Internet Word of the Day Archive

October 01, 2011

Do I Look Like I Give A Damn

In short, podcasting lets everyday users distribute audio files over the Internet for playback any time on computers or digital music players. It is the process of creating an audio show of some sort available in MP3 format via an RSS feed that supports enclosures. Podcasts are designed to include talk shows, tutorials, music, or other audio content.

Hey, give a geek an iPod and what's he going to do? Write a script to automatically fill it with interesting content. Let's say you have a downloadable audio show that you're interested in listening to on a regular basis because it has something with new material each time. In the past you would have to go to the Web site and locate the new download where you'd manually grab the MP3 file and listen to it. With podcasting, online publishers put together RSS feeds that announce when the file is available. With the right kind of feedreader, you can have the file automatically downloaded as soon as it is released. This way there is only one step: "automatic downloading" in which the software takes the download and copies it into your digital music player (such as an iPod, hence its name "podcasting"). The idea is that if you go to sleep with zero music on your iPod, you can wake up and the new audio files will be waiting for you to listen to them.

Some netizens believe podcasting will revitalize the art of radio. All you need are rudimentary recording tools, free software, and a speedy Internet connection. Like the bloggers before them, podcasters are changing the nature of the medium.

Even some big companies, such as Oracle and IBM, are already using podcasting as a means of disseminating company information, there are questions about the effectiveness of audio-only presentations (especially for selling purposes). Still, as a technology, podcasting is inexpensive and awaits creative niche uses.

For those of you who still don't quite get it, think of it like the desktop aggregator: You can subscribe to a set of feeds, and easily view the new stuff from all of the feeds together, or view each feed separately. Podcasting works the same way, with this exception: Instead of reading the new content on a computer screen, you listen to the new content on an iPod or digital music player. (The format used is RSS 2.0 with enclosures.) For a quick sample of the latest podcasts, check out the link below!

A form of text-based online advertising, double-underlined links are ad media that are meant to be relevant and unobtrusive. The way it works is this: the double-underlined links scan each page for appropriate keywords and contextual relevancy. The keywords are pre-chosen by the online publisher to be relevant to the site, however, more often than not, they appear due to supply and demand. If a match is found, a clearly visible advertising link (usually indicated by a green or blue double underline) is auto-generated. When you hover your mouse over this type of link, a small pop-up box will appear with the sponsored ad information in it. If you don't "scroll over" or click on a link, your reading experience is uninterrupted.

Double-underlined links make use of server-side technology, meaning it resides within the online publisher's Web site. This is meaningful because unlike cookies, no code or information is passed to your computer, and therefore it does not compromise your privacy. If you use a browser prior to Internet Explorer 5.0, Netscape 7.2, or Firefox 0.8 or later, you won't see double-underlined links.

Prior to the stock market crash in the spring of 2000, people considered this time period 'the calm before the storm'. Now, the term is used to talk about the 'calm after the storm' as the lingering dot-coms maintain a low profile and attempt to boost their profits to match that of all large organizations.

October 02, 2011

No Reply Necessary

One of the seven "baby Bells" created by the break-up of "Ma Bell" (AT&T) in 1984: Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, Bell South, Southwestern Bell, Pac Bell, US West, and NYNEX. The baby Bells, in turn, own twenty-two smaller BOCs (Bell Operating Companies) that provide local telephone service.

AOL cybercop-speak for an immature user who posts vulgarity in a public forum. "You've got a 'cusskiddie' in the SNES versus Genesis folder."

A ringtone is the sound made by a cell phone when it rings and it specifically refers to the customized sounds one selects on his or her mobile device.

In telecommunication jargon, cell phones (also called wireless phones, mobile phones, and handheld phones) are a mobile communication system that applies a mix of radio wave transmission and common telephone switching to enable telephone communication to and from mobile users within a specified area. The "ringtone" facility was provided so that people would be able to determine when their phone was ringing when in the company of other mobile phone owners.

Ring tones have proved a popular method of personalizing phones. People like the idea of customizing their phones with their favorite music, however, some people find certain ringtones annoying in certain public situations. As such, many people opt to use the vibrate feature on their cell phone when in public. A mobile vibrator is a mechanical device designed to generate vibrations instead of ringtone. They are mostly used for noisy environments, such places where ringtone noise would be disturbing or for the hearing impaired.

Some basic technical properties of mobile phone ringtones include MIDI. A mobile phone ringtone is a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) file that is played by a mobile phone. These tunes can be monophonic (very simple because the phone can only deliver one sound/beep at a time) or polyphonic (with multiple phonetic values consisting of several tone series or songs). As of 2007, 16 separate sounds can be produced by the phones that carries polyphonic ringtones. This makes for music that is rich in texture and the tunes seem more like the music you hear on CDs. Furthermore, polyphonic ringtone sounds can also include voices.

Enough explanation ;-) The fun of ringtones is picking out your favorite sound so that each time your cell phone rings, you get to hear it! Cell phones from companies such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Siemens, Sony-Ericsson, LG, Sanyo, and Panasonic have ringtone capabilities. Some phones allow you to have a different ringtone for each person who calls you. Usually the ringtones are pre-loaded on the phone but you can also download your own ringtones to personalize your handheld experience.

October 03, 2011

Lame Ass Quote

A search utility that retrieves information from the Web site you're on (or from a network of Web sites). It does not search the entire Web. This is one way to find pages in what is known as the invisible Web, and in an effort to really get granular, you may be able to choose which sections of the Web site you want to search.

The much coveted office cubicle with a window.

Slang for the "yadi yadi yadi" chit chat that seems to occur during the first 15 minutes in corporate meetings.

October 04, 2011

Whatever

An invisible technology, it is similar to a LAN in that the computer to which the network is connected responds the same way it would to an ordinary wired Ethernet. The only difference is that the data packets are transmitted and received over radio waves, not cables or wires. Network devices "built to spec" transmit signals around the 2.4 GHz band. The only problem is that Wi-Fi, HomeRF, and Bluetooth (which all share the same 2.4 GHz frequency range) are not compatible with each other. That could mean disruption, interference, or obsolescence if a different standard should emerge.

A form of conservation presented by electric companies by offering incentives to organizations that observe "demand-side management". Companies that can adjust their power usage from peak times to off-peak times become more efficient.

An Internet search that uncovers interesting and valuable information that was not intended in the original search. "I found this really cool site on tiki collecting during a serendipity search."

October 05, 2011

The centralized, computerized trading system proposed by Nasdaq to replace the ECNs.

Love You With All My Heart

Slang for the practice of hurriedly installing a customer's cable system and then leaving before testing the connection.

The job title for a numbers guru who digs beneath the surface of page views and traffic reports to create a detailed picture of what's really happening on a Web site. By spotting patterns in user behavior data, such as visit frequency, visit length, and who's shopping at certain times (and what they're buying), a New Metrics Analyst helps Web companies set advertising rates, identify cross-selling opportunities, reduce churn, and develop new marketing strategies.

Sample salary: $80,000-$110,000 for a manager; $60,000-$85,000 for an analyst.

October 06, 2011

An interface for users whose Internet Service Provider (ISP) only offers character-based, command line access to a Unix system (hence the term "shell account").

Just Wondering

The sound of money going into your bank account when you are not actively making a sale. It implies that you are earning passive income. For example, "Last week, I was on vacation, and my ad banners generated $500 without me having to do a thing. Cha-ching!"

The Internet has drastically shortened product cycles, increased globalization, and created a need for more real-time communications services. As such, entrenched, single-purpose teams aren't necessarily the most effective or nimble solution to many of today's business problems. Jumping from project to project, Virtual Organization Leaders assemble teams of experts from around the world to achieve specific goals. When the task is complete, the Virtual Organization Leader disbands the team and moves on to the next problem. The work is typically coordinated online.

Sample salary: $60,000-$90,000.

October 07, 2011

The location of the telephone company's switching center in a given area, it connects customers' home or office "local loops" to the global telephone network.

The transmission of video programming to a niche audience, primarily through relatively inexpensive means like streaming video over high-speed Internet connections.

The notion behind slivercasting is that there are thousands of programs that would never make it into prime time but still have highly dedicated small audiences. It is assumed this kind of programming would not generate enough interest or revenue for traditional broadcast, however, slivercasting can be profitable because it enables highly targeted advertising aimed at specific demographics or interest groups.

A slivercast (or Internet TV channel) is broadcast only on the Internet, but it enables video to reach a large worldwide audience at a much lower initial cost than a satellite channel. Visionaries believe the next wave of media is to unleash the power of serving people's special interests, and slivercasts achieve this by enabling experts to broadcast their messages to their particular niche audience.

Click "more info" below to read an excellent article about slivercasting!

"Cyberbullying" is when a child, tween, or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, tween, teen, or person using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies, or mobile phones. It is instigated by one minor against another minor; once adults become involved, it is cyberstalking or cyberharassment. Adult cyberharassment or cyberstalking is not called cyberbullying unless the bully was disguising him or herself as a teenager (see example below).

The methods used are limited only by the person's imagination and access to technology. The cyberbully one moment may become the victim the next, as kids often change roles going from victim to bully and back again. This is of grave concern because reports indicate that children have killed each other and committed suicide after having been involved in a cyberbullying incident.

Cyberbullying is usually not a one time communication, unless it involves a death threat or a credible threat of serious bodily harm. Kids usually know it when they see it, while parents may be more worried about the lewd language used by the kids than the hurtful effect of rude and embarrassing posts.

Cyberbullying may arise to the level of a misdemeanor cyberharassment charge, or if the child is young enough may result in the charge of juvenile delinquency. Most of the time the cyberbullying does not go that far, although parents often try and pursue criminal charges. It typically can result in a child losing their ISP or IM accounts as a terms of service violation. In some cases, if hacking or identity theft is involved, it can be a serious criminal matter under state and federal law.

Even though cyberbullying is associated with teens and children, adults engage in it too. Known as the "MySpace suicide" in May of 2008, a Missouri woman was accused of creating a fraudulent MySpace account (saying she was a 16-year-old boy) and using it to cyberbully a 13-year-old girl who later committed suicide (a former friend of one of her daughters). Read the full article here. In this instance, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles invoked a criminal statute more commonly used to go after computer hackers. The girl, Megan Meier, has become the poster child for cyberbullying, much like 9-year-old Amber Hagerman of the Amber Alert missing child program in the United States.

Original Gangsta

October 08, 2011

Short for telephone cord or telephone wire.

Just Teasing

The term "orphans" refers to extra lines of programming that do not serve the program's objective. They refer to nothing, lead nowhere, and are usually removed as part of the final debugging and compiling process.

Slang for bringing personal work to the office, such as paying bills, playing games, and reading online newspapers on company time.

October 09, 2011

Many organizations are adhering to the idea of employing "customer experience teams" to control the customer experience with the product that is offered by the company. Their job is to make sure that the customer encounters a positive experience when interacting with the company or its products.

The term "tween" stands for "in between" being a teenager and a child, and generally refers to prepubescent kids who are 9-12 years old. It refers to the breaking point of a child when he or she rejects more childlike images and associations and aspires to be more like a teen.

Here's an example of its usage: "You should add 'crdtchck' as shorthand for 'Credit Check' because it is an important topic that will become more relevant for GenY and tweens. Tweeners seem to be texting all the time, don't you think?" Yes I do ;-)

Click on "more info" below for a list of texting shorthand!

A quadruple-play network offers mobility in addition to the services provided by a triple-play network, which include audio, video, and data.

Opponent -or- Over

October 10, 2011

An online marketing term, this is the percentage of users who click on an online ad. For example, if 50 users click on an ad that has been shown 1000 times, it works out to be: 50/1000 X 100% = 5%. It is supposed to be a good measurement of an online ad's effectiveness (which in general must not be very effective, since the average click-through rate is less than 1%). Targeted ad banners, on the other hand, are said to increase click-through rates by 20%.

Those features of the American landscape (strip malls, motel chains, prefab housing) that are exactly the same no matter what part of the country you're in. "We were so lost in generica, I actually forgot what city we were in."

A nickname for using a proxy server to search Google anonymously. Many people don't realize that when you do a search on Google, your IP address, the time, and the keywords you entered are stored in their database permanently. This information can be used in a court of law against you and to date, Google willingly allows authorities to consult their database.

Click on the link below and watch the video; a man was sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife and the evidence, in part, was his previous Google searches.

Mom Over Shoulder

October 11, 2011

Help, I'm Out Of Coffee

As technology evolves so do careers in music announcing. In addition to the development of VJ's (video jockeys for music television) there is also the performance position of the Internet disc jockey (or "net-J"). Many enterprising webcasters have begun their own radio stations broadcasting strictly over the Internet. As the number of Internet radio stations continues to grow, so does the public's awareness of using the Internet as another form of radio.

This seemingly cryptic looking term is actually the word "I'm" (the contraction of "I am"). When you see "IB4m" online, it's most likely because the statement "I am" has been distorted due to different computer programs rendering the apostrophe differently. In other words, the reason this term appears as IB4m instead of I'm is because of gremlins. Gremlins are mysterious characters that sometimes appear on your computer screen, in text documents, or in e-mail messages. For example, if you type a word with an apostrophe using Microsoft Word and then copy it over into HTML, the apostrophe may appear as a small box instead.

The same thing happened years ago when this code " & n b s p ; " suddenly appeared all over the Web (which is actually the HTML code for the "&" sign). Some browsers didn't interpret the HTML code for the "&" sign correctly so they displayed the actual cryptic looking code.

FYI: I've seen several forums where people from different countries post questions and it appears that the computer software running the forum is interpreting "I'm" as "IB4m" I also saw "I'd" rendered as "IB4d" (example link below).

The yottabyte is a unit of information (or computer storage) equal to one septillion bytes (which is one long scale quadrillion or 1024) or equal to one quadrillion gigabytes.

Derived from the SI prefix yotta- as of 2011, no storage system has achieved one zettabyte of information. The combined space of all computer hard drives in the world does not amount to even one yottabyte, but was estimated at approximately 160 exabytes in 2006. As of 2009, the entire Internet was estimated to contain close to 500 exabytes.

The term "yobibyte" (YiB), using a binary prefix, is used for the corresponding power of 1024.

October 12, 2011

Located in the home directory on a Web server, the docs directory is the folder that contains a Web site's HTML and image files.

A term that describes someone who fights spam. It is a play on the words "tree hugger," which refers to a person who climbs a tree to protest its cutting down, a "bandwidth hugger" sets his or her computer to not yield any system capacity (a.k.a. bandwidth) to junk e-mail.

It means how relevant a Web page is to the keywords a user enters when doing an online search. It refers to where a Web site or Web page is ranked within search engine results. For example, if your Web site is an Internet dictionary, when a person queries "Internet dictionaries" in a search engine, your ranking indicates where in the search results your page is listed. You will hear it used like this: "My ranking on Google is within the top 5 results!"

have a good one

October 13, 2011

Better Known As

An online advertising method where the advertiser delivers an experience to the audience, rather than just clicking on a picture. During a "surround session" the goal is that the advertiser controls every major ad position for a set number of pages. This allows the advertiser a more prolonged relationship with the user, while also telling a story, similar to television.

The numbers that appear when a computer fouls up while converting from decimal to binary, and vice versa. For example, if it's the number 5 you're after, you'll end up with 4.999999 instead. The term was readily thrown around during discussions of the Pentium floating-point bug story.

The act of copying music from a CD into a music file which you can later play on your digital audio player. It's easy to "rip" CDs, all you need is a media management software (such as Microsoft Windows Media Player). You save the ripped music in a folder on your computer's hard drive and then copy it to your MP3 player. You can rip all kinds of files including WAV and streaming audio.

October 14, 2011

It refers to an operating system, such as Palm OS or Mac OS.

It is also a chat acronym.

see: invisible Web

Not Much Here, Just Chilling

The classic definition of a "drone" involves several aspects including (1) Male honeybees which gather no honey; (2) One who lives on the labors of others; a lazy, idle fellow; and (3) That which gives out a monotonous tone or dull sound. Leave it to the worker bees to come up with a term called "office drone." It is a nickname given to the laziest person in the cube farm, or the one who tries to pass off as much work as possible while still maintaining the semblance of productivity (see also: throw it over the wall).

In other words, if your life resembles a Dilbert character, your colleagues may be secretly calling you the office drone behind your back. However most office drones are keenly aware of their sluggardness and openly acknowledge it, for example "As the token office drone, I am constantly looking for ways I can break free of the monotonous, death pit of Entry-Level Temp Work."

October 15, 2011

A file or directory on a server that usually contains information about the directory or Web site, such as access privileges, dates, and even a list of other indexes (indices). A file called "index.html" is most likely the starting point (or homepage) for a Web site; a server will most likely be configured to automatically display the index.html (or .htm) file when a request for a Web site comes to the server. This means it is the default page that appears when you type in a URL. (Sites that use Cold Fusion may have index.cfm as the default page.)

The online world counts eyeballs. The insurance and managed care industries count "belly-buttons". One belly-button is the equivalent of one person. "That insurance policy covers five belly buttons."

The feeling that you've heard this particular bullsh*t before.

Work Of Art

October 16, 2011

I Found A Bug

Visual images displayed by a device (such as a VCR) as opposed to audio signals transmitted by a device (like a radio). Homemade videos (known as viral videos) have become very popular on the Web due to the fact that they are cheap, easy to make and easy to distribute.

For information about Desktop Video, click on the "more info" button below!

An area of a Web site that encourages users to sign it and post comments or feedback.

This refers to the contact and interaction that a customer has with a particular company. In the software world, it is what the customer interacts with visually on the computer screen. In a business sense, it is the interaction the customer has with the company itself, such as the sales or customer service employee.

October 17, 2011

The handwritten memos dispensed by General Motors manufacturing czar Donald Hackworth. Hack-o-grams often end in a request for a "chinwag".

A slang expression that refers to people telling the online world about themselves. For example, once you've posted personal (or professional) information about yourself on a social networking site or a blog, you're said to have "opened the drapes" meaning it's there for anyone and everyone to see. Just be sure not to do a drug dump!

Can I Copy Your Home Work

October 18, 2011

An automated program that extracts information from fields in registration forms. An auto-parser will detect and report errors or incomplete information in forms. (When filling out a form online, you may have received an annoying message, such as, "You didn't include your fax number," that required you to go back and fill in the entire form again. That's the auto-parser at work). Upon receipt of complete and correct registration forms, the auto-parser enters the appropriate data into a company's database.

If You See What I Mean

A pricing model that defines how much revenue a publisher receives when a viewer clicks on a banner ad and is taken to the advertiser's Web site. The publisher is only paid if the viewer becomes a qualified lead by completing the registration form or signing up for the offer the advertiser is promoting.

Advertisers constantly battle for their online ad to get the most views so that they can sell their product. The first page that a Web user lands on after signing in gets "first eyes". This term is used by many ISPs and portals, as it refers to the first opportunity at selling and influencing a user.

October 19, 2011

An architecture that enables pieces of programs (called objects) to communicate with one another regardless of what programming language they were written in or what operating system they're running on. An industry consortium known as the Object Management Group (OMG) developed CORBA.

A Friend As Good As You

When companies that out-source work flow receive poor quality of work, service or cost effectiveness, they will bring the job back in-house, or "back-source".

The people who are reeled in and trapped in the Web by clever marketing strategies that offer the user free points, coupons and credit toward merchandise. These "flies" spend hours fixed in to their computers viewing these online ads so that they can accumulate these free rewards.

October 20, 2011

All Concerned

The Web makes room for a new third party in a shopping transaction; a metamediary sits between buyers and sellers, offering a centralized, unbiased source of information and resources related to a specific task, such as buying a home or car. From this point, customers can educate themselves on the top, research options and prices, and when ready, jump directly to related vendors in the marketplace.

A key component of the "n" Wi-Fi standard, MIMO is a technique that can greatly improve wireless range and speed by caturing formerly stray parts of a wireless signal and merging them.

Slang for turning off any device that people can reach you on (like a cell phone, two-way pager, computer, home phone, etc.) in order to avoid a certain person. For example, "Hannah is blacking out Tucker because he was acting like an idiot to her friends. She doesn't play that way!"

October 21, 2011

A feature of HTML that gives both Web site developers and users more control over how Web pages are displayed. With CSS, designers and users can create style sheets that define how different elements, such as headers and links, appear. These style sheets can then be applied to any page on a particular Web site. So in theory all the pages can be formatted the same way making it 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.

Not A Damn Thing

A term bandied about as if it were an official organization, for example: "We're a Global 3500 company." Defined by Forrester Research as the largest 3,500 companies in the world with at least $1 billion in annual revenue, it was formerly known as the Global 2000.

Used to describe very large binary files. "The speed of your server is a function of the size and number of BLOBs you'll be moving through the network."

October 22, 2011

The name for an invisible layer of software that links together disparate software systems. Middleware forms a single virtual application, with real-time access to data sources (such as flight schedules) and business processes (such as seat assignments). see also: multitiered application, stovepipe

A Japanese term for a tidal wave, used as slang to mean "a huge amount." For example, "As was the case with the dot-coms, a tsunami of VC money is expected to wash over the genetic engineering sector."

So What's Up

A blog that focuses on news events and items that cover a particular neighborhood in great detail -- and in particular, places that might be too physically small or sparsely populated to attract much traditional media coverage. Because of this, many people have associated "placeblogs" with the term "citizen journalism," which refers to news gathering and reporting done by non-journalists.

October 23, 2011

A file that lists what you want others on the Net to know about you. It is placed in the home directory on your public-access site (the server that hosts your Web site).

Wild Ass Guess

It refers to a well-paying job that people take to pay off their debts, one that they'll quit as soon as they're solvent again.

The action of adding an e-mail address to your address box to ensure you receive it.

Since spam has become such a big problem, most e-mail services and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have put some sort of blocking or filtering system in place to tell the good guys from the bad. Unfortunately these systems for stopping spam are far from perfect and they often block e-mail messages that you have, in fact, requested (also known as a false positive).

To make sure you receive the newsletters and e-mails you want, whitelist every new subscription right at the start, before delivery is interrupted. This means adding the address in the "From" line of a valued e-mail to your address book.

As you've probably realized by now, technology is complicated and the instructions for whitelisting are different for every e-mail system :-( NetLingo is here to help! Use the link below to read whitelist instructions for the most popular e-mail programs!

FYI: In computing, a "blacklist" is an access control mechanism that means allow everybody except members of the blacklist. The opposite is a "whitelist" which means allow nobody except members of the white list. As a sort of middle ground, there is something called a "greylist" which serves as a temporary blacklist that could be used, for example, to block poorly-configured e-mail clients that may be used to send undesirable e-mail. And yet another form of list is the "yellow list" which is a list of e-mail server IP addresses that send mostly good e-mail but do send some spam (for example, Yahoo!, Hotmail, Gmail). The term "yellow listed server" is a server that should never be accidentally blacklisted. The yellow list is checked first and if listed then black list tests are ignored.

October 24, 2011

Any picture you see on a Web page is a bitmap. Bitmaps come in many file formats, such as GIF, JPG, TIF, BMP, PCT, PCX, and DIB (Device Independent Bitmap). They can be read and edited by paint programs and image editors such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. As its name suggests, a bitmap is a map of dots or pixels. If you zoom in or try to scale up a bitmap, it will look blocky.

End Of Message

The online equivalent of "Black Friday" this expression refers to the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday. It goes like this: In the brick-and-mortar world, the day after Thanksgiving is one of the year's biggest days for shoppers and retailers. The longtime nickname "Black Friday" historically came from the notion that this is the day when sales pushed money-losing stores into the black. In the click-and-mortar world of online shopping, the following Monday is the peak day for shopping and online transactions, thus it is cyber Monday (or "Black Monday"). The reason it occurs on Monday is attributed to the fact that consumers take advantage of high-speed Internet connections at work to do their holiday shopping.

An online ad format that is transparent and appears over a Web page.

October 25, 2011

The location where a programmer enters commands to tell a Unix host system what he or she wants it to do. In DOS, the command line is the text you type after the prompt.

A corporate executive who steps in to help an Internet start-up get off the ground or to help steer a struggling business through tough times. They are often replaced by a CEO once the storm has been weathered.

If I Remember -or- If I Recall

What Jay Chiat of Chiat Day accuses his employees of doing if they sit at the same table more than two days in a row.

October 26, 2011

Spank The Monkey

A device that runs programs for displaying and manipulating text, graphics, symbols, audio, video, and numbers.

A computer accepts information in the form of digital data. Complex computers also include the means for storing data (including software programs). A program may be built into the computer (in the logic circuitry, located on the microprocessors), or may be loaded into the computer's storage and then started by an administrator or user. Today's computers have both kinds of programming.

Most histories of the modern computer begin with the analytical engine envisioned by Charles Babbage, who followed the mathematical ideas of George Boole (see: Boolean logic), the mathematician who first stated the principles of logic inherent in today's digital computer. In Charles Babbage's day (the early 1800s), there was a rather high error rate in mathematical computations. He wanted to design a device that would do the computations successfully, without the human error factor. He never built a real computer; however, he did build a working model of a computing machine that he called a "difference engine." It calculated mathematical tables using differences. Babbage's assistant and collaborator, Ada Lovelace, is said to have introduced the ideas of program loops and subroutines and she is sometimes considered the first programmer.

Modern computers inherently follow the ideas of the stored program laid out by John von Neumann in 1945. Essentially, the program is read by the computer one instruction at a time; an operation is performed, then the computer reads the next instruction, and so on.

Prior to the PC, which is small and affordable, computers were large and expensive. Companies enabled multiple users to share the computer resources through attached terminals. Starting in the late 1980's, technological advances made it feasible to build smaller-sized computers that individuals could use independently, whether at work or at home. These were then "networked into" the larger system.

Recently, computers and programs have been devised that allow multiple programs (and computers) to work on the same problem, at the same time, in parallel (see: network computing). For many users, though, a computer acts only as a "glorified typewriter," used to cut-and-paste objects and to save documents. But computers can also perform a variety of other tasks, such as accounting and desktop publishing.

A computer system includes peripherals, such as hard and floppy disk drives, a monitor, a mouse, the operating system, software, and a printer. All of these components are designed to work together. You need a computer to access the Internet, browse the Web, and send or receive e-mail, among other things.

Click on "more info" below for a timeline of computers!

A phrase popularized by Malcom Gladwell's book "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference." It is another way of describing a turning point.

A "backronym" (or bacronym) is a phrase that is constructed "after the fact" from a previously existing initialism or acronym. The term is sometimes used to refer to the initialism or acronym itself but usually, it is a "replacement" backronym, the abbreviation already having an associated phrase. When the backronym phrase becomes more popular than the original, the word becomes an "anacronym."

Backronym is a portmanteau of backward and acronym coined in 1983. An example of a backronym from the word acronym is as follows: Acronyms Condense Representations Of Neologisms You Memorize

In the above example, because the word acronym itself is not an acronym, the phrase is a "pure" backronym (not a replacement backronym). Furthermore, since the phrase indirectly refers to the word itself, it is also apronymic. Also, because the word acronym itself appears in its backronym, the phrase is also a recursive-backronym. If this backronym helps you remember the word acronym or backronym, then it is also a mnemonic.

Another example of a backronym is "Ichthus" (™§

October 27, 2011

Anyone

The process of embedding distinctive identifiers into URLs contained in HTML content. These identifiers are recognized by Web servers, resulting in an evaluation of the user as well as the number of visits to a particular Web site.

An expression that describes the ability for users to see certain parts of several big U.S. cities through panoramic images on Google's Street View feature for Google Maps. Click on the link below to view the "Top 15 Google Street View Sightings" as seen on Mashable ;-)

Technically it is audio data that is stored on a computer system, represented by a binary system (1's and 0's), and read by audio software. In layman's language it is music files that can be downloaded, played, and shared on any number of devices. On the Internet, music is digital and it comes in several file formats.

There are three major groups of audio file formats:

• Uncompressed audio formats, such as WAV, AIF, and AU;
• Lossless compression formats (which allows the exact original data to be reconstructed), such as FLAC, APE, WV, TTA, Apple Lossless, WMA; and
• Lossy compression formats (which does not allow the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data), such as MP3, AAC, lossy WMA.

October 28, 2011

Market Maker

The holy grail of interactive media is to be more targeted. Behavioral targeting is when the online advertiser places the message in the path of the user, based on the user's past behavior. That's opposed to traditional targeting, where the online ad is placed against content the advertiser assumes the user will be interested in. It's one of those smart Internet ideas that's been surprisingly slow to catch on because it relies on sophisticated tracking technology. While the use of BT is growing, it is primarily only offered by a handful of companies.

Also known as the "hash key," the pound sign (#) is often heard in voice mail instructions.

Nickname for the crate of hard-copy scientific data that must be printed out and sent to patent lawyers when seeking a biotech patent.

October 29, 2011

Also known as ad banner or online ad, is a graphical Web advertising image usually placed at the top of content pages that links to the advertiser's content page. The standard size for a "banner ad" is 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels tall.

A number, created by an operating system, that computers use to reconstruct data sent over the Internet.

A nickname for the aluminum lunch truck that makes the rounds in parking lots and industrial centers during lunchtime to feed the worker bees. In some urban locations, it is the only option for food around noontime.

Have Advised

October 30, 2011

The option for an online advertiser to purchase ad space on any page of a particular Web site, regardless of whether or not the site is part of an ad network.

In Your Dreams

In the study of language, semantics refers to the meaning of words. Therefore, a "semantic search" will search and discover the meaning of words, unlike the typical search engine method of searching only for the occurrence of keyword(s) on a Web page.

A semantic search makes it easier to locate relevant information to the user's subject of interest, saving the user a lot of time reading through unrelated Web pages.

Known as the next generation in Web site search engine technology, every Web page indexed by a semantic search engine uses a unique set of tags. These tags go beyond providing keywords and descriptions, they provide content and relationships.

Netizens who publish their journals, diaries, and daily ramblings on the Web and organize them into journal webrings and link lists.

October 31, 2011

Now That You Mention It

"AI" traditionally stands for artificial intelligence.

"AI" is also text message shorthand used in online chat, IM, e-mail, blogs, or newsgroup postings, it means "as if."

Click on "more info" below!

Slang for a twenty dollar bill.

A buzzword created in Silicon Valley, referring to the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity, and applies economic theory to solve various information management problems. In other words, "attention economy" is a marketplace where consumers agree to receive services in exchange for their attention. Examples include personalized news, personalized search, alerts, and recommendations to buy. Economists agree that a key point is about the consumer having a choice - they get to choose where their attention is 'spent'. Another key ingredient is relevancy - as long as the consumer sees relevant content, he or she is more likely to stick around (which creates more opportunities to sell).