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ACRONYMS~ NET JARGON~ TECHNICAL~ SMILIES~ |
 Acronyms
ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange - an ASCII file contains standard text characters as data. BBS: Bulletin Board System, a local computer system, independent of the Internet, where users can dial in to download/upload files and chat. BTW: By the Way. A useful email acronym. CGI: Common Gateway Interface. Runs programs or scripts on a Web Server; commopnly used to handle data from HTML forms. LOL: Laugh out loud. IRC term, often changed to ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing). FAQ: Frequently asked questions; files of these are kept in newsgroups so users don't need to ask again. FTP: File Transfer Protocol, system for moving files across networks. GIF: Graphics Interchange Format - for storing and exchanging pictures. GUI: Graphic User Interface. HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language - the tags used to prepare information for Web pages, including text and links. HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol - retrieval method for other HyperText. IP: Internet Protocol - the main net protocol; also an IP network is formed around the exchange of data packets. IRC: Internet Relay Chat - highly addictive live text based communication. ISDN: Integrated Services Digital Network - uses existing phone lines and computer networks to deliver fairly fast video, voice and data in standard form. ISP - Internet Services Provider. JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group - an image compression and display method; quality varies as some files can be reduced to up to 20 times the original size. LAN: Local Area Network - when two or more computers are gathered together via cables. MIDI: Musical Instrument Digital Interface - a standard protocol for synthesizers and computers to communicate, enabling musicians to compose on the synth keyboard and save the music information on the computer for manipulation in score writing programs. MIME: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions - recent net standard for transferring sound and pictures be email. MPEG: Motion Picture Expert Group - standard for encoding/decoding digital video. MUD: Multi-User Dungeon or Domain. Basically a net space, designed and inhabited by users who will look nothing like their MUD identities, Alo called MOOs, MUSHes, MUCKs and MUSEs. NNTP: Net News Protocol - transmission protocol for Usenet news. PERL: Reasonably strightforward programming language, often used to create CGIs. PGP: Pretty good Privacy. Encryption program. POP: Point of Presence. Gives local access to a network service. Also, Post Office Protocol. PPP: Point to Point Protocol - a direct connection to the net from your computer via modem and phone line. SEA: Self Extracting Archive - a commpressed file that comes inside its own decompressor, so that it can expand itself without outside help (after you've told it to). SLIP: Serial Line Internet Protocol - a dial up connection to the net; older technology than PPP. SMTP: Simple Mail Transport Protocol - transfer method for mail on the net. TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol - in combination, the networking method used by computers to contact each other over the net. TIFF: Tagged Image File Format. Common graphics file format for still images. URL: Uniform Resource Locator - the address system used on the Web. VRML: Virtual Reality Modeling Language - a programming langauge for the creation of virtual worlds. Using a VRML viewer you can take a virtual tour of a #D model building or manipulate animations of 3D. WYSIWYG: What you see is what you get - Used to refer to authoring tools which don't make you type in HTML. download: Loading information from another computer into your own; the opposite is upload. e-zine: An electronic Magazine. flame: A message that 'burns' the person it is directed at, mostly publicly. Often random and pointless. freeware: Software and utilities made freely available. Although you don't have to pay anyfees, freeware is still covered by copyright. geek: Read all this and soon you'll speak like one. maybe.... mirror site: A net site that contains exactly the same information as another, elsewhere in the world. Used to spread the load on popular sites. Netiquette: The rules of the on-line game. Much of it is common sense - don't spam, cross-post, flame unecessarily, et cetera. Netizen: An active member of the net community (see geek). Newbie: A pejorative term for beginners on the net. plug-in: An add on feature for your browser that increases functionality, such as providing multimedia capabilities. search engine: A program that searches indexes of addresses using keywords; the depth of the search is up to you and/or the extent of its index. shareware: Copyright protected software that is publicly distributed on the condition that if a user trials a preogram and decides to keep using it they will send payment to the author. Spam: Not spiced ham, but just as repulsive to most people. Spam is an unsolicited piece of advertising sent via email or posted to a newsgroup. Repeat Spammers are oftem flamed. Sysadmin: System Administrator, or the one you call when your network goes down. Sysop: System Operator, or the one you call when a BBS goes down. warez: All kinds of software. Be sure to pronounce it as "wares". applet: A small self-contained applicatyion which can run on its own or inside another program (eg a web browser). attachment: A file attached to a email in the format it was created in, useful for documents and graphics in particular. backbone: Main highspeed internet links between a country's major internet providers, eg. there is an Australian backbone and a US backbone. bandwidth: The maximum carrying capacity for data traffic in a netwrok connection. binary: A file in pure data form, with no text, needs converting to be appreciated. BinHex: Mac format for converting binary files into ASCII for transfer. bit: A binary unit. bmp: Bitmap - a graphics file. bps: Bits per second - data movement speed on a modem. :-) Standard Smiley. Just joking, implies humour. |