Developed by Sun Microsystems, Java is a programming language that is specifically designed for writing programs that can be safely downloaded to your computer through the Internet and immediately run without fear of viruses or other harm to your computer or files. Using small Java programs (called "Applets"), Web pages can include functions such as animations, calculators, and other fancy tricks.
Java is a simple, robust, object-oriented, platform-independent multi-threaded, dynamic general-purpose programming environment. It is best for creating applets and applications for the Internet, intranets and any other complex, distributed network.
This puppy is not Java (although it is the JAVA logo) but alot of people think it is. It's an animated GIF. Making this a JAVA animation would require some special software on the server side for it to "run", but then you could add in some sound as well.
A scripting language for Web pages. Scripts written with JavaScript can be embedded into HTML documents. With JavaScript you have many possibilities for enhancing your Web page with interesting elements. It makes it easy to respond to user initiated events (such as form input). Some effects that are now possible with JavaScript were once only possible with CGI. Javascript gives a developer the ability to create really sophisitcated Web pages.
Some computer languages are compiled, which means that you run your program through a compiler, which performs a one-time translation of the human-readable program into a binary that the computer can execute. JavaScript is an interpreted language, which means that the computer must evaluate the program each time it is run.
Java and JavaScript are not the same thing. JavaScript was designed to resemble Java, which in turn looks a lot like C and C++. The difference is that Java was built as a general purpose object language, while JavaScript is intended to provide a quicker and simpler language for enhancing Web pages and servers.
Joint Photographic Experts Group - One of two types of graphic formats used on the World Wide Web the other being a GIF. The benefit of using JPG images is the higher color and resolution you can have which is 16 million colors as opposed to the 256 color limitations of GIF files. JPEG is an algorithm for compressing still images. Motion-JPEG, a variation of JPEG, is used to compress moving images.