Open (our last term) means "freely
available." Proprietary, its opposite, means "private and protected." A
proprietary technology or architecture is a design or architecture whose specifications
are not publicly available and may be used or duplicated only with permission of the
creator. Apple's Macintosh architecture is the classic example of a proprietary
architecture; there are no Macintosh clones.
|
 | RAM disk |
|
A RAM disk is RAM (random access memory) that
works like a disk drive: It gets its own "letter" (such as D:\ or E:\), you can
save or copy files to it, and you can open files from it.
The plus: RAM, which has no moving parts except for semiconducted electricity,
is up to 1,000 times faster than a disk drive. The minus: Like your computer's memory, a
RAM disk loses everything that's on it once you shut down the computer, so you have to
copy all the files on the RAM disk back to your hard disk before you shut down. Thus, a
RAM disk makes sense only if you work with programs that need to access a disk
frequently--and run too slowly when that disk is a hard disk.
|
| Motherboard |
|
In your computer, the motherboard is the main
board, the one that contains the circuits connecting the computer's processor to its hard
disk, memory, and other components. Motherboards also contain slots into which you can add
other components, such as an internal modem, a scanner card, and so on.
|
| WAP |
|
WAP stands for "wireless application
protocol," a technical specification for enabling people to securely access digital
information (such as messages, e-mail, faxes, and so on) via their mobile phone, pager,
personal digital assistant (PDA), or other wireless device.
|
| Chad |
|
Chad--a collective noun--consists of the
little rectangular pieces of paper punched out of computer punch cards. Where did the name
come from? Well, for a long time those little pieces of paper didn't have a name at all.
Then someone named Chadless invented the Chadless keypunch--a device that punched little
u-shaped holes into computer cards, eliminating the mess of the little rectangular pieces
of paper. And since this new punch was called "Chadless," computer geniuses
immediately deduced that the old punch produced "chad."
|
| Power supply |
|
A computer's power supply does three very
important things. First, it takes the required amount of current from the outlet into
which the computer is plugged. Second, it converts that current from AC (alternating
current, what you get from your wall outlet) to DC (direct current, what you need to run
the computer reliably). Third, its built-in surge protection eliminates spikes and surges
to some degree but is no substitute for an external surge protector.
|
| Triplecast |
|
A triplecast (tm)--yes, it's trademarked--is
the simultaneous broadcast of a program over television, radio, and Web. What does this
mean? Well, for one thing, it means that if you have to be at your computer, this is one
kind of program you don't have to miss. Whoopee!
|
| Topology |
|
Topology--more specifically, network
topology--refers to the connection pattern of a computer network. For example, a network
can have a "ring" topology, in which the computers are connected in a loop, or a
"star" topology, in which each computer is connected to a central computer.
Newer network management applications allow network managers to display a picture of their
network's topology on-screen.
|
| DCC |
|
DCC stands for "digital content
creation"--a name recently given, by computer companies, to the "target
market" of folks who create audio/visual media for the Web. Computer companies have
bothered to name this group because as a rule, digital content creators are in the market
for the fastest, most powerful computers and monitors available.
|
| Para-site |
|
Ever visit a Web site that provides links to
other Web sites and, when you take one of those links, displays the other site in a frame
within the original site? The original site is a para-site. Para-sites are good because
they let you surf many sites from within the friendly confines of a single site.
Para-sites can also be annoying because they don't allow you to directly bookmark the
sites displayed within the frame--which forces you to be overly dependent on the
para-site.
|
| Flame |
|
Flame can be both a noun and a verb in
cyberspace. The noun, flame, refers to a very harsh, inflammatory, and sometimes personal
or obscene e-mail message or newsgroup posting. The verb, to flame, means to send or post
such a message.
|
| Bernoulli Box |
|
If you were around during the early days of
personal computing, you may remember the Bernoulli Box--a removable, reliable floppy disk
drive that people used to archive and transport large amounts of data. The box was so
named because it worked on a kind of reverse of Bernoulli's Principle: It spun the disk at
such a high speed that it actually curved UP to the drive head, as opposed to having the
drive head come DOWN to the disk--thereby all but eliminating the possibility of a disk
crash. Bernoulli Boxes are pretty much extinct today; the manufacturer, Iomega, now makes
Zip and Jaz drives.
|
| API |
|
API stands for "application program
interface"; it's a facility built into a finished application or operating system
that lets a programmer access and customize the application's or operating system's
features without doing a lot of extra work. For example, developers use the Windows API to
display Save and Open dialog boxes, which is why they all look pretty much the same.
|
| Single-ended cable |
|
A single-ended cable is a two-wire cable in
which one wire carries the electrical signal and the other is connected to a ground. The
cord you insert into a two-pronged outlet is a classic example of a single-ended cable.
|
| Netcheque |
|
Netcheque is a technology that enables
individuals--more specifically, registered Netcheque users--to write checks to one another
via e-mail or Web applications. The checks are "deposited" to a server, which
then authorizes a transfer from the writer's bank account to the recipient's bank account.
Figure out what percentage of the mail you send consists of bill payments, and you can
quickly quantify the threat Netcheque poses to the U.S. Postal Service.
|
| Wall clock time |
|
In Nerdland, wall clock time is elapsed
time--the time it takes for the computer to do something, as measured by a clock. It has
the special name "wall clock time" to distinguish it from processor time, which
is the time the computer's processor is occupied by the same task--and which is almost
always shorter than the wall clock time, since the processor works on several tasks
simultaneously.
|
| DTP |
|
DTP, as even some non-nerds know, stands for
"desktop publishing"--a class of personal computer software used to design and
produce printed documents. Desktop publishing programs usually allow more sophisticated
graphics placement, color, and type handling than, say, a word processing program; many
also make it easier to specify colors used by commercial printers. Popular desktop
publishing programs include Adobe PageMaker, QuarkXPress, and, on the lower end, Microsoft
Publisher.
|
| VRM |
|
VRM stands for "voltage regulator
module," a small part in your computer's motherboard (or main system board) that
controls how much voltage gets flowed to the microprocessor chip. The VRM does an
important job: Too much voltage can fry the chip--a transformation that's wonderful for
potato chips but hardly useful for computer chips.
|
| POTS |
|
POTS stands for "plain old telephone
service." It's the term tech weenies use when comparing the existing phone lines to
other Internet service conduits, such as ISDN or broadband (cable). It may be plain, and
it certainly is slow, but right now POTS is the most affordable, widely available, and
widely used means of connecting to the Internet and the Web.
|
| PARC |
|
| PARC stands for "Palo Alto Research Center,"
a kind of think-tank run by Xerox Corporation during the 1970s and 1980s. Scientists at
PARC invented all kinds of things we take for granted today: graphical user interfaces
(GUIs) such as those found in Apple's Macintosh and Microsoft Windows, the mouse, computer
fonts, Ethernet networking, and so on. Sadly for Xerox, most of these inventors left PARC
to start their own companies based on the technologies they invented. |
| Heat sink |
|
| A heat sink is a device that is either built onto or
attached to a microprocessor chip to help keep the chip cool. Typically, a heat sink looks
like a series of spikes or fins rising out of the top of the chip, which channel heat away
from the chip. Occasionally, the device takes the form of a fan that spins while the
computer is on and blows the hot air away from the chip. Either way, the heat sink is what
keeps your computer from becoming a very expensive toaster. |
| WML |
|
| WML stands for "wireless markup language."
It is the language that programmers use--or WILL use--to display Web content on an
emerging class of wireless devices, including smartphones, large-screen pagers, and
Web-ready personal digital assistants (PDAs). Personally, we can't think of an experience
more annoying than surfing the Web with a pager, but it's coming. |
| NetaryPublic |
|
| A NetaryPublic is an alternative to copywriting a Web
page or Web document. The NetaryPublic--actually a private company--records the time you
created your Web document and maintains a record of that time for five years. So if
someone duplicates your work on the Web, you have proof that you created yours first. Of
course, how well NetaryPublic protects your documents will be determined, we suppose, in
future court cases. |
| IPP |
|
| IPP stands for "Internet Printing Protocol."
It's a set of standards for printing over the Internet--that is, for printing a file on
your computer to a printer via an Internet connection. Among other things, Internet
printing would enable you to print a document from your home PC directly to a printer at
work--and make it seem to the casual observer that you're at work, even if you aren't. |
| Raster graphics |
|
| Some folks use the terms "raster graphic"
and "bitmapped graphic" (explained last time) interchangeably, but they
shouldn't. A raster graphic is a vector image that's been converted into a bitmapped
image. In most cases, this is done to make the graphic suitable for printing on a
particular kind of printer. In fact, if you're having trouble printing a vector graphic on
a laser printer, try using your printer's raster printing option, if it has one; you may
get better (if somewhat slower) results. |
| Big Blue |
|
| When you hear a cyberweenie complaining about
"Big Blue," he or she is complaining about International Business Machines
Corporation, more popularly known as IBM. IBM is called Big Blue because of the color of
its logo--and perhaps because of the company's longtime, recently discontinued, tacit
requirement that its employees wear blue suits |
| GLV |
|
| GLV stands for "grating light valve." A
relatively new display technology, GLV arranges pixels on a silicon chip and then projects
the arrangement to any of a variety of display devices--a desktop or laptop computer
monitor, a personal digital assistant (PDA), and so on. GLV has the potential to enable
sharper pictures in smaller, less-cumbersome, and less-expensive computer displays; we
won't know until the technology is widely available. |
| Gravesite |
|
| In Web lingo, a gravesite is a Web site that's still
accessible--still "up" on the Web--but that has apparently been abandoned by its
creators and/or updaters. Marketing weenies also use "gravesite" to refer to Web
sites that have stopped attracting enough traffic to interest advertisers. You can always
count on marketers to co-opt a term. |
| Supercomputer |
|
| A supercomputer is a giant computer with incredible
calculation power, used for special calculation-intensive applications--such as
cinema-quality animation and high-level artificial intelligence. Or playing chess (which,
we suppose, qualifies as high-level artificial intelligence). It was an IBM supercomputer
named Deep Blue that beat Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov in a series of chess games a
few years ago--and then once again in a rematch this May. |
| Light pen |
|
| A light pen is what your pen feels like after you
swing a heavy pen. Just kidding. A light pen is a pen with a special tip that lets you
select and move objects on your computer screen by touching the pen tip directly to the
screen. Light pens are popular for giving presentations on huge, TV-sized monitors.
However, you don't see many light pens on people's desks because they're not as
comfortable to use as a mouse or a keyboard. |
| 404 |
|
| Among the Internet and Web cognoscenti, a 404 is a
link that takes you not to another Web page but to an error message--specifically, a
"404 Not Found" error message, which means that the URL you requested cannot be
found. "404 Not Found" is one of scores of original Internet status codes
written and instituted by the founder of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, in 1992. |
| CPC |
|
| A while ago, we told you about CPM, which stands for
"cost per thousand" Web page visits ("M" being the Roman numeral for
one thousand)--a term Web marketing weenies use to evaluate the performance of their
banner ads. CPC stands for "cost per click," one method Web site owners use to
price advertising on their sites. For example, a Web owner might charge the advertiser 20
cents per click. Either this is really adding up or all these Web IPOs are "doing it
with mirrors," so to speak. |
| Zombie |
|
| Zombie is the cyberspeak term for an abandoned or
neglected Web site--which, as explained yesterday, is a "gravesite"--that has
been moved to another Web address, or URL. You read it right: Nobody has bothered to
update the site, but somebody HAS bothered to move it. The term zombie is appropriate: The
site is something that's dead but seems to move. |
| Blue bomb |
|
| A blue bomb is a packet of information that one
computer sends to another computer for the sole purpose of causing the other computer to
crash. Why would anyone want to do such a thing? Well, players who are about to lose
online games have been known to send blue bombs, as have chat participants who want to be
sure theirs is the last word. (It's called a "blue" bomb after the "blue
screen of death," which Windows 95/98 displays when it's about to crash.) |
| Sneakernet |
|
| Sneakernet, jargon for "sneaker network," is
the derogatory phrase that techies use to describe the practice of carrying files on
floppies from one computer to another instead of transmitting them over a REAL network. In
this case, the techies have a point: Today, with e-mail on virtually every desktop in the
world, there's little or no excuse for time-consuming file transfer via sneakernet. |
| ASP |
|
| Ever notice that while many Web pages end with the
suffix ".html," some end with the suffix ".asp"? ASP stands for
"active server page." It's a Web page that includes a script that is run on the
Web server before the page is sent to your browser. The script usually takes information
you entered on a previous page--or information that the Web site already knows about
you--and uses it to customize the page in some way. |
| EPOC |
|
Yesterday, we mentioned Microsoft's Windows CE, a
Windows 95-like operating system designed for personal digital assistants/hand-held PCs
(PDAs/HPCs). Today, we introduce you to Windows CE's competitor: EPOC32. Created by
Symbian--a partnership born of personal communication device manufacturers Ericsson,
Motorola, Nokia, and Psion--EPOC32 is designed not only as an operating system for PDAs
(previous versions of EPOC have shipped for years with Psion's PDAs) but also as an
operating system for wireless devices such as "smartphones." You can view an
interesting presentation on EPOC at:
http://www.symbian.com/story.html |
| Cable modem |
|
| Last time, we told you about coaxial cable. Today, we
introduce you to a cable modem, which is a kind of modem you use to connect to the
Internet over coaxial cable. Today's cable modems can transmit data at 500 kbps and, more
importantly, receive data at 250 kbps--about 50 times faster than the 56 kbps modems used
to connect over telephone lines. Trust us: 50 times faster makes a big, big difference. |
| Linux |
|
| Actually, the term is pronounced "lee-nux,"
and it's a FREE implementation of the UNIX operating system that you can run on PCs, Macs,
and several other computing platforms. We say "you" idiomatically, not
literally, because although Linux is enjoying a growing popularity among the technological
elite, its UNIX-like characteristics--specifically, its tendency to make you type lots of
complex syntax at a command-line prompt--makes it a less-than-usable system for most
users. To put it another way, Linus might have used it, but Lucy would have stuck with
Windows. |
| LZW |
|
| LZW is an algorithm (a fancy word for
"method") for compressing data files. If we may attempt an analogy, using LZW
compression is like replacing a book with an index: It finds repeated words or pieces of
information, lists each once, and then includes pointers (such as page numbers) indicating
where each is repeated. The pointers take up less room than the actual pieces of
information, which makes the file smaller. By the way, LZW stands for
"Lempel-Ziv-Welch," the names of the three folks responsible for this miracle of
data compacting. |
| PDA |
|
| Remember when PDA stood for "public display of
affection"? Well, if big companies like 3COM and Compaq have their way, it will soon
stand for the somewhat less heartwarming "personal digital assistant," one of
those little handheld half-computers, like the PalmPilot or the Apple Newton, that folks
can use to send faxes, make phone calls, and store phone numbers and appointments. They're
neat but not half as exciting as necking on a crowded sidewalk. |
| 24 x 7 |
|
| Nerds use the term "24 x 7" (pronounced
without the "x"--as in "twenty-four-seven") to refer to computers or
support staff that are available every hour of every single day--computers so technically
advanced that they never have downtime and support staffs that work in shifts so that
someone is always there to answer the phone. But this is one term that's leapt from
geek-land to the real life, where it's now slang for "total commitment." We even
heard it used on a popular comedy show to describe a clingy girlfriend. Nerd words hit the
big time: Big whoop. |
| Artificial intelligence (AI) |
|
| Artificial intelligence is computer technology
designed to imitate the human brain--specifically, to solve problems by learning and
reasoning. Originally, in the early 1950s, AI was called "computer
intelligence," which you have to admit is a much more accurate term; interestingly,
it was an MIT professor, and not a marketing weenie, who renamed it artificial
intelligence in 1956. AI is still a ways from replacing human brains, but as Deep Blue's
victory of Gary Kasparov demonstrated, it can sure play a mean game of chess. |
| BCNU |
|
| Say the letters out loud, and you know what it means:
"BCNU" means "Be seeing you!" It's one of those cute little acronyms
that people use in chat rooms when they're leaving the discussion. We think actual whole
words--such as "I'm blowing this clambake"--are a lot more colorful. But that's
just us. |
| W3 |
|
| Hmm: What could nerds mean by W3? Is it new weight of
motor oil? Could it be the secret code they use for World War III, which they're planning
to start by reviving the Y2K bug? Is it an acronym for their variation on the
"Where's Waldo?" game, called "Where's Woodrow Wilson?" Okay, we'll
stop. As you've no doubt guessed, W3 stands for "World Wide Web." What else? |
| CGI-BIN |
|
| Last month, we told you about CGI, or Common Gateway
Interface--the standard for writing programs that run programs on a Web server from a Web
page. So what's a "cgi-bin," that little phrase you so often see tacked to the
end of the URL in your browser's location box? Turns out it's pretty much what it sounds
(or reads) like: a place (folder or directory) on a Web server where all the CGI programs
are kept. When you see "cgi-bin," you're either at a page you arrived at as a
result of a CGI program or on a page from which you can run a CGI program. |
| Alphanumeric |
|
| An alphanumeric expression (typically just called an
"alphanumeric") is an expression containing both letters and numbers. Examples
of alphanumerics include most license plate numbers, the acronym Y2K, and many Web site
URLs (such as http://www.learn2.com). |
| MAE |
|
| MAE stands for "Metropolitan Area Exchange,"
which is a point on the Internet where Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can connect with
each other. The first MAE was built in Washington, D.C.; the second, built in the Silicon
Valley, is called "MAE-West." That whirring noise you hear is the original Mae,
spinning in her grave. |
| Click-through |
|
| A "click-through" is a Web advertiser's term
for a person who clicks a Web ad, such as a banner, and arrives at the advertiser's Web
site. Because a click-through is a better prospect than someone who simply stumbles upon a
Web site, smart Web advertisers make sure that the click-through arrives at a special page
designed to capture his or her name, e-mail address, and other information. |
| E-book |
|
E-books are just what you would think they are:
electronic books. Specifically, an e-book is a small, book-sized computer with a screen
that allows you to read the digitized text of a book. It also has a touch-sensitive screen
and stylus that let you highlight, annotate, or bookmark the book. A single e-book can
actually contain an entire library of books, making carrying around a lot of books at once
easier. And you download book texts to your e-book from Web sites such as:
http://barnsandnoble.com |
| FUD |
|
"FUD" stands for fear, uncertainty, and
disinformation. It's an acronym that nerds typically use to describe a neophyte's--or a
bureaucrat's--often panicked and unjustified reaction to new technology or matters
technological. Widespread e-mail about a rumored but entirely nonexistent virus is one
example of FUD in action. |
| Dye-sub printer |
|
| A dye-sub printer works by heating ribbons of colored
ink and then transferring the ink to paper--specially coated, expensive paper. The result
is true photo-quality output but at a price that might make most of us wonder why you
wouldn't just take a picture in the first place. Dye-sub, by the way, is short for
"dye sublimation." Another term for the same printing technology is
"thermal dye transfer." |
| Thumbnail |
|
| "Thumbnail" is one of those terms that has
evolved over history. It referred originally, of course, to the fingernail on your thumb.
Later--say, sometime in the mid-1900s--it began to be used as an adjective, meaning
"brief" (as in "thumbnail biography"). Then advertising types began
using the term to refer to small pictures used in storyboards. Later, in the early '90s,
software manufacturers added "thumbnail views" to presentation software and
desktop publishing programs; these views enabled one to see multiple, miniaturized pages
on one screen. And now, with the advent of the Web, thumbnail also means a miniaturized
image that you can click to see the full-size image. Quite a trip through time for a word,
no? |
| Agent |
|
| An agent (also called an intelligent agent) is a
program that, when triggered by specified circumstances or events, runs all by itself and
performs tasks for you. Your e-mail program, for example, might have an agent (or let you
create one )that automatically deletes month-old messages or alerts you when you receive a
message from a particular person. Server-side agents are agents that run on a network
server (duh!) and automate network administration tasks. |
| Warm boot, cold boot |
|
As most of you know, to "boot" (also to
"boot up") means to start your computer. A "warm boot" is a way of
restarting your computer without actually shutting off the computer. For example, you can
warm boot a DOS-based PC by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Delete or warm boot a Windows 95 PC by
clicking Start, choosing Shut Down, selecting Restart, and then clicking OK.
You perform a "cold boot" by turning the computer off and then back on
again--and losing all unsaved work in the process. As a result, you usually perform a cold
boot only in dire circumstances. |
| Avatar |
|
| In techno-speak, an avatar is an icon that represents
a real person in an online game, forum, or other area of cyberspace. An avatar can range
from a simple picture to an animated 3-D graphic that moves and morphs to reflect what the
person it represents is doing. This word has nobler roots than many: In Hindu, an avatar
is the human or animal incarnation of a deity. It's nice when geeks get high-minded, isn't
it? |
| Easter Egg |
|
The pinball game hidden in Microsoft
Word. The flight simulator concealed in Excel. The animated list of contributors tucked
into a hidden folder of Windows 95. These are just a few examples of Easter Eggs:
undocumented programs--usually games or elaborate screen shows--that programmers hide in
applications. Entire Web sites have been created to alert you to the Easter Eggs in your
favorite programs. If you don't believe us, check out the Easter Egg Archive at:
http://www.eeggs.com |
| User name |
|
| Your user name is the name by which a network server
knows you and, consequently, the name that you must provide to gain access to a particular
computer or network. Your Internet e-mail user name, for example, is the part of your
e-mail address that comes before the @ sign--for example, the "ed" in
ed@bigcompany.com. |
| IRC |
|
| IRC stands for "Internet Relay Chat," the
area of the Internet where you can "chat" with other users (that is, type and
send messages that the other user or users see as soon as you send them). In other words,
IRC is what Tom Hanks used to type directly to Meg Ryan when he "had a feeling"
she was online. As if Meg Ryan would be silly enough to compose her e-mails online. |
| Zine |
|
| "Zine" is short for magazine. Before the
advent of the Web, a zine was a small-circulation, self-published magazine--produced, say,
in the publisher's basement. Today, zine is also short for e-zine, or electronic magazine,
meaning a magazine you read on the Web. Two very (and justifiably) popular e-zines are
Salon and The Onion. |
| Bozo filter |
|
| A "bozo filter" is a feature that filters
out e-mail or discussion group postings from people whom you'd rather not hear from--in
other words, "bozos." We dream of the day that bozo filters extend beyond
cyberspace, protecting us from seeing or hearing from all the bozos in our lives. Do you
think that, when all was said and done, Nixon wished he had a Rebozo filter? Sorry. |
| Inkjet printer |
|
| An inkjet printer does just what it sounds like it
does: It prints by spraying jets of ink on a sheet of paper. To make sure that the jets
wind up in the right place, the ink is first ionized so that it can be directed to the
proper location by magnetized plates within the printer. Inkjet printers make
laser-quality (or near-laser-quality) color printing affordable. |
| VRML |
|
| VRML is pronounced "VERMAL," which gives it
a decidedly rodental sound. This is a shame, because VRML is a lot more appealing than
your average rat. The acronym stands for "Virtual Reality Modeling Language,"
and it allows programmers to create 3D environments (called "hyperspaces") that
folks with VRML-plug-in-equipped Web browsers can move around in. You won't find a lot of
VRML on the Web right now, but it's coming. Trust us. |
| CORBA |
|
| CORBA is short for "Common Object Request Broker
Architecture," an architecture that enables small pieces of programs, or objects, to
communicate with each other even if they're written in different programming languages or
running on different computing platforms. The most common use for CORBA these days is for
dynamically filling on-line (Web) form applications with data. |
| The Blue Screen of Death |
|
| A new techno-thriller starring Sandra Bullock? An
innovative, mosquito-repellant insert for your storm door? Alas, the Blue Screen of Death
is neither: It is instead the blank, blue screen you sometimes see when Windows 95 hangs
up in a serious way. How serious? Well, the blue screen of death usually means you have to
perform a cold boot. This, as Martha Stewart might say, is "a bad thing." |
| Splash screen |
|
| A splash screen is a programmer's term for the pretty
little introductory screen that appears when you first load a program, before the program
window itself appears. Usually, it includes the product name, the manufacturer's logo, the
program serial number, and other information that, while interesting when you first
purchased the program, has grown quite tiresome. Fortunately, many programs' Help files
include instructions for suppressing display of the splash screen. |
| Data warehouse |
|
| If you think a data warehouse is a huge collection of
data, you're only half right. In order for a huge collection of data to be a data
warehouse, it must be combined and organized in a way that companies can use it to quickly
help them make big decisions. Typically, this means collecting data sources from all
around the company; joining them to put related information into single, unified records;
cleansing the data to remove redundant records; and arranging it into useful fields and
tables. |
| LCD |
|
LCD stands for "Liquid Crystal Display."
LCDs use liquid crystal to either block light or let it through; the light that gets
through is what you see. We all remember LCDs as the displays on your calculators and
digital watches, but these days more sophisticated LCDs are used for laptop and notebook
computer displays. In general, there are two types of computer LCDs: inexpensive
"passive matrix" displays and more expensive (and sharper) "active
matrix" displays. We cover both
types in the tips to follow. |
| Internet Telephony |
|
Internet telephony is the potential revenge of anyone
who hates getting calls from long-distance companies begging you to switch carriers.
Internet telephony is technology that lets you place long distance calls to ANYONE using
your local Internet phone number. Put more simply, it lets you talk to your next-door
neighbor OR your relatives in Malta using the same local phone number. There are two
catches:
- The person you're calling must also have Internet telephony equipment.
- The sound quality isn't as good as it is over regular telephone connections.
But we can dream, can't we? |
| Trojan Horse |
|
In nerd land, "Trojan Horse" refers to
software that looks like a program but is actually a virus. When a user runs it, it does
something devastating, such as formatting the computer's hard drive, uninstalling
software, or causing insoluble problems all over the system. A good tip-off to a Trojan
Horse is a free program offer that :
1) seems too go to be true and:
2) comes from someone you don't know.
Real-life examples include a program that promised free access to AOL (forever, that is,
not just for the first 100 hours) and, ironically, a program that promised to rid one's
system of viruses. |
| VON |
|
| VON stands for "Voice on the Net." It's a
society of Internet telephony software manufacturers and users who want to make sure that
the telephone companies do NOT pass legislation that outlaws Internet telephony (and if
you read yesterday's definition of Internet telephony, you can understand why the
telephone companies would want to do this). This battle is likely to go on for a long
time. If the phone companies win, do you think the gas companies will try to outlaw
electric cars? |
| CERN |
|
| CERN stands for "Conseil European pour la
Recherche Nucleaire." In English this translates to "European Laboratory for
Particle Physics," which yields the decidedly less mellifluous acronym, ELPP. But we
digress. The CERN, headquartered in Geneva, is where the World Wide Web was born as a
result of a CERN initiative to improve the way scientists exchanged data over the
Internet. Looks like they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams--or fears, depending on
the Web site. |
| Surge Protector |
|
| You've all seen surge protectors. They're those long
strips of outlets that protect your computer from surges in the electrical lines, which
can do everything from scramble your hard disk to destroy your computer's power supply.
Today we want to tell you that if your computer is connected to the phone lines via a
modem, you should make sure your surge protector also includes protection against phone
line surges, which, while not as powerful, are a lot more common than electrical line
surges. Our tip for the day. |
| TWAIN |
|
| TWAIN is the standard interface for transmitting data
from a scanner to a software program. If your desktop publishing program supports TWAIN
(and many do), you can use a command from the program's menu (usually the Acquire command)
to scan a photo directly into a document. TWAIN, by the way, stands for "Technology
Without An Interesting Name," which is ironic, because TWAIN is pretty darn
interesting as acronyms go. |
| Dumb terminal |
|
| A dumb terminal is a monitor, connected to a network,
that doesn't contain a processor chip, or "brain." It's capable of displaying
application information--numbers, letters, and user interface elements--but not much else.
Most dumb terminals can't even display bold text. Dumb terminals are installed when it's
desirable to have all the "work" done by the network server. Telemarketers and
catalog order-takers often work at dumb terminals. |
| Data mining |
|
| In the early days of data analysis, we--people, that
is--asked the questions, and data gave us the answers. For example, we might ask of a
database, "How many people who buy bread also buy jelly on the same shopping
trip?" Data mining software goes one step further: It looks at the data and finds
hidden patterns that answers questions we'd never think to ask. For example, a data mining
program might look at the same data and say, "Forget the jelly--did you know that 48
percent of the people who buy bread also buy nylons?" Okay, it might leave out the
"forget the jelly" part. |
| Peripheral |
|
| Talk about a catch-all term: A peripheral is ANY
device attached to a computer. This includes a printer, monitor, disk drive, keyboard,
mouse, joystick, modem, scanner--all these and more--ANYTHING. What probably happened was
that some documentation writer was looking for a term that would encompass EVERYTHING you
could attach to a computer so that he or she wouldn't have to list them all and came up
with this. |
| PROCESSING RIVAL |
|
| Unless you never, ever watch prime-time TV, you've
probably seen advertisements for the AMD's K6 processor. This is a Pentium II-compatible
processor that, according to AMD, "delivers performance competitive with the Pentium
II and superior to Pentium with MMX and Celeron" (see Friday's tip) for less than the
price of the Pentium II. We can't help but note that the K6 has a much more sensible name
than the Celeron (but that's just our opinion). |
| Interlaced GIF |
|
| An interlaced GIF is a picture file that appears in
phases--first as a blurry image with just a few pixels, then as a slightly sharper image
with a few more pixels, and so on. The result is that you see the entire picture sharpen
gradually rather than see the picture appear in slow, sharp bands. Of course, if your
Internet connection is slow, one method is just as bad as the other. |
| Real time |
|
| Real time is NOW. In nerd-speak, real time describes
any experience in which the computer responds INSTANTLY to your input or to something
happening in the real world. For example, a live chat session, in which someone reads what
you type as you type it and responds instantly afterward, is a real-time experience;
e-mail is not. If your computer receives stock quotes as they change, instead of every
half hour, you're getting real-time stock quotes. |
| Dribbleware |
|
| In the old days--the days before widespread Internet
access--software companies didn't ship programs until the vast majority of features had
been perfected and the vast majority of kinks had been worked out. But once downloading
fixes, patches, and upgrades from the Web became easy, software companies began to feel
more comfortable shipping incomplete programs. Thus, "dribbleware" was born. As
the name suggests, dribbleware is software that trickles to you over time, instead of
arriving all at once. You might receive the bulk (or sometimes less) of the program in the
package and be advised to check the manufacturer's Web site regularly for important
updates. |
| Bloatware |
|
| Bloatware is what nerds--and the rest of us--call
software that has become so loaded with features that it practically takes up all of a
computer's hard disk and requires much too much of its RAM to run. Bloatware was a real
problem a few years ago, when the leading office suites (Microsoft Office, Lotus
SmartSuite, and Corel Office, for example) required as much computing power as most people
could afford. Bloatware is more difficult to create today, when you can buy a PC with
128MB of RAM and a 10GB hard disk for less than $2000. |
| Guiltware |
|
| Guiltware is shareware (software that you can try for
free and then "purchase" for a nominal fee entitling you to support and other
amenities) that includes a tear-jerking or otherwise over-the-top plea for you to pay the
purchase price so that the developers who created the software don't have to forage and
beg for food. Of course, whether you pay them or not is up to you, but would it kill you
to call them once in a while? |
| Phase-change printer |
|
| Also called a "solid ink-jet printer," a
phase-change printer is a color ink-jet printer that melts its ink (which usually begins
as a waxy block) BEFORE it jets the ink onto the page. Phase-change printers print
crisper, smoother colors than do regular ink-jet printers and do so on just about any type
of paper or output media. They're also a lot slower and more expensive. |
| Comdex |
|
| You've probably been hearing them mutter it around the
office for months: "I'm going to Comdex." "Who are we sending to
Comdex?" "You hear who's introducing a new product at Comdex?" So what IS
Comdex? It's the computer industry's biggest trade show. In fact, the fall
show--traditionally held in Las Vegas (this year, November 16-20)--attracts upwards of
120,000 attendees. Which is like having one of every 2000 Americans attend. |
| Click rate |
|
| Last time, we explained click-throughs; today, we
cover "click rate." A click rate is the number of times a Web advertisement is
clicked, divided by the number of times it is seen (specifically, the number of times the
page containing the ad is visited). Another way to put it: The click rate equals
click-throughs divided by ad views. The higher the click rate, the more effective the Web
ad. |
| OCR |
|
| OCR stands for "Optical Character
Recognition," the technology that scanners use to "read" text from a piece
of paper and put it into your word processor or other software application. While the
technology has improved over the years, even the best OCR tools still miss a few letters
and can really goof up pages divided into newspaper-style columns. Which means we're still
a long way from never having to type again. |
| Spider |
|
No need to cringe: In ner-speak, a spider is about as
far from a hairy, eight-legged blood-sucker as you can get. A spider--
also called a Web spider--is a software program that regularly searches (or
"crawls") through the Internet, indexing all the text in all the pages on the
Web. Spiders allow search services to keep up with the new content being added to the Web,
without having to depend on the creators of that content to index it themselves. |
| Bubble-jet printer |
|
| A bubble-jet printer is a special kind of inkjet
printer developed by Canon. Instead of ionizing the ink, a bubble-jet printer heats it;
the ink expands and "drops" out of the nozzle and onto the paper. The results
are similar to those achieved with an inkjet printer. The only way to choose is to go to a
computer or an office supply store and compare for yourself. |
| On the fly |
|
"On the fly" has two definitions in the nerd
world. The first, which dates back to the late '80s, is to do something while doing
something else, thereby allowing you to get two or more things done without two distinct
processes. For example, most word processors let you set text in bold format "on the
fly" by pressing Ctrl + B as you type.
More recently, "on the fly" also describes a technology for creating customized
Web pages by building a new, unique version of a Web page for each user who clicks a link
to that page. This type of page is different from a static Web page, which is created one
time before it's uploaded to the Web site and looks the same to everyone who views it. |
| Vinton Cerf |
|
| "Where does Vinton Cerf fit into this mix? I
thought he was considered a father of the Internet?" To which we can only answer:
Vinton Cerf IS a father--generally considered THE father--of the Internet, the giant
worldwide network through which you receive these tips and on which the World Wide Web
runs. |
| Spindle |
|
| A "spindle" is the axle, or shaft, around
which a computer disk revolves. Technocrats use "spindle" interchangeably with
"disk drive," primarily to confuse others less familiar with the former term
than with the latter. For example, when a nerd refers to a "three-spindle"
laptop, he or she means a laptop with three disk drives (typically a hard, floppy, and
CD-ROM drive). The nerd could just SAY "a laptop with a hard drive, floppy, and
CD-ROM," but then he or she wouldn't get the satisfaction of hearing you ask,
"Er, whaddaya mean?"--the three (or so) words every nerd lives to hear. |
| VoD |
|
| VoD stands for "Video-on-Demand"--technology
that lets you select the video of your choice from a multimedia server for viewing on your
computer or television. VoD would mean the end of television schedules (and the end of TV
GUIDE? Gasp!); you'd watch whatever you want to watch, whenever you want to watch it. Some
hotels already offer movies via VoD. Whether VoD arrives in every home depends on whether
the cable TV companies can put together the worldwide network necessary to deliver it. |
| USB |
|
USB is short for "Universal Serial Bus." If
your computer has a USB port, you're lucky, because you can use the port to connect all
kinds of devices--mice, modems, scanners, you name it--to your computer WITHOUT HAVING TO
OPEN THE COMPUTER AND INSERT SOME KIND OF CARD IN ONE OF YOUR COMPUTER'S SLOTS. We
emphasize this because, for most folks, working on the inside of a computer is preferable
only to root canal surgery.
And attention, Windows 98 users: Word on the street is that Windows 98 makes connecting
USB devices an extremely simple process--the way plug-and-play was intended to be but
somehow never was under Windows 95. |
| Web portal |
|
Web portal is one of those terms whose meaning has
changed in just the past few years. As recently as four or five years ago--when setting up
your own Web access was a process fraught with peril and not-so-friendly software--a Web
portal was an online service provider such as Prodigy or AOL that provided ready-to-use
Web access as one of its services. With the advent of simplified Web access, the
definition of Web portal has expanded to include Web sites, such as Yahoo! and
Excite, that provide search engines, site indexes, e-mail, and online chat communities. |
| Passive Matrix |
|
| A passive matrix display is essentially a grid of LCD
pixels (otherwise known as "dots"), each of which either blocks light or lets it
through to create images on-screen. The main advantage of a passive matrix screen is that
it's relatively inexpensive to create. The main drawback is that it has very poor contrast
(that is, light and dark elements)--especially if you're not looking at it straight on.
New types of passive matrix displays, such as DSTN (Double-layer SuperTwist Nematic) and
CSTN (Color SuperTwist Nematic), are apparently somewhat sharper, but you'll probably want
to look at them yourself and compare them with an active matrix screen (tune in next time)
before choosing. |
| Magneto-optical drive (or MO drive) |
|
An MO drive is just what it sounds like: a disk drive
that uses both magnetic storage technology (as does a hard or floppy drive) and optical
storage technology (as does a CD-ROM drive). The combination yields what is, in effect, a
better floppy disk: a removable, writable disk that holds more data and is faster than a
typical floppy.
Note: An MO drive that is running more slowly than normal is NOT referred
to as a "Haley's MO drive." But it might be--if you and your friends start using
the expression, and it catches on. |
| MUD |
|
| MUD stands for "multiuser dungeon" (or
"multiuser dimension"). Originally--as the "dungeon" part might
suggest--a MUD referred to a cyberspace in which users, represented by avatars (remember
last time?), would engage in medieval games. Today, the definition has expanded to include
any cyberspace in which representations of people interact. You might think of an online
Monopoly game as a MUD (if you could think of the top hat as an avatar). |
| Touchpad |
|
| In the market for a laptop or notebook computer?
You've no doubt noticed that in place of a mouse, some portables have something called a
"touchpad," a device that lets you move the mouse pointer around the screen by
moving your finger around on a touch-sensitive pad and "click" by simply tapping
the pad (or clicking one of the buttons just below or beside the pad). Take it from us:
Touchpads are a big improvement on those pencil-eraser pointing devices included in older
portable computers. |
| Cybercafe |
|
| Here's a quandary: You'd like nothing better than a
midafternoon coffee break, but the idea of going to a coffee shop and actually talking to
other people makes you, well, sick. The solution? Try a cybercafe--a kind of
restaurant/cafe that just happens to include PCs you can use to surf (or chat) while you
sip. Of course, you COULD just get a coffee machine for your desk. |
| Streaming |
|
| Streaming refers to transferring data--specifically,
multimedia content--in a continuous stream over the Web so that a surfer can
"play" the content bit by bit as it arrives, rather than be forced to download
all of it first. Many Web sites today stream video and audio. To receive the stream, you
need to have a browser plug-in such as RealPlayer, QuickTime Viewer, or NetShow Player.
Streamed audio/video isn't exactly radio/TV quality, but it sure beats waiting. |
| ACK |
|
| Has Bloom County's Bill the Cat made a triumphant
comeback in the world of high tech? Of course not. "ACK" is short for
acknowledgment. In other words, it's the signal your modem sends back to a server whenever
it receives a complete, correct data packet therefrom. (If the data doesn't come through
as it was supposed to, the modem sends back a negative acknowledgment, or
"NAK.") |
| Command line |
|
| In computerese, a command line is the screen location
where you type in a command. If you ever entered a DOS command into a computer, you did so
by typing the command at the DOS command line. Windows--especially Windows 95--has made
command lines a not so warmly remembered anachronism for most PC users. UNIX users,
however, still spend the bulk of their days typing at a command line--and loving it. |
| Dot pitch |
|
| A computer monitor's dot pitch is the diagonal
distance between the colored dots on its screen, usually measured in millimeters (as in
.26mm dot pitch). The lower the dot pitch, the sharper the screen image. These days
anything in the low-to-mid 20s is good, and anything in the teens is EXCELLENT. |
| Cellpadding |
|
| Cellpadding is what HTML programmers use to specify
the space between table cell borders and the text or graphics within them. Cellpadding is
measured in pixels; HTML code that reads "cellpadding=10" creates a 10-pixel
"pad" around the text within the table cells. |
| Active Matrix |
|
| Last time, we told you about passive matrix displays.
Today we tell you about active matrix displays. An active matrix display is an LCD that is
refreshed more frequently than a passive matrix display. The most common type of active
matrix display is a TFT (or "thin film transistor") display, in which every LCD
pixel is controlled by as many as four tiny transistors. The most important thing to know
about an active matrix display is that it remains sharp and viewable from almost any
angle--much like the display on a desktop computer. |
| Veronica |
|
Veronica is a search engine for
finding information in all gopher sites, everywhere (explained in the previous tip).
Veronica uses a spider (explained TWO tips ago) to create a continually updated index of
all the text in these gopher sites. For links to a number of Veronica engines, visit
Yahoo!'s Veronica page, at:
http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/Gopher/Searching/Veronica/
By the way, Veronica stands for "very easy rodent-oriented Net-wide
index to computerized archives"--which is easily as far as the nerd
world has stretched to create a colorful acronym. |
| Celeron |
|
| First, there was the Toyota Camry. Then, more
recently, there was Febreeze laundry detergent. But by now the prize for "product
name that means nothing in English" goes to the Celeron, Intel's new microprocessor
chip. A Celeron chip is essentially a Pentium II chip without the Level 2 cache--which
makes it somewhat slower but a whole lot smaller and less expensive to make. So a Celeron
is a great value, but that doesn't explain the name. Maybe it means "the weight of
celery but the power of a mastodon." Or maybe not. |
| Gonk |
|
| Ever been accused by a chat room companion of gonking?
If so, it was probably in response to a story that just seemed too outlandish to be
true--or an actual lie--because to "gonk" is to stretch the truth. Cyberspace is
full of gonkers, for the simple reason that it's easier to lie to someone online than face
to face. |
| Coaxial cable |
|
It's true: Coaxial cable is the "cable" in
"cable TV." But Internet people see coaxial cable as the future of the Web,
because 1) It's in many people's homes already and can easily be put into the homes it
isn't in; and:
2) it has a far greater bandwidth (up to 2 million bits per second) than ordinary
phone lines (which max out at around 52
thousand bits per second). More on cable-based Internet service in the next Nerd Word tip.
|
| .com, .edu, .net., .gov, .org |
|
As you've probably guessed (that is, if you've even
wondered), the three-letter extension tacked on to a Web site URL tells you what
"type" of site it is. A site with a .com extension, for example, is a business
or commercial site. The meanings of the others are as follows:
- .edu--United States university or education institution
- .net--Network (or network services provider)
- .gov--United States government agency
- .org--Nonprofit organization
Now you know. |
| Mozilla |
|
Mozilla is Netscape Navigator's original name.
Industry legend has it that the name is a combination of "Mosaic" and
"Godzilla," the idea being that Mozilla would be the "Mosaic Godzilla"
or "The Beast that Ate Mosaic." Want further proof of the developers' hubris? If
you have Navigator, type:
"about:mozilla" in the Location box and press
Enter. |
| Country codes |
|
Yesterday, we explained what those
little three-letter extensions (.com, .edu, and so on) at the end of Web URLs mean. Today,
we give you the story behind the two-letter extensions--such as .uk and .ru--that you
sometimes see INSTEAD of the three-letter ones: The two-letter extensions are country
codes, assigned to domain names registered in a country other than the United States. For
a complete listing of country codes, see
http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/websoft/wwwstat/country-codes.txt
|
| Gopher |
|
Before the World Wide Web, "gopher" was the
system for finding and displaying document files stored on the Internet. While most of
these files have been converted to Web sites, occasionally you may still hit a gopher
site; instead of seeing a home page, you see a list of folders and files on the site.
Another tidbit: Gopher was named for the mascot of the college where it was developed, the
University of Minnesota. Just thought you'd like to know. |
| Noise |
|
If you call your Internet service provider (ISP) to complain that you can't ever
seem to connect at your modem's maximum speed, the person at the other end of the line
will probably blame the slower-than-expected connection on "noise"--additional
electrical energy on the phone line that slows down your data. Noise can come from so many
sources--nearby electrical appliances, transformers, thunderstorms, even solar
phenomena--that you're always bound to have some.
|
| WAN |
|
A LAN is a local area network, a network that's contained within a building or
office floor. A WAN is a wide area network, a network made up of LANs in different
buildings, cities, or even countries. If you're reading this, you've used the world's
largest WAN: The Internet. If you worked for a large, multinational corporation
approximately 15 years ago and sent e-mail to a coworker outside of your office, you
probably used one of the first WANs.
|
| Public domain software |
|
Public domain software is software that's not protected by copyright--not
because of some oversight but because the program's creator wants you to feel free to use
the software anyway you like. If you're a bread-and-butter user, this means you can use
the software for free and give away copies of it to all your friends; if you're a
programmer, this means you can actually include the program--or portions of its code--in
programs of your own. Obviously, the creators of public domain software are in it for
love, not money. Kind of heartwarming, isn't it?
|
| IT and IS |
|
Yes, it's two for the price of one here at NerdWorldNJ today--pretty good,
considering these tips are FREE. IT (say the letters, not the word) stands for information
technology; IS (again, the letters, please) stands for information services. Essentially,
these are two new names your MIS (management information services) department started
calling itself once it correctly perceived that the term MIS caused nontechies to quake
with fear and/or loathing--or maybe because information management and services aren't
just for management anymore.
|
|
|
Y2K is geek shorthand for "Year 2000"--which is ironic because if it
weren't for geek shorthand, there might not be a Year 2000 problem in the first place.
Perhaps believing that the world would end in a fiery atomic cloud before the year 2000,
programmers have been using two-digit numbers, such as 98, to stand for four-digit years,
such as 1998. Then, a few years ago, some genius figured out that if these programs decide
to refer to the year 2000 as 00, important calculations--such as, say, the price of every
stock traded on Wall Street or the entire government payroll--might get rolled back to the
year 1900, with predictably disastrous results. Luckily, many companies have addressed, or
are in the process of addressing, the Y2K problem. If yours hasn't, polish up your resume.
|
| ROI |
|
ROI is not a technical term, but it's well ensconced in the vocabulary of the
uber-nerd. ROI stands for "return on investment," and it's the bottom-line
number CEOs want from MIS managers before they agree to install the latest and greatest
hardware or software. Vendors of hardware and software systems caught wind of this fact
long ago, which is why their ads include numerous references to "maximizing
ROI." In the meantime, Louis XIV does delicate somersaults in his grave.
|
| RAID |
|
RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks OR Redundant Array of
Inexpensive Disks--it all depends on whether you're more concerned with personal freedom
or money. Seriously, though, a RAID is a machine containing several hard drives, each of
which can "take over" for any of the others in the event of a failure. A RAID
enables a server to continue working, usually without interruption, even if one or more of
the server's disks crashes.
|
| dynamic HTML |
|
You visit a Web page that you really like. You phone a friend in, say, another
state to tell him about it. He surfs to the page and, what's this? He sees something
different! What's going on? Chances are the page features dynamic HTML: Web page content
that changes depending on such factors as the surfer's location, the time of day, or--in
some cases--a profile of the surfer that's been created based on information from
registration forms, questionnaires, or past Web site viewing habits (often collected using
cookies).
|
| Dynamic HTML |
|
Dynamic HTML is a brand-spanking-new set of HTML extensions on the verge of
being standardized that Web page developers will be able to use to create content that
responds to information typed in by the user--without having to first send that
information back to the Web server for processing. You know how you type things into Web
forms, then click Submit, and then wait to see the result? In many cases, Dynamic HTML
could make the Submit button and the wait things of the past.
|