RESOURCES

The Essential Internet Phrase Book

56k Line - A digital phone-line connection capable of carrying 56,000 bits-per-second which is 4 times as fast as a 14,400bps modem.

A

Ad Banners -  An ad on a Web page, often using moving images and sound as well as text.  Clicking on a banner usually takes the user to an advertiser's Web site. 

Ad Request - An ad request occurs each time the user's browser requests information from an ad server.  If a Web page contains an ad, the browser will automatically request the information from the ad server. 

Advanced Photo System - A new film format designed for conventional photography but returned in a cartridge that can be place in a film scanner for conversion to digital files. 

Ad View - Technically, an ad view (also called an exposure) occurs every time an ad is requested from an ad server.  Or, on the front end, an ad view represents the number of times a banner ad is seen on a Web page. 

Agent - A broad term used to describe any program that performs an action or series of actions such as removing certain email messages from someone's files without human intervention. 

Aliasing - A defect caused by the insufficient digital sampling of a scene when the image is captured or by the low resolution capability of the monitor displaying an image.  This term is most often used to refer to the jagged appearance of diagonal or curved lines when viewed on a monitor. 

AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service) - Standard analog cellular telephone service introduced in North America during the 1980's and now used in North, Central and South America.  Most of the rest of the world began setting up cellular systems later, after the more desirable digital format became available; so they were able to start out digital. 

Analog - Information represented in continuous form by an infinite number of values.  A conventional photograph is considered analog because it has an infinite range of color, shapes, and density. 

Analog vs. Digital - The principal feature of analog representations is that they are continuous.  In contrast, digital representations consist of values measured at separate intervals.  A traditional watch in analog because the hands move continuously around the clock face; but a digital watch goes from one value to the next without displaying all of the intermediate values.  
In digital communication, the signal is converted into binary code and then reconstructed at the receiving end.  It tends to be clearer than analog because it's broken down into a discrete, black-and-white signal; analog includes all of the shades of gray,  so to speak. 
Early attempts at building computers used analog techniques, but they were not accurate or reliable enough.  Today, most computers and cellular phones are digital. 

Applets - a term used to describe very small programs that perform a specific function such as displaying the time in a clock. Made possible by the Java programming language, they have the unique characteristic of containing both the applications and the data in one file i.e. self-contained, making them very portable and easy to use.  

ARPANet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) - The precursor to the Internet. Developed in the late 60's and early 70's by the US Department of Defense as an experiment in wide-area-networking that would survive a nuclear war.  

ASCII - (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) - the de facto worldwide standard for the code used by computers to represent all the upper and lower-case Latin letters, numbers, punctuation, and special characters. There are 128 standard ASCII codes each of which can be represented by a 7 digit binary number and an 8th check digit.  

ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) -  A very high-speed technology for all types of data and voice transmissions.  "Asynchronous" means "not occurring at predetermined or regular intervals."  It describes communications in which data can be transmitted intermittently rather than in a steady stream. 
A telephone conversation is asynchronous because both parties can talk whenever they like.  If the communication were synchronous, each party would be required to wait a specified interval before speaking. 

Authentication - A security feature to identify a person as having permission to access information on a given computer or file. 

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B

Backbone - Used to describe the network of high-speed telephone connections that link up all the computers on the Internet.   The part of the communications network that carries the heaviest traffic; a primary connection link, or ridge.  Also, that part of a network that joins LANs or WANs--either inside a building or across a city or country. 

Bandwidth - The capacity of a communications channel.  In analog communications, bandwidth is typically measured in hertz, or cycles per second. In digital, it's typically measured in bits per second.  Also, how much computer data can be sent through a telephone connection in a given length of time, usually bits-per-second.  

Banners - a form of advertising on the Web. These are usually narrow graphics, sometimes logos, sometimes signboards, about an inch and a half high and about 4 inches long. They are designed to fit on even a small laptop screen, and are often used to mark a place where the reader can click to get more information. Sites sell banner space based on the number of different people who will see the banner. Beginning in 1996, some advertisers began paying for click-throughs (the number of people who actually clicked on the banner in order to visit the advertiser's site).  

Baud - In common usage the baud rate of a modem is how many bits it can send or receive per second. Technically, baud is the number of times per second that the carrier signal shifts value - for example a 1200 bit-per-second modem actually runs at 300 baud, but it moves 4 bits per baud (4 x 300 = 1200 bits per second).  
Also, a measure of transmission speed over an analog phone line based on the number of changes per second in the carrier signal wave.  Not to be confused with bits per second (see bps).  On a voice channel, its possible to get a higher bps rate than baud rate, so usually a modem's baud rate will not equal bps. 

B-ISDN (Broadband ISDN) - A very high-speed data communications service, capable of transmitting voice, video and data at the same time over fiber-optic telephone lines.  B-ISDN can support data rates of 1.5 millions bits per second.  See also ISDN. 

Binhex - Binary HEXadecimal) - A method for converting non-text files (non-ASCII) into ASCII. This is needed because Internet e-mail can only handle ASCII. 

Bit - Abbreviation for Binary Digit.  A bit is the smallest unit of data a computer system can process.  The basic unit in data communications.  Computers are sometimes classified by the number of bits they can process at one time.  

Bookmark - an "address book" where the reader can store the addresses of their favorite web-sites. Click on the name of the place, and the Browser automatically goes there, like an online phone book with an autodialer. "BookMarking" a site just means adding it to your address book to conveniently return to the site. 

Boolean Expressions - help you build more powerful searches with tools called Boolean operators that influence how our software evaluates your request. ("Boolean" honors George Boole, a 19th-century British mathematician who suggested that logical thought could be expressed as algebra. Boolean operators such as AND are not case-sensitive; we've put them in ALL-CAPS for emphasis.

1. Be Specific (AND, OR, NOT)
2. Find Relationships (ADJ, NEAR, FAR, BEFORE)
3. What Order? (ADJ, NEAR, FAR)
4. How Near? How Far? (NEAR, ADJ)

Be Specific (AND, OR, NOT)

• AND Joining search terms with the AND operator tells Lycos Advanced Search that you want to find documents containing each term. (For example, Larry AND Curly AND Moe) This is identical to selecting "All the Words" in the drop-down menu. But, as you'll see below, AND can be used in conjunction with other operators for more powerful searching. You can also use the "+" sign directly in front of words that you want included in your results. For example, "Larry +Curly +Moe."
• OR Use OR when any of the search terms joined by the operator should appear in the results. This is similar to selecting Any of the Words in the drop-down menu. (For example, Chico OR Zeppo.) Like AND, OR can be used as a building block of more-complex Boolean expressions.
• NOT Use the NOT operator to exclude unwanted documents when your search uses a term commonly found in connection with an unrelated topic. For example, if you're not in the mood for laughs, you can improve a search for information on the author of The Communist Manifesto by entering Marx NOT Brothers. You can also use "-" sign directly in front of words that you want excluded from your results. For example, "Marx -brothers."
• Quotation Marks " " Put quotation marks around a group of words and you've got a phrase. This is like selecting The Exact Phrase in the drop-down menu. However, using quoted phrases in conjunction with other Boolean operators offers additional flexibility. Try "Smashing Pumpkins" AND Simpsons to find references to the band's incarnation as cartoon characters alongside Homer and Bart. Find Relationships (ADJ, NEAR, FAR, BEFORE) Frequently, the placement of words within a document reveals their relevancy to one another. Lycos Advanced Search offers four operators to help define those relationships: ADJ (meaning adjacent), NEAR, FAR and BEFORE.
• ADJ Use the ADJ operator if you want to find documents in which the terms appear right next to each other, in any order. Sports fans might search for car ADJ race knowing that such a query will match car race and race car.
• NEAR When you use NEAR, the terms must appear within 25 words of each other in the results documents. So, searching for "Kevin Bacon" NEAR game will find web pages referencing a popular trivial pastime without having to get so exclusive as "Kevin Bacon game". (For example, that NEAR query would find a match in this sentence: "Here's a neat game based on the movies of Kevin Bacon and his co-stars.")
• FAR You can probably guess that FAR is the opposite of NEAR. When you use FAR, Lycos will find documents in which the search terms appear 25 words or more apart in at least one instance. Since it doesn't preclude the possibility that the terms may also appear closer together on the same page, FAR is most useful when used in conjunction with other expressions. For example, you can search for Apple FAR Pie NOT "Apple Pie" and find pages containing both words but not apple pie.
• BEFORE works like the familiar AND, the only difference being that the terms must appear in the order you specify, but they can be any distance apart in the same document. If you're a little shaky on the spelling of Gettysburg, you can still track down the text of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's famous address in that town by searching this way: fourscore BEFORE liberty.

Broadband - A type of data transmission in which a single wire can carry several channels at once.  Cable TV, for example, uses broadband transmission.  In WANs, broadband refers to a transmission facility providing bandwidth greater that 45 millions bps. 
In contrast, baseband transmission allows only one signal at a time.  Most LANs use baseband communications. 

Browser - A piece of software that translates digital bits into pictures and text so you can look at them.  A browser displays documents found through the Internet on a computer, allowing the user to move easily from one URL to another. 

BTW (By The Way) - A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum.  

Bundle -  A color-coded group of fibers or wires within a cable that are combined or interwoven for ease of handling and installation. 

Bundled - A package of several products or services, sometimes for a variety of manufacturers, offered at a single price.  Phone and cable companies often have bundled deals.  Operating systems are almost always bundled with computers, and often with various productivity applications, demo programs and clip-art libraries. 

Byte (binary term) - A unit of storage that holds a single value in a computer coding scheme.  Such a value might be a letter, number, punctuation mark, symbol or control character (e.g., a tab or return). 
A bit is to a byte what a letter is to a word.  On almost all modern computers, a byte is equal to eight bits. 
Large amounts of memory are indicated by kilobytes (1 KB = about 1,000 bytes), megabytes (1 MB = about 1 million bytes) and gigabytes (1 GB = about 1 billion bytes).  A standard disk that can hold 1.44 megabytes is capable of storing approximately 3,000 pages' worth of information. 

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C

Cache - (pronounced cash) - A special high-speed storage mechanism that can take the form of either a reserved section of main memory or an independent high-speed storage device.  When information is cached, it is placed "closer" to the user or application in order to make it more speedily accessible.  Cached information places less strain on a computer's limited input/output and network resources. 

CCD Camera - A solid-state camera with a charge-coupled device to digitize acquired images.  CCD cameras read pixel brightness serially in a line-by-line scan pattern. 

CDMA (code division/multiple access) - air-interface technology pioneered by Qualcomm, predominantly used in the United States. Also called "spread spectrum," a new form of digital cellular phone service.  The major benefits are increased capacity (up to 10 times analog) and more efficient use of spectrum (a continuous range of frequencies). 

cdma2000 - Third-generation form of CDMA; includes intermediary technologies 1xEV through 3xEV. Data rates ranging from 144Kbps to 2Mbps

CGI (Common Gateway Interface) - defines how a CGI program will interact with other programs on the server or system. A CGI program is a small program that takes data from a web server and does something with it, like putting the content of a form into an e-mail message, or turning the data into a database inquiry (query). 

cgi-bin - The most common name of a directory on a web server in which the CGI programs are stored.  

Charge-Coupled Device - A device that converts light into an electronic signal. 

CLEC (competitive/certified local exchange carrier) -  Companies offering communications services in the deregulated, competitive environment envisioned by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.  Despite challenges to the law, many state regulatory authorities have moved forward with it. 
CLECs compete on a selective basis for local exchange service, as well as long distance, international, Internet access and entertainment (e.g., cable TV and video on demand). 

Click-Through - The number of times an ad banner is clicked on during a given period.  Each time a user clicks on an ad banner - thus taking that user to the advertiser's site - it represents one click-through, or click. 

Click-Through Rate - The percentage of times a banner ad is clicked on out of the total number of ad views.  If a Web page containing your ad is seen by 10 users and one user clicks on the ad, the click-through rate is 10 percent.  Expressed mathematically as clicks divided by ad views, the click-through rate is a measure of an ad's success.  Often shortened to click rate. 

Client - A software program (ex. Browser) that is used to contact and obtain data from a Server software program on another computer, often across a great distance.  

Co-location - Physical placement of equipment that transmits two or more signals over a single channel within the carrier's premises. 

Color Correction -  A process of adjusting color values to achieve accuracy in color reproduction.  Color correction is important because the color of an image viewed on your monitor are not necessarily the same as those you will see when the image is printed.  For accurate color output, the monitor must be color corrected to match the output of the printer in use. 

Compact Disc Read-only Memory (CD-ROM) - A CD-ROM disk looks like a music CD.  It is an efficient device that stores large quantities of information in read-only format.  It can hold up to 600 megabytes of information and is particularly useful for storing graphic images.  To "play" a CD-ROM disk, a built-in or peripheral CD-ROM drive is required. 

Compact Flash Card (CFC) -  A removable storage medium that includes a built-in controller for directing storage in digital memory nodules.  CFCs are just over one inch square and available with storage capacities that may reach 1 gigabyte in magnetic recording versions. 

Compression - A technique used to reduce the size of a data file, decreasing the disk space required to store the file or the time required to send it.  A compressed image must be decompressed to be viewed or used.  Compression is advantageous for storing or transmitting an image but can cause some degradation of the image after it is decompressed, depending on the degree of compression. 

Cookie (magic cookies) - are entries in a Browser's disk file consisting of a website name and some identification code. This allows a website server to see if you've been there before, then to act accordingly. The cookie is also used by the website server to record "Shopping Cart" purchases while in a given site as html isn't capable of saving such information. Both Navigator 3.0 and Explorer 3.0 give users the option of being warned when a website is about to write to the browser's cookie file.  

CPA - Cost per Action. This pricing structure is determined by the amount of "actions" that a website delivers to an advertiser by running their ad.  "Actions" are defined as sales (online and offline), leads, form fill-outs, downloads of software programs, etc.

CPC - Cost per Click. Advertiser only pays if a website visitor clicks on the ad. This model is dependent on content, audience reach and targeted delivery and is generally paid for when all purchased clicks have been delivered.

CPL - Cost per Lead. The advertiser pays only for those clicks where users click through on an ad and generate a lead by filling out an online sales contact form or the like. The formula for determining cost per lead is: total cost of media divided by the total number of leads generated.

CPM - Cost per Thousand.  This pricing model is based on the purchase of a thousand banner impressions and is favored by advertisers running branding campaigns.

CPS - Cost per Sale. The average marketing or advertising expenditure needed to generate a single sale. Sales are tracked with cookies to determine completed transactions.

CTR - Click Through Rate. Measures the response rate of and online advertisement. It is calculated by dividing the number of click-throughs the ad receives by the number of impressions and multiplying the result by 100 to obtain a percentage.

Cyberspace - Term originated by author William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer the word Cyberspace is currently used to describe the whole range of information resources available on the Internet.  

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