TCP/IP for the Macintosh; a necessary driver for connecting Macs to the Internet.
The flooding of an e-mail address with (usually angry) messages.
An e-mail server that automatically responds to requests for information.
A program that allows a user to sort e-mail messages according to information contained in the header.
A discussion forum where participants subscribe to a list and receive messages by e-mail.
A graphical editor for World Wide Web clickable imagemaps. Until recently server-side imagemaps required the author to install them separately on the server. But with Mapedit 2.24 and the latest web browsers, you can use client-side imagemaps, which reside in your HTML page and are very easy to create. Mapedit will also create server-side maps for backwards compatibility with old browsers. You can download an evaluation copy right now. Evaluation copies are good for 30 days; you need to register before the evaluation period expires. Registration costs $25 and can be done by phone, fax or mail. Nonprofit organizations and educational institutions (not private individuals) can receive free registration by mail. Details are explained in the software when you click on the REGISTER button.
A product from Allegiant Technologies, Marionet is an Internet scripting tool for the rapid development of customized interfaces that automate and simplify Internet tasks. During its own development it was codenamed "BlackHole."
With Marionet, those who are familiar with scripting languages on the Macintosh can build custom client and server interfaces. The interfaces can be created in any authoring environment that supports both inter-application communication and the standard external command (XCMD) interface, especially Allegiant SuperCard and Apple's HyperCard.
Marionet provides a high-level interface to the standard Internet protocols, such as those for email (SMTP/POP3), file transfer (FTP), newsgroup (NNTP), HTTP/CGI, and Gopher. The program is shipped as a system extension, using Apple's Thread Manager for smooth background operations.
The Internet Multicast Backbone - MBone (the Multicast Backbone) is a "virtual network" used for audio and video group conferencing. Many conferences and other events are broadcast over the MBone. A few of these are weather satelitte images of the earth, US Senate and House of Representative meetings and, "Radio Free Vat", and "internet talk radio" to name a few. The MBone Sessions are controlled throught a program called sd which lets you subscribe and unsubscribe to broadcasts.
The MBone has existed since 1992. It has grown out of an "effort to multicast audio and video from meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)".
The MBone is a part of the internet. It is a network of special machines mrouters that support multicast. These machines "tunnel" to other mrouters. They take the multicast transmission and encapsulate it in a normal IP packet. mrouters at the end of the tunnels strips of the IP header and sends the packet as usual. Each tunnel has it's own copy of all the packets going over the line, so tunnels should be limited to about 2 for any given T1 link. SEE ALSO: MultiCast.
A virus scanner is an absolute necessity these days, and McAfee provides one of the best. A solid, intuitive graphical interface simplifies the scanning process. VirusScan even runs in the background, allowing you to continue your work (or play) while it does it's job. The ability to configure scanning levels (specify file types), print activity logs, and the fact that McAfee updates this software very frequently, makes McAfee VirusScan a winner.
A million bytes. A thousand kilobytes.
From the book "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson, this term describes a virtual online representation of reality.
Musical Instrument Digital Interface - This is a connectivity standard which enables you to hook together computers, musical instruments, and synthesizers to make and orchestrate digital sound. Pronounced "middy," the term is used to describe the standard itself, the hardware that supports the standard, and files that store information that the hardware can use. MIDI files are like digital sheet music--they contain instructions for musical notes, tempo, and instrumentation--and are widely used in game soundtracks and recording studios.
MIDI sound files usually have an extension of .mid. If you come across any of these files on the Internet you will need a helper application configured to work on your system in order to play one of these sound files. MIDI files are just one of a few different file formats which can be embedded on a Web page with the BG SOUND= HTML tag, which causes the sound file to play when the Web page is accessed. NOTE: This feature may not be supported by all browsers.
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions - The standard for attaching non-text files to standard Internet mail messages. Non-text files include graphics, spreadsheets, formatted word-processor documents, sound files, etc. An email program such as Eudora is said to be "MIME Compliant" if it can both send and receive files using the MIME standard. When non-text files are sent using the MIME standard they are converted (encoded) into text - although the resulting text is not really readable.
Generally speaking the MIME standard is a way of specifying both the type of file being sent (e.g. a Quicktime(TM) video file), and the method that should be used to turn it back into its original form. Besides email software, the MIME standard is also universally used by Web Servers to identify the files they are sending to Web Clients, in this way new file formats can be accommodated simply by updating the browsers' list of pairs of MIME-Types and appropriate software for handling each type.
A server that provides copies of the same files as another server. Some servers are so popular that other servers have been set up to mirror them and to spread the load on to more than one site. Many international sites have mirrors set up in other countries to allow quicker access for it's international users.
This is a sophisticated texturing technique used for 3D animation in games and CAD walk-throughs. When scenery contains acutely angled polygons that disappear into the distance, MIP mapping mixes low- and high resolution versions of the same texture to reduce the jagged effect.
Microsoft Internet Security Framework - A comprehensive set of cross-platform, interoperable security technologies developed by Microsoft, that supports Internet security standards.
A mailing list where messages are first sent to the list owner before they are distributed to all the subscribers.
A technology developed by the Intel Corporation which is the next step after the famed Pentium Proccessor. This new CPU chip will enable greater handling of multimedia such as video and audio on the desktop as well as over the Internet.
Software developers will be able to use MMX to deliver a new generation of higher-performance multimedia and communications applications, and further advance the PC as the premier computing and entertainment platform. MMX technology will be integrated into the Intel chip architecture beginning with a Pentium processor code-named P55C, which Intel expects to have in initial production in the fourth quarter of this year, and will be integrated into succeeding generations of Intel processors.
In addition to traditional means of souping up its chips, including boosting clock frequencies and using microarchitecture techniques such as branch prediction, superscalar execution and superpipelining, Intel added 57 new instructions to its architecture to speed up certain compute-intensive loops in multimedia and communications applications. While the loops typically occupy 10 percent or less of the overall application code, they can account for up to 90 percent of the execution time. MMX instructions process multiple data elements in parallel using a technique called Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD). In simulations and preliminary tests on development systems, Intel said performance benefits have ranged from 50 to 400 percent, depending on the application. Example applications illustrated in Intel's MMX technology overview include chroma keying; vector dot product, used in signal processing of natural data such as images, audio, video and sound; matrix multiply, used in 3D games; 24-bit color; and image dissolve using alpha channel blending.
Software tool providers and application developers that have announced their intention to support MMX include Microsoft, Macromedia, Adobe, Books That Work, Criterion Software, Epic MegaGames, Intel Indeo Video Interactive, Iterated Systems, Omniview, OnLive! Technologies, ParaGraph International, Pegasus Imaging, Powersoft, Qsound Labs, Vicarious and Virage. Hardware vendors working with Intel include Analog Devices, ATI, Cirrus Logic, Creative Labs, Crystal Semiconductor, ESS Technologies, S3 and Yamaha.
MOdulator, DEModulator - A device that you connect to your computer and to a phone line, that allows the computer to talk to other computers through the phone system. Basically, modems do for computers what a telephone does for humans. Generally there are 3 types of modems: external, PC Card and an internal which is shown here.
Mud, Object Oriented - One of several kinds of multi-user role-playing environments, so far only text-based.
Male or Female - When someone asks you whether you are male or female, you've been "Morfed".
Mosaic is the common name of a World Wide Web multimedia browser program developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)in Urbana-Champaign, Ill. It was the first WWW browser that was available for the Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX all with the same interface and started the popularity of the Web. The official, copyrighted name of the program is NCSA Mosiac. The source-code to Mosaic has been licensed by several companies and there are several other pieces of software as good or better than Mosaic, most notably, Netscape.
Members of the Same Sex - Gays and Lesbians online. Originally an acronym used in the 1980 federal census.
A file with this extension means that it is a Quicktime Movie and you will need a Quicktime Movie Player to see it.
Motion Picture Experts Group, - audio and video files found on the Internet are sometimes in this format. In order to hear or see them your browser must be configured to use an external or helper application such as Net Toob on the Windows side and Sparkle on the Mac side. MPEG is an algorithm for compressing audio and video; not to be confused with Motion-JPEG.
Modem Ready - This modem light tells you that your modem is on and ready.
Multi-User Dungeon or Dimension - A (usually text-based) multi-user simulation environment. Some are purely for fun and flirting, others are used for serious software development, or education purposes and all that lies in between. A significant feature of most MUDs is that users can create things that stay after they leave and which other users can interact with in their absence, thus allowing a "world" to be built gradually and collectively. SEE ALSO: talker and IRC.
SEE MBONE. A type of audio and video broadcasting over the Internet which requires superior hardware (at least 128k modem speed) and special software such as Real Audio and/or StreamWorks. There are various Internet Radio stations which have live multicasting feeds.
