Glossary of Terms
(Including Web Terminology)
This is a very useful set of terms and jargon extracted from "Merlin's Techno-Guide". Unfortunately, we
can't put all terms in this list. (It would take far too long to download to
your Browser.)
Whilst some of
the terms referred to below are explained elsewhere within the text, some
aren't. But they can be found in "Merlin's Techno-Guide".
At last count
"Merlin's Techno-Guide" contains over 1,100
(ie. eleven hundred) terms and jargon!!
ADSL Asynchronous (also Asymmetric) Digital Subscriber Line. A type of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology to deliver faster telephone services. Under development in Australia in the late '90s, and offered in a limited form in 2001.
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange (pronounced 'ass-key'). A standard which defines how various characters and symbols are to be represented, stored and manipulated in computer systems. (One of several character encoding systems for encoding characters in binary format for internal representation within a computer). The basic ASCII character set utilises 7 bits and is limited to 128 characters: 26 uppercase letters, 26 lowercase letters, ten digits, a space, 32 punctuation marks and 32 control characters. Refer to the table in the Appendix for some selected alphanumeric characters and their equivalent ASCII (and EBCDIC) codes. See also: encoding systems, BCD, EBCDIC.
ASCII (disk) file A file stored on disk in ASCII format (binary encoding according to the ASCII standard), but which is usually displayed in human-readable form.
AT PC A generic term used to refer to both IBM's original PC/AT personal computer, and its clones as produced by other manufacturers.
AUSTPAC Australia's public packet-switched data communications service, provided by Telstra. (See X.25)
autoanswer The feature of a device (modem, computer) that will automatically answer incoming telephone calls.
autodial The feature of a device (modem, computer) to automatically dial a pre-defined telephone number.
AUTOEXEC.BAT On a DOS-based personal computer system, a batch file of DOS commands which resides in the boot disk's root directory. At boot time the system automatically looks for a batch file named AUTOEXEC.BAT which is executed if found. (Pronounced: auto-exec-dot-bat.) See also: batch file, CONFIG.SYS.
b abbr. for bit (see)
B abbr. for byte (see)
background In multitasking or time-sharing, refers to when a computer performs tasks (eg. executes programs) at lower priorities when resources are available, in the background, whilst other tasks take place. Compare: foreground.
backup The process of duplicating (disk) files/information, in case of inadvertent loss or destruction of the original. The resultant duplicate copy is known as a backup copy. There are various strategies for performing backups, depending on various user requirements, including the storage of a recent backup copy off-site in case of catastrophic destruction of the computer and backup storage facility.
bandwidth (data comms) Describes the capacity of a communication channel or link, and is the difference between the highest and lowest rates at which transmission can take place. Often referred to in bits per second (bps) or 1000 multiples (kilo, mega, giga). In radio frequency terms bandwidth is measured in Hertz.
batch file (DOS) A series of DOS commands, and additional batch processing commands, stored (as a computer program) in a disk file which can be readily executed. See also AUTOEXEC.BAT.
baud A measurement of communications speed, or rate of data transfer, between devices - such as between a computer and a serial printer, or between two computers, or through a communications network. It is the number of times per second that a transmitted signal changes (modulates or demodulates). It approximates to bits per second (bps), and is often incorrectly used interchangeably for bps. In the 1980s baud rates typically varied from 110 baud (slow) to 19,200 baud (quite fast), and even more (commonly: 110, 300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600). Into the 1990s the term baud has generally been replaced by bits per second.
BBS Bulletin Board System (see).
BIOS Basic Input/Output System. Some executable program code which handles the actual input and output in a computer. It acts as an interface between the operating system and various items of hardware such as: keyboard, video display and disk drives. It is typically different for each computer operating system, and can actually be a portion of the operating system. It is sometimes stored in ROM.
bit (binary digit, abbr. b) Smallest unit of information in the binary system of notation, with a value of either 0 or 1. An 'on' bit has the value 1, and an 'off' bit has the value 0. Information is stored and handled in computers in bits. Several bits are used to describe each piece of information. Also see byte.
8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit These terms generally refer to chunks of information that are handled in either 8, 16, 32 or 64 bits (respectively) of information at a time. They are used in reference to such things as software, operating systems, processors, bus architectures and encryption. A 16-bit system (operating system, microprocessor or bus) will generally operate faster than an 8-bit system when performing similar functions, but not as fast as a 32-bit system, or a 64-bit system.
bit map Often used in reference to graphics images where the image is represented internally in the computer by reference to each pixel (picture element) that makes up the image, much like small tiles that make up a much larger mosaic image. For black and white images, each pixel can be described by one bit. For images with up to 256 grey shades or colours, eight bits can be required for each pixel. For photographic quality full colour images up to 24 bits or more can be required. See also: object-oriented, pixel, resolution.
bit-mapped font A font (each different point size and style of a typeface) which is stored in bit-map form. Compare outline font.
BLOB Binary Large Object. A potentially large object such as a graphics image that is stored in binary form within a field of a database.
bookmark (also referred to as an anchor) A location in a file that can be the target of a hyperlink from elsewhere in the same file, or from another file. The bookmark can be a point in the file, or a number of consecutive characters.
browser, Web See Web browser.
byte (abbr. B) A group of bits, typically eight, used to represent a single alphanumeric character (see). A byte in computer memory can hold a character, or a binary number in the range of zero to 255, or a computer instruction. A thousand bytes is referred to as a kilobyte (even though a kilobyte is actually 1024 bytes), and the standard SI prefixes are used for greater multiples (ie. mega-, giga-, tera-, peta-, exa-). The correct abbreviation is a capital B, as the lower case b represents a bit (see). See also: kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte, petabyte, exabyte.
cluster The smallest unit of disk space that can be allocated for use by a disk file. It is one or more adjacent (contiguous) sectors on a disk storage device into which the operating system will store a part or all of a file. Typically 1 or 2 sectors per cluster for floppy diskettes, and four or eight for early hard disks. Also known as allocation unit. Also see: sector, track.
cookie A small text file that is sent from a Web site to your computer, and stored on your computer, when you view the Web site's Web pages. Each time you re-visit the Web site the cookie information is accessed and updated. It can include various information about your Web site visit, and the Web pages that you have accessed. It's purpose is to help improve your Web surfing experience; but also to help the Web site gather information about its visitors and to better market their products or services. Cookies are stored as normal disk files, and receiving or rejecting them can be controlled with the Web browser preference settings. Some web pages need cookies enabled on your computer for the web page to display properly. First developed by Netscape Communications in 1994.
disk file A file stored on disk. Depending on the computer system, files are typically stored on disk in one or more clusters, which need not be adjacent to each other. A very small file will use one cluster regardless of how much of the cluster it actually occupies. See also: file¸ cluster, contiguous file.
domain Some space on an Internet server where Web pages and related disk files reside. The name of the domain is referenced in the URL. See domain name, URL.
domain name (also network location) The name of a domain is usually comprised of several parts. eg. www.companyname.com.au. Where each part is:
DoS (Denial of Service) hack attack The process whereby a computer user orchestrates a flood of electronic messages (usually over the internet) directed to a particular web server so that the web server is so inundated that it cannot respond to them all, nor send out its own electronic messages (internet traffic). The end result is that a web surfer who wants to validly access the web server will get no response. The web server is essentially off the air. Also see hacker, security.
e-mail Mail or messages that are transmitted electronically by computers over a network or other communications channel. On a local area network, within a business enterprise, this is often implemented within groupware software.
e-mail address The unique address for an electronic mailbox. eg. fred@company.com.au. In some software (especially in Web pages, and in word processing software) the prefix mailto: indicates that it is an email address. (eg. mailto:fred@company.com.au)
FAQ Frequently Asked Questions.
file A collection of information stored together as one unit on disk (or on computer tape, flash memory, ROM, or other storage medium) and has a filename. A file can be a document, spreadsheet, graphics image, sequence of images (either cartoon like, or movie-like), sequence of sounds, or a combination of these. It can also be a computer program written in one of many computer programming languages. For example, a file can comprise a number of similarly laid out records. The business office analogy of a file containing records is a folder in the drawer of a filing cabinet containing a number of sheets, documents or forms, etc. Also see: filename, record, disk file, directory.
firewall A combination of hardware and software that is used as an interface between an inhouse networking system (eg. LAN) and an external network (eg. the Internet). It readily allows network traffic to pass out, but screens and filters incoming network traffic. Is primarily intended to prevent computer system hackers from gaining access to inhouse computer systems.
frame See Web page frame.
frameset See Web page frameset.
FTP File Transfer Protocol. A protocol used for transferring files over TCP/IP, and over the Internet.
gigabyte (GB) Approximately one billion bytes (ie. 109 ), or exactly 1,073,741,824 bytes (derived as 230 ).
home page See Web home page.
hotspot A hotspot on a Web page is an area of the page that contains a hyperlink. The area need not be regular in shape.Also see Web page image map.
HTML Hyper Text Markup Language. A computer programming language that is used to describe the contents and structure of Web pages. It includes HTML tags which are written inside the characters < > and set various characteristics such as text formatting, image placement, etc. (eg. <TABLE> and </TABLE> are a pair of tags that will have other information between them comprising the contents of a table, and the layout and format for the table.)
HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. A communications protocol of the WWW that allows Web browsers to retrieve information over the Web, and facilitating the transmission of Web pages.
hyperlink A connection from one point in a document (or a Web page), to another point in the same document (or Web page) or to a location in another document (or Web page). The link can also be to a file (eg. a multimedia file).
hypertext Originally, this referred to text files (including simple graphics images) that contained links (hyperlinks) from a location in the file to another location in the same file, or to a location in another file. Hypertext now refers to text and links including many different file types (eg. graphics, sound, animation, video, etc.).
image map See Web page image map.
interlaced Web page image A Web page (GIF) image that is downloaded to the Web browser in stages. It is firstly downloaded at a coarse resolution so that the user can see the approximate size of the image, and also a fuzzy or blurred image. The image resolution is refined as the remainder is downloaded.
Internet A worldwide public computer network
comprised of many, many computers (reputed to be several million) and computer
networks all of which are interconnected. It is used by many millions of people
for a variety of purposes to send or retrieve different types of information.
Communication over the Internet is based on the TCP/IP
networking standard.
(1) Can be used to transmit email to another party.
(2) Can be used to search for information on any topic as there are many
databases of information available to access (like a huge on-line reference
library). See search engine.
(3) Can be used
to participate in a world-wide discussion on a particular topic by reading
submissions that other people have made to a newsgroup facility, and leaving
your own message for others to read.
(4) Can be used to conduct an on-line
chat session with other people from around the world by entering text that will
be seen by others almost instantly.
(5) Can be used as a public network to
conduct electronic commerce. This can be by transmitting EDI-type transactions
between trading partners, or browsing for goods or services and placing an order
for the same.
(6) Can be used by businesses to: publish information,
advertise or market goods/services, promote employment vacancies, display
classified advertisements, disseminate information.
The Internet was first
developed in the late 1960s, and called ARPAnet (administered by Advanced
Research Projects Agency). It developed further through the '70s, '80s and '90s
with: the introduction of TCP/IP (networking protocol), Usenet (a system for
sending and receiving messages and the forerunner of todays news groups), Domain
Name System, and the WWW.
See also: Internet2, intranet, extranet, Web browser, web surfing,
WWW, IAP, ISP, web
page, web presence, web server, web site, URL, Java, search engine, HTML, CGI
gateway, POP.
Internet2 Essentially a second Internet, based on newer generation technology. Announced in 1996, is a high speed research network. Abilene is the fibre optic backbone, operating at 2.4Gbps. (more information at: http://www.internet2.org)
Internet address A unique name that identifies a Web server, Web page, or other Internet resource. Also called network location.
Internet Service Provider (ISP) (also IAP, Internet Access Provider) An organisation that has a computer system with a link to the Internet. A person wanting to connect to the Internet connects their own computer to that of the ISP (by modem dial-up or permanent link) to gain access to the Internet. The ISP acts like a "gateway" with hundreds, or even thousands, of people connecting up, and passing through to the Internet.
IP address The address that is used to uniquely identify a station, or node, on a TCP/IP network to enable the stations to communicate to each other. The (IPv4) address is of the form a.b.c.d where each of a, b, c and d are numbers within the range 1 to 256 and each separated by a dot. For example, 256.43.29.1. Also see TCP/IP, IPv4, IPv6.
ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network. A telecommunications system offered in Australia by Telstra based on digital signals which allows the simultaneous transmission of data, voice, video, graphic images and electronic mail over the same wires. Used in Australia more commonly by larger businesses, corporates and government.
Java A computer programming language developed by Sun Microsystems Incorporated for use over networks, in particular the internet. Many web sites utilise Java.
kilobyte (kB) Approximately one thousand bytes (kilo meaning 1000 or 103 ), or exactly 1,024 bytes (derived as 210 ). Kilobyte has been in very common use for quite some time. In the 1980s the old 5.25 inch floppy diskettes were common 360 kilobyte capacity. Also, the DOS operating system still has a base memory size of 640kilobytes. A page of A4 typed text is very roughly 5,000 bytes or 5kB in size. See also: byte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte, petabyte, exabyte.
Local Area Network (LAN) A type of computer network where two or more computer devices are linked together to allow individual stations on the network to share resources and exchange files and information
megabyte (MB) Approximately one million bytes, or exactly 1,048,576 bytes (derived as 220 ). Two hundred (200) A4 pages of text will use roughly one megabyte of storage space. Megabyte is in very common use because the capacity of hard or fixed disk drives in the early 1990s was measured in these terms and hundreds of megabytes was a common size. Floppy diskettes in the late 1980s and most of the 1990s were most common in sizes of a megabyte or two (eg. 1.44MB, 2.88MB). Also, memory in various computer systems (personal computers, workstations and larger systems) in the mid-1990s was common in either tens or hundreds of megabytes. Further to this, data communications speeds at megabytes per second are becoming more common. See also: byte, kilobyte, gigabyte, terabyte, petabyte, exabyte.
meta-search engine A meta-search engine is a particular type of search engine, which looks across multiple search databases, and can eliminate redundant listings.
modem A communications device that connects directly between one of the computer's input/output ports and a telephone line socket. It converts the electronic digital signals output from the computer into modulated analogue signals for transmission over the telephone line to a remote computer, and vice versa. The remote computer also needs a modem to demodulate the analogue signal, converting it back into digital form. A modem MOdulates and DEModulates signals, hence its name.
modem indicator lights An external modem generally has indicator lights to show the status of a connection and any transmission. The lights, and their typical labels and meanings are shown below.
| Label | Meaning | Comment |
| OH | Off Hook | Indicates the modem has essentially "lifted the telephone receiver" off the hook to obtain a dial tone. |
| CD | Carrier Detect | Indicates that the local modem is receiving a signal from the remote modem (ie. it detects a carrier signal). |
| RD | Receive Data | Indicates that the modem is Receiving Data. |
| SD | Send Data | Indicates that the modem is Sending Data. |
network The physical interconnection of computers, components and/or systems. See also Local Area Network.
off-line In general terms, this means to be not connected (to another system). In relation to the Web, it means not connected to the Web, such as when Web browsing off-line (viewing Web material that has been saved to disk for viewing when not connected).
on-line In general terms, this means to be connected (to another system). In relation to the Web, it means to be connected, and potentially viewing Web content live. For a dial-up connection to an ISP, this often means incurring connection charges for every minute of connection time.
pixel (picture element) The smallest part of a displayed image (on a display screen), or output image (on output devices such as a laser printer), that can be individually controlled. A number of pixels collectively form characters and/or images. See also resolution.
portal A Web site that provides a mix of information, services and links to other Web sites. Portals aim to have Web users return frequently, and even make the portal site the user's home page. The portals do this by, for example, (i) providing a useful tool or service that people will want to keep using (esp. a good Web search engine); (ii) providing usefully indexed information; (iii) establishing itself as a default home page (so that when users start a Web session they start at the portal site's page); (iv) running eye-catching and useful advertising.
program A set of instructions that tells the computer what to do. It can be stored in one, or many, disk files. It can include: calculations, test conditions, branches to other points in the program, etc. See also: software, application software package.
proxy server A server that essentially provides an interface between one or more users behind a firewall, and the many web servers out on the Internet. When a user requests a web page, the responding web server sends the requested page to the proxy server's IP address as requested. The proxy server then forwards the web page on to the requesting user's PC. This way, the IP address of the user's PC is never advertised or divulged beyond the proxy server. Proxy server functionality can be included with firewall devices, and can also incorporate caching services.
QWERTY Refers to the layout of the keys on a (typewriter-type) keyboard. The six letters Q W E R T Y are the first six alphabetic keys across the second row of the keyboard.
resolution An indication of the quality of a display screen or output device, measured by the number of pixels. (1) A given screen resolution of 640 by 350 pixels, for instance, means 640 picture elements horizontally by 350 lines vertically. (2) The resolution of various laser printers is typically 300 dpi (dots per inch), while film recorders and imagesetters produce in the order of 4,000 and more lines of resolution.
RITS Rampant Information Technology Syndrome. A set of signs or symptoms indicating an undesirable condition, problem or quality resulting from information technology developing in an unchecked and unrestrained manner, and on a widespread basis. (First para-phrased by Robert B. Brain in Computers in Business and at Home, Colonial Pioneer Publishing, 1989.) Refer to "Merlin's Techno-Guide" for more details.
search engine, Internet A facility that searches Internet web sites, and either classifies, or indexes, the information available to make it easier for a Web surfer to locate information. Popular search engines include: OzSearch, ANZWERS, Alta Vista, Yahoo!, Excite, and HotBot. Also see portal.
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol. A standard protocol for the communication and interconnection of differing computer systems, originally developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. It is now the basis of a vast majority of networks, including the Internet. Discrete protocols utilised include: SLIP, PPP (see). Also see: DHCP, FTP, Ping, Telnet.
terabyte (TB) Approximately one million million bytes, or exactly 1,099,511,627,776 bytes (derived as 240 ). Terabyte is now coming into use; but is not yet in common use (in the late 1990s). See also: byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, petabyte, exabyte.
URL (Universal Resource Locator). The unique address of a particular resource on the Internet. On the WWW it is the address of a Web page (which is stored as a disk file), and can also indicate a particular location within the Web page. Is typically of the form in this example: http://www.companyname.com.au/pathname/filename.htm#bookmark, where:
URL, absolute A full URL (see), including the domain name, path, filename and bookmark if applicable. Also see domain name.
URL, relative A portion of a URL for a Web page or other WWW resource, with respect to the Internet address of the current page. For example, the relative URL for any Web page which is in the same folder (or directory) as the current page being viewed, is simply the filename (eg. SAMPLE.HTM).
vapourware Products, either hardware or software, which are talked about as coming or pending but which do not materialise.
Web, The See WWW.
Web browser Software that runs on a PC (or thin client PC) used for Web surfing (see) over the Internet, or an Intranet. Popular Web browsers include: Netscape's Navigator, and Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE).
Web home page (1) A Web site's home page is the one Web
page at a Web site that is regarded as the introductory page for visitors,
and which can contain links to other Web pages.
(2) A Web user's home page
is the one particular Web page that a user likes to start from, and continually
return to as their "home base". It is typically a useful page that has useful
links (hyperlinks)to other Web sites. It might be a
page at the ISP's Web site.
Browser software usually has a setting to specify
the user's preferred home page.
Webmaster A person who designs, implements, administers or manages a Web site.
Web page The collection of information that is
stored as a single document and retrieved by a Web
surfer's Web browser. It is the basic element
of the WWW as each Web page is stored on the host's computer
system as a disk file, and of the type HTM or HTML. It can contain text, graphics, and/or a combination of
multimedia information (motion video, audio, etc.). However, any non-text
information is actually stored in separate disk files.
When retrieved and
displayed by a browser a Web page is typically the
width of the screen, and longer than the screen requiring the user to scroll
downwards to view all information. A typical Web page will contain text
(including the HTML tags), and hyperlinks (ie. hot
links) to other files that can each contain a graphics image, or some sort of
program or applet. The hyperlinks can also link to
other points (a bookmark or anchor) within the same Web
page, or to other Web pages at the same Web site, or to other Web sites.
A
Web page can be viewed alone in a browser, or it
can be viewed within a frame in another Web
page.
This glossary is stored in one file. The Table of Contents navigation
pane to the left is also stored in one file. These two files are each being
displayed in their own frame. The two frames
together are a frameset. Also see Web home page.
Web page frame A potentially scrollable window within a Web page. The contents of another Web page can be displayed inside the frame. Frames are commonly used in multiples as a frame set (see).
Web page frameset Two or more Web page frames within one Web page. Each frame can display separate Web pages. A
common use is for a narrow left-hand frame to display a list of items
representing an index or table of contents, each of which has a hyperlink to another Web page, and the wider right hand
frame displays the contents of one of these index items.
One realistic
example is this particular Web page that you are viewing now.
Web page image map On a Web page, a single image (or picture) can appear to be just one picture, but actually have a number of hyperlinks to other Web pages. Eg. a Web page displaying a map of Australia could have a hyperlink for each state and territory so that when the user passes the mouse cursor over a particular state, and then clicks, the Web page for that state is displayed. The portion of the image that has one hyperlink assigned, and will return one particular Web page is called a Web page hotspot. The image map is the HTML definition for the hotspots, and the hyperlinks.
Web page meta tag An HTML tag that must be placed inside the <HEAD> section of an HTML Web page. It includes information about the Web page, some of which is picked up by search engines.
Web presence The condition where an organisation is represented on the Web, usually by having a Web page at somebody's Web site, but not necessarily their own. In the simplest form an organisation's Web presence could be a single Web page which provides basic information about the organisation, including contact address details, and its available goods or services.
Web server The computer equipment that stores one or more Web pages, and provides access to them for incoming Web surfers. Also can provide links to enable access to information on other systems, including via a CGI gateway.
Web site A collection of Web pages hosted on a Web server. The address for Web surfers to gain access is the URL (Universal Resource Locator) (or an IP address).
Web surfing The act of surfing the Internet, or using a computer with modem and browser software to seek out information over the
Internet, and to retrieve and display the information locally. To view a Web page from a Web site, the
entire Web page disk file is downloaded over the Web
to the Web surfer's PC.
The first stage in Web surfing is to set up a PC with
appropriate software, set up a modem for connection to an ISP over some type of
connection (PSTN or ISDN telephone service, cable service, or microwave or some
other wireless service), and an account with the ISP (an ISP will help with all
this). The next stage is to establish the connection via the modem over the
connection to the ISP, and thence into the Internet. The
first page of information to come back and be displayed is often a home page.
Then it is possible to follow a hyperlink to another Web site, or enter a URL to surf to
another Web site, or to enter search criteria for a search engine to retrieve relevant Web site details.
Also see Internet, URL.
WWW (World Wide Web) One of the services that uses the infrastructure of the Internet to facilitate sending and receiving information. This primarily includes e-mail and Web surfing, and utilises a graphical user interface. It can be said the WWW is essentially an extremely large library that spans around the globe, and is open all day everyday. Also see Internet.
*** End of Sample List of Terms ***
For a more complete list, refer to "Merlin's Techno-Guide". (It is updated frequently, and printed in very small batch runs. The copy that you buy is very up-to-date.)
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