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A
Apache - A Unix-based, open-source
Web server that is used to host about half the sites on the Internet.
Originally, Apache was a Unix product, but now versions for Windows,
OS/2 and other platforms exist. As with most open-source projects,
there are numerous add-ons and tailored versions of the server
available, which are created using the Apache module API. The
name comes from its origins as a series of "patch files."
Applet - Usually a small Java program that can
be embedded in an HTML page.
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information
Interchange) - The defacto world-wide standard for the code numbers
used by computers to represent all the upper and lower-case Latin
letters, numbers, punctuation, etc. There are 128 standard ASCII
codes each of which can be represented by a 7 digit binary number:
0000000 through 1111111.
ASP (Active Server Pages) - A Microsoft technology
similar to CGI that is used to create dynamic Web pages. Pages
using ASP are created with VBScript, Perlscript or JavaScript,
and integrated with the HTML of a page. The ASP code is then compiled
on-the-fly by the server and outputs standard HTML. ASP is typically
used to perform database access or other interactive functions
that are interpreted by Microsoft?s Internet information server
(IIS).
B
Bandwidth
The measure of the amount of data you can send through a connection.
Usually measured in bits-per-second. A full page of English text
is about 16,000 bits. A fast modem has the bandwidth of about
57,000 bits in one second. The more bandwidth, generally, the
faster the connection.
Banner
Banners are the basic unit of advertising on the Web. They were
pioneered by GNN and HotWired back in the frontier days of 1994
and are now nearly ubiquitous, appearing in all sorts of shapes,
sizes, and locations. Generally .gif image files with limited
animation, and usually under 12 Kb. The most common is the long
horizontal banner, which is (oddly enough) 468 pixels long by
60 pixels tall. Other standard unit sizes are 125 x 125, 234 x
60, 120 x 60, and a relatively new 120 x 600 "skyscraper"
format.
Bit Depth
Bit depth describes the file size of an image by orders of magnitude,
based on how many color options of each single pixel. To calculate
the maximum number of colors for an image of a particular bit
depth, remember that the number of colors is equal to two to the
power of what the bit depth is. For example, a GIF can support
up to eight bits per pixel, and therefore can have as a many as
256 colors, since two to the power of eight equals 256. Such a
GIF would have a bit depth of 8. A standard photographic image,
such as a JPEG is considered a 24 bit image because of the millions
of colors on its pallette.
Bitmap
A mapped grid of pixels that can be saved as a file. Both JPEG
and GIF are bitmap graphic formats. Currently, the only other
way to store an image is as a vector graphic. You can't easily
scale bitmap images, but you can control every single pixel and
thus achieve many effects impossible in vector graphics. Conversely,
vector formats offer advantages of scalability and lower bandwidth
requirements. When you compress a bitmapped image, you remove
some of the visual information. To bypass this, the portable network
graphics format (or PNG, pronounced "ping") was designed
to store a single bitmap image for transmittal over computer networks
without losing this data. Different bitmap formats have different
pros and cons.
Boolean Logic / Boolean Search
Method of using operators such as "AND," "OR,"
"AND NOT" and sometimes "NEAR." when typing
a search into a database.
Brand / Branding
Branding is the messaging work a company does to encourage consumers
to feel a certain way about their product. From touchy-feely character
attributes to laundry lists of product features, it's a marketer's
job to help you assimilate these ideas. Brand is, in many ways
the personality and reputation of your organization.
Browser / Web Browser
Browsers are software programs installed on your computer that
enable you to view web documents. They read HTML and follow its
commands to display the text, images, sounds, and other features
you see on a web page. Microsoft Internet Explorer (called simply
IE) and Netscape are examples of browsers. Note that browsers
display content slightly differently from one another, so a web
site may look and act a bit different from browser to browser.
C
Cascading Style Sheets / Style Sheets
(CSS) - A method of setting stylistic parameters such as type
size, color, spacing, etc. for an HTML document or set of documents,
all of which reference the same parameters in an external file.
Style sheets enable you to make a change to one document and have
that change reflected throughout the site, rather than needing
to make individual changes to each page.
Clickthrough / Clickthrough Rate - The rate at
which viewers actually click on ad banners and go to the advertiser's
site - whether to sign up for something, to make a purchase, or
just to find out more. It generally ranges from 1 to 3 percent
industry-wide, a calculation arrived at by dividing the gross
number of clicks by the gross number of advertising impressions
served for a given campaign.
Client - A software program that is used to contact
and obtain data from a Server software program on another computer,
often across a great distance. Each client program is designed
to work with one or more specific kinds of Server programs, and
each Server requires a specific kind of client. A web browser
is a specific kind of client.
CMYK - CMYK stands for cyan magenta yellow and
blacK and is a color system used in the offset printing of full-color
documents. Offset uses cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks and
is often referred to as "four-color" printing. Monitors
use red, green, and blue light instead, so they display images
using a different color system called RGB. One of the great problems
of the digital age has been matching colors between these two
systems; i.e., taking a digital RGB image and making it look the
same in print using CMYK. These problems are addressed by applications
such as the Pantone Matching System (PMS).
Cookie - A tiny document from a web page stored by your browser
on your computer. Commonly used to identify you on a return visit
to a web site that you have customized. It is important to note
that (unless you specify otherwise) cookies can only be read by
the server that wrote them. Cookies are usually set to expire
after a predetermined amount of time and are usually saved in
memory until the Browser software is closed down, at which time
they may be saved to disk if their "expire time" has
not been reached. Cookies do not read your hard drive, and contain
no personal information that was not already known by the web
page that wrote it.
Compress / Compression - There are two definitions
of compression. The first is to make a multimedia (sound or image)
file smaller in file size by reducing the level of detail of the
sound or image it contains. JPEG is a method of image compression.
It makes a photographic image a smaller file by generalizing fine
details that, at low levels, are invisible. However, most compression
is lossy by nature, so too much compression will result in a visible
or audible degradation in quality. You can also compress a folder
of files into one file, frequently a ZIP file, for electronic
transmission. The files are uncompressed by the recipient. This
process makes for a smaller overall package to transmit, and the
need to only send a single file.
D
Demographics - Demographics are
the DNA of marketing: age, sex, income, profession, marital status,
location, and so on. Advertisers rely on demographics to help
decide which sites are most likely to help them reach their specific
audience. Knowing your audience demographic not only helps you
sell ads, it also lets you know who your users are and what they
want.
DNS (Domain Name Server) - DNS matches the URL
you enter with the IP address of the item you're looking for.
All web sites are located at an IP address. URL's are just easier
to remember names that stand-in for the IP address. Domain Name
Servers maintain a list of domains and their corresponding IP
addresses. When a new domain is registered, it can sometimes take
several hours (or even days) for DNS to "propogate".
That is, for Domain Name Servers around the world to record a
match for a given domain and an IP address. Whether or not a URL
goes where it is supposed to is a result of whether your ISP's
DNS is up-to-date.
Domain - Hierarchical scheme for indicating logical
and sometimes geographical venue of a web-page from the network.
In the US, common domains are .edu (education), .gov (government
agency), .net (network related), .com (commercial), .org (nonprofit
and research organizations). Outside the US, domains indicate
country: ca (Canada), uk (United Kingdom), au (Australia), jp
(Japan), fr (France), etc. Neither of these lists is complete.
Download - To copy something found on the Web
(located on its server) to your hard drive or removable media.
DPI (Dots Per Inch) - The measurement of the
resolution of images on a screen or printed page. Most laser printers
use 600 DPI (600 across and 600 down). The more dots, the better
the resolution. Image purists insist on a difference between dots
per inch for print and pixels per inch on the screen, since monitors
of different sizes have different size pixels or more pixels per
inch in the display.
DHTML (Dynamic HTML) - DHTML adds a number of
characteristics to normal HTML, allowing for more multimedia and
interactive possibilities, such as layering, motion, and the use
of a timeline. There can be some problems in the interpretation
of DHTML code from browser to browser and platform to platform.
E
Email (Electronic Mail) - Messages,
usually text, sent from one person to another via computer. E-mail
can also be sent automatically to a large number of addresses.
Embedded Media - These are the types of media
you can include in an HTML page, such as RealAudio files or GIF
animations.
Encryption - A form of cryptography that uses
a mathematical algorithm to scramble data for security purposes.
Encrypted data is generated by algorithms stored in keys. The
keys are kept by the sending and receiving parties in any encrypted
transmission. An encrypted message is impossible to read without
access to the correct key. There are many different flavors of
algorithmic encryption, includingBlowfish, TEA, and PGP.
Ethernet - A very common method of networking
computers in a LAN. The standard type is "100-BaseT"
which can handle up to about 100,000,000 bits-per-second and can
be used with almost any kind of computer.
F
Flash - A powerful vector based multimedia format
developed my Macromedia that combines images, sound, animation,
and interactivity for use on the web. Flash content streams in,
so the initial parts of a presentation can be viewed while later
parts are still being downloaded. Flash presentations require
a plug-in to be viewed by users, but the plug-in is included in
most modern versions of browsers, and is increasingly common.
Frames - A format for web documents that divides
the screen into segments, that can scroll independently within
the window. A frame set is actually multiple web pages that are
all presented as one. This is beneficial because it allows a left
hand navigation (for example) to remain stationary while the right
side body content scrolls up and down. It is detrimental because
it is impossible to link to many sub-pages within your site directly
from outside of the site, and your search engine rankings can
also suffer.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - A method of transfering
files from one computer to another over a network. FTP requires
specialized software, and is the standard method for moving a
web site to a web server.
G
GIF (Graphic Image Format) - A type of image
file format whose contents contain a limited number of colors
(up to 256), in a set grid of pixels. Frequently used on the web,
and excellent for images containing flat colors and/or fine lines.
Originally developed by the CompuServe online service for their
proprietary use. Pronounced both "jiff" and "giff".
Gigabyte - 1024 Megabytes, though frequently
rounded to 1000 Megabytes.
H
Hexadecimal / Hex - The hexadecimal
(base 16) number system used for Web-page design consists of 16
unique symbols: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, and
F. For example, the decimal number 15 is equal to the hexadecimal
number F. In HTML, an RGB color can be designated by RRGGBB with
the first two numerals representing the amount of red, the second
two the amount of green, and the last two the amount of blue.
If you wanted your background to be red, you could write the code
for a body background color as <body bgcolor="#FF0000">.
Black is the absence of all color and white is the presence of
all color, so in hexadecimal, black is at the bottom of the system
(no red, green, or blue: #000000) and white is at the top (the
maximum amount of red, green, and blue: #FFFFFF).
Host (Server) - Computer that provides web-documents
to clients or users via a network connection.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) - A standardized
language of computer code behind all web documents. HTML is a
text document that contains the textual content, image locations,
links to other documents (and possibly other applications such
as sound or motion), and formatting instructions for display on
the screen. When you view a Web page, you are looking at your
browser's interpretation of HTML instructions.
HTML often imbeds within it other programming
languages and applications such as PHP, Javascript, CGI-script
and more. You can see HTML in your browser by viewing the "source".
HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) - The protocol
for moving hypertextfiles across the Internet. Requires a HTTP
client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the other
end. HTTP is the most important and most common protocol used
in the World Wide Web (WWW).
Hypertext - The feature of HTML that allows a
text area, image, or other object to become a link to another
computer file (another Web page, image, sound file, or other document)
on the Internet.
I
Image Map - An image that has several links geographically
mapped onto it, so that areas within the image are clickable and
link to other pages. Can be troublesome for people who do not
load images on a web browser.
Index Color - Producing images for the Web invariably
means minimizing the number of colors (and therefore the file
size), and the index color system is another step in this squishing
process. While this helps the compression and allows you to choose
bit depth, it also makes the colors dither, or shift numerically,
to the palette. One way to compensate for dithering in the index
mode is to use a histogram, which is basically a bar graph of
each color's frequency in the image. In most image-processing
programs, you can manipulate the histogram and determine how much
weight to give certain colors in the resulting palette.
Internet - The vast collection of interconnected
networks that all use the TCP/IP protocols and that evolved from
the ARPANET of the late 60?s.
Intranet - A private network or web site. An
intranet uses the same kinds of software that you would find on
the public Internet, but is protected against public access by
any number of means.
IP Address (Internet Protocol Address) - A unique number consisting
of 4 parts separated by dots, e.g. 165.113.245.2 that identifies
a computer on a network. Every computer that is on the Internet
has a unique IP address.
ISP (Internet Service Provider) - A company that sells Internet
connections.
J
Java - A network-oriented programming language
invented by Sun Microsystems that is specifically designed for
writing programs (called "applets") that run on any
operating system that is Java enabled, can be safely and quickly
downloaded over the Internet, and do not contain viruses.
Javascript - A simple programming language developed
by Netscape to enable greater interactivity in web pages than
HTML would otherwise allow. Oddly enough, it has nothing to do
with the programming language Java.
JPEG / JPG (Joint Photographics Experts Group)
- A type of image file format that uses a group of lossy compression
methods for reducing the files size of a photographic image. JPEG
files do not limit the number of colors within the image, and
thus they are excellent for use with photographic images on the
web, though it's lossy quality can blur fine lines when highly
compressed. Pronounced "jay peg"
K
Keywords - Words used to identify a site in a
web or file search. Keywords are embedded in a web site by the
use of meta tags so that search engines will know precisely which
words should be associated with that site.
Kilobyte - 1024 bytes, commonly rounded down
to one thousand bytes.
LAN (Local Area Network) - A computer network limited to the immediate
area, usually the same building or floor of a building.
Link - The URL imbedded in another document,
so that if you click on the highlighted text or button referring
to the link, you retrieve the outside URL.
L
Megabyte / Meg - 1024 kilobytes, frequently rounded
down to 1000 kilobytes.
Meta Information / Meta Tag - Meta information
means "information about information." In HTML, meta
tags describe the content of the document in which they're written.
Meta tags have two possible attributes: and . Meta tags with an
HTTP-EQUIV attribute are analogous to HTTP headers that can control
the action of browsers. Meta tags with a NAME attribute are used
primarily by indexing and searching tools. These tools can gather
meta information in order to sort and classify Web pages. One
way to help your document show up more frequently in search engines
and directories is to use the META NAME attribute to set keywords
that will pull up your site when someone does a search for those
words.
M
MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) - An audio compression
format that creates files that can be easily sent or downloaded
across the Internet. Using ripper and encoder applications, CD
tracks can be converted to MP3 and reduced in size by a factor
of 12. MP3 files have varying degrees of sound quality, depending
on the encoding settings that are used during the compression
process.
MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) - A group
of audio/video compression standards used to create videos comparable
to VCR quality. The MPEG-1 standard yields a video resolution
of 352-by-240 at 30 frames per second, while MPEG-2 offers resolutions
of 720x480 and 1280x720 at 60 fps, with full CD-quality audio.
To view an MPEG video, you need to download (shareware or commercial)
client software that plays it. The MPEG group works within the
International Organization for Standardization and periodically
improves and updates the compression standards.
MOV - The file extension of a Quicktime multimedia
file.
MySQL - A widely used open-source SQL database.
N
Network - The connection of two or more computers
together so that they can share resources.
Node - In networking terms, any single computer
connected to a network.
O
Open Source Software - Software for which the
underlying programming code is available to the users so that
they may read it, make changes to it, and build new versions of
the software incorporating their changes. There are many types
of Open Source Software, mainly differing in the licensing term
under which (altered) copies of the source code may (or must be)
redistributed.
Operating System (OS) - The defining software
running on a computer that creates the computing envionment and
determines how all other software will functions. Common operating
systems include Microsoft Windows (in all its various incarnations),
Apple Macintosh, Unix, and Linux.
P
PDF (Portable Document Format) - A file format
developed by Adobe Systems, that is used to capture almost any
kind of document with the formatting, fonts, images, and layout
of the original. Viewing a PDF file requires Acrobat Reader, which
is built into most browsers and can be downloaded free from Adobe.
Perl (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language)
- A scripting language first created by Larry Wall to be used
as duct tape for programming with the Unix operating system. Due
to its immense power for handling piles of text and, consequently,
as a common gateway interface (CGI) scripting language, Perl became
very popular among server-side scripters. Perl has a large community
of contributing programmers and, what's more, costs nothing and
is free to redistribute. These circumstances have helped Perl
evolve from a scripting language used to generate server stats
into a language many use for database administration.
PHP (Pre-Hypertext Processor) - An open-source
scripting language that is embedded alongside HTML to perform
interactive functions, such as accessing database information.
PHP is similar to Microsoft?s active server page (ASP) technology,
but is used primarily on Linux Web servers (or Windows servers
with add-on software). An HTML page that has PHP script usually
has a ".php" extension.
Pixel - A single dot of color on a monitor, television
screen, or graphic image. The sharpness of a digital image or
display is measured in pixels per inch. The typical computer monitor
is 72 pixels per inch.
Platform - A platform can be an Intel processor
running Windows, a Macintosh running System 10.2 (OSX), or any
combination of hardware and software that works together. Different
browsers display Web pages differently on various platforms. Since
the Internet itself is a cross-platform system.
Plug-in - An application added by the user to
a browser or other software to enable it to interact with a special
file type (such as a movie, sound file, Word document, etc.)
PNG (Portable Network Graphics) - PNG is a graphics
format specifically designed for use on the World Wide Web. PNG
enable compression of images without any loss of quality, including
high-resolution images. Another important feature of PNG is that
anyone may create software that works with PNG images without
paying any fees - the PNG standard is free of any licensing costs.
Portal - Usually used as a marketing term to
described a Web site that is or is intended to be the first place
people see when using the Web. Typically a "Portal site"
has a catalog of web sites, a search engine, or both. A Portal
site may also offer email and other service to entice people to
use that site as their main "point of entry" (hence
"portal") to the Web.
PPP (Point to Point Protocol) - The most common
protocol used to connect home computers to the Internet over regular
phone lines. Allows a computer to use a regular telephone line
and a modem to make TCP/IPconnection to the Internet.
Proxy Server - A Proxy Server works between a
client and the server to which the client is trying to connect.
Proxy servers are commonly established on Local Area Networks.
R
Raster - Raster graphics are bitmap images, which
means they're basically grids of individually defined pixels (as
opposed to vector graphics, which produce images using mathematically
generated points and lines). The dominant Web graphics formats,
GIF and JPEG, are raster graphics. Raster is often used with complex
images, such as photographs.
Resolution - The resolution of an image describes
how fine the dots are that make up that image. The more dots,
the higher the resolution, and the more detailed the image. A
300 dpi (dots per inch) printer is capable of printing 300 dots
in a line 1 inch long. This means it can print 90,000 dots per
square inch. When displayed on a monitor, the dots are called
pixels. A 640-by-480-pixel screen is capable of displaying 640
distinct dots on each of its 480 lines, or about 300,000 pixels.
RGB - The red, green, and blue (RGB) color system
can represent a large portion of the color spectrum by mixing
these three primary colors. Since cathode ray tube devices, such
as computer monitors, display color with red, green, and blue
light, this is the color system of the Web. There are 216 RGB
colors that appear without dithering (i.e., without varying the
pattern of dots in an image) in browsers for the PC and Macintosh
platforms.
Router - A data network device that transfers
data from one LAN to another. Routers can be hardware- or software-based,
though larger applications and faster communication speeds all
but require a hardware router. Routers are used in homes and offices
with high-speed Internet access such as DSL; they serve to connect
the local LAN to the high-speed WAN operated by a service provider.
S
Search Engine - A (usually web-based) system
for searching for information available on the web, such as Google.com.
Security Certificate - Data that resides on a
web server (often stored as a text file) that is used by the SSL
protocol to establish a secure connection.
Serif and Sans Serif - The two general categories
of typefaces. Serif typefaces use small decorative marks to embellish
characters and make them easier to read. Typefaces without these
are called Sans Serif ("sans" is French for "without").
Helvetica is a Sans Serif typeface and Times is a Serif typeface.
Serif type was first introduced when ancient cultures carved their
letters into stone. The chisels were too wide to cleanly carve
the narrow ends of letters and numbers, so the artisans carved
wide perpendicular end caps at the ends of the letter stems. These
end caps were called serifs, and became a permanant part of typography.
Server / Web Server - A computer connected to
a network that allows other computers on a network to connect
and download files. When these files are HTML files, and downloaded
through a browser, the result is displayed as a web page.
Server Side - A function, frequently executed
by a script, that operates on the server computer (as opposed
to the users' computer). Server side functions are usually faster,
and invisible to the user.
Shockwave - Shockwave is a proprietary technology
that enables Web pages to deliver multimedia objects. Macromedia
developed Shockwave as a Web-sized way to view the products of
its popular authoring tool, Director. Once the object is made
in Director and compressed using Macromedia's AfterBurner, that
object can be embedded in an HTML file. To see a Shockwave object,
your Web browser must have the Shockwave helper application that
can be freely downloaded as either a Netscape Navigator plug-in
or an ActiveX control.
Site / Web Site - A collection of web pages under
a domain name that are designed and developed to work in conjunction
with one another.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) - The main
protocol used to send electronic mail from server to server on
the Internet.
Spam / Spamming - An inappropriate and widely
frowned upon attempt to use a mailing list, or USENET or other
networked communications facility as if it was a broadcast medium
by sending the same message to a large number of people who didn't
ask for it. Junk mailing. The term probably comes from a famous
Monty Python skit which featured the word spam repeated over and
over. The term may also have come from someone's low opinion of
the food product with the same name, which is generally perceived
as a generic and content-free. (Spam® is a registered trademark
of Hormel Corporation, for its processed meat product.)
Spider - Computer robot programs that are used
by search engines to roam the World Wide Web via the Internet,
visit sites and databases, and keep the search engine database
of web pages up to date. They obtain new pages, update known pages,
and delete obsolete ones. Most large search engines operate several
robots all the time.
SQL (Structured Query Language) - A specialized
language for sending queries to databases. Most industrial-strength
and many smaller database applications can be addressed using
SQL. Each specific application will have its own slightly different
version of SQL implementing features unique to that application,
but all SQL-capable databases support a common subset of SQL
Streaming - Streaming allows you to see and hear
an audio/video file as it's transferred, rather than having to
wait until the entire file is downloaded. Windows Media, RealNetworks,
and QuickTime are currently the three most popular streaming media
platforms. A player program (which are available for free) must
be downloaded for each of these technologies in order to decompress
audio/video files, which you can then listen to or view.
Site Map - A planning document that looks somewhat
like a flow chart. Generally depicting web pages as boxes, connected
by lines to represent primary navigation links between pages.
The boxes are displayed in hierarchy, with the home page at the
top, main level pages in a row below (connected by lines), and
all sub pages stacked under their appropriate main pages below
there - sometimes in great numbers.
T
Tables ] Tables of data, that age-old way of
comparing information by displaying items in columns and rows,
weren't possible in the earliest version of HTML. This is surprising
since HTML was initially used by academics, and tables are their
stock and trade. Eventually, however, tables came into existence
and became officially supported with the release of HTML 3.2 in
1996. They have since evolved from their original purpose to become
a convenient way to control the layout of text and images on a
Web page.
Tags - Tags are commands written into a document
that specifies how it should be formatted. In HTML, a tag is represented
as . For example, an HTML file can tell a browser to render text
as boldfaced if in the text is written as text. Note how the slash
in the second tag closes the bookended tags.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol) - The suite of protocols that defines how data is transmitted
over the Internet. Originally designed for the UNIX operating
system.
Template - The word template comes from a woodworking
term meaning a thin sheet of metal with shapes cut out of it as
a guide. Similarly, HTML templates are skeletal HTML pages with
the main content left out. That way, you can quickly create a
series of pages with an identical look or navigational structure
but different content.
U
Unix - A computer operating system. Unix is designed to be used
by many people at the same time (it is multi-user) and has TCP/IP
built-in. It is the most common operating system for servers on
the Internet. Apple computers' Macintosh operating system, as
of version 10 (OS X), is based on Unix, as is Linux.
Upload - To copy something from your computer
via a network onto a file server or web site where it can be obtained
by others.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator) - Uniform Resource
Locator. The unique text-based address of any web document, which
stands in for the IP Address. The URL consists of a few basic
elements, beginning with the method of file transfer (http://
= hypertext for web pages, ftp:// = file transfer protocol, etc.).
Following that is the domain of the web page, and the location
of the web page within that domain's directory structure (noted
by slashes "/" separating each directory. Sometimes
referred to as URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) in highly technical
circles.
User Interface (UI) - A computer science term,
interface is the point of communication between the computer and
any other entity. User Interface, or UI, narrows that definition
down to the communication between the computer and a human being.
Web designers have taken the sense of this communication of inputs
and outputs as a useful way to describe how a user is informed
by the design elements on a page. A "good" user interface
can mean that the design fulfills a user's expectations. A "bad"
user interface gives you few clues about where you are or what
you're supposed to do.
V
Vector - Vector graphics produce images using
mathematically generated points, lines and shapes that are rendered
on a computer. The result is a file much smaller than a bitmap,
which is easier to send and download over tight bandwidth connections.
In addition, a vector file can be resized and manipulated without
distorting the image. Macromedia?s Flash produces vector graphics,
and most browsers now support vector graphics.
Version Control - A method of working as a group
on a single programming project, often regulated by version control
software, which allows only one person at a time to work on a
specific document. This prevents team members from accidentally
over-writing each other's work, and/or duplicating effort.
Virus - Computer program that makes copies of
itself without any concious human intervention. Some viruses do
more than simply replicate themselves, they might display messages,
install other software or files, delete software of files, etc.
For this reason, a high degree of vigilance against viruses is
warranted.
A virus requires the presence of some other program
to replicate itself. Typically viruses spread by attaching themselves
to programs and in some cases files, for example the file formats
for Microsoft word processor and spreadsheet programs allow the
inclusion of programs called "macros" which can in some
cases be a breeding ground for viruses.
VPN (Virtual Private Network) - Usually refers
to a network in which some of the parts are connected using the
public Internet, but the data sent across the Internet is encrypted,
so the entire network is "virtually" private.
W
WAN (Wide Area Network) - Any internet or network
that covers an area larger than a single building or campus.
Web / World Wide Web (WWW) - The vast hyperlinked
network of HTML pages that are available on the internet via a
web browser and an Internet connection. Referred to as a "web"
because there is no beginning, middle, or end, just a sprawling
array of interconnected items. The web is only part of the internet,
though it is sometimes incorrectly assumed to be synonymous with
the Internet.
Web Page - A single document on the web, as noted
by a single URL, designed for viewing in a web browser. Typically
written in HTML.
Worm - A worm is a virus that does not infect
other programs. It makes copies of itself, and infects additional
computers (typically by making use of network connections) but
does not attach itself to additional programs; however a worm
might alter, install, or destroy files and programs.
WYSIWYG - WYSIWYG (pronounced "wiz-ee-wig")
stands for "what you see is what you get" and refers
to programs that show on a screen exactly what will appear when
a document is printed. Microsoft's FrontPage and Adobe's Go Live
are WYSIWYG HTML editors.
X
XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup
Language) - A hybrid between HTML and XML that is more universally
acceptable in Web pages and search engines than XML.
XML (Extensible Markup Language) - A dilution
for Web page use of SGML (Standard General Markup Language), which
is not readily viewable in ordinary browsers and is difficult
to apply to Web pages. XML is very useful (among other things)
for pages emerging from databases and other applications where
parts of the page are standardized and must reappear many times.
ZIP - A method of compressing multiple files
into one package for transmission over a network. Many software
packages will ZIP up a folder into a single file, and then unZIP
it on the other end of an email or download
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