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A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H
I – J – K – L - M - N – O – P – Q – R
S – T – U – V – W – X – Y - Z
A
Acceptable Use Policy – a set of regulations that
govern how a service may be used.
ActiveX – a set of technologies developed by Microsoft
that enables interactive content for the World Wide Web.
Websites may become animated with ActiveX by using multimedia
effects, interactive objects, and sophisticated applications.
Address Book – an email application feature that stores
names, email addresses, and other contact information in
an accessible format.
ADN – (Advanced Digital Network) usually refers to
a 56Kbps leased-line.
ADSL – (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) a DSL
(Designated Server Line) where the upload speed is different
from the download speed. Usually the download speed is much
greater.
Adobe Acrobat – a file reader that decodes documents
to the portable document format.
Anonymous FTP – a service that allows free public
access to archived documents, files, and programs via the
File Transfer Protocol (FTP). It's not necessary to have
a user ID and password when logging into an anonymous FTP
site. The user ID "anonymous" bypasses local security
checks; often email addresses serve as courtesy passwords.
See also FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
Applet – 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.
Application Hosting – provided
by an ASP (Application Service Provider) and specializes
in electronic distribution
of mission-critical business applications.
Application Server - Server
software that manages one or more other pieces of software
in a way that makes the managed
software available over a network, usually to a web server.
By having a piece of software manage other software packages
it is possible to use resources like memory and database
access more efficiently than if each of the managed packages
responded directly to requests.
Archie – 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)
a numeric code used 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.
ASP – An Application Service Provider provides service
and support for externally hosted back-end applications.
Atom - An evolving protocol for syndication and sharing
of content. Atom is being developed as a successor to and
improvement over RSS (Rich Site Summary) and is more complex
than RSS while offering support for additional features such
digital signatures, geographic location of author, possibly
security/encryption, licensing, etc. Like RSS, Atom is an
XML-based specification.
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B
Backbone - a large transmission line that carries data gathered
from smaller lines that interconnect with it. On the Internet
or wide area network, it is a set of paths that local or
regional networks connect to for long-distance interconnection.
The connection points are called network nodes or telecommunication
data switching exchanges (DSEs).
Bandwidth – the amount of information you can send
through a connection. 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.
Baud – commonly, a unit for measuring the speed of
data transmission by computer; actually the switching speed
of a line or number of transitions made per second.
BBS - (Bulletin Board System) 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 BBSs 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.
Bcc: - abbreviated version of Blind Carbon Copy, used in
email. To bcc: an email message to someone is to send them
a copy of the email message without the knowledge of the
person to whom the email message is addressed to.
Beta – a version of an application during the testing
phase. The beta version will be available for certain users
before it is finalized and officially released.
Binary - information consisting entirely of ones and zeros.
Also, commonly used to refer to files that are not simply
text files (e.g., images).
Binhex – derived from BINary HEXadecimal and is a
method for converting non-text files (non-ASCII) into ASCII.
This is needed because Internet email can only handle ASCII.
Bit – also known as Binary DigIT, which is a single
digit number in base-2, in other words, either a 1 or a zero.
The smallest unit of computerized data. Bandwidth is usually
measured in bits-per-second.
Blog – short for weB LOG, 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
chronological order with the most recent additions featured
most prominently.
Bookmark – a tool available in an Internet browser
that allows you to save and organize references to a site
or page that you have already visited.
Bounce message - a notification message returned to the
sender indicating that an email message could not be delivered.
Reasons might include a nonexistent or misspelled email address
or a down site. Usually the message is automatically generated
by the postmaster at the recipient's site. Sometimes email
sent via the Internet fails for no apparent reason.
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.
Browser – software that enables personal computer
users to navigate the Internet and perform various operations
once linked with a site. The two most often used are Microsoft
Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.
BTW – (By The Way) a shorthand appended to a comment
written in an online forum.
Bug – a problem with computer software or hardware
that causes it to fail or stop working.
Byte - A set of Bits that represent a single character.
Usually there are 8 Bits in a Byte, sometimes more, depending
on how the measurement is being made.
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C
Cache - generally refers to an amount of
quickly accessible memory in your computer. However, on the
web it more commonly refers to where the browser stores downloaded
graphics on the user's computer. That way, when the user
has to reload the graphics, the browser retrieves it from
the computer much quicker than reloading it from the Internet.
Cc: - abbreviated version of Carbon Copy, used in email.
To cc: an email message to someone is to send them a copy
of an email message.
Certificate Authority – an issuer of Security Certificates
used in SSL (Secure Socket Layer) connections.
CGI – (Common Gateway
Interface) a set of rules that describe how a web Server
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, most commonly written in Perl or C, can
be a CGI program if it handles input and output according
to the CGI standard.
CGI-bin - the most common
name of a directory on a web server in which CGI programs
are stored.
Chat – a communication method that enables online
computer users to type messages to each other in real time.
In a chat discussion, your messages are instantaneously relayed
to other members in the chat room while other members' messages
are instantaneously relayed to you.
Client - a software program that is used to contact and
obtain data from a Server software program on another computer,
often across a great distance. Each Client 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, just as Microsoft Outlook
is a specific kind of email Client.
Colocated hosting – owning a server in a data center
and the data center is usually managed or owned by another
party.
Commercial Online Service - a computer network that supplies
its members with access to the Internet, chat rooms, and
bulletin boards on a monthly fee basis. Examples of a commercial
online service include America Online and The Microsoft Network.
Most commercial online services have their own proprietary
content in addition to offering access to the Internet.
Compression - a technology that reduces the size of a file.
WinZip and UNIX are examples of compression programs, which
are valuable to network users because they help save both
time and bandwidth.
Connection – a path established between two computers
allowing an exchange of information.
Cookie – term for special information about an individual
computer user, stored in a file on a hard drive, and usually
accessed by a server when the user connects to a website.
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 or long period of time.
Cookies do not read your hard drive, but they can be used
to gather more information about a user than would be possible
without them.
Copyright - the exclusive rights to, and control of, the
reproduction, sales, copying or distribution of creative
works of art, music, literature and web content, or coded
programs for computing.
CSS – (Cascading Style Sheet) a 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 (Cross
Platform Front End). 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 website. 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 - 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, such as computer games and Internet surfing.
Cyberspace – the place where computer networking hardware,
network software, and people using them converge. The term
was popularized by William Gibson in the novel “Neuromancer” to
refer to the digital world of computer networks. The prefix "cyber" is
often combined with other words, as in "cyberpunk."
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Next glossary page
Many definitions within
this glossary are courtesy of Matisse
Enzer.
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