Hot Words
- Archie
- Designed by graduate students at McGill University, Archie is an abbreviation
for "archive." It indexes FTP sites so that you can know what's
available at each one. It also lets you search for files about particular
subjects.
- BITNET
- A major wide area network that stands for Because It's Time network.
Since it is not based on the TCP/IP protocols that the Internet uses, BITNET
is not truly a part of the Internet. However, users can send and retrieve
e-mail over the Internet.
- Eudora
- An easy-to-use mail-reading program that runs under Windows or MacOS.
It can be used by those who are connected to the Internet using SLIP. It
"talks" to SLIP using the WinSock standard. Eudora lets you write
and reply to messages, read mail, and store messages in folders on your
PC or Mac.
- Flamed
- To receive a nasty or insulting message, usually because you've broken
the rules of cybermanners. To read particularly vivid flames that have appeared
on the Internet, visit the newsgroup alt.best.of.internet.
- Gopher
- 1. Any of various short-tailed, burrowing mammals of the family Geomyidae,
of North America.
2. Native or inhabitant of Minnesota: the Gopher state.
3. One who runs errands, does odd jobs, and fetches or delivers documents
for office staff.
4. A distributed document search and retrieval system on the Internet.
- Hot Fudge and Whipped Cream
- Two sinfully fattening toppings to vanilla ice cream. These decadent
extras can turn the act of eating ice cream into a blissful experience.
Likewise, choosing an Internet access provider with a few extra "toppings"can transform cyber travel into a truly unprecedented affair -- and you
won't gain weight.
- HTML
- Hypertext Markup Language. It is used to specify the contents and format
of a hypermedia document on the Web. Hypermedia is an information storage
system that lets each page of information contain embedded references to
images, sounds, and other pages of information. Users select an item and
the hypermedia system follows the associated reference.
- Hyperlink
- Web pages have information (pictures, sounds, video) linked in multiple
ways at several levels of detail. The pages also may be linked to other,
related documents.
- Lurk
- To frequent a particular spot on the Internet (such as an IRC) but seldom
or never contribute to it.
- Mailing Lists
- Discussion groups of people who use e-mail to pontificate on specific
subjects of interest. In some cases, newsgroups utilize mailing lists to
keep their members informed.
- MIME
- Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. They allow an Internet e-mail
message to contain non-textual files, such as video images or sounds. To
transfer such files, both the sender and the receiver need e-mail software
that understands MIME.
- Multimedia
- The convergence of computers with video, sound, graphics, and text.
Some have described it as a "technological loom" that weaves media
together. It can be used for education, entertainment, training, and communications,
as well as for art.
- Netiquette
- Etiquette for the Internet, which translates into the proverbial wiping
your feet, sweeping away your cookie crumbs, and otherwise making your presence
on the Internet as benign and pleasant for others as possible.
- Newsgroups
- Delivered via a universal feeder network called Usenet, news-groups
are subject-specific discussion forums. Unlike mailing lists, which deliver
postings to your e-mail box, you have to "visit" a newsgroup.
- OS/2 Warp
- OS/2 Warp is a family of products made by IBM. It includes OS/2 Warp
Connect, which has enhanced TCP/IP support to provide dial-up or LAN connections
to the Internet and other online services.
- Pine
- The easiest to use of all the UNIX-based mail applications. To start
using it, simply type Pine at the UNIX command.
- Pipeline
- Direct access Internet service provider that was founded by James Gleick,
author of Chaos: Making a New Science. It has been acquired by Performance
Systems International (PSINet).
- Slash (/)
- 1. Any menu selection with a slash after its description will take you
to another menu listing.
2. Guitarist of Guns 'n' Roses.
- Snail Mail
- How the Internet community refers to regular postal service. Guess we
can all figure that one out.
- Spry
- A developer of user-friendly software, including its popular Internet
in a Box (see review, page 72) for entering and browsing the World Wide
Web. Based in Seattle, WA, it was acquired in March by CompuServe for about
$100 million in stock and cash. At the time of the acquisition, CompuServe
said Spry would help make it a significant Internet player.
- Telnet
- A remote log-in service for the Internet that enables a user at one
site to access a remote site as if the two sites were directly connected.
The downside is Telnet's grievous slowness.
- Threads
- Groups of messages in a newsgroup concerning the same topic, including
the initial posting, follow-up postings, and follow-ups to follow-ups.
- Veronica
- This frequently updated index system is intended to make Gopher an even
easier tool. You use Veronica (which stands for Very Easy Rodent-Oriented
Netwide Index to Computerized Archives) to search Gopherspace.
- Web Spider
- A program that traverses the Web automatically, creating a database
of Web links.
- Wide Area Network
- A form of networking that connects computers across long distances,
using modems to send signals. It allows communication to be independent
of the computers using the wide area network.
- Windows 3.1
- Made by the ubiquitous Microsoft, Windows 3.1 is (soon?) to be updated
by Windows 95, which will let you run DOS games that didn't work with version
3.1.
- World Wide Web
- Known as the Internet's "killer application," the Web was
developed in 1990 at Switzerland's European Laboratory for Particle Physics.
It provides a graphical, magazine-style interface to the Internet using
hypertext-linked documents. The click of a mouse allows users to easily
move from one piece of information (text, graphics, audio) to another.
- Yahoo
- This database is a great guide to the World Wide Web. With its hierarchical
list of more than 21,000 entries, it allows you to search for entries on
everything from art, business, and education, to computers, government,
law, news, and science. New sites -- added in the last five days -- and
"cool" ones can also be searched for. Access it at http://www.yahoo.com.
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