screen and
some simple circuitry. Usually you will use terminal software in a personal
computer - the software pretends to be (emulates) a physical terminal
and allows you to type commands to a computer somewhere else.
Terminal Server
A special purpose computer that has places to plug in many modemson
one side, and a connection to a LAN or host machine onthe
other side. Thus the terminal server does the work of answering thecalls
and passes the connections on to the appropriate node. Mostterminal
servers can provide PPP or SLIP services if connectedto
the Internet.
TLD -- (Top Level Domain)
The last (right-hand) part of a complete Domain Name. For example
in the domain name www.matisse.net ".net" is the Top Level Domain.
There are a large number of TLD's, for example .biz, .com, .edu,
.gov, .info, .int, .mil, .net, .org, and a collection of two-letter
TLD's corresponding to the standard two-letter country codes, for
example, .us, .ca, .jp, etc.
A computer program is either hidden inside another program or that masquerades
as something it is not in order to trick potential users into running
it. For example a program that appears to be a game or image file but
in reality performs some other function. The term "Trojan Horse" comes
from a possibly mythical ruse of war used by the Greeks sometime between
1500 and 1200 B.C.
A Trojan Horse computer program may spread itself by sending copies
of itself from the host computer to other computers, but unlike a
virus it will (usually) not infect other programs.
One of the protocols for data transfer that is part of the TCP/IP
suite of protocols. UDP is a "stateless" protocol in that UDP makes
no provision for acknowledgement of packets received.
A computer operating system (the basic software running on a computer,
underneath things like word processors and spreadsheets). Unix is designed
to be used by many people at the same time (it is multi-user) and has
TCP/IP built-in. It is the most common operating system for servers
on the Internet.
Apple computers' Macintosh operating system, as of version 10 ("Mac
OS X"), is based on Unix.
An address for s resource available on the Internet.
The first part of a URI is called the "scheme". the most well known
scheme is http, but there are many others. Each URI scheme
has its own format for how a URI should appear.
Here are examples of URIs using the http, telnet, and
news schemes:
A URI that is supposed to be available for along time. For an
address to be a URN some institution is supposed to make a commitment
to keep the resource available at that address.
A world-wide system of discussion groups, with comments passed among
hundreds of thousands of machines. Not all USENET machines are on the
Internet. USENET is completely decentralized, with over 10,000
discussion areas, called newsgroups.
Veronica -- (Very Easy Rodent Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized
Archives)
Developed at the University of Nevada, Veronica was a constantly updated
database of the names of almost every menu item on thousands of gopherservers.
The Veronica database could be searched from most major gophermenus.
A chunk of computer programming code that makes copies of itself without
any concious human intervention. Some viruses do more than simply replicate
themselves, they might display messages, install other software or files,
delete software of files, etc.
A virus requires the presence of some other program to replicate
itself. Typically viruses spread by attaching themselves to programs
and in some cases files, for example the file formats for Microsoft
word processor and spreadsheet programs allow the inclusion of programs
called "macros" which can in some cases be a breeding ground for viruses.
Usually refers to a network in which some of the parts are connected
using the public Internet, but the data sent across the Internet
is encrypted, so the entire network is "virtually" private.
A commercial software package that allows the indexing of huge quantities
of information, and then making those indices searchable across networks
such as the Internet. A prominent feature of WAIS is that the
search results are ranked (scored) accordingto how relevant the hits
are, and that subsequent searches can find more stuff like that last
batch and thus refine the search process.
WAN -- (Wide Area Network)
Any internet or network that covers an area larger than
a single building or campus.
A worm is a virus that does not infect other programs. It makes
copies of itself, and infects additional computers (typically by making
use of network connections) but does not attach itself to additional
programs; however a worm might alter, install, or destroy files and
programs.
World Wide Web (or simply Web for short) is a term frequently used (incorrectly)
when referring to "The Internet", WWW has two major meanings:
First, loosely used: the whole constellation of resources that can
be accessed using Gopher, FTP, HTTP,telnet, USENET, WAIS and
some other tools.
Second, the universe of hypertext servers(HTTP servers),
more commonly called "web servers", which are the servers that serve
web pages to web browsers.
A widely used system for defining data formats. XML provides a very
rich system to define complex documents and data structures such as
invoices, molecular data, news feeds, glossaries, inventory descriptions,
real estate properties, etc.
As long as a programmer has the XML definition for a collection of
data (often called a "schema") then they can create a program to reliably
process any data formatted according to those rules.
XPFE -- (Cross Platform Front End)
A suite of technologies used to create applications that will work and
look the same on different computer operating systems. A widely used
XPFE application is the Netscape web browser in version 7 and later.
The primary technologies used in creating XPFE applications are Javascript,
Cascading Style Sheets, and XUL.
A markup language similar to HTML and based on XML.
XUL used to define what the user interface will look like for a particular
piece of software. XUL is used to define what buttons, scrollbars,
text boxes, and other user-interface items will appear, but it is
not used to define how those item will look (e.g. what color they
are).
The most widely used example of XUL use is probably in theMozilla
web browser, where the entire user interface is defined using the
XUL language.
