Internet Word of the Day Archive

November 01, 2009

American Association Against Acronym Abuse

An advertisement that resembles editorial content, usually relates to a product or service being promoted.

November 02, 2009

An image or graphic that has been coded to contain interactive areas. When it's clicked on, it launches another Web page or program. There's a subtle distinction between an imagemap and a clickable graphic. An imagemap usually has many different hyperlinked areas, known as links.

For example, an imagemap of a country could be coded so that when a user clicks on a city or region, the browser is routed to a document or Web page about that place. A clickable graphic, on the other hand usually contains just one link.

Definitely

November 03, 2009

The superfast network spanning the world, from one major metropolitan area to another. It is supported by a handful of Internet Service Providers (ISPs). These companies and organizations use connections that run at approximately 45MB per second (T3 lines) and are linked at specified interconnection points called "national access points" or "regional nerve centers." Local ISPs connect to this backbone through routers so data can be sent and received though the backbone.

To Be Or Not To Be

Since the high-tech world can seem sterile or impersonal to some people, an ecruiter may try a high-touch approach, acknowledging that people do not want to be treated like commodities and that people want to know someone cares about their dreams. In fact, recruiters within the industry have begun to realize that getting good talent depends on having good people already at the firm and that they need to keep in touch with them on a regular basis.

Similar to a geek (a person who knows a lot about the Internet), but this is more of a brainy person who knows everything there is to know about computers. People used to make fun of those who were considered to be nerds, but now the moniker is considered a badge of honor (especially when the wealthiest man in America is a full-fledged nerd ;-)

November 04, 2009

Your Mileage May Vary

The process of completing transactions, including sales orders, requests for information, redemption of coupons, premiums, giveaways, rebates, or refunds. Fulfillment relates to warehousing, returns processing, database management, inventory, and quality control. A new generation of business providers specializes in "e-fulfillment," which is basically fulfillment for e-commerce entities. Other business providers now offer turnkey fulfillment.

A unit of memory measurement (2 to the 40th power) equal to approximately one trillion bytes (actually 1,099,511,627,776 bytes). One terabyte is equal to 1,000 gigabytes.

The nickname for a guy who is too young for a cougar to go after.

November 05, 2009

A wire used in ISDN service that can carry up to 64 Kbps of data when operating at full capacity. It is a clear channel "pipe" that carries voice, data, or video over ISDN. The Basic Rate Interface (BRI) service offered to home users has two B channels.

A way to copyright Web documents by registering them with a company that specializes in digital notarization. Netary public companies create an evidentiary "cybertrail" of your property by setting a creation time for any type of digitial work. While copyrighting is still the most preferred, legal method of protecting your original work, a netary public could possibly help out in a pinch (most keep the registration certificates for five years).

The notion of simplifying a product too much, so that its ease-of-use actually reduces its perceived value and leads consumers to view it as a toy. For example, "Don't over-Mac the intro on the CD-ROM. We want users to feel like they're involved in getting the game going."

Dear Husband

November 06, 2009

This term refers to anyone who leaves their country of origin to work at a high-tech job in another country. More specifically, it refers to those who leave America and move to smaller countries (for example, Ireland) because of booming tech-related economies or the opportunity to build something not yet done "over there." It is the opposite of brain drain.

The "iPhone" is a mobile phone introduced by Apple in 2007. Also known as a smart phone, it is considered a revolutionary product because of these technical features: phone calls, voice mail, ringtones, SMS, photos, music, video, Wi-Fi, Internet, e-mail, maps, widgets, multi-touch, OS X, wireless, accelerometer (which senses the orientation of the phone and changes the screen accordingly), proximity sensor, and more including the most advanced Web browser on a mobile device. It has a 3.5 inch LCD and HVGA touch screen topped (with optical-quality, scratch-resistant glass which is specifically created for use with a finger, or multiple fingers for multi-touch sensing) and weighs only 4.8 ounces (135 grams). Whew, for detailed information on each of the features, click on the "Wikipedia" link below.

In other words, it's a very good thing! One of the coolest aspects of owning an iPhone is using a number of killer apps found in the App Store. In the year since Apple's online App Store opened, it sold more than 800 million applications for its iPhone, at prices ranging from free to $10. Apple keeps 30 percent of each sale, with 70 percent going to the application's developer. Rivals BlackBerry and Palm will also open app stores of their own.

To Download the NetLingo iPhone app "The List: Text & Chat Acronyms" click on the links below ;-) 

Slang for an internship with a company where your primary job is to make posts on Twitter. For instance, when a big box store wants to reach the public in a direct, immediate way they turn to social networking and specifically microblogging. For example, in summer 2009, Pizza Hut offered their first "twinternship" to a 22-year-old girl who handles all of the Pizza Hut Twitter postings.

i don't know

November 07, 2009

A standard contract used in the industry, it binds the signatory to secrecy so that two companies can negotiate. It is OK to sign an NDA, just make sure it's for no longer than three years.

A play on the word "schizo" it means to register more than one username on a discussion board in order to side on an argument or to con people.

Derived by combining Video and web LOG, a "vlog" is a blog that provides a video journal on a subject rather than just text entries. Basically it is blogging using video, and can best be thought of as an online video diary. "Vloggers" are video bloggers.

Also knows as "vidblogs" these streaming bits of media may be watched on the computer or downloaded to a portable device for later viewing. Like audio podcasts, vlogs may also be delivered on demand via RSS feeds.

Video blog entries may either be linked and downloaded on the viewer's machine, or, they may be embedded and watched on the viewer's Web browser. Videos are typically listed in chronological order just like a text blog. Video blogs may also be tagged ("keyworded") and archived.

Some of the more popular formats used by videobloggers include .mov (QuickTime), .wmv (Windows Media Player) and .torrent (BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing program). Other video or movie formats such as .rm (Real Media), .swf/.flv (Flash) and MPEG may also be used.

Mainstream print and broadcast media (newspapers, magazines, trade journals, radio, and TV) are rapidly losing their role as the privileged gatekeepers of news and entertainment. There is a small but growing number of vloggers (also called "voggers") who are turning the Internet into a medium in which people are communicating audiovisually with personal video posts, networking through the audiovisual, and creating programming and content not controlled by major broadcasting networks and cable outlets. One way to understand it is to view a vlog; check out the links below!

November 08, 2009

Slang for very, very, very fast.

At Any Rate

The iPod is a small portable music player created by Apple Computer. It is actually a combination digital audio player and portable hard drive with either a 10GB, 15GB or 30GB hard drive. It can be connected to a computer through a FireWire or USB port. Users can transfer songs to their iPod with their computer and the iPod software. It is possible to load an entire CD onto an iPod in as little as 10 seconds, you can keep up to 10,000 songs (or audiobooks) on your iPod! It's another revolutionary Apple product; the next-generation is known as the iPod touch.

Known as being extremely user-friendly, you navigate the iPod with a "touch wheel" designed for one-hand operation. If you like to listen to music while you run, for example, you won't have to worry about it "skipping" as is the case when moving and listening to a CD player. Nor do you have to lug around a bunch of CDs anymore, iPod supports most audio file formats including MP3 and wav. It also contains a vareity of extra features including games, a calendar, alarm clock, voice memos, and text notes.

Historical Perspective: On Feb. 25, 2006, Coldplay's "Speed of Sound" became the billionth song downloaded from iTunes. The downloader was Alex Ostrovsky of Bloomfield, Mich., who won a new iMac, iPod and $10,000 in iTunes credit. In addition, a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music was set up in his name :-)

Cleaning and organizing your office in a desperate attempt at making sense of it all. For example, "The servers I ordered didn't show up today, so I spent the afternoon defragging the office."

November 09, 2009

Wicked Grin

Web page content that describes what's on the Web site or directs users to another section. For example, titles, subtitles, navigation links, paragraph blurbs, and copyright statements. The microcontent on a Web site's "Thank You" page (which appears after a user fills out a form) should always include the company's phone number, a link to the FAQ section, and information about when the user can expect to receive a reply.

Similar in shape to a traditional pen, it's a kind of stylus used with a tablet to enter input into a computer (instead of using a keyboard or mouse). The pen connects to a computer and allows users to write in their own handwriting-electronically-rather than having to type on a keyboard or use a mouse to point-and-click.

In television and advertising, phrase for "Okay, here we go, performance level everybody." Typically said immediately before the camera rolls.

November 10, 2009

To get online or to plug in.

An important component of electronic payment processing systems, "OLTP engines" drive a wide variety of e-commerce transactions as well. Automated bill payment, electronic banking, electronic funds transfers (EFT), online air reservations, and so on all work because this technology gives multiple users simultaneous access to large, secure databases.

Bye Bye

November 11, 2009

A fuzzy expert system is a form of artificial intelligence that uses a collection of membership functions (fuzzy logic) and rules (instead of Boolean logic) to reason about data. The rules in a fuzzy expert system are usually of a form similar to this: If x is low and y is high, then z = medium, where x and y are input variables (names for known data values), z is an output variable (a name for a data value to be computed), low is a membership function (fuzzy subset) defined on x, high is a membership function defined on y, and medium is a membership function defined on z. The antecedent (the rule's premise) describes to what degree the rule applies, while the conclusion (the rule's consequent) assigns a membership function to each of one or more output variables.

Most tools for working with fuzzy expert systems allow more than one conclusion per rule. The set of rules in a fuzzy expert system is known as the "rulebase" (or knowledge base).

The nickname for an entertainment portal that offers every kind of Internet functionality conceivable in a poorly designed mess.

A phrase used to reflect a major change in management that, up until that point, had been the same for a long time. For example, if there is executive turnover at a dot-com resulting in a change of business plans (or M&A of the company), then it can be said, the farmer died. It comes from the time when a farmer made all of the decisions regarding his land, and when he died, someone else decided what to grow or whether or not to sell the operation.

Bring It On

November 12, 2009

Instead of going through an intermediary to buy or sell goods online, users of this type of network get in direct contact with one another, thus bypassing the destination sites (or portals). Using the power of distributed computing, an open network is created by a host company that sells access to Web tools (such as chat, auctions and polling); interested Web sites subscribe to these tools and become affiliated with each other. Then, any user who can type a URL into their Web browser can access these affiliated sites (even if they're in a walled garden). Even users who do not have a browser can participate. For example, visitor A e-mails chat session access information to friend B; once friend B opens the e-mail, the chat is launched, and he or she can participate from within the e-mail program.

The name of an online ad that is launched in a new browser window while you're waiting for a Web page to load.

You're The Best

November 13, 2009

A manager who oversees project teams that include staff workers and who are spread across the globe. Instead of cajoling these e-collar workers into a weekend retreat to brainstorm or build morale, virtual managers must instill a sense of mission and team spirit in people who may never meet F2F. It is important for netcentric companies to have competent virtual managers because the ability to quickly assemble a virtual staff around a project idea is a competitive advantage in an economy with shrinking product cycles.

Slang for nomadic bands of homeless people in their teens and early twenties who travel from city to city, making their living primarily through panhandling.

November 14, 2009

A clever form of marketing in which the user is actually promoting the company that provides a service. Here's an example of how it works: When you send an e-card to someone, he or she has to go to a particular Web site to look at it. This makes you, the e-card sender, a marketer for that company, because you are suggesting that other people should go to this site and use this service. Furthermore, each recipient of an e-card becomes a potential marketer for the company, just as the initial sender is. So, viral marketing is like a virus that spreads. It's a variation on "word of mouth," a coveted form of marketing that can spread at record speed.

Are You Serious?

Online slang for a person who believes that a Nokia cell phone is the best phone no matter what anyone says.

November 15, 2009

Slang for the physical location within a company where most of the communication and decision-making occurs.

Hip-hop slang for something that's out-of-control cool. "The new Cypress Hill record is The Beast, man!"

A hardlink is a method of hyperlinking objects in the real world, including graphical tags (QR code), SMS tags, and RFID tags. The hardlink method establishes a reference link between a physical world object and a .mobi web page, just as a traditional hyperlink establishes an electronic reference to information on a web page.

A cell phone is the medium of this information exchange that is initiated whenever a user makes a connection with a hardlink database and enters an alphanumeric sequence found on the target object. As of 2009, unlike Japan, few U.S. cell phone providers offer graphical tag readers or other support for hardlinking methods.

November 16, 2009

A buzzword that describes what a person or company does well. A VP may say, "We're dropping the new product line in order to stay focused on our core competencies."

The devices used to play electronic or video games. Nintendo's GameCube, Sony's PlayStation, and Microsoft's Xbox are popular game players.

Politically correct shopping or cause-related marketing, such as that advocated by Benetton or Ben and Jerry's.

it means cool, a.k.a. word up

November 17, 2009

A phrase for working too hard or doing too many things at once, which can lead to stress and health problems.

An organized collection of information, characterized by the use of data fields, it provides a foundation for procedures such as retrieving information, drawing conclusions, and making decisions. In other words, it is an electronic filing system. A database does not have to be digital; a collection of recipes written on index cards and stored in a filing box also counts as a database. Traditional, computerized databases are organized by fields, records, and files. A field is a single piece of information; a record is a complete set of fields; and a file is a collection of records.

Hypertext is a modern concept in database design, where any object, whether it is a piece of text, an image, or some kind of sound clip, can be linked to any other object. Hypertext databases are helpful for organizing large amounts of disparate information, such as the content in large portals. To access information from a database, you need a database management system (DBMS), which is a collection of programs that enable you to enter, organize, and select data in a database.

Domestic Partner

Euphemism for writing computer documentation. "I'm done with the coding, so I'll be programming in Word for the next few weeks."

November 18, 2009

A format used to separate style from structure on Web pages, it is a feature of HTML that gives both Web developers and users more control over how Web pages are displayed. With CSS, designers create style sheets that define how different elements, such as headers and links, will appear. These style sheets can then be applied to any page or all pages on a particular Web site, which makes coding much easier. The term "cascading" derives from the fact that multiple style sheets can be applied to the same Web page. CSS was developed by the W3C; however, this specification continues to evolve and is not fully supported by all Web browsers.

Traditionally, it is a middleman or one who acts as a mediator; online, it refers to a company, such as eBay, that facilitates an exchange between consumers and vendors.

To bring a network, especially a LAN, to its knees by overloading it with data traffic. "We slagged the Net last night by playing Spectre while the MIS department was trying to reindex the accounting file."

Read And Enjoyed, But No Comment

November 19, 2009

A number used to identify a subnetwork so that an IP address can be shared on a LAN.

An IP address has two components, the network address and the host address.

For example, consider the IP address 66.201.69.207. Assuming this is part of a Class B network, the first two numbers (66.201) represent the Class B network address, and the second two numbers (69.207) identify a particular host on this network.

Any transaction that allows shareholders to sell stock and monetize all or part of their investment. For example, going public or being acquired are considered "liquidity events."

Refers to a user clicking on a Web link.

Out Of Stock

November 20, 2009

This refers to the placement of small computer files in seemingly every nook and cranny of a computer's system during the installation of an application. Any attempt to later delete that application inevitably leaves some digital kudzu behind, to interfere with other computer processes forevermore. What a PITA!

A Web server that supports any of the major security protocols, like SSL, that encrypt and decrypt messages to protect them against third party tampering. Making purchases from a secure Web server ensures that a user's payment or personal information can be translated into a secret code that's difficult to crack. Major security protocols include SSL, SHTTP, PCT, and IPSec.

"Public domain" generally refers to materials that are considered "public property" and available for anyone to use for any purpose. It specifically refers to intellectual property (IP) that is not owned or controlled by anyone and can therefore be reproduced without permission or payment.

A creative work is said to be in the public domain if there are no laws which restrict its use by the public at large. It should be noted that the public domain in contrast to copyrighted works is different from the public domain in contrast to trademarks or patented works and therefore requires legal counsel. Furthermore, public domain is not the same as copyleft.

FYI: A domain name never enters public domain in the sense that copyrighted material does. It is closer in nature to a trademark, in that a failure to maintain it makes it available for others to use. If another party registers a lapsed domain name, it is no longer available to the public, as would be the case with former intellectual property which has become public domain.

i hate it

November 21, 2009

The method used to move data around on the Internet. Packet switching breaks all of the data coming out of a machine into chunks, and each chunk has the addresses of where it came from and where it is going. Chunks of data from many different sources commingle on the same transmission lines and are sorted and directed to different routes by special machines along the way. This kind of technology enables users to send and receive information on the same lines at the same time.

Business slang for a project that does not require a great deal of technical expertise; that is, a big dumb gorilla could handle it. Commonly used in the industry in increments of "one banana" for very easy and "two banana" for easy. For example: "What's taking him so long to get your e-mail set up? It's a two banana problem at most."

Promotional items emblazoned with company logos, from the traditional type of giveaway (baseball cap, T-shirt, tote bag, or mouse pad) down to really weird junk (barf bags, butterfly nets, neon sunglasses, or pogo sticks). These items are usually given away in the thousands at shows and are either given in turn to other people, or kept as part of an individual's geekosphere.

Put Mind In Gear Before Opening Mouth

November 22, 2009

The layman version: a beneficial or positive feeling about something. The hacker version: self-evidently wonderful to anyone in a position to notice. As in, "The Trailblazer's 19.2K baud PEP mode with on-the-fly Lempel-Ziv compression is a good thing for sites relaying netnews."

It may also be something that can't possibly have any ill side-effects and may save considerable grief later, as in, "Removing the self-modifying code from that shared library would be a good thing." When said of software tools or libraries, as in, "YACC is a good thing," it specifically connotes that the thing has drastically reduced a programmer's workload. The phrase came from hackers long before it came from Martha Stewart.

The study of computers, especially of how they are designed and how they operate. Topics of interest include software and hardware and range from simple programming techniques to artificial intelligence research. Computer science is not just "tinkering around" with machines. It is the subject of serious research. David Gelernter, for example, is a Yale University computer scientist, the author of several books, and a leading figure in the third-generation AI.

When a company thinks they have a hot new idea or product, it will try to operate at hyperspeed in order to seize first-mover advantage and gain market share. First-to-market means being the first not necessarily to launch a new product, but to gain consumer confidence and hence market share. (Netscape is a prime example: Technically Mosaic was the first browser, but Netscape was first-to-market.)

Driving Under the Influence

November 23, 2009

A measurement of data transmission speed over a communications medium. Not to be confused with baud.

A role-playing exercise in the real world, with other people, in order to practice and learn from a situation in advance of it actually happening (such as a business situation). Simulations allow people to learn new behaviors or practice skills in a risk-free environment. Not to be confused with a computer simulation.

Fill In The Blanks

November 24, 2009

A user-friendly Internet program that tells you when other users are online and lets you communicate with them IRT. ICQ searches the Net and alerts you when friends or colleagues who also use ICQ sign on. With ICQ, you can chat, send messages, swap URLs, exchange files, play games, or just hang out as fellow netizens surfing the Web. ICQ lets you communicate regardless of the application you choose, be it chat, voice, message board, data conferencing, file transfer, or Internet games, and it supports a variety of popular Internet applications. It serves as a universal platform from which you can launch any P2P application (such as CoolTalk). It can also be used in a multiple-user mode, so groups can conduct conferences. The program runs in the background and takes up minimal memory and Net resources.

A corporate strategy to develop businesses based on emerging technologies that are not part of the company's core strategy or product offering, and then sell minority stakes to public investors. The difference between a spin-out and a spin-off is that the former has the potential to be some of the best technology developed whereas the latter is usually a component the company does not want.

Do You Have A Girlfriend

Slang for a Web site or chat room or mini-homepage that contains a large amount of pornographic content.

November 25, 2009

A process that verifies whether or not an individual or organization who has requested an action actually has the right to make the request. Requiring a password to modify a domain name's registration information is an example of authorization.

A financial or technical word that describes the process of taking something small and making it big. For example, "The consultants clearly explained why we need to leverage our core competencies and enter the B2B space." Usually seen as "leveraging our assets."

Someday Soon, Everything Will Be Acronyms

November 26, 2009

The set of protocols that make Telnet, FTP, e-mail, and other services possible among computers that don't belong to the same network.

An online marketing deal in which both companies share the revenue generated from online ads or sales to consumers.

Sorry 'Bout It

November 27, 2009

Also Known As

A person who uses a computer system and its applications to perform certain tasks. An end-user is also anyone who uses the Net. In other words, it's you.

An assertion by Robert Metcalfe, founder of 3Com Corporation and designer of the Ethernet protocol for computer networks. It states that "the usefulness, or utility, of a network equals the square of the number of users." For example, the Internet reached critical mass in 1993, when there were roughly 2.5 million host computers on the network, and by November 1997, the Internet contained approximately 25 million host computers.

November 28, 2009

Commonly used to describe the ability to send the same e-mail message simultaneously to multiple recipients. The term "broadcasting" is also used to describe a live event on the Internet that is streamed in real time to millions of computers.

In networking, a distinction is made between broadcasting and multicasting: Broadcasting sends a message to everyone on the network, whereas multicasting sends a message to a select list of recipients.

An assertion by Gordon Moore, who cofounded Intel in 1965. Moore's Law originally states that the number of transistors we can fit on a chip (or semiconductor) will double every eighteen months (and therefore so will the potential power of our machines). He later revises it to every two years. This law is generally accepted within the high-tech industry to illustrate that computers get drastically better each year.

Busting My Gut With Laughter

November 29, 2009

A graphical representation of a specific item (or situation). The small images located on your desktop or Web browser, which you click on to activate a program or a link, are icons. For example, "Put the Netscape icon directly on your desktop so in the future all you have to do is point-and-click to access the Web."

A media file within a presentation or Web page (such as part of a movie or song).

See You Online

November 30, 2009

A feature of e-mail, fax, or any type of communication program that allows a call to be answered or "picked up." There is either a light on the modem (if it's external) or an indicator on the GUI of the software that shows the auto answer feature is turned on. Most programs must be configured for auto answer to work correctly.

Real Life

To be connected, online; to be a surfer, or part of the digerati. This term also refers to what happens when cappuccino cowboys drink too many mochas. It's also the name of a popular magazine, Wired, a leading publication that covers all things high-tech, thanks to the team of Kevin Kelly, Louis Rossetto, and Jane Metcalfe.

Entails sending technology and call-center jobs overseas, however, instead of "outsourcing" jobs to India or the Philippines, U.S. companies such as Citibank, Intel, and IBM are "nearsourcing" jobs to Latin America. This is a growing business trend due to business friendly policies and aggressive marketing in Brazil, Nicaragua, Panama, and Costa Rica.